Sweet sweet (market) relief
...what is this feeling?
It's like having your first wee of the morning and finding $100 in your pocket at the same time...
A sense of relief, combined with a vague sense of financial security.
After months of dipping prices, crypto markets are finally showing some upward price momentum.
Will it last? Who knows...but for now: hooooray!
So what's causing it?
Many people are pointing towards The Ethereum Merge.
(Which for those playing at home, is essentially a big ol' system upgrade that will make the network faster and cheaper).
More specifically, people are pointing towards the fact that we now have a proposed date (Sep 19th) for The Merge to take place.
Since the date was announced, the ETH price has rallied 45%; helping to inject a bit of optimism back into the market, and fill a narrative void.
Hold your horses...what's a 'narrative void'?
Fair question.
Strangely enough, crypto markets (much like humans) love a good story - and the narrative of Ethereum becoming a faster/cheaper network that can compete with the likes of Visa?
That's a 'David vs. Goliath' storyline, and it's like catnip for investors.
...except the story's climax has been dragging out a little.
The Ethereum Merge has been 'coming soon' for so long, that the narrative was starting to feel more like The Boy Who Cried 'Wolf.'
Now that a tangible conclusion is being proposed, the market is once again invested in the narrative.
But before you get your credit card out - let's balance the hype.
This could well be a case of 'buy the rumor, sell the news'.
Where folks buy in the lead up to an upgrade, and sell upon the release (which in turn, drives the price back down).
And even if that isn't the case, the global financial markets are in a bit of a state right now - so this price rally could be short lived, regardless.
Either way, we'll take the relief where we can get it.
