Bitcoin (BTC), Ether (ETH) and the crypto market had a rough 2022 from a price perspective, but traders are hopeful that 2023 will include bullish developments that push crypto prices higher. Despite the market-wide downturn, a handful of altcoins continued to make a positive contribution to the crypto space and thanks to Ethereum, the term altcoin is no longer a derogatory term. Let’s explore the top altcoins that made a difference in 2022. Ethereum fundamentals shone in 2022 Ether’s price hit a yearly high at $3,835 on Jan. 2 and has struggled to regain footing amidst the bear market and …

For most crypto ecosystems, being compliant with federal sanctions have a negative impact on its global reach. However, when it comes to Ethereum, investors have significant power to decide the degree of compliance the ecosystem obeys. Nearly 60% of all post-Merge Ethereum blocks comply with the United States sanctions put forth by the Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC). While the crypto community stands against this transformation, many fail to realize their own contribution to helping Ethereum attain total OFAC compliance. One of the biggest factors harming Ethereum's credible neutrality is the use of censoring MEV relays by crypto ecosystems …

Yield farming, liquidity mining, and staking have become common practices in the crypto market due to the remarkable growth the DeFi ecosystem has witnessed in recent years. These features enable users to earn interest on their crypto holdings by locking them as deposits for specific periods. The concepts sound appealing but there's one big risk: the potential decline in the valuation of the locked assets. In other words, users will see losses in U.S. dollar terms if the asset's value drops during the lock-in period. These shortcomings have raised "reflection tokens" as a viable alternative. In theory, reflection tokenomics remove …

Blockchain oracle network Chainlink has launched its staking feature to help increase the economic security of the platform's oracle services. In an announcement sent to Cointelegraph, Chainlink mentioned that the new staking feature is an integral part of its “Chainlink Economics 2.0” efforts that focuses on security and sustainable growth. Before the staking feature, Chainlink users who wanted to receive LINK token rewards needed to launch their own nodes. With the newly-launched staking mechanism, Chainlink (LINK) token holders have an additional earning mechanism as they aid in increasing the oracle platform’s security. Initially, Chainlink Staking was launched as a v0.1 …

The multi-week ApeCoin (APE) market rally is nearing exhaustion owing to a mix of technical and fundamental factors. Fundamental — ApeCoin Staking launch In the past two weeks, APE's price is up over 50% after bottoming at around $2.60. The APE/USD rebound came in line with similar recovery moves elsewhere in the crypto market. But, it outperformed top assets, including Bitcoin (BTC) and Ether (ETH), as traders pinned their hopes on ApeCoin's staking debut. The ApeCoin Staking feature will debut on Dec. 5 at apestake.io, according to its developer Horizon Labs. It will allow users to lock their APE holdings …

Staking technology provider Kiln has closed out a $17.8 million fundraising round featuring the likes of Consensys and Kraken Ventures. The company is eyeing ‘exponential’ growth in demand for ETH staking services from institutional clients in the future. Kiln is a software-as-a-service provider focused on enterprise-grade staking solutions across 16 different proof-of-stake blockchain protocols. Its infrastructure enables users to stake on-chain while maintaining asset custody on separate solutions as well as cloud platforms and validator clients. An announcement shared with Cointelegraph outlined growing institutionalization of cryptocurrency staking as a trend in the market. According to Kiln, this is driving the …

The crypto market has witnessed a turbulent few weeks after the FTX collapse but Lido Finance, a liquid staking protocol, has been a bright spot amidst the chaos. According to Data from DeFiLlama, Lido protocol has earned $1 million or more in fees daily since October 26. Lido fees and revenue over time. Lido has collected over $1M in fees every day since October 26th pic.twitter.com/GHkzSzYIOo — DefiLlama.com (@DefiLlama) November 18, 2022 Let’s analyze the on-chain fundamentals to see why this trend has continued. What’s behind Lido Finance’s growth? Lido’s growth started in May 2021, pre-FTX collapse. The fees reached …

Days after Ethereum turns deflationary for the first time since shifting to proof-of-stake (PoS), critics have started to highlight the Ethereum Foundation’s removal of Ether (ETH) staking’s withdrawal schedule on social media. A crypto community member pointed out how Ethereum developers, leaders and influencers mentioned that ETH staking withdrawals might be opened six months after the Merge. After this, the estimated time for the unlock was moved to 6-12 months. Furthermore, the Twitter user highlighted that the schedule was revised into an estimated 2023 to 2024 before finally being removed entirely. Another Twitter user fanned the flames, describing staked ETH …

For all the progress that has been made in DeFi, the industry currently stands at something of a crossroads. Since its peak last year, TVL in DeFi has shrunk from around $150 billion to where it is now, around $50 billion. The turmoil has coincided with global trends that have affected industries across the board, but the challenges faced by DeFi are unique, especially given how young a sector it is. Few question that DeFi has the potential to transform finance in a way that is more equitable for all involved. The big question, though, is how exactly can DeFi’s …

For many years, Ethereum reigned supreme over the decentralized finance (DeFi) landscape, with the blockchain serving as the destination of choice for many of the most innovative projects serving up their take on decentralized finance. More recently, however, DeFi projects have started to crop up across multiple ecosystems, challenging Ethereum’s hegemony. And, as we look to a future in which the technical problem of interoperability is solved, one unlikely contender for the role of DeFi power player emerges — Bitcoin (BTC). In that future, Bitcoin plays potentially the most important role in DeFi — and not in a triumphalist, maximalist …

The cryptocurrency market is incredibly volatile, which can be both good and bad for investors and traders. Volatility creates opportunities for making profits, but it can also lead to losses. Passive income strategies, however, could be handy in offsetting these losses. Passive income strategies offer investors and traders opportunities to earn profits, even during challenging market conditions such as bear markets. For those investing in Ether (ETH), or any crypto in general, earning passive crypto income provides a way to cover market crashes and downturns. READ ALSO How to earn passive crypto income in a bear market? by Arnold Kirimi …

The shift of the Ethereum (ETH) blockchain to a proof-of-stake (PoS) protocol opened new opportunities for developers and investors to explore, including the burning of Ether. Now, Ethereum PoS transactions are validated through staking rather than mining. Staking impacts the supply and price dynamics of Ether in ways that are different from mining. Staking is expected to create deflationary pressure on Ether as opposed to mining that induces inflationary pressure. The increase in the total amount of funds locked in Ethereum contracts could also push its price up in the long term. This is because it affects one of the …