$Ethereum(ETH.CC)$ popped over 9% along with major coins on Wednesday night as the global cryptocurrency market cap rose 5.04% to $1.64 trillion.
What Happened: ETH, the second-largest cryptocurrency by market cap, traded 9.3% higher at $2,726.54 over 24 hours and 19.31% for the week.
The apex cryptocurrency, $Bitcoin(BTC.CC)$, traded 3.81% higher at $39,704.77 over 24 hours. BTC fell 0.13% over the last seven days.
$Dogecoin(DOGE.CC)$ was up 1.88% at $0.20 and fell 1.19% over a seven-day trailing period.
DOGE traded 1.28% and 5.55% lower against BTC and ETH respectively over 24 hours.
$Compound(COMP.CC)$ and Voyager Token (CRYPTO: VGX) were the top two gainers over 24 hours at press time.
COMP and VGX rose 16.3% and 16.11% to $464.81 and $3.45 respectively in the period. For the week COMP was up 19.08% and VGX 70.46%.
Other notable 24 hour gainers included Axie Infinity (CRYPTO: AXS), Telcoin (CRYPTO: TEL), and Polkadot (CRYPTO: DOT).
AXS was up 14.25% at $43.86, TEL rose 9.17% to $0.018 and DOT traded 10.19% in the green at $19.18 in the period.
Why It Matters: As Ethereum’s London hard fork nears, not all analysts are bullish on the development.
“The upgrade itself is overrated, and what matters is what happens after,” said trader and analyst Alex Kruger, reported CoinDesk.
Matthew Dibb, co-founder of Stack Funds said that while long-term he believes ETH will see “significant price appreciation” due to the upgrade He isn't “expecting an immediate move in either direction,” as per CoinDesk.
Pankaj Balani, CEO of Delta Exchange reportedly dubbed the upgrade as a “nonevent.”
However, Balani’s analysis in the medium-to-long term appears to be more positive.
He wrote, “ETH can outperform BTC in the medium- to long-term, but for the next few quarters, ETH should continue to exhibit strong correlation with BTC,” reported CoinDesk separately.
The network upgrade isn’t the only factor that could get ETH past the $3,000 mark, buzz around flippening, bullish on-chain trends, and strong performance in recent days are also buoying the cryptocurrency.