Last gasp? ETC pumping

With an exodus of Ethereum miners migrating to Ethereum Classic ahead of The Merge, the latter network's native asset, ETC, has spiked 26% over the past 24 hours as of 7:40 a.m. (EST).

ETC’s more enormous kin, Ethereum, notched a gain of 6% in that span; concurrently, a slew of altcoins went green as the financial world gets back to its regular routine of getting slapped silly by perilous macroeconomic conditions.

The Merge, set for Sept. 19, refers to Ethereum switching its network consensus method from Proof-of-Work (Pow) to Proof-of-Stake (PoS), an approach that doesn't involve so-called mining; ETC is sticking by the PoW algorithm.

According to Cryptonews, citing data from 2miners.com, the network hashrate for ETC has more than doubled since mid-July, reaching a new all-time high of 47 TeraHashes per second (Th/s).

Last month, miners were tripping over themselves to contribute power to the validation of PoW-enabled ETH transactions while they still could. Ethereum mining revenue actually surpassed Bitcoin again in August (BeInCrypto).

ETC ranks as CoinGecko's 18th-largest digital asset. It reached an all-time high of $167 back in May of 2021. Coming out of the June tumult priced in the $14 range, ETC promptly more than doubled. About one month ago, ETC surged from $36 to $46 before sliding into the low $30s as Labor Day Weekend approached. At last check, "forked Ethereum" was fifty cents shy of $41.

Cardano's founder Charles Hoskinson, who as it turns out keeps a hand on the ETC wheel, had pushed for the creation of a sustainable development fund for ETC; however, the proposal was deemed a miner tax and did not fly, creating a rift in the community and spurring this harsh ETC assessment from Hoskinson: "It's a dead project with no purpose or real compelling argument."

Ethereum, Solana, Cardano and XRP are all in the green on a weekly basis. Not so Bitcoin. BTC declined 2% in the past seven days, as of Tuesday at 8:11 a.m. (EST). It could be $20,000. Likely very close. We'll check later.

It's the first day back after the Labor Day weekend, concluding what used to be a sleepy time for markets. But in actuality the global, digital phenomenon of crypto never ceases – to churn stomachs.

Much of the nausea is an extension of the unsettled nature of that timeless risk-asset category, the stock market. Futures tied to U.S. equity indexes were pointing toward a potentially positive Tuesday session, this after three straight losing weeks.

Last week's U.S. employment report from the Bureau of Labor Statistics suggested a decent job picture in a period marked by signs of high inflation and slow growth, a dreaded condition we may one day look back and dub clinical stagflation. Markets are bracing for an interest rate hike of as much as 0.75% later this month with the Fed already having pre-blasted via an amplified bullhorn its intended game plan to wrestle inflation demons into submission.

Stocks have been struggling in the face of a strong dollar, as Cointelegraph's William Suberg noted, explaining the lack of any semblance of a runway for crypto to take off.

That said, "macro BTC price bottom signals have been flowing in," Suberg said, "resulting in a handful of analysts remaining quietly confident on the outlook."

It has become impossible to ignore what's happening with Terra Luna Classic. LUNC has rocketed 200% in one week. At one point earlier today, LUNC's 24-hour gain was near 70%. Daily trading volume, closing in on $3 billion at the moment, is up more than 300%, per CoinMarketCap. It’s the most purchased asset on the Uphold platform during the past 24 hours.

One burning question: can LUNC get to one cent?

Yes, the Terra Classic community believes the short-term target of $0.01 could be hit this month if the momentum continues, CoinGape said, referring to a virtuous cycle of buying and staking and burning.

Which brings up yet another burning question: following the recent burning of some 3.5 billion LUNC tokens, how much more burning could there possibly be?

Answer: A lot more burning. Terra just announced several new governance proposals. Among them is a 1.2% burn tax proposal which indeed will increase the burning rate of the LUNC tokens.