Connect with us

Ethereum

OP Soars 30% to $3 as Optimism Network Addresses Witness a 391% Surge Since January

Prominent Ethereum layer-two scaling solution – Optimism – has gained widespread popularity in 2023, addressing the demand for better alternatives, and its user base has soared this year.

According to the latest data compiled by Intotheblock’s data, the network now boasts over 5.9 million addresses with a balance, marking a substantial increase of 391% from the 1.2 million recorded in January.

Optimism’s User Activity Spikes

As of December 22nd, the overall number of addresses on the Optimism Layer 2 network has increased to around 84.38 million. Although this number had been steadily growing, it wasn’t until mid-September that the address count on the network experienced significant growth. In just the last three months, this figure has surged by over 843%.

This notable increase can be attributed to the successful completion of Optimism’s third airdrop on September 18th, which was part of the protocol’s community incentivization and governance plan. During the event, a total of 19,411,313 OP tokens, valued at over $26 million, were distributed to 31,870 unique addresses.

What a year for @Optimism! The network currently counts over 5.9 million addresses with a balance, up 391% from 1.2 million in January!


🔗https://t.co/b6bBM1Qd6z pic.twitter.com/58gPngqEk3

— IntoTheBlock (@intotheblock) December 21, 2023

In addition to increased addresses on Optimism, the transaction count on the network also recorded a spike, demonstrating a significant increase in user activity as competition among the Layer 2s heats up.

As per L2Beat, Optimism currently boasts a whopping $5.19 billion in total value locked (TVL) and is the second largest Layer 2 below Arbitrum. Optimism’s market share, on the other hand, stands at over 30%.

During the last 30 days, Optimism experienced a notable 41.57% increase in revenue, accumulating $4.47 million, according to Token Terminal data. Meanwhile, the Layer 2 network’s annualized revenue has risen by nearly 80% Over the past 12 months, reaching a total of $54.33 million.

In terms of price movements, the OP token has been on a roll lately, surging by 30% in the past day and 40% within the last week. As a result, it trades at $3 as of now.

Layer 2: 2024

In 2023, Ethereum Layer 2s have demonstrated substantial growth, and industry experts maintain their confidence in these solutions.

JPMorgan also expressed a positive outlook, highlighting the upcoming Proto-dank sharding upgrade scheduled for the first half of 2024. This upgrade holds significant importance for improving Ethereum’s scalability and efficiency, especially benefiting Layer 2 networks such as Arbitrum and Optimism.

SPECIAL OFFER (Sponsored)

Binance Free $100 (Exclusive): Use this link to register and receive $100 free and 10% off fees on Binance Futures first month (terms).

Read More

Ethereum

The Latest Ethereum Whale Activity: Should ETH Investors Worry?

Ethereum investors have shown some worrying trends as of late, with many prominent names, such as Galaxy Digital, disposing of substantial portions of their ETH holdings.

In this article, we will review the latest trends on the matter, including who is selling and who is buying.

The Sell-Offs

CryptoPotato has repeatedly reported in recent weeks the significant ETH sales completed by large investors, including whales and Galaxy Digital. The latter, in fact, has even started to replace its ether holdings with SOL, which could be an even more worrying trend.

These developments led to a price slump to $1,400 earlier this month. ETH managed to recover some of the losses and spiked to $1,800, which has only allowed some investors to cash out at more favorable prices.

According to data shared by Ali Martinez, whales have disposed of 262,000 ETH after the asset’s price started to recover. In USD terms, this stash is worth around $445 million.

Whales took advantage of the recent price surge, selling 262,000 #Ethereum $ETH, worth around $445 million. pic.twitter.com/sQ0PhAzyfX

— Ali (@ali_charts) April 29, 2025

Galaxy Digital has continued to deposit ETH to centralized exchanges, which is generally done with the obvious intention to sell. The latest batch to find its way to Coinbase was for 23,900 ETH (valued at $42.5 million), according to Lookonchain.

The same analytics tool provided an update about a whale that “can’t pick a side on ETH,” as they bought roughly 15,000 ETH at $1,801 and started selling just 3 hours later at a minor loss. Within the next 24 hours, the whale would have offloaded the entire stack.

This whale just sold all 10,511 $ETH($19.2M) at $1,828 again.https://t.co/bdIlDI9WrD pic.twitter.com/ZwP0JrxXTY

— Lookonchain (@lookonchain) April 29, 2025

Some Are Buying, Though

Aside from the aforementioned bearish news, there are some reports claiming that Ethereum has turned itself around, which could be supported by a recent 10% spike in network activity. The ETH ETFs have also recorded several consecutive days of positive flows.

Additionally, Lookonchain reported that a wallet linked to Cumberland has withdrawn over $50 million worth of ether from Copper, Coinbase, and Binance within a short period. The team determined that “whales/institutions are accumulating ETH” following this post.

It seems that whales/institutions are accumulating $ETH!

