ETH Surges 7% Daily as Ethereum Network Prepares for Bellatrix Upgrade

The Bellatrix upgrade, which kicks off the final countdown for the Merge, is all set for today. It will essentially set the rest of the Merge process in motion, which is only days away.

The price has also reacted in anticipation for what is the final upgrade before Ethereum’s network transitions toward proof of stake.

• After struggling amid strong bearish headwinds in the market, Ether’s (ETH) sentiment has flipped positive as the Merge nears. The second-largest cryptocurrency has surged nearly 7% in the past 24 hours and was trading above $1,665 (on Binance).

• Prior to the eagerly awaited Merge, which signifies the transition to a proof-of-stake (PoS) consensus mechanism, one crucial step is the Bellatrix upgrade.
• This requires the node operators to update their clients before epoch 144896 on the Beacon Chain.
• Ethereum Foundation had previously revealed that the Bellatrix upgrade is scheduled to take place at 11:34:47am UTC on September 6, while the Merge itself is expected to happen somewhere around September 13-15.
• Data from Ethernodes show that 72.9% of nodes have been marked “Ready” for the Merge, while the rest 27.1% are still “Not-Ready.”
• If the node operators fail to update their Ethereum clients prior to the Bellatrix upgrade, they will be stuck on an incompatible chain following the old rules.
• Furthermore, they will also not be able to send Ether or operate on the post-merge Ethereum network.
• Ethereum devs have been urging the node operators to update their clients. Co-founder Vitalik Buterin also took Twitter to push for the same,

The merge is still expected to happen around Sep 13-15. What’s happening today is the Bellatrix hard fork, which *prepares* the chain for the merge. Still important though – make sure to update your clients!

— vitalik.eth (@VitalikButerin) September 6, 2022