Ethereum price dips further after Vitalik Buterin reveals ETH2.0 transition is only halfway there
Several key aspects related to the highly anticipated ETH2.0 transition — such as sharding implementation — have yet to be carried out.
- Despite the ongoing marketwide bearish trend, Ethereum’s adjusted total value locked (TVL) has only dropped by 17% since November 8.
- Cardano’s newly launched decentralized exchange (DEX) has the network facing various congestion and failed transaction-related issues.
- Ethereum’s gas fee rates continue to hover at their relative highs since Q3 2021.
Staying in line with the overall bearish outlook of the crypto market, Ethereum (ETH) has faced constant trend reversals over the last 21-day stretch. As a result, the altcoin’s monthly losses now stand at a whopping 40%. ETH is currently trading at $2,439.
A host of developments compound the ongoing volatility, particularly the recently concluded Federal Open Market Committee (FOMC) meeting. Chairman Jerome Powell noted that the Fed looks to increase interest rates in the near future. The Ethereum network also faces high transaction fees of around $40, making the ecosystem increasingly more unsuitable for smaller retail clients.
Also, cofounder Vitalik Buterin noted in a recent interview that Ethereum’s highly anticipated upgrade to a proof-of-stake framework — labeled ETH2.0 — was still only halfway done. This information came as a surprise since many expected the transition to conclude by the year’s end.
Over the coming few months, the ecosystem will see improvements made to its “Merge” and “Surge” modules, as well as witness the implementation of a “sharding” mechanism that will allow the platform to become more efficient. That said, Ethereum’s adjusted TVL has only dropped by a little over 15% since the altcoin scaled up to its all-time high of $4,865 last November.
MetisDAO TVL skyrockets as L-2 race heats up
As the global decentralized finance (DeFi) market grows and matures seemingly every passing month, one project witnessing a massive growth in its TVL is MetisDAO.
The platform is designed to serve as a layer-2 roll-up, allowing users to seamlessly switch their biz apps from a Web 2.0 to a Web 3.0 environment. It also enables Ethereum users to significantly lower their incurred gas fee costs and reduce their transaction processing times.
The project has witnessed a growth of nearly 100,000% over just 30 days, especially after it came to light that it had integrated its native operational framework into a wide array of popular DeFi protocols and cross-chain bridges.
Newly launched DEX on Cardano results in network congestion
Cardano recently saw the launch of its first DEX app SundaeSwap, resulting in the price of its cryptocurrency ADA surging by over 50% within a matter of days. However, since going live, SundaeSwap continues to frustrate users by causing the Cardano network to face rising issues of congestion, system errors and failed transactions.
It will be interesting to see how founder Charles Hoskinson and company deal with such problems, especially since Cardano has been hailed by many as a premier alternative to Ethereum.
Interested in cryptocurrency? Learn more about the basics with our beginner’s guide to Bitcoin, dive deeper by learning about Ethereum and see what blockchain can do with our simple guide to DeFi.
Disclosure: The author owns a range of cryptocurrencies at the time of writing.
