NFT Google Search Volume Exceeds DeFi and Ethereum (ETH) As Celebrities Join the Craze

Non-fungible tokens popular as NFTs are soaring in a wild rage currently in the crypto markets. The craze around NFTs is so high that the Google search for NFTs has skyrocketed in recent times thereby exceeding decentralized finance (DeFi) and coming closer to the interest of Ethereum (ETH). As crypto-journalist Wu Blockchain reports:

A non-fungible token (NFT) s a special type of cryptographic token representing something that is unique. Thus, no two NFTs are mutually interchangeable. These tokens are basically created to represent digital scarcity, and give digital ownership.

Recently, celebrities and billionaire investors interested in high-ticket items have also joined the NFT craze. Billionaire Marc Cuban has already joined the NFT mania and much recently he shared a digital collectible commemorating Luka Doncic and Dirk Nowitzki.

Ethereum blockchain has been one of the popular destinations for NFTs. It hosts some of the popular NFT games like CryptoKitties that caught massive craze in late 2017. However, other NFT marketplaces like Rarible and OpenSea are catching up with popularity at a quick speed.

Top NFT News Over the Last Week
Over the last week, the crypto market has been flooded with NFT news with NFTs and digital collectible worth millions of dollars have been sold in the open market. Popular personalities from different frontiers like music, digital artwork, sports and others are warming up to NFTs.

American Rockbank Kings of Leons is planning to launch its new album “When You See Yourself,” in the form of NFT. The album will be available on NFT Marketplace YellowHeart later today and the sale process will continue for a period of two weeks. The rock band will also offer several other exclusive items in the form of a series called “NFT Yourself”.

Recently, the original artwork of Banksy dubbed Morons, worth a massive $100,000, was destroyed only after converting it to a non-fungible token (NFT). The destruction of the physical artwork took place earlier this week in Brooklyn, New York and live-streamed. The auction for the Banksy NFT is taking place on the OpenSea NFT marketplace and will continue up to March 9. The winning bidder gets the unique digital code of the artwork.

250-year-old auction house Christie’s recently conducted a sale of digital artwork by Mike “Beeple” Winkelmann using NFTs on the digital marketplace MakersPlace.

Legendary digital artist Ben Mauro, recently conducted the sale of his 21 NFTs which were all sold in a flash sale of just under 7 minutes raising a whopping $2 million. The sale took place on the VIV3 Marketplace leveraging the Flow Blockchain.


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​​Coinbase Reportedly Valued at USD 90B in a Private Auction.

US-headquartered major crypto exchange Coinbase is said to be valued at USD 90bn in a private auction.

The company shares traded at some USD 90bn value last week, based on USD 350 a share, which is the price the stock was trading at the auction last Thursday on the Nasdaq Private Market, a division of Nasdaq focused on trading shares in companies before they go public, Bloomberg reported, citing people familiar with the matter.

Furthermore, earlier in the auction, some shares had changed hands at USD 375, which would value Coinbase close to USD 100bn.

However, the report noted that private trading is more restrictive with usually smaller volumes than in the public markets, and "not a perfect picture of the company's value." The Nasdaq will set a reference price for investors prior to the direct listing, which is partly based on private trading activity, and these private trades "aren't necessarily indicative of where the stock will actually trade," it said.

This auction was the last time shares are being sold on the Nasdaq Private Market before Coinbase goes public in late March, the cited people said.

Also per Bloomberg, based on company filings and news reports, Coinbase founder Brian Armstrong's "stock options could total a USD 3 billion windfall ... from the digital currency exchange's direct listing as a trend of mega grants to tech founders continues full steam ahead."

As reported, last year, Armstrong earned USD 56m of stock option awards on top of a USD 1m salary, as well as USD 1.8m in reimbursement for legal and security fees.

Coinbase filed to go public on February 25, via USD 1bn direct listing on the Nasdaq Global Select Market under the symbol COIN. In the filing with the US Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC), the company said it had 43m verified users last year and 2.8m monthly transacting users, as well as USD 90bn worth of assets on the platform, USD 456bn lifetime trading volume, and over USD 3.4bn in total revenue as of December 31.

