Overview
This week, Tether added $100 million worth of USDT to the Ethereum network, with the newly minted tokens transferred to a Bitfinex-linked exchange address. Meanwhile, ETH prices showed short-term volatility, potentially entering a correction phase.
Market Analysis
1. Spot Market
ETH Price Movement:
- Weekly close at $248.59, down 2% from the previous week.
- Fell below the 5-day moving average ($249.68), signaling potential near-term consolidation.
2. Capital Flows
- Net Outflow: $222 million (180% increase from last week).
Key Trends:
- Highest inflow: $66 million (Friday).
- Largest outflow: $170 million (Wednesday).
3. On-Chain Activity
- Transaction Volume: Dropped over 50% weekly.
- Peak Activity: Wednesday (May 22), aligning with capital flow trends.
Ecosystem & Technology Updates
1. Development Highlights
- Vitalik’s Proposal: Suggested using mixers to anonymize ETH transactions via "minimal mixer design" smart contracts.
- Istanbul Upgrade: EIP 1108 (Gas fee adjustment) tentatively approved pending benchmark data.
ProgPow Audit Delay: Due to funding and partner issues. Two alternatives proposed:
- Postpone implementation post-Istanbul.
- Execute as a separate hard fork post-audit.
2. DApp Growth
- New DApps: 15 added (only 4 had active users).
- Top Performer: Battle Racers (399 ETH volume, 188 daily users).
- Dominant Categories: Gambling/betting and exchanges lead in activity.
3. Mining Metrics
- Hashrate: 159 TH/s (↓5%).
- Difficulty: 2015T (↓5%).
- Rewards: No significant increase observed.
Key News
- Grayscale Ethereum Trust approved for public trading by FINRA.
- Ethereum Foundation allocates $19M for ETH 2.0 and Layer-2 scaling (Plasma).
- MetaMask: 264K monthly active users; 1.51M April transactions.
- BlockFi reduces ETH interest rates (3.25% for 25–100 ETH balances).
- Tether’s $100M USDT issuance brings Ethereum’s ERC-20 USDT supply to 500 million.
FAQs
Q1: What caused ETH’s price drop this week?
A1: Market sentiment shifted due to capital outflows ($222M net) and breaking key support levels ($249.68 MA).
Q2: How does ProgPow affect Ethereum?
A2: ProgPow aims to make mining ASIC-resistant. Delays may extend GPU miner advantages but require careful audit coordination.
Q3: Why did Tether issue more USDT?
A3: Likely to meet exchange demand, as seen with Bitfinex’s bulk transfer.