(Bloomberg) -- Cryptocurrencies traded in tight ranges Thursday as the clock ticked down to a major software upgrade of Ethereum, the most commercially important blockchain in the digital-asset sector.

Bitcoin edged up to about $20,000 while Ether, the native token of Ethereum, dipped under $1,600 as of 7:40 a.m. in London. Coins such as Cardano and Solana also posted modest losses. The MVIS CryptoCompare Digital Assets 100 Index has shed some 6% this week.

Ethereum’s revamp -- known as the Merge -- will make it vastly more energy efficient and over time pave the way for it to scale up and become quicker, according to the network’s developers. They say an update years in the making will go smoothly, though some investors are wary of possible hiccups.

“The market is pricing in a virtually successful Merge to happen,” Teong Hng, co-founder at digital-asset platform Satori Research, said on Bloomberg TV. “For institutional investors, ones who are ESG conscious, they will use this as an opportunity to dip their toes into blockchain, into tokens, into Ethereum.”

Exchanges and lending platforms began temporarily disabling Ethereum-related services before the Merge, which is due to be completed in less than 30 minutes. If all goes to plan, they will later come back online once the revamp is done.

There were indications of substantial Ether inflows into exchanges ahead of the Merge. The exact reasons why were unclear.
Source: Bloomberg
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