On the day of the merger, trading in crypto could be subject to high volatility - a very rapid change in the price of digital assets. This opinion was voiced by BitMEX Crypto Exchange CEO Alexander Hoeptner in an interview with Cointelegraph news outlet. He shared his predictions about the transition to PoS, as well as the prospects of Etherium in the foreseeable future.

Etherium creator Vitalik Buterin

As a reminder, earlier, CoinGecko platform representative shared instructions on the topic of maximizing the possible income on the PoS upgrade of Etherium. Read more about it in a separate article.

How to make money on Etherium

The merger will be watched not only by regular crypto investors, but also by major platforms, as almost everyone in the industry interacts with Etherium. This is especially important against the backdrop of the potential emergence of forks, i.e. alternative projects with the same blockchain – representatives of various exchanges and platforms have previously expressed their position on this prospect. Here’s how Höptner comments.

We just have to be, shall we say, awake and see what happens. There is a possibility of high volatility. And so everyone has to make sure that their services work. We don’t expect any major disruption other than volatility.

In other words, the expert makes it clear that he expects ETH and cryptocurrency projects based on this network to surge. And this is logical, because each trader will interpret the update and what happens after it in his own way, and therefore the purpose of trading will be different. In addition, the prospects of updating and operation of various platforms based on the PoS network remain unclear, because previously Etherium simply did not function on the basis of this consensus algorithm.

BitMEX CEO Alexander Hoeptner

The CEO of BitMEX also does not see anything negative in the aforementioned emergence of forks, as long as they will be supported by their strong community. Miners could be that community in the first place, as they need the ETH PoW fork to continue their usual coin mining business.

However, the likelihood of a mining fork is not yet completely convincing - this can be seen by another sharp drop in ETHW futures on the Poloniex exchange. Its value has fallen by more than 80 per cent since the beginning of September alone. In other words, at least for the time being the interest in this speculative asset leaves a lot to be desired.

Falling futures on the PoW version of Etherium

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Another important issue raised during the interview was the prospect of institutional adoption of Etherium after the merger, i.e. the connection to ETH by professional investors. Höptner believes that ETH on PoS will be more attractive to institutional investors as it meets the demands of the conservation agenda, very popular among “whales”. The expert continues.

I absolutely believe that the merger will push the institutional adoption of Ether even further, because the current generation is paying close attention to project efficiency in general, as well as environmental protection.

Cryptocurrency rates

Since the role of miners in Proof-of-Stake will be that of validators, it will not require a power-consuming crypto farm, but rather a fairly standard computer to support the network node. As a result, Ether will consume 99.95 per cent less power than it does now.

Energy consumption and carbon dioxide emissions due to Etherium mining right now

Contrary to the common perception that the market is in “cryptozyma” right now, BitMEX’s CEO shared a very different viewpoint. In his opinion, this is not a bear market, but a slight correction that is often seen in traditional finance.

The market used to be very overheated. Money was too cheap, and now it’s a small correction, but we are very optimistic about Bitcoin. Very optimistic about Etherium, especially after the move to Proof-of-Stake.

We don't agree with that opinion, because many cryptocurrencies have managed to lose 60-90 percent of their own value in the last six months. This does not bear the title of a "small" correction in any way.

Flipping Index – Etherium’s share of Bitcoin’s capitalisation is now just over 50 per cent

Overall, Höptner believes that the merger is a positive development in the industry. The team at his cryptocurrency exchange holds a similar view, expecting the altcoin to develop further after the move to PoS. With an influential community in place, Ether supposedly even stands a good chance of surpassing Bitcoin in terms of capitalisation in the long term. However, time will tell.


Obviously, the Etherium update could indeed end up with some confusion in the coin industry. However, if the update goes smoothly on the technical side, cryptocurrency users will face noticeable volatility in digital assets and the prospect of network congestion along with high fees anyway. In the meantime, they just have to make sure that their ETH is at least on an exchange with support for possible forks.


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