It has already passed 85% of the time since the previous halving in May 2020.

<h3 class="PlaygroundEditorTheme__h3">In Brief</h3><ul class="PlaygroundEditorTheme__ul"><li value="1" class="PlaygroundEditorTheme__listItem">It has already passed 85% of the time since the previous halving in May 2020.</li><li value="2" class="PlaygroundEditorTheme__listItem">The next Bitcoin halving is scheduled for mid-April 2024.</li><li value="3" class="PlaygroundEditorTheme__listItem">76% of BTC supply is held by long-term holders (LTHs) - nearly the all-time high of 2015.</li><li value="4" class="PlaygroundEditorTheme__listItem">PROMO</li></ul>The cryptocurrency market is entering a very interesting phase.&nbsp;<a href="https://beincrypto.com/learn/what-is-bitcoin-halving/" target="_blank" class="PlaygroundEditorTheme__link">Bitcoin halving</a>, which is expected to take place in mid-2024, is an event that is increasingly capturing the imagination of investors. However, if history rhymes, a mature bull market will not begin until next year at the earliest.According to the latest data, Bitcoin halving is already 85% complete. At the same time,&nbsp;<a href="https://beincrypto.com/long-term-btc-holder-pattern-cycles/" target="_blank" class="PlaygroundEditorTheme__link">supply held by long-term holders</a>&nbsp;(LTHs) is close to its all-time high (ATH). In previous cycles, this was a signal of the vicinity of a macro bottom, followed by the early phase of a new cycle.<h2 class="PlaygroundEditorTheme__h2">Supply Held by Long-Term Holders Approaches ATH</h2>The indicator of BTC supply in the hands of long-term holders has historically been a good measure of the health of the cryptocurrency market. Historically, this metric has negatively correlated with the long-term price action of the largest cryptocurrency.Long-term&nbsp;<a href="https://beincrypto.com/learn/the-ultimate-guide-on-the-best-hardware-wallets-in-2020/" target="_blank" class="PlaygroundEditorTheme__link">hodlers</a>&nbsp;keep (HODL) their assets unmoved during market bottoms. Moreover, the largest supply increase in LTH’s hands occurs during violent bear markets (red arrows). This is when investors with strong hands, seeing the price of BTC plummeting, are reluctant to sell. They hold on to their coins because they believe that the cryptocurrency market will bounce back in the future and their investment will prove profitable.In contrast, the opposite is true during an unraveling bull market. The surge in BTC price causes LTHs to become more and more willing to sell their assets at a profit. Historically, during each major bull market, we have witnessed a dramatic drop in supply held by LTHs. Naturally, the coins then move into the hands of short-term holders (STHs), who join the market at a late stage, driven by the desire to make a quick profit.SponsoredSponsoredCryptocurrency analyst&nbsp;<a href="https://twitter.com/therationalroot" target="_blank" rel="nofollow external noopener" class="PlaygroundEditorTheme__link">@therationalroot</a>&nbsp;published a chart of Bitcoin supply in the hands of long-term holders on X. He also superimposed each halving Bitcoin on his drawing. In his chart, we notice first of all the fact that currently, the BTC supply ratio in the hands of LTHs is close to its ATH near 76%. This was set at the end of 2015 when the BTC price ended the accumulation phase before the second halving.<img class="PlaygroundEditorTheme__image editor-image" src="https://s32659.pcdn.co/wp-content/uploads/2023/09/1_Bitcoin_halving_LTH_BTC_supply.jpg.webp" alt="Supply held by Long-Term Holders" width="inherit" height="inherit">BTC Supply held by Long-Term Holders /&nbsp;<a href="https://twitter.com/therationalroot/status/1703480437778141223" target="_blank" rel="nofollow external noopener" class="PlaygroundEditorTheme__link">Source: X</a>We then see that each time, the indicator reached the peak of a given cycle several months before Bitcoin halving (green circles) occurred. Then, after this local peak, the supply in the hands of LTHs gradually declined and headed sideways until several months after the next halving. It wasn’t until about 6 months after this event that there was a strong decline in this metric, and cryptocurrencies entered a mature bull market.<h2 class="PlaygroundEditorTheme__h2">Bitcoin Halving is 85% Complete</h2>The analyst above also published another chart showing Bitcoin’s halving percentage progress. It compares the time periods between the historical halving of the previous 3 cycles.According to @therationalroot, the current Bitcoin halving is already 85% complete. Moreover, the relatively small 15% cycle-end periods were characterized by similar BTC price action sideways. On both occasions – in 2016 and 2020 – the price of the largest cryptocurrency remained similar.SponsoredSponsoredThe difference is that 2 cycles ago, Bitcoin experienced a sideways trend with an upward bias. In the previous cycle, on the other hand, the black swan caused by the COVID-19 crash gave investors an additional opportunity. They could take an attractive position right before the planned halving.<img class="PlaygroundEditorTheme__image editor-image" src="https://s32659.pcdn.co/wp-content/uploads/2023/09/2_Twitter_BTC_halving.png.webp" alt="Bitcoin halving progress" width="inherit" height="inherit">Bitcoin halving /&nbsp;<a href="https://twitter.com/therationalroot/status/1705227041233043494" target="_blank" rel="nofollow external noopener" class="PlaygroundEditorTheme__link">Source: X</a>If history were to repeat itself, then – in the grand scheme of things – the cryptocurrency market could face a roughly one-year sideways trend. Bitcoin halving,&nbsp;<a href="https://buybitcoinworldwide.com/halving/" target="_blank" rel="nofollow external noopener" class="PlaygroundEditorTheme__link">scheduled for mid-April 2024</a>, may not immediately impact the price of BTC. Its effects may become apparent only in the last quarter of 2024 and throughout 2025.This prediction is in line with the trends seen on the chart of supply held by long-term holders. The indicator is currently approaching the ATH. It will also need about 12 months to reverse its trend and move into a distribution phase. When LTHs start selling after Bitcoin halves, it will be one of the first signals of the beginning of a cryptocurrency bull run.

Bitcoin Halving 85% Complete, with Supply Held by Long-Term Holders Close to ATH

The history of cryptocurrency can trace its origins back to the opulence of the 1980s, a time when finance culture was glamorized in movies such as Trading Places and Wall Street.

BITCOIN

A Visual Analysis Of 10 Years Of Dead Crypto Coins

Staking is currently one of the largest segments of the DeFi market, with Liquid Staking Protocol Lido’s TVL at the top.

