Ethereum prices hit a two-year peak of $410 on Sunday. Ethereum has been sitting in a range bound channel around $230 for three months, but in late July, it finally broke out to surge 70% in less than two weeks.
Sunday’s intraday high put ETH prices back at their highest since August 2018, a couple of months before a massive capitulation sent them back to double digits.
The momentum has lifted the total crypto market capitalization to its highest level for over a year at $360 billion as Bitcoin tapped $12k. However, the party did not last long as a massive liquidation of leveraged positions caused a sharp slump in prices.
For ETH, the crash sent prices back to the 200-hour moving average, before they recovered to the $380 level, where they are currently trading at the time of writing.
Ethereum’s momentum has no doubt been driven by the launch of the final public testnet for Phase 0, Beacon Chain. According to Ethereum protocol developer Terence Tsao, the genesis state has been achieved with over 20,000 validators, and the time is set for 13.00 UTC, August 4, 2020.
The Medalla testnet was first announced in mid-July, as reported by CryptoPotato. A few days later, ETH prices started to react in what was the start of that big run-up to $400.
Ethereum researcher Ben Edgington recently posted an update into the Beacon Chain genesis process, which has now been achieved within the time parameters. To achieve genesis, there must be enough validators that have staked their 32 ETH totaling a minimum threshold of 16,384 validators. With over 20,000, that criterion has also been met.
This has given the green light for an August 4 launch for Medalla, as the researcher confirmed;
“The Medalla testnet is due to go live on August the 4th, and it is probably our one and only dress rehearsal before the real thing later this year.”
Medalla is a simulation, so it does not make use of real ETH tokens, but instead utilizes Göerli testnet ETH (GöETH) tokens that generate simulated staking rewards with no real value. A Medalla testnet Lanchpad portal has been developed for validators to get involved and monitor progress. At the time of writing, over 695,000 GöETH had been staked in preparation for the big day on Tuesday.