The long-anticipated Ethereum Merge finally arrived but didn’t bring any of the expected volatility, at least for now, as ETH remains calm at around $1,600.
Bitcoin, on the other hand, dipped below $20,000 in the past 24 hours and now struggles to sustain above that level.
Perhaps the most-anticipated event in the cryptocurrency space for the year – the Ethereum Merge – finally came to fruition hours ago when the proof-of-work mainnet merged with the proof-of-stake Beacon Chain.
Despite the expected volatility by some, this massive transition is yet to impact the native cryptocurrency’s price. ETH had dropped below $1,600 yesterday, spiked to under $1,650 hours ago, and now stands calm at $1,600 once again.
Ripple, Cardano, Dogecoin, MATIC, and TRX are slightly in the green from the larger-cap alts, while Solana is up by just over 3% in a day.
In contrast, Binance Coin and Polkadot are the only two larger-cap altcoins with insignificant daily declines.
Interestingly, Ethereum Classic has been impacted more by the Merge as the asset briefly touched $40 minutes ago.
Despite the minor recovery from most altcoins, the cumulative market cap has remained under the coveted $1 trillion mark.
The primary cryptocurrency has struggled in the past few days after failing to continue its run when it was stopped at $22,800.
After that local peak, the US CPI numbers came out and pushed the asset south hard. In just a matter of hours, bitcoin dropped by more than $2,000 and was close to breaking below $20,000.
That ultimately happened in the past 24 hours, and BTC dumped to a 5-day low of $19,600, resulting in almost $200 million worth of liquidations.
It bounced off of that level and reclaimed $20,000 almost immediately. Now, it fights to stay above that line once again. However, its market cap is still below $400 billion, and its dominance over the altcoins is down beneath 39%.
