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- Bitcoin, Ethereum, Cosmos and more week 22 2023
Bitcoin, Ethereum, Cosmos and more week 22 2023
All things crypto, web3 and blockchain across all the Coin Clubs
TLDR: Vitalik announces Ethereum’s Three Transitions, Tether launches a Bitcoin mining operation in Uruguay, Voltage and Google Cloud is collaborating to offer global Lightning Network solutions and the SEC sues both Binance US and Coinbase.
Follow @CoinClub for continuous updates on all things crypto, web3 and blockchain.
Bitcoin Highlights of the Week
Tether is launching a mining operation in Uruguay, a country with 94% renewable electricity generation. The company is hiring talents to work in their local plant in Uruguay!
Tether also reaches a new all time high in market cap and surpasses $83.2 Billion of issued USDT. We already know what is happening with the reserves right?
Tether buys Short term treasuries
Portion of the excess yield generated, goes into Bitcoin.
Repeat!
This partnership is to expand its hosting, locations and enabling real-time payments with near-zero fees for enterprises. Also, Google Cloud happened to not only tweet this news, but to pinnned it in their account. Probably nothing, right?
According to Saifedean, no taxes from the people were stolen to achieve this, in other words, he is doing it voluntarily.
A new initiative bringing industry experts together to help prepare for the Lightning economy of tomorrow.
Just imagine, your union holding Bitcoin. What more can we ask for, sign us up!
As of today, there is more than 110 establishments who opened their doors and accept bitcoin as payment.
Ethereum Highlights of the Week
As Ethereum transitions from a young experimental technology into a mature tech stack that is capable of actually bringing an open, global and permissionless experience to average users, there are three major technical transitions that the stack needs to undergo, roughly simultaneously:
The L2 scaling transition - everyone moving to rollups
The wallet security transition - everyone moving to smart contract wallets
The privacy transition - making sure privacy-preserving funds transfers are available, and making sure all of the other gadgets that are being developed (social recovery, identity, reputation) are privacy-preserving
Ethereum’s gas fees experienced a momentary spike in May due to the surge of meme coins hype. However, gas prices are cooling down by 40% in recent times. Many factors, including the decline in transaction and high gas prices, contributed to this relaxed situation. During the meme coin frenzy, Ethereum transactions had to compete for miners’ attention; thus, gas prices increased significantly. However, it appears that the tremendous usage of gas during that period destabilized the network and necessitated this relaxation. The reduced gas fees will attract more investors and traders, boosting network activity and increasing market value.
Ethereum is one of the most popular cryptocurrencies of the world, backed by the powerful blockchain technology. The platform has taken the world by storm by providing high-level functionalities such as smart contracts, decentralized applications, and fueling other cryptocurrencies with the help of its own native token - ETH. Ethereum has numerous applications such as being used as a mode of payment, creating new tokens, and creating a decentralized system to store and secure data. Additionally, the Ethereum network provides transparency and security to its users, which makes it a preferred choice for modern businesses. As the popularity of Ethereum continues to grow, it is expected that it will impact the way the economy operates in the future.
The Ethereum network has experienced an unpredictable rise and fall in gas fees for a while now. Recently, the gas fees hit record highs coupled with network congestion, causing a slowdown in transaction confirmation and increasing transaction costs. However, on Monday, May 31, the gas fees suddenly dropped to an average of 38 gwei. This sudden decrease has been attributed to several factors, including the miners’ migration to the Ethereum Classic network and the current market conditions, which are relatively slow. Ethereum users have suffered from the high fees for too long, and this sudden drop has come as a relief to many. However, experts advise Ethereum users to brace themselves for more unpredictable gas fee fluctuations in the future.
Cosmos Highlights of the Week
The Keplr team recently announced their brand new version of Keplr, which is the biggest upgrade since its launch and includes many exciting features to improve the user experience. If you want to migrate to Keplr 2.0, it’s very easy. Just click on ‘Start Migration’ and keep your browser open until the migration is complete.
