Ethereum Drops More than 17% after Merge

On Thursday, the upgrade, known as the "Merge" marked a radical change to how transactions on the Ethereum blockchain occur and ether tokens are created.  Since then, the second most valuable blockchain’s cryptocurrency, ETH, has tumbled — and some are saying its price hasn’t bottomed out yet.

Last week, the second largest blockchain in the world has moved from Proof-of-Work to Proof-of-Stake. This means that now only validators who have blocked part of their coins in staking will be able to mine new coins. The Ethereum Foundation estimated that switching to PoS consensus would reduce the electricity consumption by 99%.

When the upgrade, generally referred to as “the Merge,” transpired, ETH was priced at about $1,600. At the time of publication, ETH is worth about $1,350 down just over 17% from the landmark system change.

Some say, Ethereum creators may have alienated "a core demographic and removed one of the best parts of decentralization", as the crypto miners were left “behind” in the transition.

Previously, it was reported that Ethermine, the largest Ethereum mining services provider by computing power, shut down its servers for miners after the blockchain network completed its historic technical upgrade.

Bloomberg reports, that as many as one million people with over $10 billion worth of computer equipment had mined Ether at one point.