Ethereum Breaches ATH After Upgrade and Facebook Rebrand Sparks Crypto Rally

As bitcoin grappled with new ATHs last week, eyes were turned towards the second-largest cryptocurrency – Ethereum. After experiencing an under-the-radar upgrade, a stage required to press forward with Ethereum 2.0, the native cryptocurrency, Ether, climbed above the previous highs from April. Meanwhile, Facebook unveiled a completely fresh rebranding, as the company moves towards the development of the metaverse – a platform that it sees as the bridge between social media and the physical world – and one that is powered by blockchain technology.

• Ethereum upgrade pushes price to ATH
• Tesla informs SEC about future bitcoin payments
• Musk outlines why he believes in Dogecoin
• Facebook name change sparks rally across cryptocurrencies
• Mastercard to integrate with cryptocurrency platform

Ethereum Altair upgrade pushes price to ATH

The Ethereum blockchain, home to the second-largest cryptocurrency in the world, experienced an important upgrade on Wednesday last week. The upgrade was called Altair and marks another important step towards Ethereum 2.0. During the days following the upgrade, the native cryptocurrency, Ether, posted a new ATH of $4,416 which took the market cap up to $510 billion.

To tackle issues regarding scalability, Ethereum is currently undertaking a significant upgrade of its internal infrastructure. The blockchain is moving from a Proof-of-Work consensus mechanism, which Bitcoin currently employs, to a Proof-of-Stake mechanism. The move should help the Ethereum blockchain process a much larger amount of transactions, reduce energy consumption, and increase decentralization.

Altair marks the first upgrade of the Ethereum Beacon Chain which is pivotal to the inner workings of Ethereum 2.0. According to Tim Beiko, the coordinator of Ethereum’s protocol developers, it is the first true test of the Beacon Chain to see if it is working correctly. Talking with CNBC Beiko commented “it shows we are able to upgrade the PoS mechanism, and that’s a pre-condition to the migration next year. It means there’s a slightly higher chance that things will go well for the [Ethereum 2.0] transition next year”. 

Currently, all transactions are still processed using the PoW system. During 2022, the blockchain will merge fully with the Beacon Chain and move across to PoS.

 

Tesla informs SEC of conducting future transactions in bitcoin

The electric car manufacturer, Tesla, has informed the US Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) that in the future it may once again begin transacting and receiving cryptocurrencies for goods and services. The discovery was found within Tesla’s quarterly filings which were made public last week.

The report, which was filed on Monday, outlines that between January 2021 and March 2021, the company originally began accepting bitcoin as payment for some of its electric vehicles. When the news broke in March it sent the price of bitcoin towards new ATHs. 

However, this acceptance of bitcoin abruptly stopped in May 2021, due to concerns regarding the amount of fossil fuels required for bitcoin mining. At the time, the CEO of Tesla Elon Musk made it clear that over 50% of the energy for bitcoin mining needed to be coming from renewable sources before the company could once again consider bitcoin as a payment method.

After detailing the companies previous dealings with bitcoin, the report then continues to say “we may in the future restart the practice of transacting in cryptocurrencies (‘digital assets’) for our products and services”. This has led many to interpret that bitcoin may once again become a payment option at the car giant – much sooner than many believed.

The company continues to hold $1.26 billion worth of bitcoin on its balance sheet. 

 

Musk reveals why he holds Dogecoin

Elon Musk, CEO of both SpaceX and Tesla, has over the past year been an outspoken supporter of the meme cryptocurrency – Dogecoin. He has openly backed and supported the token across many platforms. Last week, he revealed the reason why.

Musk revealed that his belief and investment in Dogecoin was the result of employees at both SpaceX and Tesla. According to Musk, workers at both companies refer to Dogecoin as “the people’s crypto.”

Speaking with fans on Twitter, Musk continued “lots of people I talked to on the production lines at Tesla or building rockets at SpaceX own DOGE. They aren’t financial experts or Silicon Valley technologists. That’s why I decided to support DOGE – it felt like the people’s crypto.”

The comments were linked to a post reporting that Dogecoin adoption in the US was more than double that in the rest of the world. The survey, conducted by Finder, found that out of all of the cryptocurrency holders in the US, 30% hold Dogecoin in their portfolio.

Dogecoin has exploded over much of 2021, boasting an impressive 12,000% rise since October 2020. It has since managed to retain most of those gains and experienced a weekly boost thanks to Musk’s comments. It has spearheaded an entire meme-based cryptocurrency sector that now includes Dogecoin-rivals such as Shiba Inu, which experienced a 100% increase last week.

 

 

Facebook name change sparks rally across cryptocurrencies

Last week,  in a move that shocked many worldwide, the social media behemoth, Facebook, confirmed that it would be rebranding to ‘Meta’ as it moves beyond its social media roots. Moving forward, the company will be focused on becoming a prolific contributor to the metaverse – a virtual reality world. According to a tweet confirming the news, this will be “a place where we’ll play and connect in 3D.” 

The news was unveiled by the CEO, Mark Zuckerberg at Facebook’s annual Connect conference. The company’s vision is to connect social media experiences with the real world via the metaverse. The term ‘metaverse’ is common among those looking to bridge the digital and physical worlds and is greatly intertwined with blockchain technology. It is the blockchain that has allowed people to buy, sell and exchange virtual parcels of land, characters, and objects inside virtual worlds. 

Although the parent company ‘Facebook’ will be changing its name, individual social media apps will remain the same – including the Facebook application.

As a result of the rebranding and change in future trajectory, cryptocurrency markets experienced a boost from the news. In particular, this was felt by cryptocurrencies that are already in some way linked to the metaverse. This included AXS, which is linked to Axie Infinity, MANA, which is linked to Decentraland, and ENJ, which is linked to the Enjin platform.

 

 

Mastercard integrates with cryptocurrency platform

One of the world’s leading global payment providers, Mastercard, took another huge step towards mass cryptocurrency adoption last week with a new crypto partnership announcement. Encouragingly, the payment giant confirmed that it would be integrating with a cryptocurrency platform to facilitate cryptocurrency solutions for both its merchants and partners. 

According to Mastercard’s report, the service provider will be integrating with cryptocurrency exchange Bakkt to create a ‘multifaceted partnership’. Announced during a Money 20/20 event, the partnership aims to “make it easier for merchants, banks, and fintechs in the U.S. to embrace and offer a broad set of cryptocurrency solutions and services. Consumers, in turn, will experience expanded access to the digital asset ecosystem.”

Thanks to the new collaboration Mastercard customers will also be offered cryptocurrency as rewards for collecting loyalty points – a feature not possible before the partnership.

Nancy Gordan EVP of Loyalty Rewards & Payments at Bakkt commented on the news during the week. “We’re incredibly excited to partner with Mastercard to bring crypto loyalty services to millions of consumers. As brands and merchants look to appeal to younger consumers and their transaction preferences, these new offerings represent a unique opportunity to satisfy the increasing demand for crypto, payment, and rewards flexibility.”

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