Category: Ethereum

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Bitcoin Crypto News Ethereum Markets

$250 Billion Wiped from Crypto Market amid Market Fear and Leveraged Liquidations

After staging a recovery following January’s sell-off, the cryptocurrency market has yet again felt the pain of a sharp decline after U$250 billion was erased from the sector’s market capitalisation (market cap).

Cryptocurrency market cap. Source: CoinGecko

A Sea of Red

Initial negative price action started over the weekend, which saw bitcoin drop below US$43,000, accelerated by US$152 million in leveraged long liquidations. In total, the market saw over US$439 million in liquidations within 24 hours.

It is, however, worth noting that these levels remain relatively mild compared to prior episodes, suggesting that further losses may be on the horizon.

Bitcoin then continued its descent on Monday, dropping 15 percent in 24 hours, falling below US$40,000 for the first time since March 15. Meanwhile, Ethereum fell 14 percent, sinking below the US$3,000 mark for the first time since March 23. Across the board, with the exception of Monero (XMR), all major cryptocurrencies are significantly down over the past week:

Crypto market 7-day performance. Source: Quantifycrypto

Fear and Uncertainty

Digital assets form part of the broader investment universe, and due to their speculative nature tend to get hit hardest when sentiment shifts risk-off. Risk-on assets, such as equities and crypto, generally decline when market fear takes hold as investors seek safety in less risky assets.

For these reasons, bitcoin (and other digital assets) tend to mirror the performance of the equity market in the short term, specifically the higher volatility tech sector.

Since March 2020, Bitcoin’s correlation with the tech-heavy Nasdaq 100 has increased significantly:

BTC and Nasdaq correlation. Source: Koyfin

It’s therefore not surprising that all major global equities indices are down amid growing inflation and slower economic growth, resulting in many investors reducing exposure to higher volatility growth assets.

This follows news of the 10-year US Treasury yield rising to a three-year high, making tech stocks significantly less attractive, and cryptocurrencies even less so. In addition, there’s an ongoing war in Ukraine and the Federal Reserve is posturing to aggressively raise interest rates.

For these reasons, macro sentiment is negative and fear is widespread, resulting in a flight to safety away from assets such as cryptocurrencies. With US inflation figures due to be released this week, the market remains on edge, and as Bitcoin analyst Will Clemente recently opined on Twitter:

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Arbitrum Crypto News DeFi Ethereum NFTs

Ethereum Rollup ‘Arbitrum’ Releases Update to Reduce Gas Fees by 50%

Arbitrum, Ethereum’s largest rollup solution with over US$2 billion total value locked (TVL), has announced the launch of Nitro, a major update that reduces gas fees by half on Arbitrum’s network.

According to an official announcement from Offchain Labs – the company behind the rollup – Nitro is an advanced rollup stack that can do Arbitrum’s interactive fraud proofs over WASM (WebAssembly), an experimental low-level programming language:

The Arbitrum Nitro upgrade was under development in October 2021 by the Offchain Labs team. In essence, Nitro is a fully built-out scaling infrastructure that uses WASM instead of today’s custom-designed language and compilers.

Arbitrum is 90-95 percent cheaper and faster than Ethereum (gas fees on the rollup are usually around US$0.50 or $1). However, the integration of Nitro will further lower gas fees while increasing the throughput.

Today, we throttle Arbitrum’s capacity, but with Nitro we’ll be able to release those controls and significantly up our throughput. And while Arbitrum today is already 90–95 percent cheaper than Ethereum on average, Nitro cuts our costs even further.

Offchain blog post

Arbitrum Making Waves in DeFi Sector

Arbitrum is Ethereum’s largest optimistic rollup. Rollups are a technology used to scale the Ethereum network by taking the transaction data out of the mainnet to execute it on the rollup-specific blockchain. The transaction result is then bundled up and sent back to Ethereum, so Ethereum node validators can verify whether the data is valid.

