OP Plummets 7% As Optimism Postpones Hardfork

Weeks after its recent bedrock upgrade, aimed at enhancing network performance via Optimism Collective, Optimism (OP) is still thriving to stay relevant among the competitive Layer 2 network markets.

On Monday, Optimism announced its upcoming upgrade dubbed “Regolith Hardfork” set to take place on March 17. The upgrade was aimed at enhancing deposits on the Optimism network. The network GitHub post wrote:

The Regolith upgrade, named after a material best described as “deposited dust on top of a layer of bedrock”, implements minor changes to deposit processing, based on reports of the Sherlock Audit-contest and findings in the Bedrock Optimism Goerli testnet.

Though the upgrade seemed like a crucial update the network could need urgently, the L2 network eventually announced earlier today the postponement of the Hardfork, citing “received reports of issues.” Optimism noted in a Twitter post:

Yesterday we requested that infra providers update op-geth to a new version in advance of the March 17 Optimism Goerli hardfork. We’ve received reports of issues with this latest version and have pulled the repository while we resolve these issues.

Optimism added, saying no action is required now and an updated version will be shared soon. Meanwhile, Optimism’s native token OP has been facing a downward trend along with the rest of the crypto market. OP has fallen from a high of $2.8 as of March 3 to trading below $2.5 today.

Optimism Plummets By 7%

Over the past month, Optimism has been doing well in the chart following its gaining traction among the crypto community. The layer 2 network has had several partnerships and integration, mainly in the DeFi ecosystem, boosting its recognition.

Last week, one of the largest crypto exchanges, Coinbase, announced the launch of its own layer 2 network called Base on the Optimism’s OP stack, an open-source modular approach for building blockchains. This update spiked OP’s price by nearly 20%, pushing its price to trade above $3.

Related Reading: Optimism (OP) Surges 17% As Coinbase Launches L2 On OP Stack

However, just as retrace always comes after a significant rally, OP has seen a bearish trend ever since, plummeting from a high of $3.2 seen on February 24 to trading for $2.45, at the time of writing down by 7% in the past 24 hours.

In contrast, OP’s trading volume has also slowed in recent weeks, signaling a weak upward momentum. The token’s volume has fallen from more than $960 million seen late last month to $251 million in the last 24 hours.

Notably, OP still ranks #62 among the largest crypto assets by market cap after a significant rally of over 2x since the beginning of the year. OP has moved from its trading price below $1, seen late last year, to record a new all-time high of $3.22 late last month.

Global Crypto Market Suffers Bearish Trend

Furthermore, OP hasn’t been the only crypto asset suffering a bearish trend over the past week, Bitcoin and other altcoins such as Ethereum (ETH), Polygon (MATIC), Binance coin BNB, and Cardano (ADA) have also been in a downward trend following several circulating negative news in the industry.

The king of crypto, Bitcoin, has declined 5.1% in the past seven days falling from on high of $23,829 as of March 1 to trading for $22,349 at the time of writing down by 1% in the last 24 hours.

Related Reading: Bitcoin (BTC) And Ethereum (ETH) Fall 4% Amid Silvergate Fallout

ETH and MATIC have also been in a bearish trend over the past week, with assets down by 4.3% and 7.1% in the last seven days, respectively. ETH currently trades at $1,563, while SOL is at $1.14 at the time of writing.

BNB has also plummeted 5.6%% in the past week, just as ADA has been in a bearish trend, down by nearly 10% over the same period. BNB currently trades just below the $290 mark, while ADA trades below a dollar with a market price of $0.38.

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