On Friday CI Global Asset Management, Purpose Investments Inc., and Evolve Funds have received clearance from Ontario Securities Commission to launch Ethereum exchange traded funds (ETFs) in Canada.
These ETFs will be available on Toronto’s Stock Exchange (TSX), which will allow retail investors in Canada to invest directly into the digital asset from 20 April 2021. Ethereum (ETH), which is currently the second-largest cryptocurrency by market capitalisation, is the obvious next choice for institutions looking to get their feet wet in the crypto economy.
While Bitcoin tends to get a lot of attention as it was the first major cryptocurrency, what ether and the Ethereum ecosystem represent is one of the most exciting new technology visions today in society
Som Seif, founder and CEO of Purpose Investments
Three Ethereum ETFs in One Day
All three of these funds were cleared on Friday:
The CI Galaxy Ethereum ETF will trade in Canadian dollars (ETHX.B, unhedged) and in U.S. dollars (ETHX.U). CI GAM is the manager of the ETF and Galaxy Digital Asset Management (“GDAM”) will be the sub-advisor.
— CI Global Asset Management (@CIGlobalAsset) April 16, 2021
Purpose Investments is the manager of Purpose Ether ETF and Ether Capital Corporation will consult. The ETH will be kept in cold storage with Gemini acting as the sub-custodian and CIBC Mellon Global Securities acting as the fund administrator.
The approval comes a little over two months after Canada approved the Purpose Bitcoin ETF which held 10,064 BTC in the first week of trading.
Purpose ETF is designed to provide investors with exposure to ether by investing directly in physically settled ether. The ETF will offer three classes of units: Canadian dollar currency hedged units (ETHH), Canadian dollar non-currency hedged units (ETHH.B) and U.S. dollar units with ticker units (ETHH.U).
Evolve Funds stated that “similar to Bitcoin, investors will now be able to trade Ether as simple as buying shares through their bank or brokerage.” Evolve’s ETF will trade on the TSX as ETHR.
We're launching! Evolves Ether ETF will be trading Tuesday, April 20th! Stay tuned for more information and review our press release here. https://t.co/JfWLamgU9w
Earlier this year Canada had also approved Bitcoin ETFs. Two of which broke records with their trading volumes: Purpose trading $80 million in its first hour and Evolve raised $421 million in just two days. With the now soon-to-be open Ethereum ETFs, mainstream crypto adoption is warming up in Canada.
For today’s trading news, we’re looking at three Altcoins that might breakout this week by showing bullish trends in the charts.
1. BitTorrent (BTT)
BitTorrent is a popular peer-to-peer (P2P) file sharing and torrent platform which has become increasingly decentralized in recent years. According to its official literature, BitTorrent is currently the “largest decentralized P2P communications protocol” in the world.
The platform has seen multiple legal battles, with Cohen maintaining that it does not break copyright laws in allowing users to share files such as music and movies among themselves.
BTT Price Analysis
At the time of writing, BTT is ranked 27th cryptocurrency globally and the current price is $0.0104 AUD. Let’s take a look at the chart below for price analysis.
BTT’s explosive March climbing over +1,100% retraced nearly half of the move within a week.
While the price possibly needs to cool off before any significant move higher, stubborn bulls could look for entries in possible support beginning near $0.0093 AUD.
A break below $0.0084 AUD might to continue to an area near $0.0068 AUD. Strong bearish momentum might push the price through April’s monthly open to possible support near $0.0049 AUD.
In both bullish and bearish scenarios, it seems reasonable (but not guaranteed) to anticipate a retest of resistance near $0.0125 AUD, which would sweep a cluster of relatively equal highs near $0.0128 AUD.
Continued strength above this area could continue to resistance near $0.0144 AUD and the high near $0.0155 AUD.
2. Ethereum (ETH)
Ethereum is a decentralized open-source blockchain system that features its own cryptocurrency, Ether. ETH works as a platform for numerous other cryptocurrencies, as well as for the execution of decentralized smart contracts.
Ethereum’s own purported goal is to become a global platform for decentralized applications, allowing users from all over the world to write and run software that is resistant to censorship, downtime, and fraud.