Arbitrum has collaborated with a handful of high-performance DeFi protocols – a few months ago Crypto News Australia reported that Tornado Cash had integrated with Arbitrum to allow the Ethereum-based crypto mixer to enjoy Arbitrum’s cheap gas fees and high throughput.

Arbitrum also hosts NFTs (non-fungible tokens). A month ago, Crypto News Australia also reported that roughly US$1.4 million worth of Smol Brains – the most popular NFT collection on Arbitrum – had been stolen in an exploit, as confirmed by Arbitrum’s NFT marketplace TreasureDAO.

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Bitcoin Crypto Exchange Crypto News Crypto Wallets Ethereum Lightning Network

Robinhood Unveils Plans to Support Lightning Payments for 2 Million Users

At this week’s Bitcoin 2022 conference, Robinhood announced the rollout of wallets to two million eligible users with further plans to integrate the Lightning Network, according to a blog post by the crypto broker.

Robinhood chief product officer Aparna Chennapragada announced that customers who have been waitlisted for the digital wallet can now send and receive cryptocurrencies. The wallet will not, however, support Ethereum-based services such as NFTs and ERC-20 tokens.

Lightning Strikes Again

The platform is also planning to integrate the Bitcoin Lightning Network to reduce the time and cost of transactions, along with their carbon footprint. It’s another win for the Lightning Network, which has grown parabolic with an additional US$70 million raised to bring stablecoins to the network earlier this month.

The wallet will not be available to users in the US states of Hawaii, Nevada and New York “due to local regulations”. Robinhood has been testing its digital wallet feature since September 2021, completing its first alpha transfer in November and launching a beta version for tens of thousands of users in January 2022.

The reaction from the Robinhood community has been mostly positive, though according to the firm’s FAQ, any NFTs or unsupported tokens sent to a Robinhood Ethereum address will be lost.

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Banking Coinbase Crypto News Crypto Wallets Ethereum Gas MetaMask Payments Stablecoins

MetaMask iOS Update Allows Users to Buy Crypto Using a Credit Card

MetaMask now allows iPhone and Apple Pay users to buy crypto using a debit or credit card through its mobile application, eliminating the need to transfer Ethereum from a centralised exchange such as Coinbase into the app.

And in response to popular demand, MetaMask has also introduced the Apple Dark Mode feature, which will automatically open in the app as long as a user’s iPhone operating system has dark mode enabled.

Daily Deposit Limit of 400 USD

Users can now deploy their Visas and Mastercards stored in Apple Pay to buy ETH and deposit a daily maximum of US$400 into their wallets, thanks to the Wyre API (MetaMask uses two payment gateways, Wyre and Transak, to support debit card and credit card transactions).

Gas fees are also said to be lower, and some transactions may even be gasless if done on a private blockchain or if a project pays for the gas on the user’s behalf. (When completing an ETH purchase, MetaMask discloses that it does not profit from gas fees.)

Buy Stablecoins and Make Bank Transfers in 60+ Currencies

Via Transak, users have been able to buy stablecoins such as USDT, USDC and DAI on the Ethereum mainnet in MetaMask for some time now, but the latest update also allows them to make bank transfers and use credit/debit cards to buy crypto using more than 60 global currencies.

Exact payment methods and fees vary depending on the location. Earlier this month, OpenSea and Metamask blocked users from countries including Iran and Venezuela after both platforms cited compliance issues. It was later confirmed that Ethereum’s Infura cut off users to separatist areas in Ukraine, accidentally blocking Venezuelan users as well.

Just this week, the EU Parliament announced its intention to extend checks to cover privately managed unhosted wallets, including MetaMask, despite fears that such rules could prove unenforceable.

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Bitcoin Crypto News Ethereum Investing Markets Solana

Crypto Sees Biggest Institutional Inflows This Year Driven By BTC, ETH and SOL

A report released by crypto asset management firm CoinShares shows that institutional crypto funds have seen their biggest capital inflows since December 2021, with over US$193 million pouring into the funds during the week ending March 25.

