Ethereum Classic Rose 220% This Week, but Why?

Ethereum Classic, a seemingly forgotten cryptocurrency, reached the attention of many this week when its price skyrocketed out of the blue, but there might be some reasons behind it. Also, Bitcoin Cash and other Bitcoin-based forks enjoyed a healthy week in the green, alongside Dogecoin, whose price boosted on the news of Elon Musk appearing on SNL, the famous comedy sitcom, on May 8th.

Ethereum Classic Soared This Week

Ethereum Classic, the sibling fork of Ethereum, enjoyed a price revival this week when its price soared more than 200% to become the cryptocurrency that led the way of the bull market. Ethereum classic (ETC) started the week with a price of $36, and slowly crawled its way up to $160 on Thursday, to then experience a correction that took it to $118 at the time of writing this article. But what were the reasons that led to it?

Ethereum Classic has not been the trustiest cryptocurrency out there. Just during the last year, it suffered several 51% attacks that compromised its reliability, rolling back the chain thousands of blocks due to its falling hash rate at that time. This affected the status of the currency, and now exchanges are asking for thousands of confirmations to just acknowledge a deposit. For example, Kraken users must wait almost a week (40k confirmations) for a deposit to be effective.

So it would seem contradictory it is now enjoying this resurgence. However, this might be the consequence of the actions of its big brother Ethereum. Ethereum has been planning to change its consensus algorithm to proof of stake for some time, and the change seems to be even closer now. However, the huge mass of miners that are now securing the Ethereum network needs to migrate to other chains to survive, and the market might be anticipating this move betting on Ethereum Classic for the future.

Dogecoin and Bitcoin Cash Also Rose

Dogecoin also continued its push to one dollar this week, impulse by its defacto forefather, Elon Musk, who has been one of the great promoters of the meme coin. Dogecoin rose by 124% this week, reaching $0.71 per unit, and experiencing a big pump due to the expectative of Musk hosting an episode of Saturday Night Live. Fans of the cryptocurrency, that has reached mainstream recognition from influencers and people not normally associated with the cryptocurrency world, expect it to pump after it gets referred by Musk on the comedy show to millions of viewers.

Bitcoin Cash was one of the highlights of the week as well, increasing its price by more than 50%. Bitcoin Cash’s price got to over $1,500 and corrected to finish the week with around $1,350. Bitcoin cash is just a week away from an upgrade that will bring some improvements to the blockchain. The upgrade introduces a new update schedule designed to bring back trust and predictability after two contentious hard forks that have affected the image of the currency. Other Bitcoin network forks like bitcoin gold (BTG) and bitcoin diamond (BCD), and bitcoinsv (BSV) also got important gains.