Ethereum Classic (ETC) gains on the upcoming The Merge

Hashrate of the oldest hard fork ETH has established a new ATH.

Ethereum Classic (ETC) currently ranks 20 in the ranking of the world's largest cryptocurrency projects in terms of market capitalization. Recently, this virtual currency is gaining more and more benefits in connection with the upcoming The Merge on the Ethereum network. According to the latest data, it turns out that some ETH miners have already started migrating to this alternative blockchain network. The best proof of this is the establishment of a new ATH by ETC in terms of hashrate.

Ethereum Classic in a bull run thanks to The Merge

There are many indications that ETC is one of the tokens that can benefit most from Ethereum's abandonment of PoW. With The Merge update, initially scheduled for September 15, 2022, Ether miners will no longer be able to mine it as its network will switch to PoS.

One of the alternatives for people with ETH mining equipment is the migration to the hard fork of this popular cryptocurrency created in 2016 based on the The DAO scandal. Many crypto enthusiasts often forget that Ethereum Classic is the original version of Ethereum based on the same consensus mechanism.

With The Merge approaching, it is not surprising that some miners have already started to move to the ETC blockchain. This is particularly visible in the increase in the ETC hashrate which recorded a new ATH amounting to 38.37 TH / s on Sunday 21 August. Last Wednesday, August 17, it was 27.56 TH / s, which means an increase of nearly 40% in just a few days!

The price of Ethereum Classic is rising

In the last 3 months, the price of Ethereum's oldest hard fork has climbed from $ 12.60 to a staggering (for ETC) level of $ 45.51 per coin. After experiencing the correction, the price dropped to around $ 33 for one coin. The total market capitalization of this project is currently over USD 4.5 billion, which currently puts it above projects such as Litecoin (LTC) or even Chainlink (LINK).

Quite recently, the group of ETH miners proposed the creation of a new hard fork called Ethereum PoW (ETHW). Although this virtual currency has already been listed on some well-known cryptocurrency exchanges, some experts have mixed feelings about it. It is increasingly apparent that a significant group of analysts see it as merely a riskier speculative opportunity in the short term. Ether holders who receive free ETHW will most likely want to sell them, which could lead to a collapse of the course and the rapid disaster of the entire project.