Minor inflows for digital asset investment products over the last few weeks suggest a “continued hesitancy” towards crypto amongst institutional investors amid a slowdown of the U.S. economy. In the latest edition of CoinShares’ weekly “Digital Asset Fund Flows” report, Coinshares head of research James Butterfill highlighted stand-offish institutional sentiment towards crypto investment products, which saw “minor inflows” for the third week in a row. “The flows remain low implying continued hesitancy amongst investors, this is highlighted in investment product trading volumes which were US$886m for the week, the lowest since October 2020.” Between Sept. 26 and Sept. 30, investment products offering exposure to Bitcoin (BTC) saw the most inflows at just $7.7 million, with...
Ethereum’s Merge on Sep. 15 turned out to be a sell-the-news event, which looks set to continue. Notably, Ether (ETH) dropped considerably against the U.S. dollar and Bitcoin (BTC) after the Merge. As of Sep. 22, ETH/USD and ETH/BTC trading pairs were down by more than 20% and 17%, respectively, since Ethereum’s switch to Proof-of-Stake (PoS. ETH/USD and ETH/BTC daily price chart. Source: TradingView What’s eating Ether bulls? Multiple catalysts contributed to Ether’s declines in the said period. First, ETH’s price fall against the dollar appeared in sync with similar declines elsewhere in the crypto market, driven by Federal Reserve’s 75 basis points (bps) rate hike. Second, Ethereum faced a lot of flak for becoming too centralized ...
Ethereum’s switch to proof-of-stake (PoS) on Sept. 15 failed to extend Ether’s (ETH) upside momentum as ETH miners added sell pressure to the market. On the daily chart, ETH price declined from around $1,650 on Sept. 15 to around $1,350 on Sept. 20, an almost 16% drop. The ETH/USD pair dropped in sync with other top cryptocurrencies, including Bitcoin (BTC), amid worries about higher Federal Reserve rate hikes. ETH/USD daily price chart. Source: TradingView Ethereum remains inflationary The Ether price drop on Sept. 15 also coincided with an increase in ETH supply, albeit not immediately post-Merge. $ETH is now Ultra Sound Money pic.twitter.com/fKz6VmoWdR — DavidHoffman.eth (@TrustlessState) September 15, 2022 Roughly 24 hours later, the supply change flipped positi...
Yuga Labs co-founder Greg Solana (Garga.eth) has shot down rumors that the Bored Ape Yacht Club (BAYC) creators have plans to launch a new NFT collection dubbed “Mecha Apes” by the end of the year. The rumors started swirling after Protos claimed to have obtained leaked documents detailing that Yuga Labs was looking at raising around $50 million from the sale of 100,000 tokenized land plots. After the news was reported via various outlets online, Garga.eth noted it was all “fake news” via Twitter on Sept. 16. fake news https://t.co/KVMaO18IaF — Garga.eth (@CryptoGarga) September 15, 2022 While the rumors have been quashed, given that Yuga Labs has hit the ball out of the park with each project it’s launched so far, and that it has outlined a broad vision for its Metaverse, another NF...
Bitcoin (BTC) spent a second day threatening $20,000 support on Sept. 15 as markets processed the Ethereum (ET Merge. BTC/USD 1-hour candle chart (Bitstamp). Source: TradingView BTC stuck between price magnets’ Data from Cointelegraph Markets Pro and TradingView showed BTC/USD spiking below $20,000 again overnight to recover marginally above the boundary for a brief period. The largest cryptocurrency broadly failed to regain lost ground after surprise United States inflation data on Sep. 13 sent risk assets into a tailspin. Down 13.5% versus the week’s top at the time of writing, Bitcoin offered little inspiration to traders who were still eyeing further losses. Yes, we could pump from here. No, the bottom is not in. pic.twitter.com/dXYKngcQtR — Material Indicators (@MI_Algos) S...
