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The price of Bitcoin has risen 1% over the past 24 hours to near $30,250, with the largest digital asset trading around its highest level since last June after breaking through the key $30,000 level late Monday. The $30,000 level is psychologically important because it represents where Bitcoin stood last summer before a string of business failures across the crypto industry turned a selloff into a brutal bear market.

Bitcoin is consolidating around the $30,000 mark for the third day, moving in a tight $20,700 to $30,300 range, said Alex Kuptsikevich, an analyst at broker FxPro. The $30,000 mark was significant for Bitcoin in 2021 and the first half of 2022, acting as a market mode switch. Last year, Bitcoin consolidated around this price for about five weeks before plunging sharply. There is a greater chance of a mirror dynamic, with the bulls taking a long time to gather their strength before making a decisive move higher.

Bitcoin is likely to continue reacting to macroeconomic forces that also impact the stock market, and swing in step with the Dow Jones Industrial Average and S&P 500.

In focus are the future of interest rates and Federal Reserve monetary policy. Decades-high inflation pushed the Fed to dramatically tighten financial conditions last yeara major headwind for socks and cryptos alikebut the 2023 surge in cryptos has come amid expectations that the central bank will be more accommodative. Economic data due this week will be important in shaping the narrative.

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More immediately, crypto traders are focused on Ether after the Ethereum blockchain network completed its critical Shanghai upgrade late Wednesday. Ether prices were outperforming, up 6% over the past 24 hours and nearing the $2,000 mark.

Shanghai is the biggest change to the Ethereum ecosystem since last years Merge, which transformed the network from a Bitcoin-style energy-intensive proof of work system to proof of stake. Under proof of stake, participating holders of Ether lock up their tokens as collateral while they validate transactions and secure the network, earning interest in the process.

The Shanghai upgrade allows those tokens to begin to be withdrawn, raising the prospect of selling pressure as some investors withdraw staked Ether and sell it. But the Shanghai upgrade, which will make staking more straightforward, is also expected to make the trade more popular, which should support prices. For now, selling pressure appears to be muted after the successful upgrade.

Beyond Bitcoin and Ether, smaller cryptos or altcoins were also higher, with Cardano and Polygon each climbing 4%. Memecoins were also buoyant, with Dogecoin up 4% and Shiba Inu

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Write to Jack Denton at jack.denton@barrons.com

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Bitcoin Price Hits a 10-Month High. Ethereum's Upgrade Is a Hit. - Barron's

April 12 (Reuters) - The software that underpins the second-biggest crypto coin ether was upgraded on Wednesday and is online, cryptocurrency exchange Binance said in a tweet.

The move will give investors access to more than $30 billion of the digital tokens.

Known as Shapella, the latest upgrade to the Ethereum blockchain since its Merge upgrade will enable investors to redeem an offshoot of ether tokens that they have deposited in return for interest on the blockchain network over the past three years.

Such so-called "staked ether" tokens currently account for about 15% of all ether tokens, according to data firm Dune Analytics, and are worth some $31 billion.

"The Shanghai/Shapella Upgrade is complete. Deposits & withdrawals for ETH, OP, ARB and ERC-20 tokens via the Ethereum, Optimism, and Arbitrum networks are now back online," Binance said in a tweet.

The changes will likely lead to heightened volatility for ether, investors have predicted.

Some believe that widespread redemptions could lead to a wave of selling, in turn weighing on the price of ether, whose market value of about $230 billion is topped only by bitcoin.

"The release of this previously unrealised investment may lead to significant downward price pressure if it is immediately liquidated," Deutsche Bank analysts said in a note.

In its last significant upgrade, Ethereum in September drastically reduced its energy usage - a move proponents said would give Ethereum an advantage as it seeks to surpass bitcoin.

But ether has continued to lag its larger rival, gaining just under 60% this year versus a more than 80% jump for bitcoin.

After trillions of dollars were wiped from the crypto market in a bruising 2022, the sector has rallied in 2023 on expectations that central bank interest rate hikes are slowing.

Ethereum has grown popular in so-called decentralised finance applications, which offer financial services while avoiding traditional industry gatekeepers such as banks.