​​Justin Sun: Christie’s Tech Glitch Stopped Me Paying USD 70M for Beeple NFT.

The Tron (TRX) chief Justin Sun has spoken out after it was confirmed he was thwarted in the finals seconds during his attempt to buy the first piece of digital-only art to go under the hammer at the auction house Christie’s.

Initially, it was reported that Sun had been successful with a USD 69m bid for the work, entitled “Everydays: The First 5,000 Days,” by the artist Beeple. But it later emerged that Sun had been gazumped with a last-gasp bid from an unknown buyer who is yet to come forward.

As previously reported, Christie’s Noah Davis explained that a “handful of really dogged, really serious clients” had been bidding for the non-fungible token (NFT) work, adding that “they are mostly people who are very steeped in crypto."

Sun, however, appears incensed by the development, and took to Twitter to post a 12-part explanation of how he believes he should have become the rightful owner of the work. He alleged that an error on the Christie’s system had stopped him from submitting an 11th-hour bid of his own – for a staggering USD 70 million.

Sun wrote that he was ”outbid by another buyer in the last 20 secs by USD 250k. The difference was less than 0.3% of the total price,” adding that after the late (and eventually winning bid was lodged),

“I tried to update my bid to USD 70m in the last 30 seconds, yet my offer was somehow not accepted by Christie’s system even though there was still 20 seconds left of the auction.”

He posted what he claimed was video proof of his bidding activity, and contacted Christie’s to ask for an explanation, with what appeared to be an email from the auction house confirming that “unfortunately” his “bid did not reach” the auction house’s “bidding system in time.”

​​Latest Episode of India’s Crypto Ban Soap Draws Decidedly Mixed Reviews.

Yet another “unnamed Indian government source” has come forward with forecasts of doom – telling Reuters that New Delhi is set to unveil a law “banning cryptocurrencies, fining anyone trading in the country or even holding such digital assets,” and stamping out mining.

But, once again, everything may not be quite as it seems, according to one of the crypto industry insiders quoted in the article. Sumnesh Salodkar, a crypto consultant, wrote on Twitter that the article’s title – “India to propose cryptocurrency ban, penalizing miners, traders” – was “slightly misleading.” Instead, he wrote,

“Recent positive comments by the finance minister Nirmala Sitharaman give us hope! This will be in many places today but don't be worried, nothing has changed since yesterday.”

Sitharaman said over the weekend that India would not seek to limit its options when it comes to crypto or blockchain. Speaking to the media outlet India Today, Sitharaman stated,

“My view on this is that of course the Supreme Court had commented on cryptocurrency and while the central bank may take a call on official cryptocurrency but from our side, we are very clear that we are not shutting off all options.”

She added,

“We will allow a certain amount of window for people to experiment on blockchain and bitcoin (BTC). … On fintech and blockchain, there is a lot of work going on in India and we will certainly encourage that.”

Regardless, the Reuters source paints a very different picture, reiterating previous reports that a bill “would give holders of cryptocurrencies up to six months to liquidate” their crypto holdings. Individuals failing to do so would be hit with fines.

The source also indicated that “officials are confident of getting the bill enacted into law” due to the size of Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s majority in parliament.

​​Bottlepay Launches Bitcoin Twitter Payments, Reddit, Instagram Come Next.

Recently-launched payments app Bottlepay has revealed its new feature that enables users to send and receive bitcoin (BTC) via Twitter.

Per the company, in the coming months, users should also be able to spend and transfer money via Reddit, Discord, Instagram, Twitch, Telegram, and Mastodon.

According to Bottlepay, a user needs only to tweet for the feature to send a specific amount of sats to another user's account.

The team stated that "unlike other digital payment platforms such as PayPal and Revolut, whose users cannot currently spend or withdraw their BTC, Bottlepay allows its users to withdraw, deposit or spend their BTC on tangible goods anywhere in the world with a single slide."

Bottlepay supports fiat currencies as well, and will be adding more of them in the near future, with support for EUR coming next, they said. They aim to leverage their payment infrastructure to "create an instant, low-cost alternative to Wise, Currencyfair and others," claimed the press release.