Ethereum Price Analysis
At the time of writing, ETH is ranked 2nd cryptocurrency globally and the current price is $2,843 AUD. Let’s take a look at the chart below for price analysis.
Since the beginning of March, ETH has climbed +70%, a relatively small amount compared to many other altcoins. However, the price continues to creep to new all-time highs, suggesting that the consolidation period may be near its end.
Aggressive bulls could look for entries in new possible support between $2,796 AUD and $2,683 AUD. A dip below this area might also find support near $2,583 AUD. However, a daily close near $2,605 AUD brings bullish strength into question.
A sudden drop in the market could test possible support beginning near $2,410 AUD. This retracement would create extensions suggesting $3,987 AUD to 3,998 AUD as a potential target for bulls.
Currently, extensions indicate a reasonable take-profit zone near $3,388 AUD to $3,684 AUD with $3,652 AUD having the most confluence. If bulls can maintain strength, confluent extensions point to $4,225 AUD – $4,300 AUD as a possible next target.
3. PundiX (NPXS)
PundiX is a leading developer of blockchain-powered devices with the aim of transforming retail businesses with its blockchain-based point of sale solution. The solution allows retail merchants and consumers to conduct instantaneous in-store transactions on its blockchain.
NPXS Price Analysis
At the time of writing, NPXS is ranked 88th cryptocurrency globally and the current price is $0.006301 AUD. Let’s take a look at the chart below for price analysis.
Source: TradingViewNote: NPXS recently changed to PUNDIX. This analysis is done on the old NPXS charts since the old chart contains more historical price action. Multiply the NPXS values given here by 100 for the approximate levels on the PUNDIX chart.
March 1st spawned a bullish move in NPXS, reaching over +430%. Chaotic price action near the top of this move resolved into a nearly 50% retracement.
Multiple breaks of swing lows between sweeps of swing highs suggest that the market structure has turned bearish for the immediate future. If the overall market’s conditions remain bullish, this could result in consolidation somewhere below the current price.
Possible support for the start of consolidation rests near $0.005967 AUD. A set of equal lows below this level might be swept into possible support, beginning near $0.005038 AUD.
Another spike upward is possible, but not guaranteed, as the price retraces. The area just under the April monthly open, beginning near $0.009644 AUD, seems a reasonable target. Above this resistance, the last swing high near $0.01254 AUD provides active uptrend.
Where to Buy or Trade Altcoins?
These 3 Altcoins have the highest liquidity on Binance Exchange so that could help for trading on USDT or BTC pairs. Instead, if you’re looking at buying and HODLing cryptos, then Swyftx Exchange is a popular choice in Australia.
It was a historical moment for cryptocurrency enthusiasts on Monday when the global crypto market capitalization crossed $2 trillion. What’s more interesting is that it only took a few months for the crypto market to reach the second $1 trillion than the initial time, which took close to a decade.
Total market capitalisation [CoinGecko]
The growth of the cryptocurrency market results from the recent increases in the market value of top cryptocurrencies since the beginning of the year, including Bitcoin (BTC) and Ether (ETH).
Bitcoin Accounts for Over 50% of Crypto Market Cap
There are over five thousand cryptocurrencies that made up the $2 trillion market capitalization on CoinGecko. However, the first-ever cryptocurrency, Bitcoin (BTC), accounts for over 50 percent of the entire market. During press time, BTC had a total valuation of US$1.057 trillion.
BTC has seen an exponential kind of increase since the start of 2021. A market 2021 quarter one report by Crypto News Australia informed Bitcoin was the best-performing asset with over 100 percent increase in value.
Bitcoin chart [CoinGecko]
The price of Ether, which is the second-largest cryptocurrency by market capitalization, increased by over 170 percent on a year-to-date (YTD) chart. ETH has a market capitalization of $229 billion, which represents 12.4 percent of the entire crypto market cap.
Ethereum chart [CoinGecko]
A few other major altcoins to note are Bitcoin Coin (BNB), Polkadot (DOT), Cardano (ADA), and Ripple (XRP), all of which have seen a massive increase in value since 2021.
