Interest in Ethereum Classic ($ETC) and in a Little-Known Altcoin Explodes After Ethereum Merge

On September 15 at 06:42:42 UTC at block 15537393, the Ethereum mainnet merged with Ethereum's Beacon Chain to complete the widely-anticipated Merge upgrade. The move marked the network's transition to a Proof-of-Stake consensus protocol, and led to surging interest in Ethereum Classic ($ETC) and a little-known altcoin.

Timeline of Ethereum-classic

The Ethereum Merge was an incredibly anticipated upgrade, with good reason. It not only drastically increased the number of transactions that the network could handle, but it also greatly diminished the energy consumption of the network.

Miners have already switched to Ethereum Classic (ETC) as Ethereum (ETH) successfully transition to proof-of-stake (PoS) and made miners obsolete. In the last 24 hours, the Ethereum Classic (ETC) price has soared over 10% and the hash rate has jumped over 290 TH/s.

Since The Merge, a lot of hash rate has flown to Ethereum Classic — as miners are no longer able to mine Ethereum. The post Ethereum Classic's hash rate soars 280% in a single day appeared first on The Block.

Disclaimer: The findings of the following analysis are the sole opinions of the writer and should not be considered investment advice. Ethereum Classic [ETC] has posted sizeable gains in the past two weeks as the bulls refused to let the price slide beneath the $30 mark.

Ethereum Classic (CRYPTO: ETC) was showing strength in comparison to many other cryptos Wednesday, surging up about 7% at one point, compared to Bitcoin (CRYPTO: BTC) and Ethereum (CRYPTO: ETH), which were trading near flat. Ethereum Classic may be showing strength ahead of Ethereum's Merge, which takes Ethereum from proof-of-work to proof-of-stake, with one of the aims of lowering its environmental impact.

The Ethereum Merge is scheduled to go live in less than a day, which would move the network completely from a proof of work mechanism to a proof of stake mechanism. This essentially puts Ethereum miners out of business, meaning they have to find somewhere else to move their mining machines to.

Ethereum classic rebounded on Wednesday, following three consecutive days of declines. The token dropped below $40.00 earlier this week, and continues to trade below this level ahead of tomorrow's merge event. On the other hand, Solana remained lower, with prices falling by over 8% today.

Ethereum Classic's hash rate has surpassed 64 terahashes per second (TH/s), having grown more than 40% in September ahead of The Merge. The post Ethereum Classic hash rate shot up by 200% over last 30 days appeared first on The Block.

According to Watcher Guru, we are only 12,554 away from the Ethereum Merge, which is expected to happen at 1:09 on September 15 (CST). By then, Ethereum will have transitioned to PoS, a major blow to PoW miners in the network.

Amidst preparations for the Ethereum Merge, ETC Group made a shocking announcement on Wednesday. The digital assets and blockchain equity provider declared its plan to continue using Ethereum's proof-of-work consensus for its current Ethereum exchange-traded products.