Ethereum Hits $1,900 As Final Merge Testnet Goes Live

The second largest cryptocurrency by market cap, Ethereum ETH/USD, breached $1,900 Thursday as its last remaining testnet before the Merge went live.

What Happened: ETH surged 9% to a two-month high of $1,927, according to  Benzinga Pro data. The crypto asset’s price action followed the successful merge of the Goerli testnet on the blockchain.

At approximately 9:45 p.m. ET Wednesday. Goerli completed a successful transition to proof-of-stake after the network’s total block difficulty crossed 10,079,000. 

“This is the most significant test merge to date as it's the very last testnet merge before mainnet and the longest running beacon chain testnet to date,” wrote Ethereum core developer Preston Van Loon on Twitter.

“After Goerli, we merge the Ethereum Main network. Years of work finally activated.”

The Merge has been scheduled for Sept 19 and will mark Ethereum’s official transition to proof-of-stake. The event has triggered high levels of optimism among ETH traders, evidenced by the ETH long/short ratio across multiple exchanges and high levels of open interest.

Data from CoinGlass shows that a total of $111 million in shorts were liquidated over a 12-hour period on Thursday, compared with just $55 million liquidated longs.