The company also stated that the app lowers the merchant charges and transfer fees associated with digital payments.

Since the app launched last month, users have made total transactions of more than GBP 1.7m (USD 2.37m), they added.

On February 10, it was announced that the Bottlepay app launched on Google Play and App Store. Later that month, the team said they had raised USD 15m in seed funding from investors including British fund manager Alan Howard, present and former Goldman Sachs partners, FinTech Collective, and NYDIG.

As reported, the first version of Bottlepay was shut down by its creators at the end of 2019, as the 5AMLD EU regulation was to soon come into effect, wanting to build a fully compliant and scalable app.

​​Next 2-3 Years 'Should Be a Turning Point for Bitcoin' - Deutsche Bank.

The next few years might prove crucial for bitcoin (BTC) that is "here to stay" but is not likely to be used as a means of payment, according to German multinational giant Deutsche Bank.

Bitcoin’s market capitalization of more than USD 1trn “makes it too important to ignore,” while large players who buy and sell BTC have “considerable” market-moving power, said the March 2021 report prepared by Deutsche Bank Research. The coin’s price could continue to rise as long as asset managers and companies continue to enter the market.

So in the short term, bitcoin “is here to stay,” though its value will remain volatile due to its limited tradability, small tactical asset allocations, and the entries and exits of large asset managers. However, according to the authors of the report, in the long term, BTC will have to “transform its potential into results to sustain its value proposition.”

“The next two or three years should be a turning point for Bitcoin; consensus about its future may emerge as people monitor digital currency developments,” the researchers said.

For now, according to them, bitcoin’s current valuation is pricing in a shift toward cross-border digital currencies and the hypothesis is that BTC, as the leader, will benefit from network effects and become an important means of payment in the future.

The researchers argued that "the race is fierce" for cryptos to become a mainstream means of payment – BTC is an illiquid asset rarely used as a means of payment, while yet to be launched Facebook-backed Diem is focused on consumer adoption and real usage of money, it said. Furthermore, many countries have moved to create their central bank digital currencies (CBDCs).

Therefore, in the medium to long run, because of strong network effects, it’s unlikely cryptos will be used as a widespread means of payment, said the report, adding:

“And as long as governments and central banks exist and hold the power to regulate money, there will be little room for bitcoin—as a means of payment—to replace traditional currencies.”

However, US Federal Reserve Chairman Jerome Powell, said, citing a recent report from the Bank for International Settlements and a group of seven central banks, that a CBDC "needs to coexist with cash and other types of money in a flexible and innovative payment system."

In general, due to its volatility, most merchants don’t want to accept cryptocurrencies as a payment method. Consumers might use providers to own/trade the asset – but mainly for investment, said the Deutsche Bank report.

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​​Mitsubishi, Banking & Telecom Giants Invest USD 62M in DeCurret.

The Japanese crypto exchange DeCurret has received a major boost with leading banks, conglomerates such as Mitsubishi and others participating in USD 62 million funding round for the fast-growing platform.

The Tokyo-based company will use the money to create a new “digital currency” platform and a smartphone, reported Nikkei and TechCrunch Japan.

The package will also see Toshihide Endo, the former head of the country’s top financial and crypto regulator, the Financial Services Agency (FSA), join the company as a special advisor from April. Endo served as the FSA commissioner from 2018 to 2020, during which time the FSA completely revamped its crypto policies in the wake of the devastating Coincheck hack of early 2018.

Endo also serves as an advisor to Sony and Fukoku Mutual Life Insurance.

The funding involved a third-party share allotment deal that was underwritten by its biggest shareholder, the internet service provider Internet Initiative Japan, which provided 30% of the funding.

Joining was a veritable who’s-who of high-level Japanese businesses, including the telecoms giants KDDI and the Nippon Telegraph and Telephone (NTT), as well as the banks Sumitomo Mitsui Banking Corporation, Mitsubishi UFJ Bank and the Japan Post Bank. The security firms Sohgo Security Services (ALSOK) and Secom also took part, as did the monolithic Mitsubishi Corporation. Another investor was SBI Holdings, the SBI Group’s holding company, and the operator of two rival crypto exchanges.

