Tag: blockchain

Electronic Governance Could be Finetuned if India Accelerates Blockchain R&D: ZebPay’s Anuj Garg

As India continues to progress in nurturing, developing, and adopting modern technologies, its population of nearly two billion are also getting accustomed to the virtual convenience. The massive success of the UPI payment system — that is currently used by over 300 million monthly active users — is a testimony of India’s large appetite to digest new technologies, especially ones that make their lives more convenient. After digitising payments, India is now looking to digitise its governance model so that benefits and notices reach the large masses right in the convenience of their homes.

Blockchain technology could improve India’s e-governance system by making it more tamper-proof and secure, Anuj Garg, the Vice President of blockchain at ZebPay, said in a conversation with Gadgets 360. ZebPay is a crypto exchange, operational since 2014.

“Blockchain is an innovative technology that operates on a decentralised ledger system, enabling secure and transparent transactions without relying on intermediaries. The technology ensures that every transaction is recorded on a distributed ledger, which is tamper-proof and cannot be changed without the consent of all parties involved. This creates a level of trust and security that traditional Web2 systems cannot match,” Garg explained.

Ahead of the upcoming 2024 general elections, the governments of many states are accelerating efforts to finetune their e-governance modules. Essentially, this means that most government services are made available online, making their availability easier for everybody, regardless of their age, physical limitations or geographical distance.

Just this week, Tamil Nadu’s IT minister inaugurated a state training centre for e-governance. Palanivel Thiaga Rajan is also betting highly on a blockchain revamp of Tamil Nadu’s e-governance sector. The state has launched Nambikkai Inaiyam (NI), which is a Blockchain-As-A-Service infrastructure built for the State of Tamil Nadu.

The state government there is set to leverage blockchain’s encrypted technology to store citizens’ e-sevai certificates, academic certificates, mark sheets, licences, and land transaction records, safeguarding them against being meddled with, erased or altered.

Other states are also trying to expand their e-governance systems. Kerala, for instance, declared itself a fully e-governed state earlier this month.

“Blockchain could simplify electronic governance. Blockchain-based identity solutions have surfaced, offering portable and secure digital IDs. In the Web3 age, India’s tech environment is ready for innovation and expansion. Additionally, blockchain-based supply chain management is gaining popularity in India as it enables efficiency, transparency, and traceability in industries including pharmaceuticals, logistics, and agriculture,” Garg added.

Blockchain ups the data security game all together, because everything stored on a blockchain is encrypted and distributed across multiple nodes, making it highly resistant to hacking or tampering. In addition, blockchain enhances transparency by ensuring that all transactions are visible to participants, reducing fraudulent activities. The technology brings time and cost efficiency to the table as well, by eliminating the need for intermediaries.

As the government looks for ways to safely integrate blockchain to its system, industry insiders suggest thorough research work. Entities interested in a blockchain revamp must begin by identifying specific instances where blockchain may improve current processes. The upskilling of employees will play a crucial role for government as well as non-government platforms to adopt blockchain.

As the underlaying technology that supports cryptocurrency and the overall Web3 ecosystem, blockchain has caught the attention of Indian regulators, not just at the state level, but also on a national level.

Recently, RBI Deputy Governor Mahesh Kumar Jain said that linking Artificial Intelligence (AI) and blockchain to India’s existing financial system is essential to ensure the growth and stability of India’s digital finance sector in the modern present and the future.

While several Web3 industry players and blockchain enthusiasts have collectively formed the Bharat Web3 Association (BWA) to have constructive discussions with the government around Web3, state governments are also implementing blockchain solutions into their operative modules.

Telangana, for instance, has established an advisory panel dedicated to blockchain R&D along with setting up a ‘Blockchain District’ in Hyderabad to serve as a hotspot for blockchain activities.

According to a survey conducted by the World Economic Forum, the financial services industry is set to undergo a transformative change with the widespread adoption of blockchain technology. It is projected that by 2025, blockchain platforms will account for at least 10 percent of the global GDP stored digitally.

“While blockchain technology is not yet ubiquitous, it has the potential to become a game-changer in the world of technology. As more businesses and industries embrace blockchain, it will become progressively challenging for non-adopters to remain competitive. This implies that, over time, blockchain technology will inevitably become a fundamental part of the future,” Garg has predicted.

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Bitcoin Coders Deliberate Over Future of $1 Billion Memecoins Such as Pepe

The coders who maintain Bitcoin’s blockchain are clashing over whether to stamp out the meme tokens swarming the network.

