Ether drops 15% since major Ethereum network upgrade

Ether has fallen more than bitcoin since the cryptocurrency’s underlying technology, the Ethereum network, underwent a huge upgrade called the merge.

Ethereum is a blockchain technology that effectively allows developers to build apps on top of it. Ether is the native cryptocurrency that runs on Ethereum.

The merge is an upgrade to Ethereum that changes the validation mechanism for transactions from a proof-of-work method to proof-of-stake. Proponents say this will make validating transactions on Ethereum much more energy efficient and has been eagerly-anticipated by the crypto community.

Despite the upgrade happening successfully, ether has fallen more than bitcoin. Since Sept. 15, the date the merge was completed, to around 4:30 a.m ET on Tuesday, ether is down around 15%. Bitcoin has dropped around 3% in the same period.

Ahead of the network upgrade, the price of ether roughly doubled from the lows of the year in June, far outpacing bitcoin’s gains.

Vijay Ayyar, vice president of corporate development and international at crypto exchange Luno, said that the merge was already “priced in” for ether and the “actual event was a ‘sell the news’ situation.”

Traders are also shifting investments from ether and other alternative digital coins back into bitcoin, according to Ayyar, “since the expectation is that Bitcoin will outperform for a few months from here on.”

This report’s information was first seen on CNBC; to read more, click this link.