Bitcoin, Not Ether, Builds Crypto Market Dominance Ahead of Ethereum's Shanghai Upgrade
This article from Coindesk may be of interest. Here is a section:
Ether's dominance rate remains stagnant between 19% and 20%. That compares with a rise to 21% from 14% in the weeks before a software upgrade last September known as the Merge. That technological overhaul replaced Ethereum's at-the-time energy-intensive proof-of-work mechanism of verifying transactions with a proof-of-stake system and set the stage for Shanghai. Staking involves depositing coins in the blockchain to boost the network's security and verify transactions in return for rewards.
Investor caution in pricing ether ahead of Shanghai stems from several factors, including concerns tokens unlocked after the upgrade will flood the market and regulatory issues.
"The Shanghai upgrade will unlock over 18 million ether staked since late 2020. The market is worried that the unlocking may bring about a sell-off, causing uncertainty in the market," Griffin Ardern, a volatility trader at crypto asset-management firm Blofin, told CoinDesk.
Ethereum has been lagging bitcoin for the last couple of months as traders price in the risk of additional supply coming back onto the market. However, that does not explain why bitcoin is breaking out to new recovery highs.
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