During the last two months, tether transactions have spiked considerably. More recently, however, USDT transactions on the Tron network have outpaced the number of tether transfers on the Ethereum blockchain. Despite a whole lot more ERC20-based tethers in the wild, the minted stablecoin using the TRC20 standard has seen a much larger transaction count all year long.

Tether (USDT) is a dominant stablecoin and it is used on a great number of exchanges as the token is paired with nearly every digital asset that has a market value. USDT commands the third-largest market capitalization with a $24.9 billion valuation today.

During the last 24 hours market data shows that tether (USDT) has seen $17 billion in global trade volume. In the early days, tether was minted on the Omni Layer network but for the last four years, USDT tokens have migrated to other blockchains.

In 2021, USDT is issued on a myriad of chains including Ethereum, Tron, Bitcoin Cash, EOS, Liquid, Solana, and Algorand. A great majority of tethers are minted using Ethereum’s ERC20 standard, and these tokens have seen significant transaction counts in recent years.

However, this year has been a different story as the tether (USDT) transaction count stemming from the Tron network has been outperforming its ERC20 rival. Every single day in 2021, Tron-based tether (USDT) transaction counts (tx count) have been larger.

For instance, data from Coin Metrics shows the last count three days ago, TRC20 tethers saw 247,000 transactions while the ERC20 tethers saw 179,000 that day. Now even though TRC20 tethers have a larger tx count, the aggregated volume of ERC20 USDTs is still 2x more valuable in terms of settlement.

TRC20-based tethers have beat Ethereum-based tether tx counts week after week for the entire year. Of course, cryptocurrency proponents suspect that the migration from Ethereum to Tron as far as accelerated transactions is likely due to rising ETH network fees.

Fees on the Tron network are near non-existent and Coin Metrics data shows the chain processes 3.1 million transactions per day in comparison to BTC’s 254,000+ transactions per day on January 24, 2021.

Ethereum transactions per day are currently over a million every 24 hours but the fees to transact with ether are much higher than the Tron network’s negligible transfer costs.

At the time of publication, the median transaction fee on the Ethereum network according to data from bitinfocharts.com shows fees are currently around $4.80 per transaction. There’s been a number of days in 2021, where ETH transaction fees have jumped above the $5 range.

What do you think about the number of transactions stemming from tether on the Tron network exceeding the tether transactions on Ethereum? Let us know what you think in the comments section below.

Spot-markets for Bitcoin, Bitcoin Cash, Ripple, Litecoin and more. Start your trading here.

Disclaimer: This article is for informational purposes only. It is not a direct offer or solicitation of an offer to buy or sell, or a recommendation or endorsement of any products, services, or companies. Bitcoin.com does not provide investment, tax, legal, or accounting advice. Neither the company nor the author is responsible, directly or indirectly, for any damage or loss caused or alleged to be caused by or in connection with the use of or reliance on any content, goods or services mentioned in this article.

On Monday, January 25, 2021, at roughly 2 a.m. (EST), the notorious old school miner from 2010 has spent another consecutive 21 decade-old block rewards with 1,050 bitcoin. This is possibly the same mining entity our newsdesk has been tracking for months. The bitcoin from 2010 moved today follows the exact same pattern as all the block reward strings our team has caught waking up during the last ten months.

For quite some time now, news.Bitcoin.com has been monitoring so-called ‘sleeping bitcoins’ that are starting to wake up after ten years. In 2020, our newsdesk has noticed that a great number of old-school bitcoin spends from 2010 have been transferred in consecutive strings of 20 to 21 block rewards and all of them confirmed in a single block.

As usual, the 999 BTC was again split into multiple fractions and followed the same movements as the previous string spends. The very last time news.Bitcoin.com reported on a large string of block reward spends from 2010, Russian blockchain researcher, Issak Shvarts, told our newsdesk that “these bitcoins are now owned by the crypto exchange Coinbase.”

All of the coins worth over $35 million spent on January 25, 2021, were confirmed at block height 667,558. Moreover, the corresponding bitcoin cash (BCH) block rewards were moved as well on Monday. Similar to all the other past spends, besides the March 11, 2020 transfer, the corresponding bitcoinsv (BSV) has not been touched.

49.49 BTC was transferred to one address and half of a bitcoin was sent to another address, which still sits idle. Moreover, just before the 21 decade-old blocks spent in block 667,558, two inconsistent 2010 blocks were spent at block height 667,534 and 667,538. The first spend was unique because the coinbase block reward was created on December 12, 2010.

Presently, from our collective research, we believe that the person who has transferred the significant number of strings from 2010 is very likely the same entity. It is always roughly around the same number of 2010 coinbase rewards, all mined during the same months, and all spent ten years later at around the same timeframe during the early morning hours (EST). The entity always methodologically follows the exact same pattern and seems to care less about privacy.

Another possible theory tied to this miner could indicate this individual or group of individuals mined a whole lot of bitcoins in 2010. For instance, if this person is the same entity, they have spent well over 7,000 BTC stemming from 2010 worth over $236 million using today’s exchange rates.

Of course, if the entity spent these coins right away they would have received far less than $236 million for each transfer’s spot price on the day the block rewards were moved. Furthermore, following the recording of all the 2010 block rewards spent in blocks 667,534, 667,538, and 667,558, a single 50 BTC block reward ($1.5M) mined on November 5, 2010, was spent at block height 667,629.

What do you think about today’s 1,000 bitcoin spend from the 2010 block rewards? Let us know what you think about this subject in the comments section below.

Use Bitcoin and Bitcoin Cash to play online casino games here.

Disclaimer: This article is for informational purposes only. It is not a direct offer or solicitation of an offer to buy or sell, or a recommendation or endorsement of any products, services, or companies. Bitcoin.com does not provide investment, tax, legal, or accounting advice. Neither the company nor the author is responsible, directly or indirectly, for any damage or loss caused or alleged to be caused by or in connection with the use of or reliance on any content, goods or services mentioned in this article.

Almost 55 percent of all the ADA wallets on the market have all of their funds delegated to a stake pool. The sharp rise in new ADA wallets created per day, accompanied by the increase of the total number of ADA staked has made Cardano by far the most decentralized blockchain network on the market.

Earlier this month, Cardano overtook Polkadot as the most decentralized blockchain network currently on the market. With over 69 percent of the total circulating supply of its native cryptocurrency ADA staked on the network, Cardano seems to be living up to its promise to become one hundred times more decentralized than Bitcoin.

