Key Takeaways
- Ether’s price slipped early Tuesday to levels around $2,450 as crypto participants expect a milestone upgrade this week
- Bitcoin lost about 5% on Monday as attentions shifts to the second-biggest coin
Ether Wavers Ahead of Key Update
Ether, the second-largest cryptocurrency, endured a broad selling pressure on Monday as the digital asset market went through a jittery start of the week. While bitcoin fell as much as 5.5% yesterday, the Ethereum coin remained relatively more stable, down about 2.4% on the day.
The token powering the Ethereum network slipped at one point to an intraday low of $2,508. Crypto buyers, however, erased the loss and ether snapped back with a 4.5% gain to finish Monday action around $2,600. On Tuesday, however, the Ethereum crypto coin is trading lower by roughly 4% to $2,500.
Major Ethereum Upgrade Coming on Aug 4
Ether performed well on Monday relative to the broader market as crypto traders and miners expect a milestone upgrade to the cryptocurrency that could boost its price. Ethereum, running on a blockchain that’s a native ecosystem to many financial applications, is expected this week to undergo a software upgrade called London.
The Ethereum London hard fork, expected to go live on August 4, is allegedly behind the rising demand for ethers in recent days. The long-awaited upgrade, arguably one of the most important in Ethereum’s history, will contain five Ethereum Improvement Protocols (EIPs). Each one will introduce changes to how the code works. In general, the upgrade will reduce the rate of supply of ether tokens, while it also alters by how much miners are rewarded via “gas fees”.
Bitcoin Give Up Gains, Trades Near $38,500
Against that backdrop, the price of bitcoin fell on Monday, continuing its downward trend from the previous day. Bitcoin is currently trading around $38,500 per token on Tuesday, lower by less than 1% on the day. After the recent slump under the $40,000 threshold, the leading digital currency fell back into the trading range that’s been dictating its moves for the past two months.
Still, despite a rather weak price behavior in the first few days of August, bitcoin made a considerable move higher in July, up slightly over 20% for the month.
Trade BTC with 0% commission with TradeOr!