Amazing things are being built in Web3 — often by pseudonymous individuals who prefer to keep their real-world identity private. In some ways, this is liberating. It means that anyone can have a chance to get involved in a project and deliver value to the community — irrespective of their background. But as decentralized identities proliferate, there’s one issue that cannot be ignored: Ensuring that there’s an easy way for us to verify the reputation of others. This matters… for many reasons. If you’re about to start using a DeFi project created by someone pseudonymous, you’d like a way to know that they’re trustworthy and dependable. If you’re reading an article that someone has written online, there should be a way of checking that their past works hav...
A report from blockchain analytics platform Nansen highlights 5 entities that hold 64% of staked Ether (ETH) ahead of Ethereum’s highly anticipated Merge with the Beacon Chain. Ethereum’s shift from proof-of-work to proof-of-stake is set to take place in the coming days after final updates and shadow forks have bee completed in early September. The key component of The Merge sees miners no longer used as validators, replaced by stakers that commit ETH to maintain the network. Nansen’s report highlights that just over 11% of the total circulating ETH is staked, with 65% liquid and 35% illiquid. There are a total of 426,000 validators and some 80,000 depositors, while the report also highlights a small group of entities that command a significant portion of staked ETH. Three major crypt...
The listing of ETHPOW (ETHW) across multiple crypto exchanges has been followed by a huge drop in price despite some initial success. ETHPOW drops 80% On the daily chart, ETHW’s price dropped by more than 80% to $25 on Sept. 10, over a month after its market debut. ETHW/USD daily price chart. Source: TradingView For starters, ETHPOW only exists as a futures ticker, for now, conceived in anticipation that an upcoming network update on Ethereum could result in a chain split. Ethereum will undergo a major protocol change called the Merge by mid-September, switching its existing consensus mechanism from proof-of-work (PoW) to proof-of-stake (PoS). Therefore, Ethereum will obsolete its army of miners, replacing them with “validators,” which are nodes that woul...
Crypto analytics firm Chainalysis has suggested that the price of Ether (ETH) could decouple from other crypto assets post-Merge, with staking yields potentially driving strong institutional adoption. In a Sept. 7 report, Chainalysis explained that the upcoming Ethereum upgrade would introduce institutional investors to staking yields similar to certain instruments such as bonds and commodities, while also becoming much more eco-friendly. The report said ETH staking is expected to offer a 10-15% yield annually for stakers, therefore making ETH an “enticing bond alternative for institutional investors” considering that treasury bonds yields offer much less in comparison. “Ether’s price could decouple from other cryptocurrencies following The Merge, as its staking rewards will make...
The cryptocurrency markets have been quiet over the weekend. The sideways price action continues on Sept. 5 and there are unlikely to be any fresh triggers from the United States equities markets, which are closed for Labor Day. However, the bullish picture for cryptocurrencies looks clouded as the energy crisis in Europe sent the euro to a two-decade low versus the U.S. dollar. Meanwhile, the U.S. dollar index (DXY) which has an inverse correlation with the equities markets and cryptocurrencies soared above 110 for the first time since June 2002. Daily cryptocurrency market performance. Source: Coin360 A positive sign among all the mayhem is that Bitcoin (BTC) has not given up much ground over the past few days and continues to trade near the psychological level of $20,000. This suggests ...
Nonfarm payrolls rose by 315,000 jobs in August, down from the July increase of 526,000 jobs. The report was just below the Dow Jones estimate of 318,000 jobs and the slowest monthly gain since April 2021. The S&P 500 rose in response to the report, but later erased its gains, indicating that bears continue to sell on rallies. That may be because the U.S. dollar index (DXY), which had retreated from its Sept.1 20-year high, recovered part of its losses. The bears will have to pull the DXY lower to boost the prices of stocks and thcryptocurrency markets as both are usually inversely correlated with the dollar index. Daily cryptocurrency market performance. Source: Coin360 Although Bitcoin (BTC) has dropped more than 70% from its all-time high of $69,000, several traders have held on to ...