A torrent of speculative coins led to a record number of transactions and an 11-fold spike in processing fees on the blockchain in May, creating a logjam and forcing the Binance exchange to temporarily halt Bitcoin withdrawals.

The tumult has since eased, but some crypto purists fret that future frenzied trading of memecoins like the frog-themed Pepe will again snarl the network and disrupt Bitcoin’s use for payments and as a store of value. They advocate deploying software to block the transactions — a kind of spam filter.

“I do think the system is being abused,” said Bitcoin developer Ali Sherief. “Bitcoin was never intended to serve as a base layer for meme tokens.”

In an earlier email to the largest digital asset’s developer group, Sherief wrote that “worthless tokens threaten the smooth and normal use of the Bitcoin network as a peer-to-peer digital currency.”

Others defend the software innovation, called Ordinals, that allows Bitcoin’s blockchain to host large numbers of memecoins and nonfungible tokens — digital collectibles — for the first time, arguing it can have wider applications.

Developer Casey Rodarmor created Ordinals to enable users to inscribe digital content like videos, images and text on satoshis, the smallest unit of Bitcoin. There are 100 million satoshis in one Bitcoin.

Rodarmor’s innovation took off this year and was seized on by pseudonymous blockchain analyst Domo to develop the Bitcoin Request for Comment — or BRC-20 — standard, which led to the explosion of memecoins.

There are now about 25,000 meme tokens on the Bitcoin blockchain with a market value of roughly $475 million (roughly Rs. 388 crore), according to website brc-20.io. The figure had soared past $1 billion (roughly Rs. 8,300 crore) in early May.

Jameson Lopp, co-founder of crypto storage solutions provider Casa, said the Bitcoin network is meant to be an “auction market for the block space” — the place where data is stored — and Ordinals merely stoked demand for it.

As a result, viewing the memecoins as a denial-of-service attack is “like saying any form of auction is a denial of service, and whoever wins is denying all of the losers of the auction,” Lopp said.

At one point last month meme tokens and NFTs accounted for 65 percent of the transactions on the Bitcoin blockchain. The proportion has dropped back but remains elevated. The average fee per transaction began April at $2.80 (roughly Rs. 200), hit $30 (roughly Rs. 2,500) in early May and cooled to $4 (roughly Rs. 300) by the end of the month, Coinmetrics data show.

The jump in fees has been a boon for miners, the operators of the computer rigs underpinning Bitcoin, who have raked in $45 million (roughly Rs. 370 crore) from Ordinals-related activity, according to figures from Dune Analytics.

Bitcoin itself fell almost 8 percent in May amid the turbulence on its blockchain. The token, which has rebounded more than 60 percent in 2023, was little changed at $27,160 (roughly Rs. 22,43,500) as of 7:41 am in Singapore on Monday.

For veteran Bitcoin developer Luke Dashjr, Ordinals transactions are like spam and should be kept off Bitcoin’s blockchain. He’s even created a program, Ordisrespector, to enable computer nodes on the network to do that.

“Action should have been taken months ago,” Dashjr wrote in a developer group. “Spam filtration has been a standard part of Bitcoin Core since day 1.”

Given that no single person or entity controls the Bitcoin network, nobody knows if sustained action against memecoins and NFTs will emerge over time. Another possibility is that some people could decide to create a version of Bitcoin — called a hard fork — that won’t support Ordinals.

“I don’t see a critical mass of people coming together on a single alternative to Bitcoin which is incompatible with BRC-20 tokens,” said Andrew Poelstra, director of research at Blockstream.

Amid the controversy, the key takeaways from the Ordinals phenomenon include the ability to use the Bitcoin network in novel ways and the need to scale up its transaction capacity to avoid future traffic jams.

The true value of Ordinals is the capacity to store arbitrary data on the Bitcoin network, according to Sami Kassab, a research analyst at Messari.

“Whether it’s artists, activists or even governments that end up leveraging this storage space, it’s clear that the demand and cost for it will likely rise in the future,” Kassab said.

© 2023 Bloomberg LP

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RBI Deputy Governor Asks Banks to Gear for Blockchain Future as India Awaits Crypto Rules

Mahesh Kumar Jain, the Deputy Governor of the Reserve Bank of India (RBI), has predicted that technologies like blockchain and Artificial Intelligence (AI) would be part of the future of finance. The RBI recently met with the directors of Indian banks. The aim of this meeting was to address concerns and risk mitigation measures that India must be ready for in the future. The up-and-coming blockchain technology is the underlying system that supports cryptocurrencies, NFTs, and the overall Web3 sector.

