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Ether (ETH) had been rallying since the beginning of the new year but began tapering off in mid-March. The altcoin has trailed Bitcoin (BTC) since Jan. 1, gaining roughly 48% compared to BTCs 57% in their respective USD pairs year-to-date.

There are three main reasons why ETH has been underperforming BTC throughout the past several days, including a decrease in network activity and declining sentiment surrounding the approval of spot Ethereum ETFs in May.

Ether is down 13.5% over the last 30 days, underperforming Bitcoin and other top layer 1 tokens. BTCs price has dropped only 4% over the last 30 days, while other top-cap layer 1 tokens, such as BNB Chains BNB and Solanas SOL, have rallied 15.5% and 16%, respectively, over the same timeframe.

The ETH/BTC ratio began declining on March 8, reaching its year-to-date low of $0.047 on April 7.

There are several reasons why Ether has underperformed Bitcoin over the last month, including new all-time high prices, over $10 billion in investments into the spot BTC ETF, and Bitcoin Ordinals trading volume surging close to $3 billion. The upcoming Bitcoin supply halving, which has historically preceded a crypto market bull run, has also added to BTCs tailwinds.

Investigating Ethereums network activity, including its scaling solutions, can also give insight on why Ether continues to underperform BTC. Decentralized applications (DApps) are at the core of this layer 1 blockchain, and diminishing use in terms of users and volumes indicates less demand for ETH.

Data from Web3 data aggregator DappRadar shows that the top Ethereum decentralized applications (DApps) have seen an average 6.42% decrease in the number of active addresses over the last 30 days.

Over the past 30 days, Ethereum DApps experienced a 26.51% drop in transaction volume fueled by decreases in Uniswap, MetaMask Swap, Blur and OpenSea.

Additional data from Coinglass reveals a decline in Ethereums network activity (in specific metrics) over the last 30 days. Daily active addresses on Ethereum have dropped from 622,963 addresses on March 20 to 499,448 on April 10.

Although Ethereum remains the network to beat in the DeFi sector, Solana has recently captured its market share in this segment in terms of on-chain activity fueled by the memecoin frenzy andstablecoin transfer volume.

Besides weakening on-chain metrics, the decreasing likelihood of an Ethereum exchange-traded fund (ETF) being approved by May is adding to ETH's bearish momentum and lack of strength against Bitcoin.

VanEck CEO Jan van Eck is the latest to voice his skepticism regarding the May approval of spot Ether ETFs by the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission.

In an April 9 interview with CNBC, van Eck said he believes the multibillion-dollar investment companys Ethereum ETF application will probably be rejected. VanEck and Cathie Woods ARK Invest were among the first wealth management firms to file for a spot in Ethereum ETF in the U.S. Both companies are awaiting the SECs final decision on their applications, which is scheduled for May 23 and May 24, respectively.

Van Eck explained the regulatory process, highlighting that the SEC typically provides comments on ETF applications and continuously engages with applicants. However, in the case of Ethereum, there has been a notable silence.

Bloomberg ETF analyst Eric Blachunas, who had earlier held 70% odds of an Ethereum ETF approval by May, is also pessimistic, recently reducing the chances to 35%, saying that the lack of communication from the SEC to issuers could be a bad sign for those hoping for Ether ETF approvals by May.

Fellow analyst James Seyffart also expressed concern over the SECs inaction, questioning the reasons behind the lack of communication when the applications were anticipated.

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.

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Ethereum price weakens against Bitcoin Here's why - Cointelegraph

Hong Kong has approved spot Bitcoin (BTC) and Ethereum (ETH) ETF (Exchange Traded Fund) applications. The region is the second to do so in 2024, following the SECs (Securities and Exchange Commission) historic decision to approve 11 spot BTC ETFs in the US. However, although the US has approved 11 spot Bitcoin ETFs, the country has yet to greenlight an Ethereum ETF. According to some analysts, a spot ETH ETF could be approved in the US later this year.

JUST IN: Hong Kong approves spot #Bitcoin& Ethereum ETF application.

Also Read: 3 Cryptocurrencies to Buy Before They Hit the Big Post Bitcoin Halving

The approval of spot ETH and BTC ETFs may lead to another rally for the cryptocurrency markets. The US spot BTC ETFs played a significant role in BTC hitting a new all-time high earlier this year. BTC hit $73,737 in early March with a rally fuelled by increased inflows into spot BTC ETFs.

