On this week’s episode of Market Talks, Cointelegraph welcomes Grant Shears, founder of Blocmates — an educational and consultancy company that aims to create crypto, DeFi and Web3 content that anyone can understand. This week, to kick things off, we take a look at the emerging trends of 2023 and what people should look forward to. What industries could really take off this year, and which sector could have the most potential to grow? It’s no secret that 2022 was not a great year for DeFi, an industry that arguably imploded on itself by offering unsustainable high yields that eventually …

Validator infrastructure developer ssv.network has launched a new ecosystem fund to support Ethereum proof-of-stake decentralization — a move that the company said would promote innovation around Ether (ETH) staking technologies. The ecosystem fund, valued at $50 million, will support projects building applications using distributed validator technology, or DVT, the company announced on Jan. 17. The fund is solely dedicated to backing DVT use cases in support of Ethereum’s long-term decentralization efforts. DVT is an open-source protocol that allows a validator’s responsibilities to be distributed across multiple nodes. The protocol was a key component of Ethereum co-founder Vitalik Buterin’s roadmap for …

Bitcoin (BTC) may gain another 50% before seeing a mass sell-off to complete its bear market, new research predicts. In the latest edition of its regular markets newsletter, “The Crypto Circular,” trading firm QCP Capital delivered a grim warning to those who believe that crypto winter is over. Research warns of "final Wave 5 selloff" Bitcoin has surprised by retaining new support levels abruptly reclaimed in its week-long bull run, so far topping out at $21,650. Despite widespread suspicion over the “choreographed” move, BTC/USD has nonetheless clawed back key trend lines and psychological price points. For QCP, there is still …

Ethereum layer-2 networks have gone through an explosive growth phase over the past couple of months a trend that is set to continue in 2023. According to recent data, the leading layer-2 networks have seen an increase in daily active users which has translated into a growth in fees for the respective ecosystems. According to analytics provider Token Terminal, Polygon leads the pack with 313,457 daily active users as of Jan. 17. Additionally, the metric spiked to over 600,000 daily active users earlier in January. It marks a 30% increase in activity since the beginning of October 2022 which has …

Ethereum (ETH) price is struggling to overcome resistance at $1,600 and this is the altcoin’s third attempt since September 2022. Some would say the 33% year-to-date rally could be interpreted as a failed opportunity to breach the $200 billion market capitalization mark. If Ethereum price were to break above $1,600, it would return Ether to a top-60 global tradable asset, surpassing giant multinational companies like Nike (NKE), Novartis (NVS), Cisco (CSCO) and Toyota (TM). Unfortunately, at least for bullish traders, derivatives markets are not hinting that Ether will finally break the $1,600 resistance — at least, not until the U.S. …

The United States producer price index (PPI) fell 0.5% for the month, which was much more than the 0.1% decline estimated by economists surveyed by Dow Jones. The largest monthly decline since April 2020 was also aided by a sharp drop in energy prices. Another report showed that the retail sales data dropped 1.1% in December, a tad bit more than the anticipated 1% decrease. Although both data points show inflation is cooling off, the U.S. stock markets failed to hold on to their initial gains. Similarly, several cryptocurrencies sold off from their intraday highs, indicating that traders may have …

Ethereum's native token, Ether (ETH) could grow by 35% versus Bitcoin (BTC) this year to hit 0.1 BTC for the first time since 2018 as it forms a classic bullish continuation pattern. Ethereum price must first break key resistance Dubbed ascending triangle, the pattern forms when the price fluctuates inside a range defined by a rising trendline support and horizontal trendline resistance. It typically resolves after the price breaks out in the direction of its previous trend. On a weekly chart, the ETH/BTC pair has been painting an ascending pattern since May 2021. The Ethereum token eyes a breakout above …

The notion that bear markets are good for builders appears to be true with the total number of monthly active Web3 developers increasing 5.4% to more than 23,300 over the last 12 months despite a near 70% drop in crypto prices. According to a Jan. 16 report from Electric Capital, “full-time” developers — categorized as those who contribute to 76% of Github commits — also increased 15.2% to over 7000, while “one-time” builders fell 6.2% to over 3,500 during the same time period between December 2021 and December 2022 Despite the crypto market capitalization beginning its long plunge from from …

Despite a wave of heavy crypto layoffs to start the new year, employees in technical and engineering roles, as well as senior management, will likely continue to see “strong demand” for their skills, recruitment professionals believe. It’s been a tough first few weeks of 2023 for crypto businesses and their staff. Within just two weeks, the market has already seen more than 1,600 crypto-related job cuts as a result of continued market volatility and uncertainty. However, not all departments have seen the same level of cuts. SAFU: Senior-level tech and engineering Rob Paone, founder and CEO of crypto recruitment firm …

Masa Finance has launched the first soulbound identity protocol for the Ethereum mainnet, according to a Jan. 17 press release shared with Cointelegraph. The protocol will allow for standardized soulbound tokens to be minted on Ethereum for Know Your Customer verification, credit scores and other use cases. Soulbound tokens are tokens that cannot be transferred from one wallet to another. The concept was popularized via a blog post from Vitalik Buterin, who argued that these tokens could be used to signify governance rights for decentralized finance (DeFi) protocols or to prove that a person has attended an event. Speaking to …

Non-fungible tokens (NFTs), decentralized autonomous organizations (DAOs), and decentralized finance (DeFi) are redefining how charities raise donations and distribute funds to those most in need. Through ever-evolving crypto and blockchain-related technology, crypto philanthropists told Cointelegraph that they've witnessed “new wealth distribution mechanisms" never seen before. “Philanthropy has traditionally been seen as a high-cost-of-entry, individualistic activity but with web3, collective decision-making bodies like DAOs can use tools that streamline financial coordination and encourage more participation,” explained Omar Antila, Product Lead at Crypto for Charity. “Crypto enables new innovative fundraising strategies, like charitable NFT-drop campaigns, or allowing people to pool their crypto …

Digital assets will largely decouple from traditional equity markets in 2023, says Chief Investment Officer at Arca, Jeff Dorman. Discussing his outlook for 2023 in a recent interview with Cointelegraph, Dorman argues that as the global economy enters a recession this year, equities will be negatively affected while some crypto tokens will perform well: the value of the latter, he explained, is determined not only by macroeconomic factors but also by their utility within the respective ecosystems, which would remain unaltered in a recession. “You're going to see a lot of stocks get punished under the weight of restructurings and …