ReStaking

DeFi

What is ReStaking? Potential Projects In ReStaking

<blockquote class="PlaygroundEditorTheme__quote">Bankless Writer:&nbsp;<a href="https://twitter.com/JackInabinet?ref_src=twsrc%5Egoogle%7Ctwcamp%5Eserp%7Ctwgr%5Eauthor&amp;ref=bankless.ghost.io" class="PlaygroundEditorTheme__link">Jack Inabinet</a>&nbsp;&amp;&nbsp;<a href="https://twitter.com/BenGiove?ref=bankless.ghost.io" class="PlaygroundEditorTheme__link">Ben Giove</a></blockquote>Memecoin fever is spreading!A new token type, known as the BRC-20, is captivating degens and providing an Ethereum-like shitcoining experience on Bitcoin. It is built using the Ordinals protocol, which recently gained popularity in its own right for&nbsp;<a href="https://www.bankless.com/how-to-mint-a-bitcoin-nft-2?ref=bankless.ghost.io" class="PlaygroundEditorTheme__link">bringing NFTs to Bitcoin</a>.Today, we’re diving into everything BRC-20, from basic definitions to trending tokens, while dissecting the on-chain carnage this experiment has wrought.&nbsp;Surprise: not everyone is happy about it...&nbsp;Then, we discuss where we see the state of the BRC-20 market headed and why this mania is no different from those that came before.<h3 class="PlaygroundEditorTheme__h3">🚸 New Kid on the Block</h3>Bitcoin’s latest experiment to piss off purists (more on this later) takes its namesake from Ethereum’s ERC-20 token standard and is the brainchild of&nbsp;<a href="https://twitter.com/domodata/status/1634247606262964228?ref=bankless.ghost.io" class="PlaygroundEditorTheme__link">Domo</a>, a self-proclaimed “terminally on-chain Dune Wizard.”BRC-20s use Ordinal inscriptions of JSON data to create what is essentially a&nbsp;fungible NFT collection.&nbsp;While this grand experiment has produced a fungible ERC-20 style token, its use cases are fairly narrow.Unlike their ERC-20 cousins which can be used as collateral in a variety of dApps on Ethereum, BRC-20s are limited to mint and transfer functions. In the absence of Bitcoin-native decentralized exchange solutions, asset sales can be accomplished on-chain via escrow or emblem vault functions.At contract deployment, anyone can mint BRC-20 tokens for free (plus transaction fees) in increments specified by the token contract – asset issuances cannot be pre-mined. Despite hype around the token type, the Project’s&nbsp;<a href="https://domo-2.gitbook.io/brc-20-experiment/?ref=bankless.ghost.io" class="PlaygroundEditorTheme__link">whitepaper</a>&nbsp;notes that Taproot-enabled issuance of assets on Bitcoin is not a novel concept and cites&nbsp;<a href="https://docs.lightning.engineering/the-lightning-network/taro?ref=bankless.ghost.io" class="PlaygroundEditorTheme__link">Taro Protocol</a>&nbsp;as providing an “unequivocally better solution.”<h3 class="PlaygroundEditorTheme__h3">🌝 BRC-20s Moon</h3>The total market cap of BRC-20s has soared over the past several weeks, exploding 3441% from $17.5M on April 25 to $619.7M on May 9. Many individual BRC-20s have experienced parabolic runs in conjunction with this move.<img class="PlaygroundEditorTheme__image editor-image" src="https://bankless.ghost.io/content/images/2023/05/data-src-image-074c5bc4-3faf-4770-919c-977021db60aa.png" alt="" width="1600" height="556">ORDI/USD - Source:&nbsp;<a href="https://brc-20.io/token?n=ordi&amp;ref=bankless.ghost.io" class="PlaygroundEditorTheme__link">brc-20.io</a>For instance, ORDI, the first and largest BRC-20 with a market-cap of $434M has mooned 2357% during this period from $0.75 to $18.43. Since April 2, ORDI has surged an astounding 18,330% and has begun to be listed on centralized exchanges like Gate.io.Other BRC-20s have delivered similarly exponential returns for holders. Tokens like PEPE, MEME, and MOON have all rallied more than 2000% over the past month.<h3 class="PlaygroundEditorTheme__h3">🚘 BTC Rush Hour</h3>The BRC-20 frenzy has caused chaos in the Bitcoin fee markets.BTC fees have reached their highest levels since April 2021, with the average fee per transaction spiking, currently at roughly $31.<img class="PlaygroundEditorTheme__image editor-image" src="https://bankless.ghost.io/content/images/2023/05/data-src-image-07b12405-c4a4-4a66-bca2-0249f73b369c.png" alt="" width="1600" height="362">Average BTC Transaction Fee - Source:&nbsp;<a href="https://bitinfocharts.com/comparison/bitcoin-transactionfees.html?ref=bankless.ghost.io#3y" class="PlaygroundEditorTheme__link">BitInfoCharts</a>In total, Bitcoin has generated more than $49M in transaction fees over the past week as the BRC-20 craze has intensified. Between that and blockspace rewards, miners have generated more than $204M in revenue during this period.For reference, this weekly revenue is the highest since May 2022.This surge in demand for blockspace has led to massive congestion on the network. There are currently more than 411,000 pending transactions in the mempool.Congestion has also had ramifications in the centralized crypto universe. Binance was forced to halt withdrawals on two separate occasions between May 6-7, and is now&nbsp;<a href="https://twitter.com/binance/status/1655419624962527233?s=20&amp;ref=bankless.ghost.io" class="PlaygroundEditorTheme__link">prioritizing</a>&nbsp;implementation of Lightning withdrawals to provide alternative escape routes for users.<h3 class="PlaygroundEditorTheme__h3">👮 Fun Police</h3>Speculators are busy throwing it all on red at the meme casino, meanwhile, individuals who had adopted crypto systems for real world use – particularly those in Latin America, Africa, and Asia – must now compete against these degens for blockspace.Providing both an alternative store of value to inflationary local currencies and financial services for the unbanked have long been two of Bitcoin’s most potent value propositions. Spiking transaction fees pose a major hurdle to adoption among fee-sensitive individuals with lower incomes – the group standing to benefit the most from alternative currencies and financial systems.Activists are decrying the BRC-20 craze as the root cause of congestion, and some observers have gone as far as to&nbsp;<a href="https://twitter.com/francispouliot_/status/1654939892852432896?s=20&amp;ref=bankless.ghost.io" class="PlaygroundEditorTheme__link">claim</a>&nbsp;that BRC-20 adoption is akin to a DDoS attack on the Bitcoin network.While it's certainly unfortunate that Bitcoin fees have reached elevated levels limiting certain users' ability to transact on-chain, this is the reality of publicly available, commoditized blockspace. These transactions, as stupid and meaningless as they may appear to some, are perfectly valid uses of Bitcoin blockspace.Blockchains have yet to see significant adoption and the notion that the future of consumer finance is carried out on the Layer-1 base is laughable. Layer-1 networks alone, be it Bitcoin or Ethereum,&nbsp;will not&nbsp;provide enough blockspace to obtain scale required by the next generation of financial primitives.Rather than fight against present fee increases (a relatively minor blip when considering exponential increases in future adoption) by attacking specific use cases, we must instead focus our attention on establishing credibly decentralized scaling solutions to handle the load.<h3 class="PlaygroundEditorTheme__h3">📉Familiar Fate</h3>Like their Ethereum-based memecoin cousins, demand for BRC-20s will be fleeting over the long term. Their price will not be an upwards grind, but rather a series of blow-off tops:&nbsp;these instruments are not for investment!They have no value, beyond what can be generated on the memetic layer, and while BRC-20s have existed for two months, these fungible Bitcoin ecosystem tokens required cross-chain meme fervor to attract significant attention. While we have witnessed the explosive growth of memecoins past, they always come back to orbit, scorching top buyers upon re-entry.Although you may be tempted to ape into some of the more explosive-sounding tickers, be aware: you may incur losses up to the value of your investment. Allocate appropriately, as these tokens are both valueless and operate on a novel spec!<h3 class="PlaygroundEditorTheme__h3">The Bottom Line</h3>BRC-20s likely fail to facilitate any meaningful crypto progress, yet represent a powerful thought experiment utilizing ordinal theory that highlights the role culture plays in the crypto financial system.The presence of painfully high gas fees (already at levels unsustainable for crypto adoption in developing nations, despite&nbsp;extremely&nbsp;limited usage of crypto financial systems today) should serve as a glaring reminder of inability for contemporary blockchain systems to meet future demand and provide additional awareness to the need for decentralized scaling solutions.While memes may come and go, creating demand for blockspace is crucial to ensure the continued security of the network. This holds especially true for the Bitcoin network, where miners will become increasingly dependent on transaction fee revenue to cover costs from operations, as block incentives decrease with successive halvings.