Linking AI and blockchain to existing financial systems, the RBI official said, is essential to ensure the growth and stability of India’s digital finance sector.

“Indian banks will need to focus on digital transformation, enhance customer experience, adopt innovative technologies such as AI and blockchain, invest in cybersecurity measures, look for opportunities to derive synergistic benefits through collaboration with other players as well as upskilling their workforce to meet the demands of the digital era,” Jain said in the meeting.

The development comes just days after a Coindesk report claimed that Indian crypto exchanges were in “survival mode” right now. Citing sources from CoinDCX, CoinSwitch, WazirX, BuyUCoin, ZebPay, and Giottus, the report claimed Indian exchanges see their runways ranging from 21 months to four years before they land into a bull market.

Speaking to Gadgets 360, Unocoin CEO Sathvik Vishwakarma agreed that the next four years are indeed crucial for India’s crypto ecosystem and highlighted that progressing with tech is crucial for the nation to be ready for the hyper-competitive future.

“Regulatory environment, institutional adoption, tech advancement, market volatility, and investor sentiment are among several major factors that will shape the future of national as well as international fintech sector,” Vishwakarma said.

The Unocoin chief listed patchy policies, hack attacks on Web3 platforms, and resistance from traditional finance as factors that may delay the projected four-year trajectory, which may vary depending on the perspectives of industry insiders.

India’s CoinDCX exchange also emphasised that it is prioritising tech development in order to keep its services up to date and relevant for the users.

“CoinDCX is using the bear market as an opportunity to build and enhance its technology. We are investing heavily in strengthening our capabilities and infrastructure to pave the way for the mass adoption of Web3,” the company told Gadgets 360.

For now, the RBI governor has asked banks to prioritise risk management, regulatory compliance, and sustainability solutions to ensure long-term resilience in the banking ecosystem.

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Younger Generations of Traders Favour AI Advancements in Crypto, Web3 Sector: KuCoin Report

Millennial and Gen Z members of the Web3 community are hopeful that advance Artificial Intelligence (AI) integration with the sector will finetune investment decisions for younger investors. KuCoin, that claims to be the fifth largest crypto exchange in the word, conducted a detailed study on how AI could be integrated into Web3 elements like crypto and blockchain gaming among others. While AI has been a popular tech tool among developers for nearly a decade now, but discussions around the technology picked pace after AI-based chatbots like ChatGPT recently blew up on social media. Now, as the technology has seen widespread adoption, Big Tech is racing to integrate AI tools in its services.

KuCoin surveyed 1,125 crypto users from different parts of the world to understand how the Web3 community perceives AI. The survey included responses from Gen Z users aged 18-24 (15 percent), Gen Y users aged 25-40 (54 percent), Gen X users aged above 40 (31 percent), with a varied level of experience in crypto investing.

Over 64 percent of the younger respondents confirmed that they were somewhat familiar with the uses of AI in crypto and blockchain. On the contrary, members of the GenX generation are lesser aware about AI utilisation in crypto as well as in other industries as well.

This calls for an acceleration in education and awareness initiatives, especially tailored for the understanding of GenX population, the report noted.

Investors of the GenX category, comprising of those born in the mid-1960s till about 1980, are not really enthusiastic about loading up existing tech services with multiple newer technologies like AI.

Whereas 59 percent of millennials and Gen Z participants supported the addition of AI to crypto trading and educational activities.

“The enthusiastic response from our users about AI integration and blockchain efficiency is incredibly motivating. At KuCoin, we are steadfast in our dedication to staying at the forefront of technological advancements and constantly improving our platform to meet the dynamic needs of the crypto community,” Johnny Lyu, CEO, KuCoin, said, weighing in on the findings of this survey.

Generative AI for text, such as ChatGPT, is favoured across all generations, with 51 percent of respondents preferring it.

Not just AI, but other technologies like Machine Learning (ML) can add more capabilities to crypto and Web3 services.

Industry players have already begun experimenting the integration of blockchain tech with AI and ML.

Earlier this week, Indian crypto exchange CoinDCX announced that it was refreshing its Okto crypto wallet service with AI and ML capabilities, especially around security. CoinDCX claims that Okto has been integrated with an advanced cognitive AI technology, making it the first ever self-custody wallet infused with AI. In addition, the Okto team has also deployed ML to analyse and monitor patterns in usual and unusual crypto transactions.

