Ethers Post-Upgrade Jump Pushes Crypto Limelight’s Bitcoin

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(Bloomberg) – Ether continued to lead the cryptocurrency rally on Friday, taking the limelight from Bitcoin as cryptocurrencies extend their rebound this year.

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The second digital asset gained 2.8% on Friday, at 11:30 a.m. in New York, taking its weekly gains to 11%. Meanwhile, Bitcoin drifted, taking its weekly advance to 7%, as other crypto-related stocks rallied as well.

Crypto investors feared that the so-called Shanghai Ethereum, or Shapella, update could trigger a flood of Ether sales after its redesign this week left users queuing up to withdraw tokens that they had pledged to help operate the network in exchange for rewards a process known as staking. But so far withdrawals have been moderate. Around 874,926 Ether coins await full release, a slice of the more than 17 million Ether tokens locked up for staking, according to data from Nansen.

There was money in reserve to avoid the risk of an upgrade failing, said Leo Mizuhara, founder and CEO of decentralized finance institutional asset management platform Hashnote. I suspect that these people are now coming back, thus increasing the ETH/BTC ratio.

Meanwhile, QCP Capital, a Singapore-based crypto investment firm, noted that the outsized Ether price movement occurred as nearly $50 million in trading positions were liquidated over the course of the year. of the last 24 hours. That’s almost double Bitcoin’s liquidations at around $20 million, according to data from the Coinanalyze site.

With the latest advance, Ether’s 72% year-to-date gains have nearly caught up with Bitcoin’s 83% year-to-date rally. However, both would still need to more than double to fully recover from last year’s $1.5 trillion crash following a series of crypto blowouts and scandals, including the exchange’s bankruptcy. FTX.

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However, expectations of a possible easing of monetary policy by the Federal Reserve, which is pushing speculative investments higher, are helping to propel cryptocurrencies higher this year.

The latest U.S. producer price data was weaker than expected, reinforcing bets that the peak in interest rates is near and cuts will soon follow, QCP Capital wrote. This is supporting risky assets, as also evidenced by the rally in US stocks, he said.

–With the help of Vildana Hajric.

(Updates to include new prices, quotes, and Ether release data)

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