How Traders Are Thinking About the Merge — and a Potential ETHPoW Chain

Kevin Zhou, co-founder of Galois Capital, and Evgeny Gaevoy, founder and CEO of Wintermute, discuss how to trade the Ethereum Proof of Work fork, what the market is telling about the Merge, and whether the Merge affects Bitcoin.

Show highlights:

what will happen at the time of the Merge according to Kevin and whether there’s uncertainty
when the ETH Proof of Work chain will emerge and how that affects trading opportunities
the mistakes of the ETHPoW team, like repealing EIP-1559
what percentage of ETH market cap ETHPoW will accrue
what the first few blocks of ETHPoW will be like
what the strategies are to earn the ETHPoW airdrop and what the on-chain activity looks like
whether there is an “up-only” monoculture in Ethereum
what stETH is, how it should be priced and what the futures market indicates
where the value of a chain comes from and the likelihood of ETHPoW failing catastrophically
how to protect from replay attacks
the price action of ETH after the Merge
how ETH becoming deflationary affects Bitcoin’s narrative as digital gold
how the ESG-friendly image of Proof of Stake could affect the narratives of ETH and BTC