$1.26B in Ethereum options expire on Friday and bulls are ready to push ETH price higher By Cointelegraph

Ether’s (ETH) 53% rally between July 13 and 18 gave bulls an edge in July’s $1.26 billion monthly options expiry. The move happened as developers set a tentative date for the “Merge,” a transition out of the burdensome proof-of-work (PoW) mining mechanism.

According to some analysts, by removing the additional ETH issuing used to finance the energy cost required on traditional mining consensus, Ether could finally achieve the “ultra-sound money” status.