On July 29, almost $1.2 billion worth of Ethereum options expire. Options will expire, taking Ethereum’s maximum pain price to $1,400. Based on available data, the sell/call ratio sits at 0.67. This is why most derivatives traders and investors are betting on the Ethereum price increase. However, the maximum pain price indicates that we will see the decline of the leading altcoin project in the coming days.
Ethereum price signals bearish
Most options are open for around $1,400. However, most bulls and bears are aiming for Ethereum to drop further. They are also waiting for the comeback rally that started a few weeks ago to come to an end. Some traders use options to hedge their spot positions. However, the technical resistance and lack of entry on the weekly timeframe is catching the attention of analysts. Therefore, the rise of Ethereum price is quite questionable. The highest volume of call options on the chart shows that the majority of bulls believe Ether to drop to $1,500.
In addition, the number of orders placed at extremely high price levels is quite small. Therefore, it reveals that the short-term value increase did not deceive the market, that is, a price increase is not expected. As a result, investors are not betting on ETH reaching the extreme highs of $2,000. Instead, they try to act rationally. According to the technical situation on the chart, the coin failed to break the 200-week moving average. This moving average stands out as a very important level as it acts as the main hurdle for bearish assets. As such, Ethereum is currently struggling to continue its bullish rally.
ETH confirms date of “Goerli” merge
The ether network will complete the Merge upgrade in September. cryptocoin.com As we have previously reported, Merge will enable the transition of ETH to PoS Blockchain. The transition to PoS started with the launch of the Beacon chain in December 2020. Thus, he accomplished Stage 0 of the three-stage process. The current phase, Phase 1, was scheduled to be completed by 2021. However, due to numerous delays and unfinished work from the developers, it is expected to be completed by the third week of September. The final phase of the transition is scheduled to be completed in late 2023. However, the final merge before Merge will take place on the Goerli network. Ethereum developers announced and confirmed the upgrade date.
Accordingly, lead ETH developer Tim Beiko took to Twitter to announce the details of the Goerli testnet migration. The Goerli testnet will merge with the beacon chain called Prater. So the Goerli/Prater network will retain the Goerli name after the merge. The PoS transition of the Ethereum network is planned as the biggest upgrade for the blockchain network since its inception. The upgrade is focused on increasing scalability and reducing high transaction costs through the introduction of sharding. However, most of the scalability features are expected to be integrated after the completion of the final phase of the transition, which is expected to occur in the second half of 2023.
