Weeks after it was announced with much fanfare, the highly anticipated Ethereum Classic hardfork Mystique is finally live. As expected, it was activated at block 14,525,000, with ETC Cooperative making it clear beforehand that “this is not a controversial hard fork, but a routine protocol upgrade.”
The ETC Mystique hard-fork was successfully activated just over half an hour ago at block 14,525,000:https://t.co/DCOeFeSEl7
Forkmon: https://t.co/BkeNwYbRjO
Mining Pools: https://t.co/pUV5oFR1KV
Congratulations and thank you, everyone! pic.twitter.com/SQTJq2VexR
— ETC Cooperative (@ETCCooperative) February 12, 2022
At the end of last month, node readiness was only 35% across the board. However, at the time of writing, the node’s overall readiness was calculated to be approximately 65.4%.
The greater focus of the current hard fork is compatibility. Mystique ensures that excellent Ethereum London upgrades can be implemented in Ethereum Classic’s network. The hard fork was initially proposed in the form of ECIP 1104. Through the same, only parts or subsets of the London upgrade are now selectively enabled on the ETC network.
This also ties in with what Afri Schoedon said at a con-call a few days ago,
“I think the most important feature of Ethereum Classic today is its protocol parity with other EVM networks. I would say this is the biggest benefit of using ETC today.”
Mystique includes the implementation of EIP-3529 (Alternative Fund Reduction) and EIP-3541 (Refuse new contracts starting with the 0xEF byte). Rather, it omits the EIPs related to Fee market change, BASEFEE opcode and difficulty bomb delay. While the former two are “contrary to ETC’s firm monetary policy”, the latter no longer applies.
Mysticism – Save the day for ETC?
Now the question on everyone’s mind is: how has the hard fork affected the price of ETC? Did Mystique Come to the Rescue of a Bleeding Ethereum Classic Market? Well, the answer is both yes and no.
While the ETC rose nearly 5% on the charts in the few hours just before the activation, it fell shortly afterward, with the altcoin unable to reverse the downtrend it has been in lately. Here it is worth noting that ETC has fallen by more than 15% in the price charts between February 11 and 12.
Source: ETC/USD on TradingView
However, the above findings only tell us half the story. Also worth underlining is that while ETC was well within the top 25 cryptos of the market last year, it had fallen to 37th place at the time of writing.
And yet many in the community remain optimistic. For example, according to Donald McIntyre of Etherplan, Ethereum Classic is “definitely a top-10 blockchain”. In fact, he had also claimed in an interview last year that the rankings were an anomaly rather than a rule.
ETC at $1000, thanks BTC?
Moreover, the optimism of many in the ETC community is not limited to just market rankings. For example, McIntyre is still sticking to his $1000 goal for Ethereum Classic, a prediction he made last year. His claim that ETC will reach the aforementioned level was based on the current market cycle and Bitcoin’s market valuation, with respect to the same for gold by the end of 2021 and 2025.
At the time, the analyst claimed that thanks to the growth of ETC’s base layer alongside Bitcoin, the altcoin would be valued at 5% of BTC’s valuation by the end of 2021. He predicted that the world’s largest cryptocurrency would be valued at over $125K by December 31, 2021, pushing ETC to $1000.
Needless to say, none of that happened. Bitcoin hit a new ATH of over $69,000 before correcting significantly to trade just above $40,000 on the charts. Ethereum Classic never made it past $175, let alone $1000, and was valued at $32 at the time of writing.
What does this mean for the forested projections? Well, for his part, McIntyre remains hopeful, with the proponent claiming that outside forces such as the macroeconomic situation and COVID-19 have merely delayed the “second leg of the crypto bull cycle” until 2022.
A projection too far?
Be that as it may, does anything support, or at least indicate, such an increase in the value of ETC? Probably not.
For example, according to Santiment, volumes of ETC have fallen dramatically since their heyday in the summer of 2021. A decline in this corresponded to the fall in the value of ETC’s price. The exception, however, was the last 72-hour period, a period when ETC bled more than 15%. The statistics of social dominance are also not comparable to the levels seen in May and June.
Source: Santiment
Finally, while ETC’s development activity has seen an uptick in recent times, it’s far from last summer’s highs.
With Bitcoin moving sideways on the charts and most revising their 2022 predictions to a target much lower than $100,000, it looks like there would be no cigar for Ethereum Classic anytime soon. But again, can we really say that for sure? After all, this is the crypto market.
This post Ethereum Classic: Will This $1000 Projection Hold Up After Mystique?
was published first on https://ambcrypto.com/ethereum-classic-does-this-1000-projection-hold-water-after-mystique/
