Crypto exchanges are vowing to keep trading open and unaffected during Ethereum’s (ETH) transition to proof-of-stake (PoS), despite deposits and withdrawals of ETH and ERC-20 tokens being halted.
Meanwhile, the major exchange FTX has gone one step further, announcing a halt to wrapped ETH transactions on other chains as well.
For FTX’s part, ETH and ERC-20 deposits and withdrawals will be suspended from September 6 at 11:34 UTC, approximately 30 minutes before the Bellatrix update – a key step that must be completed before the actual Merge, which marks the network’s transition to PoS. The exchange has not said how long the suspension will remain in place.
Notably, FTX on Monday also said that it will suspend deposits and withdrawals of various forms of wrapped ETH on other chains, including Arbitrum One ETH, Solana (Wormhole) ETH and Binance Smart Chain (BSC) ETH.
All trading in ETH on FTX will remain open during the Merge, FTX CEO Sam Bankman-Fried has confirmed.
Meanwhile, the US-based crypto exchange Kraken has said that while ETH trading will remain open, Ethereum deposits and withdrawals “may be unavailable for 12 hours or longer during the merge.”
The same was also reiterated by Kraken’s Head of OTC Trading, Juthica Chou, who said in a Bloomberg interview this weekend that there “might be a temporary suspension on withdrawals and deposits,” adding that “we won’t halt trading.”
Among other major exchanges, Coinbase said in August that it will “briefly pause new Ethereum (ETH) and ERC-20 token deposits and withdrawals as a precautionary measure,” but keep trading open.
Binance, on its end, has said ETH and ERC-20 deposits and withdrawals will be suspended on September 6 at 11:00 UTC for the Bellatrix upgrade, and again on September 15 at 00:00 UTC for the Paris execution layer upgrade. The exchange has confirmed that trading in futures and spot markets will not be affected.
The Paris execution layer upgrade is the step that triggers the actual Merge.
Traders gearing up for the Merge
The confirmation that trading will remain available during the Merge is most likely welcomed by crypto traders, with many now likely preparing their action plans for the event.
Speaking in an interview with The Information last month, Samuel Harrison, managing partner at crypto venture fund Faction, called the Merge “a very tradable event,” and said exchanges – which generates fees from trading – are likely to be the end up as some of the biggest winners.
A similar take was also shared by Kraken’s Juthica Chou, who told Bloomberg that her team has already seen a notable increase in positioning in ETH options and other derivatives leading up to the Merge.
Meanwhile, the exchange announcements come as several experts have warned users about interacting with Ethereum during and immediately after the Merge.
The latest person to warn others was Alex Svanevik, CEO of on-chain analytics firm Nansen, who said on Twitter on Monday that some users are likely to get “absolutely rekt” around the Merge. “Would not touch anything involving debt/leverage unless you 100% know what you’re doing. (You probably don’t.),” Svanevik said.
The Ethereum Foundation has previously said the Merge can be expected to happen sometime between September 10 and 20.
Source: Cryptonews
