Ethereum (ETH) merge is live: Will institutional investors push the price?

• Teong Hng, co-founder at digital-asset platform Satori Research expects institutional investors to go all in on ETH after a successful upgrade.

• Some market analysts including Arthur Hayes, CEO of crypto exchange BitMEX, have predicted $3,000 for ETH by the end of the year.

Ethereum Merge is expected to happen today, September 15. The speculations surrounding the event and the scale of transition to Proof of Stake (PoS) make it one of the biggest in the history of crypto. As it is expected that the network would conserve more than 99 percent energy after the event, Ethereum would also become more scalable. StarkWare president and co-founder Eli Ben-Sasson has disclosed that he thinks of the merge as the development of the first solar field. 

We saw that we can slash the environmental impact of electricity production. We didn’t say ‘problem solved,’ but rather that if we’re generating electricity with less pollution, it’s time to double down on efforts to use the power more sparingly.

According to him, the merge would not only have a dramatic effect on energy consumption but would lead to the increasingly widespread adoption of Ethereum. 

It makes the Ethereum network far more publicly palatable and opens the door for investors and companies that had remained crypto-agnostic due to its carbon footprint.

In his statement, the event would be a success if the first block is produced by the proof of stake. However, the journey would not end there. Ben-Sasson likens this to the launch of a rocket as it may face other challenges upon completion. 

The Ethereum Merge and the ETH price

Ethereum co-founder Joseph Lubin find this third most important event in the crypto space behind Bitcoin and Ethereum. 

CEO of crypto exchange Coinjar, Asher Tan also believes that the merge would change the narrative around the crypto market. He also mentioned that the significance of the post-merge 99.95 percent drop is being undersold. 

There is an ongoing discussion within the Ethereum community on the impact of the merge on the ETH price. Charmyn Ho, head of crypto insights at crypto exchange Bybit has clarified that no consensus has yet been reached among institutional investors in terms of short-term trading in anticipation of the merge. However, there is the possibility of accumulating the asset to become a holder. 

Teong Hng, co-founder at digital-asset platform Satori Research expects institutional investors to go all in on ETH after the successful upgrade.

The market is pricing in a virtually successful Merge to happen. For institutional investors, ones who are ESG conscious, they will use this as an opportunity to dip their toes into the blockchain, into tokens, into Ethereum.

Ethereum is currently hovering around $1600, and the price is expected to go higher as the upgrade may come up with updates that check all the boxes institutional investors are looking for. Some market analysts including Arthur Hayes, CEO of crypto exchange BitMEX, have predicted $3,000 for ETH by the end of the year. Stefan Rust, chief executive of blockchain development house Laguna Labs, also goes for $3000 by the end of the year as the medium and long-term outlook remains positive.