The rapid rise of the number of new ADA wallets created, as well as the total amount of ADA staked Cardano has seen in the past couple of months has been attributed to the overall bear market, with many saying ADA was reacting to the altcoin boom.

However, several weeks into a consolidated market, most of Cardano’s on-chain metrics seem to be growing at a consistent pace.

According to data aggregated by Pieter Nierop, a Cardano stake pool operator, the number of wallets that have delegated all of their ADA has reached its all-time-high number of 152,417. This represents 54.92 percent of the 277,538 ADA wallets on the market.

Since the beginning of the year, over 600 million ADA has been delegated to stake pools. Data from AdaPools and AdaStat have shown that there is currently 22.1 billion ADA staked—a sharp increase from the 21.45 billion staked on Jan. 1, 2021.

Another testament to Cardano’s rapid decentralization is the sharp decrease in the average number of ADA delegated per wallet. Since Dec. 25, 2020, the average number of ADA in delegated wallets has been steadily decreasing, and now stands at just under 145,000 ADA. This means that the network is being controlled by a large number of users that hold smaller sums of the network’s native coins.

With more than 69 percent of its total circulating supply now staked, Cardano has surpassed Polkadot as the most decentralized network in the world.

As the price of ADA reached $0.38, the value of the tokens locked in Cardano’s treasury briefly surpassed $100 million.

The number of new ADA wallets has skyrocketed in the past month, with an average of 64 wallets created every hour between December 16 and January 4.

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I’m not too sure about you guys but one of the most fascinating things I’ve seen in DeFi is airdrops.

The price of Bitcoin broke out of its 4-day range, pushing above a critical technical resistance level at $33,800.

Bitcoin has seen some volatility over the past few weeks.

The total weekly inflows in crypto-related investment products reached a record high of $1.31 billion last week after minor outflows in the previous weeks. Institutional investors still prefer Bitcoin over other digital assets as the world’s largest cryptocurrency accounted for 97% of the total weekly inflows.

According to a report published by CoinShares, Europe’s largest crypto asset management firm, the average daily trading volume of Bitcoin jumped significantly in 2021. So far this year, BTC has had an average trading volume of $12.3 billion per day, compared to just $2.2 billion in 2020.

Overall, Bitcoin accounts for 83% of the total digital assets under management, but the 97% weekly inflow into BTC shows that investors have more confidence in Bitcoin as compared to other crypto assets.

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“Ethereum saw inflows of US $34m last week, although investors have been cautious, with little inflows since early December. Despite the record inflows, investment products have not tested the liquidity of the underlying Bitcoin, with investment products representing only 6.5% of total Bitcoin trading turnover,” the report states.

The report by CoinShares mentioned that significant volatility in Bitcoin this year has made investors more price-conscious. BTC achieved an all-time high of $41,500 earlier this month after a record-breaking price rally. Bitcoin has lost nearly 25% of its value after registering a record-high and the world’s most valuable cryptocurrency is now trading near $31,000. Additionally, Ethereum registered an all-time high of $1,470 yesterday after posting nearly 20% gains over the weekend.

“We believe investors have been very price-conscious this year due to the speed at which prices in Bitcoin achieved new highs. The recent price weakness, prompted by recent comments from Secretary of the US Treasury, Janet Yellen and the unfounded concerns of a double spend, now looks to have been a buying opportunity with inflows breaking all-time weekly inflows. So far this year, volumes in Bitcoin have been considerably higher, trading an average of US$12.3bn a day compared to US$2.2bn in 2020,” CoinShares mentioned in the report.

TL;DR Breakdown:

It’s more evident that blockchain is not only tied to digital currencies. Presently, the technology is being applied across several sectors to improve trust, transparency, and immutability of information. Even during the Coronavirus outbreak, many governments had supported the use of blockchain to develop COVID-19 tracing applications.

Today, hospitals in the United Kingdom (UK) are currently using the technology to monitor the temperature of COVID-19 vaccines, according to a CNBC report on Tuesday.

The blockchain-based tracking system was developed by Everyware in partnership with the Google-backed blockchain consortium Hedera. UK hospitals such as South Warwickshire’s National Health Service facilities are reportedly using the technology to track the temperature of COVID-19 before using the drugs on patients. This is an important development given that COVID-19 vaccines, especially from Pfizer and BioNTech, are temperature-sensitive.

They ought to be stored at a certain temperature before usage. So, from the storage facility, the sensors from Everyware monitor the temperature of the COVID-19 vaccines and pass the information to the blockchain, where it becomes tamper-proof and can be accessed by the hospitals. An official at Everyware, Tom Screen, mentioned blockchain data immutability as a reason they chose to use the technology.

“The benefits of an immutable ledger to verify the validity of data as close to the source as possible has a positive effect on the accuracy of downstream analytics, where any error in source data would be magnified in output datasets,” he added.

It’s safe to mention that the potentials of blockchain technology can never be overemphasized. The technology is helping to rebuild trust in daily activities, and transparency especially in supply chain management. IBM has championed this sector through its blockchain network. Last year, Cryptopolitan reported many companies that joined the IBM blockchain network to improve the traceability of products. They include Rolar de Cuyo, Folgers Coffee, and others.

LONDON — Two hospitals in the U.K. are actively using blockchain technology to help maintain the temperature of coronavirus vaccines before administering them to patients.

The National Health Service facilities in South Warwickshire, England, are using tech developed by U.K. firm Everyware and U.S. organization Hedera Hashgraph. Everyware uses sensors to monitor equipment in real-time, while Hedera is a blockchain consortium backed by the likes of Google and IBM.

Though originally created as the digital ledger underpinning bitcoin, blockchain has since been adapted by various industries for applications outside the realm of finance. IBM and Walmart, for instance, have used blockchain to trace food supply chains and identify potential contamination.

Tom Screen, technical director at Everyware, told CNBC that its sensors would monitor the temperature of refrigerators storing vaccines. It then transmits the data to its own cloud platform where it is encrypted and then passed on to Hedera's blockchain network.

The point of this operation is to keep a tamper-proof digital record of temperature-sensitive vaccines, like the ones developed by Pfizer and BioNTech. The hospitals would, in theory, be able to pick up on any irregularities in the storage of the vaccines before administering them to patients.

Pfizer's vaccine must be stored at subzero temperatures (-70 degrees Celsius), and can only last at two-to-eight degree Celsius conditions for up to five days, creating big hurdles for the logistics in distributing it.

