Ethereum prices hit a new record, the average Bitcoin network fee rose above $60, and the price of Bitcoin fell below $50,000; Venmo added cryptocurrency support and other events from the week.
Ethereum price rose above the $2,600 mark, hitting a new all-time high. The asset’s market capitalization surpassed $300 billion.
Practically simultaneously with Ethereum’s rally to record highs, Bitcoin prices began a sharp decline. At one point the price fell below $48,000.
The drop occurred amid a sizable uptick in volumes.
CryptoQuant analysts noted a surge in Bitcoin inflows to exchanges.
This is another indicator I’m patiently waiting for cooling off to punt 10x long at $BTC bottom.
Chart 👉 https://t.co/jnuMtC7znJ https://t.co/uvCeCTOeAE pic.twitter.com/1MeDVQr82o
— Ki Young Ju 주기영 (@ki_young_ju) April 25, 2021
The flagship pulled the market along, and over the past seven days only Ethereum remained green, effectively holding its position.
Bitcoin’s dominance fell below the 50% mark, with Bitcoin’s market capitalization shrinking to just over $940 billion and the total market to $1.95 trillion.
Experts analyzed the reasons for Bitcoin’s retreat to around $50,000:
Average Bitcoin network fee exceeded $60
Against the backdrop of a sharp drop in hashrate due to power outages in China, the average Bitcoin network fee rose above $60.
The last time such a high figure was observed was in late 2017 — at the peak of the previous bull market.
Since last week hashrate fell 18% — from 170 EH/s to 140 EH/s on weekly average. Bitcoin users faced transaction delays as network capacity contracted sharply, and more than 100,000 unconfirmed transactions piled up in the mempool.
Venmo added support for Bitcoin, Ethereum, Litecoin and Bitcoin Cash
The PayPal-owned mobile payments service Venmo added the ability to buy and sell cryptocurrencies.
According to the statement, in the coming weeks 77 million Venmo users will have access to Bitcoin, Ethereum, Litecoin and Bitcoin Cash. The minimum purchase amount is $1.
The partner was Paxos.
RIT Capital Partners took a stake in Kraken
The investment fund RIT Capital Partners became a co-owner of the Kraken cryptocurrency exchange. This is stated in a memo sent to investors.
The amount invested by the fund was not disclosed in the document.
RIT Capital Partners’ interest in the platform is linked to Kraken’s plan to become a public company and conduct a direct listing of its shares in 2022.
Bitmain hints at record hash rate for Antminer E9 that would change the game
Bitmain, the maker of mining equipment, said that the hash rate of the upcoming Antminer E9 for Ethereum will be equivalent to 32 Nvidia RTX 3080 graphics cards.
According to data from the mining pool F2Pool, 32 RTX 3080 cards on Ethash deliver a hashrate of 3040 MH/s. If Bitmain’s claim is confirmed, at current Ethereum price and network difficulty, the daily earnings from a single Antminer E9 miner, before electricity costs, would be $310.
The cost of the device and its power consumption are unknown, so calculating the payback period for the new miner is not yet possible. The company will announce delivery dates later.
Currently, the leading Ethash ASIC miner on the market is Innosilicon A10 Pro with 7 GB of memory and a hashrate up to 740 MH/s. Considering Bitmain’s statement, the Antminer E9 would surpass this by more than three times.
TIME began accepting cryptocurrency to pay for subscriptions
The American TIME magazine began accepting digital assets as a method of subscription payment as part of a partnership with the Crypto.com payment platform.
A TIME digital subscription for 18 months costs $49. When paying with Crypto.com tokens, readers will receive up to 10% cashback.
In the first phase the service is available to residents of the United States and Canada. Later this year the company will open payments for users from other countries.
In China, Bitcoin should be treated as an investment instrument
Cryptocurrencies such as Bitcoin should be viewed as alternative investments, Li Bo stated this during the Boao Forum for Asia.
During his remarks Li Bo noted the advantages of digital assets as an investment instrument. However, he emphasised regulatory uncertainty associated with them.
Russian spend on computer hardware for mining rose 51%
Computer components used for mining cryptocurrencies rose markedly in price over the year considerably increased, according to analysts.
Researchers compared the average spend on goods in Q1 2020 and Q1 2021. The biggest price increases were for video cards — up 113%.
In total, spending on a “minimum kit” for mining in Q1 2021 amounted to 69,792 rubles, according to analysts. This is 51% higher than last year.
Chia miners created a local HDD/SSD shortage in China
Because of the surge in popularity of the Chia cryptocurrency, miners in China are buying up hard drives and solid-state drives for its mining, local media reported.
The BitTorrent protocol author Bram Cohen’s Chia Network uses Proof-of-Space and Proof-of-Time consensus algorithms.