Memecoins

Are BTC Memecoins a Thing Now?

People can get rich from meme coins or at least make some money from it, if they buy in before the meme coin has gone viral, and sell to take profits instead of holding on.

<h2 class="PlaygroundEditorTheme__h2">Can a Meme Coin Make You Rich?</h2>People can get rich from&nbsp;<a href="https://www.coingecko.com/en/categories/meme-token" class="PlaygroundEditorTheme__link">meme coins</a>&nbsp;or at least make some money from it, if they buy in before the meme coin has gone viral, and sell to take profits instead of holding on. For example,&nbsp;by buying $11.87 worth of Shiba Inu (SHIB) when it just launched, an investor could have become a meme coin millionaire within 1 year and 3 months.That said, meme coins are a very risky type of crypto because they are based on Internet cultural references. In other words, the price movement depends on whether the meme coins can stay relevant by driving hype or support among the community, and lack fundamental value.&nbsp;<img class="PlaygroundEditorTheme__image editor-image" src="https://hx24-prod.mars-block.com/image/crawler/2023/05/06/1683332278252006.jpg" alt="Coin" width="inherit" height="inherit"><h2 class="PlaygroundEditorTheme__h2">How Much Money Needed to be a Meme Coin Millionaire</h2>An investor would have needed $66,298.25 on average to become a meme coin millionaire, according to an analysis of 10 meme coin price returns. To reach $1 million in meme coin holdings, the minimum initial investment that is needed ranges from $11.87 for Shiba Inu, to $190,585.57 for ArbDoge AI (AIDOGE).<h3 class="PlaygroundEditorTheme__h3">Meme Coin Millionaires with Lower Initial Investment</h3>Someone buying into the first meme crypto Dogecoin on December 15, 2013, would have needed to put in $819.51 to become a millionaire. This is much higher than the amount needed to be a Shiba Inu millionaire, but the initial investment to become a Dogecoin millionaire can still be considered relatively affordable, for those with middle income and moderate risk tolerance.&nbsp;Investors who only caught onto the meme coin hype in 2021 would have had to buy at least $4,507.98 worth of FLOKI (FLOKI) to reach millionaire status.&nbsp;<h3 class="PlaygroundEditorTheme__h3">Meme Coin Millionaires with Higher Initial Investment</h3>Becoming a meme coin millionaire with Dogelon Mars (ELON), Bonk (BONK) or Baby Doge Coin (BABYDOGE) would have been much more expensive. An investor would have had to put between $20,838.51 to $28,297.05, to reach $1 million in either of those 3 meme coins.With the exception of the smaller cap crypto Ignore Fud (4TOKEN), the latest meme coins launched in 2023 require a much higher initial investment to turn into $1 million.&nbsp;Pepe (PEPE), Wojak (WOJAK) and ArbDoge AI (AIDOGE) have seen the lowest percentage price returns so far, from the hypothetical purchase date to the all-time high date. As a result of the comparatively modest price gains between 424.7% to 531.7%, an investor would have needed upwards of $158,311.59 to become a 2023 meme coin millionaire.<img class="PlaygroundEditorTheme__image editor-image" src="https://hx24-prod.mars-block.com/image/crawler/2023/05/06/1683332278241908.jpg" alt="Coin" width="inherit" height="inherit"><h2 class="PlaygroundEditorTheme__h2">How Quickly Can You Become a Meme Coin Millionaire</h2>An investor could have become a meme coin millionaire in just under a year, or 361 days on average. At the fastest, a Bonk investor only needed 7 days to turn $26,667.85 into $1 million. At the slowest, Dogecoin took 2,701 days or almost 7 and a half years, to grow $819.51 into $1 million.Out of the 2021 meme coins, the price of Dogelon Mars grew the fastest and needed just 19 days to make $20,838.51 become $1 million. FLOKI and Baby Doge Coin took much longer, at 4 months and 7 months respectively.For the 2023 meme coins in particular, it is likely that Pepe, ArbDoge AI, Wojak and Ignore Fud will subsequently surpass their current all-time highs. Although they might take longer to reach higher prices, it also means that a lower initial investment is needed to become that meme coin’s millionaire.<a href="https://www.coingecko.com/research/publications/bonk-shiba-doge-growth" class="PlaygroundEditorTheme__link">Bonk’s exponential price pump</a>&nbsp;remains the fastest record among meme coins.<h2 class="PlaygroundEditorTheme__h2">What is the Most Successful Meme Coin?</h2>In terms of price gains, Shiba Inu was the most successful meme coin with a 8,424,202.3% increase at its peak, compared to its starting price on August 1, 2020.&nbsp;On the other hand, Dogecoin has been the most successful meme coin over the long run, as a pioneer in the category since 2013.<h2 class="PlaygroundEditorTheme__h2">What is the Next Big Meme Coin in 2023?</h2>Pepe, ArbDoge AI and Wojak are the biggest meme coins launched this year, and have been among the&nbsp;<a href="https://www.coingecko.com/en/watchlists/trending-crypto" class="PlaygroundEditorTheme__link">top trending crypto</a>&nbsp;recently. Ignore Fud is another new meme coin in 2023 that has enjoyed strong price gains since it went live.However, given that meme coins are especially narrative-driven, it is almost impossible to know for sure whether these 4 meme coins can continue to grow and still be the biggest by the end of the year.&nbsp;While there is no telling what the next big meme coins will be, traders might turn to tools like a&nbsp;<a href="https://www.geckoterminal.com/" class="PlaygroundEditorTheme__link">decentralized crypto exchanges' tracker</a>. The small-cap tokens that can be found on these trackers offer the possibility of buying into early opportunities.<h2 class="PlaygroundEditorTheme__h2">How Many Meme Coins Are There?</h2>There are currently 179 meme coins being tracked on CoinGecko. As of May 4, 2023, three meme coins have made it into the top 100 crypto by market capitalization, namely Dogecoin, Shiba Inu and Pepe.<h3 class="PlaygroundEditorTheme__h3">Methodology</h3>The study examined a number of notable and illustrative meme coins’ price returns over time, based on CoinGecko data:&nbsp;<a href="https://www.coingecko.com/en/coins/dogecoin" class="PlaygroundEditorTheme__link">Dogecoin (DOGE)</a>,&nbsp;<a href="https://www.coingecko.com/en/coins/shiba-inu" class="PlaygroundEditorTheme__link">Shiba Inu (SHIB)</a>,&nbsp;<a href="https://www.coingecko.com/en/coins/pepe" class="PlaygroundEditorTheme__link">Pepe (PEPE)</a>,&nbsp;<a href="https://www.coingecko.com/en/coins/baby-doge-coin" class="PlaygroundEditorTheme__link">Baby Doge Coin (BABYDOGE)</a>,&nbsp;<a href="https://www.coingecko.com/en/coins/floki" class="PlaygroundEditorTheme__link">FLOKI (FLOKI)</a>,&nbsp;<a href="https://www.coingecko.com/en/coins/dogelon-mars" class="PlaygroundEditorTheme__link">Dogelon Mars (ELON)</a>,&nbsp;<a href="https://www.coingecko.com/en/coins/arbdoge-ai" class="PlaygroundEditorTheme__link">ArbDoge AI (AIDOGE)</a>,&nbsp;<a href="https://www.coingecko.com/en/coins/wojak" class="PlaygroundEditorTheme__link">Wojak (WOJAK)</a>,&nbsp;<a href="https://www.coingecko.com/en/coins/bonk" class="PlaygroundEditorTheme__link">Bonk (BONK)</a>,&nbsp;<a href="https://www.coingecko.com/en/coins/ignore-fud" class="PlaygroundEditorTheme__link">Ignore Fud (4TOKEN)</a>.&nbsp;The hypothetical date of purchase above is taken from the start of data availability, and the hypothetical date for selling to realize profits is the all-time high price as of May 4, 2023.This study is for illustrative and informational purposes only, and is not financial advice. Always do your own research and be careful when putting your money into meme coins, or any other crypto or financial asset.

