Fears of external monetary uncertainty are bringing jitters to the global crypto industry despite Ethereum's much-anticipated Merge upgrade, which many critics have considered a major turning point for revving up lukewarm crypto sentiment. The world's second-largest cryptocurrency by market capitalization completed Thursday the system upgrade with an environmentally friendly proof-of-stake mechanism. This upgrade raised hopes for the introduction of smarter contracts across the crypto industry, but there was little effect in terms of boosting its valuation on the market.