The much-anticipated ‘Merge’ on the Ethereum network is another step closer to becoming a reality after the final public testnet Kiln launched to put it through its paces. On March 14, the Ethereum Foundation urged network stakeholders to run tests using Kiln “to ensure a smooth transition on existing public testnets.” “We strongly recommend that developers run through a full testing & deployment cycle on Kiln and report any issues with tools or dependencies to those projects’ maintainers.” Ethereum developer Tim Beiko confirmed that Kiln has gone live and will soon be ready to merge with the Beacon Chain in …

Being bullish on Ether (ETH) over the past four months did not pay off as its price dropped 44% from $4,600. The decentralized finance (DeFi) applications growth that fueled the rally faded away, partially due to network congestion and average transaction fees of $30 and higher. The cool-off period can also be attributed to excessive expectations as the fee burn mechanism implemented in August 2021 with the London hard fork. After drastically reducing the daily net issuance, investors jumped to the conclusion that Ether would become "ultrasound money." The Ethereum network burned more ETH over the last 24 hours than …

Quantitative analysis conducted on popular blockchain site Etherscan, indicates that 184,441 transactions have been responsible for 10.2 million ETH staked into the Eth2 (consensus layer) deposit contract since inception on Nov 4th last year. This figure is equivalent to over $26 billion based upon current Ethereum prices. Mathematical calculations suggest that the milestone was surpassed during block 14348729 in the evening of March 8, identified by mainstream cryptocurrency publications and community advocates in the last few hours. In late January this year, the Ethereum Foundation published an alteration to the network's terminology, with the initial proof-of-work blockchain, or Eth1, now …

Ethereum's native token Ether (ETH) will likely fall below $2,000, according to one popular market analyst. Ether paints a classic bearish continuation setup Pseudonymous market analyst Wolf shared the downside outlook on Monday as Ether's price rebounded by over 3% to nearly $2,650, a day after testing its upward sloping trendline near $2,500. Ignoring the intraday upside reversal, Wolf anticipated the Ether's decline to continue further. At the core of Wolf's analogy was a "symmetrical triangle," a classic technical analysis pattern that forms when the price fluctuates between two converging trendlines. In a "perfect" scenario, the price breaks out of …

2022 has not been a good start for cryptocurrencies and to date, the total market capitalization has dropped by 21% to $1.77 trillion. Solana's (SOL) correction has been even more brutal, presenting a 48.5% correction year-to-date. Solana leads the staking charts with $35 billion in value locked, which is equivalent to 74% of the SOL tokens in circulation. Multiple reasons can be identified for the underperformance, including four network outages in late 2021 and early 2022. The latest incident on Jan. 7 was attributed to a distributed denial-of-service (DDoS) attack, causing Solana Lab developers to update the code and consequently …

The layer-one (L1) ecosystem has received increased attention in recent months as users search for new investment opportunities in the Cosmos (ATOM), Fantom (FTM) and NEAR. Following January's market sell-off, where Bitcoin (BTC) price dropped to bottom below $34,000, much of the L1 field has struggled to regain its momentum. According to data from Delphi Digital, since the BTC bottom on Jan. 24, the only L1 to experience a notable gain in price include Terra (LUNA), Avalanche (AVAX) and Ethereum (ETH). Terra ecosystem growth The price growth seen in LUNA was in large part due to the announcement from the …

According to data from Staking Rewards, Terra (LUNA) has flipped Ethereum (ETH) in terms of staked value, with $29.5 billion worth of LUNA locked up compared to Ether’s $25.9 billion. The platform’s data shows that there are currently 226,325 LUNA stakers, making it the second most staked crypto asset with more than four times the number of those staking ETH at 54,768. Solana leads the staking charts with $35 billion in staked value. In terms of annual staking rewards, LUNA is estimated to yield 6.62% on average while Ethereum fetches 4.81%. The most rewarding out of the top 10 staked …

Ethereum staking solution Lido Finance has raised $70 million from venture capital giant Andreessen Horowitz, marking the protocol’s first funding round since May 2021. Andreessen Horowitz’s investment in Lido is intended to further support the adoption of decentralized staking solutions for Ethereum 2.0, a spokesperson for the venture capital firm said. Ethereum 2.0 marks a significant shift in the network’s consensus algorithm by ushering in the adoption of proof-of-stake (PoS) and other upgrades that could enhance scalability and reduce fees. The transition to Ethereum 2.0, which began in November 2020, is still ongoing. Excited to share that @a16z has invested …

Who can participate in the PoS-based staking process? PoS enables just about any user with a notebook to participate in staking, with advanced exchanges simplifying the user's experience. Today, anyone can forge tokens via PoS since no costly equipment, like ASICs, cooling or autonomous power supply systems are needed. Instead, a user can participate in staking with a notebook or desktop computer. To further lower the barriers to begin, the once considerable number of tokens in their accounts accumulate the necessary stake sooner; forgers will join a pool or "master node." Platforms like HitBTC have made it their mission to …

Ethereum (ETH) and decentralized finance (DeFi) are undergoing a seismic shift as the transition to Eth2 and a proof-of-stake consensus mechanism is helping to increase the value proposition for the network which has historically has been plagued with scaling issues and high transaction costs. Alongside this transition has been the introduction of liquid staking, which is helping to add utility to DeFi and giving investors the option to do more with their assets than just lock them up indefinitely. Liquid staking could also help investors build more capital efficient portfolios. One protocol that has benefited from the shift toward liquid …

Ether (ETH) reached a $3,280 local high on Feb. 10, marking a 51.5% recovery from the $2,160 cycle low on Jan. 24. That price was the lowest in six months, and it partially explains why derivatives traders’ main sentiment gauge plummeted to bearish levels. Ether’s futures contract annualized premium, or basis, reached 2.5% on Feb. 25, reflecting bearishness despite the 11% rally to $2,700. The worsening conditions depict investors’ doubts regarding the Ethereum network’s shift to a proof-of-stake (PoS) mechanism. As reported by Cointelegraph, the much-anticipated sharding upgrade that will significantly boost processing capacity should come into effect in late …

One of the most significant transitions to occur for the cryptocurrency ecosystem since the launch of Bitcoin (BTC) has been the increasing dominance of proof-of-stake (PoS) protocols over the proof-of-work (PoW) model, primarily due to energy requirements of the PoW model and growing concern over its environmental impact. As more projects launch or transition to the PoS model, a new class of protocols have emerged that are focused on offering liquid staking options that allow token holders to tap into the value held in their staked tokens while still earning a yield for locking their assets on the network. pStake …