More than 100,000 ETH locked for staking via Kraken in four days
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2 Wochen ago
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Just four days after it launched its Eth2 staking service, customers of the popular U.S.-based cryptocurrency exchange Kraken have deposited more than 100,000 Ether, worth north of $60 million.
The milestone was surpassed on Dec. 8, with the exchange estimating that its staking service represents approximately 8% of all ETH staked for Ethereum 2.0 so far. Kraken estimates that its service will provide an APY of between 5% and 17%.
Kraken’s vice president of product, Jeremy Welch, stated that the exchange has “long been a supporter of Ethereum,” noting that Kraken was one of the first exchanges to list Ether in August 2015.
Welch also noted that Kraken’s ETH trading volumes are typically equivalent to between 15% and 40% of daily Bitcoin trade as of Dec. 1.
Kraken is not alone in offering Eth2 staking as a service, with Binance, Huobi, and Bitcoin Suisse all launching their own services over the past week. OKEx also expects to launch its own service by the end of month, while Coinbase will join the fray in “early 2021.”
As such, a significant percentage of staked ETH could become centralized among a handful of major exchanges.
Ethereum wallet interface MyEtherWallet has also announced the integration of staking DApp ‘Staked’. MEW users are able to stake Ether via the company’s web interface or Android wallet application. Staked’s chief executive, Tim Ogilvie, stated:
“MEW is rightly regarded as one of the original Ethereum wallets and it is only fitting that MEW users can now take advantage of our staking infrastructure to participate in Ethereum’s major upgrade.”
While the launch of Eth2’s beacon chain at the start of the month enabled staking for ETH, stakers will not be able to withdraw their tokens until Eth2 transfers are enabled — with onlookers speculating the functionality is unlikely to come online within the next 12 months.
Many stakers appear to have gravitated to third-party service providers so they don’t have to worry about incurring slashing as a consequence of disruptions to their node.
Some Eth2 validators have already complained of their Ethereum becoming locked until withdrawals are enabled without being able to earn rewards due to slashing penalties.
Crypto enthusiasts could make $122K per year mining Ethereum with this setup
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13 Minuten ago
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Dezember 29, 2020
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Simon Byrne has taken at-home crypto mining to a whole new level as he looks to capitalize on Ethereum’s (ETH) enormous price potential.
As first reported by Anthony Garreffa, Byrne has set up an ETH mining rig consisting of 78 GeForce RTX 3080 graphics cards. Although the RTX 3080 is marketed toward high-end PC gamers, crypto miners are using these powerful specs to enhance their capabilities.
With each card using roughly 300W of power, Byrne’s setup uses 23.4KW of energy. And that doesn’t even factor in associated costs like AC. All said, his electricity bill is estimated to run up to around $2,166 per month.
The RTX 3080 launched in September at a price of $699, but supply shortages have caused the per-unit cost to swell to $1,199. At the shortage price, that’s a price tag of $93,522 for Byrne’s setup.
Still, these costs could be offset by the operation’s mining capability. One GeForce RTX 3080 graphic card has a hash rate of around 83MH/s using Ethash, which should generate roughly 0.22236870 ETH per month, according to Garreffa. All 78 cards would therefore generate 17.3 ETH per month, which is equivalent to around $12,352 at today’s prices.
Stripping away the electricity costs, that’s roughly $10,200 per month or $122,000 per year. And that’s not factoring in Ethereum’s price potential during the next bull market.
Ether’s price zipped past $700 over the weekend, the first such move since mid-2018. The return of altseason, as some have predicted, could send ETH’s price even higher over the medium term as investors cycle from Bitcoin to other large-cap cryptocurrencies.
Bitcoin price rally cools down as Polkadot gains 34% in first week of ‘altseason’
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11 Stunden ago
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Dezember 29, 2020
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Bitcoin (BTC) fell below $26,000 on Dec. 29 as fresh fallout from Ripple’s threatened U.S. lawsuit was felt throughout crypto markets.
Cryptocurrency market overview. Source: Coin360
BTC price dips as Coinbase halts XRP trading
Data from Cointelegraph Markets, Coin360 and TradingView showed BTC/USD hitting lows of $25,830 during Tuesday trading.
$27,000 support failed to hold overnight, sparking a retest of lower levels which now center on $26,000. At the weekend, Bitcoin hit all-time highs of $28,400 before swiftly reversing.
The latest losses come as XRP, the fourth-largest cryptocurrency by market cap, hits $0.23 thanks to major U.S. exchange Coinbase opting to suspend trading from next month. The reason is a lawsuit from the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC), which threatens to classify XRP as an unlicensed security and make trading it all but impossible.
“There is going to be a rangebound construction, after which 2021 will most likely break out again,” Cointelegraph Markets analyst Michaël van de Poppe summarized about Bitcoin’s short-term perspectives in a video update on Monday.
Analyst braced for altseason
Van de Poppe is eyeing altcoins as next in line to see major gains. XRP notwithstanding, the market is already showing signs of life, with Ether (ETH) climbing above $700 for the first time since May 2018 this week.
Another winner on Tuesday was Polkadot (DOT), now the seventh-largest token by market cap, which saw a 22.5% daily rise, capping weekly performance of nearly 34%.
For Van de Poppe, the next “impulse wave” on Bitcoin in 2021 should take the market to $40,000 or $50,000, but “until then, altcoins will most likely do well.”
He additionally pointed to a likely top in Bitcoin market cap dominance, which at almost 70% should soon give way to altcoin presence. December tends to see BTC dominance peaks, with 2017, the time of Bitcoin’s first attempt to crack $20,000, a notable comparison.