This new wave of interest in crypto investment products follows two weeks of outflows from crypto funds and coincides with a 15 percent increase in Bitcoin’s price over the past week.

European Funds, Bitcoin Lead the Way

Of the total inflows, European-based funds saw US$147 million, or around 76 percent, while a relatively paltry US$45 million went into US-based funds.

Bitcoin-focused funds were by far the most popular investment product, seeing US$97.8 in inflows, bringing total inflows since the start of 2022 to US$162 million.

Solana Funds Had Their Best Week, Most Altcoins Did Well

This was the single best week ever for Solana funds, with over US$87 million pouring in – representing 36 percent of assets under management, which now stand at a total of US$241 million. This makes Solana the fifth-largest investment product and the second-largest altcoin behind Ethereum.

Ethereum-focused funds were the second most popular altcoin, with US$10.2 million in inflows; Cardano-focused funds saw US$1.8 million; Polkadot-focused US$1.2 million, and ATOM-focused funds saw around US$800,000.

Flows by asset. Source: CoinShare

Multi-asset funds bucked the trend and recorded US$5.5 million in outflows, which was a surprise since they’ve been relatively popular recently – this being only the second week this year they’ve seen net outflows.

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Bitcoin Cardano Dogecoin Ethereum Markets Polkadot Terra

Crypto Market Holds Firm Over $2 Trillion as BTC Reclaims $47,000 USD

Despite the digital asset market first reaching a US$2 trillion market capitalisation in April 2021, significant economic and geopolitical uncertainty has stifled the sector’s forward momentum in 2022.

However, a confluence of factors have turned things around, resulting in the market lifting above US$2 trillion for the first time in over six weeks:

Global crypto market capitalisation. Source: Coinmarketcap.com

After investors’ frustration at what felt like endless sideways price action, the sentiment across crypto Twitter was distinctly upbeat by the positive moves:

Green Candles for All

Digital assets across the board saw material gains, with the crypto economy’s total value holding above US$2 trillion for five consecutive days.

According to Coinglass data, around US$142 million in short liquidations contributed to bitcoin breaching US$47,000 for the first time since January. No doubt, Terra’s decision to buy US$10 billion in BTC is also at least partially responsible for the surge.

At the time of publication, bitcoin is trading at US$47,664, effectively erasing its losses and pushing past break-even for the year.

BTC price action over past seven days. Source: CoinMarketCap.com

Outside of BTC, altcoins similarly enjoyed a strong comeback, with a veritable feast of green candles on display. Analysts have suggested that the positive returns over the past week may be indicative of an impending bull market:

  • BTC – 12.7 percent
  • ETH – 14.5 percent
  • ADA – 30.4 percent
  • SOL – 22.7 percent
  • BNB – 7.8 percent
  • XRP – 4.8 percent
  • LUNA – 11.8 percent
  • AVAX – 6.7 percent
  • POL -15.2 percent
  • DOGE – 19.6 percent

Market Gets Greedy

It’s been said that fear and greed drive financial markets, and nowhere is that more apparent than in crypto.

Last week, the multifactorial Cryptocurrency Fear and Greed index was at 26 out of a possible 100 (a state of “fear”, one level up from “extreme fear”). Within a week, things have turned around and optimism is in the air.

The index is now tracking at 60, suggesting that investors are getting greedy, but nowhere near the extreme levels above 90 last seen in April 2021.

Despite his equating Bitcoin to rat poison, Warren Buffett’s cautionary words are perhaps worth noting, especially when the market is seemingly on the up:

Be fearful when others are greedy, and greedy when others are fearful.

Warren Buffett, investor and philanthropist
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Ethereum Gaming Loopring NFTs

Loopring (LRC) Surges 55% Amid Release of GameStop NFT Marketplace

The Ethereum Layer-2 protocol Loopring (LRC) surged 55 percent following the launch of the beta version of GameStop’s Loopring-powered NFT marketplace on March 23.