Institutions are investing in crypto
The swift growth of the cryptocurrency market is indicative of active institutional players. It’s worth mentioning that institutions played a significant role in recent rallies in the crypto market. Last year, Bitcoin skyrocketed as big-name companies, including MicroStrategy, Square, MassMutual, etc., allocated part of their cash reserve to it.
In 2021, more institutions and deep-pocketed investors began flooding into the market, especially in BTC, such as Tesla. The growth in crypto investment products like Grayscale’s Trusts indicates the interest of risk-minded investors in the market.
04/06/21 UPDATE: Net Assets Under Management, Holdings per Share, and Market Price per Share for our Investment Products.
As we all know, the world of cryptocurrency moves at an alarming rate, with new coins and asset classes constantly going in and out of fashion. One of the hottest crypto trends to have taken the market by storm in early 2021 is Non-Fungible Tokens, or NFTs for short.
But what are NFTs all about? Why are they considered so important? And why has this new asset class taken off?
From super-rare CryptoKitties (don’t worry – we’ll explain) to famous tweets selling for millions of dollars, this guide will take a detailed look into NFTs and bring you up to speed as quickly as possible.
What is a NFT?
A Non-Fungible Token is a unique digital asset which cannot be subdivided in smaller parts, which makes it different from cryptocurrencies. Although NFTs can be stored on a secure database, they are most commonly developed to leverage the Ethereum blockchain because of its benefits, so this guide is focused on that case.
The main point of NFTs is that they cannot be exchanged with one another because each item is a unique, one-of-a-kind digital asset – hence the term ‘non-fungible’. To explain this property, imagine NFTs as airline tickets: each ticket has specific information like passenger details, flight’s date and destination. These unique sets of data make it impossible for flight tickets to be used as if they were currency.
Physical
Digital
Fungible
Money, gold, casino chips
Loyalty points, Bitcoin, Ethereum
Non-Fungible
Artworks, tickets to an event, houses
Trademarks, videogame skins, CryptoKitties
Applications of NFTs can vary greatly, from sporting collectables to “virtual real estate”. However, what has recently put NFTs under the spotlight globally is digital art, as it fits particularly well to NFT’s intrinsic features. Just like an original piece of physical art, all NFTs are unique by design. Contrary to regular pieces of artwork, which can be copied or forged to be passed off as original, NFTs are practically fraud-proof as they can be instantly verified via the blockchain. The ownership the token can be verified, tracked and transferred like other blockchain transactions, opening the possibility for trading.
What are some important NFT characteristics?
After an introduction to NFTs and how they work, let’s look a little closer at some of their key characteristics.
Unique – each token has a unique set of properties stored in its meta data.
Verifiable – their rarity can be verified on the blockchain, making them fraud proof.
Indivisible – they cannot be split into smaller denominations so it’s impossible to transfer or buy a fraction of a NFT.
Guaranteed ownership of the asset – when purchased, the buyer holds the right to claim ownership of that unique token but not the rights to its distribution.
Easily transferable – NFTs have been standardised on public blockchains, making transfers across different digital ecosystems quick and simple.
Indestructible – as data is stored on the blockchain via smart contracts, NFTs cannot be removed or destroyed.
What are some different types of NFTs?
Sales for the booming crypto ‘niche’ are estimated to be well over a billion dollars, with over $250 million of NFT traded last year alone, but what are some examples of digital tokens that are hot at the moment?
Here is where CryptoKitties come into play as mentioned earlier. These cute, collectible digi-kittens were the first token to really put NFTs on the map back in 2017. Since then over $42 million have been spent acquiring different CryptoKitties according to Non Fungible, with one digital cat being purchased for $170,000.
Despite CryptoKitties being the trailblazers of the NFT world, it is argued that the first NFT was developed in around 2013 with Colored Coins. To emphasise how far things have come since then, earlier this month, international auction house Christie’s sold a JPG file by famous digital artist Mike Winkelmann, also known as Beeple, named “Everydays: The First 5000 Days” for US$69.3m.
The concept of art is somewhat subjective and digital art is no exception, as it seems that there are no real boundaries restraining where this industry will go next. For instance, Twitter CEO Jack Dorsey is currently selling his first ever tweet that read: “just setting up my twittr” for an estimated US$2.5m.
