Ethereum price

How will the Shanghai upgrade impact ETH price? Expert explains

While it may cause downside pressure in the short run, the Shanghai upgrade will be highly bullish for Ether’s price in the mid-to-long term, according to Vivek Raman.

While it may have some short-term negative impact on the price of Ether (ETH), the upcoming Shanghai upgrade will be highly bullish for Ethereum’s native token, as it will attract more capital to staking and increase the network’s security, according to Ethereum researcher Vivek Raman. 

The Shanghai upgrade, scheduled for April 12, will allow network validators to withdraw funds that have been locked to secure the network since December 2020. The upgrade will complete the network’s transition to a proof-of-stake system, which started in October 2022 with the Merge.

Around 18 million ETH will be available for withdrawal following Shanghai. According to Raman, that may lead to some selling pressure on ETH’s price in the short term.

However, in the long run, the ability to unstake Ether will “de-risk the ETH investment in a tremendous way,” he pointed out. In particular, institutional investors that couldn’t get involved earlier in staking will feel more comfortable once ETH can be unstaked. More capital entering ETH staking will improve the Ethereum network in the long run.

“The more native proof-of-stake asset that’s staked, the higher the cost to attack the chain,” Raman pointed out.

To find out more about the implications of the upcoming Ethereum upgrade, check out the full interview on our YouTube channel and don’t forget to subscribe!

Magazine: ‘Account abstraction’ supercharges Ethereum wallets: Dummies guide

Bitcoin likely to outperform all crypto assets following banking crisis, analyst explains

The banking crisis is a catalyst for the next crypto bull run, in which Bitcoin will likely outperform all crypto assets, says Bloomberg analyst Mike McGlone.

The banking crisis could be the spark that will kick off the next crypto bull run, in which Bitcoin (BTC) is likely to outperform all other cryptocurrencies — according to Mike McGlone, senior commodity strategist at Bloomberg Intelligence. 

Following the collapse of major banks such as Silicon Valley Bank and Credit Suisse, confidence in traditional financial institutions is being shaken and Bitcoin is becoming more attractive as a “hedge against banking risk,” thinks McGlone. 

According to him, the United States Federal Reserve’s unwillingness to ease monetary policy despite the banking crisis is driving the U.S. economy into a recession. 

He believes this macro environment will ultimately favor Bitcoin, which is going to outperform all other cryptocurrencies. 

“The more the Bitcoin can sustain above $25,000, then the more the S&P 500 potentially pressures below 4,000, you’re going to have an indication that Bitcoin is going to take off,” McGlone stated. “I think Bitcoin will outperform virtually all cryptos, including Ethereum,” he concluded. 

To find out how the banking meltdown may spark the next Bitcoin bull market, watch the full interview on our YouTube channel, and don’t forget to subscribe!

Arbitrum airdrop sells off at listing, but traders remain bullish on ARB

ARB sold off upon being listed on exchanges, and some users reported a claim experience laden with tech issues, but the token could follow the trajectory of previous airdrops.

The official Arbitrum airdrop page crashed right after the claiming process began around 1 am UTC on March 24. Some users still managed to claim it through alternative methods like Arbiscan. In the first two hours, the market witnessed a massive sell-off of the token, with its price declining from over $10.29 to lows of $1.

At ByBit, the token started trading for $7.50, but dropped to $1.50 within minutes. At the time of writing, the token was trading at $1.33.

Only one address successfully sold the token at $10.29 through the ARB/USDC pool on Uniswap, bagging $64,340 for 6,250 tokens. A few others were able to sell for $4.50, however, the price dropped quickly below $1.50 as more sellers arrived. 

ARB/USDC trades on Uniswap. Source: GeckoTerminal

Nansen data shows that out of 6.03 million ARB claimed by “smart money” wallets, $5.01 million were moved to a centralized or decentralized exchange, most likely to sell. The analytics firm puts “smart money” tags on addresses that trade in significant size and are usually active.