Given that the US spot BTC ETFs were responsible for BTC hitting a new all-time high, there is a high probability that a similar pattern will unfold after the Hong Kong approvals.

According to CoinCodex, Bitcoin (BTC) will reclaim its all-time high later this month. Moreover, the platform anticipates BTC to continue on a bullish trajectory for the next few weeks, predicting it to hit $85,906 on May 13, 2024. Hitting $85,906 from current levels would translate to a growth of about 32%.

On the other hand, CoinCodex anticipates Ethereums (ETH) price to consolidate at around current levels, predicting it to trade at $3242.95 on May 1, 2024.

With Bitcoins (BTC) halving just around the corner, we may witness another massive rally in the crypto market. Both Bitcoin (BTC) and Ethereum (ETH) could hit new all-time highs, fuelled by the Hong Kong spot ETFs and BTCs halving later this month.

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Hong Kong Approves Spot Bitcoin and Ethereum Application - Watcher Guru

A significant trend is emerging in the web 3 industry, which means that the number of adherents not of cryptocurrency, but of a wide variety of crypto projects, is growing.

From the very beginning of their creation, the leaders of the crypto industry, and in particular the Ethereum blockchain platform, operated with a large amounts of money and it seemed that this was quite enough for their lasting and long-term success.

However, the problem of scalability began to manifest itself more and more acutely, and many IT companies and specialists began to think about how they could help Ethereum to minimize it.

It was then that the first signs of solutions related to scalability management began to appear, and the Rollups method rightfully took its destiny place among them.

It should be noted that Rollups provide a safe and targeted scaling solution, as they generate the best features of previous methods, such as L2 and side chains.

It is obvious that a large number of projects based on the Ethereum blockchain network are interested in optimizing problems associated with network throughput, and therefore urgently need not just Rollups solutions, but rollups as a service.

We already know that the Rollup method is aimed at optimizing the throughput of the Ethereum blockchain network, and when using it, transactions are performed on the external chain (L2) outside the main network (L1).

At the same time, the data on the results of transactions is managed by smart contracts and placed on L1. The result of this approach is a short transaction time, as well as low fees for them.

Another advantage of this approach is the fact that if something unexpected happens to L2, it will not have a negative impact on the contents of the blockchain, since smart contracts with transaction data are located on the main network.

The Rollups family includes two types: Optimistic Rollups and ZK-Rollups. Speaking about the fact that the Rollup solution should ensure not only the scalability of the blockchain network, but also its security, it should be noted how each of the two types of Rollups implement the security function.

Optimistic Rollups do not verify every transaction at the second level, since the network by default optimistically assumes that every transaction is correct, provided that no one disputes this.

Therefore, calculations only occur if problems arise and when fraud is proven. In addition to implementing its core principle, Optimistic Rollups offer a 100x increase in network scalability.

Unlike Optimistic Rollups, ZK-Rollups aggregate hundreds of off-chain transactions and generate a zero-knowledge mathematical proof of their authenticity.

This approach guarantees a high level of privacy, especially in public blockchain networks. In traditional blockchain operation, security is ensured by the fact that each network participant performs calculations and operations that are provided for by the blockchain protocols.

If the calculation results of the majority of participants coincide with each other, then such a network is safe and trusted. In other words, this situation is called a blockchain network consensus has been reached.

With the ZK-Rollups solution, there is no need to carry out calculations for each network participant, spending a large amount of time and resources.

By delegating this work to one network participant, all of them receive a mathematically provable statement of the correctness of the transactions while maintaining absolute privacy.

It should be noted that Rollup technology has several disadvantages, and one of them is the low level of compatibility of some smart contracts.

Composability is a weak point of Rollups, because if a transaction using multiple protocols is to be processed, it is necessary that these protocols reside on the same Rollup.

The bottleneck of Rollups is also considered to be that they provoke unstable liquidity of the Ethereum network, and this, in turn, leads to worse execution of transactions.

Despite the fact that developers are actively working on eliminating the shortcomings of Rollups, a considerable number of skeptics claim that some Rollups solutions may eventually turn into a kind of Fata Morgana of the Ethereum blockchain.

However, the creators of Ethereum do not share this point of view. They are full of optimism and believe that Rollup technology and, in particular, solutions related to ZK-Rollups, are the best answer to the challenges associated with the scalability and security of the blockchain ecosystem.