DeCurret did not reveal how much each company had invested, not how many shares had been allotted in each case.

The company did not go into details about its smartphone plans, but explained that it would seek to construct a “two-layer structure digital currency platform” that enables makes use of blockchain technology to create “privately issued digital currencies” and “implement “company-specific smart contracts.”

DeCurret last year formed a new “study group” including many of its new investors, with the group hopeful of creating a platform that the entire Japanese business community will be able to use for digital payments.

​​South Korea Crypto Scammers Targeting People in Their 50s & 60s.

“Crypto” fraudsters in South Korea are increasingly preying on citizens in their fifties and sixties, a new report has found, with crypto-flavored multi-level marketing (MLM) schemes now running wild.

Per EDaily, the regulatory Financial Supervisory Service (FSS) says there was a rise of 41.6% in the number of instances of suspected crypto-themed fraud cases reported in the country in the period January to October last year on the same period in 2019.

The media outlet quoted a number of anonymous individuals as stating they had handed over large chunks of their pensions and retirement savings to people they thought they could trust, making investments in some cases on the advice of friends they had had since “elementary school.”

One man explained that he had lost 90% of his funds after trusting an old school friend with an investment suggestion. Another woman in her 60s explained that she had lost USD 177,000 on an investment – cashing in bonds in order to raise the money.

EDaily quoted a legal expert as stating that a particularly favorite target for MLM fraudsters pretending to represent bona fide crypto firms and “funds” were “middle-aged women struggling with the difficulty of making stock market investments.”

So-called crypto moms have been flocking to bitcoin (BTC) in recent months in South Korea – but it appears fraudsters are attempting to take advantage of this trend, with outlandish promises of three- to tenfold returns on investments.

The FSS explained that while recently introduced legislation required crypto players to abide by anti-money laundering protocols it “does not yet regulate” for “consumer protection or MLM fraud” instances, warning citizens to instead be on their guard against investment offers that seem too good to be true.

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​​Ripple Goes For M&A in Asia Amid Legal Battle In US.

US-based major blockchain company Ripple that is still fighting a major legal battle with American regulators said it has agreed to acquire 40% in Tranglo, an Asian cross-border payments specialist.

The transaction is expected to be closed this year, while TNG Fintech Group will remain the majority shareholder in Tranglo, Ripple said without providing any other details about the deal.

With this acquisition, the blockchain company aims "to meet growing customer demand in the region and expand the reach of RippleNet’s On-Demand Liquidity (ODL) service." ODL uses the XRP token to send money. The US Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) accused Ripple's two co-founders and executives of personally profiting from the sales of XRP, which it claims is an “unregistered security,” to the tune of around USD 600m.

As the legal battle is still ongoing in the US, the company aims to broaden its ODL footprint in Southeast Asia, "the fastest-growing region for RippleNet adoption." Last week, Ripple announced Brooks Entwistle as Managing Director of Southeast Asia.

Brad Garlinghouse, CEO of Ripple, previously said that if the SEC were to say that XRP is a security, "a lot of what Ripple does in the Unites States, we could continue, no problem." According to him, "more than 90% of RippleNet customers are outside the US," so Ripple would "continue to build the business and grow."

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​​Coinbase Listing Has Largest Impact On Price Among 6 Exchanges - Messari.

Among six of the major crypto exchanges, Coinbase listings have the biggest effect on a coin's price, according to a researcher at the crypto intelligence firm Messari.

Its report noted the so-called 'Coinbase Effect' as a well-known phenomenon referring to the positive effects that an announcement of an asset listing on this exchange has on that asset's price, given the exposure it gains to a new set of market participants.

Therefore Messari researcher Roberto Talamas looked into the effects that listings on six different centralized exchange have on asset prices, wanting to find out if all exchange listings affect token prices the same way. Besides Coinbase, Talamas included listing information from Binance, Gemini, Kraken, OKEx, and FTX in the research.

For each, the firm observed the distribution of cumulative returns five days after the token listing, and found that,

Unsurprisingly, Coinbase listings have the highest average return standing at 91%, but also have the widest distribution ranging from -32% to 645%.

