Ethereum Classic has been surging over the past few days after rising by a total of 31.65% over the past week. The cryptocurrency currently trades at a price of around $7.27 as it currently holds an $821 million market cap value - putting it in 16th place on the market cap rankings.

So Why Is Ethereum Classic Surging?

There are a host of reasons as to why ETC is surging this week. One of the main drivers is perhaps the upcoming Atlantis fork which is expected to happen next month. A hard fork creates a lot of buzz around a cryptocurrency as it shows that the team is intending to improve their own protocol. Furthermore, hard forks always present opportunities to gain some “free’ cryptocurrencies if the community decides to split, rendering 2 chains.

The Atlantis Hard Fork is expected on September 13th at block number 8,772,000. The fork is meant to help to improve security - something that is extremely important considering that ETC experienced a 51% attack this year.

Another strong reason as to why ETC may be surging is related to the latest partnership joining the ETC Labs Studio Program. North Block Capital, the London based token investment group, has joined the ETC studio program to help create various comprehensive token sales for their clients and partners. The Studio Program is intended to support new projects and crowd sales based on the ETC blockchain.

Furthermore, ETC Labs is slated to help the expansion of North Block Capital into the Asian markets as they believe that the Asian countries have arguably the most significant penetration for both crypto users and developers.

The final reason as to why ETC may be surging is due to the fact that the ETC Summit is upcoming in October which may be helping to create a buzz for the cryptocurrency. Scheduled for October 3-4, in Vancouver Canada, the ETC conference will present some of the best speakers all talking about ETC and the overall ecosystem.