Flow of ARB token across “smart money” wallets. Source: Nansen

While some smart money accounts added 3.45 million from DEXs, overall, the amount moved to exchanges was 150% larger than inflows to the wallets, suggesting a massive sell-off.

Related: Arbitrum’s ARB token signifies the start of airdrop season — Here are 5 to look out for

Poor claiming experience for the average user

The Aribtrum airdrop claim webpage crashed thanks to overwhelming requests from users to claim ARB tokens. The page returned 404 and 429 errors, remaining down for more than an hour after the claiming process began.

Nevertheless, some users still claimed the airdrop through alternative services like Arbiscan. The blockchain explorer witnessed a record number of visitors of over 84,000 in the first 30 minutes after the claiming window opened.

Nansen’s data shows that 15% of the airdrop claims were processed when the official Arbitrum webpage was down.

However, the claims through Arbiscan were far from smooth. The website also suffered from downtime due to traffic overload, creating a bad user experience for many.

The token claiming widow will be alive for 184 days, until September 24.

The views, thoughts and opinions expressed here are the authors’ alone and do not necessarily reflect or represent the views and opinions of Cointelegraph.

This article does not contain investment advice or recommendations. Every investment and trading move involves risk, and readers should conduct their own research when making a decision.

Ethereum faces 6-month lows versus Bitcoin — Will ETH price rebound?

Ethereum price has turned oversold against Bitcoin, raising the possibility of a rebound in the coming weeks.

Ethereum’s native token, Ether (ETH), continues its multimonth downtrend against Bitcoin (BTC) in March, rising 5.5% versus the latter’s 19.5% gains on a month-to-date timeframe.

Bitcoin overshadows Ethereum amid banking crisis

As of March 23, the ETH/BTC pair was down about 9% month-to-date to 0.0633 while staying on course to record its worst month since September 2022, when it fell 11.75%.

ETH/BTC monthly price chart. Source: TradingView

From a fundamental perspective, traders preferred Bitcoin over Ether, hoping it would protect them from the ongoing banking turmoil in the U.S. and other parts of the world. The narrative gained momentum in recent weeks as Wall Street investors like Cathie Wood see Bitcoin as a potential “flight to safety” asset.

As a result of the growing speculation, Bitcoin outperformed traditional assets after March 8, when signs of trouble appeared at Silicon Valley Bank. In doing so, BTC also fared better than the altcoin market combined, including Ethereum.

Bitcoin, S&P 500, gold and altcoin market performances in March. Source: TradingView 

ETH paints bullish fractal vs. BTC

However, from a technical perspective, Ethereum is positioned for a comeback versus Bitcoin.

At least two technical indicators pose the possibility that ETH/BTC will rebound sharply in the coming weeks.

Related: Ethereum price at $1.4K was a bargain, and a rally toward $2K looks like the next step

First, the pair’s three-day relative strength index has dropped below 30, which technical analysts consider an “oversold” area.

Second, Ether’s drop versus Bitcoin has landed its price near its ascending support level (buy zone in the chart below).

ETH/BTC three-day price chart. Source: TradingView

A similar scenario in the June–July 2022 session preceded an approximately 60% rally toward ETH/BTC’s descending trendline resistance (sell zone in the chart above). If the fractal plays out, the pair could rally toward the same resistance level by June 2023.

In other words, Ether has a decent chance of rebounding by more than 15% to around 0.075 BTC. Conversely, a break below the ascending trendline support will invalidate the bullish fractal.

This article does not contain investment advice or recommendations. Every investment and trading move involves risk, and readers should conduct their own research when making a decision.

Ethereum Shapella upgrade gets new date, making way for un-staking ETH

The upgrade is only for the Sepolia network, with a subsequent upgrade for the Goerli network to be introduced in March.

Ethereum core developer Tim Beiko announced the Shapella upgrade is scheduled for Feb. 28. The Shapella network upgrade will activate on the Sepolia network at epoch 56832.

Shanghai and Capella (Shapella) are the upcoming Ethereum hard fork names. Shanghai is the fork’s name on the execution layer client side, and Capella is the upgrade name on the consensus layer client side.