The vaccines developed by Moderna and Oxford-AstraZeneca, however, can be stored at temperatures that are within the reach of the average home refrigerator for longer.

Blockchain saw much hype back in 2017, as the value of cryptocurrencies like bitcoin skyrocketed. It led to several projects from major companies including IBM and Walmart, as well as governments, lured in by the promise of replacing various old, paper-based processes for record keeping.

Today, the buzz around blockchain seems to have died down, with barely any trials and products based on the technology being announced by big corporates.

Asked why blockchain was needed rather than a regular database, Everyware's Screen said "data held in a private database can be verified against the state of data recorded on the public ledger."

"The benefits of an immutable ledger to verify the validity of data as close to the source as possible has a positive effect on the accuracy of downstream analytics, where any error in source data would be magnified in output datasets," he said.

Everyware competed in an open tender process involving other bidders to provide its services to the South Warwickshire NHS Foundation Trust, Screen said.

Vonovia, one of the leading housing companies in Germany, announced that it has issued €20 million ($24.3 million) worth of digital bonds on Stellar blockchain. The newly launched three-year bond will use Stellar blockchain technology for the transfer of real estate rights.

According to the official announcement, Vonovia collaborated with a Germany-based online marketplace, Firstwise to issue the tokens. The company plans to make the entire process of issuance more convenient and efficient with the use of Stellar blockchain.

Vonovia also outlined the recent initiatives by the German government to digitize the country’s financial system as a part of a wider blockchain strategy for greater transparency, market integrity and investor protection.

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Commenting on the issuance, Helene von Roeder, CFO at Vonovia, said: “Digitalization offers us the opportunity to finance ourselves faster, easier and more cheaply. The company has been successfully financing itself through the capital market for years and uses a wide range of financial instruments to do so. We want to try out new technology like Stellar to gain experience. We can well imagine that it will play an important role in the capital market in the future. Emissions are transparent and traceable in real-time, which guarantees a professional transaction standard. Additionally, it will enable us to attract new investors globally.”

In December, Finance Magnates reported about the approval of the German cabinet to eliminate the paperwork in securities transactions through blockchain technology. It seems like Stellar is becoming the preferred choice for governments around the world to build a digital economy. Earlier this month, Ukraine announced the selection of the Stellar blockchain network to build the country’s virtual assets ecosystem and its national digital currency.

Stellar (XLM) cryptocurrency has gained significant value since the start of 2021. XLM jumped more than 100% in the first 10 days of this year and reached a market cap of $6.6 billion after the recent announcements. As of writing, Stellar is trading around $0.30.

Blockchain can be shrouded in babble about consensus and cryptography and ledgers, leaving IT managers stewing in a cauldron of confusion. But in 2020, IBM made big strides toward bringing blockchain into the mainstream by focusing on the benefits it offers enterprise users.

Those virtues include the ability to connect with a wider range of partners to share data across secure networks built on trust and transparency. For large enterprises focused on digital transformation, blockchain is becoming a critical tool for accelerating those efforts.

“I think almost every CIO that is driving transformation has pivoted to thinking how to attack this in a way that’s going to be iterative, agile, fast, and open,” IBM blockchain general manager Alistair Rennie said. “Where we’ve had success is getting blockchain onto their radar as a really useful business tool. It’s not an esoteric technology discussion at this point. If you are trying to do multi-party integration with security and privacy, and you need to do it quickly in a way that is going to have a rapid business impact, then blockchain is a suitable technology to pursue that business goal.”

Blockchain is taking its place as another way to help companies leverage the surging amounts of data they are collecting, and IBM is trying to advance the adoption of blockchain along three pathways.

Blockchain uses distributed ledgers that are stored in multiple places, allowing for greater transparency into transactions happening across the system. It also enables secure identification of individual products, which has the potential to cut fraud and trace shipments on a very granular level.

IBM’s most fundamental blockchain effort involves contributing to Hyperledger, the Linux Foundation’s open source program to develop blockchain specifically for enterprise users. The foundation was formed in 2016, and its 30 founding corporate members include IBM.

“We early on decided that we were going to concentrate our efforts on helping to contribute to making Hyperledger a success with a strong focus on creating a blockchain platform that was really suited to enterprise needs,” Rennie said.

Part of the challenge was ensuring a clear distinction between blockchain and cryptocurrency, technologies that at the time often seemed synonymous in the minds of IT managers. In the case of Hyperledger, participants have created a basic peer-to-peer platform using distributed ledger technology that can then be adapted to projects in industries such as finance, manufacturing, IoT, and insurance.

Creating a cross-industry standard has eased the way to building digital exchanges that foster data-sharing in new ways, Rennie said.

According to the latest Hyperledger annual report published in early December, there are now 67 corporations and organizations building projects using the blockchain platform. IBM has become the largest contributor to the program, with 3,631 commits, more than triple the number of the second-largest contributor.

“For enterprise users, it’s important to make sure people had a strong and clear idea of who is participating in the networks,” Rennie said. “So we have contributed pretty significantly.”

While Hyperledger might be seen as a foundation, IBM decided it wouldn’t be enough to just create the tools. It would need to find ways to demonstrate what blockchain could do to overcome skepticism. To that end, the second part of its strategy has been to convene blockchain projects that could be used across different industries.

Perhaps the project that has drawn the most attention is the IBM Food Trust Network.

“It was designed to help create transparency across the food supply chain,” Rennie said. “From the farm through consumer and working with all the parties in between — such as processors, retailers, [and] transportation.”

Rennie explained that each of these different actors uses their own IT systems, creating a massive obstacle to integrating them into a single system. Even if it could be done, they’d only want to share limited information, and creating the trust to do that would be difficult.

By using blockchain, IBM created a neutral terrain that allowed for a multi-party integration hub. The system allowed each participant to connect and share data and have total transparency into what everyone else had shared with the networks.

That convinced major retailers such as Walmart and Carrefour to join so they could monitor the products that arrived on their shelves. This may sound simplistic, but tracking the provenance of something such as lettuce has always been remarkably difficult. By the time a head of lettuce arrives on a shelf, the store typically has little or no idea where it came from. That’s why whenever an E. coli outbreak involves lettuce, huge amounts have to be destroyed because no one can be sure which shipments came from the tainted source.

In the process of building the Food Trust network, IBM had to show partners how they could share sensitive information and what would be possible if they did.

