The cost of transactions on the Ethereum Network far exceeded the average of the previous days. The EIP reducing gas consumption will arrive in July, along with the London update.

After the Berlin hard fork of the Ethereum network, gas consumption from transactions increased sharply. On the day of the update, the costs remained below 100 gwei. However, the next day, the price of gas reached a cap of 276 gwei.

This situation has led to many complaints from various users. For example, a transaction with a gas price of 276 gwei could cost about 0.0058 ETH (around USD 14), according to Ethereum Price.

At the time of writing this article, the average fees are at 138 gwei (around USD 7.10), according to Gas Tracker. Previously, the Metamask wallet suggested a fee of USD 14.95 for transfers in average time. That is well above the previous benchmark of USD 3, according to user reports.

The increases are not necessarily a consequence of the Berlin update. They could be due to a saturation of the network by massive purchases of Ether and transfers to private wallets. The recent rise in the price of the cryptocurrency seems to support this theory.

The Berlin hard fork seeks to achieve better management of the gas used to conduct transactions on Ethereum. However, this would only be possible in the medium term.

The current update on the network will lead to a “higher” one, called “London”, which should occur in mid-2021. That fork will include the Ethereum EIP-1559 upgrade proposal. This protocol directly addresses the issue of gas consumption from transactions.

Berlin was originally scheduled to occur in June 2020, but it had to be postponed for several months. Drawbacks relating to the centralization of the Geth client, in which most of the Ethereum nodes operate, led to this situation.

At the time of launching the hard fork, several users even reported failures. During the first hours, the synchronization in the Open Ethereum client experienced setbacks.

After the Berlin Update, Addressing High fees Is Still a Pending Task

The Berlin hard fork occurred at the height of block 12,244,000 of the Ethereum mainnet. This update seeks to improve the network’s performance and contracts, as well as increase security and reduce operating costs.

For that reason, Berlin incorporated four Ethereum improvement proposals (EIP). EIP-2565 aims to improve the ModExp (modular exponentiation) pre-compiled contract algorithm, which would lower costs.

EIP-2929 increases gas consumption in the first transaction to activate storage access codes. Such codes include Sload, Call, Balance, Ext, and Selfdestruct. According to experts, this activation is necessary to prevent DDoS attacks.

The two remaining protocols that Berlin will incorporate are EIP-2718 and EIP-2930. The former will serve to standardize and encompass different types of transactions on the network. The latter will allow programming a future transaction through “templates” created from EIP-2718. The objective of this transaction is to use a rate lower than that of EIP-2929.

By Alexander Salazar

With the burn of BNB, the exchange seeks to make BNB deflationary. The total BNB in circulation decreased by 0.65%.

Cryptocurrency exchange Binance recently burned 1,099,888 units of its native asset Binance Coin (BNB). That amount is equivalent to nearly USD 500 million at the time of writing this article.

This is the 15^th quarterly burn of BNB that Binance has conducted to date. The cryptocurrency exchange has burned 15.3% of its total supply, which is 200 million tokens.

When Binance launched BNB in 2017, they announced that they would burn a total of 100 million units of their cryptocurrency. In other words, they would get rid of half the coins in circulation. With this practice, they seek that the asset is deflationary and its price increases. They hope that demand will increase along with their scarcity.

The Price of BNB in the Future Will Make People Understand the Reasons for Its Burn

“With the recent burning, the total supply of BNB has officially decreased from 170,535,825 BNB to 169,432,937 BNB,” according to a post by Changpeng Zhao.

The CEO of Binance considers that “the burn of a token achieves the same economic effects as an airdrop”. He explains that this way it is not necessary to conduct “so many transactions on the blockchain” so that there is “a more uniform distribution”. Besides, he states that “the price of the cryptocurrency will eventually make people understand” the reasons for the burning of BNB.

Binance is not the only cryptocurrency exchange that has burned its native token. For example, the Stellar Foundation decided to burn 50% of its native toke Lumens (XLM) in circulation at the end of 2019.

This Has Been the Largest Burn of Binance Coin in Terms of US Dollars

This has been the largest burn of BNB in history in terms of US dollars. However, there have been bigger ones in terms of Binance Coin. For example, more than 3.5 million BNB (then equivalent to about USD 165 million) ceased to exist in the 14^th burn.

