Yahoo Finance Ethereum posts lukewarm response to 'Shanghai upgrade' — The Crypto Mile Weekly Update
Watch: Ethereum gains tail wind ahead of 'Shanghai upgrade' — The Crypto Mile weekly update
Ethereum posted a lukewarm response to this week's successful test of the blockchain's upcoming Shanghai upgrade.
The test was dubbed a "shadow fork" and focused on some of the changes that need to happen before the Shanghai Upgrade in March — the next upgrade of Ethereum since September's "merge" to a proof of stake blockchain.
This week's The Crypto Mile Weekly Update reports on the steady climb of bitcoin (BTC-USD) and ethereum (ETH-USD) since the beginning of 2023.
The global cryptocurrency market cap today stands at $1.06tn (£860bn), a drop of 2.7% in the last 24 hours, according to data from Coingecko.
Trading analysts are expecting a dovish response to falling inflation from Jerome Powell, chair of the US Federal Reserve.
Read more: How crypto fell to earth in 2022: Eight charts that tell the story of a cruel crash
This has lifted tech stocks, and cryptocurrencies such as ethereum and bitcoin have also reacted positively, with the number of addresses holding the two biggest cryptocurrencies continuing to grow.
Bitcoin has flirted with the $23,000 mark, up 7% in the last seven days to $22,623 (£18,361).
Ethereum had a more lukewarm response with a fall of 1.3% in the last week to $1,549.
Bitcoin and ethereum have both made bear market rallies since the start of the year, posting figures not seen since August 2022. The rise suggests the bankruptcy of of crypto-lender Genesis was already priced in.
'Next generation' memecoin Dejitaru Tsuka (TSUKA-USD), rumoured to be the new creation of Shiba Inu (SHIB-USD) founder Ryoshi, has risen 26.41% in the last week, its market cap edging towards $70m.
Dejitaru Tsuka is now priced at $0.07, edging slowly towards the psychological 10 cent mark throughout January.
The significance of the Shanghai Upgrade
The Shanghai Upgrade will allow ether "stakers" — those who lock their funds to make the network function — to withdraw their staked ETH.
This is a relief to many stakers who experienced anxiety throughout the last quarter of 2022 when the price of the cryptocurrency was sent into a downward spiral after the collapse of the FTX exchange.
Ethereum's core developers have deployed the first mainnet shadow fork designed to test the readiness of ETH staking withdrawal capability.
This feature is projected to be in operation by March, and will free up $26bn worth of ether staked on the Ethereum mainnet, which is the world's largest smart contract network.
