A bullish Ethereum is keeping the crypto markets in positive territory this Tuesday morning, having shot well above the US$1,600 barrier on a 6% rally.
Traders seem energised in the lead up to the Ethereum Merge which is due to happen this time next week.
Bitcoin, however, has continued to trade sideways and has yet to reclaim the US$20,000 price point since going south four days ago.
The cryptocurrency markets as a whole are trading at US$995bn as onlookers pay close attention to the one-trillion-dollar mark.
Interestingly, Ethereum Classic (ETC) is one of today’s top performers, having added over 26% to its market capitalisation.
ETC is a carbon copy of Ethereum, and could be seen as a popular alternative for miners once Ethereum abandons mining post Merge.
A number of Bitcoin alternatives – namely Bitcoin Gold and Ravencoin – also saw double-digit gains this morning, as did the smaller cap blockchain network Flux, which entered the top-100 coins table.
Most large-cap blockchain networks added green candlesticks over the past 24 hours, with Cardano, Solana and Avalanche outperforming.
Today’s worst performer was Helium (HNT), an internet-of-things (IoT) project for decentralised WiFi connectivity, having dropped 6% to US$480mln.
In the decentralised finance (DeFi) space, Curve was among the top performers with a 10% rally over the past 24 hours, while Lido, Compound Finance and Aave are also up.