“We had to show them what decentralized trust really looks like in a business world and then what does it look like when you put a real-world application together to try to move up or down the supply chain so that when you do product recall, then you know how to do that accurately,” Rennie said.

IBM partnered with Maersk on a similar initiative around shipping, called TradeLens. The platform allowed port owners, global container companies, logistics companies, customs officials, and shippers to organize around a centralized platform that used smart contracts to facilitate transactions. For an industry that still often operated by phone and fax machines, it was a big step forward.

“Ocean shipping is a very competitive business,” Rennie said. “And it’s pretty complicated if you look at everything from your supplier through transportation logistics, through docks, customs export controls, onto a ship and then unpacking it all on the other side. A typical container comes with a pretty significant volume of paperwork that travels with it. Having somebody who is trying to ship something and be able to get total clarity on where that pallet is at any point of time is extremely valuable.”

During the early phase of the pandemic last spring, IBM introduced the Rapid Supplier Connect, a blockchain platform to connect purchasers and suppliers of equipment needed during the pandemic. Rennie said that with sudden and massive shifts in supply chains — like fashion houses making masks and protective gear or spirit producers making hand sanitizer — all sorts of new players needed a way to connect.

The goal was to help buyers who might have little or no experience with such purchases sort through these new providers in a way that allowed materials to be verified. Rennie said the blockchain platform allowed these actors to quickly plug in and share data that made such purchases more transparent.

In this case, participants could be confident they were sharing just enough data in the blockchain for buyers and sellers to find each other. That made people more comfortable sharing data about purchases and prices and verifying new suppliers who joined, which helped create a trusted marketplace.

“Every one of these people coming to the table had a different supply chain system that tied into their hospital or their production factory,” Rennie said. “So you’re never going to get all of them onto a new supply chain in our lifetime, or even onto a common set of supply chains.” 

Having used these projects to establish blockchain’s viability, IBM is now increasingly focused on attracting enterprise users.

Via its Global Business Services, IBM has been working with companies to set up their own blockchain platforms. So far, it has developed more than 100 of these.

“I think we’re getting through to partners that blockchain is a suitable technology to pursue their business goals,” Rennie said. “There’s enough people that have proven these patterns so that you’re not going to be the first one trying that approach. So I think we’re making progress helping with some of the anxiety people have.”

The advantages again include more flexibility and more transparency, Rennie said. This has become critical as more enterprises push for digital transformation.

“Over the last 18 months, there’s been a rapid acceleration as business leaders are starting to understand that some of the multi-party integration they wanted to do is now possible and understanding how to apply blockchain to some of these pretty difficult business integration and data-sharing problems,” Rennie said.

Going back more than two years, Rennie said most of these projects were primarily pilots. But over the past year, more partners have been putting them into daily use. That includes such high-profile partners as We.trade, which is using blockchain to facilitate financing for small and medium-sized businesses, and Home Depot, which uses it to manage relationships with its suppliers.

Going forward, IBM sees blockchain as an important tool for its expanding hybrid cloud strategy. Rennie said blockchain is another way to help manage the complexity that comes with using different cloud services.

“When you think about the hybrid cloud capability, a big part of what we’re helping people do is automate and integrate business processes in lots of different ways,” Rennie said. “Blockchain plays a pretty critical part because it allows integration automation and multi-party integration. Blockchain has gone from a future thought to a current thought.”

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The Biden administration is naming Gary Gensler as the new chair of the SEC. [Reuters] Gensler was the chair of the CFTC from 2009 until 2014 — he helped clean up the mess after the 2008 financial crisis.

Gensler knows precisely how crypto works. He thinks the Ethereum launch was an offering of securities. [New York Times] He wrote an op-ed for CoinDesk, with a headline calling blockchain a “change catalyst,” that made crypto fans think he was one of them — though he actually called it an “innovative irritant” and noted that “Crypto markets have been rife with scams, fraud, hacks and manipulation.” [CoinDesk]

Gensler is also a big fan of regulating hard — see Libra Shrugged, chapter 10. Don’t expect an easy ride, and don’t expect to get away with transparent nonsense. If you want to understand his thinking, watch his July 2019 testimony to the House hearing on Facebook’s Libra — 4:22:30 on. [C-SPAN]

FinCEN has extended the comment period on its proposed regulation to require more documentation on moving cryptos in and out of exchanges. The extension also notes additional legal backing that allows FinCEN to make this regulation. They thank everyone for the “robust” comments. [FinCEN]

No, I don’t know what’s going to happen when Tether has to deliver its documents by tomorrow. I don’t think a bell is going to strike at 00:01 UTC 15 January and all the tethers in the world turn into pumpkins. I do think this is when the next act of this interminable saga starts.

Ahead of the deadline, Tether CTO Paolo Ardoino and general counsel Stuart Hoegner recorded a podcast with Peter McCormack, explaining Tether to him. (Tether helped pay McCormack’s legal bills when Craig Wright sued him.) The interview didn’t quite alleviate anyone’s fears. [What Bitcoin Did]

Amy Castor put up a transcript noting all the new questions the interview raises. In particular, all those weekend wires to buy tethers? All of Tether’s immediate customers also bank at Deltec Bank in the Bahamas! Which, as it turns out, either doesn’t have $24 billion in assets, or hasn’t reported them to the Central Bank of the Bahamas. [Amy Castor]

Deltec’s Chief Investment Officer, Hugo Rogers, notes Deltec’s “large position in Bitcoin,” in case you were wondering. He emphasises the word “large.” [YouTube, 7:02 on; Deltec]

(We’ve spent three years on this, and the guy just YouTubed it out.)

Tether critic Bennett Tomlin and Larry Cermak from The Block also did a debate: “Is Tether acting in good faith?” Amy again has a transcript. [Blockchain Debate; Amy Castor]

The European Central Bank calls for Bitcoin to be taken seriously! Well, Christine Lagarde said they needed to regulate its “funny business.” [Reuters]

INSTITUTIONAL ADOPTION! is on hold, because the real-money institutions noticed that Bitcoin is stupidly volatile trash. “Institutional adoption” was always a promotional meme, and every “institution” that bought bitcoins was a HODLer paying company money to cash out … someone’s … stash. [FT, paywalled]

Bitcoin is trivial to cash out! Except in practice. Here’s one customer’s experience at Binance. [Twitter]

“This whole idea of being your own bank — let me put it this way, do you make your own shoes?” said Stefan Thomas, who lost the keys to a USB stick containing $220 million worth of bitcoins. “The reason we have banks is that we don’t want to deal with all those things that banks do.” [New York Times]

News stories called Thomas “a San Francisco programmer.” But he’s not just any San Francisco programmer — Thomas is former CTO of Ripple Labs, now with Coil. He wasn’t some naïve newbie — he is literally one of the guys who was fully equipped to know better than this.

