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Ethereum Leaves ETH 2.0 In The Past In New Roadmap Rebrand

Ethereum 2.0 is one of the most-anticipated upgrades in crypto presently. The upgrade which will bring better scalability and cheaper prices to the network is nothing short of needed given that demand has driven these two things to its brink on the network. This is why Ethereum developers have been hard at work for two years trying to usher in this new era.

However, it seems that the name ETH 2.0 is no longer doing justice to the upgrades being performed on the network. In a recent announcement, Ethereum Foundation announced that it is retiring the name ETH 2.0 in favor of something that better describes the work being done on the network.

ETH 2.0 Is Now Consensus Layer

In a blog post on its official website, the Ethereum Foundation announced its decision to change the name of the upcoming upgrade from ETH 2.0 to the “Consensus layer”. The post explains that the reason for this was the need for terminology that clearly embodies the changes that were being made to the network.

ETH 2.0 had worked while at the beginning when the goal was simply to move users from the present proof of work chain, also known as ETH 1.0, to the new proof of stake mechanism. The goal has changed drastically since then.

Related Reading | Ethereum Fee Averages Remain Above $30 Despite 35% Drop. Price Pump Incoming?

For the total completion of the upgrade, developers had discovered that it would take several years to complete. Additionally, the upgrade had evolved at various points to make changes focused on the long-term rather than just moving to the proof of stake mechanism.

ETH climbs back to $2,400 | Source: ETHUSD on TradingView.com

The new terminology provides a better understanding of what is being done on the network. This way, users are no longer confused when it comes to distinguishing between the two. This would greatly reduce scams that take advantage of the confusion generated by the terminology by asking them to swap their ETH for ‘ETH2’. It would also clear up the confusion that arises with staking, where stakers might believe they might be getting ‘ETH2’ tokens and not ETH tokens.

How Is Ethereum Price Affected?

The announcement of the new terminology has had no bearing on the value of the altcoin in the market. Ethereum which had suffered greatly in the crash, losing about 40% of its value, has trended upward in the last day. However, the change in value remains insignificant as ETH is still a long way away from hitting the $3,000 point. Prompting users to speculate that the bear market is here.

Related Reading | Market May Be Suffering But Bitcoin And Ethereum Will Pull Back Stronger, Bloomberg Analyst

As for ETH 2.0, now known as the “Consensus layer”, it is still unknown if the scheduled merge will actually take place this year. The project has so far been rocked by delays as devs encounter new issues. But for now, the upgrade remains on track.

As per the announcement, the ethereum base layer, also known as ETH1, will now be called the execution layer. While ETH 2.0 will be referred to as the consensus layer. Both of these layers combined are what make up the Ethereum blockchain.

Featured image from Forkast, chart from TradingView.com

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The Ethereum Foundation Sold At The Top Again. Did They Know Something We Didn’t?

Apparently, the Ethereum Foundation employs incredible traders. Once again, they managed to cash out at the very top. On November 16th, ETH was worth an all-time high of $4891. On the very next day, the Ethereum Foundation sent 20,000 ETH to Kraken and sold them. Is this suspicious at all? Not per se, but this is the second time that they pull the same magic move. 

Related Reading | Why The Ethereum Foundation Launched A Client Incentive Program

A professional trader that goes by the name Edward Morra on Twitter was the first to spot the trade. “Friendly reminder that ETH foundation cashed out at the top (again). ETH down 40+% since then,” he said. Morra also provided a chart that shows ETH’s sharp decline in price since the sale.

$ETHFriendly reminder that ETH foundation cashed out at the top (again). ETH down 40+% since then pic.twitter.com/Bp80hEDvK0

— Edward Morra (@edwardmorra_btc) January 21, 2022

To add insult to injury, the Ethereum Foundation only paid $20 in gas fees. That might be the most impressive feat of them all.

At the time of writing, the Ethereum Foundation’s wallet holds 353,318 ETH, which is approximately $835K at current prices.

What Do We Know About The Organization’s Previous Sell-Off?

Back to Morra, his Twitter followers told him that this information was of no use to them this late in the game. The trader surprised the world and pulled an ace up his sleeve. As it turns out, Morra tweeted about the trade at the time it happened. Not only that, he warned them, “They cashed out 35k ETH on 17th of May this year, marked on the chart.”

Casual 20k ETH cashout by EthDev, sent to Kraken:https://t.co/w6AbdeW2AJThey cashed out 35k ETH on 17th of May this year, marked on the chart 👇 pic.twitter.com/sTbUwHSzD4

— Edward Morra (@edwardmorra_btc) November 11, 2021

As you can see on the chart, on May 17th the price of ETH was near its previous peak. And after the Ethereum Foundation sold, ETH trended down for months and months. Is this a coincidence? Does the foundation employ great traders? Or, is there something else to this story? Did they dump on retail ETH holders? Did the Ethereum Foundation know anything that the rest of the world didn’t?

