LATEST: Bybit Research Shows Institutions Prefer Ether Over Bitcoin in Portfolios

Recent findings from a Bybit research report highlight a notable trend among institutional investors, who are now showing a pronounced preference for Ether (ETH) over Bitcoin (BTC). Institutions have adjusted their crypto portfolios to heavily favor Ether, dedicating 80% of their crypto allocations to both Bitcoin and Ether, with Ether taking the lead. This shift is largely motivated by the potential of the anticipated Dencun upgrade, propelling Ether’s price above $3100 and marking a 33% increase year-to-date. The asset’s performance is notably superior to Bitcoin’s 20% rise and is driven by Ethereum’s transition to a deflationary model, diminished exchange reserves, and increased staking engagement.

Contrary to the December narrative, when Bitcoin led the institutional interest, Ether’s ascending trajectory is backed by its thriving DeFi ecosystem and layer-2 solutions, as analyzed by Bernstein experts. This investor confidence shift from Bitcoin to Ether underscores the strategic reevaluation of crypto assets, favoring Ethereum’s technological promise and growth potential. Meanwhile, institutions are moving away from riskier altcoins, opting for stability and proven performance, further solidifying Ether’s dominance in the institutional investment landscape.

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LATEST: Bitcoin Breaks $57,000 Barrier, Reaching New Heights Since 2021

Bitcoin has reached a significant milestone, climbing above $57,000 for the first time since December 2021, during Tuesday’s trading in Asia. This surge highlights a robust interest from institutional investors in the cryptocurrency space. Ether, another major player in the market, similarly achieved a noteworthy milestone by surpassing $3,200, marking its highest level in two years.

The rally, which saw Bitcoin’s value increase by more than 10% over two sessions, is partly driven by a substantial investment from MicroStrategy. The software giant disclosed it had added around 3,000 bitcoins to its portfolio, spending $155 million, signaling strong faith in Bitcoin’s long-term value. Additionally, the approval of Bitcoin-owning exchange-traded funds (ETFs) in the United States has further buoyed the cryptocurrency’s market performance. With trading volumes in these ETFs experiencing a significant boost and crypto-related stocks rallying, Bitcoin’s ascendancy reflects a broader trend of institutional endorsement and optimism within the cryptocurrency market, even as broader markets remain cautious.

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ENS DAO approves $300k settlement to end eth.link domain lawsuit

After nearly a year and a half of back-and-forth and an apparent $750,000 in legal expenses, Ethereum domain name service ENS Labs got the go-ahead from its DAO to pay Manifold Finance a $300,000 settlement and end the two sides’ dispute over the eth.link domain.

ENS, or Ethereum Name Service, is a service for giving Ethereum wallet addresses names other than long strings of letters and numbers. The dispute over eth.link started when the GoDaddy domain registration couldn’t be transferred away from imprisoned former Ethereum developer Virgil Griffith.

ENS domains are not recognized by the traditional Domain Name System (DNS) that underpins the internet. Simply put, typing an ENS…

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Bitcoin approaches $55k as IBIT tops $1B in trades

Bitcoin surged as much as 6.8% Monday to hit $54,446 — a high not seen since November 2021 — as investment products continue to rake in the cash. Ether was also on the rise, surpassing $3,180 and extending its rally from earlier in the week. 

Equities were mixed toward the end of Monday’s session. The S&P 500 lost around 0.2% while the Nasdaq Composite was flat, gaining a modest 0.03%. 

These price moves come as investors continue to fund bitcoin and ether investment vehicles. Digital asset investment products clocked $598 million in inflows last week, extending a four-week streak of positive inflows, according to data from CoinShares. Bitcoin (BTC) products were the winner,…

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BlackRock Spot Bitcoin ETF Trades over $1 Billion So Far Today In New Milestone

In a significant milestone for spot Bitcoin exchange-traded funds (ETFs), BlackRock’s spot Bitcoin ETF has recorded over $1 billion in trades today alone, according to Bloomberg Senior ETF Analyst Eric Balchunas. This achievement underscores the growing demand for Bitcoin investment products and highlights the increasing acceptance of Bitcoin within traditional finance.