The coin is positioned as eco-friendly: hard drives and SSDs are easier to find for sale, and they consume far less energy.
Chia is not yet available for purchase or sale, but miners are already stocking HDDs from 4 to 18 TB and smaller SSDs.
Daily transactions on Binance Smart Chain exceed 9 million
On April 21, the Binance Smart Chain (BSC) recorded a new daily transaction high of 9.13 million. This is nearly six times the Ethereum blockchain’s corresponding figure.
Meanwhile in the second-largest crypto network by market cap, a daily transaction record was also marked. Users made 1.56 million transfers.
Square and ARK Invest present a model for green energy expansion via Bitcoin mining
Mining the first cryptocurrency could contribute to the transition to renewable energy, according to researchers at Square and ARK Invest.
According to their study, integrating mining into the power grid could raise the share of energy from renewable sources without diminishing profitability. The calculations used real data for the city of Austin (Texas), solar energy economics, and mining.
In a conducted “proof of concept” the researchers calculated that depending on the scale of the mining business the share of renewables in energy consumption could be raised to 99%.
Early backing Google and Tesla invested $100 million in Blockchain.com
The Scottish asset manager Baillie Gifford invested $100 million in the Bitcoin exchange Blockchain.com. The Edinburgh-based firm became the largest external shareholder in the British cryptocurrency company.
Baillie Gifford invested in Blockchain.com as part of a Series C funding round totaling $300 million, which valued the company at $5.2 billion.
On ForkLog, other crypto deals in recent days include:
- Digital Asset raised $120 million.
- Deutsche Telekom invested in the blockchain project Celo.
- Aleo raised $28 million from a16z, Galaxy Digital and Polychain Capital.
- CoinSwitch Kuber raised $25 million from Tiger Global.
- Injective Protocol raised $10 million from Mark Cuban, Pantera Capital and other investors.
BitMEX unveils transformation into a leading crypto derivatives exchange
BitMEX aims to become one of the world’s largest regulated crypto derivatives exchanges, CEO Alexander Heptner said. The plan envisions adding five new business units:
- spot trading;
- brokerage;
- custodial services;
- information products;
- academy.
Toronto Stock Exchange launches Ethereum ETF trading
On Tuesday, April 20, the Purpose Ether ETF, CI Galaxy Ethereum ETF and Evolves Ether ETF began trading on the Toronto Stock Exchange (TSX).
On April 16, Canadian regulators approved the launch of the world’s first Ethereum-based ETFs from Purpose Investments, CI Global Asset Management and Evolve Funds.
Phillips auction house sells self-replicating NFT for $4.1 million
The Phillips auction house sold a non-fungible token titled “REPLICATOR” for $4.1 million. The NFT was created by digital artist Misha Dowbak, known as Mad Dog Jones.
Phillips representatives noted that the final bid included the auction house’s commission.
Visually, “REPLICATOR” depicts a photocopier placed in an office space in downtown Los Angeles.
Among other developments in the fast-growing NFT space over the past week:
- Ukraine’s Minister of Justice will sell his own NFT.
- Waves sold the most expensive NFT outside the Ethereum blockchain.
- The NFT painting by Russian artists 404.zero sold for a record $90,000.
- Trump’s tweets were put up for sale as NFTs.
- Rapper Eminem will release a NFT collection.
Straightforward deals on NFT marketplaces occur daily; ForkLog has compiled a roundup of the priciest NFTs:
- Charles Hoskinson urged moving away from Proof-of-Work and predicted the collapse of Dogecoin.
- Dogecoin Day: meme-token clones delivered holders multiples.
- Guggenheim Partners warned of a possible Bitcoin correction to $20,000.
- Nassim Taleb: Bitcoin is a Ponzi scheme.
- Brian Brooks will head Binance’s U.S. arm.
- Paxos obtained a conditional license from the national bank.
- Changpeng Zhao: avoiding stress by adopting a HODL strategy instead of trading.
What else to read and watch
Top Coinbase executives sold part of their shares after the listing, and the community criticized them. ForkLog looked into how much stock leadership actually sold and why.
The Ethereum scalability question remains one of the most discussed topics since the network’s launch. We studied how progress on layer-2 solutions stands.
The news that Signal would support cryptocurrency payments drew mixed reactions. ForkLog learned what lies behind the initiative.
The hash-rate collapse and Bitcoin network stagnation became one of the week’s most-discussed topics. We delved into the developments, collecting a range of opinions on the latest market events.
On Monday, April 19, ForkLog LIVE welcomed regular guest and resident trader Tone Vays. They discussed Bitcoin’s price, altcoins, NFT and other hot topics.
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