MEME

How 10 Meme Coins Make Millionaires

An old saying goes, “Do you wanna be right or do you wanna be rich?” These folks are at least one of those.

BY <a href="https://blockworks.co/author/david-canellis" class="PlaygroundEditorTheme__link">DAVID CANELLIS</a>Public blockchains have revolutionized how we view money. But they’ve also unlocked a brand-new form of financial voyeurism.Instead of poring over SEC filings or Forbes lists, the crypto-curious can now ogle billionaires for kicks entirely on-chain.Luckily, there’s no shortage of crypto billionaires. But most are practically anonymous, known only by their pseudonymous blockchain addresses.There are, however, a select few crypto moguls who lay bare their portfolios for all to see, warts and all.<h2 class="PlaygroundEditorTheme__h2">Ethereum co-founder Vitalik Buterin</h2>Buterin was&nbsp;<a href="https://www.forbes.com/sites/ninabambysheva/2021/05/03/ethereums-27-year-old-co-creator-is-now-the-worlds-youngest-crypto-billionaire/?sh=6ff2ddeb7c94" target="_blank" rel="nofollow" class="PlaygroundEditorTheme__link">crowned</a>&nbsp;the world’s youngest crypto billionaire by Forbes in 2021 — when ether (<a href="https://blockworks.co/price/eth" class="PlaygroundEditorTheme__link">ETH</a>) cleared $3,000 for the first time. On-chain data can’t verify the ‘youngest crypto billionaire’ moniker, but it does seem to corroborate those numbers.&nbsp;Buterin’s known crypto portfolio was valued at about $2 billion in May 2021, per Arkham Intelligence. ETH understandably made up about half of those holdings. But Buterin has been worth&nbsp;far more than that, in the throes of&nbsp;<a href="https://blockworks.co/news/bonk-solanas-own-dog-coin-sparks-joy-for-weathered-community" class="PlaygroundEditorTheme__link">dog coin</a>&nbsp;mania.Plucky dog coin fans and issuers have historically flooded Buterin’s Ethereum addresses with immense amounts of illiquid tokens. It’s a form of guerilla marketing — aiming to trick chain watchers into believing Buterin was deep in their useless memecoins.Vitalik Buterin was a prime target for dog coin marketers during the last bull runAnd so, on May 12, 2021, Buterin’s crypto portfolio was worth more than $20.5 billion – which would have put him on par with the likes of Bridgewater’s Ray Dalio and Google’s Eric Schmidt.&nbsp;Shiba Inu (<a href="https://blockworks.co/price/shib" class="PlaygroundEditorTheme__link">SHIB</a>) made up $17.8 billion of those funds (87%), but there were myriad other dog coins including AKITA and HUSKY. The subsequent (and arguably inevitable) SHIB crash tanked their value considerably, and Buterin&nbsp;<a href="https://twitter.com/sandeepnailwal/status/1392562768692252673" target="_blank" rel="nofollow" class="PlaygroundEditorTheme__link">donated</a>&nbsp;whatever was left to India’s Covid relief fund.Buterin now holds about $484 million in crypto in his known addresses — practically all of it ETH. Arkham Intelligence indicates Buterin has sent $74 million in on-chain assets to crypto exchanges over the years, including Coinbase and Kraken.<h2 class="PlaygroundEditorTheme__h2">Ripple co-founder Jed McCaleb</h2>McCaleb’s crypto billions were dished out over nearly a whole decade.&nbsp;Until last year, Ripple Labs had sent a steady stream of&nbsp;<a href="https://blockworks.co/price/xrp" class="PlaygroundEditorTheme__link">XRP</a>&nbsp;to McCaleb’s infamous “<a href="https://bithomp.com/explorer/rEhKZcz5Ndjm9BzZmmKrtvhXPnSWByssDv" target="_blank" rel="nofollow" class="PlaygroundEditorTheme__link">tacostand</a>” address, and he subsequently sold it on public markets.Ripple initially had&nbsp;<a href="https://www.coindesk.com/markets/2014/08/14/jed-mccaleb-ripple-labs-strike-deal-to-avoid-9-billion-xrp-sell-off/" target="_blank" rel="nofollow" class="PlaygroundEditorTheme__link">concerns</a>&nbsp;over how quickly McCaleb sought to dump his founder’s reward, which amounted to 9 billion XRP in total (worth $54 million when the case was settled, $4.2 billion today).&nbsp;The settlement saw strict rules on how much XRP McCaleb would receive per year, starting with $10,000 every week in 2015 to 2 billion XRP ($844 million) each year after 2020.<img class="PlaygroundEditorTheme__image editor-image" src="https://blockworks-co.imgix.net/wp-content/uploads/2023/04/image-3.png?w=1024&amp;h=1024" alt="" width="inherit" height="inherit">Jed McCaleb’s XRP sales peaked in 2021 (source:&nbsp;<a href="https://whale-alert.medium.com/chasing-crypto-whales-9a3578617a54" target="_blank" rel="nofollow" class="PlaygroundEditorTheme__link">Whale Alert</a>)McCaleb’s ‘tacostand’ now holds zero XRP, having received the last tranche of payouts in mid-2022.Chain watcher Whale Alert estimated McCaleb had sold 5.7 billion XRP over eight years, raking in $3.1 billion. The firm found that McCaleb sold XRP for an average price of $0.55 per token, or about 19% above its current price.&nbsp;Forbes today estimates McCaleb’s net worth at $2.4 billion, having gone on to found rival blockchain network Stellar.<h2 class="PlaygroundEditorTheme__h2">TRON founder Justin Sun</h2>His (<a href="https://markets.businessinsider.com/news/currencies/grenada-takes-a-stand--tron-blockchain-founder-justin-sun-loses-wto-rep-role-amid-sec-lawsuit-12317470" target="_blank" rel="nofollow" class="PlaygroundEditorTheme__link">former</a>) Excellency held $6.3 billion in crypto at his portfolio’s peak in Sept. 2021.