Ethereum rises 45% in a week and approaches USD 1,500, what is driving it?

The cryptocurrency market looks in the process of recovery, with Bitcoin (BTC) returning to $22,000. But in this scenario there are other currencies that stand out, such as Ethereum: the price of Ether (ETH) has risen by up to 45% between last week and the beginning of this one.

At its lowest point last week, ETH came close to breaking below the $1,000 mark. Since then, it has risen significantly to now approach $1,500. At the time of writing this article, its price is $1,481, according to data from CoinMarketCap.

The cryptocurrency has been rising since July 13, but after Thursday the 14th the increase has intensified. This coincides with the release of an estimated date for the merge of Ethereum and the passage of a new consensus system that will eliminate mining from this network.

Last Thursday, during a call between developers, it was announced that this transition event should take place on September 19, as we reported in Cryptoreportage. And even though this and other steps of the upgrade to Ethereum 2.0 have had multiple bumps, the market seems to be receiving the news with optimism.

With the recent price movement, ETH is managing to erase more than a month of decline, returning to levels of last June 12. However, it is still 60% below its price at the beginning of this year, in which the entire market has entered a sustained downtrend.

More than 200 million in losses for traders

The rapid rise of ETH has caused millions of dollars in losses to traders who had leveraged positions. In the last 24 hours, the figure exceeds 200 million, although the worst part was taken by the bears, whose liquidated positions in the derivatives markets represent about 127 million dollars.

This loss for bear traders (who were betting on a drop in price) is the second highest in a 24-hour range in a period of more than a month. The worst was precisely on July 15, when bears lost almost 180 million, CoinGlass records show.