Key ideas:

• The Ropsten merger could take place by June 10.
• Amid high anticipation for the merger, price gains are expected from ETH.
• Although there is a great long-term opportunity for the price of ETH, the gains would depend on some key factors.

According to a recent Ethereum blog post, Ropsten, the oldest testnet in the chain, is about to undergo its transition to proof-of-stake (PoS). This would be a major milestone marking the final tests before the merger on the main Ethereum blockchain.

The exact timing of the merger would vary depending on certain variables; however, it is expected to happen on Wednesday. Many market participants expect the long-awaited merger to bring a breath of fresh air to ETH prices. However, it remains to be seen whether ETH prices would pump.

Ropsten for the rescue?

The oldest Ethereum proof-of-work (PoW) testnet is about to move to proof-of-stake. Earlier, Ethereum lead developer Tim Beiko announced that the merger was scheduled for June 8 on the network. However, a recent article made it clear that the merger would take place by June 10.

The launch of Beacon Chain on the Ropsten testnet marks an important milestone for Ethereum. The Beacon Chain is a PoS network that runs alongside Ethereum’s mainnet, which is PoW. The testnet acts as a bed for Ethereum’s impending change in consensus mechanism, as the two chains would “merge” to form a single PoS network.

One of the main goals of the merger is to practice the Ethereum mainnet merger later this year. Ethereum core developers have performed merge tests in the past, including a shadow fork on the mainnet and another merge on the Kiln testnet.

The merge would combine code from Ropsten’s two chains, both proof-of-work and proof-of-stake beacon chain. A similar process for the Ethereum mainnet merger will take place later this year.

The Ethereum meltdown is a highly anticipated event in the crypto space and is expected to affect the price of ETH amid high social anticipation.

Take a look at the price of ETH

An article by CryptoQuant highlighted this sentiment analysis, aSOPR and Exchange Reserve; we are still in the buy zone. While the prices of the two major assets had fallen rapidly by more than 5% in the past few hours, there was a decent buying opportunity.
The Fear & Greed Index says retail investors have been “extremely fearful” for more than two months.

According to aSOPR, bitcoin and ethereum prices may not have reached the actual bottom yet, but prices were still hovering in the buy zone. It also meant that it was a good opportunity to create long-term positions.

That said, the foreign exchange reserve (BTC and ETH) has also continued to decline over the past three months.

While some metrics presented a moderately bullish outlook, the top altcoin has lost almost 50% of its value since the start of this year, while the ETH/BTC pair has also lost power. ETH price traded below the $2,000 price as investor sentiment maintained a bearish narrative for most of the past few months.

At press time, despite social anticipation of the merger, ETH price was at $1,808, noting losses of 2.66% on the daily and 7.45% on the weekly chart.

The $1,720 mark can be a strong support level going forward; if ETH price continues to hold above the level, price gains can be expected. However, a drop below this key support could push the price down to the next strong support at $1,300.