Ethereum’s Dencun Upgrade Gets Green Light: ETH Devs Set Hard Fork Date

• Recent successful testing and positive outcomes from the Sepolia fork suggest progress toward Ethereum Dencun mainnet activation.
• The Ethereum price is showing resilience above key levels, and positive sentiments, coupled with the forthcoming upgrade, are boosting expectations.

On Thursday, Feb. 8, Ethereum developers are likely to announce the mainnet launch date for the Dencun upgrade. This upgrade will introduce various Ethereum Improvement Proposals (EIPs), including proto-danksharding, with the primary objective of enhancing scalability and significantly reducing transaction costs on layer-2s.

Yesterday, Feb. 1, Ethereum core developer Tim Beiko stated on Reddit that the recent testing of the upgrade has been successful. The post highlighted key details from the All Developer Execution Call (ACDE) 180, where Ethereum developers discussed the positive outcomes of the Sepolia fork on Jan. 30 and outlined plans for the upcoming Holesky testnet upgrade scheduled for Feb. 7.

“Assuming everything looks good by then, we’ll pick a mainnet fork time on next week’s ACDC [All Core Developers Call],” said Beiko.

Ethereum’s Progress With Dencun Upgrade

Following the Shapella upgrade on April 12, 2023, on the Ethereum mainnet, the upcoming Dencun upgrade is very much likely this week. Besides, the Shapella upgrade, which permitted the unstaking of Ether, played a significant role in attracting more institutional investors to Ethereum.

Christine Kim, the Vice President of Research at Galaxy Digital, has assessed the likelihood of Dencun mainnet activation by the end of March at 80%. She also mentioned the possibility of Dencun going live by the end of February, but the odds of this scenario are closer to 40%.

Activated on the Goerli testnet on Jan. 17, the Dencun network upgrade unveiled several Ethereum Improvement Proposals (EIPs). Among them is EIP-4844, a key enhancement enabling proto-dank sharding. Anticipated by developers, this improvement is likely to diminish transaction fees on Ethereum layer-2s substantially.

Furthermore, proto-dank sharding shall help to alleviate the expenses associated with rollups, a process that typically consolidates transactions and data off-chain while presenting computational proof to the Ethereum blockchain. Also, the reduction in costs is achieved by introducing a novel compartmentalized container for data known as blobs.

ETH Price Rally Ahead?

The Ethereum community is expecting an imminent bull run with the introduction of the latest upgrade, “Dencun,” on the second testnet. At press time, the Ethereum price is up 1.87% trading at $2,304 with a market cap of $277 billion.

Retreating from the overhead resistance trendline, the pullback phase in the price of Ethereum finds support at the 38.20% Fibonacci level. Ethereum demonstrates resilience above the psychological threshold of $2000, reinforced by a demand zone at $2200.

Within the range formed by the 23.60% and 38.20% Fibonacci levels, the coiled trend momentum suggests an imminent significant move upon a breakthrough. Buoyed by positive sentiments and anticipated upgrades, the likelihood of a bullish break is on the rise further.

As such, breaking the $2,363 barrier is also an excellent entry point for buyers to participate in the anticipated bullish surge. The high-momentum uptrend in Ethereum’s price has the potential to reach the $2,600 mark. Moreover, popular crypto analyst Michael van de Poppe expects that the ETH price can rally to $3,500 post the Dencun upgrade. Also, investors are closely watching any developments with Ethereum ETF approval.

#Ethereum is still ready for $3,500-4,000 in the coming 3-6 months.

– Dencun upgrade -> final testnet February 7th.
– Ethereum Spot ETF hype.
– Bitcoin rotation after halving towards the rest of the ecosystem. pic.twitter.com/bs3W5WomMi

— Michaël van de Poppe (@CryptoMichNL) January 31, 2024