Today, ETH is trading just below the $1,700 level. And although this level is 65 percent behind the cryptocurrency’s high, it has posted one of its best results in recent weeks – especially among large-cap coins.

Specifically, over the past challenging month, ETH posted a 16 percent increase, while the same Bitcoin showed only a 2 percent increase. The leader here was the BNB coin with a 20 per cent increase.

Changes in cryptocurrency exchange rates over the past month

That said, the Ether exchange rate was in the spotlight for cryptocurrency enthusiasts the day before. The fact is that the network’s move to a Proof-of-Stake or Proof-of-Stake mechanism will reduce the daily issuance of new ETH by around 90 per cent, making new ethers a more scarce phenomenon. Over the long term, provided the demand for coins continues, this could have a positive impact on the value of the cryptocurrency.

Why will cryptocurrencies become more popular?

Here is a translation of Vitalik’s statement posted on Twitter.

People are still underestimating cryptocurrencies because of their superiority not so much in privacy but in convenience in general. Cryptotransactions could be a big boost to international business and philanthropy, as well as payments within countries.

Vitalik Buterin, the creator of Etherium

Buterin also spoke about Etherium’s superiority as a cryptopayment medium during the recent Korea Blockchain Week 2022 event. As a reminder, the altcoin network will move to PoS in September, with the so-called merger procedure itself being one of the most anticipated for the industry in 2022. Admittedly, so far, the rate of ETH influx into the Etherium deposit smart contract has fallen to a minimum – users are now transferring an average of 230 ETH to the smart contract address every day. Consequently, those willing to send coins to the stack have recently become significantly less willing to do so.

After the move to PoS, validation of transactions on the network will be handled by validators. And to get this role, you need to deposit at least 32 ETH, or almost $55,000 at the current coin rate, into a smart contract. However, it is possible to get involved in transaction validation at a much lower cost - at least because of the so-called stacking pools that pool users' coins and send them to the appropriate contract.

According to CryptoSlate sources, the volume of daily ETH deposits dropped significantly in July and has yet to recover. This decline coincided with the altcoin’s price recovery after the market collapsed in the second quarter of 2022 on the back of the Terra project’s collapse.

Volumes of new transfers to the Etherium deposit smart contract

The slowdown in ETH 2.0 deposit growth became even more critical in August, with 162 ETH transferred to the smartcontract in the last week – an all-time low. The number of new unique addresses transferring coins to the smart contract has also dropped significantly and has remained at a minimum for a couple of months.

Number of unique cryptocurrency wallets that transfer funds into an Etherium deposit smart contract

Judging by the overall trend, validator role assignment activity has remained largely unchanged since May this year, as shown in the chart below.

Transfers to the Etherium deposit smart contract by large stacking providers

There are at least three reasons for this trend. The first is possible uncertainty about the success of the merger of a small number of network users and predictions of a possible separation of the Etherium blockchain during the procedure. The second could be that most of those who want to do so have simply already contributed funds to the smart contract. Finally, the third is that market players do not believe that the merger will significantly affect the ETH price momentum and the industry as a whole due to the prolonged cryptocurrency decline, which is already causing “depression” for many.


We believe that cryptocurrencies are indeed more suitable for day-to-day payments due to low fees, high transaction speeds, no government boundaries factor and the ability to fully own your own assets in the case of non-custodial wallets. Naturally, interacting with coins means risks of hacking and fraud, and one has to check recipients' addresses several times. However, users get a lot more benefits than inconveniences in return. So it's worth getting started with crypto now, at least by familiarizing yourself with the basics of decentralized systems in general.


Will you be involved in staking? Share your thoughts on the upcoming Ethereum upgrade in our Millionaire Crypto Chat. Discuss other important developments from the digital asset industry there as well.