Ethereum’s native token, Ether (ETH), is not immune to downside risk in September after rallying approximately 90% from its bottom of around $880 in June. Much of the token’s upside move is attributed to the Merge, a technical upgrade that would make Ethereum a proof-of-stake (PoS) protocol, slated for Sep. 15. But despite logging impressive gains between June and September, Ether still trades almost 70% below its record high of around $4,950 from November 2021. Therefore, its possibility of heading lower remains on the cards. ETH/USD weekly price chart. Source: TradingView Here are three Ethereum bearish market indicators that show why more downside is likely. Sell the Ethereum Merge news Ethereum options traders anticipate Ether’s price to reach $2,200 f...
Ethereum co-founder Vitalik Buterin and Coinbase CEO Brian Armstrong believe that a gradual mind shift and important community contributions led to their backing of Ethereum’s upcoming move from a proof-of-work (PoW) to aproof-of-stake (PoS) consensus. The two industry titans joined Coinbase protocol specialist Viktor Bunin on the Around the Block podcast for an enlightening discussion centered on The Merge, which is set to take place in mid-September 2022. Buterin reflected on his history of considering proof-of-stake as a potential consensus mechanism for the Ethereum blockchain, which was initially met with skepticism due to a number of unsolved problems that made it seemingly unviable. According to the Ethereum co-founder, one of the project’s first blog posts in 2014 proposed an...
Ahead of the rapidly approaching Ethereum (ETH) Merge on Sept. 15, Ethermine, the world’s largest Ethereum mining pool has unveiled a new staking pool for users. Notably however, it is not available to U.S. miners The new service offers Ethermine members a chance to collectively stake their ETH and earn interest on top of their deposits. As little as 0.1 ETH ($159) required to enter. However the smaller the holding, the greater the fee. The platform is currently offering stakers an annual ETH interest rate of 4.43%. At the time of writing, 393 Ether worth roughly $626,000 at current prices has been invested into Ethermine’s new pool. Staking pools such as these hold significance as they offer competitive interest rates and a lower barriers of entry than solo staking as node operators...
Bitcoin (BTC) fell back below $20,000 after the Aug. 30 Wall Street open as data showed hodlers selling at a loss. BTC/USD 1-hour candle chart (Bitstamp). Source: TradingView June lows look increasingly attractive Data from Cointelegraph Markets Pro and TradingView captured the latest dive below the 2017 bull market peak for BTC/USD, with United States equities dropping in step. The S&P 500 and Nasdaq Composite Index lost 1.1% and 1.25% in the first hour, respectively, while BTC/USD shed 2.5% during a single hourly candle. The latest moves came as no surprise to traders already wary of a deeper correction for the largest cryptocurrency. Previously, many had called for a retracement toward the macro lows seen in June. For popular trader Crypto Ed, both Bitcoin and Ether (ETH) offered go...
Out in the cryptosphere, there’s a vast amount of wealth that’s seemingly out of reach. A long-running statistic suggests four million Bitcoin — almost 20% of the total supply — has been lost forever. Much of it was mined when the network was just beginning, with early adopters tearing their hair out after losing their private keys. One Welshman has endured a nine-year battle as he attempts to receive a hard drive containing 7,500 BTC from landfill. But this isn’t the only treasure trove that’s worth exploring. For example, did you know that over 500 Ethereum presale wallets are yet to be recovered… and collectively, they have a value of several billion dollars? The presale for ETH — which is now the world’s second-largest cryptocurrency — took place bac...
Federal Reserve Chairman Jerome Powell warned that the central bank will continue to use the “tools forcefully” to bring down inflation, which is close to its highest level in 40 years. He cautioned that the restrictive policy may remain for some time and warned that it could “bring some pain to households and businesses.” The United States equities markets reacted negatively to Powell’s comments with the Dow Jones Industrial Average dropping more than 600 points. The cryptocurrency markets also witnessed sharp selling with Bitcoin (BTC) and most altcoins threatening to break below their immediate support levels. Daily cryptocurrency market performance. Source: Coin360 Along with a not-so-supportive macro environment, Bitcoin’s historical data for September also presents a negative picture...