Ether has rallied almost 60% in two weeks.
Bitcoin and ether (ETH, -0.08%) erased Wednesday’s gains as Ethereum’s highly-anticipated London hard fork, or backward-incompatible upgrade, neared.
Having faced rejection at $40,000 early Thursday, bitcoin (BTC, -3.16%), the top cryptocurrency by market value is currently trading near $38,000. The 4% drop has nearly reversed Wednesday’s rally from $37,500.
Ether is also down 4% near $2,600 at press time after having jumped 8% to $2,770 on Wednesday and hitting the highest level since June 7, according to CoinDesk 20 data.
The London hard fork, which includes four Ethereum Improvement Proposals (EIP), is scheduled for implementation around 12:30 UTC, according to etherscan.io. One of the proposals, EIP 1559, will introduce a mechanism to burn a portion of fees paid to miners, thereby curbing ether’s supply growth over time and bringing store-of-value appeal to the native token of Ethereum’s blockchain. Some analysts have cautioned that the upgrade’s positive effect will be seen over time, and there may be little or no immediate price action.
source of news:coindesk
