The high-stakes Shanghai hard fork went live and has finally allowed the tens of thousands of ETH stakers to access their coins. Now users can involve in trading freely. Therefore, all eyes have been on Ethereum (ETH).
The Shanghai Update went off exactly on schedule at 10:27 pm UTC. Unlike Ethereum’s previous significant update, “The Merge,” which is famous for its constant delays, Shanghai did not disappoint with its timely release.
As covered by Proactive in recent days, some market participants feared an instant run on the world’s second-largest crypto. A feeling of trepidation arose because newly liberated investors either take profits or accept their losses.
For the moment, traders remain skeptical. ETH/USDT has endured largely unphased since the protocol upgrade. The pair increased by almost 1.5% to end yesterday’s trading session at US$1,917. It maintained that level during this morning’s Asian trading hours. But for the time being, the rumored 2K psychological barrier is inaccessible.
The US inflation readout from yesterday showed mixed results. The core inflation went up marginally, but the annual rate decreased for a ninth consecutive week to 5%. Such an increase caused confusion since the market expected at least a 5.2% increase.
Drop in Bitcoin inflation; Solana (SOL) rises
BTC/USDT dropped below the coveted 30k barrier in the hours before the call. Later, it reached an intraday low of US$29,640 from a high of US$30,500. However, the fall did not stay long; the pair ended the day approximately 1% down at US$29,890. Later this morning, it slowly crawled above 30k once more.
On the other hand, shorts gained ground in the futures market. Wednesday’s trading session brought some gains during the long and short liquidations. US$19.3 million – long, US$12.4 million – short.
The world’s biggest crypto, BTC, was at around US$30,100, and the next logical upward objective equals US$30,500.
The rate of continuous profit-taking increased since the world’s largest cryptocurrency broke through the $30k price barrier earlier this week. The event will determine how much further bitcoin price gain may be expected.
Bitcoin is up 7.5% week over week, while ether is up 1.8%.
The recent release of the Saga smartphone supported SOL coin. Remarkably, SOL is currently the 10th largest cryptocurrency in the market. For instance, Saga runs on the Solana blockchain and is powered by SOL.
SOL is currently up more than 16% week-over-week. Besides, it has a market cap of US$9.4 billion, making it the top-performing cryptocurrency out of the top 20.
It gives the alternative a much-needed boost after being severely hampered in the 2022 crypto winter by multiple network outages and high-value attacks.