Ethereum Sepolia upgrade schedule. Source: GitHub

Some key Ethereum improvement proposal (EIP) changes on the execution layer include warm coinbase (not to be confused with the crypto exchange) and Beacon Chain push withdrawals. The push withdrawals will allow validator withdrawals from the Beacon Chain to the Ethereum Virtual Machine via a new “system-level” operation type. On the other hand, warm coinbase could be a game changer that reduces network fees for builders.

Coinbase is the name of the software that builders use to receive new tokens on the network. Every new platform transaction must interact with the coinbase software multiple times. The first interaction costs more as the software needs to “warm” up, with fees declining as the interactions increase. However, with the introduction of EIP-3651, the coinbase software will remain warm to begin with, requiring a lower gas fee to access it.

Related: Ethereum on-chain data suggests ETH sell pressure could be a non-event after the Shanghai upgrade

Major changes to the consensus layer include full and partial withdrawals for validators and independent state and block historical accumulators, replacing the original singular historical roots.

Partial withdrawal means validators can withdraw Ether (ETH) rewards in excess of 32 Ether and keep validating. If they want a full withdrawal, validators can fully exit, take all 32 Ether and rewards, and stop doing the work.

The upcoming upgrade would enable validators to withdraw their staked Ether (stETH) from the Beacon Chain to the execution layer. Moreover, the upgrade would bring changes to the execution and consensus layers, adding new features, making it a key upgrade following the Merge.

Stakers and non-stakers who operate nodes must, however, upgrade their nodes to the most recent Ethereum client versions to take advantage of the Sepolia upgrade. After the deployment of the Sepolia upgrade, the next step would be the release of the Shanghai upgrade on the Ethereum Goerli test network, expected to commence in March.

Modular blockchains could be the next hot crypto market trend in 2023

As the crypto industry recovers, a new generation of modular blockchains could replace centralized bridges and exchanges.

The public blockchain sector grew from less than a few million dollars in the last decade to a $1 trillion industry. However, one thing that the space has yet to achieve is a decentralized, secure interoperable solution.

Let’s take going from Ethereum to Bitcoin, the largest blockchain network, as an example. Historically, centralized exchanges have been one of the few safe, viable solutions for shifting from one chain to another.

BitGo, a centralized solution provider, provides the largest pool of liquidity for Ethereum users to gain Bitcoin (BTC) exposure via Wrapped Bitcoin (WBTC). The BitGo IOU accounts for over 93.6% of the Bitcoin bridged to Ethereum. Users must rely on BitGo partner platforms like centralized exchanges or CoinList to exchange BTC and WBTC.

The dominance of WBTC exposes it to evident centralization and regulatory risks. RenBTC, a platform managed by Alameda Research, dissolved in December 2022 after FTX’s collapse, and the same might happen with BitGo. The recent regulatory crackdown on Paxos for issuing the U.S. dollar-backed Binance USD (BUSD) stablecoin could also eventually bring services like BitGo into the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission’s crosshairs.

The interoperability between smart contract platforms and other application-specific blockchains must also be developed. Sidechains and rollups on Polygon, Arbitrum and Optimism comprise 90% of the cross-chain bridge volume from Ethereum. Near’s Rainbow and Fantom bridges are the only independent blockchains with a notable total value locked on bridges with Ethereum.

Ethereum market share of bridges by TVL. Source: Dune

Several major crypto projects, such as Polkadot and Cosmos, implemented modularity from the ground up to build a secure, scalable cross-chain platform, with the ultimate goal being to establish an interoperable “network of networks.” However, Cosmos has yet to attract sufficient liquidity to its ecosystem, and Polkadot continues to stay in development.

The issue o bridge centralization

The 2021 hype cycle witnessed the emergence of a “multichain future” where various blockchain host specific functions but are joined together through interoperable solutions. The first generation of bridges was highly primitive and centralized, eventually making them hot targets for exploits.

