Name: Mason Versluis — aka “Crypto Mason”
Anonymous: No
Twitter followers: 146.2K
Known for: Garnering over 1 million followers on social media before he could legally drink in the United States
Mason Versluis may only be 22 years old, but he’s already a full-time crypto influencer thanks to his wise old father introducing him to the world of XRP and Ripple before his 17th birthday.
Shiba Inu is hoping to become more than just a Dogecoin-inspired meme cryptocurrency as it comes closer to launching its layer-2 network called Shibarium. Meanwhile, the SHIB token has emerged as one of the best-performers so far in 2023.
SHIB's price has rallied nearly 60% year-to-date (YTD) to $0.00001294, its highest since early November 2022.
SHIB/USDT daily price chart. Source: TradingViewThe gains started appearing mainly due to favorable macro conditions that prompted similar rallies elsewhere in the crypto market. Nonetheless, the Shiba Inu price rally picked up momentum as investors assessed its announcement of the upcoming beta release of Shibarium.
Shibarium is reportedly a layer-2 network that would run atop the Ethereum blockchain mainnet. In other words, it would enable developers to build and launch decentralized applications (dapps) while aiming for lower transactional costs and improved network scalability.
Shiba Inu price is now up 25% since Jan. 16 when the Shiba Inu team teased its audience with the Shibarium launch announcement.
Shiba Inu is hoping to become more than just a Dogecoin-inspired meme cryptocurrency as it comes closer to launching its layer-2 network called Shibarium. Meanwhile, the SHIB token has emerged as one of the best-performers so far in 2023.
SHIB's price has rallied nearly 60% year-to-date (YTD) to $0.00001294, its highest since early November 2022.
SHIB/USDT daily price chart. Source: TradingViewThe gains started appearing mainly due to favorable macro conditions that prompted similar rallies elsewhere in the crypto market. Nonetheless, the Shiba Inu price rally picked up momentum as investors assessed its announcement of the upcoming beta release of Shibarium.
Shibarium is reportedly a layer-2 network that would run atop the Ethereum blockchain mainnet. In other words, it would enable developers to build and launch decentralized applications (dapps) while aiming for lower transactional costs and improved network scalability.
Shiba Inu price is now up 25% since Jan. 16 when the Shiba Inu team teased its audience with the Shibarium launch announcement.
Switzerland-based cryptocurrency firm 21Shares is betting on proof-of-stake (PoS) coins by launching a new crypto exchange-traded product (ETP) dedicated to staking.
21Shares on Jan. 18 launched the 21Shares Staking Basket Index ETP, a crypto staking index designed to track up to 10 PoS cryptocurrencies. The ETP immediately starts trading on the local stock exchange BX Swiss under the ticker STAKE.
At launch, 21Shares’ STAKE ETP tracks six digital assets, including Binance Coin (BNB), Cardano (ADA), Cosmos (ATOM), Polkadot (DOT), Solana (SOL) and Tezos (XTZ). The index will rebalance on a semi-annual basis in March and September in accordance with market shifts.
With addition of STAKE, 21Shares and its parent firm 21.co now provide a total of 47 crypto ETP products across 12 exchanges in nine countries. The ETPs aim to provide investors with a safe and secure way to gain exposure to crypto, offering an alternative to direct crypto investment.
“STAKE provides value for investors by using the ETP’s assets to generate a passive yield that may offer additional returns by contributing to the network’s security,” 21.co director of ETP Arthur Krause said in a statement to Cointelegraph.
Ethereum market dominance has doubled since the lunch of its staking contract in December 2020 as ETH price eyes levels not seen in five years versus Bitcoin.
Ethereum’s native token, Ether (ETH), could grow by 35% versus Bitcoin (BTC) this year to hit 0.1 BTC for the first time since 2018 as it forms a classic bullish continuation pattern.
Dubbed an ascending triangle, the pattern forms when the price fluctuates inside a range defined by rising trendline support and horizontal trendline resistance. It typically resolves after the price breaks out in the direction of its previous trend.
On a weekly chart, the ETH/BTC pair has been painting an ascending pattern since May 2021. The Ethereum token eyes a breakout above the pattern's horizontal trendline resistance near 0.0776 BTC. Breaking this level could then see the price rally by as much as the triangle's maximum height.
In other words, the ETH/BTC pair could reach the next big resistance level at 0.1 BTC in 2023, or 35% from the current price levels.
ETH/BTC weekly price chart. Source: TradingViewNonetheless, it is important to mention that ETH/BTC has attempted to break above the triangle's resistance trendline eight times since May 2021. The attempts included two major breakouts in November 2021 and September 2022, which saw the pair rallying 14% and 9%, respectively.
The co-founder and CEO of Ava Labs spoke with Cointelegraph at the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland, on the future of DeFi and TradFi as two industries with merging value systems.
No change in central bank policy from Japan causes ruffled feathers on forex markets, but Bitcoin remains tied to a trading zone near two-month highs.
Bitcoin (BTC) faced a potentially volatile day on Jan. 18, with multiple macro triggers beginning to unsettle the outlook.
BTC/USD 1-hour candle chart (Bitstamp). Source: TradingViewData from Cointelegraph Markets Pro and TradingView showed BTC/USD holding firm above $21,000 on the day.
The pair remained cool amid news from Japan, where the central bank — the Bank of Japan (BoJ) — had decided to keep an ultra-easy policy in place, defying expectations of an interest rate hike.
In doing so, both the Japanese yen and the United States dollar took a hit in the latest chapter of a saga closely watched by crypto commentators.
“In keeping its key rate and yield curve control policy unchanged at today’s meeting, the Bank of Japan probably wanted to convey a message to the market; don’t fight the BoJ,“ ING Bank said in a dedicated response piece.
The final vote was delayed due to issues in the translation of the 400-page legal document.
A perpetual futures contract does not have an expiration date and aims to profit from the non-delivery of the actual commodity.
Coinbase crypto exchange originally started planning its Japanese expansion during a bear market of 2018.
CFTC commissioner Caroline Pham said that there are advanced discussions on global standards happening outside of the United States.
Cointelegraph’s editor-in-chief Kristina Lucrezia Cornèr moderated a panel discussion at the 2023 Davos conference in Switzerland on sustainability in the world of blockchain.
Right now, Bitcoin is a day away from matching a nearly 10-year-old record and Ethereum could hit a significant milestone by Q2.
Members of Crypto Twitter were quick to mock Tucker Carlson, who provided no supporting evidence to back his claims.
Members of Crypto Twitter were quick to mock Tucker Carlson, who provided no supporting evidence to back his claims.
The notion that bear markets are good for builders appears to be true with the total number of monthly active Web3 developers increasing 5.4% to more than 23,300 over the last 12 months despite a near 70% drop in crypto prices.
According to a Jan. 16 report from Electric Capital, “full-time” developers — categorized as those who contribute to 76% of Github commits — also increased 15.2% to over 7000, while “one-time” builders fell 6.2% to over 3,500 during the same time period between December 2021 and December 2022
Despite the crypto market capitalization beginning its long plunge from from its all-time high (ATH) of $2.9 trillion in Nov. 2021, monthly developer activity only began to fall in Jun. 2022 after the metric reached its record high of nearly 26,500.
This fall was partly attributed to the fall in developer activity in the Terra ecosystem following its catastrophic collapse in May. 2022.
Monthly active developer count over time compared to crypto’s market capitalization. Source: Electric Capital.The next three months from June to September saw a 26% fall in weekly active Web3 developers.
Ethereum continues to be the dominant blockchain for developer activity, however, a few other chains continued to make ground.
