As revealed on Beaconcha.in, an open source Ethereum explorer, the number of total node validators on the blockchain network has set a new record barely two weeks after the Merge upgrade was executed on the Ethereum (ETH) blockchain. 

According to data collected by TimesTabloid, the total number of active validators on the Ethereum (ETH) network is 436, 721 while there are only 110 pending node validators on the network. These figures are valid as of September 28, at the time of writing. 

Read Also: Ethereum’s Vitalik Buterin Discusses the Potential of Layer-3 Protocols

Recall that, Vitalik Buterin and the Ethereum Foundation finally activated the biggest and most complex upgrade in the history of the blockchain platform on September 15. This development transformed the second-largest crypto project as well as the first smart contract blockchain into an ecologically friendly and less energy-intensive platform. 

Likewise, interest in Ethereum staking is growing rapidly among crypto investors and institutions following the emergence of Ethereum 2.0 where staking replaced mining. Data from the same tracking platform showed that staked ETH is growing simultaneously with total node validators. At the time of writing, the number of Ethereum staked is 13,976,072 ETH. 

It is worth noting that several top crypto exchanges like Coinbase and financial institutions including SEBA Bank rolled out Ethereum staking services for their institutional clients. Meanwhile, in a recent statement, SEC Chair Gary Gensler noted that the PoS system currently powering the Ether token could trigger securities laws. 

Related: Popular Swiss Bank Enables Ethereum (ETH) Staking for Institutional Clients: Details

According to the SEC’s statement, “Cryptocurrencies and intermediaries that allow holders to “stake” their coins might pass a key test used by courts to determine whether an asset is a security. Known as the Howey test, it examines whether investors expect to earn a return from the work of third parties.”

Ripple CEO Brad Garlinghouse later slammed the SEC for the assertion regarding Ethereum (ETH) mentioning that he holds ETH, XRP, and BTC.

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Regardless of the fact that the miner-led post-Merge hardfork is yet to happen, FTX, Bitfinex, Bybit, Gate.io, FTX.US, and MEXC Global exchanges have launched spot trading for the Ethereum POW Fork IOU token (ETHW). Bitrue, Phemex, and Digifinex are the recent exchanges to support the token with more exchanges expected to list the token probably after the execution of the miner-led post-merge hardfork. 

According to data from Coingecko, the global FTX exchange recorded the highest trading volume for ETHW, followed by MEXC Global and Bybit exchange. At the time of writing, FTX has recorded a massive ETHW volume of $37,930,802 out of the overall $44,230,207 24 hours volume. While MEXC Global has recorded $5,151,596 ETHW in volume, Bybit has processed $5,129,682 ETHW volume so far.

Read Also: The Merge Activated; Ethereum is Now a Proof-of-Stake Blockchain

To celebrate the merge, Bybit announced the launch of the USDT trading pair against ETHW. Users can now trade the post-merge forked token using the largest stablecoin by market capitalization. MEXC Global and Gate.io have also introduced the ETHW/USDT pair on their respective platforms. ETHW/USD trading pair is also now available on the FTX. 

Per the update, Bybit Official tweeted, “ETHW/USDT is now LIVE for Spot trading! ETHW deposits and withdrawals are coming soon! Trade now with 0 fees.” ETHW deposits and withdrawals were opened on the exchange hours after this announcement. 

$ETHW is now open for deposits!

Deposit and trade with 0 fees: https://t.co/EE7fn790nl https://t.co/V5wH6f2kAr

— Bybit (@Bybit_Official) September 15, 2022

Read Also: Ethereum (ETH) Merge-Inspired Song and NFTs Flood the Market

While Ethereum’s transition is a huge step forward, some players and crypto miners in the industry believe PoW is essential in the space. Hence, a coordinated post-merge hardfork is scheduled to happen 24 hours after the merge activation. Categorically, the fork is expected to split the Ethereum chain in two with one chain running as proof-of-stake and the other proof-of-work (PoW) based. 

At the time of writing, Ethereum PoW Fork IOU (ETHW) is trading for $11.55. This token listed by several exchanges is an IOU cryptocurrency where IOU means “I owe you.” The “owing” comes into play because ETHW will be the result of the post-merge Ethereum hard fork which is yet to happen.

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With this, the popular blockchain platform has officially switched to a proof-of-stake (PoS) mechanism after the mainnet PoW-based execution layer merged with the Beacon Chain PoS-based consensus layer. 

