One of the most significant upgrades to the Ethereum network happened this week. The ‘London Hard Fork’ went live as block number 12,965,000 got added to the blockchain network.
This upgrade is a major step towards making Ethereum deflationary. It promises to make the network more scalable. The London Hard Fork also acts as a prelude to ‘Serenity’ or ETH 2.0, which will likely be live by the end of the year.
The anticipation of the upgrade kept ETH investors on their toes. However, a rally that lasted twelve successive days indicated that the upgrade was well received by the Ethereum community.
The crypto market cap stood at a massive $1.8 trillion as of August 7, 2021, translating into a more than $400 billion jump for the week. The massive rise in trading volumes signaled that the momentum is bullish. Markets have finally managed to reach the highs touched in June.
Crypto adoption into mainstream finance has picked up pace. Even the bearish markets during the past month did not hinder this. Germany has been progressing towards crypto adoption for some time now. They are coming up with ‘Spezialfonds’ that are accessible to institutional investors.
German regulations have allowed these hedge funds to hold 20 per cent of their assets in cryptos. Spezialfonds manage €1.8 trillion worth of assets. If these funds flow into the crypto markets, there is a much larger bull run to come.
The company Ripple, which issues the token XRP, has been engaged in a lawsuit with SEC. This has been taking a toll on the price of XRP for a prolonged time. However, some recent developments indicate that the judgment might be in favor of Ripple. The price of XRP also shot up after investors’ sensed victory.
The crypto markets rose almost linearly over the past week. This will halt at some point. The next week could likely be a period of consolidation for the markets. However, the markets have managed to come out of the grip of the bears and that is a good sign for both the short and long-term investors.
Among the top 10 cryptocurrencies, the best performer for the week has been Uniswap, followed by Polkadot and Ethereum.
Top 5 crypto gainers during the week:
- Voyager token (VGX): 49 per cent up
- Ravencoin (RVN): 46 per cent up
- Internet Computer (ICP): 41 per cent up
- Qtum (QTUM): 40 per cent up
- Elrond (EGLD): 35 per cent up
Top 5 crypto losers this week:
- Amp (AMP): 14 per cent down
- Theta Fuel (TFUEL): 8 per cent down
- Siacoin (SC): 8 per cent down
- Decred (DCR): 8 per cent down
- IOTA (MIOTA): 5 per cent down
(Edul Patel is CEO & Co-founder of Mudrex)