According to CoinGecko, the price of LRC leapt from US$0.80 to just over US$1.20 in under 12 hours. At the time of writing the price is sitting at US$1.08, up around 35 percent from its pre-launch price but still down more than 70 percent from its all-time high.

Loopring Aims For Cheap, Secure, Fast NFTs

The launch was announced by Loopring’s head of growth Adam Browman, who said the new marketplace would make NFTs accessible to all in the gaming community by reducing costs and ensuring security:

The new marketplace built atop Loopring L2 ensures that users receive the strongest digital property rights anchored by a secure, decentralised, and credibly neutral environment like Ethereum. Loopring zkRollup inherits Ethereum’s self-custodial security while abstracting away costly gas fees, leaving no one priced out.

Adam Browman, Loopring head of growth

Browman also noted that Loopring provides the performance and scalability required to run this kind of marketplace, which he says was, until recently, “unimaginable”.

Launch Sparks New Interest

Interest in Loopring exploded in November last year when rumours first emerged of its involvement in a GameStop NFT marketplace, causing the price to surge to well over US$3 and the number of Loopring Smart wallet app users to boom:

After the initial wave of interest, though, investors started to question the degree of Loopring’s involvement as other layer 2s, such as ImmutableX, were linked with the project. The announcement of this beta marketplace confirms the rumours and may signal further growth for Loopring in coming months.

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Crypto News DAO Ethereum NFTs Tokens

Time Magazine Releases First Ever NFT Magazine Issue, Featuring Vitalik Buterin

Time magazine is set to release its first issue in full non-fungible token (NFT) form, with Ethereum co-founder Vitalik Buterin – dubbed the “Prince of Crypto” – on the cover.

The double issue, datelined March 28/April 4, will be launched in collaboration with the LITDAO, an NFT project launched in December 2021 about which little is known. No roadmap has been revealed, nor any use case; one of the very few concrete facts to have surfaced about LITDAO is that it operates with its own native currency, LIT.

LITDAO has reported that LIT Genesis holders will be eligible to receive an airdrop of Time‘s “historic NFT” alongside TIMEPiece Genesis holder. The latter is a Web3 community initiative created by Time, launched in September 2021 with a collection called “Build a Better Future”.

The airdrop will roll out with support from Circle, the company behind stablecoin USD Coin (USDC), with Transient Labs acting as the project’s technical partner.

According to Time, the Buterin issue will “live on the blockchain”, on a decentralised protocol. Holders of the NFT magazine will be able to read the content and interact with it.

Buterin Rails Against ‘$3 Million Monkeys’

Regarding said content, in the cover story interview with Andrew Chow, Buterin expresses concern about the dominance of DeFi and NFTs and the “shameless displays of wealth” driven by collections such as Bored Ape Yacht Club (BAYC). He also worries about the rise in transaction fees and “overeager investors”.

In the TIME cover story interview, Buterin worries about “shameless displays of wealth” as exemplified by BAYC owners. Source: investing.com

“The peril is you have these $3 million monkeys and it becomes a different kind of gambling,” Buterin says in reference to BAYC. “There definitely are lots of people that are just buying yachts and Lambos.”

Buterin tells Chow that his vision for the transformative power of Ethereum is at risk of being overtaken by greed:

If we don’t exercise our voice, the only things that get built are the things that are immediately profitable. And those are often far from what’s actually the best for the world.

Ethereum founder Vitalik Buterin

Time Has Mixed History with Ethereum

Time‘s close association with Buterin and the Ethereum blockchain harks back to November last year, when the media giant revealed a deal with Galaxy Digital. As part of the deal, Time would hold ETH on its balance sheet.

