After the Merge update, the network will rely completely on validators, but in order to achieve a new consensus algorithm, developers spent “years of research” thanks to high standards for their vision of proof of stake. Alternatively, developers could have used such already existing ready-to-use solutions such as Nakamoto PoW (Proof of Work) or NXT (Opensource) proof of stake, which existed since 2013 and was an actual candidate for the replacement of the existing protocol. But since developers aimed at accomplishing more than NXT could do, they had to focus on a wider set of objectives. The foundation could have chosen a completely distinct path for the EVM (Ethereum Virtual Machine), which is copying existing virtual machines like LLVM, WASM and others.
The second path was making EVM a top-tier language with its own constructs and features. The first path was not considered as it would make the development process significantly complicated, while they rejected the second path because of Ethereum’s unique constraints that will not allow for pulling out any benefits from using existing solutions.
The Ethereum Price, expected to Breakout!
Ethereum’s price at the $3,450 level of resistance versus the US dollar is holding. ETH’s price may rise again if it holds above the $3,250 level. Above the $3,350 support level, Ethereum is exhibiting encouraging indicators. The increase in the price of Ethereum has continued over the $3,400 barrier level. To get to the $3,482 high, it broke over resistance at $3,450.
There has been a recent decline lower than the $3,400 mark. The $3,410 level serves as an early obstacle on the upward. Fib retracement level is close to the $3,482 high-to-low level of the latest fall. The $3,450 mark will be the next significant hurdle to be overcome shortly. If ether price breaks through the $3,450 level, a new uptrend might begin.
About institutional investment…
Currently, staked ETH is already a wildly popular investment among crypto traders and investors, even though those deposits are illiquid and impossible to trade until sometime after the Merge takes place. Liquid staking solutions – services that offer users a tradable token representing those deposits in the ETH 2.0 staking contract– currently account for roughly $20 billion in deposits, per DeFiLlama, is almost 10% of all of DeFi’s total value locked. The reason for this incredible success is attributable to how staked ETH derivatives offer yield farmers lucrative opportunities as part of complex farming strategies. For instance, users can leverage stETH, Lido’s staked ETH derivative, as collateral for many DeFi protocols.
Curve’s single largest pool is “steth” with $4.91 billion in total value locked. Aave is another main destination for stETH, with $1.63 billion total stETH supplied. One popular strategy is when a user deposits their ETH into the Ethereum staking contract through Lido and receives stETH, then supplies their stETH as collateral, they can borrow more ETH against it, and re-stakes that borrowed ETH for stETH. The user can repeat this process multiple times over, in large part because the interest gained by staking is much higher than the borrowing rates across DeFi lending platforms.
For instance, the APR for staking ETH is approximately 4%, while ETH’s variable interest rate for borrowing is 2.33% on AAVE’s lending platform, allowing them to create a leveraged yield position. While the strategies institutions and individual farmers utilize with the assets will be different, staked ether’s core properties appeal to both for similar reasons. In March, staking services provider Staked introduced a staked ETH trust aiming for 8% returns. Likewise, in June, Switzerland-based Sygnum Bank introduced institutional staking services for its clients.
Shiba Inu Tokens
An active Ethereum whale wallet named (Gimli) has bought another 150 billion Shiba Inu tokens. The whale bought 271 billion SHIB worth $7.3 million in the first transaction and another 150 billion SHIB worth $4 million in the second. Gimli is known to have made several large SHIB purchases over the past year. The wallet now holds $81 billion worth of tokens, with the largest holdings being SHIB and Decentraland .
Earlier this month, Benzinga reported that the largest SHIB whale had 3.9 trillion tokens of the meme-based cryptocurrency alone. A snapshot of the whale wallet revealed that these tokens were worth $101 million at the press time.