As the target date for The Merge is closing in, the investor frenzy is helping ETH tokens to make new highs despite weak market sentiments. Since the announcement of the final date of The Merge, ETH remained the best-performing crypto asset in the market.
Also, there has been a rise in the number of staked ETH tokens on the ETH 2.0 staking contract. According to Etherscan.io, the number of staked ETH tokens has increased to 13.3 million tokens—the highest level on record. The value of staked ETH tokens is now worth more than $20 billion.
However, despite the increase in the number of staked tokens, the number of unique addresses has not increased significantly. At the time of writing, the number of unique addresses is just below 80,000.
Ethereum dominance
After a sharp drop in Ethereum’s dominance due to the market crash, the token’s overall dominance is steadily rising again, indicating a buildup of underlying strength. Ethereum’s dominance level in the crypto market is now hovering around 19%, compared to nearly 15% last month.
Launch of ETH options ahead of Merge
Last week, the world’s largest derivatives exchange CME Group announced the launch of the ETH options contract on 12 September 2022. Ethereum has since been witnessing increased investor attention, with investors being bullish about the prospect of Ethereum’s growth.
Last month on the Deribit exchange, the cumulative value of the open interest of ETH options was $5.7 billion, surpassing $4.3 billion locked in open Bitcoin option trades.
