On July 15 Ethereum Foundation member and support engineer, Tim Beiko unveiled that September 19 stands as the provisional date on which the long-awaited Ethereum 2.0 merger can be anticipated. Since the announcement, Ethereum holders and the larger cryptocurrency community have responded with what seems to be a noticeable degree of restored confidence in the potential future performance of the crypto market, even as experts still submit that crypto winter looms and the market is not yet out of the danger zone.
Despite sentiments over the impact of wide-spread regulatory uncertainties, which is expected by some market experts to affect the future landscape of the digital assets market, Ethereum price rose to $1,594 per ETH by July 22. This price point was about 40% higher than the $1,032 price per coin Ethereum was trading at not even a month prior, on June 30. A day prior to the announcement, on July 14, Ethereum was valued at $1,104 per ETH, which equates to a full 30% plus gain in just a week’s time.
What Have The Responses Been Across The Rest Of The Crypto Market?
On Wednesday, July 20, Bitcoin reached over $24,000 per BTC for the first time since dipping below that price level about 5 weeks prior, on June 13. With Bitcoin dominance being a metric that many seasoned crypto traders and market experts look to in order to gauge the general cryptocurrency market sentiment, this was considered to be a positive sign. Positive signs are something that have seemingly come few and far between in the crypto market over the past several months, as things went from declining in Q1, to more declines in the total value of the cryptocurrency market through Q2 which ended in what many experts consider to be a crash in June.
Bitcoin’s surge was especially positive since it occurred amidst breaking news which revealed Tesla, led by majority shareholder and CEO Elon Musk, sold off about 75% of the company’s BTC holdings between April and June of this year – a percentage which is calculated at a value of around $936 million USD. The often-controversial CEO revealed the news in the company’s 2nd quarter earnings meeting. While Musk has been known to shake things up with his comments and actions, the news still reached mainstream media headlines, mostly due to the fact that the CEO stated just prior in March, that he would never sell any BTC.
What Are The Effects of Regulatory Uncertainties?
There has been an ongoing dispute between the SEC, led by Chairperson Gary Gensler, with Ripple Labs, the entity behind the digital ecosystem and network coin XRP, which seeks to connect banking and financial institutions, various financial platforms and corporate entities with scalable global payment solutions, among other ecosystem functions. In December of 2020 the SEC officially filed suit against Ripple, stating that its XRP digital coin was launched and sold to the public as an unregistered security. The suit has long affected the company’s ability to operate in jurisdictions such as the United States, and others who look to the regulatory decisions established by the SEC for guidance.
Ripple has maintained that XRP was not in fact sold as an unregistered security, but is and therefore should instead be treated as a virtual currency. It is estimated that Ripple conducts about 95% of its business operations outside of the US currently. The suit is the focus of many experts in the crypto industry, as being a case which is anticipated to be used to establish guidelines across the cryptocurrency industry, making it possible for it to be used as a benchmark for future actions to be taken by the SEC against certain digital currencies and ecosystems.
What’s Next With Ethereum And The Crypto Market?
While the market is certainly looking to be much stronger than it was just a month ago, many figures in the crypto industry maintain that potential declines in total crypto market value are far from over. The Federal Reserve raised inflation rates three quarters of a point in June, equating to a range of about 1.5% – 1.75%. This hike was the largest in almost three decades, sending shockwaves through all global financial markets. While July has been much better for investors in terms of volume and value of several cryptocurrencies, further increases in inflation by the Fed are still possible. Crypto winter, the prolonged season in which cryptocurrency value decreases across the market and trade slows, is still a potential part of the future scenario according to some.
As made clear by native Canadian and vocal Ethereum figure Tim Beiko on a recent Ether Capital Podcast with host Brian Mosoff, Ethereum itself is not focused on the short-term price fluctuations in the price of ETH, but rather managing the development of its utility in order to substantiate and progress clear Ethereum use cases made further possible by the PoS model implemented by the Ethereum 2.0 blockchain. This focus on building seems to be shared by other seasoned networks in the crypto space, as Q3 progresses towards the midway point beyond this first month of July. The results remain to be seen, as financial factors affecting all markets continue to unfold almost daily.
