With Ethereum inching its way into new all-time highs over the past 24 hours, a number of onlookers believe Ether could quickly surge through the $1,400 price range. Ethereum’s robust fundamentals are strengthening the conviction that Ether might sail past resistance in the mid-$1,400s, with many pointing to Ethereum’s ever-growing DeFi ecosystem as the force most-likely to propel ETH into price discovery. On Jan. 19, Spencer Noon of crypto VC fund Variant shared 11 indicators he believes suggests that a parabolic bull-run is nigh. He pointed to the fact taht more than one million unique addresses t have interacted with …

A hidden Biblical message has been found embedded in a transaction in block number 666,666 of the Bitcoin (BTC) blockchain. The message is a quotation from the sixth book in the New Testament, the Epistle to the Romans. First spotted by @[email protected], it reads: “Do not be overcome by evil, but overcome evil with good - Romans 12:21.” The transaction in question saw an equal amount of Bitcoin — 432,100 satoshis ($160) — sent to two different addresses. The first several characters of those addresses contain the words “God” and “Bible.” Whoever sent the transactions paid over $50 in fees, …

The daily volume of transactions on the Ethereum (ETH) network is now 28% greater than on Bitcoin (BTC), according to crypto analytics firm Messari. On Jan. 19, Messari’s Ryan Watkins tweeted that Ethereum’s daily transaction volume “is going parabolic” alongside a chart indicating that Ethereum and Ethereum-powered stablecoins have processed $12.3 billion in transactions over the past 24 hours — dwarfing Bitcoin and Omni-based USDT’s $9.3 billion. Ethereum's daily transaction volume is going parabolic. It now settles $12 billion in transactions daily - $3 billion more than Bitcoin. Imagine not being bullish $ETH. pic.twitter.com/3NfOz1ruiM — Ryan Watkins (@RyanWatkins_) January 19, …

A blockchain project says it makes Bitcoin programmable in a way that it hasn’t been before — enabling apps and smart contracts to be brought to the network. Stacks (formerly known as Blockstack) aims to position BTC as the foundation for a better internet that’s owned by users. Those behind this ecosystem argue that the internet is broken, with tech giants dominating the landscape. Stacks is a Layer 1 blockchain that uses Bitcoin’s infrastructure as a secure base layer. Smart contracts and apps can be enabled with little modification, with “minimal transaction load” on the network. Underpinning how scalable Stacks …

Russia’s central bank digital currency, or CBDC, could contain a number of risks related to cybersecurity and fraud, according to several local financial institutions. The Association of Russian Banks, or ARB, has released its official feedback on Russia’s digital ruble project on Jan. 13. The study included 17 ABR credit institutions in Russia accounting for 58% of the total assets of the domestic banking system. According to the report, the majority of ARB members believe that risks associated with the digital ruble are similar to those of cashless transactions powered by banking accounts and cards, as well as cryptocurrencies. The …

Popular stablecoin Tether (USDT) is the first token to go live on the Hermez layer-two network, the company announced on Monday. As part of the collaboration, batched USDT transactions will be possible once the Hermez network officially launches in early 2021. David Schwartz, project lead at Hermez, told Cointelegraph: “Hermez network is run by permissionless coordinators who will decide the transactions included in each batch, based on incentives (fees).” Back in December 2020, Delphi Digital published a report showing that layer-two rollups accounted for less than 1% of the entire daily decentralized exchange trading volume. For Hermez, the small proportion …

Fees on the Ethereum network have reached an average of $10.20 per transaction as of Sunday, according to data from YCharts. The network's fees went higher on only two occasions in 2020, briefly averaging $12.54 in early September. They again rose to $11.69 near the middle of the same month. Ethereum network transactors faced high fees on and off last year as a partial result of the decentralized finance, or DeFi, boom, which utilized the blockchain for various lending and yield farming activities. At times, the high fees made it difficult for contributors to participate in DeFi activities. “#Ethereum gas …

DApp transaction volume has topped $270 billion so far in 2020, with 95% of this figure belonging to Ethereum’s DeFi ecosystem, according to DappRadar. That’s an astonishing 1178% increase from last year’s total of $21 billion. The blockchain data provider revealed the figures in its annual DApp Industry Report today, summarizing the highlights and failures of a record-breaking year for DApp-based economics. The report noted that money has been flowing from BTC to ETH throughout the year, resulting in a rise in the price of ETH, from 0.018 BTC on Jan 1. 2020 to its current price of 0.028 BTC. …

As Bitcoin (BTC) keeps hitting new all-time highs past $20,000, its network fundamentals paint a different picture compared to the previous 2017 bull run. Three years ago, on this very day, Bitcoin reached its first major all-time high of $20,000, recording up to 2,000% gains for that year. Over the course of 2020, Bitcoin enjoyed another price rally pushing its price to new historic highs and crossing $23,500 on Dec. 17 for the first time ever. Comparing the bull runs of 2017 and 2020, one may think that December has a special significance for Bitcoin. But other than this coincidence, …

The issues that are holding the blockchain industry back have been well-documented, with slow transaction speeds making these networks unsuitable for use on a mass scale. A requirement to code in niche programming languages has also prevented a sizable number of developers from building on these platforms. We spoke to Professor Ken Huang, who recently became a key business advisor to the ABEY Foundation, to discuss how the organization’s blockchain aims to offer innovative solutions for consumers and developers alike. 1. What are the origins of the ABEY blockchain? Well, ABEY stands for Advanced Blockchain for Enhanced Yields, and the …

A blockchain, in its essence, provides a digital record of transactions. At present, this most often pertains to transaction records for cryptocurrencies like Bitcoin (BTC). The database of records, called blocks, is often touted for its transparency and immutability. But what do these features really mean? If you want to analyze a blockchain transaction, you first need to know how to use a block explorer. What is a block explorer? A block explorer is a crucial instrument in the toolbox of a cryptocurrency and blockchain user. Similar to web browsers that allow users to surf web pages, blockchain or block …

Despite Bitcoin’s surge to retest its 2017 highs, a combination of low on-chain transactions and diminished retail speculation has seen transaction fees remain low. The current fees of around $3.50 per transaction starkly contrast with three years ago, when the fees incurred to send any amount of BTC briefly spiked above $50. But average transaction values are currently approaching $200,000, suggesting the current rally has not been accompanied by the same retail trading frenzy that drove prices toward $20,000 in 2017. Ethereum (ETH) co-founder Vitalik Buterin doesn’t believe Bitcoin’s current low fees will last. In a Twitter thread, the Ethereum …