“Evidence is mounting to suggest that Ethereum has finally either caught up to or surpassed Bitcoin across a number of key metrics.
For starters, Ethereum is surpassing Bitcoin in total value transferred on-chain. So far in August $185 billion worth of ETH has been moved on Ethereum while only $180 billion of BTC has exchanged hands on Bitcoin.
Every month since June 2020, users have been paying more in fees to send transactions on Ethereum than Bitcoin. In 2021 alone, total fees in dollar terms on Ethereum were four times higher than Bitcoin, suggesting demand for block space on Ethereum is outpacing demand for block space on Bitcoin.
The Puell Multiple suggests the profit-taking opportunities for investors holding ETH have been greater than those for investors holding BTC almost consistently for the past 15 months.
As a result, trade activity for ETH-USD pairs have surpassed or come close to surpassing that of BTC-USD pairs. For the first time ever, aggregated monthly trade volume in the ETH spot markets surpassed that of the BTC spot markets in May. This suggests market interest in ETH is trending as high as BTC.
There are also telltale signs in the cryptocurrency derivatives market of a shift in market sentiment placing Ethereum in the same rankings as, if not more bullish rankings than, Bitcoin.
How much people are willing to pay for bitcoin or ether one or three months out into the future is a good sense of the market sentiment around where things are going. The future premium you pay for ether is close to 10%, whereas for bitcoin it’s right around 7% to 8% right now and the amount of calls being bought out into the future is more skewed to the upside on ether than bitcoin.
Institutions and professional investors that got involved in the crypto industry because of their interest in bitcoin are getting serious about their interest in ether, too, and, more importantly, they are beginning to value ether as a unique investment separate from bitcoin.”
See Also: Ethereum Supply Shock: Exchange ETH reserves continue to fall after a 26% drop in 2021
“The beer company purchased the Beer.eth domain name for 30 ether, or roughly $95,000. Budweiser USA also changed its Twitter profile picture Tuesday to that of a rocket ship designed by NFT artist Tom Sachs.
Budweiser is taking its first steps into the NFT universe.”
See Also: Facebook Considering NFT Support in Novi Digital Wallet
See Also: Fox Leads Investment in Blockchain Tech Firm Eluvio
“The report by Allied Market Research published Tuesday projects a compound annual growth rate of 12.8% between 2021 and 2030.
The main drivers will be increased demand for international remittances and more transparency in global payments systems.”
“Crypto trading commissions increased from just 7% of total commissions a year ago to 73% in the second quarter of this year.
The company had 23.2 million total users as of June 30. In May, eToro announced that it plans to go public via the merger, which values the combined company at $10.4 billion.”
“Bitcoin’s mining difficulty has increased for the third time in a row in yet another sign of the network’s staying power following a crackdown on the industry earlier this year by authorities in China. The latest increase in the bitcoin mining difficulty comes as some operators creep back online after previously dropping off the network following China’s crackdown and as North American miners expand capacity.
Bitcoin mining has never been more profitable. Look at the percentage of price run that bitcoin had over the last 12 months and look at the hashrate percentage increase, and it’s nowhere near in line.”
“Goldman Sachs now sees the probability of a formal November announcement at 45%, versus a previous forecast of 25%.
The upward revision comes days before the Federal Reserve Bank of Kansas City’s annual Jackson Hole symposium, where Chair Jerome Powell is expected to strike a dovish tone, considering the resurgence of the Delta variant.
Historically, that has been a headwind for bitcoin. In past cycles, both the anticipation and start of tapering have tightened monetary conditions, boosting the dollar in the process.”
“The tokenized green bonds are the Bank of International Settlements Innovation Hub’s first green finance project. Under so-called Project Genesis, they will build a “prototype digital infrastructure,” which will enable sustainable investments while improving transparency of how proceeds are used.
Tokenizing the bonds through blockchain technology will allow investors to buy small denominations of the assets, which the institutions hope will boost investment. Investors can also track environmental output in real time.”
“A mix network or “mixnet” (taking its name from the proxy servers it employs, called “mixes”) obscures the metadata left behind when data passes through a network, providing a higher level of privacy when it comes to network-level surveillance. Manning’s audit will be completed before the Nym network launches on mainnet later in the year.
As methods for network traffic analysis have dramatically improved in the last decade, I have frequently called for research (since 2016) into alternative methods to Tor. Nym is one such viable alternative worthy of research and developmental implementation.”
“Mafia groups and criminal organizations are increasingly using cryptocurrencies, according to the Italian Anti-Mafia Directorate (DIA). The DIA recently published a report that covers organized crime in Italy during the first six months of 2020.
Ndrangheta, the country’s strongest and most powerful criminal syndicate, are growing more and more attuned to modern tools like cryptocurrency and the deep web.
Only the most sophisticated can obfuscate their traces by now. That prevents small dealers from participating in the market and a natural tendency towards fewer but larger dealers on those markets.”
The Disrupt 