Ahead of the Merge, leading cryptocurrencies bitcoin (BTC) and ether (ETH) are at multi-month lows. Traders blamed the market for a lack of bullish sentiments after a long-awaited Ethereum’s shift from the proof-of-work to proof-of-stake consensus mechanism. Some think it could be the appreciation of the dollar or the Fed’s increased rates by 225 basis points, causing risky assets like cryptocurrencies to become more unstable. Over the four weeks between mid-August and mid-September, investors piled into Ether to earn free ETHPoW tokens from the Ethereum fork.