The USB stick was an IronKey encrypted flash drive — a device specifically for data that, if you fail 10 guesses at the password, you would rather the data was destroyed. Thomas has had eight wrong guesses at his password so far.

Ripple gave Thomas 1 billion XRP when he left, so he could start Coil. Hope it wasn’t on the same USB stick.

Ex-employee Meg Elison says: “I used to work for this guy and it was like watching a Greek tragedy walk around and eat string cheese.” [Twitter]

Crypto marketing entrepreneur Steve Chen is awarded an exclusive 10 year government contract, in recognition of his business excellence in gemstone mining and digital currency with his company USFIA! Chen attracted $147 million in sales of gemstones, then of tokens representing the gemstones, to investors around the world. His fine work was particularly recognised by the IRS and the SEC, as well as the FBI and Homeland Security Investigations. There were apparently some issues with the gemstones never existing. Chen will be free for other contracts in 2031. [Justice Department]

DarkMarket, which was recently the largest darknet market, has been busted and taken down by the German authorities. This turned out to be because the proprietors were basically script kiddies — they used the Eckmar Marketplace software, a white-label darknet market package, which was an awful lump of PHP that was notorious for security problems. The server was leaking IP addresses via the response header “Server: DarkMarkets”. [Europol; Twitter]

Who says Bitcoin doesn’t have use cases? Some large payments in Bitcoin were sent in December to several far-right figures involved in the 6 January attempted US coup. [Yahoo! News; Chainalysis]

Before Parler was taken down after a violent coup against the United States was plotted on the platform, the whole database was leaked. Parler has had many other security and downtime issues over the years. But I’m sure they all had nothing to do with the CTO, Alexander Blair, being a “Blockchain Engineer,” who never quite realised that 2,147,483,648 — two to the thirty-first power — was a special number in computing, that you should take some care never to bump your head into, such as by using a 32-bit integer as the primary key of your posts database. Blair, who designed the database schema, called this “a limit we weren’t actively aware of.” [Twitter thread]

Twitter blocked its neo-Nazi users long ago in Germany and France, because they were required to do so by law — they even had a special flag on Nazi accounts, marking them as content that couldn’t be shown in those countries.

But finally pressing the button (that they had all along) to ban the Nazis from Twitter altogether, after the Nazi-saturated attempted coup, was so traumatic for CEO Jack Dorsey that he’s going to … put Twitter on a blockchain. [Twitter thread]

(Dorsey has a documented history of going out of his way to protect neo-Nazis on the service — when white nationalist Richard Spencer was kicked off for sockpuppeting, Dorsey “told his team that Mr. Spencer should be allowed to keep one account and stay on the site.” [WSJ, paywalled] This shows Dorsey’s commitment to free speech.)

So, will blockchains help? Says Dorsey: “The reason I have so much passion for #Bitcoin is largely because of the model it demonstrates: a foundational internet technology that is not controlled or influenced by any single individual or entity.” So at least he’s not going to try to use Bitcoin itself. Dorsey has been funding a team to work on this problem since late 2019, called Project Blue Sky. [Twitter]

Like many fabulous new blockchain ideas, Twitter on the blockchain is plausible only if you ignore history. There are any number of open and decentralised messaging standards — all of which foundered because the big providers preferred to run walled gardens instead. Twitter in particular is notorious for arbitrarily screwing over external API users.

So: sounds great, very idealistic! On the other hand, history. On the same other hand, your specific history.

The Office of the Comptroller of the Currency has conditionally approved crypto custodian Anchorage for a national trust charter for digital assets. The federal charter preempts state charter rules. [OCC; CoinDesk]

Rohan Grey thinks this is a bad idea, though the OCC’s requirements for this sort of thing are broadly along the lines set out by the proposed STABLE Act. [BlockWorks]

Brian Brooks, acting commissioner of the OCC, also posted a very dumb and bad editorial in the Financial Times pumping DeFi: [FT, paywalled]

DeFi turns all this on its head. It leverages blockchain technology to deliver services with no human intermediation. One example is creating money markets with algorithmically derived interest rates based on supply and demand — rates that traditional banks set by committee.

… Although these “self-driving banks” are new, they are not small. They are likely to be mainstream before self-driving cars start to fly.

This is a fabulous farrago of future hypothetical possibilities on how DeFi can make the world more amazing and wonderful, of the sort where people like me say “but on the other hand, the history of absolutely everything about DeFi, in practice and in theory.”

This editorial makes me even happier that the guy is out the door as of today, 14 January. [OCC]

Daniel Larimer, founder of EOS, has left the project. EOS dropped 30% on the news. [Finance Magnates]

eToro margin traders discover that crypto casinos are as trustworthy as the nocoiners always told them. As the crypto markets got more volatile, traders in contracts for differences (CFDs) were told on Friday 8 January: “If you do not increase the margin to 100%, then the position will be closed at 21:00 GMT today” — four hours’ notice. [CoinDesk]

Aggrieved traders are apparently approaching the Cyprus Securities and Exchange Commission to get eToro’s licence revoked. That is: they are suing over not being allowed to gamble in the manner they were hoping to. [CryptoNews]

“Wrapped Bitcoin” momentarily achieves a market cap of $432 quadrillion — over 1000 times the rest of the world’s economy put together! Sadly, it was just a glitch on CoinMarketCap. [FT Alphaville, free with login]

Who needs Technical Astrology when you can just go straight to the Astrology? Maren Altman predicts Bitcoin prices for you! “Saturn was going to cross Mercury.” [Reuters] Of course, I got there first — “The price went up in a triangular Fibonacci double-reacharound formation, moderated somewhat by both Makemake and Haumea being in Libra.” [Decrypt, 2019]

Alex Pickard: “Most proponents claim bitcoin is an unseizable, censorship-resistant, “digital gold” that provides inflation protection. Of course, like many narratives, this one relies on proponents’ completely ignoring the data.” [Research Affiliates]

Cas Piancey on the career of Jed McCaleb — founder of Mt. Gox and Ripple Labs. [Medium]

