Circle and Tether jointly support PoS ETH, while the PoW ETH camp releases a white paper and gets listed on some exchanges.

Ethereum is about to transition to Proof of Stake (PoS), with a major upgrade expected in September. As the Proof of Work (PoW) era comes to an end and Ethereum miners' historical mission concludes, some miners still want to fork Ethereum, such as "Bao Er Ye" from China, leading to the emergence of both PoW mechanism ETH and PoS mechanism ETH. The crypto community has mixed opinions on this move, but stablecoin giants in the current Ethereum DeFi ecosystem, Tether USDT and Circle USDC, have expressed support for PoS ETH.

BitMEX Research has stated that stablecoins actually determine the main chain and their stance will decide the winner. However, supporters of PoW ETH are still pushing forward.

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Circle Speaks Out: Solely Supports PoS ETH

Circle VP Joao Reginatto announced stating that USDC is currently the largest USD-backed stablecoin on Ethereum and the largest ERC-20 token, with a market capitalization exceeding 45 billion as of 8/9. USDC is also a crucial component of DeFi and has facilitated the adoption of Layer 2 solutions.

Joao Reginatto stated, "We understand our responsibility to the Ethereum ecosystem and business. Developers and end-users rely on USDC, and we must do the right thing." He further mentioned that while Circle does not anticipate a potential fork after the Ethereum mainnet merge, there can only be one valid version of USDC on the Ethereum network.

"We have only one plan, which is to fully support the upgraded Ethereum PoS chain."

Tether Speaks Out: Should Not Cause Confusion or Disruption to the Ecosystem

Tether also expressed their belief that transitioning to PoS should not be used as a threat to the community, especially with many USDT applications in the DeFi ecosystem, to avoid confusion and harm to the entire system. Tether will support PoS Ethereum, as they believe a smooth transition will contribute to the long-term health of the DeFi ecosystem.

Tether also responded to Circle's statements, emphasizing that compared to its closest competitor, Circle, USDT's trading volume is ten times that of USDC, and in terms of Ethereum holding addresses, it is three times that of USDC. "Supporting Ethereum is our responsibility."

Tether's CTO had previously stated support for PoS ETH:

PoW ETH Supporters: Chandler Guo, Justin Sun; Some Exchanges Respond to Listing

On the other hand, supporters of PoW ETH are still active.

Chandler Guo, a well-known early Bitcoin investor and Ethereum miner, known as "Chandler Guo," had announced several times in July that Ethereum would fork, with ETH holders receiving the forked PoW ETH; they also established the EthereumPoW website, actively sharing reports and comments. On 8/10, EthereumPoW also released a whitepaper of only ten pages, stating that the original Ethereum was supported by PoW. YKIYK, if you know, you know – "The most straightforward whitepaper in the world, because you already know."

Furthermore, TRON founder Justin Sun and the exchange Poloniex, which he invested in, openly support PoW ETH; Justin Sun stated that all of their one million ETH, after the successful fork to PoW ETH, will donate all the forked coins to the PoW ETH community. The exchange Poloniex has already listed ETHS and ETHW IOU markets for trading. However, after the market opened, the ETHW/ETH price remained low, well below the ETH market price, with not much trading volume.

In addition, exchanges like Gate.io and Matcha have traded ETHW; BitMEX, optimistic about airdrop profits, has also launched ETHPoW futures products.

No Profit, No Interest Group

Despite criticism from multiple parties that PoW ETH forked coins are meaningless, as a large number of digital assets and protocols on Ethereum will not support the forked chain, it is merely a scheme to extract the last bit of profit, which could be a significant trap for retail investors.

However, there is a group that sees the forked coins of PoW ETH as airdropped tokens that should not be missed, similar to BitMEX's stance. They even provide related trading strategies but also caution that the funding pool for ETHPoW may quickly deplete; meanwhile, users need to interact with smart contracts in the initial environment of PoW ETH.