A bullish Ethereum is keeping the crypto markets in positive territory this Tuesday morning, having shot well above the US$1,600 barrier on a 6% rally.
Traders seem energised in the lead up to the Ethereum Merge which is due to happen this time next week.
Bitcoin, however, has continued to trade sideways and has yet to reclaim the US$20,000 price point since going south four days ago.
The cryptocurrency markets as a whole are trading at US$995bn as onlookers pay close attention to the one-trillion-dollar mark.
Interestingly, Ethereum Classic (ETC) is one of today’s top performers, having added over 26% to its market capitalisation.
ETC is a carbon copy of Ethereum, and could be seen as a popular alternative for miners once Ethereum abandons mining post Merge.
A number of Bitcoin alternatives – namely Bitcoin Gold and Ravencoin – also saw double-digit gains this morning, as did the smaller cap blockchain network Flux, which entered the top-100 coins table.
Most large-cap blockchain networks added green candlesticks over the past 24 hours, with Cardano, Solana and Avalanche outperforming.
Today’s worst performer was Helium (HNT), an internet-of-things (IoT) project for decentralised WiFi connectivity, having dropped 6% to US$480mln.
In the decentralised finance (DeFi) space, Curve was among the top performers with a 10% rally over the past 24 hours, while Lido, Compound Finance and Aave are also up.
Total value locked across the whole DeFi space is currently US$59.5bn.
In the news
The world’s largest digital asset exchange Binance will remove support for rival stablecoins USD Coin (USDC), TrueUSD (TUSD) and Pax Dollar (USDP), automatically converting any user assets into Binance’s own BUSD stablecoin at the end of this month.
No immediate reason was given for the announcement, but the bold move comes amid a number of fee reductions on the exchange as Binance ups its game against the competition.
Netflix will not allow commercials involving cryptocurrency when its advertising tier launches in November, sources have told the Sydney Morning Herald.
According to the report, gambling and political advertisements will also be banned.
