Author: kirstenbourchier
Cryptocurrency ethereum is flourishing but risks linger
By Gertrude Chavez-Dreyfuss
NEW YORK, May 7 (Reuters) – Ethereum has outperformed major digital currency rivals this year, bolstered by the surge in decentralized finance (DeFi) and the anticipation of a technical adjustment this summer, but it faces hurdles that could stall its rise.
With a jump of more than 350% in its price this year, ethereum has the second-largest market capitalization after bitcoin, but not as much cache and perhaps more operational challenges that could prevent it from eclipsing its major rival.
In the crypto world, the terms “ethereum” and “ether” have become synonymous.Technically, ethereum is the blockchain network in which decentralized applications are embedded, while ether is the token or currency that enables or drives the use of these applications.
Ethereum’s market cap on Friday was $410 billion, second to bitcoin’s at more than $1 trillion, according to data tracker CoinGecko.com.It hit a record high of $3,610.04 on Thursday and was last up 1% at $3,524.
Bitcoin, meanwhile, has risen a more modest 97% this year. Since hitting an all-time high of just under $65,000 in mid-April, bitcoin has actually fallen roughly 18%.
A rise in institutional interest has increased ethereum demand, but supply has been limited.The token’s supply in exchanges in April hit its lowest in nearly 2-1/2 years, according to Kraken Intelligence, a research blog from cryptocurrency exchange Kraken.
“It’s more than just a coin. It’s a whole ecosystem that allows other applications to be built,” said Bradley Kam, chief executive officer of blockchain domain provider, Unstoppable Domains.
At the heart of ethereum’s ascendancy is DeFi, which refers to peer-to-peer cryptocurrency platforms that facilitate lending outside traditional banking institutions.Many sites run on the ethereum network, using an open-source code with algorithms that set rates in real time based on supply and demand. The value locked – the total number of loans on DeFi platforms – was $79 billion as of Friday, DeFi Pulse data showed, up nearly 600% from $11 billion in October.
DeFi, however, has its problems.Dune Analytics research showed 2%-5% of transactions on ethereum-based decentralized exchanges failed due to complications such as slippage or insufficient “gas” prices, which are the fees required to successfully conduct a transaction on the ethereum blockchain.
Between April 15 and bizni ko’rib chiqamiz April 21, for instance, roughly 1.1 million transactions were made on Uniswap, a DeFi protocol used for exchanging cryptocurrencies.Of those, 241,262 failed, representing the largest number of transaction failures across the entire ethereum network, data from analytics platform Etherscan and Dune Analytics showed.
“DeFi is destined for meteoric growth, but that growth inherently comes with risk,” said Alex Wearn, chief executive officer at crypto exchange IDEX.
“Issues such as failed transactions and front-running are not subtle, costing users millions of dollars every day,” he said, referring to the practice of getting a transaction first in line in the execution queue right before a known future contract.”These major … problems limit the appeal of these products for a wider audience and ultimately hinder the ecosystem’s growth.”
Wearn estimates that more than $285 million were lost in DeFi hacks so far this year.
Proponents say DeFi sites represent the future of financial services, providing a cheaper, more efficient and accessible way for people and companies to access and offer credit.
TECHNOLOGY BUMPS
Ethereum has also been plagued by the network’s inability to scale to meet demand without incurring high transaction fees as well as slow execution of transactions, market participants said.
The first phase of an upgrade called Ethereum 2.0 launched last year is aimed at addressing the network’s tech issues on speed, efficiency, and scalability.
However, John Wu, president of AVA Labs, an open-source platform for financial applications, pointed out that the planned migration to Ethereum 2.0 has been in the works for years.
“The timelines have consistently been delayed, so it’s hard to feel comfortable with that unknown,” he said.
Ethereum also faces stiff competition from networks such as AVA Labs’ Avalanche and Binance Smart Chain, which are also compatible with ethereum’s assets and applications.
Data from AVA Labs showed users have transferred more than $170 million to Avalanche from ethereum since February.
ANOTHER TECHNICAL ENHANCEMENT
Still, hopes of a technical adjustment called EIP (ethereum improvement proposal) 1559, which is expected to go live in July and is seen reducing the supply of ethereum, has provided a lift for the digital currency.
EIP-1559 aims to reduce the volatility of ethereum’s fees by introducing a mechanism to burn some of those transaction fees, which should slow the token’s issuance, analysts said.
The impact on ethereum’s price could be similar to a bitcoin halving event, in which an adjustment cut bitcoin’s supply and propelled its price to record highs, analysts said.
“There’s a lot of numbers going around the market about the potential impact that has like a halving-type magnitude with bitcoin,” said Richard Galvin, co-founder and chief executive officer of crypto fund Digital Asset Capital Management.
“They’re all pretty positive drivers that have, I guess, seen a pretty strong revaluing.”
(Reporting by Gertrude Chavez-Dreyfuss in New York Additional reporting by Tom Wilson in London Editing by Alden Bentley and Matthew Lewis)
Coinbase brings cryptocurrencies to Wall Street
Bitcoin medals: the arrival of the first cryptocurrency exchange on the Nasdaq is exciting a great deal of anticipation on Wall Street
The arrival Wednesday of cryptocurrency exchange Coinbase on Nasdaq is one of the most anticipated events of the year on Wall Street, where enthusiasm for record-breaking bitcoin is in full swing, despite questions about the sustainability of the market.
The first company devoted entirely to cryptocurrency to enter the US stock exchange, Coinbase — which will be listed under the symbol COIN — is already a heavyweight.
Estimates vary depending on the method of calculation, but its capitalization is expected to range from $70 to $100 billion, the largest IPO for a US company since Facebook in 2012.
Coinbase chose a direct listing, which does not allow it to raise new funds but does offer current shareholders — founders, employees and historical investors — the opportunity to sell their stocks on the market.
Spotify, Slack, Palantir and Roblox had also used this method for their Wall Street debuts.
Nearly 115 million Coinbase shares will be put on the market.
Their reference price will be announced Tuesday evening.
– Bitcoin success –
Founded in 2012 in San Francisco by Brian Armstrong and Fred Ehrsam, the platform allows users to buy and sell about 50 cryptocurrencies, including bitcoin and ether.
Coinbase claims 56 million total users and a little more than six million people making transactions each month, according to estimates from its first-quarter results, released in early April.
The company has benefited from bitcoin’s meteoric rise over the past year, with the crypto asset’s price rising from $6,500 last April to a record-high above $62,000 on Tuesday.
In the wake of the reigning cryptocurrency, other virtual currencies — such as ether, Litecoin or Stellar Lumens — have also surged.
“With bitcoin already having more than doubled in the last six months and cryptocurrencies becoming more popular with more mainstream investors, it can certainly be argued that crypto has become more mainstream in the last 12 months,” said Michael Hewson, the chief market analyst at CMC Markets UK.
As a result of this craze, Coinbase’s revenue has increased almost tenfold in the course of a year to $1.8 billion in the first quarter, according to group estimates.
Its profit increased 25-fold, in the range of $730 to $800 million.
The success of Coinbase and cryptocurrencies in general has given some rivals ideas: the head of the California-based cryptocurrency exchange platform Kraken told CNBC last week he hopes to take his company public next year, also via a direct listing.
– Government concern –
If the situation seems favorable to Coinbase, caution remains the order of the day among observers, who recall the company’s dependence on the price of virtual currencies, which tend to be volatile.
Before its spectacular rise in recent months, bitcoin had experienced setbacks, particularly in 2018 when the currency kept falling.
Some are also drawing attention to the distrust of lawmakers in several countries who are concerned about cryptocurrencies being used for illicit purposes.
“Will Coinbase prove popular with retail investors? There is little doubt about that prospect with demand and interest set to be high,” said Hewson.
“The bigger question is whether any valuation is sustainable, particularly given how many governments aren’t particularly enamoured of cryptocurrencies,” he said.
“Future regulation is likely to be a clear and present danger and a probable headwind” in the long term.
Coinbase was recently charged by the US Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC) of “reporting false, misleading, or inaccurate” information about cryptocurrencies and manipulating the market between 2015 and 2018.
Without admitting wrongdoing, Coinbase paid a $6.5 million fine, and the company was forced to push back its listing date on Wall Street.
Another factor that could put Coinbase at a disadvantage is its commissions, which the company uses to earn money.
These levies are higher than some of its competitors, particularly Binance.
But that platform, founded in China, seems to alarm regulators even more than Coinbase.
According to Bloomberg, the CFTC recently opened an investigation into whether trabalhos binance, which is not registered with the agency, had violated US commodities law.