The Gateway Conference is a major Cosmos event taking place in Prague. It is the perfect place to meet the builders from the Cosmos ecosystem.
If you’re also at the event, feel free to let us know! Our team is currently there and ready to chat about all the exciting things happening in the Cosmos ecosystem!
Anoma is the first-ever intent-centric architecture, introducing a new paradigm for building infrastructure layers and a new operating system for decentralized applications.
This prop proposes the creation of a protocol “taker fee” on all swaps on the Osmosis DEX. The fee is charged on the input value of swaps, independent of & in addition to the LP swap fees charged by pools.
With Celestia’s close connection to the Cosmos ecosystem, Noble plans to support Celestia by enabling USDC and native asset issuance for rollup developers, thus providing direct access to native stablecoins!
It means that in minutes, developers will be able to spin up a new application on a dedicated blockchain, mint USDC on Noble, connect their blockchain via IBC or Hyperlane, and initiate cheap and fast stablecoin transactions.
Other Highlights of the Week
LBank, a leading digital asset exchange, has announced a new partnership with Chainlink to integrate the decentralized oracle network services into its platform. With the integration, LBank users will have access to secure and reliable price data for various digital assets with high accuracy and fast updates. This move will enhance data integrity and transparency in the exchange, as Chainlink’s oracle services will ensure that market data is free from manipulation and tampering. Furthermore, Chainlink’s oracle services will add more value and expand LBank’s ecosystem that currently ranks as one of the top exchanges globally. The integration is part of LBank’s commitment to providing its users with the best trading experience by leveraging the latest blockchain innovations.
The legal battle between Ripple and SEC seems to be heating up as the release of a document from the SEC led a Ripple executive to call for a hearing on crypto regulation. The document in question is a speech given by the former SEC Director of Corporation Finance, William Hinman, in which he stated that Ethereum was not a security. The release of the speech was seen as a win for Ripple in their ongoing case, as they argue that XRP should also be classified as a non-security. However, the SEC has also indicated that they will not be making a determination on XRP’s classification until the conclusion of the ongoing lawsuit.
The cryptocurrency market has been experiencing consolidation, with stablecoins and large market cap coins seeing slight fluctuations in price. However, Avalanche (AVAX) has surged in price, reaching its all-time high on June 5th, 2023. The increased interest in AVAX can be attributed to the launch of its cross-chain bridge, enabling users to transfer assets between Avalanche and other blockchain protocols. Other notable gains came from Solana (SOL), DOT (DOT), and MATIC (MATIC). Meanwhile, Bitcoin and Ethereum remained relatively stable, with some analysts predicting a potential breakout in the near future. The market’s overall sentiment remains positive, with investors optimistic about the future of decentralized finance and blockchain technology.
Binance has announced the launch of its Non-Fungible Token (NFT) marketplace, which aims to join the budding ecosystem of digital assets. The Binance NFT marketplace features several new partnerships with high-profile creators, brands, and blockchain platforms. Furthermore, it offers a simple and accessible user interface designed to attract amateur investors and new entrants to the NFT space. The ‘100 creators’ program, influenced by Binance’s user-centric approach, is focused on showcasing innovative and undiscovered talent in the world of NFT art, injecting fresh creativity into the nascent industry. It also provides a platform for the support of artists and their continued engagement with crypto enthusiasts, providing avenues for monetization and expanding opportunities in decentralized finance.
Crypto lending platform Celsius Network’s decision to stake $800 million worth of ETH has caused a surge in demand for validator slots on the Ethereum network, stretching the validator queue to 44 days. Celsius says it’s staking the ether to secure the network, stabilize fees and incentivize mining. The move has also pushed up the value of ETH by more than 5%. Celsius’ decision to stake such a large amount of ether demonstrates the increasing faith in the token, and its power to secure the network. However, some have criticized the move as centralizing and potentially leading to a concentration of power in the hands of just a few entities.