The next generation of interoperable solutions operate as separate blockchains to include decentralization and enhance security. These include intermediate transfer tokens like THORchain’s RUNE (RUNE). However, the daily volume of transfers via THORchain has stayed below $20 million, suggesting that it has failed to pick up usage.

Threshold, which introduces a trustless and private portal for Bitcoin on Ethereum, will launch in Q1 2023. It will look to replace centralized providers like BitGo in bridging liquidity between Bitcoin and Ethereum.

Some other protocols focus on the interoperability between smart contract platforms.

LayerZero is an omnichain interoperability protocol that allows the development of applications like decentralized exchanges and lending protocols on top of it. These protocols can interact with monolithic chains like Ethereum, Cosmos Hub and Solana. Stargate is the first DEX built using LayerZero and has a liquidity of $324 million across Ethereum, Polygon, BNB Smart Chain and Avalanche.

Celestia is a layer-1 blockchain built using the Cosmos SDK. The platform supports smart contract execution but is only responsible for ordering transactions and making a blockchain’s data more accessible.

It aims to act as an intermediate layer between Ethereum rollups and the mainnet by compressing the rollup data for faster execution on the Ethereum layer 1. Celestia does not verify the block data but helps optimize the gas cost and speed of execution. This capability will extend to layer-1 blockchains like Cosmos, Solana and Avalanche.

The team will run an incentivized test in Q1 2023 to start public testing and reward testnet validators with a potential airdrop of native tokens.

Celestia testnet incentives announcement. Source: Celestia’s Discord

Related: ‘Multichain future is very clear’ — MetaMask to support all tokens via Snaps

Fuel Labs, the team building Fuel Network, also developed the Fuel Virtual Machine and Sway programming language, which enhances transaction speed. The team launched its second beta testnet in November 2022, and the public testnet is expected to go live sometime in 2023.

While the interoperable space remains underdeveloped and exposed to centralization risks, various teams are working on decentralized solutions that will launch in 2023. These protocols will securely bridge the liquidity across decentralized finance protocols and other layer-1 blockchains. On top of that, they will also help build a multichain future, where the user experience will be blockchain agnostic and protocols will interact with each other seamlessly.

The views, thoughts and opinions expressed here are the authors’ alone and do not necessarily reflect or represent the views and opinions of Cointelegraph.

This article does not contain investment advice or recommendations. Every investment and trading move involves risk, and readers should conduct their own research when making a decision.

Ethereum’s deflation accelerates as Shanghai upgrade looms — Can ETH price avoid a 30% drop?

A deflationary Ethereum supply does not necessarily mean a bullish market for ETH, at least in the near term.

The price of Ethereum’s native token, Ether (ETH), has surged by more than 40% year-to-date to around $1,750, the highest level in seven months. However, ETH’s price is not out of the woods yet despite several bullish cues in the pipeline, such as the Shanghai upgrade.

Ethereum price bull trap?

Ether’s rise aligns with similar upside moves elsewhere in the crypto market, responding to lowering inflation that reduces the Federal Reserve’s likelihood of continuing to raise interest rates.

At the same time, warnings about an imminent bull trap in the markets have emerged, which may wipe out recent profits. Due to its long-term correlation with stocks and Bitcoin, Ether faces similar risks.

Let’s take a closer look at several potential bullish and bearish catalysts for the price of Ethereum below.

ETH becomes most deflationary since Merge

The issuance rate of Ether has dropped to its lowest level since the network’s transition to proof-of-stake (PoS) via “the Merge” in September, 2022.

Ether’s annual supply has reduced by 0.056% since the Merge. In other words, the Ethereum network has minted fewer ETH tokens than were removed from the supply in the past five months.

Ether supply since the Merge. Source: Ultrasound Money

Investors typically perceive a cryptocurrency with a fixed supply or deflationary issuance rate as bullish in the longer term. 

Ethereum’s supply is currently around 120.50 million, but there is technically no max supply. However, the London hard fork in August 2021 introduced a fee-burning mechanism that added deflationary properties to Ether’s tokenomics.