To celebrate this terrific achievement, community members have rolled out several digital artworks in the form of non-fungible tokens (NFT) and songs to compliment Ethereum (ETH). Particularly, Jonathan Mann, an Ethereum (ETH) community member known for writing “5000 songs in 5000 days” released a music video inspired by Ethereum and the Merge upgrade. 

In the song, the top musician highlighted the history of Ethereum (ETH) with the use of statements like “though the road was long, we carried on” and “carbon footprint is all gone.” Altogether, Jonathan Mann celebrated the Merge with his melodious song adding the lines, “hey Buterin, we have earned it.” Later on, Mann shared a screenshot that showed heated bidding on the Merge song. 

Read Also: The Merge Activated; Ethereum is Now a Proof-of-Stake Blockchain

In June, Mann also published a song expressing his joy about the successful Ropsten Testnet merge with lyrics like “ETH to the moon!” 

THE OFFICIAL MERGE SONGhttps://t.co/uefE1JuCdh
the NFT of the song
(auction closes at 9/22 @ 3pm) pic.twitter.com/uuRdHID4om

— 17 years of song a day (@songadaymann) September 15, 2022

Beeple, a top digital artist and the owner of one of the highest-paid non-fungible tokens (NFTs) in history also celebrated the Ethereum Merge by releasing a unique piece. Moments after the Merge, Beeple shared a vast and colorful illustration of the Ethereum logo.

On the SuperRare NFT platform, a creator known as “Sauce_K”, posted a motion artwork containing the Ethereum logo. In describing the hyper expressionism piece, the artist wrote, “the time has come.” Another community member also released an NFT collection titled “Survived the Merge.”

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In the words of the Ethereum co-founder Vitalik Buterin, “And we finalized!/Happy merge all. This is a big moment for the Ethereum ecosystem. Everyone who helped make the merge happen should feel very proud today.” 

And we finalized!

Happy merge all. This is a big moment for the Ethereum ecosystem. Everyone who helped make the merge happen should feel very proud today.

— vitalik.eth (@VitalikButerin) September 15, 2022

This upgrade has been welcomed with lots of excitement by members of crypto Twitter while prominent figures like the Cardano founder, Charles Hoskinson have sent in congratulatory messages. Others have lauded the fact that the Merge caused no network instability with Buterin commenting that, “so far, the percentage of full blocks has dropped from ~20% to ~10%.

pic.twitter.com/nkPUN2y0I4

— Charles Hoskinson (@IOHK_Charles) September 15, 2022

Read Also: Here’s What Vitalik Buterin Thinks of Proof-of-Work as He Defends Proof-of-Stake

The Merge Impact

While there have been several upgrades on the Ethereum blockchain, the Merge is regarded as the biggest upgrade ever since the emergence of the platform co-founded by Vitalik Buterin, Gavin Wood, Charles Hoskinson, and about 5 others. 

In 2015, Ethereum was launched as a proof-of-work network that supports mining. Considering the downsides of the PoS consensus algorithm mechanism, Vitalik Buterin and the development team set out to transition the blockchain to proof-of-stake (PoS). 

However, this PoS journey began in December 2020 when the Beacon Chain was launched and has since been running in parallel with the PoW-based execution layer (mainnet) until the activation of the Merge on September 15. 

Following the implementation of the merge, Proof-of-work is no longer valid under the rules of consensus on Ethereum. “All execution layer activity will be included in “beacon blocks”, which are published and attested to by proof-of-stake validators,” Ethereum Foundation noted. 

Henceforth, mining is no longer supported on the second-largest crypto blockchain as the Merge has ushered in the staking approach. Also, this upgrade will reduce global energy consumption by 0.2%, according to Justin Drake, a leading Ethereum researcher. 

Read Also: Is The Merge Coming To Reduce Gas Fees? Ethereum Foundation Clarifies

While this development reduces the energy consumption on Ethereum by approximately 99.99%, it brings net ETH inflation to zero or less by reducing the ETH issuance rate per day by about 90%. 

In other words, the units of ETH entering the market have dropped drastically to approximately 1,600 ETH per day from the previous 13,000 ETH per day before the Merge. 

As earlier stated by Buterin, Ethereum is now 55% complete and should be able to process 100,000 transactions per second. It is worth noting that this upgrade will have no significant effect on gas fees attached to transactions carried out on the network. The merge is only setting the stage for more developments regarding scalability and low transaction fees to take place on the Ethereum blockchain.

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In a few days, Ethereum (ETH), which is the second largest crypto project by market capitalization, will no longer be associated with the proof-of-work (PoW) consensus algorithm mechanism. Courtesy of the merge upgrade set to happen around mid-September, Ethereum will adopt the proof-of-stake (PoS) concept. 

