Ethereum Price Struggles to Flip Bullish Following the Merge

Ethereum (ETH) continues its sideways trading pattern observed on Wednesday in the run-up to the network’s switch to proof-of-stake (PoS), changing hands at $1,591 at the time of this writing, or down 0.90% over the past 24 hours, per CoinMarketCap.

The industry’s second-largest cryptocurrency successfully completed its eagerly-awaited transition from proof-of-work PoW to PoS early Thursday, marking the beginning of a new era for the network.

Though enthusiasm before and shortly after the merge, as the transition is otherwise called, pushed Ethereum to $1,643, the momentum was quite short-lived, with prices plummeting fast below the $1,600 mark again.

Ethereum’s market cap is over $194 billion, and its 24-hour trading volume is $25.5 billion at press time, up about 10% over the day.

Ethereum investors turn bearish

One specific chart suggests that investors may have anticipated the drop in prices following the merge, preparing to dump their holdings.

As the analytics platform CryptoRank shared earlier today, crypto exchanges saw a significant inflow of Ethereum in the days before the merge—from about 700,000 ETH on September 12 to almost 1.7 million ETH two days later.

Such inflows often occur when traders are going to sell their assets.

Elsewhere in the overall subdued market, Ethereum Classic (ETC) is among those leading the charge as the PoW-based coin, which was created in 2016 as a hard fork of Ethereum following the controversial The DAO incident, is up 3.8% over the past day, currently trading at $38.61.

Also faring well today is LIDO, the native token of the liquid staking platform Lido Finance, which is up 7% in the past 24 hours.