Interest in PoW coins peak as support for mining increases ahead of Merge

ETC, a hard fork of Ethereum executed following the 2016 DAO hack, hit an all-time high record hashrate yesterday.
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In today’s article, we will briefly cover price actions of major crypto assets in the last week along with short-term outlook for Bitcoin. 

The global crypto capitalization currently stands at $994 billion with a 2% increase over previous day. The total crypto trade volumes surged by over 30% as altcoins such as Ethereum Classic (ETC), Ethereum (ETH) etc led the recovery. On the other hand, Bitcoin (BTC) has had a more bearish outlook. After reaching a local high of $25,207 weeks ago, BTC declined by over 20% to trade below the crucial psychological level of $20,000. Ravencoin (RVN), which remains a popular destination for token issuance, surged by 13% over last day while Bitcoin Cash (BCH) got a moderate 6% bump. 

Is there a buying pattern?

Ever since Ethereum (ETH), second-largest crypto asset in terms of market capitalization, was positioned for an upgrade from proof of work (PoW) to proof of stake (PoS) consensus mechanism, there has been a lot of noise and speculation within the crypto community.

One such major trouble has sprouted among the mining community and it's not without any fair reason. ETH has been on proof of work since its inception. To validate transactions on ETH network, miners do the heavy lifting as it requires significant upfront investment in terms of computing hardware and electricity. Post upcoming transition to PoS, ETH miners either will have to forsake their equipment or find a new way to keep them churning.

That leaves miners with one attractive option, that is, to mine other PoW crypto tokens. And consequently, the price of ETC, BCH, RVN etc has been witnessing a rally ahead of Merge upgrade scheduled on 13-15th September. ETH is due for a Bellatrix upgrade today which is responsible for smooth transition from PoW to PoS.

ETC’s hash rate growth

ETC, a hard fork of Ethereum executed following the 2016 DAO hack, hit an all-time high record hash rate of 48.82 terra hashes per second (TH/s) yesterday. Hashrate is the total computational power used to mine and process transactions on a blockchain network. The higher the metric, the safer the blockchain. ETC continues to attract mining pools as ETH founder Vitalik Buterin gave positive validation to the crypto community about choosing ETC ahead of Merge.

Short-term Outlook for Bitcoin

BTC is currently trading just below $20,000 with a trifling 0.5% gain over the past 24 hours. There was a 16% increase in BTC trading volumes in the same timeframe. BTC’s volatility has reduced drastically in the last few weeks offering little to no opportunity for swing trading although considered highly risky. As we have been stressing for the last few editions, the macroeconomic environment is still risk-off as multiple factors like interest rate hikes from central banks, Europe’s energy crisis, and slow economic growth continue to remain significant. In this climate, BTC is unlikely to see any major rallies for the near future.

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Disclaimer: This article was authored by Giottus Crypto Exchange as a part of a paid partnership with The News Minute. Crypto-asset or cryptocurrency investments are subject to market risks such as volatility and have no guaranteed returns. Please do your own research before investing and seek independent legal/financial advice if you are unsure about the investments.

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