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Ethereum Updates: ETH surpasses XRP, rises 85%, Fork approaching

Start of the new year has given hopes to all cryptocurrency investors with all major cryptos showing signs of recovery and Et
Start of the new year has given hopes to all cryptocurrency investors with all major cryptos showing signs of recovery and Ethereum rising more than 85%.

Ethereum faced one of the major crashes last month falling to 2018 low of $83.5 with bitcoin crashing down to a yearly low of $3250. But the start of the new year has given hopes to all cryptocurrency investors with all major cryptos showing signs of recovery and Ethereum rising more than 85% in just a matter of 18 days.

Ethereum Market Capitalization

The market cap of Ethereum has doubled in the last three weeks. Earlier the market cap of Ethereum fell to around $8.5 billion which made its position fall below that of XRP. As the new year started, Ethereum price has started a significant rise and also yesterday the market cap of Ethereum rose above XRP making it the #2 cryptocurrency by market capitalization below bitcoin again.

ETHUSD Chart
ETHUSD Chart

The significant increase in price has led to Ethereum to rise above $150 with signs of further improvements. The current market cap of Ethereum stands at more than $15.6 billion and that of XRP is around $14.8 billion according to CoinMarketCap.

Reason for the rise of Ethereum: Constantinople Fork

People have been awaiting the Constantinople Fork (Ethereum hard fork) from months and finally, the time is close enough to impact the price of Ethereum. The Constantinople fork is scheduled to occur on 16th January 2019. Constantinople fork will result in a new blockchain which will have five significant improvements. According to most Ethereum developers, the new hard fork will not result in a new cryptocurrency altogether but all miners will switch to the new blockchain at block height 7,080,000.

The hard fork will improve the performance of Ethereum and make it much faster. The EVM or the Ethereum Virtual Machine shall make improvements under Ethereum Improvement Proposal 145 which will alter bitwise shifting instructions and use less of Gas. Also, Ethereum Improvement Proposal 1052 will make smart contract code verification much more efficient and cost-effective.

The Ethereum Improvement Proposal 1014 will introduce off chain transactions just as the lightning network which will significantly enhance the overall performance of Ethereum. The Ethereum Improvement Proposal 1234 will help in reduction of block rewards and delay the difficulty bomb. Binance which is the largest cryptocurrency exchange has already declared their support for Constantinople hard fork.

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