The Ethereum merger with the Beacon network was supposed to prove that the web will be doing fine without miners and that it is the next big thing for the whole crypto industry thanks to reduced energy costs and new improvements that will make future upgrades much easier to implement. However, it turned out to be a massively overhyped event that brought nothing by disappointment to many ETH holders.
The token tanked over 12% in just six hours after the merge. Since the high of September 15, the asset has lost 23%. It only recently stabilized over the $1,300 support line but dipped to $1,216 at some point during the last three weeks.
Bitcoin is gaining ground while Ethereum is left to bite the dust
The number of mentions on social media was relatively high for Ethereum ahead of the merge with many experts, enthusiasts, and even laymen talking about this event on all platforms. However, the hype died down quickly. It was reduced by more than half in two weeks. Now, Bitcoin is once again the crowned king of the crypto industry in all possible metrics including the number of mentions on social media.
BTC has been gaining ground on many fronts. For example, Ethereum has been losing cash with outflow significantly exceeding inflow. The opposite was happening to Bitcoin ahead of the merge. It is the 9th consecutive week for ETH with negative cash flow.
Regarding prices, ETH lost 34.8% compared to the September high while Bitcoin lost only 17.1% during the same period. It seems that Ethereum will have to spend more time on recovery instead of trying to achieve the “flippening”.
Many dubbed the current situation the “floppening”
Ethereum faces competition from other networks that are also trying to attract new users and app builders even amidst the crypto winter. Cardano, Algorand, and Polkadot are all making progress regardless of how relevant their upgrades (looking at you, Cardano) turn out after implementation. It seems that ETH will need more efforts from the community and developers to keep its number 2 place.