And devoted adherents of ZK-Rollups even position this solution as absolutely magical, which can change the rules of the game of the entire crypto industry.

There is also a lot of controversy about the assertion of some experts that Rollups can be hostile towards side chains and will gradually push them out of the blockchain.

Of course, there are some grounds for such statements, but most experts still believe that both Rollups and side chains will occupy their own niches and not come into conflict with each other.

Rollup technology, particularly Optimistic and ZK-Rollups, offers promising solutions to the scalability and security challenges of the Ethereum blockchain.

While there are concerns about smart contract compatibility and liquidity, the ongoing development and optimism surrounding these technologies suggest a transformative potential for enhancing blockchain efficiency and functionality.

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Rollups - Technology for Ethereum The Rolla Daily News - - The Rolla Daily News

Ethereum users may no longer need to worry about losing their seed phrases ever again after the Pectra hard fork thanks to a new social recovery feature part of the planned Ethereum Improvement Proposal (EIP) 3074 upgrade.

EIP-3074 was confirmed as a new addition to the Pectra hard fork by Ethereum core developer Tim Beiko in an April 11 X post.

The upgrade will see a supercharging of ordinary Ethereum wallets (externally owned accounts) with several new smart contracts capabilities, including the ability to recover assets, Ethereum Foundation researcher Domothy explained in a March 25 blog post.

However, to leverage the social recovery tool, users must first have transferred ownership of their assets to an invoker contract via a digital signature, which will perform future transactions and function calls on the users behalf.

While ownership is delegated, the message in the digital signature will enable the user to retrieve their assets if they lose or forget their seed phrase.

The feature will be made possible by the implementation of the AUTH and AUTHCALL opcodes, cryptocurrency commentator Cygaar explained in an April 11 X post.

AUTH will take a users signature and intended action and verify it was signed properly. AUTHCALL will then call the target contract to carry out the transaction but will assign the user as the caller instead of the invoker contract.

Domothy, however, shared concerns that funds could be drained if users delegate their assets to a malicious invoker contract, though he also expects a few formally verified and fully audited invoker contracts to become available after the Pectra upgrade.

It has been estimated that billions of dollars worth of cryptocurrency have been lost over the years due to users forgetting or losing their private keys.

Related: Key elements to watch on the Ethereum network roadmap

Meanwhile, another key advantage of EIP-3074 is that users wont need any Ether (ETH)in their wallet to send transactions, as the entity behind the invoker contract can pay for that upfront.

This could be huge for gaining mass retail adoption, Cygaar noted.

It will also enable multiple actions to be taken in one transaction.

[But] with 3074, these two actions can be batched into a single tx, Cygaar added.

The Pectra hard fork is reportedly expected to occur in late 2024 or early 2025.

Magazine: Account abstraction supercharges Ethereum wallets: Dummies guide

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Ethereum's next hard fork could make lost private keys a thing of the past - Cointelegraph

Investing.com - Ethereum was trading at $3,151.48 by 14:36 (18:36 GMT) on the Investing.com Index on Friday, down 10.09% on the day. It was the largest one-day percentage loss since November 9, 2022.

The move downwards pushed Ethereum's market cap down to $399.60B, or 15.99% of the total cryptocurrency market cap. At its highest, Ethereum's market cap was $569.58B.

Ethereum had traded in a range of $3,150.92 to $3,551.22 in the previous twenty-four hours.

Over the past seven days, Ethereum has seen a stagnation in value, as it only moved 0.16%. The volume of Ethereum traded in the twenty-four hours to time of writing was $14.47B or 16.09% of the total volume of all cryptocurrencies. It has traded in a range of $3,150.9238 to $3,727.8689 in the past 7 days.

At its current price, Ethereum is still down 35.21% from its all-time high of $4,864.06 set on November 10, 2021.

Bitcoin was last at $65,942.3 on the Investing.com Index, down 5.10% on the day.

Tether USDt was trading at $0.9998 on the Investing.com Index, a loss of 0.03%.

Bitcoin's market cap was last at $1,338.23B or 53.53% of the total cryptocurrency market cap, while Tether USDt's market cap totaled $107.24B or 4.29% of the total cryptocurrency market value.

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Ethereum Falls 10% In Selloff By Investing.com - Investing.com