Stephanie Douse 
In a research note, the bank told clients that investors want to know more about The Ether Merge and its meaning.
Bank of America said in a note on Friday that the rise in the price of Ether (ETH) from mid-July to mid-August may continue to fade as investors try to figure out what the Merge, Ethereum’s tech upgrade that will turn it into a proof-of-stake network, and future blockchain upgrades mean.
The investment bank also thinks that competing blockchains like Binance Smart Chain, Tron, Avalanche, and Solana will gain market share until Ethereum gets past the problems it is facing right now.
In a note to clients, BofA analyst Alkesh Shah said, “Investors probably realized that Ethereum‘s seemingly imminent switch to proof-of-stake (PoS) won’t solve problems with scalability or high transaction fees.”
Traders have pointed out that the Merge was likely causing ether (ETH), Ethereum’s native token, to go up in price in the short term. However, the long-term outlook for the asset remained muted because macroeconomic sentiment was low, and bitcoin technicals pointed to a drop.
After Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell’s hawkish speech at the Fed’s Jackson Hole, Wyoming, conference, both crypto, and stock markets fell on Friday. Bitcoin (BTC) dropped by about 4% to below $21,000, and Ethereum (ETH) fell by about 8% to around $1,559.