coindesk.com
JPMorgan analyst Ken Worthington said anticipation of the Ethereum Merge was a sizable force behind the big July move higher in ether (ETH) specifically, and crypto in general.
After the completion of two testnets ahead of the event – now expected the week of Sept. 19 – that will take the Ethereum blockchain from a proof-of-work system to a proof-of-stake consensus mechanism, ether's price jumped 70% in July. It is currently trading at about $1,780. As comparison, bitcoin (BTC) rose 27% in July, while SOL, the token of the Solana system, gained 38%.
Also helping the big move in ETH, Worthington said, is the overall decentralized finance (DeFi) sector, where total value locked (TVL) rose 22% last month.
“Given DeFi tends to be built on Ethereum, the amelioration of earlier concerns on DeFi together with the better reports about the Ethereum Merge are likely driving the particularly strong price appreciation of ETH relative to [b]itcoin,” wrote Worthington in the report.