Forked Ethereum Token ETHW Surges, Then Tanks Following Merge Event

ETHPoW (ETHW), a hard fork of Ethereum supported by a group of proof-of-work (PoW) miners, enjoyed a massive rally leading up to Ethereum's merge event early Thursday morning. 

The token soared from $35.4 to $60.68 shortly after the merge, marking a run-up of more than 70% in roughly five hours, according to data from CoinMarketCap.

Since then, however, the forked token has shed the entirety of its gains, plummeting below $32 a token. Today's volatility comes as no surprise for speculators eyeing the token's price action.

The token hit an all-time high of $141 on August 8, then, roughly a month later, again tanked on September 13 to an all-time low of $26. ETHPoW announced its mainnet launch the same day, bringing the coin to just over $36.

The token has yet to officially launch, with the team behind the project expected to roll out the mainnet within the next 24 hours.

“Within 23 hours, we will publish the 1-hour Count Down Timer for the ETHW mainnet release,” tweeted the organization handling all things ETHPoW.

The coin has neither an established circulating supply nor a market capitalization. It is listed only on a handful of exchanges, including Gate.io, Poloniex, MEXC, Bitrue, and others.

Why ETHPoW?

The launch of ETHPoW coincides with the original Ethereum network's merge, in which Ethereum completed its migration from a proof-of-work consensus mechanism to proof-of-stake. 

As well as paving the way for a series of upgrades that will increase the Ethereum network's capacity and speed, the merge has also slashed Ethereum's energy consumption.

At the same time, it's left Ethereum miners with a problem: the expensive hardware used for mining on Ethereum's original proof-of-work network is now so much dead weight.

A handful of Ethereum PoW miners joined forces to fork Ethereum and continue operating under the PoW consensus mechanism, leading to the launch of ETHPoW. 

ETHPoW has faced criticism, with Ethereum co-founder Vitalik Buterin calling it a way to make “a quick buck." 

Other PoW coins including Ravencoin (RVN), Ethereum Classic (ETC), and Litecoin (LTC), have also posted modest weekly gains in the run-up to the merge. 

Ravencoin (RVN) is the largest weekly gainer among the top-100 cryptocurrencies by market cap, increasing by nearly 78% over the past week. It currently trades at around $0.063. Litecoin has risen by over 5% in the past seven days, while Ethereum Classic has posted modest gains of 1.73% over the week.