As a result of this upgrade, the higher the Ethereum network’s transaction fees at any given time, the more Ether will be “burned” or removed from the supply forever.

Interestingly, Ethereum’s median gas price has rebounded to a seven-month high of 27.13 gwei (the smallest ETH unit) in the week ending Feb. 17.

Ethereum seven-day median transaction gas price. Source: Glassnode 

Shanghai hard fork

ETH demand must not drop against a deflationary supply rate for the price to climb. One potential bullish catalyst in the pipeline for Ethereum is its upcoming network upgrade dubbed Shanghai, slated for mid-March.

The Shanghai hard fork enables users who have locked their Ether into Ethereum’s PoS smart contract to withdraw their assets. According to Kennan Mell, an independent market analyst, this increased liquidity could encourage more people to hold and stake Ether tokens.

In his SeekingAlpha article, Mell argues:

“It’s possible that the successful implementation of staking withdrawals will boost Ethereum’s price as new investors decide to buy in right afterward, either because they were waiting to buy until the network successfully went through a risky hard fork to implement withdrawals or because they are lured by a more liquid staking yield.“

Meanwhile, the total value locked in the Ethereum PoS contract continues to rise to new record highs, with the latest data showing deposits of almost 16.63 million ETH.

Ethereum 2.0 total value staked. Source: Glassnode

Crypto staking crackdown

However, any bullish catalysts for ETH’s price could be offset by regulatory crackdowns and unfavorable technicals in the near term. 

In February, the United States Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) fined crypto exchange Kraken $30 million for not registering its staking-as-a-service program, which includes Ethereum staking.

Related: Ethereum’s Shanghai fork is coming, but it doesn’t mean investors should dump ETH

Coinbase exchange CEO Brian Armstrong also warned that the SEC might ban crypto staking services for retail investors altogether. If true, such a prohibition could hurt Ether’s demand among U.S. investors.

ETH price hits bearish inflection level

From a technical perspective, Ether’s price is testing a key resistance confluence for a potential pullback.

The confluence comprises a multimonth descending trendline resistance and a 50-week exponential moving average (50-week EMA; the red wave), as shown below.

ETH/USD weekly price chart. Source: TradingView

A pullback from the confluence could have ETH’s price test the 200-week EMA (the blue wave) near $1,550 as its short-term downside target.

Furthermore, an extended correction could push the price toward the black ascending trendline support near $1,200 by March 2023, down about 30% from the current levels.

However, a decisive breakout above the descending trendline resistance could activate a bullish reversal setup toward the $2,000–$2,500 area.

This article does not contain investment advice or recommendations. Every investment and trading move involves risk, and readers should conduct their own research when making a decision.

Polygon ecosystem development and upcoming zkEVM launch add to MATIC’s bullish momentum

Polygon’s steady ecosystem development and first-mover status in launching a zkEVM have traders feeling bullish about MATIC’s price.

Polygon Labs, the development and growth team for Polygon, announced that the beta version of its zero-knowledge Ethereum Virtual Machine (zkEVM) would launch on March 27, 2023. It’s possible that Polygon will enjoy a first-mover advantage in this space by launching a public mainnet before zkSync and Scroll.

Zk-based roll-up technology is accepted as the gold standard for scaling. The existing optimistic-based rollups like Arbitrum and Optimism have EVM capability but are less secure because they are “fraud-proof.” Malicious transactions on an Optimistic Rollup can stay valid for up to seven days or more before being reversed. Thus, giving an advantage to zk-technology.

Moreover, the Ethereum community’s focus on Liquid Staking Derivatives may shift toward layer-2 networks after the anticipated Shanghai upgrade in March. This is because the update following Shanghai, Ethereum Improvement Proposal 4844, will reduce the cost of L2 rollups by 10–100-fold. A working zk-based rollup solution will likely attract new projects to its ecosystem.

Polygon (MATIC) has built a strong bullish narrative in the market with the upcoming zkEVM launch. The team’s efforts in the Web3 space are promising and show signs of increasing activity. The growth in its decentralized finance (DeFi) ecosystem has stalled, which could likely stay this way for more extended periods.