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Hong Kong Commences CBDC Pilot; Multiple Fintech Players Onboarded for Trial of e-HKD

The introduction of central bank digital currency (CBDC) by central banks in different parts of the world has emerged among the top banking tweaks to be recorded as major banking innovations. Hong Kong has now become the latest nation to join the list of countries like India, China, Japan, and Nigeria among others that are conducting advanced studies and trials of their respective CBDCs. The e-HKD CBDC of Hong Kong is being launched into its pilot phase this week so that its use cases could be accessed and tested thoroughly before its commercial roll out.

Created on blockchains, CBDCs are the digital representations of fiat currencies that eliminate the need for paper-based physical notes while also recording the details of all transactions in an unchangeable format on the blockchain.

This week, the Hong Kong Monetary Authority (HKMA) officially announced the commencement of the pilot programme of the e-HKD CBDC.

In the coming months, the financial authorities of Hong Kong will work with industry leaders to explore the potential use cases of its CBDC broadly in six categories — full-fledged payments, programmable payments, offline payments, tokenised deposits, settlement of Web3 transactions as well as settlement of tokenised assets.

“Through this iterative process, the outcomes and insights gained from each pilot would help enrich the HKMA’s perspective and refine the HKMA’s approach to the possible implementation of e-HKD. The HKMA is not yet at a point where a firm decision can be made to introduce e-HKD,” said an official blog post by the HKMA.

A total of sixteen entities from the sectors of finance, technology, and payment processing have been onboarded by Hong Kong to participate in its CBDC trials.

The leaders of these sixteen organisations were present at the event where the HKMA announced the launch of the e-HKD and they all revealed their plans to test the CBDC as part of its trial process.

“We are excited to kick-start the e-HKD Pilot Programme. By fostering government-industry-academia collaboration in CBDC research, we aim to ensure the relevance of our research and development efforts, and enable the translation of such outcomes into viable business opportunities,” Eddie Yue, the Chief Executive of the HKMA, said in the blog post.

In the months to come, the HKMA is looking to increase the participation of the government in the CBDC trials. A CBDC Expert Group will also be established by the HKMA, comprising of academicians and researchers from local universities.

Hong Kong has left it to the banks to discuss and decide if they wish to keep the e-HKD either centralised — under their control, or decentralised — where the CBDC would be distributed away from a central, authoritative location in small fractions.

Unlike the UK and the US, that have taken a rather democratic approach and invited suggestions on CBDCs from their nationals, Hong Kong wishes to keep the process more in the hands of the authorities.

Given the growing interest in crypto among its citizens, the country has also amended its Anti-Money Laundering (AML) and Counter-Terrorist Financing (Amendment) Bill 2022, to now include crypto transactions as well.

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Coinbase Crypto Exchange Posts Smaller Quarterly Loss After Costs Cuts

Cryptocurrency exchange Coinbase Global posted a smaller-than-feared loss in the first quarter, benefiting from cost cuts and diversification of revenue sources, sending its shares up 7 percent in extended trading on Thursday.

The company has benefited from its deal for One River Digital Asset Management to ramp up product offerings in subscription and services revenue, while it also launched wallet-as-a-service and other products to scale blockchain.

“We’re also seeing the benefits of increased cost efficiencies, and we’ve taken deep lessons from growing too quickly and believe that we are going to be prudent in our spend going forward,” Chief Financial Officer Alesia Haas said.

Coinbase posted a loss of 34 cents a share, while analysts estimated a loss of $1.35 (roughly Rs. 110) as investors tiptoe back to the speculative asset class to hedge against elevated market risks after a brutal selloff last year.

But the trend is yet to power gains for the cryptocurrency exchange as trading volumes more than halved to $145 million (roughly Rs. 1,200 crore) while retail trading volumes, which had been instrumental in making Coinbase a household name in 2021, sank 72 percent.

Earlier this year, the company said it will cut 950 more jobs in its the third round of layoffs since last year.

Haas said the improved cost-structure will help the company hit its 2023 goal to improve core profit year-over-year.

The company lowered operating expenses by 24 percent from last quarter and reported $607 million (roughly Rs. 5,000 crore) in expenses, much lower than its prior range of between $625 million (roughly Rs. 5,100 crore) and $675 million (roughly Rs. 5,500 crore).

“Everyone was expecting disastrous results, and it does not look to be a disaster for Coinbase at all,” said Dave Weisberger, CEO of CoinRoutes, an algorithmic-trading platform for the digital asset industry.

Coinbase shares, which lost 85 percent of their value in 2022, have risen nearly 40 percent this year as of Thursday’s close as cryptocurrencies gain some ground.