Two months earlier, when Time announced a new collection of NFTs offering “unlimited access” to its website throughout 2023, all 4,676 tokens tied to the digital artworks sold out in minutes. But the sale rush also clogged the Ethereum blockchain, sending gas fees through the roof. So much so that buyers spent almost four times as much on transaction fees as they did on the NFTs themselves.

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DeFi Ethereum NFTs

Whoops: $1 Million Valued Clipart Rock NFT Sells for Less Than a Cent

Mistakes are made in the cryptocurrency world, some of which incur a high price. This time, we’re talking about the owner of an NFT who erroneously listed his EtherRock for 444 wei instead of 444 ETH.

The NFT in question is a rock JPEG previously owned by a trader with the Twitter handle of Dino Dealer. The rock was supposed to be listed at 444 ETH, or roughly US$1.2 million, but Dino made the mistake of listing it in wei, the smallest denomination of ETH (1 ETH = 1,000,000,000,000,000,000 wei):

Sniper Bot Snaps Up Rock

The NFT was quickly snapped up for less than a cent by a sniper bot. Bots are becoming increasingly popular in NFT listings, as buyers can use them for last-second bidding on auction items, such as on decentralised marketplace OpenSea. There’s a freelance website called Upwork that offers sniper bots for US$200, along with other sniping tools.

A desperate Dino even tried to reach out to “crypto customer service” asking if there was a way to retrieve the rock. As expected, this request was met with jokes from users handing out emails and WhatsApp numbers to Dino. Of course, no one should ever follow up on those dubious numbers or emails:

To Err is Human, You Could Say

Given the immutable nature of the blockchain, it’s highly unlikely Dino will get his rock back unless the new owner of the NFT sympathises with him – also extremely unlikely.

We have seen various examples of costly mistakes such as this, although one might wonder how it could be possible to confuse wei with ETH. One such rookie error led to the sale of a Bored Ape NFT for US$3,000 instead of its intended market price of $300,000.

Another painful example was a mutant ape that sold for 17 USDC instead of 17 ETH – somehow the owner confused both currencies. Keep in mind the owner paid a fee of 2.87 ETH, or US$9,100 at that time.

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Crypto News Ethereum NFTs Polygon Rarible Tezos

Rarible Adds Polygon to Newly Released Wallet Housing All Your NFTs

NFT marketplace Rarible has been quite busy in the past couple of months and has now announced the addition of Polygon NFTs as well as multi-wallet support. Polygon joins Ethereum, Flow and Tezos as part of the platform’s vision for multi-chain commerce.

Tezos joined Rarible in December and was integrated with Flow in November. Rarible’s biggest competitor and marketleader, OpenSea, supports Ethereum, Polygon and Klatyn, and added Polygon-based NFTs in October.

Polygon is a sidechain scaling solution for Ethereum that enables faster and cheaper transactions than the Ethereum mainnet. Unlike Ethereum, which uses energy-intensive proof-of-work, Polygon relies on the eco-friendlier proof-of-stake consensus model that remains backed by the security offered by Ethereum.

Rarible Aims to Clear ‘Roadblocks’

As Rarible’s co-founder Alexei Falin said, “We have enjoyed watching the NFT market grow rapidly throughout the past two years but acknowledge that there are certain roadblocks that exist within the space, including high gas fees and ecosystem limitations. As a top NFT protocol and marketplace we have a responsibility to solve issues related to NFT creation and consumption, which is at the core of our multi-chain vision.”

Rarible Rolls Out ‘Multi-Wallet’

The marketplace has also launched a multi-wallet profile feature on Rarible.com that lets users sign in with up to 20 wallets at a time across different blockchains. By doing so, users with multiple wallets across various supported ecosystems won’t have to constantly sign in and out when buying and selling NFTs on the platform.

Falin has said, “We have seen firsthand how inconvenient it is to log in and out of wallets that hold collectibles spanning blockchains. To streamline this process for our users, the multi-wallet profile can support collections across any Rarible-supported blockchain in one place, so you can access items with one simple click.”