Top cryptocurrency news: Will Ethereum's Growth Persist After the Merge?

According to on-chain data analytics company Santiment, Ethereum's 80% gain over the previous month and the strong market interest in it may be signs that "things can continue."

Bullish ETH market right before the merger?

On Thursday, ETH, the second-largest cryptocurrency in the world, reached $1927, its highest level since early June. The popularity of one of its testnets, "Goerli," is largely responsible for the rally. The community begins to anticipate the merger as it approaches.

It is anticipated that the integration will speed up and increase energy efficiency. The last testnet, Goerli, replicated a procedure that will be carried out by the main network in September.

The underlying blockchain for ether will change from a proof-of-work system to a proof-of-stake system, which is more affordable and energy-efficient. Proof-of-work consensus systems rely on cryptocurrency miners to validate transactions, which is more expensive and environmentally hazardous.

However, Proof-of-Stake networks are more simpler to operate because they only require validators to stake a particular quantity of tokens in order to participate. The occasion, which has been postponed repeatedly, will now happen on September 19.

The stake for ETH validators is about 13.3 million ETH.

Even as the merge gets near, the amount of ETH staked on the network keeps rising continuously. Since the first validator node was established more than a year ago, many more have joined the effort. Along the way, a number of significant milestones were reached, and the majority of the test networks were successfully combined.