Kategorie: Ethereum News

After reporting sharp losses at the start of this week, Ethereum (ETH) has rebounded. The coin has shown incredible resilience in the face of major market pressure. ETH now looks poised for a major bull run, but how will this play out? Here is what you need to know first:

• ETH Managed to regain the crucial $3000 support after falling below in recent days

• So far, the price action has largely consolidated above $3000.

• ETH has now crossed over its 50-Day SMA, and more gains will follow.

Data Source: Tradingview 

What is ETH’s upside potential?

For most parts of 2022, it looks like growth for Ethereum has been capped at $4000. The coin has failed to breach $4000 this year, and every time it gets close, it ends up falling back down once more. For now, we do not think ETH has the bullish momentum needed to reach $4000. 

Instead, we expect the price action to steady at slightly above $3000. Once this happens, ETH will likely break above $3200, and eventually, the coin will retest its 100-day SMA of around $3600 in the days ahead. If this happens, we could see gains of around 30%. 

But if bulls are not able to hold the $3000 support, this prediction will become invalidated. ETH still remains highly volatile, and we may see it push lower than $3000 if current trends don’t hold.

When will ETH Hit $4000?

The bellwether for ETH’s decisive bullish breakout will come if the coin smashes $4000. In fact, many investors have been watching this price for the last four months. 

Well, right now there isn’t enough to suggest that ETH will surge above $4000 in the near term. Instead, the coin is likely to range between $2700 and $3600. But this could change as we end Q2 this year. ETH is also predicted to hit $10,000 by the end of 2022.

The post Ethereum (ETH) is set for a strong bullish run – Here is why appeared first on Coin Journal.

Former Ethereum developer Virgil Griffith (39) has been sentenced to 63 months in prison and a $100,000 fine for his aid to North Korea. In September, Griffith pleaded guilty to violating international sanctions against North Korea. Against the rules, Griffith gave a presentation at a crypto conference in Pyongyang in April 2019.

According to the FBI, Griffith helped the regime of dictator Kim Jong-un evade Western economic sanctions, allowing the country to develop nuclear missiles to threaten the world.

The crime carries a maximum sentence of 20 years, but Griffith managed to turn his original sentence of 78 down to 63 in a deal with federal prosecutors. This means a prison sentence of 5 to 6.5 years. However, Griffith has already spent two years in custody, of which he was released on bail for 14 months. The remaining 10 months already count towards his sentence.

Defence asks for leniency

Before hearing the judge’s final verdict, Griffith was given the chance to make one final objection or comment. Griffith exchanged a few glances with his parents and friends in the courtroom, whereupon his lawyer began with a request for leniency. In legal terms, a request for leniency means a request for a less severe sentence.

Brian Klein, Griffith’s lead attorney, asked Judge Castel to consider factors that he said were not included in the final verdict. Specifically, the harsh conditions at the Metropolitan Detention Center (MDC) in Brooklyn, where Griffith is being held.

Klein described various difficult and inhumane conditions in his speech. For example, the fact that during the COVID-19 outbreaks, there was no possibility for family to visit. He faced limited access to blankets and warm clothing, and Griffith was even forced to use his sink as a toilet. Further, Griffith was limited to two or fewer meals a day. Meals mainly consisted of bread with peanut butter and jelly. This is because the gangs in the MDC control the kitchen.

“I learned my lesson”

Attorney Klein also informed the judge about a recent psychological examination that Griffith underwent, during which two personality disorders have come to light. These are Narcissistic Personality Disorder (NPD) and Obsessive Compulsive Personality Disorder (OCPD). According to Griffith’s defence, this explains his “obsession” with North Korea and the fact that he went that way against the advice of family and friends.

Klein further stated that Griffith is fully committed to his therapy and that his psychiatrist has labelled him “treatable”. Griffith himself spoke of his time in prison as a period of reflection, in which he acknowledged his selfishness. “I’ve learned my lesson,” said Griffith. 

The federal judge couldn’t agree with his statement. On Tuesday, he ruled that Griffith would face 63 months in prison and a $100,000 fine for his crime. He said Griffith had no good intentions and instead showed “a desire to educate people on how to avoid sanctions.”

The judge justified the need for the harsh sentence by referring to the war in Ukraine and the US sanctions against Russia. The jail sentence “will deter others in a similar situation,” the judge said.

Assisting North Korea to evade sanctions

The judge was not at all convinced by lawyer Klein’s story and Griffith’s own words. Castel then began reading a series of text messages and emails in which Griffith admits he is sharing information with North Korea to help the Kim regime evade sanctions.

What the judge most disliked was that during the conference in North Korea, Griffith wore a traditional North Korean suit and stood in front of a blackboard that read “No sanctions!”. According to the judge, tough action, in this case, is important to deter other sanctioned countries from relying on the methods Griffith has.

