One of the most memorable moments in the history of cryptocurrencies occurred earlier this year when Ethereum underwent a transformation known as The Merge.

During The Merge, Ether switched from a PoW consensus to a PoS consensus. The Ethereum Foundation claims that after the switch, Ethereum now uses 99.95% less energy, which is impressive. 

Now Ethereum is gearing up for a new update; the highly-anticipated Shanghai Hard Fork.

Everything to know about the Shanghai Hard Fork

There is a single issue with Ether currently being traded on PoS. Users have not been able to withdraw their staked ETH in the past unless they employed a technique that allowed them to stake liquid assets. This is going to change as a result of the Shanghai hard fork.

The cryptocurrency units that are now being staked on the Beacon Chain will be made available for trade after the Shanghai hard fork of Ethereum, which will offer more liquidity to the network.

March 2023 is the anticipated completion date in Shanghai. Developers are hard at work on an update that will bring proto-danksharding to the Ethereum network in May or June 2023. This upgrade will be introduced via Ethereum Improvement Proposal (EIP) 4844.

On October 14, the Ethereum Foundation unveiled a pre-Shanghai testnet in anticipation of the Shanghai upgrade. The Ethereum Improvement Proposals (EIPs) slated for inclusion in the mainnet upgrade, codenamed “Shandong,” were tested on the testnet before being finalized.

After the Shanghai hard fork, EIP 4844 will be implemented, bringing a new kind of transaction to the alternative currency. It is envisaged that this would free up space, boost the speed of transactions, and reduce the cost of gas.

To ensure the PoS mechanism was running well, crypto investors verified blocks that included no transactions. So, once the Merge is implemented, the Ethereum network will be safe for regular users and blockchain-based applications.

On the other hand, the greatest concern of the ETH community is the impending big sale that should follow this upgrade. Selling pressure on Ethereum is probably inevitable because while long-term investors may feel comfortable leaving their ETH in cold storage, traders with shorter time horizons may be more wary.

Conclusion

Ether’s performance has been dismal of late. Both the 24-hour and seven-day charts show its trade in the red at the time of writing. The current price of ETH, $1,217, is a loss of 7.65% over the last week but an increase of 5.8% over the past month.

Concerns about the long-term viability of different trading platforms and the impact of increasing interest rates on the market continue to persist. The Shanghai hard fork may cause the price of Ether to skyrocket. Let’s see.