&nbsp;That figure would’ve placed Sun in the top 500 richest billionaires in the world, in line with Lululemon founder Chip Wilson and Viking Global’s Andreas Halvorsen.Sun has a reputation for degeneracy, and his portfolio at all-time high is supporting evidence.&nbsp;About 95% of his portfolio was locked inside lending protocols Aave and Curve, earning yield, as markets closed in on their record highs — including 2.63 billion&nbsp;<a href="https://blockworks.co/price/usdc" class="PlaygroundEditorTheme__link">USDC</a>, 478250 WETH ($1.86 billion) and 11,000&nbsp;<a href="https://blockworks.co/price/btc" class="PlaygroundEditorTheme__link">BTC</a>&nbsp;($545 million).Justin Sun stakes his ETH with Lido<ul class="PlaygroundEditorTheme__ul"><li value="1" class="PlaygroundEditorTheme__listItem">Today, Sun’s known crypto portfolio is worth $858 million.&nbsp;</li><li value="2" class="PlaygroundEditorTheme__listItem">303,660 Lido staked eth (<a href="https://blockworks.co/price/steth" class="PlaygroundEditorTheme__link">STETH</a>) makes up $580 million, followed by $160 million in Sun’s stablecoin USDD.&nbsp;</li><li value="3" class="PlaygroundEditorTheme__listItem">He also holds 23,724 ETH ($46.76 million) and 6,802&nbsp;<a href="https://blockworks.co/price/mkr" class="PlaygroundEditorTheme__link">MKR</a>&nbsp;($4.97 million)</li></ul>Sun is indeed a prolific trader. The data indicates he’s sent $22.6 billion in crypto to exchanges over the years, more than half of it going to Binance.<h2 class="PlaygroundEditorTheme__h2">Satoshi Nakamoto and other anons</h2>Bitcoin’s mysteriously absent creator is believed to have mined anywhere from&nbsp;<a href="https://blog.bitmex.com/satoshis-1-million-bitcoin/" target="_blank" rel="nofollow" class="PlaygroundEditorTheme__link">600,000</a>&nbsp;BTC ($16.75 billion) to&nbsp;<a href="https://bitslog.com/2013/04/17/the-well-deserved-fortune-of-satoshi-nakamoto/" target="_blank" rel="nofollow" class="PlaygroundEditorTheme__link">1.1 million</a>&nbsp;BTC ($30.7 billion) throughout the early years.All those bitcoins are believed to have been spread out across hundreds of addresses, so tracking those funds directly is somewhat difficult.&nbsp;If the higher estimate is true, Nakamoto would place in the top-50 billionaires in the world, just shy of Chanel chairman Alain Wertheimer.The notorious “1Feex” address is another notable on-chain billionaire. Since Mar. 2011, the address has held close to 80,000 BTC ($2.25 billion) once controlled by Ross Ulbricht’s Silk Road marketplace.&nbsp;Craig Wright claims to own the address tied to the Silk Road hackIt’s believed someone connected to the monumental heist has access to ‘1Feex,’ although claiming the BTC would no doubt bring a certain amount of unwanted heat.&nbsp;That didn’t stop self-proclaimed Bitcoin creator Craig Wright from (unsuccessfully) claiming ownership of the funds during one of his court cases last year.Just under a&nbsp;<a href="https://bitinfocharts.com/top-100-richest-bitcoin-addresses.html" target="_blank" rel="nofollow" class="PlaygroundEditorTheme__link">dozen</a>&nbsp;Bitcoin addresses not associated with crypto exchanges or other entities contain $1 billion or more. Curiously, no unattributed Ethereum addresses contain $1 billion or more ETH right now, according to&nbsp;<a href="https://etherscan.io/accounts" target="_blank" rel="nofollow" class="PlaygroundEditorTheme__link">Etherscan</a>.<h2 class="PlaygroundEditorTheme__h2">Coinbase CEO and other off-chain billionaires</h2>Crypto billionaires with a majority of their wealth off-chain deserve a special mention.&nbsp;<a href="https://blockworks.co/news/coinbase-ceo-armstrong-stock-sales-life-extension" class="PlaygroundEditorTheme__link">Brian Armstrong</a>, Coinbase co-founder and CEO, currently holds about $590,000 in his known addresses, Arkham Intelligence data shows, almost all of it ETH.Armstrong’s portfolio was worth $1.23 million at its peak in early February, comprised practically entirely of&nbsp;<a href="https://blockworks.co/price/dydx" class="PlaygroundEditorTheme__link">DYDX</a>, the native token for the decentralized exchange of the same name. Forbes puts Armstrong’s current net worth at $2.5 billion.Dallas Mavericks owner and prolific crypto backer&nbsp;<a href="https://blockworks.co/news/mark-cuban-to-be-deposed-next-month-in-voyager-ponzi-suit" class="PlaygroundEditorTheme__link">Mark Cuban</a>&nbsp;boasts about $4 million. USDC makes up more than half, followed by STETH and wrapped ETH.&nbsp; <div data-lexical-tweet-id="1366224417546792963">https://twitter.com/i/web/status/1366224417546792963</div> Mark Cuban has been making the case for crypto for yearsAt all-time highs last August, Cuban held $7.16 million, but 86% of it was USDC locked inside Aave. ETH, ApeCoin (<a href="https://blockworks.co/price/ape" class="PlaygroundEditorTheme__link">APE</a>),&nbsp;<a href="https://blockworks.co/price/ens" class="PlaygroundEditorTheme__link">ENS</a>&nbsp;and Rarible (<a href="https://blockworks.co/price/rari" class="PlaygroundEditorTheme__link">RARI</a>) made up the remainder, among others. Forbes estimates Cuban’s entire net worth at $5.1 billion.Of course, there are plenty of other crypto billionaires out there, and the featured names may very well have unknown crypto holdings.&nbsp;Still, it’s clear that some prominent figures put their crypto where their mouth is.

