Ether rallies to highest point since Merge as crypto prices rally

livemint.com:

Cryptocurrency prices today surged with Bitcoin rising above the $20,000 mark and Ether touching its highest point since the merge, surging more than 12% over the last 12 hours to $1,513. The global crypto market cap today bounced back above the $1 trillion mark, as it was up more than 5% in the last 24 hours at $1.02 trillion, as per CoinGecko.

The overall crypto market experienced a mini rally due to the strong third-quarter earnings reports as the listed crypto-centric companies like Coinbase and Microstrategy also reported positive earnings, which created a positive sentiment within the crypto community, as per experts. 

"Bitcoin had a jump owing to the increased demand from Institutional investors looking to boost their holdings before the next price rise. Ether is at its highest point since the merge, showing an impressive double digital gain. The leadership change in the United Kingdom, which signaled a strong commitment towards economic recovery, will significantly impact the global financial markets in the coming weeks. Further, the UK’s CPI for October will be announced by mid-November, and the FED FOMC interest rate decision will also impact the pricing in the coming months," said Mahin Gupta, Founder of digital wallet infrastructure platform Liminal.

Major software upgrade to the Ethereum blockchain, called the Merge, aimed at drastically reducing its energy usage, was completed last month. It was an update to the Ethereum blockchain, which moves it from the current proof-of-work (PoW) consensus mechanism to the more environment-friendly proof-of-stake (PoS) system.

The switch to proof-of-stake makes Ethereum more secure and paves the way for potentially significant future improvements in addition to energy