An upcoming Ethereum merge might send the second-largest cryptocurrency in the world to new all-time highs according to Vance Spencer, a self-proclaimed “Gigantic ETH bull”. 

Spencer, a co-founder of Framework Ventures and a member of the Ethereum community since 2015 has been keeping a close eye on updates related to the Ethereum network upgrade. Search volumes for "ethereum merge" blasted above an all-time high record last week, according to Google Trends data. 

The second-largest cryptocurrency has surged 22.6% in the past two weeks to trade at $3,456, compared to bitcoin (BTC)'s 12.8% ascent during the same period, according to CoinGecko data. 

"The merge was originally supposed to happen in 2016 and 2017, but there were just so many issues that ethereum had to work towards and build around to get to this point," Spencer told Insider in an interview. "It's more of a redemption or resurrection moment for ethereum in that it's really executing on the long-term roadmap that it's set out once upon a time."

In August last year, the network successfully executed its London hard fork. Since then, more than two million ether tokens worth over $7 billion have been "burned," which means that they have been removed from the total supply of ethereum, making the cryptocurrency "net deflationary," he said. 

More recently, ethereum merged on the Kiln testnet, the last testnet merge before the blockchain network's long-awaited conversion to proof of stake.

The merge has amplified the demand for ethereum staking, which refers to the act of "locking up" crypto holdings to help validate transactions on proof-of-stake blockchains in exchange for rewards in the form of tokens. Currently, more than 10 million ether tokens are staked via 320,810 validators, according to Copper Research. 

What's also magnifying optimism for the merge this time is the emergence of the "fee market of ethereum," in Spencer's view. 

"This fee market is worth billions a year to the people who are currently mining but will soon be staking to earn this," he said. "That's something that really wasn't happening two or three years ago, there were really no fees on blockchains because we were not real users. But there are so many compelling user applications now that people are willing to pay for this and it's just going to be a gigantic industry."