Ethereum's upgrade is finally complete 📈; Affirm + Stripe is a brilliant illustration of why ecosystems are crucial in FinTech 🕸; Coinbase considers Bitcoin Lightning Network integration ⚡️
FinTech is Eating the World, 14 April
Hey Everyone,
Good morning! Due to a heavy workload, we’re finishing off the week on Saturday. But today’s issue is especially exciting as it focuses on Ethereum’s Shanghai upgrade (aka Shapella) which is finally complete (why it matters & what’s ahead), Affirm & Stripe partnership that shows why ecosystems are crucial in FinTech (+ what’s the only proper way of growth for BNPL), and Coinbase that considers Bitcoin Lighting integration (this is yet another good move from them!). Let’s jump straight into the spicy stuff 🌶
Ethereum's upgrade is finally complete 📈
The news 🗞 Ethereum’s Shanghai upgrade (aka Shapella) is complete. This means validators now have the freedom to withdraw their staked ETH if they so wish.
Some have had their crypto locked away since December 2020.
More on this 👉 The latest figures from Nansen suggest that 93,300 ETH has been withdrawn over the past 24 hours — that's barely 0.5% of what has been sent to the deposit contract. So far, this is highly unlikely to have a detrimental impact on Ether's price.
ETH surged by 6.3% in intraday trading as the markets digested the news, with $2,000 proving somewhat elusive. Yet, at the point of writing Ether is trading at over $2,000.
✈️ THE TAKEAWAY
What’s next? 🤔 Shapella is one among other top priorities for Ethereum that are focused on making the blockchain more scalable and reducing transaction fees. As noted earlier, this is a pretty huge development and ETH has too much upside potential to ignore. Despite the strong momentum as of late, the second-biggest cryptocurrency is still down more than 50% from its ATH in November last year. However, the fact that we’re starting to see a sustained period of ETH being deflationary AND given the new upgrades are about to be implemented, it is very becoming very interesting. If these and other post-Merge promises will continue to be delivered, we might indeed start seeing the emergence of the ultimate Internet Money. More thoughts here: