2024-09-20 08:41

The recent Federal Reserve interest cut will fuel increased onchain activity, and this will strongly benefit the Ethereum blockchain, the report said. Ether's recent underperformance may be over, Steno Research said in a report. The report noted that in the last bull market, during altcoin season, ether more than doubled in value compared to bitcoin. The U.S. Federal Reserve's interest rate cut will result in more onchain activity, which will benefit Ethereum. Ether's (ETH) recent bout of underperformance may be over and the world's second largest cryptocurrency could be ready to shine again, both in fiat terms and relative to bitcoin (BTC), Steno Research said in a report on Thursday. The native token of the Ethereum blockchain has risen nearly 8% year-to-date, while bitcoin has surged 43% and the CoinDesk 20 index (CD20) has gained nearly 11%. Ether's performance in the last bull market could provide some guidance. ETH surged during the last altcoin season, and in under two months it more than doubled in value compared to bitcoin, the report noted. This shift was sparked by a surge in onchain activity, the report said, including decentralized finance (DeFi), stablecoin issuance, and the boom in non-fungible tokens (NFTs), all of which happened mainly on the Ethereum blockchain. The Federal Reserve interest rate cut, earlier this week, will result in increased onchain activity, which will strongly benefit Ethereum, Steno said. Bitcoin exchange-traded funds (ETFs) are unlikely to continue outperforming ether versions as much, Steno said, noting that ETH has shown its ability to suddenly outperform its larger rival in the past. There have been three main reasons for bitcoin's recent outperformance over ether. "The impact of U.S. spot ETFs for both bitcoin and ether, the persistent buying pressure from MicroStrategy (MSTR), and a notable decline in Ethereum's transactional revenue in recent months," analyst Mads Eberhardt wrote. "Ethereum's active addresses remain strong, particularly when factoring in the growing adoption of rollups," Eberhardt wrote, adding that the network's transactional revenue looks to have bottomed in August. Asset manager Bitwise is also bullish about ether's prospects. The cryptocurrency is potentially a contrarian bet into the year-end, it said in a report on Tuesday. https://www.coindesk.com/markets/2024/09/20/ether-is-going-to-shine-again-steno-research-says/

2024-09-20 07:55

It is unclear if all these wallets belong to the same person or entity. Over 250 BTC from the early days of bitcoin, known as the "Satoshi era," were transferred on Friday in five separate transactions, each moving 50 BTC to new wallets, with a total value close to $13 million. As of press time, there hasn’t been any movement from the new wallets to crypto exchanges. This movement adds to previous instances where dormant bitcoin from the Satoshi era, including significant transactions in July and December last year. Hundreds of bitcoin (BTC) acquired by mining them during the network’s early stages were moved on Friday – joining the rare instances where bitcoin from the so-termed “Satoshi era” have been active. Satoshi era refers commonly to the period when bitcoin’s pseudonymous creator, Satoshi Nakamoto, was active on online forums from late 2009 to 2011. Over 250 BTC from that period, worth nearly $16 million at current prices, were moved within an hour during the European morning hours, on-chain tracker Whale Alerts flagged on X. Each transaction was a batch of 50 BTC with the tokens being moved to new wallets. It is unclear if all these wallets belong to the same person or entity. There hasn’t been a movement from the new wallets to crypto exchanges as of press time. Blockchain data shows these bitcoin were received as a block reward in 2009, just months after the network started. These wallets have shown no activity since then except for the movement on Friday. Several ‘Satoshi era’ bitcoin have been active in the past few years. In July 2023, a wallet dormant for 11 years transferred $30 million worth of the asset to other wallets, while in August, another wallet transferred 1,005 BTC to a new address. In December last year, over 1,000 BTC were sent to crypto exchanges - where they were likely sold off - marking one of the largest amounts from the Satoshi era moved to exchanges. https://www.coindesk.com/markets/2024/09/20/satoshi-era-wallets-move-16m-in-bitcoin-after-15-years-of-dormancy/

2024-09-20 07:50

The ramshackle validator client is a prelude to Jump's highly anticipated Firedancer software. Frankendancer, a validator client for the Solana blockchain that adds contributions from Jump Crypto to existing software, is up and running. The fully new client, Firedancer, is running on testnet, a sign it's on the way to maturity. SINGAPORE — An early version of Jump Crypto's highly anticipated Solana validator, Firedancer, is live and contributing to the performance of the Solana blockchain, Jump's Chief Science Officer Kevin Bowers said Friday. Speaking onstage at Solana's Breakpoint conference, Bowers shed light on an "open secret" in Solana's validator community: Some of the computing power underpinning Solana is running "Frankendancer" software that combines predominant validator tech with new contributions from Jump. Blockchain validators ingest transactions and construct blocks – the most essential process in running a blockchain. Most networks have a single validator client. Solana's plan to have two fully independent validators – one from a Solana spinoff team, Anza, one from Jump – would give it a redundancy boost, and potentially a performance edge, too. Such behind-the-scenes and in-the-weeds tech developments might seem like a yawner, but at Breakpoint it received top billing. The sellout conference's largest stage was standing room only as Bowers emerged to a rockstar-like atmosphere. "We view this project as the consumer science equivalent of civil engineering," Bowers said of the effort to build the second validator client. He compared the potential impact of Firedancer as akin to expanding a country road into an interstate highway. Bowers shed little light on when Firedancer – the fully new client software, as opposed to Frankendancer – would come online. But it is running on testnet, Bowers said, indicating it has achieved minimum viability and is getting close. https://www.coindesk.com/tech/2024/09/20/jumps-frankendancer-validator-client-is-live-on-solana-mainnet/

