Ethereum Is Up Big Following Good Merge News

The Merge–Ethereum's transition to Proof of Stake–remains on target for mid-September. ETH is up almost 20% since the announcement.

Ethereum Is Up Big Following Good Merge News
Every Eth Investor checking their stacks

The Ethereum Merge–the blockchain's transition to Proof of Stake–remains on target for a mid-September release. ETH is up almost 20% since the announcement Thursday afternoon.

Ethereum's path to releasing the Merge had its ups and downs last month. In the same week, Ethereum performed a successful test Merge on the Ropsten test network and delayed the Difficulty Bomb, which tanked the price of ETH.

Although Ethereum's Merge "roadmap" date isn't set in stone, the Ethereum team believes it remains on course for a mid-September Merge. In response, ETH rose from $1,150 on Thursday afternoon to $1,350 today. Lido Staked Ether (stETH) is up too–trading around .97 ETH. stETH, the liquid staking token used as a "receipt" to claim ETH locked up until after the Merge, de-pegged in May and has been trading well below 1 ETH since.

stETH to ETH chart. Source: CoinGecko
stETH to ETH chart. Source: CoinGecko 

Ethereum developer advocate Tim Beiko suggested September 19. No one said it was impossible. Ethereum Beacon Chain community health consultant superphiz.eth is calling this a "planning timeline," not a deadline.

This is not a solid release date, and there is still a lot that could go wrong before the Merge. Ethereum devs will continue to convert test networks to Proof of Stake. Beiko mentioned in his suggested Merge timeline that the devs could be more aggressive, but based on previous results it's more likely the Ethereum devs will go slower instead.