I did a podcast for CoinGeek on Libra Shrugged — “The birth pangs of Facebook’s crypto project.” Yes, Bitcoin SV was mentioned. [CoinGeek]

— Dr. Parik Patel, BA, CFA, ACCA Esq. 💸 (@ParikPatelCFA) January 11, 2021

— Ramp Capital (@RampCapitalLLC) January 12, 2021

— ri kardashian (@nycsadgirl) January 10, 2021

Hello. Analysts are reporting gloomy short-term projections for bitcoin as the U.S. Labor Department reports muted inflation over 2020. Here’s the story:

Alt season? Bitcoin and ether prices are about 87% and 78%, respectively, of their all-time highs, though the majority of altcoins (smaller market cap cryptocurrencies) are languishing. While some altcoins have spiked during the recent market run-up, retail investors have largely ignored these cheaper, and riskier, cryptos. That said, Messari found tokens embedded in the decentralized finance (DeFi) market – like maker (MKR), compound (COMP), aave (AAVE) and uniswap (UNI) – are seeing robust growth. 

Inflation projections Much of bitcoin’s growth in 2020 was driven by institutional investors turning to the hard-capped, deflationary asset as an inflation hedge. Hedge fund legend Paul Tudor Jones, MicroStrategy’s Michael Saylor and Guggenheim Partners Chief Investment Officer Scott Minerd, among others, have all spoken on bitcoin’s prospect as “digital gold.”

Fiscal stimulus and looser monetary policy in response to the coronavirus pandemic drove up inflation projections. Indeed, rates for U.S. Treasury bonds have been ticking up higher in recent days, crossing 1% last week, on calls for additional government spending – such as President-elect Joe Biden’s plan to inject “trillions of dollars” through an economic recovery package.

But the line of sight on inflation is anything but clear. The U.S. Labor Department reported today that a key measure of inflation, the Consumer Price Index (CPI), only increased 1.4% in 2020, the smallest yearly gain since 2015. For reference, 2019’s CPI rose 2.3%, while the 10-year average is estimated at 1.7%.

This is far below the Federal Reserve’s 2% inflation target. Last year, Fed Chair Jerome Powell signaled it would reverse course and allow the economy to run hot – above 2% – for periods, acknowledging the economy has missed this target for the last decade. Some investors and analysts are skeptical of any forthcoming change. Kathy Bostjancic of Oxford Economics, for one, is quoted in Barron’s casting doubt on the prospect of a rate increase before 2024.

Bloomberg urged readers to “Get Ready for the Great U.S. Inflation Mirage of 2021,” with economists Carl Riccadonna and Yelena Shulyatyeva quoted as saying, “2021 will be a year plagued by numerous unwarranted inflation scares. Consumer inflation will remain weak over the medium term — until the economy fully absorbs the slack resulting from the pandemic.”

Still, St. Louis Federal Reserve President James Bullard said Wednesday that inflation is likely to rise. Speaking at a Reuters conference, Bullard said the “money supply has ‘exploded,’ fiscal deficits are ‘off the charts’ and a hot economy may either already be here or ‘just around the corner,’” according to a Reuters report.

Ian Shepherdson, chief economist of Pantheon Macroeconomics, told CoinDesk over email he projects “a clear uplift to 2.5%-plus in Q2.” Though, “the key question of what happens when the economy reopens fully remains unanswerable at this point.”

So what does this mean for bitcoin and the rest of the crypto market table?

Well, unlike highly liquid and tradable assets like U.S. Treasury bonds that reflect any minute change in inflation projections, bitcoin often does its own thing.

Correlated with stocks and other traditional assets, bitcoin has largely followed the herd in price swings, although in a bull market, with the highest volatility in three years, anything is possible. On Monday, bitcoin shed 20% only to bounce back. And while analysts have grim short-term outlooks, many are convinced there’s still money sitting on the sidelines.

“Recent institutional investors have long horizons and will absorb near-term price shocks,” while retail investors would buy at discounted price levels for fear of missing out, Jehan Chu, managing partner at Hong Kong-based Kenetic Capital, told CoinDesk’s Omkar Godbole. “Expect temporary volatility and then a jump back to the $40,000 level, followed by $50,000 as the bitcoin percentage land grab continues.”

Bitcoin price briefly dipped below the $30,000 mark again today, recovering to stabilize around the $31,000 level.

Top-20 altcoins continue to perform well, as Ethereum rises 7%, XRP gains 2%, and Stellar jumps an impressive 27% over the last 24 hours.

The Office of the Comptroller of the Currency (OCC) is now permitting US banks to use stablecoins and run cryptocurrency nodes, as revealed in a newly published letter.

Banks will be able to use public blockchains to record and settle payments using stablecoins, with the OCC highlighting the benefits for cross-border transactions.

JPMorgan continues to increasingly embrace Bitcoin, setting a new long-term price target of $146,000 for the cryptocurrency as it begins to rival gold.

Contrary to this long-term prediction, the firm does not think that a further gain will be sustainable on Bitcoin’s current bull-run and that short-term advances into the $50,000 to $100,000 will not hold.

Popular cryptocurrency exchange OKEx has officially launched its very own OKExChain mainnet today, making 10 million native OKT tokens available to the community.

OKEx users will be able to earn OKT by staking their OKB exchange tokens, with no minimum or maximum limits on how much OKB can be staked.

According to information from IBM Corp, Thai Reinsurance Public Co. Ltd. launched the Insurer Network through the use of the IBM blockchain on its cloud. More specifically, Insurer Network is a reinsurance smart contract production network, while Thai Reinsurance Public Co. Ltd. is a technology-driven professional nonlife reinsurer.

One of the reasons driving this development was the global pandemic Coronavirus. In particular, the insurance industry is also significantly disrupted, not in the hospitality field. For example, business restrictions in Thailand caused by COVID-19 have increased the need for insurance companies to improve efficiency, reduce errors, and lower costs.

Thai Re Chief Executive Oran Vongsuraphichet stated:

“The COVID-19 pandemic and the need to digitally transform have urged organizations, not only in the insurance industry but all, to bring efficiency to the way we work. Thai Re has continuously focused on prudent underwriting professional portfolio management as well as business innovation throughout the past 40 years of our operations.”

This new network uses a distributed ledger blockchain to securely cryptographically secure information between multiple parties to create a tamper-proof historical record of insurance documents. Since the full ledger is shared between multiple parties and protected by cryptography, it reduces copy errors and is extremely difficult to tamper with, thus reducing the chances of fraud. Blockchain is also programmable, allowing the ability to create so-called smart contracts between parties. The contracts may hold the deposit and transfer it when certain conditions are met.