© Thomson Reuters 2023

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Mastercard Plans to Expand Crypto Payment Card Programme With New Tie-Ups

Mastercard will expand its cryptocurrency payment card programme by seeking more partnerships with crypto firms, the company’s head of crypto and blockchain said, even as the sector comes under closer scrutiny from regulators and banks grow wary.

Mastercard has already partnered with crypto exchanges including Binance, Nexo and Gemini to offer crypto-linked payment cards in some countries. The Binance cards allow users to make payments in traditional currencies, funded by their cryptocurrency holdings on the exchange.

“We have dozens of partners around the world who offer crypto card programmes and they continue to expand,” Raj Dhamodharan, Mastercard‘s head of crypto and blockchain, told Reuters on Thursday.

“Providing access to crypto in a safe way is also part of our value proposition and we’re continuing to do that.”

Banks have become wary of crypto clients after a number of big crypto firms collapsed last year, including the bankruptcy of major exchange FTX. Meanwhile, US regulators are increasingly cracking down on what they say is a lack of compliance in the market.

In March, the US Commodity Futures Trading Commission sued Binance, accusing the world’s largest crypto exchange of operating what the regulator called an “illegal” exchange and a “sham” compliance program.

Binance CEO Changpeng Zhao said the complaint contained an “incomplete recitation of facts”.

Dhamodharan declined to comment on Binance specifically, but said any card programme “goes through full due diligence” and is continuously monitored.

Some banks, including Santander and NatWest, limit the amount of money UK customers can transfer to cryptocurrency exchanges to protect consumers from scams and fraud.

In November, rival Visa severed its global credit card agreements with FTX. American Express — which had said in 2021 it would consider using crypto as a possible option to redeem reward points — said in February that it did not see crypto replacing its main payment and lending services in the near term.

Asked if Mastercard is considering imposing restrictions on the amount of money that could be transferred to crypto exchanges using its payments network, Dhamodharan said, “We’re not here to pick winners. We’re not here to pick which transaction should happen or shouldn’t happen.”

He added users of Mastercard’s network go through a number of compliance checks, adding that the company has invested in crypto analytics technology.

Mastercard is “really quite enthusiastic” about the underlying blockchain technology that powers cryptocurrencies, Dhamodharan said.

“We think more and more regulated money will come to this,” he said.

© Thomson Reuters 2023

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Telangana Looking to Promote Eco-Friendly Farming Practices via Blockchain, AlgoBharat Joins Efforts

India’s Telangana state is looking to introduce blockchain-based solutions to make activities related to farming more eco-friendly. The aim is to help farmers in the state to participate in organic farming, agroforestry, crop rotation, and solar power harvesting — all of which support reduction in greenhouse gas emissions and carbon sequestration, which is the process of capturing and storing atmospheric carbon dioxide to prevent excessive emissions. AlgoBharat, an India-centric initiative of the green Algorand blockchain, has joined Telangana in its eco-friendly Web3 initiative.

Telangana, that houses lakhs of farmers, wishes to make them carbon entrepreneurs with a better access to the carbon credits markets.

“By deploying blockchain-based traceability we will enable funding, provide infrastructure to monitor and record sustainable processes, generate credits according to recognised registries, and finally access markets for liquidation and fund realisation. Our solution with Algorand will automate and democratise the process so that even our farmers have access to the same opportunities as large corporations,” Jayesh Ranjan, Principal Secretary, Telangana state said in a prepared statement on Wednesday, April 19.

Carbon credits are permits for owners to emit a certain amount of carbon dioxide or other greenhouse gases without any legal consequence. One credit allows the emission of one ton of carbon dioxide or the equivalent in other greenhouse gases. A company can earn carbon credits by reducing its carbon footprint. These credits can then be sold or traded to other companies for a financial profit.

Carbon and other sustainable credits have historically required significant documentation and complexity to track with traditional methods. This makes the process unaffordable for many.

AlgoBharat, in a bid to make this process cost-effective for farmers, will be partnering with ecosystem companies building on Algorand to generate verifiable sustainable credits.

“Blockchain technology ensures transparency, traceability, and accountability in the generation of sustainable credits. Farmers, for example, will have the ability to record and verify their sustainable farming practices on the blockchain. They will be empowered to generate verifiable credits that can be traded on carbon markets, creating new revenue streams for the farmers and other populations whose livelihoods are critical to Bharat’s robust economy,” said AlgoBharat.

