The Ethereum blockchain’s potential transition from proof-of-work to proof-of-stake (merge) has triggered a buying hysteria around the hype. Well, not only for ETH, but also for related cryptos such as Ethereum Classic.
In fact, various predictions regarding altcoins have also come true. For example, ETC, at press time, had jumped to $40 from its value of $24.65 on July 25. The question is, can it sustain this (dependent) bounce?
brother from the same mother
ETC price increased by 68% in just 5 days. In fact, the altcoin has jumped 124.2% in two weeks. Simply put, Ethereum Classic has benefited from a long-awaited upgrade to Ethereum, dubbed “The Merge”.
However, not only the price, other features also painted a positive sketch. For starters, consider the hash rate –
As seen in the graph below, on July 28, an unprecedented jump in the hash rate for Ethereum Classic was recorded. According to Bitinfocharts, the hash rate stood at 26.773 TH/s, which is up 23.90% from the beginning of the month.
At the time of writing, the said indicator had risen to 31.72 TH/s. (An increase remains an indicator of the security of the network as it shows that a greater number of miners are verifying transactions.)
Looking at market capitalization, the #19th-ranked crypto’s figures were $5.39B – representing a 46.5% increase since the $3.64 billion figure on July 23. A huge increase in active addresses could also support this narrative.
On 28 June also the number of active addresses on the network rose to 66,200.
In addition, the number of daily transactions was around 97,400 – an increase of 62.60% for the month.
long way to go…
ETC still has a long way to go before it can compete with its fellow sibling, ETH.
For example, consider the DeFi TVL statistics.
At press time, ETH controls the largest value of all blockchains today. On DeFiLlama, the respective TVLs reported a figure of $56.62 billion.
Meanwhile, Ethereum Classic has a much smaller TVL, on the same platform as of July 31, with only $250,419. Other aspects like market capitalization will repeat the same scenario.
However, this does not mean that ETC has not received the recognition it needs. For example, Ethereum founder Vitalik Buterin claimed in a recent YouTube video,
“If you want to cancel proof-of-stake, we won’t rule you out. There is Ethereum Classic, which is the original Ethereum. It’s a very welcoming community and I think they definitely do proof-of-stake. Work will welcome fans <…> If you like proof-of-work, you should use Ethereum Classic. It’s an absolutely good series.”