How ‘totally fine’ ETC is coping with the effect of Ethereum’s Merge

Ethereum blockchain’s potential transition from proof-of-work to proof-of-stake (Merge) has triggered a buying hysteria around the hype. Well, not just for ETH, but also for related cryptos such as Ethereum Classic.

In fact, different predictions concerning the altcoin have come true too. ETC, for instance, at press time, had jumped to $40 from its value of $24.65 on 25 July. Question is, can it sustain this (dependent) surge?

Brother from the same mother 

ETC’s price highlighted a 68% hike in just 5 days. In fact, the altcoin has jumped by 124.2% in two weeks. Simply put, Ethereum Classic did benefit from Ethereum’s long-awaited upgrade, dubbed “The Merge.”

However, not just the price, other attributes seemed to paint a positive sketch as well. For starters, consider the hashrate –

On 28 July, the hashrate for Ethereum Classic registered an unprecedented surge, as seen in the graph below. As per Bitinfocharts, the hashrate stood at 26.773 TH/s, an increase of 23.90% from the beginning of this month.

Source: Bitinfocharts

At the time of writing, the said indicator had risen to 31.72 TH/s. (An increase remains an indicator of a network’s security because it shows a large number of miners are verifying transactions.)

Looking at the market capitalization, the #19th ranked crypto’s figures stood at $5.39B – Representing a hike of 46.5% since its figures of $3.64 billion on 23 July. The sheer rise in the active addresses could support this narrative too.

The number of active addresses on the network hit 66,200 on 28 June too.

Source: Bitinfocharts

Moreover, the number of daily transactions stood at about 97,400 – An increase of 62.60% this month.

Long way to go…

ETC still has a long road ahead before it can compete with its fellow brother, ETH.

Consider the DeFi TVL stats, for example.

At press time, ETH controlled the largest value locked out of all the blockchains today. On DeFiLlama, the respective TVL registered a figure of $56.62 billion.

Source: DeFilama

Meanwhile, Ethereum Classic has a very small TVL, with only $250,419 on 31 July on the same platform. Other aspects such as market capitalization would replicate the same scenario.

However, that doesn’t mean ETC doesn’t get the validation it needs. Ethereum founder Vitalik Buterin, for instance, in a recent YouTube video, claimed,

“If you want to cancel Proof of Stake, we are not going to cancel you. There’s Ethereum Classic, which is the original Ethereum. It’s a very welcoming community and I think they’ll definitely welcome proof-of-work fans <…> If you like proof-of-work, you should go use Ethereum Classic. It’s a totally fine chain.”