Released in 2019, Algorand is a green, proof-of-stake (PoS) blockchain. The developers of the blockchain claim to enable the convergence between decentralised finance (DeFi) and traditional finance.

In December 2022, the government of Maharashtra had teamed-up with the Algorand blockchain and health tech firm MAPay to store health data as NFTs.

Earlier this month, the Algorand Foundation launched its India-focussed initiative called ‘AlgoBharat’.

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Web3 Gaming in Asia ‘Crucial’ For Sector Development, Says New DappRadar Report

Asia houses the majority share of gamers in the world, because of which the Web3 gaming industry is looking hopefully at expanding the sector in the continent. The gaming community of Asia churns the maximum chunk of revenue. In its latest research report, DappRadar said the Asian nations of India, China, Japan, and South Korea collectively have over 1.7 billion video game players, and this big number has attracted the Web3 gaming community to lay their focus in this market on priority.

Over 55 percent of the global gaming community resides in Asia. The continent contributes over $72 billion (roughly Rs. 5,88,229 crore) in annual gaming revenue. The blockchain gaming market in Japan has specifically garnered major interest of the gaming industry.

“Anime-based NFT collections have recently gained notable traction, comprising 10.73 percent of the top 1000 NFT collections‘ trading volume,” the report said.

Polygon and Ethereum — both eco-friendly proof-of-stake (PoS) blockchains — have emerged as the top two blockchains most favoured for building Web3 games in Asia. With 30.8 percent market share, Polygon outshines Ethereum, that currently has a 9.2 percent share in terms of supporting Web3 games.

Established game publishers from Asia like Sony, Bandai Namco, and Wemade among others have begun incorporating blockchain-based elements like NFTs and the metaverse in their gaming ecosystems.

“This is a clear indication of the significance of the Asia region in the gaming industry. Blockchain gaming is still a nascent industry and has yet to become mainstream. However, this presents a significant opportunity for growth in the region, and with the rise of Asian gaming companies shifting towards Web3 and embracing blockchain technology, the adoption of blockchain gaming might come sooner than we expected,” the DappRadar report added.

Earlier this month, Bitget, a Seychelles-based crypto exchange, has decided to provide $100 million (roughly Rs. 819 crore) in the Asian Web3 market.

A recent Chainalysis report also recently highlighted that in the second quarter of 2022, 58 percent of web traffic from Asian nations to crypto services was NFT-related. Another 21 percent traffic was related to play-to-earn blockchain games.

Apart from Ethereum and Polygon, the DappRadar report has said that the Algorand blockchain is also emerging as a popular blockchain among Web3 game developers.

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Ethereum’s Shanghai Upgrade, First Major One Since Merge, Is Complete: Binance

The software that underpins the second-biggest crypto coin ether was upgraded on Wednesday and is online, cryptocurrency exchange Binance said in a tweet.

The move will give investors access to more than $30 billion (roughly Rs. 2,45,877 crore) of the digital tokens.

Known as Shapella, the latest upgrade to the Ethereum blockchain since its Merge upgrade will enable investors to redeem an offshoot of ether tokens that they have deposited in return for interest on the blockchain network over the past three years.

Such so-called “staked ether” tokens currently account for about 15 percent of all ether tokens, according to data firm Dune Analytics, and are worth some $31 billion.

“The Shanghai/Shapella Upgrade is complete. Deposits & withdrawals for ETH, OP, ARB and ERC-20 tokens via the Ethereum, Optimism, and Arbitrum networks are now back online,” Binance said in a tweet.

The changes will likely lead to heightened volatility for ether, investors have predicted.

Some believe that widespread redemptions could lead to a wave of selling, in turn weighing on the price of ether, whose market value of about $230 billion is topped only by bitcoin.

“The release of this previously unrealised investment may lead to significant downward price pressure if it is immediately liquidated,” Deutsche Bank analysts said in a note.

In its last significant upgrade, Ethereum in September drastically reduced its energy usage – a move proponents said would give Ethereum an advantage as it seeks to surpass bitcoin.

But ether has continued to lag its larger rival, gaining just under 60 percent this year versus a more than 80 percent jump for bitcoin.

After trillions of dollars were wiped from the crypto market in a bruising 2022, the sector has rallied in 2023 on expectations that central bank interest rate hikes are slowing.

Ethereum has grown popular in so-called decentralised finance applications, which offer financial services while avoiding traditional industry gatekeepers such as banks.

It remains, however, little used in mainstream commerce or finance.

© Thomson Reuters 2023

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