The competition among layer-one smart contract platforms has been on the rise in the past couple of months as traders and developers continue to embrace Ethereum network alternatives that offer faster transaction times and lower fees. According to a recent report from Delphi Digital, the price of Ether (ETH) has remained relatively flat over the past month, while competitors suc as Solana (SOL) and Fantom (FTM) have seen their prices rally more than 200% during the same time. One of the drivers of the rallies seen in Fantom (FTM), Avalanche (AVAX) and Terra (LUNA) is the fact that each has …

Solana (SOL) reached a $216 all-time high on Sept. 9 after rallying 508% since August. The bull run caused some analysts to project a $500 target tha would translate to a $150 billion market capitalization. It is worth noting that during SOL's rally, the Ethereum network's average transaction fee surpassed $40. Surging interest in the nonfungible token (NFT) market accelerated investors' transition to Solana, which was boosted by the launch of FTX's NFT marketplace on Sept. 6. The above chart shows SOL's two-month performance compared to Avalanche (AVAX) and Cosmos (ATOM). Both are fighting for the same decentralized application user-base …

Welcome to the latest edition of Cointelegraph’s decentralized finance, or DeFi, newsletter. In a week where DeFi’s parabolic growth continued elsewhere, the United States Securities and Exchange Commission Chair Gary Gensler threatened to tackle stablecoins. What you’re about to read is the smaller version of this newsletter. For the full breakdown of DeFi’s developments over the last week — released a whole lot quicker than Cardano’s smart contracts — subscribe at the bottom of this page. Layer two’s defining the future This week, analytical data revealed that DeFi continues to be one of the fastest-growing sectors of the crypto economy …

The bullish momentum that had been growing across the cryptocurrency ecosystem over the past few days came to a screeching halt on Sept. 24 as news that China had banned cryptocurrency transactions made the rounds on social media and initiated an abrupt fall in the price of Bitcoin (BTC) from $45,000 to $42,000. After the initial knee-jerk reaction and a brief period of time for the market to digest the news, traders jumped back in to buy the dips on several altcoins, which helped some of the losses seen earlier in the day. Data from Cointelegraph Markets Pro and TradingView …

Crypto exchange Bitfinex has today announced a market-debut service to bridge its centralized platform with the layer-2 decentralized trading platform DeversiFi. The bridge will provide users access to the permissionless and privacy-centric experiences of decentralized finance (DeFi) systems, in combination with the highly liquid, accessible features of centralized finance (CeFi) institutions. A release from the company noted that transactions will be initially exclusive to Tether (USDT) — a stablecoin affiliated with the exchange — but may eventually open up to various ERC-20 tokens in the future. Ethereum-based DeversiFi is a trading platform built upon StarkWare’s scalable technology. Two months ago, …

In the increasingly competitive landscape of blockchain technology and cryptocurrencies, protocol innovation and the ability to solve the biggest problems facing the crypto community are necessary for any project that looks to have long-term success in the ecosystem. Recently, the emergence of layer-two technology such as Arbitrum, Optimism and a bridge to the Avalanche ecosystem is revolutionizing the way investors, builders and developers interact with various protocols because each facilitates fast, low-cost transactions that improve the fundamentals of the decentralized finance (DeFi) ecosystem while also making it easier for retail-sized investors to capitalize on opportunities. According to data from Token …

According to a blog post published by Optimism on Sept. 17, the team anticipates Ethereum-native protocols will be able to launch on its network in a single click by the end of October. “Any tooling that can run on Ethereum will run identically on Optimistic Ethereum,” the post highlighted, adding: Optimism, the Ethereum Foundation-backed team building developing a layer-two roll-up network, has announced upgrades to its protocol that will enable developers to deploy on its network in just "one click.” “Anyone who has written code targeting Geth can now deploy without change — even for advanced features like traces and …

Something is brewing, and those with finely tuned noses can smell it. As traders have come to expect, Bitcoin (BTC) is doing “Bitcoin things” by bouncing around between the usual “key” support and resistance levels, and to be honest, it’s all starting to feel a bit boomerish. Bitcoin’s long-awaited “moon” depended on institutional investor buy-in, breaking the previous all-time high at $19,000 and a set of other firmly held beliefs. Well, all that happened, and the run to $64,900 exceeded many investors’ wildest dreams. But despite this, the entire BTC situation just feels predictable and boring if you are of …

Altcoins continue to book notable gains on Sept. 16 as a slew of celebrity endorsements, major investments and the growing popularity of cross-chain bridges catch investors' attention. Data from Cointelegraph Markets Pro and TradingView shows that the biggest gainers over the past 24 hours were Audius (AUDIO), Avalanche (AVAX) and Celer Network (CELR). Superstars invest in Audius The Audius platform is a decentralized music-sharing and streaming protocol that aims to cut out the middleman from the music industry and allow fans, subscribers and creators to interact with each other directly. According to data from Cointelegraph Markets Pro, market conditions for …

Interoperability has become one of the driving themes within the crypto market and as the blockchain ecosystem evolves into an interconnected web of layer-one protocols, the importance of communication and efficiency among decentralized applications (dApps) will also increase. Ren (REN), a blockchain protocol designed to provide interoperability and liquidity between different blockchain platforms, has started gaining traction over the past month and a half as activity in the decentralized finance (DeFi) sector has been on the rise. Data from Cointelegraph Markets Pro and TradingView shows that after reaching a low of $00.41 on Aug. 9, the price of REN has …

Immutable, a layer-two nonfungible token (NFT) protocol built on the Ethereum blockchain, has announced a $60 million Series B funding raise from a multitude of corporate venture firms, including Sam Bankman-Fried’s Alameda Research and Gary Vaynerchuk’s VaynerFund. The funding round was co-led by gaming investment platform Bitkraft Ventures and venture firm King River Capital. The new capital will be allocated to supporting Immutable’s growing ambitions, including expanding its global engineering and sales departments, fostering industry partnerships and scaling the network’s native NFT gaming projects. Through its scaling solution, Immutable X, the protocol provides a foundational infrastructure for the global business …

Airdrops have been a fan-favorite in the cryptocurrency ecosystem for years because they offer projects a way to reward early adopters and increase token distribution. The latest project to surprise its community of supporters with retroactive rewards for its newly minted token is dYdX, a non-custodial decentralized derivatives exchange that operates on a layer-two version of the Ethereum network. Data from CoinGecko shows that on its first day of trading live in the markets, DYDX is trading at a price of $10.28 at the time of writing after hitting an intra-day high at $14.24. The number of tokens received by …