Ethereum Roundup: ETH Drops Below $1,500 Despite Successful Ropsten Testnet Merge

The planned Merge on the Ropsten testnet took place last week and was a success – at least for the most part. There are a few things that need to be addressed, but the biggest question within the community is when the transition to PoS, aka ‘the Merge’ is happening.

Late August at the earliest

A tweet shared today by leading developer Tim Beiko confirmed that the August to November range is still the estimated standing timeline, and there is no official date yet. The tweet was a response to an earlier post from Ben Edgington, who asked for ‘a sense of urgency’ in delivering the Merge.

“I still feel like the (late) August-Nov range is roughly right? Speed of fixing bugs and number of new issues encountered is what makes it hard to predict?” Beiko replied.

The core developer, however, warned against keeping hopes high, stating that the anticipated switch could happen as late as next year in the event of a catastrophic event. These remarks are similar to those from Ethereum creator Vitalik Buterin who noted In May that the ‘risk of problems’ and ‘risk of delays’ could throw a wrench into the works.

Ethereum has pulled a classic Cardano-move on the ‘the Merge’ delivery, choosing perfection over speed. Beiko, in a subsequent tweet, suggested that Ethereum will delay the final product as long as it is not flawless.

“I just don’t know that it’s possible to predict beyond that level of accuracy! Maybe others can better than me, though […] if we target, say, September, and find a sync issue mid-August, do we ship with broken sync?”

The next significant event in the path leading to ‘the Merge’ on the mainnet is the Goerli testnet merge.

Bulls shrug off Ropsten despite positive results

Though the Ropsten testnet merge went live without any serious hitches, it didn’t provide any bullish momentum for Ethereum’s native token. Ether price barely reacted in response to the success.

The premier altcoin continued trading tightly between the $1,780 and $1,820 range two days after the news was shared before seeing a decline ahead of the weekend. The cold shoulder from bulls could be an indication there is no full conviction within the community yet on the August date, although some market observers cite strong bearish sentiment for the inertness.

Ethereum (ETH) charts new lows following a steep dip over the weekend

Market data shows that Ether has shed more than $300 in the past 48 hours and is currently changing hands at $1,463. Earlier, ETH/USD set a 17-month low of $1,436.18 as per CoinMarketCap, revisiting levels last touched in February 2021. At the current price, the pair is trading 5.79% down on the day and 70.08% below its all-time high.

ETH/USD 7-day trading chart

Crypto insights firm Deribit theorized that the imbalances within the ETH-stETH link are partially to blame for the token’s ailing performance against Bitcoin despite a breakthrough in the recent testnet merge.

“Testnet Merge was a success, yet the ETH market did not react,” the Deribit teams wrote, “That didn’t stop a further accumulation of ETH Sep 35-40-45k Call flys x10k for a Mainnet Merge play. Concerns over the ETH-stETH link are swirling as the health of financial institutions post-Terra is questioned.”

Ether’s trading activity hints at a continuation of the downtrend in the short term. Technical analysis also suggests that the latest decline could have cleared the way for further corrections this month.

To learn more about Ethereum visit our Investing in Ethereum guide.