Author: The Daily Hodl

Ripple chief executive Brad Garlinghouse thinks macro factors could double the overall crypto market cap by the end of 2024. Garlinghouse told CNBC recently that regulatory momentum and the newly approved spot Bitcoin (BTC) exchange-traded funds (ETFs) could drive a massive surge in crypto prices. “I’ve been around this industry for a long time, and I’ve seen these trends come and go. I’m very optimistic. I think the macro trends, the big-picture things like the ETFs, they’re driving for the first time real institutional money. You’re seeing that drives demand, and at the same time demand is increasing, and supply…

Recent developments suggest Bitcoin (BTC) could serve as more than just “digital gold,” according to a researcher at the crypto asset management giant Grayscale. In a new analysis, Grayscale’s Michael Zhao highlights Bitcoin’s surging on-chain activity. “The advent of ordinal inscriptions has revitalized on-chain activity, with over 59 million non-fungible-token-like (NFT) collectibles inscribed, generating upwards of $200 million in transaction fees for miners as of February 2024. This trend is expected to persist, bolstered by renewed developer interest and ongoing innovations on the Bitcoin blockchain.” Bitcoin ordinals enable users to inscribe digital data such as images and videos to a…

Ethereum (ETH) co-founder Vitalik Buterin thinks artificial intelligence (AI) could “significantly” help the top smart contract platform. Buterin says on the social media platform X he’s excited about the potential for AI-assisted formal verification of code and bug finding. “Right now Ethereum’s biggest technical risk probably is bugs in code, and anything that could significantly change the game on that would be amazing.” The famous Ethereum co-founder says he’s also excited about Verkle Trees, a data structure that can be used to upgrade Ethereum nodes. “They will enable stateless validator clients, which can allow staking nodes to run with near-zero…

BitMEX founder Arthur Hayes has reportedly sent more than $1 million worth of the decentralized exchange (DEX) altcoin GMX (GMX) to centralized exchanges. Pseudonymous on-chain analyst EmberCN tells their 79,700 followers on the social media platform X that Hayes had controlled the largest personal address for GMX holders since 2022. On Sunday, the BitMEX founder transferred all his 237,000 GMX (worth $9.78 million) to a newly created address. That address subsequently sent 41,000 GMX worth $1.68 million to the centralized crypto exchanges Binance, OKX and Bybit, according to EmberCN. The analyst also says that the newly created address likely belongs…

Popular crypto wallet MetaMask is seeing a surge in active users. In a statement, MetaMask developer Consensys says that the wallet’s monthly active users (MAU) grew from 19 million to over 30 million between September 2023 and January 2024, representing an increase of over 55%. The current number of monthly active users nearly matches Metamask’s historical high of 31.7 million in January 2022. “This growth nearly matches the peak figures seen during the bull market in 2022.” The announcement comes after MetaMask inked a partnership with trading platform Robinhood to enable users to seamlessly buy crypto assets directly within the wallet.…

A widely followed crypto strategist thinks that Bitcoin’s current strength will push BTC to a price level that exceeds people’s expectations this cycle. Analyst Michaël van de Poppe tells his 711,000 followers on the social media platform X that Bitcoin managing to print a new all-time high above $73,000 before the halving – when miners’ rewards are slashed in half – is a solid signal of strength. According to the crypto trader, he sees BTC generating more than 4X gains from current levels before witnessing a cycle top. “Bitcoin still facing crucial resistance. If this breaks, then we’ll be seeing…

Billionaire and founder of Tron (TRX) Justin Sun is revealing his Bitcoin (BTC) holdings on crypto exchange HTX. Sun tells his 3.5 million followers on the social media platform X that his HTX account holds 28,613 BTC, worth about $1.62 billion at time of writing. Sun is an advisor for HTX, formerly known as Huobi, and he says he is revealing his BTC holdings in response to critics saying he is not an active user of HTX. “My personal HTX account balance (just for those who are saying I’m not using HTX much)… Personally, I use almost all main exchanges…

Tether has released a plan to safeguard its stablecoin USDT in the event that the blockchains it operates on become unresponsive. According to a new press release, Tether is making improvements to increase both blockchain resilience and user protection in a worst-case scenario type of event. Because USDT is used on so many different blockchains, Tether says a “blockchain recovery plan” is necessary if any USDT transactions are disrupted. With such a plan in place, Tether aims to avoid any user disruption and maintain USDT accessibility. “Tether is a lifeline for hundreds of millions of users across the globe. Tether is…

Former Binance CEO Changpeng Zhao says he plans to launch an initiative to provide free education at the elementary and high school levels. Zhao, also known as CZ, tells his 8.9 million followers on the social media platform X that he intends to launch the Giggle Academy to reduce adult illiteracy rates, which are disproportionately higher in South Asia, West Asia and sub-Saharan Africa. Says Zhao, “My next project: Giggle Academy (No logo yet). Free basic (grade 1-12 ish) education, for all. No revenue. Gamified. Adaptive. Read the concept paper at giggleacademy.com. We are hiring. Small team, work directly with…

Closely followed crypto analyst Jamie Coutts says one indicator with a history of calling Bitcoin Q2-Q3 rallies is potentially about to flash green for BTC. Coutts tells his followers on the social media platform X that the dollar index (DXY), which measures the strength of the US dollar against a weighted basket of other major foreign currencies, is a critical indicator to watch for Bitcoin. DXY is often inversely correlated with risk assets, rising when they sell off and falling when they rally. According to Coutts, every summer (June to September) Bitcoin rally has been sparked by a weakening dollar…