While one could assume based on these results that Coinbase listings result in higher returns compared to other exchanges, Messari noted "a number of outliers" within the Coinbase sample, which saw "experienced tremendous returns ... drastically skewing the average towards the right side of the return distribution." These include platform to create decentralized marketplaces and communities District0x's 645% price increase post-listing and identity verification solution Civic 493% increase.

That said, the researcher concluded that,

"After controlling for outliers, it remains evident that the Coinbase listing has the highest impact on price among exchange listings with an average five-day return of 29%. Taken at face value, these results suggest that exchange listings, especially Coinbase, more often than not lead to a boost in asset returns."

Meanwhile, as reported last June, a study from crypto analytics firm Coin Metrics found that, while Coinbase listing announcements have historically made “a positive impact” on an asset’s price, this impact is “more muted” than some may have believed, while generally being “skewed toward the broader market trend at the time.” Additionally, the price movements following the ''exploring the addition' of certain assets' announcements were “less significant” and “largely related to the general market regime at time,” the study said.

According to Coinbase, they had 43m verified users last year and 2.8m monthly transacting users. Also, they claim that they work with 7,000 institutions and 115,000 ecosystem partners in over 100 countries.

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​​Bitcoin Market Changed 'Radically' & Volatility Decline Attracts Institutions.

We are in a "radically" different bitcoin (BTC) market today, an analyst stressed, while JPMorgan strategists find that decreasing volatility is here to help institutional adoption.

Per the latest Market Intel report by Chainalysis' Chief Economist Philip Gradwell, the data collected in the research suggested that the bitcoin price is resilient above at least USD 50,000, that there is significant observed demand at high price levels, but also that the market has changed radically in recent months.

"Cryptocurrency prices have been volatile but resilient over the last two weeks, with the bitcoin price ranging from a low of just over USD 50k to a high of just under USD 60k, but ending the fortnight at a similar price level to the start, of above USD 58k," he said.

Chainalysis observed the amount of bitcoin held by 'whales', those who held at least BTC 1,000, and how much they had paid for it, but they also analyzed all entities holding bitcoin, and concluded that,

"Analyzing the cost of acquisition since 2016 demonstrates how radically the market has changed in the last few months, to one where there is likely to be a lot of demand from existing buyers to support high price levels. As long as existing buyers do not change their hypothesis on bitcoin, it is likely that the price will be resilient above at least USD 50k."

While, by March 29, BTC 8.4m were last acquired for less than USD 10,000 each, BTC 0.1m were acquired for more than USD 57,626 - these holders had made a USD loss but were still holding. Furthermore, said Gradwell, BTC 5.6m were bought for more than USD 30,000 and continue to be held, as well as BTC 3.1m at more than USD 40,000, and BTC 1.6m at more than USD 50,000.

Additionally, with the rapid price increase since November, from USD 15,000 to the all-time high of above USD 61,000, came the significant acquisition of bitcoin across many groups, resulting in the bitcoin cost curve to shift up significantly for 8m of the BTC 18.7m supply - meaning that the cost basis for many BTC is now "radically higher" than just a few months ago, "demonstrating that a broad swath of market participants are willing to buy and hold at much higher prices than previously."

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​​Unlike Bitcoin, Ethereum's ATH Was Driven by Relatively Small Demand - Analyst.

Unlike bitcoin (BTC), ethereum (ETH)'s recent all-time high (ATH) was driven by a smaller prior demand, according to an analyst.

"This week’s all-time high ethereum price of USD 2,151 was some way above a large level of support, and suggests that the peak was driven by a relatively small amount of demand. This is in contrast to bitcoin, which had greater prior demand across high price levels," Philip Gradwell, Chief Economist at US-based blockchain analysis company Chainalysis, said in his Market Intel report this week.

He analyzed the cost of acquisition across the ethereum supply - the ETH 115m held by 1,525 groups of entities. Per Gradwell, this data shows how much is held by those willing to buy and hold at least at their cost of acquisition, which then shows how much prior demand there has been at different price levels, indicating the support for each price level.

