Ether (ETH) price is up 16% since July 1 and has outperformed Bitcoin (BTC) in the last seven days. The move could be partially driven by investors clinging to their hopes that the Ethereum network transition to proof-of-stake (PoS) consen will be a bullish catalyst.
The next steps for this smart contract involve the Merge, which was previously known as Eth2. The final trial on the Goerli test network is expected in July before the Ethereum mainnet gets the green light for its upgrade.