KEY POINTS

  • The price of Ethereum's crypto coin -- ETH -- climbed 10.9% to a peak price of $1,493.23 over the past 24 hours. It also added 39% spanning the past seven days according to CoinMarketCap
  • Late last week, software developers of Ethereum announced that they have set Sept. 19 as their soft target date to rollout the Ethereum Merge across its blockchain to all users
  • Ethereum Merge is the programming project to pivot that blockchain from its current proof-of-work consensus process for transactions to a more sustainable proof-of-stake model
  • The Ethereum Merge seems to be welcome news to the beaten down crypto asset category as that sector has reclaimed a $1 trillion valuation across the market

The price of Ethereum (ETH) was up more than 10% over the past 24 hours to a peak price of $1,493.23, and it was up 39% for the past seven-day stretch across cryptocurrency exchanges, according to crypto tracking website CoinMarketCap. The primary driver of that price pump seems to be last week's announcement by Ethereum developers that they have a conditional target date set for the full launch of the Ethereum Merge on that blockchain, currently set for Sept. 19.

As context, Ethereum programmers have spent the past several years trying to migrate the entire network off of its high-energy-drawing proof-of-work (PoW) validation method to the proof-of-stake (PoS) model which uses significantly less electricity per transaction, which theoretically creates a smaller carbon footprint. Ethereum's leadership contends that when the Merge is fully deployed, blockchain users will see faster settlement speeds and transaction throughput with lower network congestion and fees overall.

Valuation for broader crypto market exceeds $1 trillion

The Ethereum Merge seems to be a rallying point for the crashed crypto sector, which is down more than $2 trillion in total market valuation from its peak in November 2021. However, it has managed to increase that market cap by 5.5% over the past day to claw back above the $1 trillion valuation threshold for the first time in four weeks. In fact, every crypto ranked in the top-10 by market cap is up in the mid-single digits including Bitcoin, Cardano, and Dogecoin on the day, according to CoinMarketCap at press time.

Is now the time to buy Ethereum?

Investors should always do their own research before putting money into any investment, and this article is only observational opinion and not financial advice. However, even without the benefits of the Ethereum Merge, the Ethereum network has the majority of the NFT, play to earn, and decentralized finance traffic within the crypto market. The Ethereum blockchain also has the largest numbers of app developers currently building new applications on top of its platform to provide more use cases and user engagement going forward. Investors who dollar-cost average into Ethereum at these levels are likely to be happy they did so when the next bull market returns.

This article originally appeared in The Motley Fool.

Tor Constantino is a corporate communications executive and business writer with an MBA. Since 2017, he has written about cryptocurrencies, blockchain and crypto's potential to revolutionize finance. The Motley Fool has a disclosure policy.

A representation of virtual currency Ethereum and U.S. One Dollar banknote are seen in front of a stock graph in this illustration taken February 19, 2021.
A representation of virtual currency Ethereum and U.S. One Dollar banknote are seen in front of a stock graph in this illustration taken February 19, 2021. Reuters / Dado Ruvic
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