After looking at the USD cost of acquisition of ETH held on April 5, the Chief Economist found that "a very large amount" of this cryptoasset is held by entities that acquired it at around USD 1,800.

On the other hand, relatively little ETH, some 700,000, has been acquired above USD 1,850, costing a total of USD 1.4bn.

Gradwell, however, stressed that there are caveats to this analysis, such as that the data only describes crypto that moves on-chain, and that the cost of acquisition is calculated as a weighted average of an entity's ETH, some of which may be acquired at a low cost and some at a high cost.

What he also observed are ETH cost curves. Similarly to BTC, these cost curves since November 2020 show that the ETH market has changed "radically" in recent months. He noted that the rapid price increase from January until April - from USD 737 to the ATH - was accompanied by "significant acquisition of Ethereum across many entity groups." This further led to "a substantial increase" in the cost of acquisition for ETH 50m out of the ETH 115m supply.

Furthermore, the cost curves from November and December 2020 suggest that a small amount of ETH was acquired for a much higher cost than the rest of the supply - which can also be seen in cost curves from earlier periods.

This phenomenon, wrote Gradwell, is a result of small amounts of ETH bought at previous ATHs, mostly in the late-2017 bull run, that continued to be held even as prices dropped.

"It is remarkable to me that most Ethereum holders that acquired in late 2017 capitulated, except for a small number who finally saw their losses reversed in early 2021," concluded the economist, adding:

"The persistence of a small, but very bullish, cohort of ethereum buyers supports my concern that the highest Ethereum prices tend to have a narrow base of support, at least compared to bitcoin."

As reported, last week Gradwell analyzed the amount of bitcoin held by different entities, as well as certain cost curves, finding that the market has changed radically in recent months. Additionally, the cost basis for many BTC is now "radically higher" than just a few months ago, "demonstrating that a broad swath of market participants are willing to buy and hold at much higher prices than previously."

​​Trezor's Plans, Spain's Crypto Tax Warning, Thai SEC & Binance.

Wallet news
Trezor announced four things set to come out this year: Trezor Suite Mobile app for Android, Bitcoin Full Node, CoinControl, and Child Pays For Parent (CPFP), as well as CoinJoin. The anonymization method for bitcoin transactions CoinJoin will obscure the sources and destinations of users' transactions, they said, claiming that the combination of Tor Switch, CoinControl, and CoinJoin "will guarantee you the top level of privacy and security."

Tax news
The Spanish Tax Agency, known locally as the Hacienda, has issued an unprecedented 14,800 warning letters to Spaniards it suspects may fail to or have already failed to declare their crypto earnings in mandatory tax filings. Per Telemadrid, the letters sought to inform recipients that they did not need to declare any crypto purchases, but reminded them that capital gains tax payments were due on profitable sales. Failure to comply, the agency added, could result in fines of “over USD 6,000.”

Exchanges news
The Thai Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) issued a warning to the country's investors stating that Binance is not a licensed digital asset operator in this country. Therefore, its users will not be protected by Thailand's law. The regulator sent a letter to the major exchange and to "the relevant parties to clarify the information" about the company. When contacted by Cryptonews, Binance refused to comment on the topic, stating that they "don't disclose our conversations with regulators."

CBDC news
A group of the world’s seven major central banks (including the US Federal Reserve and the European Central Bank) has scope to set common rules and platforms for their own digital currencies that could lay the groundwork for more efficient cross-border payments, said Kazushige Kamiyama, head of the Bank of Japan (BOJ)’s department overseeing the development of a central bank digital currency (CBDC). Per Reuters, as the role a CBDC plays differs for advanced nations with a robust banking system and emerging economies that can use CBDCs to make up for shortfalls in their financial infrastructure, said Kamiyama, it's "better to come up with common rules among countries with similar economic structures."

DeFi news
Coinbase joined the DeFi Alliance, an open association that provides mentorship and funding for early stage tech teams working in the decentralized finance (DeFi) sector, they said. The DeFi Alliance has more than 60 member companies. They recently announced their first fund, DeFi Alliance Fund I, seeded by Alliance members and led by the founding partners along with billionaire entrepreneur Mark Cuban.