$1.5 billion in crypto

North Korean hackers have already managed to steal large sums of cryptocurrencies several times. Last year, they would have stolen a total of $395 million. Over the past five years, the country has acquired $1.5 billion in cryptos, according to blockchain analytics firm Chainalysis.

Russia could use cryptos to evade Western sanctions, according to ECB President Christine Lagarde. Although several crypto crime experts contradict that.

The post Former Ethereum developer sentenced to 5 years in prison appeared first on Coin Journal.

Bitcoin and Ethereum are the two biggest cryptocurrencies in the market with a combined market cap of over $1.2 trillion. The two coins have also generated substantial returns to their shareholders in the past decade. In this Bitcoin vs Ethereum piece, we will identify the one that is a better investment for long-term investors.

Bitcoin vs Ethereum

Bitcoin and Ethereum are blockchain projects with different goals. BTC was designed as an alternative currency while Ethereum was built with smart contract capabilities. As a result, many developers have used Ethereum’s platform to build their decentralized products like Aave and Uniswap. 

In terms of performance, the two have had spectacular returns in the past decade. And a closer look shows that a close correlation exists between the two. Bitcoin has risen by about 18,700% since 2015 while Ethereum has gained by over 22,000% in the same period. This means that Ethereum has been a better investment than Bitcoin.

The case for Bitcoin

There are several reasons why many investors believe that Bitcoin is a better investment than Ethereum. First, as the first cryptocurrency on record, Bitcoin has a better brand name than Ethereum. This explains why many institutional investors prefer holding it to Ethereum. Second, it has a limited supply, which means that it will keep getting rare over time.

Third, BTC is viewed as digital gold, which explains why many people invest in it. And finally, Bitcoin is an autonomous organization that is managed by the community. Ethereum is different because of the role that the Ethereum Foundation plays.

The case for Ethereum

Meanwhile, when comparing Bitcoin vs Ethereum, many inventors believe strongly in Ethereum for several reasons. First, they believe that Ethereum has more use-cases than Bitcoin. 

For example, the platform has been used extensively to build decentralized applications in the DeFi, metaverse, and NFT industries. Examples of leading apps in Ethereum are Uniswap, OpenSea, and Aave. Therefore, as these industries grow, the Ethereum price will keep rising.

Second, Ethereum is addressing its carbon footprint issue by transitioning from a proof-of-work network to a proof-of-stake platform. This process is going on and analysts expect that the merge will happen in the third quarter of 2022. Therefore, Ethereum will be more attractive to ESG-focused investors.

Third, Ethereum has additional features that Bitcoin lacks. The most important one is staking, which happens in Ethereum 2. As a result, it is possible to earn money by simply buying and holding the coin.

Therefore, because of these features, in my opinion, I believe that Ethereum is a better investment than Bitcoin. 

The post Bitcoin vs Ethereum: Which crypto is a better buy? appeared first on Coin Journal.

There are thousands of cryptocurrencies in existence today. CoinGecko tracks 13,000 of them while CoinMarketCap follows over 18,000 of them. 

Ethereum is the second-biggest of them with its market cap of over $367 billion. It is also one of the most popular cryptocurrencies globally. So, if you are wondering whether you should buy Ethereum, here are the top things to consider.

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1. Ethereum is transitioning

One of the most important things you need to know when investing in Ethereum is that it is going through a transition. 

For starters, Ethereum is a proof-of-work (PoW) platform that enables developers to build their blockchain projects. As a PoW cryptocurrency, it means that all coins are generated through mining.

Like with Bitcoin, this process is usually highly expensive and inefficient. Therefore, developers are currently working on ETH 2.0, which will transition to become a proof-of-stake (PoS) network. 

The goal of this transition is to make it faster and more energy-efficient. Instead of using complex miners, the system uses validators to verify transactions. 

The transition process is going on and analysts expect that the merge between Ethereum and the Beacon chain will happen in the third quarter of 2022. Therefore, there is a likelihood that the Ethereum price will likely keep rising towards and after the merge.

2. Ethereum will have a sharding mechanism

Another thing you need to know about Ethereum is that the network will embrace the sharding mechanism. Sharding is a technology that was first introduced by Zilliqa. The idea is relatively simple. Instead of the network processing blocks in all sizes, it divides them into smaller pieces known as shards. 

The goal of using sharding is to make a blockchain network significantly faster and highly scalable. As a result, sharding will help increase the overall speed of the network from less than 20 transactions per second (tps) to more than 1,000.

Zilliqa, the first network to embrace sharding, now has over 2,500 tps. Other networks like Near Protocol and Elrond that use sharding handle thousands of transactions per second. 

This sharding mechanism will be integrated with the network after the merge of Ethereum and the beacon chain happens in June this year. Therefore, there is a likelihood that the network will see more activity after the merger happens.