MILESTONE $IBIT has traded $1b worth of shares today so far.. which ranks it 11th among all ETFs (Top 0.3%) and Top 25 among stocks. Insane number for newbie ETF (esp one w ten competitors). $1b/day is big boy level volume, enough for (even big) institutional consideration. pic.twitter.com/1vxW5jhaXT

— Eric Balchunas… Read more on BitcoinMagazine

Layer 2 Is Not A Magic Incantation

A common chant from many in this space these days in response to any discussion of changes to the Bitcoin protocol is “Don’t mess with Layer 1! You can just build it on Layer 2!” This seems like a very logical thing to do, right? Why risk the security and stability of L1 when you can just build on top of it? The problem is this fundamentally fails to understand the relationship between Layer 1 and Layer 2.

An L2 protocol is an extension of the L1. Everything that an L2 is designed to do must ultimately reduce down to what the L1 is capable of. The blanket statement of “just do it on L2!” obfuscates numerous implicit realities of what can or can’t be done on an L2 given the…

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Cryptocurrency Bittensor’s Price Increased More Than 9% Within 24 hours

Bittensor’s TAO/USD price has increased 9.86% over the past 24 hours to $615.12, which is in the opposite direction of its trend over the past week, where it has experienced a 2.0% loss, moving from $628.88 to its current price. As it stands right now, the coin’s all-time high is $698.60.

The chart below compares the price movement and volatility for Bittensor over the past 24 hours (left) to its price movement over the past week (right). The gray bands are Bollinger Bands, measuring the volatility for both the daily and weekly price movements. The wider the bands are, or the larger the gray area is at any given moment, the larger the volatility.

The trading volume for the coin has…

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As bitcoin ETFs gain ground on gold funds, is a flippening in the cards?

As bitcoin ETFs continue to see inflows roughly six weeks after launching, investor capital has exited gold funds — though some believe the flow relationship is unlikely to last.

While analysts predict bitcoin ETF assets could one day eclipse those within gold funds, industry watchers noted that the two sectors are not directly related.

The 10 spot bitcoin funds that came to market on Jan. 11 have so far tallied net inflows of roughly $5.5 billion. 

Meanwhile the largest gold ETFs — State Street Global Advisors’ SPDR Gold Shares (GLD) and BlackRock’s iShares Gold Trust (IAU) — have endured net outflows of about $2.7 billion and $350 million, respectively, since that date,…

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Braiins Becomes First Mining Pool To Introduce Lightning Payouts

Braiins, a leading mining pool in the Bitcoin industry, has made a significant stride by becoming the first mining pool to introduce Lightning payouts. This pioneering move marks a notable advancement in the integration of the Lightning Network (LN) within the mining sector.

Introducing Lightning payouts ⚡️We are excited to be the first mining pool using the Lightning Network.Our miners can now instantly receive rewards with no minimums or fees. pic.twitter.com/h1GSvxj78D

— Braiins (@BraiinsMining) February 21, 2024

“Our decision to integrate the Lightning Network comes from a deep understanding of the challenges and opportunities within the mining community,” stated Kristian…

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Avail raises $27M, readies entrance into modular narrative

Ethereum’s roadmap for scaling employs a combination of specialized infrastructure components for disparate steps in the life of a blockchain transaction: execution, transaction ordering, data availability, settlement and consensus, as opposed to an all-in-one solution.

In short, modular vs. integrated.

A chief impediment is the potential degradation of the user experience in the process, as applications run across multiple chains that don’t necessarily talk to each other in anything like real-time.

Avail, known primarily as a provider of data availability (DA) — as the name suggests — has been quietly working on a more holistic suite of solutions to this burgeoning…

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