Ethereum just experienced its first hint of post-merge price action. Unfortunately for bulls, it was to the downside.
After clinging to roughly $1600 over the past 24 hours, Ethereum has now slipped over 5% lower within the past two hours. Likewise, Bitcoin has lost its $20,000 level once again.
Ethereum was trading for about $1587 at roughly 14:19 UST on Thursday. It rapidly descended after that, falling as low as $1456 just an hour later.
At the time of writing, Ethereum is hovering close to $1500. Bitcoin experienced a similar but less significant drop to about $19,850, returning its market dominance to more than double that of Ethereum’s.
Ethereumtraded flatin the hours following the Merge – a long-anticipated upgrade that changed Ethereum’s consensus mechanism from proof of work to proof of stake.
Many Ethereans – including co-founder Vitalik Buterin – have argued that the Ethereum Merge is not yetpriced in. However, even bulls likeMark Cubanhave noted that there may be a “sell the news” in its aftermath.
Former BitMEX CEO Arthur Hayes hasclaimedthat the Merge’s net-deflationary economics could help propel Ethereum to $5000 by March of 2023. However, he alsoallowedfor the possibility of a short-term dump.
Derivatives data from August seemed to back up this theory. Blockchain analytics firm Glassnodesaidat the time that the directional bias of Ethereum options traders indicated that they were “paying a premium for ‘sell-the-news’ put option protection post-Merge.