Reinsurance is the practice whereby multiple insurers agree to take on a portion of a larger risk portfolio in an agreement to split up the total payout for an insurance obligation. When connected to a smart contract, this means when the condition is met – for example, a claim is made – the smart contract uses the blockchain to pull already allocated currency to pay the obligation from the connected accounts.

So, what is the mission of blockchain? Thanks to blockchain, every stakeholder can be more certain that all involved members can meet their obligations and that there is no fraud involved in reinsurance contract creation thanks to the blockchain’s anti-tamper.

Through the launch of the Insurer Network platform on IBM Cloud, Thai Re believes the company can streamline the way it handles over 10,000 annual reinsurance contracts with insurance partners and help insurance companies. business development easier.

Pojaman Fuangaromya, executive vice president of Thai Re said:

“Our goal is to make this platform beneficial to Thailand’s insurance industry while also serving the need of consumers. We plan to invite almost 100% of all insurers and brokers in Thailand to leverage this Insurer Network blockchain-based smart contract platform within the next two years.”

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From the foregoing, it is evident that Corona will also play a major role in the lives of many Germans in 2021. So far the federal government has decided that the lockdown would be maintained until at least January 31, 2021. As a result, extensive preventive measures and tests play a key role in fighting pandemics. The airports are at the center of the test measures because air traffic gives the virus the chance to spread internationally quickly. Now Frankfurt Airport is causing a stir because the airport uses IOTA technology to verify the corona tests.

UBIRCH , a blockchain-based cybersecurity technology provider based in Cologne and several other locations, has developed the IT infrastructure for a solution it calls the “Digital Corona Test Certificate.” The solution supports verification of an individual’s SARS-CoV-2 status while remaining compliant with European data protection standards under the GDPR framework.

Frankfurt Airport’s coronavirus testing center is now using the Iota blockchain technology provided by Ubrich GmbH to manage passengers’ health stats. Since the pandemic heightened there has been a need for various biosurveillance measures that are relevant to privacy-enhancing technologies such as blockchain that could protect public health data amid the crisis.

“UBIRCH anchors an anonymous digital fingerprint in the blockchain. This way, an individual’s certified SARS-CoV-2 status can easily be verified by the airline at the departure gate, the arrival airport, or any other entry point by scanning a QR Code. Important to know is that at no point during the process are person-specific user data or test results visible in the blockchain.” said a representative from Ubirch

The company has confirmed that its service is now being used at the Centogene coronavirus testing center at Frankfurt Airport. It uses, in part, underlying technology from Iota:

“Among others, we use IOTA for making the Corona test results verifiable. […] We are working with IOTA for a while now. Our public anchors are in the main tangle for broad trust. In fact, we put trust anchors in multiple blockchains.” said the representative.

Digital identity solution providers have increasingly developed various products involving blockchain that are targeted for use during the pandemic. This solutions are developed alongside special blockchain apps to provide countries with “health passport”-like solutions for easing restrictions.

Some security experts remain concerned, however, about these emerging “proof-of-health” solutions and the complexities and challenges involved in truly ensuring the integrity of millions of users’ sensitive health data.

UBIRCH is a German startup that develops Internet of Things solutions. A central component of all solutions is a blockchain. The appropriate service in this case is document certification. The company has developed a blockchain-based process for forgery-proof documents. Based on the statement by the IOTA employee, it stands to reason that the IOTA token plays a key role here. Interested parties can find out more about the UBIRCH Corona test certificate here

Frankfurt Airport is the largest and most important airport in Germany. Accordingly, it is severely affected by the current corona pandemic. Nonetheless, it is very commendable that extensive tests are carried out here with a correspondingly certified and trustworthy solution.

UBIRCH using Iota blockchain technology to manage passengers’ health stats at Frankfurt Airport’s… was originally published in FrankfurtValley on Medium, where people are continuing the conversation by highlighting and responding to this story.

Hello A late evening interpretative letter from the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency (OCC), the UNITED STATE’ government financial regulatory authority, stating financial institutions can serve as stablecoin nodes was the juice required to press bitcoin out of the blues. JPMorgan experts see a future where 1 BTC can trade hands near $150,000, according to a brand-new record.

In various other governing information, the remark duration for a questionable wallet rule shut, with numerous hefty players coming out versus the UNITED STATE Treasury’s proposed regulations to boost exchange security. More on that particular later on, initially the leading tales for the day.

Banking on stablecoins A brand-new letter from the UNITED STATE government financial regulatory authority can provide stablecoin networks the exact same condition as various other international repayments networks like SWIFT or FedWire. In a feasible last act from Acting Comptroller Brian Brooks, UNITED STATE financial institutions can currently run as stablecoin nodes as well as are cost-free to send out purchases, as long as they adhere to safeties as well as various other laws. Bitcoin markets recoiled on the information.

Supply crisis Bitcoin mining device rates are skyrocketing in addition to bitcoin’s rate. According to information evaluated by Coin Workdesk, a rise in mining income, restricted production capabilities as well as a variety of brand-new mining participants has actually led to a supply scarcity. It does not aid that developed gamers like Riot as well as Marathon (both openly traded) have actually been getting up one of the most up-to- day ASICs miners.

Brazil’s market The fight to control Brazil’s expanding crypto retail field is warmed, with Argentina’s Ripio obtaining Bitcoin Profession, the second-largest crypto exchange in South America’s biggest economic situation. Last month, Mexico City- based crypto exchange Bitso increased a $62 million financing round, a piece of which was allocated for a Brazil press, the firm stated.

Gold insects A brand-new financial investment record from JPMorgan has actually established a $146,000 rate target for bitcoin. The favorable target is the most up to date logical note that bets bitcoin will certainly end up being a prominent choice to gold. “Bitcoin’s [current] market capitalization of around $575 billion would have to rise by 4.6 times – for a theoretical bitcoin price of $146,000 – to match the total private sector investment in gold via exchange-traded funds or bars and coins.” The something holding the bitcoin monster away?Volatility

11th hr? A remark duration for a proposed collection of regulations that would certainly raise coverage demands for crypto exchanges as well as lessen blockchain customer personal privacy shut the other day, with numerous significant crypto companies denying the maneuver.

