In this week’s crypto and blockchain update, eToro’s Simon Peters discusses Bitcoin’s bounce, Ether’s peak and how a British judge accepts court documents to be served as NFTs.
Bitcoin and ether bounce
Ether – the crypto-asset associated with the Ethereum blockchain – has jumped on the bandwagon to reveal that The Merge now has a tentative date to go live. The crypto asset has risen above $ 1,400, the highest level in more than a month, after trading down close to $ 1,000 at times last week.
Bitcoin, meanwhile, also jumped to its highest level in a month, trading around $ 22,000 this morning, in a sympathetic response to the ether revelations. The Bitcoin token had traded below $ 19,000 at some point last week on the eToro platform, but appears to be making significant gains.
The reversal of recent capitulations in the cryptocurrency area is a very encouraging indicator that there is still value realized by investors as new information and cycles take hold.
The events of the last few days have shown that cryptocurrencies move above the dividing lines for equities, with large indices relatively flat. Although it does not necessarily show a disconnection from recent performance mirroring, divergence over a longer time frame can mark a significant shift.
Etertopper on the merger date
The price of ether has increased on the news that The Merge of the Ethereum blockchain now has a tentative date. The price of ether began to rise on Thursday when Ethereum Shadow Fork went live.
This fork was the latest in a series of tests for the Ethereum network’s upcoming “merger” and was implemented to test the update on a more intensive network. The last test has now been launched on 11 August and the merging of the main network is now planned for 19 September.
The positive price jump was directly correlated with the news that the test had been a success. This is a good indicator of investor sentiment around The Merge, which has been identified as a major game changer for the blockchain and its related token.
Moving to a proof-of-stake network has the theoretical potential to make ether deflationary, and investors seem to be putting their positions ahead of this.
Polygon selected for Disney Accelerator
The blockchain company Polygon has been selected for the Disney Accelerator program – a business development program aimed at highly innovative companies. In its announcement, Disney said it wanted to focus on augmented reality, NFT and Web3 technology in its latest round.
It is extremely encouraging to see a hugely culturally influential company like Disney go into the development of businesses that advocate these themes. Time and time again, we have seen that despite market adversity, major players are still willing to support and develop upcoming projects, a real indicator of the ongoing potential for the sector.
Polygon will benefit from input from a large and mature company that knows how to get the most out of digital and creative media. The company, which provides blockchain technology for building decentralized apps (DApps) and uses the MATIC cryptoasset, has a number of projects in its chain that are already focused on entertainment, sports and games that will benefit greatly from Disney’s input.
Read more: Disney’s Web3 Accelerator Fund invests in Polygon blockchain
UK courts approve NFT lawsuit
Legal documents released last week show that a British judge allowed legal documents to be served as an NFT via blockchain. The event is a tempting glimpse of what NFT technology is capable of beyond digital art, with which it has recently become synonymous.
NFTs hit big in 2021 thanks to large collections such as the Bored Apes Yacht Club (BAYC), which itself created a cryptoactive, Apecoin. However, valuations have been hit hard in the downturn, which makes many question the usefulness or popularity of the technology.
The serving of documents via NFT on the blockchain points to a fascinating area for NFTs that is still little explored. Effectively, everything can be turned into an NFT, be it documents or ownership certificates for everything from real estate to traditional shares. A court that allows this to go on is a fascinating precedent and underlines the fact that space has a lot of potential in the future.