It remains, however, little used in mainstream commerce or finance.

Reporting by Tom Wilson in London and Shivani Tanna in Bengaluru; editing by Jason Neely and Sonali Paul

Our Standards: The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.

Opinions expressed are those of the author. They do not reflect the views of Reuters News, which, under the Trust Principles, is committed to integrity, independence, and freedom from bias.

Thomson Reuters

Tom covers crypto companies, regulation and markets from London, focusing through 2022 on the Binance crypto exchange. He has worked at Reuters since 2014, with a previous posting to Tokyo where he uncovered abuses in Japans immigration system and won a joint Overseas Press Club award for reporting on the tobacco giant Philip Morris.

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Ethereum's first major upgrade since Merge is complete- Binance - Reuters

In its newly launched Fortune Crypto 40 benchmark, the media firm ranked the top 5 firms in the crypto space in each of the eight categories.

The categories include centralized finance (CeFi), traditional finance (TradFi), Venture Capital, Non-fungible tokens (NFTs), Data, Infrastructure, decentralized finance (DeFi), and Protocols.

To find the top 40 firms, Fortune used various empirical metrics along with surveys of over 200 financial executives conducted by Researchscape. Fortune claims the results are impartial and rigorous.

The benchmark ranked the Ethereum Foundation as the top protocol, followed by Bitcoin. Polygon Labs, which develops Ethereum scaling solutions, and Solana Foundation, the non-profit responsible for developing the Solana ecosystem, ranked third and fourth, respectively. Offchain Labs, the firm behind Ethereum scaling solutions provider Arbitrum, secured the fifth position in the Protocols category.

Coinbase topped the CeFi category, followed by Binance and Kraken. Mike Novogratz-led Galaxy Digital and USD Coin (USDC) stablecoin issuer Circle grabbed the fourth and fifth positions in the benchmark.

PayPals integration with MetaMask placed it at the top of the TradFi category, which ranked the top 5 firms innovating with blockchain technology. Stock trading platform Robinhood, which enables crypto trading, came in second, followed by JP Morgan Chase, which launched its own blockchain Onyx.

Fidelity, which received flak for allowing pensioners to invest part of their retirement funds in Bitcoin, ranked fourth, while Visa secured the fifth position.

Polychain Capital ranked first in the VC category, followed by Animoca Brands and Andreessen Horowitz. The last two spots in the category went to Pantera Capital and Blockchain Capital.

As the largest NFT marketplace, OpenSea secured the top position in the NFT category. Yuga Labs, which launched some of the top NFT collections, including Bored Ape Yacht Club and Mutant Ape Yacht Club, ranked second.

Sky Mavis, creator of the popular NFT game Axie Infinity, and generative art NFT platform Art Blocks ranked third and fourth, respectively. RTFKT, which Nike acquired in 2021, is the fifth NFT firm in the benchmark.

In the data category, Chainalysis ranked first, followed by Coin Metrics and The Graph. Dune and Messari secured the two other spots.

The Fortune benchmark also included crypto firms that offer infrastructure for the industry. Non-custodial wallet provider Ledger topped the category. Bitcoin mining giant Genesis Digital Assets, not to be confused with the Digital Currency Group lender that filed for bankruptcy, secured the second spot.

Bitcoin mining chip developer Bitmain ranked third, followed by Alchemy, which provides plug-and-play tools to build products and services on blockchains. Crypto payment solution MoonPay ranked fifth in the infrastructure category.

Fortune listed Uniswap Labs, Lido, MakerDAO, Aave, and Curve as the top five contenders in the DeFi category. It is worth noting that all the DeFi applications are built on Ethereum.

In fact, according to DefiLlama data, these are the top five DeFi applications in terms of total value locked (TVL). The five DeFi applications have over $31 billion in TVL at the time of writing, as per DefiLlama.

Furthermore, the Fortune benchmark includes a high number of Ethereum-based applications, not to mention that two out of the five top protocols are Ethereum scaling services.

But the focus on Ethereum may have been a result of the fact that Ethereum controls nearly 70% of all DeFi activity.

