Among the highlights of these seven days are the two all-time highs (ATH) reached by Ether (ETH), Ethereum’s native cryptocurrency. The second most important cryptocurrency on the market surpassed $ 3,000 on May 3, and then, by the early morning of May 10, it surpassed $ 4,000 in a streak of accelerated growth that exceeds that of Bitcoin.
Ethereum: What is it and how is it different from bitcoin?
Bitcoin, for its part, gained 1.8% of its value over the course of the week . The pioneer cryptocurrency traded above $ 50,000 again. At the time of writing, BTC is trading at USD 58,102, as reflected in the market price of Latin America and Spain, according to the CriptoNoticias price calculator .
With CryptoNews , those interested can keep up to date on the changes in the market prices of bitcoin and ether in relation to their local currency. To do this, they can visit the BTC and ETH Prices section, which has a calculator to make conversions quickly and easily to their national currency.
These are the most outstanding news:
- On Monday, May 3, Ether (ETH) marked a new market milestone by exceeding $ 3,000 for the first time in its history. With this new all-time high, market capitalization placed the cryptocurrency among the 30 most valuable assets in the world, ahead of Bank of America and Disney. Later, in the early hours of Sunday, May 9, the value of ETH established another maximum, trading at USD 3,991.18. The explanation for the new peak is the development of an alt season . Meanwhile, Bitcoin’s dominance is on the decline, falling below 48% this month. Its prominence has been challenged by the growth of alternative currencies. At the time of writing, its dominance is just 42%.
- JP Morgan released a report outlining three reasons why it thinks ether could outperform bitcoin . He said that bitcoin is a cryptocurrency that competes with gold as a haven of value, while ether is the backbone of the crypto economy and functions more as a medium of exchange. A similar position is held by Ecoinometrics, which in another study also compared the two cryptocurrencies . “Bitcoin and Ethereum are not comparable,” he stated. It highlights that bitcoin is a store of value, and Ethereum is primarily a platform for decentralized applications.
- Coin Metrics analyzed and charted the impact the EIP-1559 upgrade proposal will have on the Ethereum network. This protocol will permanently eliminate a part of the ethers in circulation and decrease their daily net emission. According to their calculations, the impact on the network would be an estimated annual inflation rate of between 1 and 2% . It predicts that there would be a considerable drop in the annual issuance of ether which today exceeds 18 million tokens. On the other hand, according to the calculations of researcher Justin Drake , the maximum supply will be 120 million ETH when the merger with Ethereum 2.0 takes place.
- S&P Dow Jones Indices, one of the world’s leading providers of financial indices, launched three indices linked to the performance of the two largest cryptocurrencies on the market: bitcoin and ether . These new products “aim to bring greater transparency to the emerging cryptocurrency market,” the company said. Simultaneously, by May 7 there was a massive withdrawal of 12,000 bitcoins from the Coinbase exchange, according to Glassnode records. This could be a reflection of the entry of large capital into the market, as part of the growing institutional interest in cryptocurrency.
- Latin American e-commerce platform Mercado Libre bought $ 7.8 million in bitcoins during the first quarter of 2021 as part of its new treasury strategy . Meanwhile, in the United States, the mayor of Miami, Francis Suárez, reported having made his first purchase of bitcoin and ether, when the stimulus check was approved in March of this year. At the same time, in Colombia, an alliance between the exchange Binance and the Davivienda bank will allow the sale of bitcoin, ether, litecoin and bitcoin cash using Colombian pesos.
- An order issued by a federal court in the Northern District of California, published on May 5, establishes that the Internal Revenue Service (IRS) of the United States will have the power to request data of its customers from Kraken . The order says that the IRS will be able to issue a “John Doe subpoena,” which reveals the identity of taxpayers who have used the exchange. For its part, during 2020, Coinbase received more than 4,000 requests from government agencies to provide information about its customers. This was reported by the company through a transparency report.