The price of ether (ETH) has surged above the $1,900 region for the first time in eight months as the blockchain network’s Shanghai upgrade draws near. ETH is up by over 7% in seven days.

Ethereum, the world’s second-largest blockchain-powered cryptocurrency by market capitalization, has emerged as one of the top gainers this week. The leading smart contracts network gears towards the much anticipated Shapella upgrade (Shanghai upgrade).

At press time, ETH is exchanging hands for $1,913, with a trading volume of $13 billion. It represents a 5.1% increase in the past 24 hours. In the past 30 days, ETH has witnessed a 22.3% price increase.

Despite the strong bullish momentum, the ethereum price is still down by over 60% since its all-time high (ATH) of $4,878.26, reached during the crypto summer of Nov. 2021, according to CoinGecko.

Scheduled to go live on April 12th, 2023, the Shanghai upgrade is expected to enable the withdrawal of staked ether. 

Shappela upgrade will also usher in many improvements to the world’s largest smart contracts blockchain, including implementing the ethereum improvement proposal (EIP-1559) for a gas fee reduction, better scalability, and speed.