The Ethereum Foundation still holds 394,787 ETH, and Vitalik said he persuaded foundation to sell 70,000 ETH at the top of 2018 to support the work of developers. This is a normal operation, but it also means that the Foundation thought that bear market is coming.

— Wu Blockchain (@WuBlockchain) May 21, 2021

At the time of the first sell-off, journalist Colin Wu highlighted the trade and said, “The Ethereum Foundation transferred 35,000 Eth to the Kraken Exchange on May 17. Vitalik said bubbles could have ended already on May 20.” Analyzing the move, Wu said, “This is a normal operation, but it also means that the Foundation thought that bear market is coming.”

The gas fee for this operation was 0.00240474 ETH, or $5.66 at the time of writing. Wow.

ETH price chart for 01/25/2022 on Bitfinex | Source: BTC/USD on TradingView.com
What’s The Ethereum Foundation Anyway?

According to Ethereum’s official site:

“The EF is not a company, or even a traditional non-profit. Their role is not to control or lead Ethereum, nor they are the only organization that funds critical development of Ethereum-related technologies. The EF is one part of a much larger ecosystem.”

The Ethereum Foundation distributes funds to developers via the Ecosystem Support Program and the Fellowship Program, organizes Devcom, and more. To do all that, they surely need Fiat currency in some capacity. The trade makes sense from that angle.

Related Reading | Ethereum Foundation Devs Discuss ETH2 Launch & Economics

The question, though, is, did they know that a crash was coming? And if they did, did they reach that conclusion through technical and on-chain analysis or by… other methods?

Featured Image by PatriestB on Pixabay | Charts by TradingView

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Ethereum Closing In on $2,800 As ETH 2.0 Deposit Contract Hit New ATH

On Thursday, the world’s second largest cryptocurrency by market cap, Ethereum surged in an indomitable bull rally. At press time, the coin was trading at a new all-time high of $2,760, a 2.89% gain in the last 24 hours. ETH currently has a market cap of $320 billion.

Asset Manager WisdomTree Lists Ethereum ETP

The price surge comes after one of the world’s biggest asset managers WisdomTree listed its new Ethereum ETP on Deutsche Borse’s Xetra market in Frankfurt and the Swiss Stock Exchange in Zurich.

The WisdomTree Ethereum ETP (ETHW) is currently the cheapest available Ethereum-derivative product in Europe with an expense ratio of just 0.95%. The ETHW will allow investors to gain exposure to Ether without actually holding the cryptocurrency. Besides, WisdomTree will be working along with multiple custodian solution providers to hold the digital asset. Speaking of this new development, Jason Guthrie, head of capital markets and digital assets at WisdomTree, said:

“With this increase in popularity, institutional investors are doing their due diligence on the most liquid cryptocurrencies and we expect the pace of adoption across these to ramp up as the opportunity in digital assets becomes more compelling.”

Alexis Marinof, the European operations manager at WisdomTree, said that institutional demand for Ethereum has recently increased. In addition, its previous digital assets ETP products were well-received by institutional investors. He went on to say that the cryptocurrency asset class has helped institutions diversify their portfolios.

“By adding ETHW to our range, we now have the products and research capabilities to support institutional investors whether they are considering making their first allocations to digital assets or looking to diversify their exposures,” added Marinof.

Since the beginning of 2021, Ethereum has been on a big upswing. ETH has also gained nearly 300 percent year-to-date at its current price. CI Global Asset Management introduced the world’s first Ethereum mutual fund to the market earlier this week.

Related article | Ethereum Seems Unstoppable, Here’s How ETH Could Extend Rally

ETH 2.0 Deposit Contract Hit New ATH

Ethereum 2.0 was billed as the most ambitious update to the Ethereum network to date, and the hype appears to be bearing fruit. According to a Tweet from Glassnode alerts, the world’s second-largest cryptocurrency has upgraded to a new all-time high of $10,935,392,247.93 for its deposit contracts.

The community has embraced the cryptocurrency, particularly since the launch of the Ethereum 2.0 update in November 2020.

The foundation’s success began right at the start, with the preparations for its launch. The team behind it had planned to launch it on December 1, 2020, if the deposit contract reached a stake of 524,288 Ethereum coins. It met its target in a matter of hours, collecting over 150,000 ETH deposits in less than 24 hours.

Ethereum has been plagued by high gas fees, and Ethereum 2.0 is being heralded as the solution. Danny Ryan, the Ethereum 2.0 coordinator, said before the launch that the update added a lot of intrinsic value to the system.

Source: ETHUSD on TradingView.com

Related article | Ethereum Gains Momentum, Here’s Here Chances of a Run To $3K

Featured image from Pixabay, Charts from Tradingview.com