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Bitcoin's scalability debate
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Bitcoin community celebrates as network records one billion transactions
Key points:
Bitcoin surpasses 1 billion transactions, signifying growing adoption.
Scalability concerns resurface as transaction volume increases.
News - Bitcoin recently crossed a significant milestone by processing its one-billionth transaction. The community on X (formerly Twitter) celebrated this mark. The achievement underscores the robust activity and increasing acceptance of Bitcoin, even amidst volatile market conditions.
On-chain analysis - On-chain data analysis confirmed this historic moment. According to Clark Moody's dashboard, the total transaction count on the Bitcoin network surpassed 1 billion. Swan data further pinpointed the block height at 842,241 where the one-billionth transaction occurred.
Looking at daily transaction volume, Glassnode data revealed 23 April 2024, as the busiest day so far this year. The network processed 926,842 transactions on that date, with Bitcoin priced around $66,403.
Scalability concerns - This landmark achievement reignited the debate about Bitcoin's scalability. While some are advocating for substantial protocol changes to enhance scalability, others believe the existing infrastructure, including secondary layers like the Lightning Network, will adapt to meet growing demand.
South Korea excludes crypto donations in a new law, charities left disappointed
Key points:
South Korea's revised donation law excludes cryptocurrencies.
Charities lose out on a growing global trend of crypto donations.
News - South Korea's recent revision to its "Donations Act" excludes cryptocurrency as a viable donation method. Thus, hindering fundraising efforts for charities.
The amendment, reported by Kyunghyang Shinmun on 5 May, allows for more diverse donation methods including gift vouchers, loyalty points, and stocks, but restricts digital assets like Bitcoin.
What’s more? This move comes despite the growing popularity of crypto donations globally. TheGivingBlock, a platform facilitating such transactions, estimates over $2 billion donated worldwide using cryptocurrency as of January 2024.
South Korean charities will miss out on this potential revenue stream, while their American counterparts reportedly see over half accepting digital asset donations.
The reason behind excluding crypto remained unclear. However, the legislation is set to permit donations in local government-issued, KRW-pegged stablecoins and blockchain-issued gift vouchers.
XRP's market outlook dims as weighted sentiment declines before SEC's decision
Key points:
SEC has sought a $2 billion penalty for alleged securities violation by Ripple.
Declining network growth could limit XRP's future price potential.
News - Ripple's XRP token is facing uncertainty as the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) prepares to respond to the company's legal brief on 6 May. This response could significantly impact XRP's price in the coming days.
While a recent rise in sentiment suggested optimism, a drop in the XRP’s Weighted Sentiment metric indicated a shift in the broader market's outlook. This change coincided with the upcoming SEC response, suggesting investors are quite careful of the potential outcome.
The details - The legal battle revolves around the SEC's accusation that Ripple violated securities laws by selling XRP. The SEC seeks a $2 billion penalty, which Ripple strongly opposes, arguing a maximum of $10 million is appropriate.
The judge's upcoming decision could make or break XRP's price. If the SEC prevails, XRP's value could plummet. Conversely, a ruling in Ripple's favor could trigger a price increase.
Interestingly, despite the uncertainty, data suggested traders have been betting on a positive outcome. XRP's Funding Rate, an indicator of sentiment among leveraged traders, remained positive. It implied that a majority of traders expect XRP's price to rise.
Crypto Venture Capital funding surpasses $1B mark for second consecutive month
Key points:
Notable deals included investments in Securitize, Monad, Auradine, and Berachain.
Blockchain infrastructure led VC funding in 2024, followed by DeFi.
News - Crypto Venture Capital funding continued its strong performance in 2024, surpassing $1 billion for the second month in a row. According to RootData, April saw $1.02 billion invested across 161 funding rounds, marking a slight dip compared to March's $1.09 billion from 186 rounds.
This achievement signified a significant milestone, as it's the first time since late 2022 that the industry has witnessed consecutive months exceeding $1 billion in funding.
Several notable deals - BlackRock led a $47 million investment into Securitize, a company focused on tokenizing real-world assets. Additionally, Monad, a layer-1 blockchain aiming to rival Solana, secured a massive $225 million investment from prominent firms like Paradigm and Coinbase Ventures.
Blockchain infrastructure projects also attracted significant capital. Auradine and Berachain, startups building blockchain infrastructure solutions, secured $80 million and $100 million respectively.
The total venture capital investment in the crypto industry in 2024 has already reached $3.67 billion across 604 funding rounds. This puts the industry on track to surpass the $9.3 billion raised in 2023.
More stories from the crypto ecosystem
Did you know?
Designed for efficiency, XRP boasts a pre-mined supply of 100 billion tokens, facilitating faster and more cost-effective transactions compared to Bitcoin's energy-intensive mining process.
Layer 3 blockchains (L3) are highly customizable and application-specific blockchains that are built on top of layer 2 (L2) protocols.
Shiba Inu is built on top of the Ethereum Blockchain Network. It was launched as a rival of Dogecoin and is also known as “Doge-Killer”.
Top 3 coins of the day
Dogecoin (DOGE)
Key points:
In the past 24 hours, $900.28K worth of long bets were placed.
However, the short positions outweighed the longs, highlighting that the market was expecting a negative move.
What you should know - After a doji candlestick formation on 5 May, the market was expecting a trend reversal. Precisely, a short decline in price. However, DOGE defied expectations and registered positive gains in the early hours of trading on 6 May. On the daily chart, the memecoin has been moving in a down channel since 12 April. Recent bullish forces can push DOGE past the $0.20265 resistance to reach $0.21998, only if Bitcoin maintains its move up. Conversely, sell pressure can take the token to $0.12717-$0.11408 zone in no time. At press time, the market sentiment remained neutral, this was reflected in the reading of RSI which stood at the 54 mark.
Pepe (PEPE)
Key points:
The 30-Days ‘high-security score’ for Pepe stood at 87.13%, as per CoinGecko.
This memecoin was 15561.1% up from its all-time low reached on 18 April 2023.
What you should know - On 12 April, PEPE saw a significant drawdown. Basically, from 12 April, the memecoin was trying to find a new bottom till 19 April. After which, it moved upwards. This kind of movement resulted in a ‘rounding bottom’ pattern - formed on the daily chart. Most of the traders took advantage of this pattern by buying halfway around the bottom, at the low point, and capitalising on the continuation once it broke above the $0.00000685 level of resistance. At press time price, PEPE was 19.51% down from its near-term resistance of $0.00001071. MACD and signal lines moved parallelly, signifying prevailing indecision in the market.
Cardano (ADA)
Key points:
Recently, the Cardano founder proposed Bitcoin Cash integration in an X poll.
ADA’s Open Interest in the derivatives market has declined after 12 April.
What you should know - From 26 January to 14 April, ADA saw an incline, however, the trend reversed soon after. At press time, the coin was trading at $0.4619 - Quite close to its descending resistance line. The immediate support remained at $0.4414. Compared to its competitors, ADA wasn’t performing well on the daily chart, yet analysts predicted that bullish forces could continue for the next few days, thanks to Bitcoin. The Awesome Oscillator (AO) flashed green candles below the neutral line. Traditionally, green candles in the AO signify a potential upward trend. However, since it appeared below the centerline (neutral line), it revealed that the anticipated bullish momentum would be weak.
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