Summary
- ned consistency in winning institutional investment.
- ETH’s dominance in NFTs and interoperability are working in its favor.
ETH prices gained 3.3% in 24 hours to trade at $1,679 at the time of going to press. In a week that has seen the crypto-market facing a correction of some sort, Ether went as high as $1,720 at some point during the day and signaled a possible return to a steady ascent.
Securing the network and enhancing efficiency
The live launch of Optimism’s mainnet that was scheduled for March has been postponed. The blockchain startup has roughly estimated to launch its main network in July. Optimism stated in a blog post that they had to reschedule the launch of its Optimistic Rollup-based Ethereum scaling solution to allow ample preparation by the Ethereum community.
Optimism noted that it was unsafe to rush into Layer 2 uncoordinated, with inadequate community preparation. The developers foresaw a possible risk of decentralized applications getting attacked by antagonists with the intent to defraud users.
Optimism added that ready and stable ecosystems were the prerequisites for launching the mainnet. The company initiated the Optimistic Rollup in June 2019. The aim of pioneering the roll-up was to help unburden the massive amounts of transactions in the Ethereum network.
In another development, a pioneering instrument, Ethbox (EBOX), has developed a security solution for crypto-transactions. The project is to be hosted on the DuckStarter platform, using EBOX’s native token to protect users from making bad transactions. The functionality has been available from March 25th, 2021.
According to the project’s white paper, DuckDao activists will be entitled to a special discount under the program. Activists holding 10 DDIM tokens or those holding 1,000 DUCK tokens will save 10% on service fees. On the other hand, “whales” with 200,000 DUCK or those with 10,000 DDIM will benefit from a service fees discount of 25%.
NFT boom and institutional wins
Ethereum’s hold on the Non-Fungible Tokens (NFT) has firmly been established and is on the rise. According to a report published on Tuesday by CoinMetrics, the total of Ethereum (ERC – 721) smart contracts, which forms the pillar of the majority of the non-fungible tokens (NFTs) on the blockchain, is at a new all-time, succeeding the current NFT boom.
The ERC – 721 is Ethereum’s NFT creation platform. As per the report, ERC-721 smart contract numbers have hit historic highs of about 19,000. The NFT boom has gripped the market, and Ethereum’s dominance in the segment will certainly propel ETH prices higher.
Ethereum also continues to attract institutional interest. In the latest development, Coinbase Institutional has revealed that Chinese tech company, Meitu recently acquired $28.4 million worth of Ether. This follows an earlier acquisition at the beginning of March when the company bought $22 million worth of the crypto-asset. Meitu, which manufactures smartphones and develops apps, seems to hold a bullish view of the market, with the company also having purchased $39.5 worth of Bitcoin during the same period.
In another significant gain for Ethereum, the platform has gotten support from a Blockchain as a Service (BaaS) platform, Stratis. The program is geared towards mainstreaming global blockchain services to make them accessible to businesses. The project will also incorporate Hyperledger.
Stratis has already enabled interoperability with Ethereum. Ultimately, with the enhanced acquisition of blockchain services by businesses, firms will be able to access the millions of users on Ethereum’s network.
Technical analysis
The Relative Strength Index is at 48 and has assumed an ascending trajectory. Ether will find the first support at $1,571 and the second one at $1,619. A push by the bulls will drive the price towards the first resistance level at $1,701. A break past this point will go as far as the second resistance level at $1,781.
