As the Ethereum "merge" approaches, the market's anticipation for this upgrade is also reflected on ETH. In just 10 days, Ethereum price has rocketed from just over $1,000 to $1,650, a gain of more than 60%, and has set its next resistance target at $2,000. From the strong upward trend of ETH, it is not difficult to see that the current Ethereum market demand is very strong, but as for the later stage can achieve the preset goal is to wait and see.

On the other hand, the rapid recovery of ETH also confirms that the downside risk of the market is gradually receding. Investors have been waiting for the recovery of the market for a long time, and hope to be able to sail again with the east wind of Ethereum update. Last week, the "V God" Vitalik Buterin attended the Ethereum Community Conference (ETHCC) in Paris and gave a speech on the progress of Ethereum merger and the future roadmap of Ethereum, claiming that Ethereum can achieve the transaction processing capacity of 100,000 TPS after the completion of five key stages, which seems to give more and more investors hope.

If nothing else, Ethereum is about to see "The Merge" on September 19, 2022, with a major update likely to be released as early as August. In recent months, the Ethereum community has been preparing for Ethereum's transition. Once the Ethereum executive layer (the current main network) is merged with the beacon chain (the new POS layer), ETH will become a deflationary asset (fewer issues) and "mining" energy consumption will be significantly reduced by 99%.

Indeed, the market recovery has shown that more and more investors are betting aggressively on ETH for fear of going short. Survey data show that addresses with more than 100 ETH have been growing steadily over the past three months, but at the same time these addresses have occasionally sold ETH during the recent rebound cycle.

Frankly, most investors are buying ETH at a discount to the current Ethereum market price, so they have been largely profitable over the past three months, but have invisibly increased the bullish pressure on ETH. Many are predicting that the Ethereum "merger" will drive ETH prices further, rather than the declines seen in previous months.

Many indicators confirm that investors continued to significantly increase their holdings of ETH prior to the Ethereum "merger" and did not choose to sell aggressively during the rally, as most investors are looking for medium - to long-term gains rather than short-term bets. At the same time, many ETH holders have chosen to pledge their ETH before the "merger" arrives, as evidenced by the flow of ETH in the DeFi pledge pool.

It is clear that ETH's recent strong price action partly reflects market demand. As for ETH holders, no one would choose to sell their ETH when Ethereum is about to "merge", because it would mean giving up more potential upside. In this light, Ethereum's transition to "2.0" is arguably the biggest HODL incentive for ETH holders.

For now, however, ETH prices are still low, and there is a good chance that they will rise above $2,000 by the end of July. Even if July does not meet expectations, a lot of demand will show up in August. The caveat here is that at no time should we relax our vigilance against risk, and investors should still be aware of unexpected pullbacks.

In crypto, if you want to take advantage of the next bull market, you need to have a quality community, where people can stay together and stay perceptive. If you just one person, look around and found no one, want to stick in this industry is actually very difficult.