3. Ethereum is handling competition well

If you are considering investing in Ethereum, it is important to note that the network is facing stiff competition. It is seeing substantial competition from other blockchain networks that have better speeds, lower costs, and more interoperability.

There are many blockchain projects that seek to become the default platform for developers. In general, there are two main types of these networks: layer 1 and layer 2. 

Layer 1 is a project that is built from the ground up to help developers build applications. Examples of these networks are Avalanche, Solana, BNB Chain, Cronos, and Near Protocol among others.

Layer 2 networks, on the other hand, are built with the goal of accelerating and supercharging the speeds of Ethereum applications. They are simply sidechains that use Ethereum but then transact outside of Ethereum. Some of these networks are Polygon, Mina Protocol, Immutable X, and Loopring among others.

However, while Ethereum is facing a lot of competition, it has managed to maintain a market share. A good example of this is in the decentralized finance (DeFi) industry. DeFi is an industry that is attempting to disrupt traditional finance by introducing products like lending, investing, and trading. Some of the most important applications built using Ethereum are AAVE, Curve, and Uniswap among others.

Ethereum has a total value locked (TVL) of more than $116 billion. This means that it has a market dominance of 55.3%, considering that all DeFi apps have a TVL of more than $211 billion.

Ethereum also has a leading market share in the NFT industry. While there are many blockchain platforms in the industry, it has a commanding lead. For example, it has been used to build the biggest NFTs in the world like Bored Ape Yacht Club, Mutant Ape Yacht Club, Imposters Genesis Aliens, CloneX, and Cryptopunks, among others.

4. Ethereum is offered by most exchanges

Another thing to know when you want to buy Ethereum is that it is one of the easiest coins to buy. That’s because it is widely offered by many exchanges and financial platforms. For example, Ethereum is provided by all exchanges ranging from well-known brands like Coinbase and eToro to smaller ones like CEX and Gate.

Second, it is offered by various online wallets like PayPal, Skrill, and Revolut. All you need to do is to have money in your account and then execute the trade. In most cases, the process of buying and storing the coin will take less than 5 minutes.

Third, you can buy Ethereum using one of the most popular forex and CFD brokers. These companies let you buy digital coins using leverage. A CFD is simply a financial asset that tracks the price of Ethereum.

5. You can stake Ethereum 2

Finally, like many other proof-of-stake tokens, it is possible to stake the second version of Ethereum. Staking is the process of buying a cryptocurrency and delegating it to one of the validators. You will then earn some money every month. According to Staking Rewards, investors have staked Ethereum worth more than $32 billion. They are earning an APY of about 8%, making it a good investment.

The post Should I Buy Ethereum? 5 Things You Should Consider appeared first on Coin Journal.

Ethereum price continued retreating as investors continued worrying about the rising bond yields. ETH crumbled to a low of $2,960, which was the lowest level since March 24th. It has dropped by more than 16% from its highest level this month.

US inflation ahead

There is nothing fundamentally wrong with Ethereum. Indeed, the number of transactions in its network has been steady in the past few months. DeFi, gaming, and non-fungible tokens (NFTs) are all doing modestly well. 

At the same time, the transition from a proof-of-work (PoW) network to a proof-of-stake (PoS) is going on. On Monday, developers announced that the first mainnet shadow fork went live as the testing of the network continued.

In all, analysts expect that the merge of the existing Ethereum ecosystem with the beacon chain will complete in June this year. This will be an important milestone that will lead to a strong performance of apps built in Ethereum’s blockchain.

The main reason why Ethereum price is falling is related to the macro picture. The performance of the bond market is signaling that the Fed will keep pushing interest rates substantially higher in the coming months.

The Fed minutes published last week showed that more members of the Federal Open Market Committee (FOMC) were open to more tightening. Some, including the dovish Lael Brainard, have concluded that more hikes and quantitative tightening are necessary.

The latest US inflation data that comes out on Tuesday will send signals of how aggressive the Fed will be. Economists expect these numbers to show that the headline consumer inflation rose to 8.4% while core inflation jumped to 6.6%. 

If the numbers are stronger than these, it will send a signal that the Fed will get more aggressive. This hawkish tone explains why Bitcoin, Ethereum, and Nasdaq 100 indices have declined sharply.

Ethereum price prediction

The daily chart shows that the ETH price has been in a strong bearish trend in the past few days. The coin has moved below the upper side of the ascending channel. It has also moved slightly below the 25-day and 50-day moving averages while the Relative Strength Index (RSI) has moved below the oversold level. 

Therefore, Ethereum price will likely keep falling as bears target the lower side of the channel at about $2,650. A move above the upper side of the channel will invalidate this view.

The post Ethereum price prediction: Channel signals a drop to $2,650 likely appeared first on Coin Journal.