
It has been a unstable but constructive week for cryptocurrencies, as merchants ignored the warnings from crypto winter veterans that there was extra draw back in retailer and jumped again into the market on the first signal of rising costs.
Evidence for the reversal in sentiment could be discovered in the Crypto Fear & Greed Index, which has climbed into the worry zone after spending a report time in the acute worry territory on account of collapsing costs in May and June.
As for what sparked the rally out of maximum worry, a nearer take a look at the timeline factors to the announcement of the anticipated date for the Ethereum Merge, which got here on July 15.
Data from Cointelegraph Markets Pro and TradingView exhibits that, following the Merge date revelation, the worth of Ether (ETH) has climbed 38.5% from $1,190 to a day by day excessive of $1,650 on July 22 amid an total inexperienced day in the market.

Along with the climbing worth of Ether, the overall cryptocurrency market capitalization has elevated 15% over the previous week to its present worth of $1.051 trillion.
Ethereum-associated tasks get a enhance
Further proof that the joy round Ethereum’s transition to proof-of-stake (PoS) is what’s fueling the rally could be discovered by trying on the high gainers over the previous week, which incorporates a number of tasks related to the main sensible contract protocol.

As Ethereum switches over to PoS, the huge mining community that at the moment secures the community will probably be orphaned and in want of a new chain to mine.
Ethereum Classic (ETC) is among the finest choices in phrases of community design and compatibility because it’s technically the unique Ethereum proof-of-work chain.

The ETC worth has gained 100% over the previous 9 days, suggesting that there’s a massive contingent of merchants who additionally anticipate a miner migration to Ethereum Classic, which may bode nicely for the tokens worth in the long run.
Related: Bitcoin wobbles on Wall Street open as Ethereum hits $1.6K in 6-week excessive
Liquid staking regains its mojo
The different notable gainer benefiting from Ethereum-related developments is Lido DAO (LDO), a liquid staking platform that enables depositors to stake their Ether in trade for stETH, which is a one-for-one illustration that can be utilized as collateral in decentralized finance.
Data from Cointelegraph Markets Pro and TradingView exhibits that, because the Merge knowledge was revealed, the worth of LDO has rallied 80% from $0.885 to its present worth of $1.59 after briefly spiking to a excessive of $1.92 on July 20.

On high of the momentum gained from its affiliation with the Ethereum Merge, the worth of LDO has additionally benefited from the addition of assist for different protocols like Solana (SOL) and Polkadot (DOT), in addition to its enlargement to layer-2 protocols.
Lido is launching stETH on Layer 2 ️
Ethereum is scaling, and so is Lido.
Lido stakers will quickly be capable to use their stETH belongings in DeFi on Layer 2.
Read extra about it right here: https://t.co/QCsQry4V41
— Lido (@LidoFinance) July 18, 2022
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