The internet is buzzing over recent developments in decentralized finance, or DeFi — smart contracts are hotter than ever. You might think you missed the coronation ceremony, but smart contracts are actually used in only a small corner of the crypto world, albeit a corner worth billions of dollars. It’s a promising concept that has gone widely unused in the business world. Despite the headlines and in spite of crypto-cloistering, smart contracts are not overhyped. The ability to execute secure and complex business transactions is a barrier that keeps plenty of people out of business altogether. Moreover, every major company …

Nonfungible tokens (NFTs) have taken the world by storm as stories of record-breaking digital art sales now regularly appear on mainstream news outlets and popular culture. One project that has been well-positioned for years to capitalize on this growing trend is Enjin Coin (ENJ), whose co-founder Witek Radomski was also involved in the development of the ERC-1155 token standard, which enabled the creation of NFTs on the Ethereum (ETH) network. Data from Cointelegraph Markets and TradingView shows that the price of ENJ has risen by 800% in the past month, going from a low of $0.34 on Feb. 23 to …

A report by analytics provider Coin Metrics has delved into the world of Ethererum transaction fees noting that they’re still at highest-ever levels and even a much touted approaching network upgrade is unlikely to alleviate the problem. According to the Ethereum Gas Report by Coin Metrics, median fees on Ethereum have been consistently over $10 for most of 2021. Comparatively, the average Ethereum transaction fee reached just $5.70 at the height of the 2017/2018 bull run. It attributed some of this increase to the increase in ETH prices themselves which will make gas more expensive. Since the beginning of 2021, …

Though Ether’s (ETH) value has continued to showcase increasing signs of stability around the $1,800 range over the past fortnight or so, users of the premier altcoin’s network have been faced with rising gas fees as well as increasing network congestion issues. To put things into perspective, since summer last year, a time when the DeFi boom was starting to peak, Ethereum’s network fees have more than doubled. While this fee increase quite directly relates to ETH’s increasing value, there is no denying that it also clearly shows growing demand for ERC-20 tokens, stablecoins, as well as various decentralized finance-based …

Network congestion and high transaction costs on the Ethereum (ETH) network have been a persistent issue for investors and developers for the past year and this has shone a spotlight on blockchain projects that offer a solution to these issues. One class of tokens that has received a boost in both trading volume and price over the past two months are gas tokens that help power transactions on their respective blockchain networks. Data from Cointelegraph Markets and TradingView shows that Gas (GAS), Ontology Gas (ONG) and VeThor Token (VTHO) have all seen their prices increase more than 300% since the …

Binance has released its payments app, Binance Pay, in public alpha. The app is a contactless peer-to-peer cryptocurrency payment feature that lets users send and receive payments in cryptos like Bitcoin (BTC). Binance initially rolled out Binance Pay in a soft launch in February 2020 for P2P payments, enabling 250,000 users to interact with the product. Today, Binance Pay is launching in alpha with new features like merchant-based transactions and is available to all users. A spokesperson for Binance told Cointelegraph that the new service is not limited to certain jurisdictions and is “currently available to all eligible users on …

According to DappRadar, the unique active wallet count on the Ethereum decentralized finance market has seen a significant drop. Between mid-February and the time of writing, unique active DeFi wallets on Ethereum have dipped almost 40%. While Ethereum gas fees seem to have bottomed out, the high transaction costs that have characterized the network over the past few weeks appear to have resulted in a marked effect on DeFi user statistics. Major DeFi protocols like Synthetix and Curve have also seen between a 10% and 15% decline in 24-hour active user counts. Indeed, Cointelegraph previously reported that daily DeFi volumes …

With the rapid growth of decentralized finance, upcoming scaling developments on Ethereum 2.0, and increased crypto allocation in the portfolios of institutions, the price of Ether (ETH) is rapidly ascending. In fact, we’ve already seen ETH break the $2,000 barrier for the first time, marking a brand-new all-time high. All this action may be bullish for ETH holders and DeFi investors, but for smaller DApp developers and other users on the network — such as traders using ERC-20-based stablecoins — it’s quickly pricing them out. That’s because the cost of using any stablecoin depends on the blockchain network on which …

A hotly awaited upgrade to the Ethereum network that may result in ETH becoming a deflationary asset is now scheduled for the “London” hard fork in July. Ethereum lead developer Tim Beiko previously teased that the decision would be made today two weeks ago, and proposed the inclusion on the Core Developers call today. There were no verbal objections. “We’re in a spot where the EIP is sound,” said Beiko on the call. “[...] We’re in a spot, I think, where it’s ready to be included in an upgrade.” The proposal, co-authored by Ethereum cofounder Vitalik Buterin, will transition Ethereum’s …

Bitcoin (BTC) and Ether (ETH) appear to be experiencing something of a slowdown, as on-chain data shows a dramatic decrease in the U.S dollar value of coins being sent across both blockchains in the past week. At the same time, transaction fees for both chains have receded from recent highs, or in Ethereum’s case, an all-time high. Data from Bitinfocharts shows $46.68 billion worth of BTC was sent across the Bitcoin blockchain on Feb. 25. For some context, that’s around 5% of the total Bitcoin market cap, which stands at $925 billion at time of writing. By three days later, …

A scalable blockchain allows transactions to be completed quickly and cheaply — and allows anyone to create their very own token for fun. Hathor says its infrastructure is so simple that a 13-year-old can launch their own token in under a minute… and the process takes just a few clicks. This could pave the way for companies to issue stock to investors, retailers to offer cutting-edge loyalty programs, votes to take place digitally and democratically, and for tokens to serve as proof of ownership. The project boasts novel architecture combining side-DAGs and blockchain that was inspired by the PhD thesis …

Ethereum use is surging this year, with the value of transactions settled on the network skyrocketing during 2021. According to research from Messari, Ethereum has settled $926 trillion worth of transactions this quarter so far — 700% more than it processed during the first quarter o 2020. The network is currently on pace to settle $1.6 trillion in transactions for the first quarter of this year. In the last 12 months, Ethereum has already settled $2.1 trillion in transactions. If Messari’s $1.6 trillion forecast is accurate, Ethereum’s quarterly settlement value will have increased 1,280% compared with the first quarter of …