Disclaimer: Our writers' opinions are solely their own and do not reflect the opinion of CryptoSlate. None of the information you read on CryptoSlate should be taken as investment advice, nor does CryptoSlate endorse any project that may be mentioned or linked to in this article. Buying and trading cryptocurrencies should be considered a high-risk activity. Please do your own due diligence before taking any action related to content within this article. Finally, CryptoSlate takes no responsibility should you lose money trading cryptocurrencies.

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Fortune Crypto 40 selects Ethereum as top protocol, Bitcoin ranks second - CryptoSlate

Ether rose last week as investors looked ahead to the Ethereum network's next big tech upgrade. The second-largest crypto asset by market cap hasn't had the kind of rally it did leading up to its migration from a proof-of-work to proof-of-stake protocol in September. This week it added more than 4%, outperforming bitcoin, which gained less than 1%, and the major stock indexes. It gained 12% in March, though that was upstaged by the various forces that pushed bitcoin up 22%. Last year it rallied in the weeks leading up to the upgrade. ETH posted a 70% gain in July alone. It fell about 20% shortly after the upgrade was complete . The upcoming change, known both as the "Shanghai" upgrade and, more recently, the "Shapella" upgrade, is scheduled to take place April 12 and will allow investors to withdraw staked ether from the network for the first time ever. It's meant to strengthen Ethereum's proof-of-stake consensus mechanism, which it migrated to in September's "Merge" event, which ultimately would allow more liquidity to ether investors and stakers. "The upgrades represent a significant step for the Ethereum network, and while tough to say what ETH flows may look like post-upgrade, more liquidity will exist all else equal," said Alex Markgraff, analyst at KeyBanc. "Greater liquidity could be a catalyst for a change in institutional participation while simultaneously presenting commercial opportunity for staking providers." It's also meant to extend the migration that took place in September, meaning it should make the network faster, more scalable and more energy efficient than if it was a proof-of-work protocol. "This upgrade is a significant milestone in Ethereum's shift to proof-of-stake," said Andrew Ballinger, head of staking solutions at Canadian investment fund manager 3iQ. "The liquidity that comes with it will allow for greater participation in staking and as a result enhanced network security." ETH.CM= 1M mountain Ether (ETH) Here's what investors need to know about the next Ethereum update: Withdrawing your 'locked up' ETH While the Merge turned Ethereum into a proof-of-stake network and gave investors a bigger opportunity to earn passive yield on their ETH holdings through staking which includes locking tokens up on the network for a period of time Shapella will make it possible for investors to "unstake," or withdraw, their ETH. "Up until this point, staked assets were locked up indefinitely, and those who wanted to participate in the network and generate yield on their ETH holdings often had to get comfortable with an indefinite timeline for liquidity," Ballinger explained. There are several reasons someone might want to unstake their funds at any given point. Investors who may want to engage with other parts of the network, like buying NFTs or participating in a decentralized finance protocol, may be unable to with their funds locked up. Some staked their ETH before the emergence of liquid staking protocols emerged, Ballinger pointed out. Owen Lau, an analyst at Oppenheimer, noted that short-term traders may simply want to unstake their ETH to sell it especially at a time like now, when crypto prices including ether have been rising. However, he added, they're more likely to get an even bigger return by keeping their funds locked up. (When you stake your crypto, you contribute to the proof-of-stake system that keeps decentralized networks like Ethereum running and secure; you become a "validator" on the blockchain, meaning you verify and process the transactions as they come through, if chosen by the algorithm. The lock-up of your funds serves as a sort of collateral that can be destroyed if you as a validator act dishonestly or insincerely. For more, check out our staking primer here .) "Providing liquidity for staked ETH will allow a significant group of institutions and traders, who have been sitting on the sideline, the ability to finally participate in the network," Ballinger said. "And greater participation in ETH staking strengthens the security of the Ethereum network as a whole." Potential ETH selling pressure Many market participants have speculated that there will be a wave of negative sell pressure on the market as previously locked funds on Ethereum are released. Data from CryptoQuant suggests any sell pressure would be low, however. Typically, selling pressure emerges when market participants are sitting on extreme profits. Currently, however, the majority of the ETH staked (54%, or 9.7 million ETH) is currently at a loss, the firm said. The average depositors of the largest staking pools are also currently at a loss, according to the data. Ballinger pointed out that unlocking won't happen on day 1 of the update either. It could take as long as 30-60 days for participants to exit, due to the two-day "unbonding" period (the amount of time a blockchain delegator waits before they can move or sell their tokens) and a variable exit queue that changes based on the number of participants in line, he said. "Given there's a limited amount of participants that can exit in a day, this sell pressure will not be as instant or violent as advertised by some commentators," he said. "We still may see some sell pressure on the price of ETH, but it will come over a period of weeks a much healthier resolution for the Ethereum network."

