Ethereum hits US$2,700 ahead of EIP-1559 upgrade later tonight

Ethereum has hit a fresh two month high as excitement builds for the London protocol upgrade later tonight.

At 11.12am AEST, Ether was changing hands at just over US$2,701, up 7.0 per cent from yesterday and its highest level since June 7.

The London hard fork, which contains the long-awaited EIP-1559 (Ethereum Improvement Protocol No. 1559), is scheduled to go into effect around 10.35pm AEST today when block 12,965,000 is mined.

The upgrade will make transaction fees more predictable and “burn” (destroy) a fraction of them, making the network less inflationary.

Ethereum community members were celebrating and planning “watch parties” on YouTube as the upgrade goes live.

Tomorrow, some Ether will be burnt every time an Ethereum transaction takes place.

I like protocols/products where the community is excited for and actively drives thoughtful upgrades over time.

— The Jiho (@Jihoz_Axie) August 4, 2021

Remember when $ETH was 1800 and people said EIP-1559 was priced in lmao

I remember

— Pentoshi Wont DM You (@Pentosh1) August 4, 2021

Crypto mostly in the green

Overall the crypto market was up 3.4 per cent to US$1.68 trillion, its highest level since Sunday.

Bitcoin was changing hands at US$39,359, up 2.4 per cent from yesterday.

Just four of the top 100 coins were down by more than one per cent, with KuCoin Token being the worst performer, falling 6.4 per cent.

The best gainer in the top 100 was Voyager Token, up 17.6 per cent from Wednesday, after the publicly traded US company behind the token announced earlier this week it had acquired crypto payment company Coinify ApS for US$84 million.

Voyager Digital (CSE: VYGR) is a crypto-asset broker and holders of the VGX token earn interest when held in the Voyager app.

“The acquisition of Coinify will greatly accelerate our expansion into Europe and help us meet the growing demand for our current product offering internationally,” said Lewis Bateman, Voyager’s chief international officer.

Australian-founded digital world token Illuvium had hit another all-time high, at US$289, as had derivatives trading platform Perpetual Protocol, at US$17.57.

$PERP new all time high now in price discovery.

Send it to $20. pic.twitter.com/e4T7oEjlWr

— McKenna (@Crypto_McKenna) August 4, 2021