​​Ethereum Fees Decline as Analysts Point to Bots as Cause.

Ethereum (ETH) average transaction fees have plunged by as much as 50% in two weeks, falling from a fourteen-day high of USD 22.9 to a low of USD 11.4 on April 11, before increasing again. Analysts have pinned the fall on a shift in the types of bots used by traders, with flashbots replacing the priority gas auction (PGA) bots that tend to increase Ethereum fees by bidding up gas prices.

Other potential factors highlighted by commentators include the possibility that users are moving from Ethereum to Binance Smart Chain (BSC), as well as a general drop in usage.

However, while Ethereum gas prices have declined in recent days, they still remain high by historical standards, even when accounting for the rising value of ETH. Also, as ETH hit another all-time high against USD today, the gas prices spiked again.

Ethereum fees decline = new trading bots?
At the end of February, Ethereum transaction fees hit an all-time high of USD 38, as demand for non-fungible tokens (NFTs) and the ongoing popularity of decentralized finance (DeFi) platforms pushed network traffic to new heights.

Fees then dipped in early March, but proceeded to rise again, pushing to USD 22.9 on March 31.

Since then — and particularly in the past seven days — they seem to be in something of a mini-freefall. Not only did they hit an average of USD 11.4 on April 11, but Etherscan put the average gas price (in gwei) at 85 on April 11, while ethereumprice put it at a low of 65 today before it jumped again.

The word on crypto Twitter (and elsewhere on the web) is that this drop in gas prices is due to change in bots used by traders and miners.

Traders have reportedly begun dumping PGA bots and shifting to flashbots. Standing for 'priority gas auction,' PGA bots are used by arbitrage traders to monitor their competitors’ behavior and bid up their own gas prices in order to get priority treatment (i.e. to get to the front of the transaction queue). In other words, they cause fees to go: up.

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​​Gaming Giant WeMade Wants to Buy Bithumb – Report.

Another South Korean gaming giant has been linked with a possible deal to take over Bithumb, one of the country’s biggest crypto exchanges.

Per a report from Chosun, WeMade, the firm behind the Legend of Mir series, is the latest to express an interest in buying a stake in the crypto trading platform, whose biggest shareholder put his shares up for sale last year by the brokerage Samjong KPMG.

Chosun reported that interest from the rival gamemaker Nexon’s holding company NXC had become “sluggish,” as had interest from the internet heavyweight Naver and global crypto exchange leader Binance, but that WeMade had “emerged as a dark horse” in the race to buy Bithumb.

The media outlet quoted an unnamed investment banking insider as stating that “foreign financial companies that have tried to take over have since withdrawn from the negotiation table.”

The newspaper claimed its sources had confirmed WeMade was exploring a range of options, which could involve a purchase of main shareholder Lee Jung-hoon’s stake (between 60% and 70%) in addition to a minority stake of around 10%-12% owned by the video hardware retailer Vidente.

Lee is thought to be holding out for a bid of USD 628m, although interested parties only appear prepared to spend in the region of USD 448m.

WeMade has told multiple South Korean news outlets, including Asia Kyungjae, that it had no comment to make on the reports, while a spokesperson for WeMade Tree, the gaming firm’s blockchain subsidiary.

A previous report linking a third domestic gaming giant – NCSoft – to a deal for Bithumb proved wide of the mark.

However, WeMade, and in particular its WeMadeTree subsidiary, has stepped up its crypto operations in recent months. The latter operates a crytoasset that is listed on multiple exchanges both domestically and abroad, and has spoken about launching a crypto trading platform. The firm has also released blockchain gaming titles that make use of tradable currencies.

The WeMade Tree trading platform will, the company has indicated, perform as a marketplace where gamers can buy and sell in-game items, including non-fungible tokens (NFTs).

Chosun reported that a stumbling block for the deal may be the fact that Lee is looking to make a cash sale, while WeMade does not have enough liquid assets to make this happen. An unnamed industry insider stated that WeMade could attempt to get around this by attempting to organize a buying consortium.