Musicians are also getting in on the act too, with the band Kings of Leon releasing their new album, When You See Yourself, as a NFT. Exclusive artwork, limited edition vinyl access and also the potential to win lifetime front-row tickets was included in the $50 NFT album package which was on sale for just two weeks.
Where can I buy NFTs?
Having understood what NFTs are and what they are used for, when it comes to buying them there are a few options to consider.
There are many NFT marketplaces such as Crypto.com NFT Marketplace, often dedicated to specific categories of tokens. For example, if you were interested in buying the Kings of Leon NFT album mentioned previously, most music-related tokens can be found on YellowHeart. OpenSea is a very popular marketplace that can be used for purchasing all sorts of collectibles and gaming items. Sought-after NBA highlight reels are available at NBA Top Shot, where US$230m has already been spent for “Top NBA moments”. Other digital goods marketplaces include Decentraland, Nifty Gateway, Rarible and SuperRare.
Purchasing NFTs, for example a piece of digital art, is quite straightforward in general. You only need a digital wallet that is compatible with the marketplace you are purchasing from. Fund your wallet with the supported currency options and you are pretty much ready to go ahead. Remember to check for specific instructions as they may differ from marketplace to marketplace.
The number of active validators for Ethereum 2.0 (or Serenity) has been increasing rapidly since the beginning of the year. This suggests more Ether (ETH) being staked on the deposit contract.
Eth2 Staking and Validators
According to the data from Beaconcha.in, 3,616,331 ETH have been staked on the Ethereum 2.0 deposit contract, which represents about 3.136 percent of the total ETH in circulation. The coins staked are worth over $7 billion, following the price of ETH at US$1,958 at the time of writing. Additionally, there are currently 113,012 active validators on the network.
The increasing number of coins staked on the Ethereum 2.0 deposit contract indicates the community’s growing level of confidence for the Proof-of-Stake (PoS) era. The full deployment of Ethereum 2.0 would transition the mainnet from a Proof-of-Work (PoW) model to PoS, where new blocks are added to the blockchain through validators instead of miners.
To become a validator, users are expected to stake at least 32 ETH (US$62,656). Meanwhile, the annual percentage return (APR) for staking on the deposit contract is 8.1 percent, according to Eth2 LaunchPad.
Eth2 to Address Network Congestion Issue With Current Mainnet
Scalability is a serious issue affecting the current Ethereum network. There is a massive number of users and projects on the blockchain, hence, resulting in the congestion of the network. Consequently, this usually causes a spike in the network fee, thereby making Ethereum more expensive for smaller users. As seen in recent months, many projects had to migrate to other blockchains, often towards Binance Smart Chain (BSC), for reasons that include high transaction fees.
Eth developers are planning to fix these issues through Ethereum 2.0, which is a better and more scalable version of the current network. However, Eth2 won’t be launched until the next two years, at least.
Decentralised finance (DeFi) firm Aave liquidity protocol is working with Polygon (formerly known as MATIC) an Ethereum side-chain project to alleviate congestion and transaction fees on second-largest public blockchain.
In an announcement by Aave integration lead Marc Zeller, they will be exploring Ethereum sidechain technology for an increased user experience.
Block space supply today is scarce and limited, and since the “DeFi Summer” of 2020, demand for using Ethereum and DeFi has never slowed down […] High transaction fees are a feature of a successful public blockchain, as they define actors ready to pay the market price to use the decentralised services.
Marc Zeller, Integrations lead at Aave
The first exploration of ‘New Frontiers’ will be with @0xPolygon, a sidechain of Ethereum that allows quick and cheap transactions 🌵🤠
One of the main assets of DeFi is the ability to build synergies with other projects, and by having an Aave Market in all the venues that matter, there’s no need for a “winner-takes-all” scalability solution and users can choose the solution they feel comfortable with.
Stani Kulechov, Aave founder
Polygon Sidechain Integration
Polygon is a scalable sidechain of Ethereum and boasts a growing ecosystem, with some of the favourites being Aavegotchi and decentralised exchange Quickswap. Polygon is also powered by Chainlink oracles, benefiting Aave by gaining access to high quality and security price-data.
