The Rise and Fall of Ethereum

As of April 23, Ethereum is down 13%. Ethereum’s market capitalization fell to $250bn and daily trading volume fell to $70bn. On Thursday, April 22, Ethereum on cryptocurrency exchange Binance rose above $2.57K for the first time. The value of the largest-capitalized altcoin rose 14% in 24 hours. Its market valuation approached $300bn, with daily trading volumes reaching $55bn. The price of Ethereum rose sharply, despite Bitcoin being little changed. The main cryptocurrency rose 0.7% to $54,800. This is explained by the fact that the Ethereum network underwent an important update — the Berlin hardfork. It included four propositions to improve the cryptocurrency’s blockchain in preparation for the launch of Ethereum 2.0. The changes involved new algorithms for calculating intra-network transaction fees, as well as new transaction types. Ethereum 2.0 is a solution that will scale the original blockchain and make it more user-friendly. The main feature of the update is that the network will switch to Proof-of-Stake (PoS) consensus mechanism. It will replace the Proof-of-Work (PoW) consensus on which the blockchain currently runs. The main difference between PoS and PoW is that you no longer need miners to generate processing power to keep the network operating. The blockchain is kept running by the holders of the digital coins. They are rewarded for doing so. This process is called stacking. The decline in the altcoin price came on the back of the main cryptocurrency’s fall. Bitcoin fell 11% in 24 hours and reached its lowest level since 6 March, falling as low as $47,500.