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What crypto investors need to know about Ethereum's 'Shanghai ... - CNBC

Bitcoinbitcoin, ethereumethereum, and other cryptocurrencies have been thrust back into the limelight this year and are now at a "pivotal moment."

Subscribe now to Forbes' CryptoAsset & Blockchain Advisor and successfully navigate the bitcoin and crypto market roller-coaster

The bitcoin price added around 70% over the first three months of the year, making it among the best-performing assets even as U.S. senator Elizabeth Warren begins building an "anti-crypto army."

Now, as the U.S. banking crisis begins to recede, JPMorgan analysts have said the bank chaos vindicated many bitcoin, ethereum and crypto believersand issued a bullish bitcoin price prediction as a "hedge to a catastrophic scenario."

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"For crypto supporters, the U.S. banking crisis exposed the weaknesses of the traditional financial system given banks' maturity mismatch is susceptible to bank runs," JPMorgan strategists led by Nikolaos Panigirtzoglou, wrote in a note seen by Barron's.

"Crypto supporters have been arguing for a long time that the crypto ecosystem is superior, not least because deposits are held in entities such as stablecoins which as a digital form of money market funds are 100% backed with high-quality liquid assets and are thus less susceptible to runs."

The JPMorgan analysts' bitcoin bullishness is at odds with the bank's chief executive Jamie Dimon, who called crypto a "decentralized Ponzi scheme" in Septemberthough the bank is making crypto moves of its own.

Bitcoin is now just over a year away from its next supply cut, known as a halving, which will increase bitcoin's cost of production and potentially boost its price. The next bitcoin halving, its fourth, is currently scheduled for late April 2024 and will see the bitcoin block reward issued to miners who maintain the network drop from 6.25 bitcoin to 3.125 bitcoin.

"This would mechanically double bitcoin's production cost to around $40,000, creating a positive psychological effect," Panigirtzoglou said. "This is because bitcoins production cost has historically acted as an effective lower bound."

Panigirtzoglou also predicts that the sudden growth of bitcoin-based non-fungible tokens (NFTs) called ordinals this year could provide another price support as they boost bitcoin miner revenue.

"This is because metadata such as text, images can be inscribed on the bitcoin network itself, without relying on smart contracts as seen with other blockchains, where NFTs are created through smart contracts," Panigirtzoglou said.

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The surging popularity of bitcoin ordinals has improved sentiment for the wider NFT and crypto market.

"The recent movement in bitcoin is also positive for the NFT market, as all boats rise with the tide," John Stefanidis, the chief executive of NFT-based gaming platform Balthazar, said alongside an NFT market report. "Its likely to have a positive impact on the overall sentiment of the market. Bitcoin is currently trading at above $28,000, which we havent seen since June last year."

I am a journalist with significant experience covering technology, finance, economics, and business around the world. As the founding editor of Verdict.co.uk I reported on how technology is changing business, political trends, and the latest culture and lifestyle. I have covered the rise of bitcoin and cryptocurrency since 2012 and have charted its emergence as a niche technology into the greatest threat to the established financial system the world has ever seen and the most important new technology since the internet itself. I have worked and written for CityAM, the Financial Times, and the New Statesman, amongst others. Follow me on Twitter @billybambrough or email me on billyATbillybambrough.com.Disclosure: I occasionally hold some small amount of bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies.

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Shock JPMorgan Price Prediction Reveals Catastrophic Doomsday Scenario May Be Just The Start For Bitcoin And Ethereum - Forbes