The Bellatrix upgrade is set to take place today on the Beacon Chain at 05:04 PM (IST) in epoch 144896. The ETH price has risen by more than 6.44% ahead of the Bellatrix hard fork.
Vitalik Buterin Predicts the Merge Between September 13-15
In a tweet on September 6, Ethereum co-founder Vitalik Buterin anticipated that the Merge will take place between September 13-15. He also reminds users to upgrade their clients before the Bellatrix hard fork, which is set for Beacon Chain epoch 144896 at 05:04 PM IST.
“The merge is still scheduled for September 13-15. The Bellatrix hard fork is taking place today, preparing the chain for the merge. But don't forget to keep your clients up to date!”
According to OKLink's Ethereum The Merge Countdown, the Merge is nearly 99% ready. Furthermore, the network hash rate is 892.23 TH/s, which is still higher than the needed level of 872 TH/s to trigger the merge of ETH Mainnet and Beacon Chain at the set terminal total difficulty (TTD) of 58750000000000000000000.
The Beacon Chain (consensus layer) is ready to merge with the Ethereum Mainnet (execution layer) thanks to the Bellatrix hard fork. To effectively verify blocks following the hard fork, all nodes must upgrade their clients. The hard fork modifies the protocol by introducing new rules.
The next upgrade will be a Paris hard fork on the execution layer. Followed by the Merge which will take place between September 13-15.
According to the Ethereum Foundation's proposed Merge date tracker, the projected date is September 15 at 03:14 PM IST. The data varies as per the hash rate. However, September 14 is the most likely date.
Ethereum (ETH) Price Rises Before the Hard Fork
The price of Ethereum (ETH) is increasing in anticipation of the Bellatrix upgrade. At the time of writing, the price of ETH has increased by more than 6% in the last 24 hours, with the current price trading at $1,654.
The trading volume has also increased to 65%. Furthermore, Ethereum has a 24-hour low of $1,559 and a high of $1,670. However, the surge will be short-lived, since the ETH price is expected to fall following the Merge.
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