Matter Labs, the developer behind the Ethereum Virtual Machine (EVM)-compatible zkSync, has received major industry backing as it pledges to fully open source its platform — marking the first such initiative for a ZK-rollup technology. Matter Labs confirmed on Nov. 16 that it had closed a $200 million Series C funding round co-led by Blockchain Capital and Dragonfly, with additional participation from LightSpeed Venture Partners, Variant and existing investor Andreessen Horowitz. The company has now raised $458 million in financing across all rounds, including $200 million from BitDAO that’s earmarked for funding ecosystem projects. Founded in 2018, Matter Labs is …

The annual supply rate of Ether (ETH) slipped below zero for the first time since Ethereum's transition to proof-of-stake via the Merge in September. The reason? A spike in on-chain activity amid a massive cryptocurrency market crash. Ethereum turns deflationary for real As of Nov. 9, more Ether tokens are being burned than created as a part of Ethereum's fee-burning mechanism. Simply put, the more on-chain transactions, the more ETH transaction fees get burned. On a 30-day timeframe, the Ethereum network has been burning ETH at an annual rate of 773,000 tokens against the issuance of 603,000 tokens. In other …

Ethereum’s Shanghai upgrade, the next major upgrade post Merge, is slated for the second half of 2023. The upgrade would be a key milestone as it would allow holders who have staked their Ether (ETH) for years to withdraw them systematically and make the network more scalable. Apart from some of the major scalability upgrades, the key event would also tuck in a few minor Ethereum improvement proposals (EIPs), including EIP-3651, EIP-3855 and EIP-3860. Among all the upcoming improvement proposals, EIP-3651, called WARM Coinbase, could be a game changer that could reduce network fees for some of the key network …

A new oracle system aims to retrieve the additional fees paid by decentralized application (DApp) users to miners called maximal extractable value (MEV). It is the maximum value a miner can extract from moving-around transactions when producing a block on a blockchain network. MEV can be defined as the maximum value that can be extracted from block production in excess of the standard block reward and gas fees. The MEV comprises arbitrage and liquidation fees, among others, that could amount to millions and are often extracted by block producers. A new oracle system called oracle extractable value (OEV) promises to …

Ethereum's native token, Ether (ETH), looks poised to log a major price rally versus its top rival, Bitcoin (BTC), in the days leading toward early 2023. Ether has a 61% chance of breaking out versus Bitcoin The bullish cues emerge primarily from a classic technical setup dubbed the "cup-and-handle" pattern. It forms when the price undergoes a U-shaped recovery (cup) followed by a slight downward shift (handle) — all while maintaining a common resistance level (neckline). Traditional analysts perceive the cup-and-handle as a bullish setup, with veteran Tom Bulkowski noting that the pattern meets its profit target 61% of all …

The shift of the Ethereum (ETH) blockchain to a proof-of-stake (PoS) protocol opened new opportunities for developers and investors to explore, including the burning of Ether. Now, Ethereum PoS transactions are validated through staking rather than mining. Staking impacts the supply and price dynamics of Ether in ways that are different from mining. Staking is expected to create deflationary pressure on Ether as opposed to mining that induces inflationary pressure. The increase in the total amount of funds locked in Ethereum contracts could also push its price up in the long term. This is because it affects one of the …

Ethereum’s long-awaited Merge took place in September, shifting it from a legacy proof-of-work (POW) model to the sustainable proof-of-stake (PoS) consensus algorithm. Many observers expected Ether’s (ETH) price to respond positively as its daily emissions declined 90% with the halt of mining operations. However, the expected price surge never occurred. In fact, Ether has been down by over 7% since the upgrade. So why didn’t the Merge drive up the coin’s price? Post-merge ETH monetary policy Ethereum’s monetary policy was simply to reduce the token’s supply to 1,600 ETH per day. The PoW model, an equivalent of 13,000 ETH were …

Ethereum has witnessed a substantial drop in its daily active address (DAA) count over the last four months, raising fears about more downside for ETH (ETH) price in the coming weeks. Stagnant Ethereum price spooks investors The number of Ether DAA dropped to 152,000 on Oct. 21, its lowest level since June, according to data provided by Santiment. In other words, the plunge showed fewer unique Ethereum addresses interacting with the network. Interestingly, the drop comes after Ether's 80%-plus correction from its November 2021 high of around $4,850. This coincidence could mean two things: Ethereum users decided to leave the …

Over the last few years, the cryptocurrency industry has been a primary target for regulators in the United States. The legal battle between Ripple and the United States Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC), Nexo’s lawsuit with the securities regulators of eight states, and the scrutiny targeting Coinbase’s Lend program last year are only a few high-profile examples. This year, even Kim Kardashian had first-hand experience with regulatory scrutiny after agreeing to pay a $1.26 million fine for promoting the dubious crypto project EthereumMax. While Ethereum developers intended to pave the way for key network upgrades in the future, it seems …

Ethereum's native token, Ether (ETH), looks ready to undergo a massive rally due to a mix of technical and fundamental factors. From a technical perspective, ETH's price now eyes a 35% rebound by the end of October after holding testing a key support level. This level is a rising trendline that has capped Ether's downside attempts since June 2022, as shown below. In other words, traders have shown interest in buying Ethereum tokens near this level in recent weeks. Meanwhile, the accumulation sentiment has prompted the price to rise toward another significant level — a horizontal trendline resistance near $1,800, …

Are regulators with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission gearing up to take down Ethereum? Given the saber-rattling by officials — including SEC Chairman Gary Gensler — it certainly seems possible. The agency went on a crypto-regulatory spree in September. First, at its annual The SEC Speaks conference, officials promised to continue bringing enforcement actions and urged market participants to come in and register their products and services. Gensler even suggested crypto intermediaries should break up into separate legal entities and register each of their functions — exchange, broker-dealer, custodial functions, etc. — to mitigate conflicts of interest and enhance …

The exchange netflow of Ether (ETH) over the past couple of years highlights a behavioral pattern among Ether whales that market analysts believe is done to pump the price of the second-largest cryptocurrency. The “exchange netflow” is an indicator that measures the net amount of crypto entering or exiting wallets of all centralized exchanges. The metric's value is simply calculated by taking the difference between the exchange inflows and the exchange outflows. Data shared by one of the pseudonymous traders of crypto analytic firm Cryptoquant indicates that ETH whales have consistently sent their holdings onto exchanges to raise the price …