Ethereum (ETH) Price Falls Significantly After Constantinople Hard Fork Gets Delayed

The Ethereum constantinople upgrade has been all over the news for the past few weeks. After being planned for more than one year, it was finally time for the upgrade to happen. Unfortunately, it was delayed. The delay had a negative effect on the market with the price of ETH falling significantly against the USD. Yesterday, ETH fell by 3% within a 24 hour period. It managed to bounce back briefly afterwards but it’s still not stable.

constantinople fork was delayed after a security audit company ChainSecurity, found a potential security breach in the system. If the upgrade wasn’t delayed, hackers would have exploited the vulnerability making away with funds. The report from ChainSecurity was as follows:

“Two transacting parties can receive funds jointly, determine how to split it and collect a payout if both agree to the terms. A hacker can create that kind of pair. Both accounts can belong to the attacker or two attackers working together. The attacker will deposit some money to defraud the system.”

The constantinople upgrade was expected to improve the network speed, and data storage monetization. It is also expected to reduce mining rewards to two instead of three ETH. This is the eight network upgrade that will be performed on the network.

While the delay is discouraging, keep in mind that it’s not unusual for the network upgrade to be delayed. In fact, this isn’t the first time such a delay is happening. Originally, the upgrade was meant to take place in November last year. It was shifted to January this year and now it has been shifted again. No new date has been set yet. Ethereum developers will set a new date on Friday.

Ethereum (ETH) Price Today – BTC / USD

Apart from the improvements the upgrade is meant to make on the Ethereum network, it is also the first step in a broader plan to move to the proof-of-stake consensus mechanism from the proof-of-work. While the upgrade is referred to as a fork, it is non-contentious. This means that the chain will not split into two after it is complete.

Ahead of the ETH Constantinople upgrade, the price of Ethereum has been on a rollercoaster ride. Initially, it spiked against the USD during the new year. Shortly after, the price fell along with the broader market. The volatility was expected by traders but the delay wasn’t. It cost the price to fall right after it was announced.
From its all-time-high, ETH is down by 80% against the USD. To be fair, it’s not the only cryptocurrency that has fallen significantly against the USD. The Cryptocurrency winter affected the entire market starting with BTC. The total market capitalization fell by $700 billion. Retail investors got tired of waiting for institutional players to enter into the market. They started panic selling and this was what caused the price decline.

It’s important to note that true believers don’t use the price as a yardstick to determine progress. They consider development and adoption as key factors that determine the strength of a cryptocurrency. Right now, Ethereum is still the number one platform for the development and deployment of smart contracts.

At the time of writing, ETH was trading at $121.59. This shows that it is down by 3.23% against the USD and down by 2.00 against BTC. The trading volume over a 24 hour period is $2,580,368,895 and the market capitalization is $12,696,926,946.

Do you think developers will be able to seal the loophole this month? Leave a comment.