Ether followed a similar pattern, rising to over $2,000 late Sunday before falling below $1,900. The second largest crypto by market cap was recently down roughly 2.5% from the previous day, although well above levels earlier this summer amid growing investor enthusiasm for The Merge, which will change the Ethereum protocol from proof-of-work to the faster, more energy efficient proof-of-stake model. Two of Sunday’s big winners, the popular meme coins SHIB and DOGE, were losers a day later, recently plunging more than 9% and 7%, respectively. MATIC tumbled more than 5%.
