As the Ethereum (ETH-USD) Merge approaches, investors are hoping that it will act as a bullish catalyst. Essentially, the Ethereum Merge is an upgrade from a comparatively antiquated method of consensus-driven transactional verification to a much more efficient protocol. Ethereum’s pivot, while notable for environmental stability and resource management, may not necessarily yield the bullish results investors are hoping for. I am near-term bearish on ETH. While utilitarian blockchain networks like Ethereum introduced decentralized, trustless mechanisms to the broader business ecosystem, they carried unwanted baggage: high-energy consumption. Ethereum is potentially on the verge of a paradigm-shifting breakthrough.