2024-09-20 07:00

The French financial services firm is betting on Solana's faster and cheaper attributes. SINGAPORE – SG Forge, a subsidiary of Societe Generale, will roll out euro stablecoin EUR CoinVertible (EURCV) on the Solana blockchain, the French financial services firm said Friday. SG Forge launched EURCV on the Ethereum blockchain last year as a highly regulated, euro-centric alternative to top dollar-linked stablecoins from Tether and Circle. It has struggled to catch on: EURCV has only 28 holders, 154 lifetime transactions and an issuance of 33 million, according to its Etherscan page. The Solana debut will test whether crypto users have any appetite for Euro-linked stablecoins on a faster and cheaper network, two attributes SG Forge touted in a press release. CEO Jean-Marc Stenger said in the presser that Solana's speed "will unlock new possibilities for both retail users and institutional players in" decentralized finance (DeFi). Stablecoins are becoming systemically important to the global financial economy, Bernstein wrote in a recent report. Myriad firms are eager to replicate the success of Circle and Tether, the largest stablecoin issuers who collect major windfalls from ownership of the Treasury notes underlying their respective assets. https://www.coindesk.com/business/2024/09/20/socgens-crypto-unit-takes-euro-stablecoin-to-solana-after-flopping-on-ethereum/

2024-09-20 06:30

The Bank of Japan won’t rush to repeat hikes of the yen, which triggered a market meltdown in July. Open interest data fromCoinGlass show a nearly $5 billion jump in bitcoin bets since Tuesday. Solana’s SOL and ether zoomed as much as 7% to lead gains in crypto majors. Bitcoin (BTC) extended one-week gains to 10% after a busy few days, including rate cuts by the U.S. Federal Reserve, a pause in cuts by the Bank of England, and a decision to hold rates by the Bank of Japan (BoJ) on Friday. BTC briefly crossed $64,000 in Asian morning hours Friday, before paring gains, as BoJ kept policy unchanged in a move that avoided a repeat of July’s market meltdown which followed its decision to hike rates. Traders said macroeconomic data suggests optimism for riskier bets, such as bitcoin, in the coming months. “The US 2Y/10Y treasury spread, an indicator of recession, has been inverted since July 2022 but has recently steepened to +8bps,” QCP Capital traders said in a market broadcast Friday. “This reflects market optimism and a shift towards risk-on assets.” Short-term debt instruments with higher yields than long-term ones can be a warning sign for risk assets and the economy - as it indicates that monetary and fiscal policies are restrictive and that the economy may contract in the future. Open interest data fromCoinGlass show a nearly $5 billion jump in bitcoin bets since Tuesday, a sign of new money rapidly entering the market in expectations of volatility ahead. Traders are biased toward longs - or bets on higher prices - a ratio tracking the active buying volume to active selling volume shows. Crypto markets jumped higher in the past 24 hours, with memes and layer-1 tokens leading gains. Solana’s SOL and ether (ETH) zoomed as much as 7% to lead major gains, while Avalanche’s AVAX, Aptos’ APT, and Immutable’s IMX jumped as much as 12%. Memecoins led by bonk (BONK) surged as much as 10%, CoinGecko data shows, showing a return of risk-on behavior. The broad-based CoinDesk 20 (CD20), a liquid fund tracking the largest tokens by market capitalization, rose 3.5%. https://www.coindesk.com/markets/2024/09/20/bitcoin-nears-64k-as-btc-futures-attract-billions-bojs-hike-pause-bumps-risk-assets/

2024-09-20 05:47

Hacker have moved the stolen assets to decentralized exchanges. BingX was the victim of a hack for more than $43 million. The firms' chief product officer said on X that the assets stolen were minor and any customer losses would be compensated. Crypto exchange BingX has been hacked for a "minor" amount of assets and the exchange plans to compensate users for any loss, the firm's chief product officer (CPO) said in a message on X. On-chain data suggests nearly $43 million was stolen from the exchange in multiple tranches, with $13.25 million ether, $2.3 million BNB, $4.4 million USDT, among other being drained. The first hack was for approximately $26 million, while a few hours afterward, hackers took an additional $16.5 million from the exchange. "The total loss is minimal and manageable. This incident will not affect our ongoing business operations," BingX CPO Vivien Lien said on X. "Trading services continue as usual. Withdrawals and deposits are temporarily delayed and are expected to be restored within 24 hours at the latest." Aside from stablecoins, hackers took more than 360 different types of altcoins. Data from Etherscan shows most of the stolen crypto was swapped for ETH and BNB at DEXs like Uniswap and Kyberswap. As of press time the wallet tied to the hack, which Etherscan says received most of its funds from the BingX hot wallet, has over 1,000 ether in it and tokens worth $5 million. CORRECTION (Sept. 20, 08:08 UTC): Corrects Vivien Lien's title to chief product officer. https://www.coindesk.com/tech/2024/09/20/crypto-exchange-bingx-hacked-onchain-data-shows-over-43m-drained/