Spearheaded by the UNITED STATE Treasury Department in December, however formed mostly by the international Financial Crimes Enforcement Network (FinCEN), the collection of regulations would certainly see exchanges execute know-your-customer (KYC) demands for purchases sent out to unhosted wallet addresses, or addresses that exist outside a central or custodial setup.

This would certainly imply numerous kinds of individual purses in addition to counterparties to exchanges’ consumers would certainly require to be recognized. Reporting restrictions would certainly be established for personal purses that get greater than $10,000 in 24 hr, as well as record-keeping regulations for purchases valued at over $3,000. FinCEN as well as the Treasury Department assert the enhanced security will certainly assist criminal enforcement as well as minimize economic impropriety.

The proposition was hurried out late on Friday,Dec 18– a week prior to numerous UNITED STATE staff members could anticipate to break for the wintertime holiday– with the Treasury establishing just a 15-day remark duration. Many crypto market analysts referred to the hurried timeline as difficult as well as possibly unlawful.

Still, some 6,000 remarks were submitted with FinCEN within this slim home window, with companies such as Square, Andreessen Horowitz (a16z), Kraken in addition to constitutional freedoms companies consisting of the Electronic Frontier Foundation (EFF) as well as Coin Center appearing hard versus the proposition. The coverage duration has actually considering that been “extended” tillJan 7.

“The process itself is fraught with an ‘us-versus-them’ hostility to the industry’s views – as seen by the breakneck schedule for a major rule, the thinness of Treasury’s justifications, and the lack of meaningful engagement before the eleventh-hour holiday rule making,” cryptocurrency system Coinbase stated, in a ready declaration.

While the hurried timeline was a constant target– the rule was proposed as United States Secretary of the Treasury Steven Mnuchin is established to leave workplace– others kept in mind the depraved results these brand-new coverage demands can have for the new crypto market.

“This creates unnecessary friction and perverse incentives for cryptocurrency customers to avoid regulated entities for cryptocurrency transactions, driving them to use non-custodial wallets or services outside the U.S. to transfer their assets more easily,” Jack Dorsey, Chief Executive Officer of repayments firm Square, created.

In a news release, Kraken kept in mind the proposed rule would certainly be a “substantial departure from existing law.” And one, that if passed, Coinbase as well as a16z have actually promised to fight in court.

In protection of the proposition, Coin Workdesk reporter as well as economic blog owner John Paul Koning tweeted the regulations would certainly bring the crypto market according to techniques currently in position for cash transmitters, such as those adhered to by compensation gigantic MoneyGram.

“Coinbase sending cryptocurrency to an unhosted address is like MoneyGram remitting physical cash to a stranger. MoneyGram has to collect personal information about the stranger. Shouldn’t Coinbase have to collect information about the unhosted wallet?” Koning created.

In feedback, Coin Center Director of Research Peter Van Valkenburgh, wrote that “equating a blockchain transaction to a funds transfer ignores the obvious difference … blockchain transactions can happen peer to peer while wires are always intermediated.”

Indeed, there are noteworthy distinctions in between both systems of worth transfer. With blockchains offering a public journal of all purchases, a raised coverage rule can be an excellent breach right into an exchange customer’s economic personal privacy than just recognizing the recipient of a compensation– the complete background of both counterparties economic lives would certainly get on complete sight, consisting of those that are unassociated to any kind of central exchange.

As the EFF stated in its declaration versus FinCEN’s regulations: “Anonymity is important precisely because financial records can be deeply personal and revealing: They provide an intimate window into a person’s life, revealing familial, political, professional, religious and sexual associations.”

The number of Tether transactions on the Tron blockchain has surpassed Ethereum’s count for three weeks in a row as fees on Ethereum remain high. Investors and traders move towards the Tron blockchain because transactions cost a fraction of the fees required of trading on Ethereum.

The number of total weekly Tether (USDT) transactions on Ethereum over the last four weeks is approximately 1.5 million. Meanwhile, USDT transactions on Tron have grown from around 900k in mid-December, to over 2 million at the time of writing. 

From the 17th to the 21st January 2021 USDT transactions on Tron grew from 240k to over 310k, which is a 70k increase across 4 days. Conversely, transactions on Ethereum for the same time frame grew from 186k to 214k, which is a 28k increase. Based on the data collected from CoinMetrics both blockchains have seen growth over the same period of time, both Tron’s growth has been much greater.

The average fee for an Ethereum transaction in dollars set a record high of above $19 a week ago but now sits just below $8. The average fee is still well under the all-time peaks of 2020  which was up to $50 or 0,041 ETH at the time of writing for a standard transfer. However, this month gas fees on Ethereum surpassed 0.015 ETH multiple times per data from Blockchair. 

Given these escalating prices, other blockchains have been able to make up ground on Ethereums dominance. It’s quite logical to use Tron as it has a good level of UX, and adoption in the exchange category. But mainly, the cost of transactions on Tron is far cheaper than on Ethereum right now. 

Without a doubt, in 2020 Tron was effectively playing catch up as the DeFi category exploded on Ethereum. Tron built what were effectively copies of the best Ethereum projects and these dapps started to generate substantial activity. As of the end of 2020, there were more than 17,000 unique active wallets within the Tron DeFi ecosystem daily. 

Looking at the top 5 exchange dapps on Tron reveals which dapps play a vital role in the maturing Tron DeFi ecosystem.

The top 5 exchanges on Tron have generated over $42 million in transaction volume in the last 7-days. 

JustSwap, an exchange protocol on Tron for exchanges between TRC20 tokens is the current leader when analyzing 7-day data ranked by transaction volume. JustSwap accumulated over $22 million in transaction volume over the last 7-days.

New entry USWAP has generated over $11 million whilst Poloni DEX, TronTrade and Zethyr Finance combined, contribute approximately $8 million. 

Following the launch of its Uniswap-inspired AMM JustSwap Tron also launched its MakerDAO-inspired JUST dapp. As with MakerDAO, JUST is all about locking collateral into a smart contract and using its value to mint a stablecoin as a loan.

The introduction of these dapps throughout 2020 has certainly helped Tron make up valuable ground on Ethereum. More positive signs for Tron are appearing especially as we observe the number of tether transactions on the Tron blockchain surpassing Ethereum’s count for three weeks in a row. 

High gas fees on Ethereum are directly benefitting Tron and its DeFi ecosystem. Users are looking for cheaper alternatives and for the time being, Tron offers one of the most viable options.