Within a matter of weeks, the Ethereum blockchain is going to undergo the Merge, in one of the biggest and riskiest upgrades in the industry's history: a switch from a Proof-of-Work consensus algorithm to Proof-of-Stake. XGo's head of product Josh Cowell explains what the much-anticipated Ethereum Merge is all about — and some of the big questions that currently remain unanswered. 1. Hello! Before we delve into all things Ethereum, tell us about XGo. Hello! We're a bunch of crypto enthusiasts and founded XGo to restore crypto's original goals and principles beyond making money (or losing it!) fast. We have …

Cryptocurrency exchange Binance will suspend deposits and withdrawals of Ether (ETH) and ERC-20 tokens during the blockchain's transition to its proof-of-stake (PoS) Beacon chain in September. The world's largest exchange by transaction volume announced the move in a bid to provide stability during ‘The Merge’ which is touted to take place in mid-September 2022. Binance becomes the second major exchange to announce the suspension of ETH deposits and withdrawals, following Coinbase earlier in August 2022. According to an announcement from Binance, the exchange is timing suspensions with two important upgrades that will facilitate Ethereum’s switch from proof-of-work (PoW) to PoS. …

Ethereum (ETH) is all set to transition to a proof-of-stake (PoS) network by Sept. 15-16 that would see an end to its current proof-of-work (PoW) chain. This event would eliminate PoW mining from the Ethereum ecosystem. The terminal total difficulty has been set to 58750000000000000000000. This means the ethereum PoW network now has a (roughly) fixed number of hashes left to mine.https://t.co/3um744WkxZ predicts the merge will happen around Sep 15, though the exact date depends on hashrate. pic.twitter.com/9YnloTWSi1 — vitalik.eth (@VitalikButerin) August 12, 2022 In light of such a major upgrade, the PoW proponents, especially miners, have decided to keep …

After years of waiting, Ethereum is finally prepared to become a full-fledged proof-of-stake (PoS) blockchain. Besides Ethereum's native token Ether (ETH), the valuation of several other tokens have not only benefited greatly, but could also keep outperforming ETH after the Merge. Ethereum steps closer toward the Merge The leading smart contract platform completed the last of its three public testnets dubbed "Goerli," on Aug. 11. Therefore, there should be no delays in Ethereum's "Merge," expected to go live on Sep. 19. Ether price jumped 5% to approximately $1,950, its highest level in over two months, after the Goerli update. Meanwhile, …

The Dow Jones Industrial Average has declined for eight consecutive weeks, the first such losing streak since 1923. On May 20, the S&P 500 briefly fell into bear market territory, indicating that traders continue to sell risky assets in fear of a recession. Due to its tight correlation with US equities markets, Bitcoin (BTC) has remained under pressure for many weeks. The bulls are attempting to push Bitcoin higher during the weekend and avert an even longer losing streak. Bitcoin’s performance in the first five months has been the worst since 2018, indicating that sellers are in control. However, after …

Ethereum Classic (ETC) price climbed on March 22, ignoring a deadly "death cross" on the weekly chart, as traders raised their bets on its potential to become a haven for miners fleeing the rival Ethereum blockchain. ETC's price jumped over 15.5% to reach $44 a token for the first time since Dec. 9, 2021. The coin's intraday gains came as a part of a broader rebound move that saw its price rallying more than 75% eight days after bottoming out near $25. Most of ETC's course to the upside saw it tracking general crypto market trends. For instance, the Ethereum …

Cryptocurrencies failed to break the 42-day long downtrend after the $1.95 trillion capitalization resistance was rejected on March 20. Even though Bitcoin (BTC) gained a modest 3.7% over the past seven days, altcoins presented a robust rally. Crypto markets' aggregate capitalization showed a 6.2% increase to $1.92 trillion between March 14-21. Such performance was positively impacted by Ether's (ETH) 14% gains, Cardano (ADA) increasing 13%, and Solana (SOL) gaining 10%. While those assets were not the biggest weekly gains among the top-80 coins, Ether may have fueled investors' expectations after Glassnode's on-chain data showed that ETH balances on crypto exchanges …

Bitcoin (BTC) rose above $42,000 on March 19 but the bulls continue to face a strong challenge from the bears at higher levels. Although Bitcoin’s price has recovered from $37,578 on March 13, Cointelegraph market analyst Marcel Pechman highlighted that the long-to-short net ratio of top traders across three major exchanges shows that professional traders have not been buying aggressively. But while Bitcoin struggles at higher levels, select altcoins are showing strength. Twitter account BTCFuel anticipates that altcoins could be entering “the final leg up of the hype phase” and may peak in the Summer. Glassnode data shows that investors …

Laura Shin, a cryptocurrency journalist and host of the Unchained Podcast, claimed to have discovered the identity of the individual behind an exploit which drained more than 3.6 million Ether from Germany-based startup Slock.it’s The DAO in 2016. According to a Tuesday Bloomberg report, Shin claimed that she had “extremely strong evidence” that Mimo Capital co-founder Toby Hoenisch was responsible for removing more than 3.6 million Ether (ETH) from The DAO in June 2016 — roughly $50 million at the time. An unknown hacker used an exploit to drain roughly a third of The DAO’s ETH supply, forcing developers to …

Earlier this month, the Ethereum Name Service, or ENS, formed a decentralized autonomous organization, or DAO, for the ENS community. Cointelegraph spoke to two ENS DAO delegates who applied for the opportunity to represent the community and stay involved in the decision making process: Victor Zhang, CEO of AlphaWallet, an open source Ethereum wallet, and Gregory Rocco, co-founder of Spruce, a decentralized ID and data toolkit for developers. Zhang spoke about his experience as an external contributor to ENS and an early supporter since 2018. Zhang initially sought to help ENS by offering Alpha Wallet as a user-friendly tool for …

Billionaire CEO of American hedge fund Citadel Kenneth Griffin thinks a currency on the Ethereum (ETH) network will replace Bitcoin (BTC) as crypto’s top dog. Citadel manages over $40 billion of capital — a quarter of the trading volume in the US stock market. During this Wednesday’s Nov. 10 DealBook summit hosted by The New York Times, Griffith said that he anticipates that the “Bitcoin-based conception [will be] replaced by the Ethereum-based conception in the next generation of cryptocurrencies.” He added that Ethereum-based cryptocurrencies have “the benefits of higher transaction speeds [and] lower cost per transaction.” Ethereum is only slightly …

Bitcoin (BTC) is facing a stiff challenge from the bears near the $48,000 mark. As Cointelegraph reported earlier, the buy and sell levels show that sellers on Binance have held their ground at $48,000. PlanB, the creator of the stock-to-flow Bitcoin price model, said that if Bitcoin manages to close August above $47,000, the year-end "worst-case scenario" target price of $135,000 may come into play. Despite the slight downturn, the institutional adoption of Bitcoin continues to increase. Filings with the United States Securities and Exchange Commission show that four wealth management firms have bought shares in Grayscale’s Bitcoin Investment Trust. …