In recent months, the price of the cryptocurrency has experienced a considerable increase, which explains this apparent contradiction.

The exchange’s CEO attributes this increase in BNB’s price to several factors. These include the increased use of the Binance Smart Chain (which uses BNB as its native token), Coinbase’s listing on Nasdaq, and the bullish market.

According to Traders, It Is Best to “Buy at the Rumor and Sell at the News”

Until now, each burn of the Binance Coin token has led to an increase in the price of the cryptocurrency a few days earlier. After the destruction of coins, it has dropped for a few days to finally regain the bullish trend.

In the case of this crypto asset, traders could follow the advice to “buy at the rumor and sell at the news.”

At the time of writing this article, each BNB is trading at USD 520. Its all-time price occurred on April 12^th, when it reached USD 637. Binance Coin is the third cryptocurrency according to its market capitalization, which currently exceeds USD 79,400 million.

By Alexander Salazar

The government entity reported that the measure would begin its application from April 30, 2021. The decision appears a few days after the removal of the president of the Central Bank of Turkey.

During the currency crisis that Turkey has been facing for a few months, the Central Bank of that country chose to forbid bitcoins (BTC).

The regulation, which has six articles, appeared in the Official Gazette of the issuing entity this Friday, April 16, under No. 31456. The document prohibits the use of cryptocurrencies and digital assets to make payments for purchases and services.

The standard says in Article 1 that its primary purpose is to detect the procedures and principles relating to the non-use of cryptographic assets in payments, the provision of payment services, and the direct or indirect use of cryptographic assets issuance of money.

The statement also includes the prohibition of bitcoin use in the payment performance of electronic money institutions, which could serve as the mediator in the platforms that provide trading, storage, transfer, or export services related to cryptographic assets or transfer funds.

The ban adds that recently the President of that nation, Recep Tayyip Erdogan, removed the Central Bank of Turkey President, Naci Agbal, who was only a few months in office, raising the key interest rate by two points, up to 19%. This action is an attempt to control the high inflation that is currently affecting that country.

Cryptocurrency Adoption in Turkey Could Decline

The government’s announcement could stall the cryptocurrency market in Turkey, which has gained momentum in recent months as a host of institutional investors joined the global bitcoin comeback.

The pioneering cryptocurrency gained popularity among Turks amid an economic crisis sparked by the devaluation of the local currency – the lire. According to the study shared by this media outlet, already in 2019, one in five Turks owned or had ever used cryptocurrencies.

More recently, the country’s citizens have been more interested in cryptocurrencies as a store of value. In March 2021, bitcoin was trading above its market value in that nation, while the local inflation index reached 16% in the third month of the current year.

The Central Bank’s decision came to effect when many businesses in the country were also beginning to adjust their payments with cryptocurrencies. The firm Royal Motors, which distributes Rolls-Royce cars in Turkey, became the first company of its kind in that nation to accept payments with bitcoins.

Some Economies Intend to Create Effective Regulations on Bitcoin

Although regulations on cryptocurrencies are not standard, they face a series of controls that want to apply their effects in many countries, as noted by Dan Larime, after announcing his decision to resign as CTO of Block. one.

Turkey is not the only land that forbids the use of cryptocurrencies. Countries like Nigeria banned BTC transactions last February. For its part, India circulated a bill with similar ban plans the previous year, which advanced to a regulatory statement this year.

By: Jenson Nuñez

Canada announced the approval of the world’s first Ethereum ETF two months after it approved the first ETF in America. Dogecoin saw a dramatic increase in its market capitalization and had twice as many transfers as Ether.

After reaching a new all-time high of USD 2,540, it looks as though Ethereum will have its first exchange-traded fund (ETF). It is public knowledge that Canada approved the first Ethereum ETF in history.

In recent days, Canadian regulators approved the first physically-backed Ethereum ETF. Toronto-based company Purpose Investments announced that it will launch its first Ethereum-based product upon approval.

Earlier this year, Purpose Investments became the first Canadian company to receive approval to launch a Bitcoin exchange-traded fund. America’s first Bitcoin ETF, called the Purpose Bitcoin ETF, debuted on the Toronto Stock Exchange (“TSX”) in February.

The approval of the world’s first Ethereum ETF comes just over two months after that of Purpose Bitcoin ETF, which held 10,064 BTC. Meanwhile, requests for approvals of Bitcoin ETFs in the United States have been piling up. Many hope that the new chairman of the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) Gary Gensler will help approve the new investment product.

