The Merge successfully completed last Thursday, and leading up to the Merge for months, ETH prices increased in what was considered to be in anticipation for the positive aspects of what the Merge will bring, even against every micro and macro-economic roadblock that in other situations, would have kept any asset price down. ETH even outpaced BTC for the first time in this rare upward pattern. However, the Merge occurred, and ETH did not take the upward trajectory everyone thought it would. In fact, in the hours leading up to the Merge, prices started going down already. So what happened? Why didn't prices actually go up? I believe there were 3 major reasons for this:
Investors remembering "wait, aren't we in a recession?!" - It's the same reason why I was scratching my head when ETH prices started going up back in July. What's to guarantee the Merge will bring a paradigm shift so great that purchasing ETH leading up to that moment will pay off?
Global markets are down - War, and overall economic downturn has been a huge factor in why assets are down across all markets. ETH's uptick did not fit the pattern of every other asset out there and was bound to return to normality at some point.
Awful CPI data - And probably the biggest kicker was the CPI data presented on Wednesday, which spooked investors even further. Stocks crashed that day, and so did crypto assets. This was enough for investors to bail out, Merge or no Merge.
All signs are pointing to the bear market lasting one more year through 2023, so buckle in everyone!
Written by: nikethereum.eth / Medium / Mirror