Over the past 3 hours, a wallet linked to #Cumberland has withdrawn 27,632 $ETH($50.24M) from #Copper, #Binance, and #Coinbase.https://t.co/2CNtRUpICk pic.twitter.com/FK0A68w1vT

— Lookonchain (@lookonchain) April 29, 2025

More good news for ETH came from BlackRock, as the world’s largest asset manager plans to tokenize its $150 billion Treasury Trust market fund on Ethereum.

SPECIAL OFFER (Sponsored)

Binance Free $600 (CryptoPotato Exclusive): Use this link to register a new account and receive $600 exclusive welcome offer on Binance (full details).

LIMITED OFFER for CryptoPotato readers at Bybit: Use this link to register and open a $500 FREE position on any coin!

Read More

Continue Reading

Ethereum

Big Win For Ethereum as BlackRock Tokenizes $150B Treasury Fund

“Ethereum just scored a monster win,” said former Ethereum developer Eric Connor on X on April 30.

His comment came in reaction to an April 28 prospectus filing with the US Securities and Exchange Commission by BlackRock, which aims to tokenize its $150 billion Treasury Trust market fund with a new “DLT Shares” asset class.

It is the “biggest real-world asset flow to Ethereum yet,” said Connor.

Ethereum just scored a monster win.

BlackRock filed to tokenize its $150bn Treasury Trust money-market fund with a new “DLT Shares” class.

BNY Mellon will keep a blockchain mirror of every share on-chain.

Biggest real-world asset flow to Ethereum yet.

— Eric Conner (@econoar) April 30, 2025

Ethereum Industry Standard for RWA

The BlackRock Treasury Trust Fund is a money market fund that invests only in short-term US Treasury securities to provide income while preserving liquidity and principal. It keeps fees low and is designed for very low-risk, stable returns.

The new tokenized DLT shares of its $150 billion Treasury Trust Fund will use blockchain technology to track ownership via BNY Mellon.

BlackRock previously launched the BlackRock USD Institutional Digital Liquidity Fund (BUIDL) on the Ethereum blockchain, in partnership with Securitize. It allows qualified investors to earn yields through tokenized US Treasury securities on Ethereum.

Onchain Foundation head of research Leon Waidmann reported that 93% of BlackRock’s BUIDL is on Ethereum. The fund currently has $2.34 billion in assets under management on Ethereum, according to rwa.xyz.

“Institutions follow deep liquidity, credible neutrality, and battle-tested security,” he said before adding, “ETH is already their settlement layer.”

“BlackRock is building on Ethereum. They’re betting on ETH as the leading ecosystem,” said researcher “CryptoGoos,” who added that Ethereum is “extremely undervalued.”

BlackRock is building on Ethereum.

They’re betting on $ETH as the leading eco-system.

Don’t get fooled now.

Ethereum is extremely undervalued. pic.twitter.com/dubhrzqxk4

— CryptoGoos (@crypto_goos) April 29, 2025

The firm does appear to be going all-in on tokenization. “Tokenization will revolutionize investing,” BlackRock CEO Larry Fink said in March.

“Markets wouldn’t need to close. Transactions that currently take days would clear in seconds. And billions of dollars currently immobilized by settlement delays could be reinvested immediately back into the economy, generating more growth,” he added.

Ethereum is currently the industry standard for real-world asset (RWA) tokenization with a 56% market dominance and $6.2 billion tokenized on-chain (excluding stablecoins), according to rwa.xyz.

No Love For ETH Prices

ETH prices remain at bear market lows despite the bullish fundamentals. The asset has struggled to make any progress above $1,800 over the past week and is still lingering around levels last seen in September 2023.

ETH is still 63% down from its 2021 peak price and has declined almost 50% since the beginning of the year, but analysts and advocates still think it will reach five figures soon.

Nevertheless, institutions appear to be warming to cut-price Ether as BlackRock’s spot ETH ETF (ETHA) has scooped up $162 million worth of the asset over the past four trading days.

SPECIAL OFFER (Sponsored)

Binance Free $600 (CryptoPotato Exclusive): Use this link to register a new account and receive $600 exclusive welcome offer on Binance (full details).

LIMITED OFFER for CryptoPotato readers at Bybit: Use this link to register and open a $500 FREE position on any coin!

Read More

Continue Reading

Ethereum

Grayscale Pushes SEC to Approve Ethereum ETF Staking, Citing $61M Lost in Rewards

Grayscale is urging the SEC to approve staking for Ethereum ETFs, unlocking millions in rewards, strengthening Ethereum’s network, and propelling U.S. crypto investment forward. Grayscale Urges SEC to Allow Staking for Ethereum ETFs, Citing Major Investor Gains Representatives from Grayscale Investments convened with members of the U.S…
Read More

Continue Reading

Trending

Copyright © 2017 Zox News Theme. Theme by MVP Themes, powered by WordPress.