Ethereum for test net soars ── Originally free but market capitalization to 2 billion yen | coindesk JAPAN | Coindesk Japan

Goerli ether (gETH) surged from $0.07 on February 24 to over $1.60 over the weekend. The market capitalization has also reached 15 million dollars (approximately 2 billion yen, 1 dollar = 135 yen conversion).

According to DEXTools, nearly $1 million of gETH has been traded in the last 24 hours, with a total circulation of 3.79 million gETH and 1,260 holders as of this writing.

However, gETH is neither a fork of the popular Ethereum (ETH) nor a rival token. For use in the testnet “Goerli” that developers use to simulate transactions, smart contacts, etc. Originally, gETH is a free token issued to testnet developers.

As such, gETH’s price hike has drawn criticism from the cryptocurrency community.

“Ethereum on the testnet is supposed to be free, but is being overpriced by speculators. Keyboard warriors will say developers are buying. But no. Maybe 0.1% of people buy for consumption,” famous developer Mudit Gupta tweeted on Thursday.

“This is the beginning of the end for Goerli. Well done,” he tweeted.

NFTs and meme coins also appear

The testnet is for developers to find and fix critical bugs in products and features they plan to deploy on the mainnet. The gETH market appeared earlier this month after cross-chain trading platform LayerZero created a swap product that allows users to buy testnet Ethereum from decentralized exchange (DEX) Uniswap.

LayerZero just wanted to make it easier for developers to test with Goerli. Traditionally, obtaining Ethereum for testnets has been a hassle.

gETH will be listed on Uniswap on February 22 at 10 cents. When you buy gETH with Uniswap, both the Ethereum mainnet and Goerli swap gETH and Ethereum, and from ETH on the Ethereum blockchain to gETH.

But the market has unwittingly attracted speculators. By investing in gETH, some Crypto Twitters are investing in future applications that will be built on the Ethereum blockchain.

Speculators may be for fun. As of February 27, Goerli already has an NFT collection and Goerli Inu, a meme coin with a Shiba Inu motif.

｜Translation: coindesk JAPAN
｜Editing: Takayuki Masuda
｜Image: Goerli Testnet (capture)
｜Original: Start of the End? Testnet Goerli Ether Spikes to $1.60 as Traders Jump on Opportunity Meant for Developers