SEC shifts focus to Ethereum in acrimonious regulatory rumble

The acrimonious debate in the US over crypto regulation continues to generate headlines, this time with Gary Gensler, head of the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC), laser focused on Ethereum (ETH) now that the world's second largest cryptocurrency works under proof of stake (PoS). Pretty rude of Gensler, some might say, just as Etherum head honcho Vitalik Buterin was celebrating the successful protocol upgrade that marked one of the most important days in crypto history.

Timeline of Ethereum

Ethereum has been in the heat of discussion on social media following the release of the Merge last week. However, everything has not gone according to plan as ETH prices have dropped below $1,350.

Data shows the Ethereum Proof-of-Work forks have sharply fallen down in the few days following the merge. Ethereum PoW Forks Have Fallen 66% In Just Five Days According to the latest weekly report from Arcane Research, the ETH PoW forks have performed very poorly against ETH since the merge.

The Ethereum Merge has been successfully completed and the network has been operating on a proof of stake mechanism for about a week now. The success of the upgrade has been lauded by many in the community who have praised the resourcefulness and the innovation of the Ethereum developers.

The Ethereum Merge has not just brought about a change in the blockchain network architecture but also trading behavior. The much anticipated Merge event sparked a debate on reliability of proof of stake in comparison with proof of work consensus.

Ethereum price analysis is bearish today as we have seen a slight pullback to $1,350, where a lower local high is currently set. Therefore, ETH/USD is ready to continue even lower and spike below $1,300 previous major support.

On September 20, CryptoSlate published an article on the upcoming Shanghai upgrade, stating Ethereum withdrawals would not likely be activated. The post Developer consensus supports Ethereum withdrawals in upcoming Shanghai upgrade appeared first on CryptoSlate.

Ethereum (ETH), dubbed as the ‘leader of all altcoins' has long carried the burden and pressure of supplanting Bitcoin (BTC) as the king of all cryptocurrencies. To this date, it hasn't succeeded or has come close into completing that mission.

On September 15, the Ethereum network successfully completed its transition from proof-of-work (PoW) to proof-of-stake (PoS), a change that is expected to increase sustainability and reduce energy usage by 99.95%. However, contrary to popular expectations, the merger didn't have any effect on the Ethereum price; instead, the price plunged after the merger.

The ethereum (ETH) options market shows continued strong appetite for bullish bets on ETH among traders, despite falling spot prices. The question now is if this is a sign that smart money is positioning for a future rally, and if now is a good time to start dollar-cost averaging (DCA) into ETH.

The Merge has skewed demand-supply dynamics in favor of the bulls. But, the strengthening correlation with Nasdaq means big gains may remain elusive in case of broad based risk aversion.