A sidechain on Ethereum refers to any mechanism that allows tokens from the layer 1 mainchain to be securely used within a completely separate blockchain but still moved back to the original chain if necessary.
Polygon will also be bringing in a smart-contract bridge to allow various other assets. Users of the bridge will receive part of the transaction fee used in MATIC tokens to cover most of their transaction fees on the Polygon blockchain.
A look at some of the fees:
Deposit AAVE : $0.000061
Borrow USDC : $0.000102
Withdraw AAVE : $0.000109
Repay USDC : $0.000072
I think we're still all underestimating what mainstream crypto adoption will look like when gas fees aren't $100 / transaction.
At launch the following assets will be onboarded on the Polygon Aave Market :
MATIC
USDC
USDT
DAI
WETH
AAVE
WBTC
With close to $43 billion currently locked within DeFi lending platforms. Built on Ethereum, Aave, a DeFi protocol aimed at both retail and institutional clients, has a market size of $6.48 billion, making it the third largest in the sector, according to DeFi Pulse. Aave has also integrated with Transak to enable the direct purchase of Polygon assets with fiat currencies.
Just as the cryptocurrency market recovers, the largest digital currency investment company, Grayscale Investment, saw a significant increase in its assets under management (AUM). Within three days, Grayscale gained over US$3 billion in assets.
The Bitcoin (BTC) and Ethereum (ETH) Trust products account for the largest share of the entire AUM. However, some people are worried GBTC and GETH premiums are trading well below the market price of the underlying assets.
Grayscale Reports a Total of over $44 Billion in AUM
03/29/21 UPDATE: Net Assets Under Management, Holdings per Share, and Market Price per Share for our Investment Products.
Grayscale has reported a total of US$44.1 billion in assets under management as of 29 March 2021. The company supports about 13 crypto investment products, five of which were added on 17 March, including Chainlink (LINK) and Basic Attention Token (BAT). The GBTC product accounts for about US$37.3 billion, followed by GETH, which represents about US$5.58 billion of the total AUM.
Three days ago, the investment company reported a US$41 billion AUM. The $3 billion increase could be partially attributed to the recent increase in the market value of Bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies. Last week, BTC was trading mainly around US$55,000. However, since the start of the week, the cryptocurrency showed stronger price momentum, and it could cross US$59,100 soon.
The Issue With Grayscale Premium
Many users have shown much concern about the negative Grayscale Premiums. Since February, the company’s share price for GBTC has been dropping lower than the underlying cryptocurrency itself. According to data from OTCNode, GBTC is trading at a premium of -10 percent compared to the current price of Bitcoin. GETH premium is also negative (-8.66 percent).
Grayscale might consider buying back the shares to curtail the declining premiums, as previously announced.
Visa announced on Monday that it now allows partners of its network to clear fiat transactions with the USDC stablecoin using the Ethereum blockchain.
Visa Using Ethereum Blockchain
Visa’s most recent move, will allow them to utilise the Ethereum blockchain, this removes the need to convert digital currency into traditional money in order for the transaction to be settled. Where this would traditionally be the case. For example, Crypto.com won’t have to go through conversions and can settle with Visa directly in USDC.
Visa said it has partnered with digital asset bank Anchorage, the first federally chartered digital asset bank, and completed the first transaction this month — with Crypto.com sending USDC to Visa’s Ethereum address at Anchorage. The (USDC) is a stablecoin cryptocurrency, and its value is directly linked to the U.S. dollar.
Visa came to us in 2019 with an idea—make secure, efficient, and seamless settlement payments possible in digital currency by linking Visa’s treasury with Anchorage’s custody platform.
Diogo Mónica, co-founder and president of Anchorage
The credit card giant is already partnering with 35 digital currency platforms, including Coinbase, Crypto.com, BlockFi and Bitpanda, which collectively have more than 50 million active users.
We see increasing demand from consumers across the world to be able to access, hold and use digital currencies and we’re seeing demand from our clients to be able to build products that provide that access for consumers.