In light of this, several arguments have been put forward by PoW advocates, crypto miners, and Bitcoin (BTC) maximalists, in particular. In a recent scenario, Vitalik Buterin, one of the founders of the largest smart contract platform said in defense of PoS that PoW punishes cryptocurrency miners with insignificant hash power. 

“Proof-of-work (PoW) penalizes anyone who has a smaller percentage of hash power than their percentage of the coin supply. Actually, it penalizes much more than that because profit < revenue,” Vitalik Buterin responded to a PoS critic, Udi Wertheimer. 

And PoW penalizes anyone who has a smaller percentage of hashpower than their percentage of the coin supply

(Actually, it penalizes much more than that because profit < revenue, but you get the point)

— vitalik.eth (@VitalikButerin) September 12, 2022

Read Also: Google Shows Support for Upcoming Ethereum (ETH) Merge

It is worth noting that Udi Wertheimer is a popular Bitcoin maximalist and ex-Blockchain research head at Colu. In a Twitter post, he shared some unpopular viewpoints about proof-of-stake as he aimed to portray the flaws of the consensus algorithm mechanism. Ultimately, he argued that staking rewards are not real yields. 

In his words, “PoS rewards aren’t “yield”, in fact, they’re not even rewards, they are just penalty to people who don’t stake. You don’t get paid for staking, you just get penalized for not staking.”

“Miners and holders are usually distinct sets with very little overlap, so in practice, it’s just holders paying miners. With liquid staking, you can expect holders and stakers to have a huge overlap. So basically just everyone’s balances increase equally.”

He added, “All else being equal, it’s [PoS rewards] better for holders but it’s not yield! It’s just less penalties (also, not all else is equal). 

PoS rewards aren’t “yield”, in fact they’re not even rewards, they’re just penalty to people who don’t stake

you don’t get paid for staking you morons

you just get penalized for not staking

i can’t believe you still don’t get it lmao

— Udi Wertheimer (@udiWertheimer) September 12, 2022

Although Ethereum was created as a proof-of-work (PoS) blockchain, Buterin has always been an advocate of proof-of-stake (PoS), which justifies the approaching Merge upgrade and his soon-to-be-released book titled Proof-of-Stake.

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While the Merge is expected to occur within September 13-15, according to Vitalik Buterin, Google has added a countdown feature to enable users to track the execution of the upgrade. Google Cloud developer, Sam Padilla, stated in a tweet that everyone is excited about the many benefits Ethereum blockchain has brought to the crypto industry. 

He tweeted, “hey Vitalik Buterin, Justin Drake, and other Ethereum folks, go google “the merge” for a fun little surprise & appreciation. Everyone is so excited for what is coming and appreciative of the work that has been going into this for years.”

Hey @VitalikButerin @drakefjustin & other @ethereum folks, go google "the merge" for a fun little surprise & appreciation.

Everyone is so excited for what is coming and appreciative of the work that has been going into this for years. pic.twitter.com/3bgifV6Ywn

— Sam Padilla (@theSamPadilla) September 9, 2022

Read Also: Bellatrix, the Final Upgrade Ahead of Ethereum the Merge Is Officially Activated

Google Adds Merge Countdown

Ethereum (ETH) Merge is set to transition the largest smart contract platform to proof-of-stake (PoS). Particularly, the Merge will reduce Ethereum’s energy consumption by approximately 99.95%. 

To show support for the upcoming upgrade, Google has added a feature that shows a countdown for the Merge event. To track the forthcoming upgrade via Google, you can either type the words ‘Ethereum Merge’ or ‘The Merge’ on Google’s search bar. A real-time countdown then appears and is estimated based on difficulty and hash rate. 

Read More: “There’s a Higher Potential For A Sell-The-News Event Going Into The Merge,” Top Analyst Says

At the time of writing, Google shows that Ethereum (ETH) merge is set to happen in 2 days 9 hrs 52 mins. It also showed the current difficulty of 58567730 P, hashrate of 857 TH/s while the Merge Difficulty is 58750000 P, at press time.

Meanwhile, the final upgrade before the merge, Bellatrix was officially activated on September 6. While several top exchanges have announced support for the planned development, a top bank in Switzerland SEBA Bank has launched Ethereum staking for institutional clients.

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Despite the current price downturn in the crypto market, the host of the popular YouTube crypto channel, Coin Bureau, named Guy, remains bullish on Cardano, one of the most popular smart contract platforms.

