🏋️‍♂️ Ordinals push BTC transactions to ATH

🏋️‍♂️ Ordinals push BTC transactions to ATH 🥩 Ethereum's staking platforms continue to grow 🏋️‍♂️ Mining costs have tripled in the US

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Here's what recently happened in the space:

Ordinals push BTC transactions to ATH

Ordinals have pumped BTC's average daily txns amounts back to the ATH, and even beyond. BTC's average daily transactions reached a record high of 426,337.14 on April 29 as per Glassnode data — the highest since Dec 2017. This rise in daily transactions reflects an increasing interest and active usage of the network, mostly for Ordinals.

A recent report from Grayscale has indicated that Ordinals are bringing more attention to BTC network, potentially helping its reputation and perception. The asset management firm noted that “Ordinals represent one of the larger opportunities for Bitcoin adoption”.

This increased traction is making waves beyond just BTC as well, with Matixport research in February indicating that NFTs could help push Stacks, a BTC layer2 network, into a billion-dollar token. With STX's market cap now crossing the $1 billion mark, it appears that Matixport was spot on with their prediction.

These developments indicate that Ordinals and NFTs are helping to drive Bitcoin and its associated networks forward into broader adoption. With more users and transactions coming to the network, it's likely that the momentum will only continue in the near future.

Ethereum's staking platforms continue to grow

Ether staking continues to fatten. The TVL for Lido, WSE, Rocket Pool, Frax, Stakewise, Stakehound, Ankr, Ether.fi and Bitfrost has grown to over $16 billion. The growth of these protocols is impressive and shows no signs of slowing down; in fact, six out of the top ten protocols have seen double-digit growth over the last 30 days.

Lido is currently dominating the market with 73.6% of all Ethereum locked in liquid staking protocols, coming out to 6,206,101 ETH of 8,431,605 ETH locked in total. The other key players such as WSE and Rocket Pool are following close in Lido's footsteps.

The Shapella upgrade has played a vital role in the growth of Ethereum staking protocols. Since then, 400,735 ethereum worth $763,600,542 using today’s ether exchange rates have been added to the liquid staking cache. This influx of ETH has provided a significant boost to the growth of such protocols, resulting in an overall increase of 7.62% in total Ethereum staked over the last month.

The Ethereum staking market is proving to be an attractive investment opportunity as users continue to take advantage of the lucrative returns on offer. With more protocols emerging and increasing liquidity, Ether staking looks set to become even bigger in the months ahead.

Mining costs have tripled in the US

The drop of crypto prices since the start of 2022 has caused miners to look for more cost-effective solutions to mine crypto. However, for those mining in the United States, costs have more than tripled in just one year. According to data from Hashrate Index and Luxor, it now costs at least $17,000 to produce one BTC in the US, compared to $5,000 a year ago.

The drastic increase has been largely attributed to soaring electricity rates across U.S. states. Commercial electricity tariffs have surged at an average of 10.71% per state between January 2022 and January 2023 - higher than the Consumer Price Index surge of 6.4%.

Bitcoin miners in the US are now faced with a difficult decision - to either leave the country to seek more cost-effective solutions, or to stay and face higher production costs and narrower profit margins. With electricity rates continuing to rise, it looks like this problem won't be disappearing anytime soon.