Bitcoin Volatility, LUNA and LUNC Rollercoaster, Ethereum Merge Hype: This Week’s Crypto Recap

The past seven days were action-packed, and it’s safe to say those interesting developments took place on all fronts. Bitcoin went through considerable volatility, and Terra’s ecosystem in the face of both LUNC and LUNA went on a massive rollercoaster while the Ethereum Merge countdown officially kicked off with the Bellatrix upgrade. Let’s unpack.

Starting with Bitcoin, it got off on the wrong footing. For the first few days of the last week, BTC was rangebound around $20K – a trend that we saw for quite some time before that. On Tuesday, though, the sellers took control and pushed the price towards $18,000.

This level turned out to be pivotal, as it had previously supported the price on three different occasions. Once again, the bulls managed to hold the line and initiated a rebound earlier today. In less than 24 hours, buyers managed to send BTC towards $21K, charting a whopping increase of almost 10%. In doing so, they were able to turn the past seven days green as BTC charted gains close to 5%.

Elsewhere, the Bellatrix upgrade went live on Ethereum’s Beacon chain. This is the last upgrade to take place before the coveted Paris hard fork (more commonly referred to as “the Merge”). Its purpose is to enable validators to start producing updated Beacon Blocks that will contain the codebase for the merging of the two layers – the consensus and the execution layers.

This puts the Merge just right around the corner. According to the latest estimates, it should take place on September 12th. This will officially mark the transition of Ethereum to a proof-of-stake consensus algorithm – a feat that no other major cryptocurrency has achieved so far, should it be successful, of course.

The Terra ecosystem also saw a lot of attention in the face of both Luna Classic (the classic version of the cryptocurrency) and the one produced as a result of the hard fork following the collapse – LUNA.

The former (LUNC) is up 67.3% in the past seven days, and the major reason for that is the new staking service that went live on the Terra Classic chain on August 27th, providing investors with a hefty return of about 37% on their stakings, as of the time of this writing.

On the other hand, we have LUNA – the cryptocurrency that’s powering the chain produced after the hard fork. It soared by a whopping 300% today. The interesting part is that this took place in about a couple of hours. After reaching the daily highs, however, the coin retraced to where it’s currently trading at, charting an increase of about 170%, highlighting the tremendous volatility.

All in all, it has been a very eventful week with plenty of excitement in the market. With the Ethereum Merge slated to take place next week, it remains particularly interesting to see how the market will shape up.

Market Data

Market Cap: $1,087B | 24H Vol: $94B | BTC Dominance: 37.1%

BTC: $21,091 (+4.7%) | ETH: $1,722 (+8.4%) | ADA: $0.495 (+8%)

This Week’s Crypto Headlines You Can’t Miss

Ethereum Merge: What Does This Mean for Stakers and Miners? The transition to proof-of-stake will not only alleviate some of the energy concerns but will also have considerable implications for staking, mining, and overall adoption. Here’s what it means for existing miners.

Coinbase Funds Lawsuit Against Treasury Department for Sanctioning Tornado Cash. The leading US-based cryptocurrency exchange, Coinbase, will support the legal case against the US Treasury Department after it sanctioned the privacy protocol Tornado Cash. The exchange “seeks to defend the crypto industry against actions that go too far.”

Ethereum is Not Money: Arthur Hayes. The co-founder and former CEO of the derivatives exchange BitMEX – Arthur Hayes – argued that Ethereum does not represent money. He talked about the deflationary economics that surround the upcoming Merge and why there’s more to the story when it comes to the design of an effective monetary instrument.

The Good, the Bad, and the Ugly as El Salvador Celebrates First Bitcoin Adoption Birthday. This week marked exactly one year after El Salvador first adopted Bitcoin as a legal tender. We take a look at all that happened in between and what it actually meant for the country.

Ethereum Classic is a Dead Project: Cardano’s Charles Hoskinson. Charles Hoskinson, the founder of Cardano, argued that Ethereum Classic (ETC) is a dead project. He also said that it serves no real purpose and that there’s no argument for its existence.

What is the Bellatrix Hard Fork: Ethereum’s Last Upgrade Before the Merge. This week saw Ethereum’s network go through the Bellatrix hard fork. This is the last upgrade before the Merge, which will mark the transition of the protocol toward a proof-of-stake (PoS) governance consensus. Here’s everything you need to know about it.