The EthereumPoW (ETHW) hard fork, which will keep mining via Proof of Work (PoW) has yet to be released. However, its token has already seen strong volatility in price, according to futures data on decentralized exchanges. According to Dexscan, the price of an ETHW operates at around US$35.66, or R$184.71 at the current exchange rate. But the token was worth more than US$ 50 during this Thursday (15). Therefore, ETHW faces great volatility even before its official launch. As explained by the team responsible for the hard fork, the new network should start operating 24 hours after The Merge. In other words, the ETHW must start operations by 03:42 on Friday (16), Brasília time.
Preview of ETHW negotiations. Source: Uniswap/Dexscan.
Token is evicted before its release
The expectations cycle with ETHW took place in several stages. In the early hours of the morning, as Ethereum received The Merge update, the price of ETHW slowly dropped. Then, when The Merge actually took place, the token began to take heavy losses. In this regard, the market performed a strong ETHW dump at around 4:30 am, almost an hour after The Merge. As a result, the price of ETHW dropped $40 to $25 within the next hour. From then on, the downtrend consolidated and the token hit $19.46 a few hours later. In other words, 24 hours after its launch, ETHW was already at an all-time low. But then the price rebounded strongly, returning to the level of $35.66. It is worth noting that the current price of ETHW is not based on the cryptocurrency, but on an estimate. Dexscan collects trading data on selected exchanges (including Gate.io, Poloniex, MEXC, FTX, Bybit and others) in the form of an IOU of a token. That is, while the launch does not take place, the price is just a picture of users’ expectations, but the volatility of ETHW gives a good sign of what is to come.
ETHW will face resistance
As of now, Ethereum uses a Proof of Stake (PoS) consensus mechanism, eliminating all energy intensive mining from the network. ETHW in turn seeks to maintain the Proof of Work (PoW) consensus mechanism left behind in Ethereum by The Merge. As a division of the Ethereum network, ETHW will effectively issue duplicate tokens to anyone who held Ether (ETH) prior to The Merge. But several companies and protocols have stated that they will not support the new network’s tokens. For example, Tether and CIrcle – the two biggest stablecoin providers – have confirmed that they will only support token redemptions on Ethereum. This means that ETHW-based USDC and USDT tokens will lose their dollar parity, which will likely hurt the volume of trade and transactions on the network. And of course, it will bring great losses to its holders. Also read: Season 1 of Axie Infinity Origin will have BRL 7.5 million in rewards Read also: How to trade NFTs? We’ve created a complete guide to get you started! Also read: ETH drops 7% after implementation of The Merge: is the “euphoria” over?
