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The cryptocurrency market is presently trading higher. According to CoinMarketCap data, the overall market capitalization was up 6.34% at $937 billion. Bitcoin, the largest cryptocurrency in terms of market value, is up 6% to briefly trade above the $21,000 level on July 15.
Ethereum, the second biggest cryptocurrency, surged nearly 14% to trade at $1,228 at the time of publication. Ethereum "killers" Solana and Avalanche were posting gains of 12.36% and 10%, respectively.
In the last 24 hours, Polygon's MATIC, Uniswap and AAVE were in the lead, posting gains of 11.10%, 11.65% and 17.10%, respectively.
Cryptocurrencies rose as investors felt relieved following remarks from Federal Reserve officials dismissing the possibility that the U.S. economy could enter a recession as a result of the central bank's rapid rate hike schedule.
After a strong inflation reading in July, Fed Governor Christopher Waller and Fed Bank of St. Louis President James Bullard both stated that they would support a 75-basis-point hike, in contrast to market participants' expectations for a 100-basis-point increase.
Ethereum's preparation for "Merge" enters top gear
Ethereum's tentative merge schedule targets a September date for the transition to Proof-of-Stake, final testnet to undergo PoS transition in August #Ethereum https://t.co/99cZZBKWJj
— /r/Ethereum (@r_Ethereum) July 14, 2022
As the network continues to test its impending switch from a proof-of-work to a proof-of-stake consensus model, Ethereum's ninth shadow fork went live. The shadow fork advances efforts toward upgrading the Ethereum mainnet later this year. The third and last testnet merge, Goerli, is anticipated to take place the following month.
In a piece of positive news, Ethereum developers propose September 19 as the tentative target date for the "Merge."
Vladislav Sopov