On-chain Billionaires: Tracking Crypto Portfolios from Buterin to Nakamoto

The Ethereum upgrades you should keep an eye on post-Shapella.

Last week's Shapella upgrade was pretty huge for Ethereum, but the work to scale the network is still just getting started.Today, we take a look at where Ethereum is headed post-Shapella.Bankless Writer:&nbsp;<a href="https://twitter.com/donovanchoy?ref=bankless.ghost.io" class="PlaygroundEditorTheme__link">Donovan Choy</a>✔️ EIP-1559 done ✔️ Merge done ✔️ Shapella doneIt may be a bear market, but that hasn't stopped the Ethereum developer community from&nbsp;shipping.What’s next on the Ethereum roadmap for the rest of 2023? Enter the EIP-4844 Cancun hardfork and efforts like&nbsp;distributed validator technology&nbsp;and&nbsp;proposer-builder separation.&nbsp;Let's dig in.<h3 class="PlaygroundEditorTheme__h3">1. EIP-4844 Cancun hardfork</h3><a href="https://www.eip4844.com/?ref=bankless.ghost.io" class="PlaygroundEditorTheme__link">EIP-4844</a>&nbsp;is the next big hard fork – one that aims to tackle Ethereum’s scalability problem. We’ve heard this comparison a million times: Visa processes thousands of transactions per second while Ethereum can manage low double-digit volumes per second at best. The network needs to solve the motherlode of usability problems: scalability.Today, the scalability problem is eased by rollup chains (Arbitrum, Optimism). The basic idea of how rollups scale Ethereum is that they push the computational burden of processing transactions onto a second layer. When that’s done, they post the transaction data back onto the underlying Layer-1 Beacon chain for consensus and storage.<img class="PlaygroundEditorTheme__image editor-image" src="https://lh6.googleusercontent.com/NPhVTuxfzIXcetT3CQkuoYNlza5htAWdkpBYsLIKKWb_kbQSPLh89cuuh7M9kbOSRwB2xIhZ7MDJTliAEWM4Pjlg_iPPGxBs9yRaka5xDejVyNOBkqWj91lsJDSN_xO07bmNDyowso_zoI7n50Io1OQ" alt="" width="441" height="248">Unfortunately, rollups are only an interim solution that are still too expensive and slow. That’s no fault of rollups – it’s largely due to the design architecture of the underlying Layer-1 chain. The fastest rollups still have to submit a ton of data to build consensus on the Layer-1 chain, which lacks the space to store it freely. Moreover, it places a heavy burden on nodes to download this data – an estimated 95% of transaction fees on rollups are just for posting data costs.That takes us to EIP-4844. Named after Ethereum researcher Dankrad Feist, EIP-4844 is the “proto-danksharding” proposal that aims to supercharge the speed and costs of using rollups.&nbsp;<a href="https://youtu.be/F0u5BNZYhMQ?ref=bankless.ghost.io" class="PlaygroundEditorTheme__link">In Dankrad’s words</a>, it’s an afterburner for rollups. Proto-danksharding is an early precursor to&nbsp;full danksharding&nbsp;that is still years away on the Ethereum roadmap, hence the "proto" prefix. But even this early proposal promises great changes for Ethereum.EIP-4844 splits the blockchain network into different databases, which increase the space (a whole new data availability layer) for millions more transactions on Ethereum. This splitting is known as “sharding”. Simply explained, sharding is akin to adding lanes onto the congested highway that is the current Ethereum network. Hence why EIP-4844 folds into the stage of Ethereum’s roadmap once known as the “Surge”.When proto-danksharding is said and done, Ethereum blocks can store 1-2 megabytes of data (current capacity 50-100 kilobytes), significantly reducing the costs of using rollups by an estimated 20x (full danksharding will allow blocks to carry 16-32 megabytes eventually. For a fuller discussion, watch the 📺&nbsp;<a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=N5p0TB77flM&amp;ref=bankless.ghost.io" class="PlaygroundEditorTheme__link">Bankless podcast with Vitalik and Dankrad</a>).With the increased space from danksharding, there is more space for “blob-carrying transactions”, a new transaction type which is retained in Beacon chain nodes for a limited time of weeks or months. During that time, node validators employ a nifty technique known as “data availability sampling” that randomly samples parts of the data blobs for verification without actually having to download all the data.<img class="PlaygroundEditorTheme__image editor-image" src="https://lh4.googleusercontent.com/4qmZA9uI3lAaUodCdsBIJTDXEMXg03FuBSCiD1Sb2clFe-PnzZ4FX3IBHtiq_dKu6wXlVoocFshAIxIqzkWIiUiIypzJ2MwyJuJVwp0tPMoLT5J6Xty1VXxycj7KVWkea8icaYGVLed5Wwozis48IA4" alt="" width="624" height="211">Source:&nbsp;<a href="https://www.eip4844.com/?ref=bankless.ghost.io" class="PlaygroundEditorTheme__link">eip4844.com</a>Why is EIP-4844 a big deal?&nbsp;Ethereum rollups (as they currently work) are unusable for use cases like games or social media that require a higher transaction load. But builders can't wait, so they've found ways to scale by compromising on decentralization, as we've seen in most&nbsp;<a href="https://www.bankless.com/the-promises-of-blockchain-gaming?ref=bankless.ghost.io" class="PlaygroundEditorTheme__link">crypto games</a>&nbsp;and&nbsp;<a href="https://www.bankless.com/your-crypto-is-not-as-safe-as-you-think-2?ref=bankless.ghost.io" class="PlaygroundEditorTheme__link">sidechain bridge designs</a>. EIP-4844 is the unlock to fully on-chain use cases, with the potential to usher in a wave of builder innovation.When will proto-danksharding be complete?&nbsp;At present, we know that EIP-4844 is scheduled for sometime in Q3-Q4 2023. But as with most huge Ethereum network upgrades, expect it to be subject to potential delays.<h3 class="PlaygroundEditorTheme__h3">2. Distributed validator technology</h3>Another key technical innovation to look out for in Ethereum’s near-term future is the rise of distributed validator technology (DVT), an area of research that the Ethereum foundation has explored since 2019.Today, operating an Ethereum node is a technically burdensome solo venture that requires the operator to solo stake 32 ETH. Node operators can reduce the burden and opt to stake it via Coinbase or Lido, but these alternatives make a critical decentralization tradeoff.DVT is an attempt to make node validation easy without sacrificing decentralization. It does so by enabling a kind of independent "squad staking". Rather than staking 32 ETH alone, a group of friends can collectively stake different amounts of ETH and run a node. This is achieved through multi-party computation (MPC), which lets a group of individuals share one private key like a multisig and run a “distributed validator” together.DVT decentralizes the cost of solo staking by reducing the financial barrier for individuals or small DAOs to participate as a validator on Ethereum. This could go a long way in reducing the market concentration of ETH staking that has accumulated today in&nbsp;<a href="https://dune.com/hildobby/eth2-staking?ref=bankless.ghost.io" class="PlaygroundEditorTheme__link">Lido and centralized exchanges</a>.<img class="PlaygroundEditorTheme__image editor-image" src="https://bankless.ghost.io/content/images/2023/04/image-31.png" alt="" width="1203" height="564">Source:&nbsp;<a href="https://dune.com/queries/1941352/3202583?ref=bankless.ghost.io" class="PlaygroundEditorTheme__link">Dune Analytics</a>DVT also makes node validation an overall more robust process. Distributed validators operating the same node can stand in for one another when there is hardware malfunction. And just like a multisig, shared private keys through DVT make it harder for attackers to exploit.DVT is not available for public use just yet, but companies like Obol are just now starting to&nbsp;<a href="https://twitter.com/ObolNetwork/status/1647949027617697797?s=20&amp;ref=bankless.ghost.io" class="PlaygroundEditorTheme__link">test deployment on mainnet</a>, and will likely be ready by Q3 2023. For more on DVT, check out companies like RockX, SafeStake and ssv.network.<h3 class="PlaygroundEditorTheme__h3">3. Proposer-builder separation</h3>The word "decentralization" is thrown around a lot in crypto but the open secret is that most blockchains are anything but so.One major centralization vector on the Ethereum protocol layer lies in how blocks are built. When we submit transactions on our wallets, they enter a sea of pending transactions in a memory pool (mempool). Block validators (miners in PoW, stakers in PoS) with a birds-eye-view of this mempool, spotted a profit opportunity and started selling priority access to block building in an underground bribery market to arbitrage bots (searchers).These kinds of value extraction techniques are known as maximal-extractable-value (MEV) attacks. They are largely hidden from the everyday user, but remain an existential threat to the decentralization ethos of Ethereum, with block miners having extracted an estimated&nbsp;<a href="https://explore.flashbots.net/?ref=bankless.ghost.io" class="PlaygroundEditorTheme__link">$676 million</a>&nbsp;pre-Merge.Proposer-builder separation (PBS) is the Ethereum development community's answer to that problem. As its name suggests, PBS aims to create a division of labour between two crucial tasks of blockbuilding: proposing a block, and building it. By doing so, block validators are stripped of their ability to discriminate between individual transactions, as the contents of a block is not decided by the same entity who eventually builds it on-chain (for more on this, see Bankless's&nbsp;<a href="https://www.bankless.com/ethereum-censored-flashbots-centralization-lido?ref=bankless.ghost.io" class="PlaygroundEditorTheme__link">A Beginner's Guide to Ethereum Censorship</a>).PBS will not be ready by 2023, and likely won't happen for another two years. Until then, third-party solutions like Flashbots' MEV-Boost have emerged to mitigate this problem in the meantime by creating an open free market in blockbuilding.<h2 class="PlaygroundEditorTheme__h2">Zooming out</h2>Ethereum is now fully proof-of-stake. With the Merge and Shapella out of the way, the Ethereum community can move on to its other problems: lack of scalability, capital inefficiency and block validator centralization.EIP-4844, distributed validator technology and proposer-builder separation are just some of the big solutions to keep your eyes peeled for.

