Cryptocurrencies added to their post-Shanghai/Shapella gains because investors were relieved that Ethereum’s most recent technology change went well and didn’t have some of the bad effects that were feared.
Coin Metrics says that the price of Ether went up another 5% on Friday morning, taking it to $2,113.73. This is a nearly 11% rise in just two days. It is expected to go up 14% by the end of the week. The ETH rise made other cryptocurrencies more valuable. For example, bitcoin went up by more than 1% to $30,795.98. Monday was the first time since June that the market capitalization of the biggest coin hit $30,000. This week, it is expected to go up by 10%.
Early Thursday morning, the long-awaited “Shanghai” upgrade, also called “Shapella” in some crypto circles, was finished on the Ethereum network. This latest upgrade was made to make the network more flexible by letting buyers remove certain assets. It also lays the groundwork for future upgrades. Many people were worried at first about the selling pressure that could hit the market after Shanghai because buyers would be able to get their frozen ETH back. It came after the big “Merge” event in September, which was all about saving energy.
Marc Arjoon, a research employee at CoinShares, says that this change has made it even more likely that the Ethereum network will be able to make big improvements. “There was also a story that ETH withdrawals were sold right away, putting pressure on the price to go down,” he said. “So far, the withdrawal line hasn’t even filled up, so this story isn’t going the way many people thought it would.”
This year, the value of ether has gone up by 76% and that of bitcoin has gone up by 85%.