Technically, the market structure for Polygon looks bullish. However, the recent 78% increase in MATIC’s price since the start of 2023 could see a correction as speculative buying cools down. Such a situation could possibly provide an ideal entry in MATIC for a swing trade.

Polygon’s DeFi sector has stalled, but Web3 activity is on the rise

Since the start of 2023, Polygon has witnessed a spike in its nonfungible token (NFT) activity, especially for low-cost gaming assets. According to data from Dune Analytics, the number of NFT sales on Polygon surpassed Ethereum for two consecutive months in December 2022 and January 2023. While Ethereum still leads in total volumes, Nansen’s NFT activity data shows that the minting and sale volume on Polygon has been picking up since the start of 2023.

The volume of NFT sales and mints on Polygon. Source: Nansen

Meta also chose Polygon as the base layer for minting digital collectibles on its social media app Instagram. This feature is currently in the limited testing phase but should see traction soon among the 1.28 billion Instagram users.

In November 2022, Matter Labs appointed the former gaming head of YouTube, Ryan Watt, to lead its gaming venture, Polygon Studios. Watt told Cointelegraph that Polygon’s Web3 strategy takes a holistic approach by incorporating “Web2 companies, including Starbucks, Adobe, Clinique and Stripe, to integrate Web3 functionality.”

Additionally, the blockchain houses the development of over 60 metaverse projects, including the leaders in The Sandbox, Decentraland and Somnium Space. Lastly, Polygon’s $450-million raise in February 2022 will likely provide the necessary tailwinds to continue development on the Web3 front.

On the other hand, the Ethereum sidechain’s growth in its DeFi sector has stalled. It could remain stressed due to the ongoing macroeconomic pressure and a regulatory crackdown on stablecoins.

The total liquidity across DeFi applications on Polygon has stayed below November 2022 levels, suggesting that users are still reluctant to interact with these protocols. Besides security risks, the decreasing yield across the DeFi space is also a prominent reason for the decline in activity.

Total liquidity across DeFi applications on Polygon. Source: DefiLlama

In comparison, Arbitrum’s DeFi ecosystem has fared relatively better than most thanks to the anticipation around its token airdrop and active development.

Still, Polygon ranks fifth in total liquidity across DeFi platforms above Avalanche, Solana, Optimism and Fantom, which is encouraging. Favorable liquidity conditions are a crucial necessity for a prospering DeFi ecosystem, and Polygon can benefit from it when focus on DeFi picks up. Moreover, the launch of zkEVM may also attract DeFi development.

Investors are bullish on MATIC

Futures market data shows traders are bullish on MATIC, with an increase in open interest volume toward 2022 highs and a long-to-short ratio of 1.58. While a bullish outlook is encouraging, the prices may pull back to wipe out overleveraged positions.

Open interest volume for MATIC futures contracts. Source: CoinGlass

The on-chain balance on exchanges suggests that not many investors moved their coins onto exchanges as the price surged from $0.75 to $1.25. It suggests confidence among buyers, who are unlikely to sell unless the price falls below $0.75 support.

Polygon balance on exchanges. Source: glassnode 

Related: Solana (SOL) price rally could fizzle out due to weak fundamentals

However, the price could pull back toward the $1 support level as the Relative Strength Index (RSI) metric begins to tap resistance around the 65 level. The bullish momentum likely requires consolidation around the 50 RSI level before more upside.

MATIC/USD daily price chart. Source: TradingView

The organic development of Polgyon’s NFT trading activity and bullish narrative building around zkEVM will likely continue to push MATIC’s price higher in 2023. Needless to say, a lot will depend on the price action of market leaders in Bitcoin (BTC) and whether Ether (ETH) maintains its uptrend.

The views, thoughts and opinions expressed here are the authors’ alone and do not necessarily reflect or represent the views and opinions of Cointelegraph.

This article does not contain investment advice or recommendations. Every investment and trading move involves risk, and readers should conduct their own research when making a decision.