Cuy Sheffield, head of crypto at Visa
“Crypto-native fintechs want partners who understand their business and the complexities of digital currency form factors,” said Visa chief product officer Jack Forestell. “The announcement today marks a major milestone in our ability to address the needs of fintechs managing their business in a stablecoin or cryptocurrency.”
The firm said it aims to make this system available to Fintech companies and neobanks dealing in cryptocurrencies including Bitcoin (BTC), Ether (ETH), and USDC. After further testing and additional conversations with its clients, partners, and members of the regulatory community, Visa hopes to launch the USDC settlement capability for other partners as well “in the year ahead.”
The long-awaited next iteration of the leading decentralized exchange, Uniswap, will be deployed in the next two months, as the team disclosed in a blog post on Tuesday.
The upcoming Uniswap V3 is essentially aimed at enabling a more capital-efficient decentralized trading platform. Interestingly, the improvements with V3 will allow cheaper gas fees for transactions on the exchange compared to the current Uniswap iteration.
Uniswap V3 to Launch on Ethereum and Optimism Network
According to the Uniswap team, the next iteration will be deployed on the Ethereum blockchain precisely on May 5 and later on the Optimism network. With Uniswap V3, liquidity can be provided on the exchange with about 4000x capital efficiency, compared to the current Uniswap V2.
This will liquidity providers earn higher returns on their capital while also paving the way for low-slippage trade execution.
Additionally, Uniswap V3 will allow efficient and cheaper integration of oracles, which are “capable of providing time-weighted average prices (TWAPs) on demand for any period within the last ~ nine days.” With the launch of Optimism, the gas cost of V3 swaps will likely be significantly cheaper.
These features make Uniswap v3 the most flexible and efficient AMM ever designed.
Uniswap
Uniswap TVL
The exchange has become a critical infrastructure for decentralized finance. The current iteration was deployed in May 2020 and facilitated more than $135 billion in trading volume within a period of one year.
Uniswap was once the largest protocol in DeFi. However, its asset began plummeting following the end of its liquidity incentives last year. One can easily predict that the DEX will eventually outrank some protocols, following the features of V3. At the time of writing, there are US$4.04 billion worth of assets locked in the exchange, according to DeFi Pulse.
The Binance Smart Chain (BSC) has reached another all-time high in daily transaction volume.
Over the recent weeks, the transaction volume on Binance Smart Chain has increased significantly as many people and projects are switching to the centralized network for cheaper and faster transactions. This comes amid the congestion on Ethereum, which has caused slower and expensive transaction fees for the second-largest blockchain network.
BSC Topped 3 Million in Daily Transaction Volume
Following the BSC Scan data, a total of 3,726,576 transactions were made on the network as of March 16, which is the highest number of daily transactions on BSC since its inception. This is not surprising as many projects are increasingly being developed on the network. Additionally, some other projects have migrated from the Ethereum blockchain to the BSC network for cheaper and faster transactions.
Early this month, SushiSwap launched on the Binance Smart Chain and a few other blockchain networks, including Fantom, in a bid to escape the expensive transaction fees plaguing the root network, Ethereum. Meanwhile, the decentralized exchange (DEX) is currently the largest in the DeFi market, with about US$4.59 billion in assets locked.
Sushi is going multichain 🍣⛓
We have deployed the Sushi contracts to these networks
On March 16, Ethereum recorded about 1.3 million in daily transaction volume.
What is Killing Ethereum?
The activities on the Ethereum blockchain increased significantly, probably due to the boom in the decentralized finance industry and the non-fungible tokens (NFTs) market. However, the increased usage of Ethereum resulted in network congestion, making it very expensive to use.
The developers are looking to resolve this scalability issue through the Serenity upgrade, also known as Ethereum 2.0. This major upgrade is expected to be completed and deployed in the next two to three years, hence, many Ethereum users fear that the network might continue to lose more projects and users if no immediate action was taken by the developers to solve the issue.
As a temporary solution, however, Ethereum developers are planning to deploy rollups, which is a layer-two solution that will scale the current Ethereum network by 100x, according to Vitalik Buterin, the co-founder of Ethereum. He added that the planned solution would address the congestion issue on the network until Ethereum 2.0.