Where Does Ethereum Go Next?

The Hitchhiker's Guide to Ethereum

A preview of Ethereum's upcoming Shanghai/Capella upgrade

The Shanghai Redemption: Ethereum’s Latest Upgrade

Tether’s stablecoin market capitalization swelled to nearly $75 billion on Thursday morning, its highest level since May 2022, data from CoinGecko shows.
USDT’s market cap is now almost twice as much as that of USD Coin (USDC), the world’s second-largest stablecoin issued by the Boston-based company Circle.
The two stablecoins are the current market leaders by market capitalization for this category of cryptocurrency. Stablecoins have become a key feature of the digital asset economy, ballooning...

Tether’s <a alt="What Are Stablecoins?" href="https://decrypt.co/resources/stablecoins" data-wpel-link="internal">stablecoin</a> market capitalization swelled to nearly $75 billion on Thursday morning, its highest level since May 2022, data from <a href="https://www.coingecko.com/en/coins/tether" target="_blank" rel="noopener" data-wpel-link="internal">CoinGecko</a> shows.
USDT’s market cap is now almost twice as much as that of USD Coin (<a href="https://decrypt.co/resources/what-is-us-dollar-coin-usdc" target="_blank" rel="noopener" data-wpel-link="internal">USDC</a>), the world’s second-largest stablecoin issued by the Boston-based company Circle.
The two stablecoins are the current market leaders by market capitalization for this category of cryptocurrency. Stablecoins have become a key feature of the digital asset economy, ballooning in value over the past several years. In March 2020, for example, USDC had a market cap of roughly $564 million; today, that figure is now $37.7 billion, per <a href="https://www.coingecko.com/en/categories/stablecoins" data-wpel-link="internal">CoinGecko</a>.
<div class="embedded-post" data-id="123468" data-post-title="Here Are the Stablecoins That Thrived as USDC Wobbled" data-post-type="post" data-post-orientation="horizontal"><a href="https://wp.decrypt.co/123468/here-are-stablecoins-thrived-usdc-wobbled/" data-wpel-link="internal">Here Are the Stablecoins That Thrived as USDC Wobbled</a></div>
Circle's market cap took a major hit recently, though, amid the latest banking crisis. The stablecoin briefly lost its intended <a href="https://decrypt.co/123211/usdc-stablecoin-depegs-90-cents-circle-exposure-silicon-valley-bank" data-wpel-link="internal">$1 peg</a> last week amid the debacle surrounding the Silicon Valley Bank (SVB), where Circle held as much as <a href="https://decrypt.co/123224/circle-to-stand-behind-usdc-cover-3-3-billion-shortfall-held-in-silicon-valley-bank" data-wpel-link="internal">$3.3 billion</a> in reserves.
Many investors <a href="https://decrypt.co/123468/here-are-stablecoins-thrived-usdc-wobbled" data-wpel-link="internal">fled to alternatives</a> during the depegging, and data now shows that they have yet to return.
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<h2>Tether dominance increases</h2>
Though USDC’s woes appear to be resolved and is now trading back at parity with the greenback, the aftershocks from the SVB bank run show that investors have nevertheless been increasingly opting for USDT.
This has been demonstrated by USDT's dominance, which has surged to 58.1%, the highest level since mid-September 2021, according to <a href="https://studio.glassnode.com/workbench/usd-top4-relative" target="_blank" rel="noopener nofollow external" data-wpel-link="external">Glassnode</a>.
<figure id="attachment_123709" aria-describedby="caption-attachment-123709" style="width: 1800px" class="wp-caption aligncenter"><img decoding="async" loading="lazy" class="size-full wp-image-123709" src="https://wp.decrypt.co/wp-content/uploads/2023/03/glassnode-studio_stablecoins-supply-dominance-relative.png" alt="" width="1800" height="1013" /><figcaption id="caption-attachment-123709" class="wp-caption-text">Stablecoins supply dominance. Source: Glassnode</figcaption></figure>
USDC’s dominance, meanwhile, fell to slightly over 30%, a significant drop from almost 38% last summer, when Circle’s stablecoin <a href="https://decrypt.co/103391/tether-billions-redemptions-circle-usdc-gaining-ground" target="_blank" rel="noopener" data-wpel-link="internal">sought to capitalize</a> on USDT’s troubles amid the <a href="https://decrypt.co/100402/how-terra-ust-luna-imploded-crypto-crash" target="_blank" rel="noopener" data-wpel-link="internal">Terra meltdown</a>.
Back then, USDT briefly <a href="https://decrypt.co/100648/tether-supply-plummeted-8b-depegging-concerns-terra-collapse-glassnode" target="_blank" rel="noopener" data-wpel-link="internal">lost its dollar peg</a>, with Tether holders redeeming more than $7 billion worth of the stablecoin for cash in roughly 48 hours.
Another reason fueling USDT’s growing dominance is the sharp decline in Binance’s BUSD stablecoin supply following the <a href="https://decrypt.co/121182/paxos-halts-busd-minting-as-sec-reportedly-prepares-lawsuit" target="_blank" rel="noopener" data-wpel-link="internal">regulatory crackdown</a>, which lead to Paxos, the issuer of the stablecoin, halting the minting of the token.
As data from <a href="https://www.coingecko.com/en/coins/binance-usd" target="_blank" rel="noopener" data-wpel-link="internal">CoinGecko</a> shows, BUSD’s market fell from $16 billion on February 13 to just $8.3 billion as of today.

