The Ethereum community finds itself buzzing with excitement today as the price of Ether (ETH) experiences a notable surge. Investors, enthusiasts, and market analysts alike are left pondering the driving forces behind this sudden upswing.
From fundamental developments within the Ethereum ecosystem to external influences shaping the digital currency landscape, this is the reason behind today’s remarkable surge in Ethereum prices.
Ethereum price starts Dec on an upswing
Ether (ETH), the world’s second-largest cryptocurrency, has made remarkable gains, with its price reclaiming $2,1000 levels. The bullishness comes as the US SEC opens up discussions for the approval of a spot Ethereum ETF.
At the time of this publication, the price of ETH is $2,093.73, with a 24-hour trading volume of $15,199,416,151.51. This is a 2.98% increase in the previous 24 hours and a 1.21% increase in the last 7 days.
Michael van de Poppe, a crypto analyst, is bullish on Ethereum following the Fidelity filing. In light of this filing, he reaffirms his conviction that, following the rise of Bitcoin, ETH would reach $3,500 in the first quarter of 2024.
Here are some of the factors influencing the price of ETH. The Ethereum whale accumulation has been quite vigorous. In addition, on-chain data reveals the substantial exchange of wallet holdings. The largest Ethereum wallets, according to Santiment, are exhibiting a bullish pattern, signaling a significant shift.
Exchange wallets have reached an all-time low of 8.03 million ETH in the last six months, while non-exchange wallets have reached an all-time high of 41.03 million ETH. As more currencies move away from exchanges, this trend shows an increasing preference for self-custody.
In November, the price of ETH increased by 13%, beating Bitcoin’s 8% increase. Blackrock’s official filing for a spot ETH ETF (Ether-based Exchange Traded Fund) was a big contributor to Ethereum’s growth.
Despite the dwindling media frenzy around ETFs, on-chain data shows that ETH’s price volatility has overtaken Bitcoin’s. This pattern may attract swing traders and short-term day traders to invest in ETH rather than BTC in December as well.
Ethereum’s Goerli Testnet to end support and upgrade
The Ethereum development team announced on Thursday, November 30, that the blockchain‘s multi-client testnet Goerli would no longer receive support from the client and ETH Foundation testing teams.
The Dencun upgrade will be the final and final implementation, culminating in a team exit three months after Goerli Dencun activation or one month after Dencun mainnet activation.
Users that rely on Goerli for stable testnet environments are recommended to migrate ahead of time, according to the ETH Foundation. Despite Goerli staking’s permissionless nature, the departure of validators from client and testing teams, who comprise a considerable stake majority, offers possible stability concerns. At the same time, teams intend to use this transition to test delayed finality, inactivity leaks, and mass slashings.
In the coming months, Goerli, Ethereum’s first multi-client testnet, will stop being supported by client and EF testing teams. The Dencun network upgrade will be the last one implemented on the network.
Either three months after the Goerli Dencun activation, or one month after the Dencun mainnet activation, whichever comes later, teams will begin exiting their validators [1]. Anyone relying on Goerli as a stable testnet should migrate elsewhere prior to this.
Ethereum
While Goerli is likely to be the first testnet to activate the Dencun upgrade, the Ethereum team will disclose the exact date as soon as possible.
The ETH Foundation recommends that developers use Sepolia to test decentralized applications, smart contracts, and other ETH Virtual Machine (EVM) features. The permissioned validator set provided by Sepolia ensures a stable testing environment. Alternatively, testing against ETH mainnet state copies is made easier by a variety of local development environments.
Stakers and infrastructure providers interested in protocol-level testing could look into the freshly launched Holesky testnet, on which anyone can run a validator. The Ephemery testnet provides a weekly reset capability for validator setup testing, allowing for lightweight end-to-end testing of the validator lifecycle.
The ETH blockchain network has gone a long way through multiple modifications over the years. The upcoming ETH improvements will mostly focus on increasing scalability.