Read Also: Charles Hoskinson Shares New Timeline for the Upcoming Cardano Vasil Upgrade

Cardano (ADA) Could Soon See Twice Its Current Price

In a video shared with his over 2 million YouTube followers, Guy said that the price of the digital token ADA could soon surge to double its current price following the massive dump that started in May 2022.

According to the crypto analyst, investors and traders are using Cardano (ADA) as the best alternative in case Ethereum The Merge fails to move the market northward.

Guy added that both the Merge and Vasil hardfork will aid the price growth of Cardano (ADA) to gain twice its current price. It’s worth noting that the digital token is trading at $0.51 at the time of filing this report.

Guy noted:

“In recent weeks, Cardano’s ADA has emerged as an ideal hedge against something going wrong with the merge and Cardano’s own upcoming upgrade could supercharge ADA’s price action…

“ADA could rally as high as $1 as a result of Ethereum’s merge and Cardano’s own Vasil hard fork. This would work out to a 2x move in the short to medium term which is a realistic expectation especially since ADA’s price action in fiat and ETH terms supports this target.”

Read Also: Binance Updates Cardano (ADA) Nodes in Preparation For Vasil Upgrade

Coin Bureau host also stated that the long-term outlook of ADA depends on the upcoming upgrades. He added that other factors coming later this month could also have a positive impact on the price of the native token of the Cardano blockchain.

“There are additional macro factors coming later this month that could take ADA and other cryptocurrencies even higher or much lower,” Guy concluded.

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SEBA Bank, which is a crypto and blockchain-friendly bank, has therefore launched a service that will allow its institutional clients to seamlessly stake and earn rewards on the Ethereum (ETH) network. 

This development is an expansion of the bank’s already existing comprehensive staking management platform. SEBA Bank’s staking platform now supports three PoS-based crypto tokens including Tezos (XTZ), Polkadot (DOT), and Ethereum (ETH).

Ultimately, the Swiss bank staking platform offers a fully integrated institutional-grade solution for generating rewards from investments on proof-of-stake (PoS) networks. Generally, it broadens access to sustainable crypto investment products.

Read Also: Over 2.6 Million ETH Worth $3.8 Billion Burned Since EIP-1559 Implementation

SEBA Bank’s Ethereum Staking Services

The top financial institution believes that institutions can greatly contribute to the security of the Ethereum network via the staking of Ethereum (ETH) after The Merge’s implementation. In addition to the high demand for institutional-grade digital asset yield and staking services from clients, SEBA has also rolled out the Ethereum staking feature. 

“The launch of SEBA Bank’s Ethereum staking services caters to growing demand from institutions to manage a range of digital asset yield use cases from staking to decentralized finance (DeFi),” the announcement said. 

Moreover, the SEBA-powered staking management platform is designed to enable clients to earn rewards in a flexible and accessible manner.

It is worth noting that staking rewards are provided every month on the platform. The bank added that after the Merge, “adjustable lock-up periods will be enabled with a cost-effective fee structure applied to guarantee asset security.”

Ethereum (ETH) Merge is Here

The biggest upgrade on the largest smart contract platform is finally here. On September 6, Bellatrix, the final upgrade before the Merge was successfully implemented. As earlier scheduled, the Ethereum merge will take place between September 10-20. 

The upgrade is crucial and highly anticipated because it will transition Ethereum to a proof-of-stake (PoS) consensus mechanism. SEBA bank has therefore made a strategic move to allow its institutional clients to access Ethereum’s rewarding staking economy.

Mathias Schütz, Head of Technology and Client Solutions of SEBA Bank commented:

 “The Ethereum merge is an anticipated and significant milestone for the world’s second-largest cryptocurrency, delivering improvements for its users across the areas of security, scalability, and sustainability. The launch of our Ethereum staking services will enable institutional investors to play a key role in securing the future of the network, via a trusted, secure, and fully regulated counterparty.”

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Brian Kelly, a top crypto analyst at CNBC Television and contributor on the TV’s Fast Money show, noted in a discussion session that Bitcoin (BTC) isn’t a tech stock but rather a digital gold. According to him, Bitcoin is highly needed especially when a country destroys its currency as some governments are currently doing. 

According to the televangelist, “Ethereum (ETH) on the other hand can somewhat be thought of as a tech stock because it is going to disrupt a lot of what tech stocks are doing today and to the extent that it takes daily active users away from places like Twitter, Facebook, and Google.”

“I do think that there’s something to be said about Ethereum (ETH) being a tech stock,” Brian Kelly added. While Bitcoin (BTC) recently fell below the $20,000 mark, he mentioned that crypto has not yet bottomed out. 

