With Ethereum’s Ropsten Merge Incoming, Where can ETH price go?

Key Insights:

• The Ropsten Merge could take place by June 10.
• Amid high anticipation of the merge, price gains are expected from ETH.
• While there is an excellent long-term opportunity for ETH price, gains would depend on some key factors.

According to a recent blog post from Ethereum, Ropsten, the chain’s oldest testnet, is about to undergo its transition to proof of stake (PoS). This would be a major milestone marking the final tests ahead of the merge on the main Ethereum blockchain.

The exact timing for the merge would vary depending on certain variables; however, it the expected to happen on Wednesday. Many market participants expect the much-awaited merge, to bring a breeze of fresh air to ETH prices. However, it remains to be seen whether ETH prices would pump.

Ropsten for the Rescue?

The longest-running Ethereum proof of work (PoW) testnet is set to transition to proof of stake. Previously, Ethereum core developer Tim Beiko had announced that the Merge is scheduled for June 8 on the network. However, a recent post made it clear that the Merge would occur by June 10.

Beacon Chain’s launch on the Ropsten test network marks a huge milestone for Ethereum. The Beacon Chain is a PoS network that runs alongside Ethereum’s mainnet, which is PoW. The test network acts as a bed for Ethereum’s approaching shift in the consensus mechanism, as the two chains would ‘merge’ to form a single PoS network.

One of the primary objectives of the merge is to practice Ethereum’s mainnet merge later this year. Ethereum core developers have carried out merge tests in the past, including a shadow fork on the main network and another merge on the Kiln testnet.

The merge would combine the code of Ropsten’s two chains, both proof of work and proof-of-stake beacon chain. A similar process for the Ethereum mainnet merge will happen later this year.

The Ethereum merge is a much-anticipated event in the crypto space and is expected to affect ETH’s price amid high social anticipation.

Taking a look at ETH price

A CryptoQuant post highlighted that sentiment analysis, aSOPR, and Exchange Reserve; we are still in the buy-zone. While the top two assets’ prices had fallen rapidly by more than 5% in the past hours, there was a decent buy opportunity.
Fear & Greed Index indicates that retail investors are “extreme fear” for more than two months.

According to the aSOPR, bitcoin and ethereum prices may not have reached the real bottom yet, but prices were still swinging in the buy-zone. The same meant that it was a good opportunity to build long-term positions.

That said, exchange reserve ( BTC and ETH) also continued to decline over the past three months.

While some metrics presented a moderately bullish outlook, the top altcoin lost nearly 50% of its value since the beginning of this year, while ETH/ BTC pair also lost power. ETH’s price has been trading below the $2,000 price as investors’ sentiment maintained a bearish narrative for the most of the last few months.

At press time, despite the social anticipation of the merge, ETH price was at $1,808, noting 2.66% losses on the daily and 7.45% losses on the weekly chart.

The $1,720 mark can act as a strong support level going forward; if ETH price continues to hold above the level, price gains can be expected. However, a fall below this key support could bring the price down to the next strong support at the $1,300 mark.