The Ethereum (CRYPTO: ETH) price is down 6% over the past 24 hours.
Halfway through the second day of June, the world's No. 2 token by market cap is trading for US$1,827 (AU$2,555).
That puts the Ethereum price down 8% since we kicked off the new month.
Following a 27% loss in May, crypto investors are hoping for a turnaround in June.
To get some insight into what investors might expect for the crypto in the upcoming month, we reached out to two industry experts.
A big change is coming
Jonathon Miller, Kraken managing director for Australia, told us: "While price movements matter, it's important to focus on the innovation happening in the space during these times and it's quite clear there is still plenty happening and lots more to come."
On that front, he points out that:
Ethereum is set for a big change in the near future that will see it move away from proof-of-work to a proof-of-stake protocol. This is a very complex transformation and has the potential to impact the entire ecosystem, bringing with it new opportunities and new risks.
While it's impossible to predict how this will affect the Ethereum price, we should not underestimate the impact of this change. It's something that a lot of people will be watching very closely.
The move to proof-of-stake will reduce costs and greatly reduce energy use as not nearly as many computers will be involved under the new protocol.
8 June could see a big move in the Ethereum price
Simon Peters, market analyst at multi-asset trading platform eToro, agrees that one of the biggest factors in play for Ethereum is the upcoming merge, as the shift to proof-of-stake is called.
He said this has been "top of mind for many in the crypto community in recent weeks".
Peters explained:
Ethereum's current proof-of-work blockchain will merge with the new proof-of-stake Beacon Chain. This will mark the end of proof-of-work for Ethereum, and the full transition to proof-of-stake.
The Ethereum price will be one to watch next week, on 8 June.
"The merge is planned for August, but before it happens on the mainnet, a merge will be tested on public testnets. Ropsten testnet merge has been set for 8 June," Peters told us.
But the merge is likely to throw up both headwinds and tailwinds for the Ethereum price.
According to Peters:
Once the merge is completed on the mainnet, this will effectively unlock the ETH that has currently been staked (and staking rewards earned thus far for validating new blocks on the POS beacon chain), so we could see some selling pressure on ETH trading pairs on crypto exchanges.
At the same time though if the annual staking reward yields increase post merge, this could encourage buying of ETH and in turn potentially push up Ethereum prices.