Ethereum’s long-awaited transition from proof-of-work (PoW) to proof-of-stake (PoS) is upon us as the Merge looms in less than 10 hours. There’s plenty to consider for the wider cryptocurrency space — and here’s what you need to know. What is the Merge? The Ethereum blockchain will transition away from its energy-intensive consensus mechanism PoW as its execution layer merges with the new PoS consensus layer known as the Beacon Chain. The Beacon Chain went live in December 2020, allowing ecosystem participants to deposit or “stake” ETH to become the new validators of the network, in doing so replacing PoW miners that had previously put in the work to process transactions, produce blocks and secure the network. In its simplest form, the Merge will make the Ethe...
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 Ethereum Merge may be coming sooner than planned, after core developers announced a tentative Merge date of Sept. 15, which will see the blockchain transition to Proof-of-Stake. The Ethereum mainnet Merge date came into view after core developers such as Tim Beiko and Prysmatic Labs co-founder Terence Tsao agreed in an Aug. 11 developer call it would be when Total Terminal Difficulty (TTD) hits 58750000000000000000000. This was confirmed in a Github post titled “Tentative mainnet TTD” which was committed to by Beiko on Aug. 11. While the exact date and TTD could be still be changed, the successes of the various testnet merges could be a promising sign that the Ethereum mainnet will transition to Proof-of-Stake (PoS) consensus next month without issue. The n...
Ether (ETH) bulls like a positive spread between its spot and ETH futures prices because the so-called contango reflects optimism about a higher rate in the future. But as of Aug. 1, the Ethereum futures curve slid in the opposite direction. Ethereum quarterly futures in backwardation On the daily chart, Ethereum futures quarterly contracts, scheduled to expire in December 2022, have slipped into backwardation, a condition opposite to contango, wherein the futures price becomes lower than the spot price. The spread between Ethereum’s spot and futures price grew to -$8 on Aug. 1. ETH230-ETHUSD daily price chart. Source: TradingView One one hand, the current ETH spot price being higher than its year-end outlook appears like a bearish sign. However, the conditions surrou...
Ethereum’s native token Ether (ETH) tumbled on July 26, reducing hopes of an extended price recovery. The ETH/USD pair dropped by roughly 5%, followed by a modest rebound to over $1,550. Ethereum gets rejected at $1,650 These overnight moves liquidated over $80 million worth of Ether positions in the last 24 hours, data from CoinGlass reveals. ETH/USD hourly price chart. Source: TradingView The seesaw action also revealed an underlying bias conflict among traders who have been stuck between two extremely opposite market fundamentals. The first is the euphoria surrounding Ethereum’s potential transition to proof-of-stake in September, which has helped Ether’s price to recover 45% month-to-date. However, this bullish hype is at odds with macroeconomic headwinds, namel...
Ethereum Classic (ETC) has been outperforming its arch-rival Ethereum’s native token Ether (ETH) during the current crypto market rebound with the ETC/ETH pairs at 10-month highs. Why is ETC beating ETH? ETC’s price has risen to $27 on July 22, amounting to a 100% gain in nine days after bottoming out at $13.35. Comparatively, ETH’s price has seen a 64% rally in U.S. dollar terms. ETC/USD versus ETH/USD daily price chart. Source: TradingView Ethereum’s rebound has been among the sharpest among the top cryptocurrencies, primarily due to the euphoria surrounding its potential network upgrade in September. Dubbed “the Merge,” the long-awaited technical update will switch Ethereum from proof-of-work (PoW) to proof-of-stake (PoS). Anyone who believes the #Eth...
Ethereum’s native token Ether (ETH) has rebounded 40% against Bitcoin (BTC) after bottoming out locally at 0.049 on June 13. Now, the ETH/BTC pair is at two-month highs and can extend its rally in the coming weeks, according to a classic technical pattern. ETH paints cup and handle pattern Specifically, ETH/BTC has been forming a “cup and handle” on its lower-timeframe charts since July 18. A cup and handle setup typically appears when the price falls and then rebounds in what appears to be a U-shaped recovery, which looks like a “cup.” Meanwhile, the recovery leads to a pullback move, wherein the price trends lower inside a descending channel called the “handle.” The pattern resolves after the price rallies to an approximately equal size to ...