Vitalik Buterin Surprised That This Pre-Merge Ethereum (ETH) Thesis Was Wrong

Ethereum (CRYPTO: ETH) creator Vitalik Buterin said he was a “bit surprised” that the network’s hashrate did not have a more significant drop in the weeks leading up to the Merge.

What Happened: In a tweet on Sept. 14, Buterin shared an image of the Ethereum network’s average hashrate, an indicator of the level of mining activity on the blockchain.

Looks like the "hashrate will drop weeks before the merge due to miners rushing to sell ahead of everyone else" thesis has been proven completely false.

I'm a bit surprised! I argued against a 50% drop but definitely expected like 5-10%. pic.twitter.com/l9OpT8fPFl

— vitalik.eth (@VitalikButerin) September 14, 2022

“Looks like the "hashrate will drop weeks before the merge due to miners rushing to sell ahead of everyone else" thesis has been proven completely false,” said Buterin.

“I'm a bit surprised! I argued against a 50% drop but definitely expected like 5-10%.”

See Also: WHY IS THE ETHEREUM MERGE IMPORTANT?

Why It Matters: Some market participants had predicted that ETH’s hashrate would drop off considerably as the Merge to Proof-of-Stake drew closer. The assumption was based on miners losing interest in mining ETH and diverting their resources to mine other Proof-of-Work currencies, seeing as mining on ETH would no longer be possible after the Merge goes through. 

If ETH’s hashrate had seen a significant decline, it is likely that the schedule of blocks produced on the network would have been disrupted. Since the Merge is scheduled to go live at a particular block height, based on network hashrate and difficulty, a potential decline in hashrate would have likely delayed the event.

Since the network’s hashrate has largely remained intact, the Ethereum Merge will likely go forward as planned during the early morning hours of Sept. 15.

Price Action: At press time, ETH was trading at $1,636, up 4.09% over the last 24 hours, as per data from Benzinga Pro.