Dogecoin Whales Move USD 12 Billion Daily, Double that of Ethereum

Dogecoin (DOGE) saw a dramatic rise in market cap rankings, coinciding with the awakening of DOGE whales. At the same time, blockchain metrics rose to new heights in just 24 hours.

There were transfers worth more than USD 12 billion in DOGE through the blockchain in one day, according to data from BitInfoCharts. In that same period, the Ethereum Blockchain only processed USD 6 billion worth of Ether.

Ether is the second-largest cryptocurrency by market capitalization and its blockchain is the most developed in the world. For its part, Dogecoin is a meme coin created as a joke that has no active developers. Its creator himself sold all his coins during a period of unemployment.

Just one address contains 28% of the total Dogecoin supply while 11 addresses account for 46%. This did not go unnoticed by Tesla CEO Elon Musk, who said that he would support the cryptocurrency. He made it a condition that the main holders sell most of their coins.

DeFi Tokens Rise in Price and CRV Points to a High Yield

Multiple metrics indicate a bullish market approaching the DeFi space. However, the most promising thing seems to be the increase in the price of Curve’s governance token CRV.

Curve, one of the “backbone” protocols of DeFi, is an essential tool for many retail and protocol-level high-yielding strategies.

This token allows trading between different stablecoins such as Dai, USD Coin (USDC), and Tether (USDT). Additionally, users who deposit liquidity in Curve pools get trading fees as the issuance of governance token CRV as a reward.

Consequently, the protocol is the seventh-largest by total value (with USD 6.49 billion active) that the DeFiLlama tracker has blocked. On top of that, it works as the primary return-yielding protocol that yield vaults like Yearn.finance take advantage of.

By Alexander Salazar

The initiative is in response to the high demand for bitcoin and its use. A working group made up of experts in the field will team up to evaluate the proposal.

The adoption of bitcoin (BTC) and other cryptocurrencies in the City of Miami continues to grow. Miami-Dade County Commissioner Danielle Cohen Higgins presented a proposal for city authorities to accept cryptocurrencies as payment for taxes, fees, and services.

In a resolution published on April 15, Cohen Higgins believes that paying taxes with cryptocurrencies “deserves an evaluation” for its potential to “save costs.”

According to the document, the initiative is in response to the high demand for bitcoin and crypto assets by citizens and large retailers such as AT&T, Microsoft, Overstock, and Home Depot, which started accepting digital currencies as a safe form of payment.

The official explained that the initiative deserves an additional study on these systems’ cost, viability, and security before adopting any of these new methods.

In this sense, it also proposes creating a working group, which would lead to evaluating various points. The first of them, study the chances for that citizens to pay taxes, services, and fees in cryptocurrencies.

Second, identify any costs concerning the adoption of cryptocurrencies. Finally, the task force will need to make suggestions on other cryptocurrency-related policy initiatives to benefit Miami-Dade County.

Cohen Higgins believes that each working group member should have at least five years of experience in cryptocurrencies, finance, banking, business development, or cybersecurity. Also, the group must bring priority to inclusive policies, representing the gender, race, ethnicity, and culture of the people who live in the county.

With the recommendations collected by the “working group,” the final proposal must face a delivery within 180 days after its initial meeting.

Bitcoin Users Criticize the Proposal

Some cryptocurrency users with the highest market capitalization have raised serious concerns and critics against Commissioner Danielle Cohen Higgins’s proposal in social networks.

The user @realcryptojo, a self-described crypto enthusiast, also expressed himself on the social network: «Don’t do it, it’s a scam to steal your bitcoins. Make hodl and pay for that shit in worthless fiat money. “

Miami Mayor Francis Suárez has Pushed for Bitcoin Adoption in the City

Suarez expressed, back in 2020, that he would consider putting 1% of the mayor’s treasury in bitcoin. Suarez has teamed up with influential figures like the Gemini founders to discuss the cryptocurrency situation in Miami.

Also, Suarez came to say that there are several chances to make Miami a bitcoin-friendly city if it has the “leadership and advice” of the twins.

According to a study by the tax software company CoinTracker, published last year and reviewed by this medium, Miami is among the 20 cities in the United States with the highest average users of crypto assets.

By: Jenson Nuñez