Read Also: Ethereum (ETH) Miners Recorded $733 Million in Revenue in August 2022

Ethereum (ETH) Merge Impact Weighed

The much-anticipated Merge upgrade is around the corner as it will be happening this September 2022. Investors could be taking advantage of the market downturn to accumulate more ether tokens with the hope that it would record a massive price rally after the Merge.

In the recent episode of CNBC’s Fast Money show, Brian Kelly shared a few possible outcomes regarding the Merge upgrade that seeks to transition Ethereum (ETH) to the proof-of-stake (PoS) consensus algorithm. He stressed that there is a higher potential for a sell-the-news circumstance to play out going into the merge. 

Read Also: Ethereum’s Vitalik Buterin To Release a Book Titled “Proof of Stake” in September

In his words, “I think it’s probably more ‘sell the news,’ which is maybe not that intuitive because in crypto you generally want to buy the news. But everybody has been buying Ethereum because they’re going into this merge and now you’re going to get a so-called yield.”

“Just so you know, it’s not really a yield. You’re just getting your inflation rewards back, so it’s kind of offsetting the inflation in the currency. It’s not really a yield,” he added

In addition, the CNBC contributor remarked that a technical glitch could occur in the process of executing the major upgrade. “I think that there’s more risk to the Ethereum merge than people are giving credit for,” he stated. 

Meanwhile, ETH mining will be disabled on the largest smart contract platform putting an end to miners’ top financial opportunity after the Merge.

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The update was made known by Vitalik Buterin in a Wednesday tweet and was greatly lauded by the crypto community.

Although Ethereum was created as a proof-of-work (PoS) blockchain, Buterin has always been an advocate of proof-of-stake (PoS), which justifies the approaching Merge upgrade and the soon-to-be-released book. 

According to Laura Shin, a podcast host and author, the book is “a crucial contribution to the development of a new technology that will impact all our lives.” 

“Proof of Stake, the (physical and digital) book compiling various writings I’ve made over the last ~10 years, will be out in a month! You can get a signed digital copy and NFT here: https://proofofstake.gitcoin.co. My share of the proceeds all goes to gitcoin grants public goods,” Vitalik Buterin wrote. 

"Proof of Stake", the (physical and digital) book compiling various writings I've made over the last ~10 years, will be out in a month!

You can get a signed digital copy and NFT here: https://t.co/RCZPHs9rpe

My share of the proceeds all goes to @gitcoin grants public goods!

— vitalik.eth (@VitalikButerin) August 31, 2022

Related: Vitalik Speaks On Benefits of PoS to Ethereum, Lido Finance, and Risk of Centralization Post-Merge

Proof of Stake (PoS) By Vitalik Buterin

The book, which centers on the making of Ethereum and the philosophy of blockchains, contains various writings the Ethereum creator has made over a decade. 

“These writings, collected from his essays before and during the rise of Ethereum, reveal Buterin to be a vivid and imaginative writer, with context from media studies scholar Nathan Schneider,” the about section of the Proof of Stake book said. “While many around him were focused on seeing the value of their tokens rise, he was working through the problems and possibilities of crafting an Internet-native world,” it added.

Also, this book will be made available in both digital and hard copy formats for users. Per the update, both versions of the “Proof of Stake” book will be available in Fall 2022. 

To support the Gitcoin Grants public goods, Buterin has donated all his proceeds to the initiative. Users can donate any amount of ETH to receive a digitally signed copy of the book from Vitalik, alongside an NFT.

Minting this non-transferrable NFT is what will give you access to your signed digital copy. It is worth noting that proceeds from signed digital copies go 100% to funding the Gitcoin Grants for public goods.

To get a physical copy of Vitalik Buterin‘s Proof of Stake book, you can pre-order from supported online bookstores and retailers including Amazon, Walmart, Books-A-Million, Seven Stories, Powells, Indie Bound, Target, Barnes & Noble, and Hudson.  

Read Also: Official Timetable of Ethereum The Merge Implementation Published

A Strategic Coincidence

Coincidentally, the book which is titled ‘Proof of Stake’ is scheduled to be released on September 27, a few days after the Ethereum blockchain transition to the proof-of-stake (PoS) consensus algorithm mechanism.  

The Merge upgrade which will trigger this consensus algorithm shift, marking the end of PoW on the Ethereum blockchain, is said to occur any day between September 10 and 20, 2022. 

However, the Bellatrix upgrade that is meant to set the stage for the Merge, will occur on September 6. Vitalik Buterin has urged node operators to upgrade their clients before the Bellatrix upgrade to avoid errors during the much-anticipated event.

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