Ethereum supply plunges 37% on crypto exchanges post the Merge upgrade

Just weeks before the Shanghai upgrade, the decline in exchange supply is being seen as a bullish sign.

Ether (ETH), the second-largest cryptocurrency by market capitalization, has seen a constant decline in exchange supply over the past six months post-Merge. The Ethereum network underwent a major upgrade in September 2022, moving from a proof-of-work (PoW) to a proof-of-stake (PoS) network in an event called the Merge.

According to on-chain data shared by crypto analytics firm Santiment, the amount of available ETH sitting on exchanges continues to fall. Since the Merge, there is 37% less ETH on exchanges. A constant decline in supply on exchanges is considered a bullish sign, as there is less ETH available to trade or sell.

There was a total of 19.12 million ETH, worth $31.3 billion, on exchanges in September before the Merge. The number has now declined to 13.36 million ETH, worth $19.7 billion, in the second week of February.

Ethereum supply on exchanges. Source: Santiment

A major chunk of the ETH supply is being moved into self-custody, while many traders also prefer staking with the Shanghai upgrade just around the corner. Shanghai, Ethereum’s upcoming update, is scheduled for March. The Shanghai hard fork will integrate more improvement proposals for network enhancements and allow stakers and validators to withdraw their holdings from the Beacon Chain.

Currently, 16 million ETH, or 14% of the total supply, is staked on the Beacon Chain, amounting to approximately $25 billion at current prices — a sizable amount that will gradually become liquid after the Shanghai hard fork.

Related: What’s in and what’s out for Ethereum’s Shanghai upgrade

Apart from a constant decline in ETH supply held on exchanges, ETH’s overall market supply has also declined since it turned deflationary post-London upgrade. The deflationary model comes from a fee-burning mechanism introduced through Ethereum Improvement Proposal (EIP)-1559.

Ethereum burn rate. Source: Beacon chain

A total of 2.9 million ETH has been burned since the London upgrade in August 2021, estimated to be worth $4.5 billion in today’s value.

Why are artificial intelligence tokens going parabolic? Watch Market Talks live

Join us as we discuss the reasons behind the recent price rally of artificial intelligence tokens.

In this week’s episode of Market Talks, Cointelegraph welcomes Average Joe’s Crypto, a research analyst and writer. He authors his own blog, which focuses on all things crypto, Web3 and decentralized finance (DeFi).

Without wasting any time, we jump straight into why artificial intelligence (AI) tokens have been going parabolic recently. Why have tokens that use artificial intelligence in some way been having their moment in the sun, and is this a trend that will continue into the future or is it just a passing fad? 

There have recently been a number of memecoins that have been moving upw, too. We get into why this is the case and which memecoins you should be keeping an eye on.

There has been a sense of newfound euphoria in the market since we’ve seen consecutive green candles across the board. This has also brought out a lot of influencers spamming Twitter with low-cap coins that are performing surprisingly well, but what should you make of this current sentiment, and will it be short-lived?

For some people in the crypto space, it’s difficult to detach themselves from everything happening in the market and take a step back to look at events that are taking place outside of crypto. We take a look at what some of these events might be and if you should be paying attention to them.

Even though the first month of 2023 is over, there is still a lot this year could have to offer. We take a look at some predictions for the year and rate their outcome on a “low, medium and high” scale to work out the probability of each prediction coming to fruition. One of the major events for this year is the staked Ether unlock. We discuss how it will play out and who is positioned well to benefit in the Ether (ETH) liquid-staked derivatives market.

Make sure to stay tuned until the end to get all of these insights and more. Cointelegraph will also be taking your questions and comments throughout the show, so be sure to have them ready to go.

Market Talks streams live every Thursday at 12:00 pm ET (5:00 pm UTC). Each week, it features interviews with some of the most influential and inspiring people from the crypto and blockchain industry. So, be sure to head on over to Cointelegraph’s YouTube page and smash those Like and Subscribe buttons for all our future videos and updates.