City Shanghai Financial News

As we embark on a pivotal week for the cryptocurrency market, both Bitcoin and Ethereum prices are in the spotlight, with the US Nonfarm Payroll report serving as a key focus for investors. 

Ethereum's native token, Ether (ETH), eyes a run-up toward $3,000 in Q2 2023 after wrapping the previous quarter with 55% gains.

Disclaimer: The datasets shared in the following article have been compiled from a set of online resources and do not reflect AMBCrypto’s own research on the subject.

The number of Ethereum [ETH] validators from the beginning of 2023 to the end of the first quarter (Q1) rose by over 67,000. According to ETH 2.0 block explorer BeaconScan , the validator count was 495,024 on 2 January. However, the figure had increased to 562,236 as of 1 April.

cryptocurrency market experienced a significant surge, with Bitcoin leading the charge and gaining over 30%. The rally can be attributed to several factors, including a massive short squeeze, a billion-dollar buy by Binance, the Fed's response to the banking crisis, and news on Ethereum's upcoming update. Over $300 million in leveraged BTC short positions were liquidated, resulting in over $300 million in buying pressure for BTC. This is a substantial amount during a bear market when it doesn't take nearly as much money to move prices up or down. The rally was also helped by the fact that Binance turned $1 billion worth of BUSD into BTC, ETH, BNB, and other unnamed cryptocurrencies. Another factor is the official announcement of the Ethereum Shanghai hard fork update date (April 12), which will allow users to withdraw their staked ETH and is expected to stimulate Ethereum market demand. Institutional investors are expected to find ETH more appealing because they love yield, and the ability to earn a yield on what is effectively the next network for payments is an attractive prospect. It is believed that many institutions were hesitant to stake ETH because it wasn't possible to unstake, but this will change with Shanghai, and millions, if not billions, of dollars could flow into ETH in the days and weeks that follow. BTC is also considered sensitive to changes in money supply, and as such, many have argued that the increase in the size of the Fed's balance sheet is the key driver of the rally.

Ahead of the 12 April completion of the Shanghai upgrade, Ethereum [ETH] has taken the mantle as the blockchain with the most active developers in the Layer one (L1) and Layer Two (L2) ecosystems.

The Ethereum Foundation has announced April 12 as the date of deployment of the much-anticipated Shanghai and Capella upgrade, together dubbed as Shapella.

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For the past twelve days, the price of Ether (ETH) has been trading in a narrow descending range. Surprisingly, not even the news of Binance and Changpeng "CZ" Zhao being sued by the Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC) was enough to break the support level. 

With about two weeks left until the Shanghai-Capella hard fork, Ethereum’s [ETH] supply has continued to diminish. According to Delphi Digital, the altcoin’s supply has fallen off by 70,000 ETH since it transitioned to the Proof-of-Stake (PoS) consensus mechanism.

Binance CEO Changpeng "CZ" Zhao and other senior executives have been for years concealing the crypto exchange ties with China, according to documents obtained by the Financial Times.

The price of Ethereum has gained by 5.5% in the past 24 hours, on a day when the cryptocurrency market appears to have shaken off the jitters caused by the CFTC charging Binance with a variety of compliance violations.

On March 28, Ethereum core developers confirmed the Shapella upgrade would take effect at 10:27 pm UTC on April 12. According to the announcement, Ethereum Improvement Proposal (EIP) 4895 will allow withdrawals after moving the staked Ether (ETH) from the Beacon Chain to the Ethereum Virtual Machine (EVM) — the execution layer. This will allow full and partial withdrawals with some mechanisms set in place to make sure that a flood of ETH will not disrupt the market.

Hong Kong officials plan to host a meeting between crypto companies and bankers in an attempt to ease financing for the sector as the city pushes toward becoming a global crypto hub.

For the third straight week, Ethereum [ETH] investment products failed to attract the purses of digital asset investors, CoinShares’ 27 March report revealed .

On March 27, European cryptocurrency investment firm CoinShares published its “Digital Asset Fund Flows Report,” which revealed that digital assets continue to attract investors' attention as concerns over the stability of traditional finance (TradFi) continues to grow. 

Ahead of the 12 April date set for the Shanghai Upgrade, on-chain data revealed a gradual decline in Ether [ETH] holdings for whales that hold between 10,000 to 1,000,000 ETH coins.

Chinese state-owned banks have reportedly proven to surprise supporters of cryptocurrency companies by setting up shops in Hong Kong.

China’s state-owned banks are offering services to local cryptocurrency companies in Hong Kong as the city embraces a more friendly regulatory stance. 

Crypto firms setting up in Hong Kong ahead of a new licensing regime for crypto exchanges in June have reportedly found some unexpected allies in the region — Chinese state-owned banks.

The Ethereum network’s next major upgrade dubbed Shanghai is less than a month away. Major network upgrades usually attract some investor interest days before the actual date of the event. Now, the question is- Will the same scenario play out for ETH?