Ethereum (ETH) has fallen 6.78% in the past 24 hours, dropping below $1,600 on growing concerns about “The Merge.”

Ethereum has fallen 6.78% in the past 24 hours, dropping below $1,600. As Ethereum moves through the final stages of its upgrade, some miners and users are becoming increasingly concerned about its future.

The current price is down 67 percent from its all-time high of $4,891 in November 2021, according to coingecko.

The downward movement in Ethereum’s price can be attributed to growing concerns about the future of Ethereum and its miners after the merger. This is expected to take place in September.

This merge timeline isn’t final, but it’s extremely exciting to see it coming together. Please regard this as a planning timeline and look out for official announcements! https://t.co/ttutBceZ21 pic.twitter.com/MY8VFOv0SI

– superphiz.eth 🦇🔊🐼 (@superphiz) July 14, 2022

“There are many potential risks with the ETH merger“, tweeted Evgeny Gaevoy, CEO of Wintermute. “Just because people have been working on it for years doesn’t mean it will work perfectly“.

There are a lot of potential risks with ETH merge. The fact that people have been working on it for years, doesnt mean it will work out perfectly (and probably indicates there is a potential for opposite, otherwise we would have been there already)

– wishful cynic (@EvgenyGaevoy) August 1, 2022

Currently, Ethereum relies on the same consensus model as Bitcoin, which requires that “miners“run non-stop to verify transactions and maintain network security. During the merger, this consensus model will be replaced by a more environmentally friendly version called proof-of-stake.

This change also means that it will no longer be the miners who maintain the network, but the validators. Instead of buying machine farms to validate transactions, users can bet 32 Ethereum to become a validator on the updated network. Validators earn a return for their work, but can also lose money if they engage in fraudulent behavior.

It is this disaffection with miners that is driving some mining groups to action.

Antpool, the crypto-currency mining platform backed by hardware maker Bitmain, has invested $10 million in Ethereum Classic to protect its business interests after the merger.

Chinese miner, ChandlerGuo, has presented a plan to fork the current Ethereum to continue operating as a proof blockchain.

Bitcoin slips alongside Ethereum

Following Ethereum, the leading crypto-currency, Bitcoin (BTC), is trading lower, losing 2.46% of its value over the past 24 hours.

Bitcoin is trading for about $22,767, down 66.73 percent from its all-time highs of $68,789 in November 2021, according to data from CoinMarketCap.