Tether's Stablecoin Market Cap Now Double USDC After SVB Chaos

Ethereum’s Shanghai upgrade, which will enable the withdrawal of staked ETH, successfully rounded the final corner in the build-up to its much-anticipated April launch, the network’s core developers have confirmed.
The Goerli testnet, essentially a comprehensive dress rehearsal of Shanghai, launched late Tuesday, and finalized roughly 90 minutes later. According to multiple Ethereum core developers, a brief delay was caused by some validators running older versions of clients. Those validators w...

Ethereum’s Shanghai upgrade, which will enable the withdrawal of staked ETH, successfully rounded the final corner in the build-up to its much-anticipated April launch, the network’s core developers have confirmed.
The Goerli testnet, essentially a comprehensive dress rehearsal of Shanghai, launched late Tuesday, and finalized roughly 90 minutes later. According to multiple Ethereum core developers, a brief delay was caused by some validators running older versions of clients. Those validators were swiftly brought on board, though, allowing the testnet to successfully resolve.
There were no other issues of note with the testnet launch or its functions, leading one Ethereum Foundation developer to declare, “Mainnet comes next!” 
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" data-width="550" data-dnt="true">
Goerli has successfully upgraded to Shapella! 🦉
We had some validators running older versions of clients, once that was fixed the attestation rate went back up and we are currently finalizing! <a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/GoerliShapella?src=hash&amp;ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw" data-wpel-link="internal">#GoerliShapella</a>
Mainnet comes next!
&mdash; parithosh | 🐼👉👈🐼 (@parithosh_j) <a href="https://twitter.com/parithosh_j/status/1635795550875336705?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw" data-wpel-link="internal">March 15, 2023</a></blockquote>
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With Goerli up and running, validators can now simulate the process of withdrawing staked ETH from Ethereum. It was perhaps because the testnet only permitted transfers of fake money that the network at first struggled to attract enough validators to try it out. 
“One challenge with testnet validators is that, given the ETH is worthless, there’s less incentive to run a validator [and] monitor it,” Beiko wrote on Twitter. 
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" data-width="550" data-dnt="true">
Deposits are being processed (<a href="https://t.co/CxYtPcGMCp" data-wpel-link="internal">https://t.co/CxYtPcGMCp</a>), but it seems like several validators haven&#39;t upgraded. Looking into it 👀
One challenge with testnet validators is that given the ETH is worthless, there&#39;s less incentive to run a validator/monitor it.
&mdash; timbeiko.eth (@TimBeiko) <a href="https://twitter.com/TimBeiko/status/1635771385380499456?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw" data-wpel-link="internal">March 14, 2023</a></blockquote>
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Soon, however, Shanghai’s financial stakes will become very real. Ever since Ethereum began its transition to a <a href="https://decrypt.co/resources/what-merge-ethereum-move-proof-stake" data-wpel-link="internal">proof-of-stake</a> model in which users stake ETH with the network to validate on-chain transactions, and are then rewarded for their contribution to Ethereum’s operation with newly generated ETH.
Since ETH staking debuted in late 2020, <a href="https://etherscan.io/address/0x00000000219ab540356cbb839cbe05303d7705fa" data-wpel-link="internal">$29.22 billion</a> worth of ETH has been deposited with the Ethereum network. That’s about 14.67% of all ETH currently in circulation. 
Those funds, however—and the rewards they’ve accumulated—cannot yet be withdrawn from Ethereum. Shanghai will enable that withdrawal capability, and by the looks of the Goerli testnet execution, that transition should go smoothly. 
When exactly that transition will take place, though, has been a matter of some contention. Perhaps due to the tremendous financial pressure to launch Shanghai and flood validators (primarily from <a href="https://decrypt.co/119735/shanghai-update-could-brighten-outlook-for-coinbase-jp-morgan" data-wpel-link="internal">intermediary firms</a> offering staking services to retail users) with huge amounts of passively-generated profit, Ethereum’s core developers have done everything in their power to get the upgrade out the door as quickly as possible. 
In <a href="https://decrypt.co/119851/ethereum-shanghai-mainnet-shadow-fork-goes-live" data-wpel-link="internal">January</a>, those developers removed other much-needed improvements to Ethereum from Shanghai in order to hasten its release. Around the same time, they even made the decision to avoid including minor technical tweaks with the upgrade, a move that <a href="https://decrypt.co/119620/ethereum-devs-divided-staking-withdrawals-shanghai" data-wpel-link="internal">some core developers criticized</a> as an unwise sacrifice made at the expense of Ethereum’s long-term health. 
<a href="https://decrypt.co/122611/ethereum-staking-withdrawals-april" data-wpel-link="internal">Earlier this month</a>, core developers confirmed that—should Goerli launch on or around March 14—the real Shanghai upgrade could be expected to go live by sometime mid-April. That timeline appears to be sticking.

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