[Asia Economy Reporter Lee Jung-yoon] It has been observed that Ethereum trading volume is showing a declining trend after the Merge upgrade.
According to an analysis of data from CoinMarketCap, a global cryptocurrency market tracking site, the average daily trading volume of Ethereum from the 16th to the 25th of this month, starting the day after the Merge upgrade, was $15.85372 billion (approximately 22.5234 trillion KRW). This represents an 11.31% decrease compared to last month's average daily trading volume of $17.87622 billion (approximately 25.3967 trillion KRW) and a 7.91% decrease compared to July's $17.24057 billion.
Initially, the Merge upgrade was expected to be a positive catalyst for Ethereum and to revitalize the cryptocurrency market, which had been in a slump. However, following the upgrade, profit-taking selling emerged and the ongoing trend of interest rate hikes led to a downward price movement. According to CoinMarketCap, Ethereum's price, which was in the $1500?$1600 range before the upgrade, fell to $1303 as of 9:45 AM on the day of reporting. This price weakness is interpreted as a factor contributing to the decline in trading volume.
The Merge upgrade involves transitioning Ethereum's blockchain algorithm from the existing Proof of Work (PoW) method to Proof of Stake (PoS). Proof of Work involves participating in the blockchain through computer computational processing and receiving coins as rewards, whereas Proof of Stake involves staking held cryptocurrencies in the blockchain to participate in validation and creation, receiving coins as compensation. The Merge upgrade is expected to partially resolve carbon emission issues.
Following the Merge upgrade, the next phase, the Surge upgrade, is scheduled to begin next year. This will introduce sharding, a technology that splits data to be processed by shard chains. Sharding is expected to increase Ethereum's data processing capacity and improve transaction speed and scalability.
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