crypto

Sage D. Young1/15/26

Ethereum parent chain sets new record in daily transactions

On Wednesday, the ethereum parent chain logged its highest-ever transaction count at over 2.5 million transactions, a roughly 34% increase from 1.9 million transactions on the first day of the new year, data from blockchain analytics firm Artemis shows.

Artemis research analyst Alex Weseley told Sherwood News the largest drivers of the network’s transaction growth stems from Circle and Tether’s stablecoins, USDC and USDT, as usage of both are up over 200% year over year.

“It has also been interesting to see that the average transaction fee has remained low at < $0.20 per transaction, compared to the $52 average transaction fee paid when transaction counts peaked in 2021,” Weseley added.

The all-time high follows the activation of Pectra and Fusaka last year, two network upgrades aimed at enhancing the scalability of ethereum. “The changes ethereum is making to scale the L1 are starting to pay off, though we are still in the early innings,” Weseley said.

The price of ethereum has increased ~7% in the past seven days, outpacing its peers bitcoin, XRP, solana, and dogecoin. Meanwhile, spot ethereum ETFs trading in the US have seen almost $415.9 million in total inflows during the year so far, with $175 million from Wednesday alone, per SoSoValue.

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crypto

Sage D. Young6h

Solana rises amid crypto rally after “breakout month” for solana stablecoins

Stablecoin transaction volume on solana climbed to a record $650 billion last month, more than double the network’s previous record. It also saw the highest volume of any blockchain last month, according to a Wednesday note published by Grayscale Head of Research Zach Pandl.

“Stablecoins are one of the megatrends driving adoption of blockchain technology, and Solana is well positioned to compete in this category,” Pandl wrote.

The research note comes as the supply of stablecoins on solana has jumped to $15.4 billion, a substantial leap since the start of 2025, when the figure sat at $5.1 billion, data from open-source analytics platform DefiLlama shows.

The price of solana has increased 7.3% in the last 24 hours to return above the $90 level, outpacing bitcoin, ethereum, and dogecoin, per CoinGecko.

International banking group Standard Chartered has predicted solana will grow to $250 by the end of 2026, pointing to a shift in activity from meme coins to solana-stablecoin pairs, aided by AI-driven micropayments.

Meanwhile, the prediction market-implied odds of solana sliding below $60 in 2026 stands at 68% on Wednesday morning, and on the bullish side, traders are pricing in a 48% chance the token will rise higher than $150 in the year.

(Event contracts are offered through Robinhood Derivatives, LLC — probabilities referenced or sourced from KalshiEx LLC or ForecastEx LLC.)

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Meanwhile, the prediction market-implied odds of solana sliding below $60 in 2026 stands at 68% on Wednesday morning, and on the bullish side, traders are pricing in a 48% chance the token will rise higher than $150 in the year.

(Event contracts are offered through Robinhood Derivatives, LLC — probabilities referenced or sourced from KalshiEx LLC or ForecastEx LLC.)

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Yaël Bizouati-Kennedy

Bitcoin crosses $72,000 for first time in a month but caution remains

Open interest points to the market viewing bitcoin in a more positive light this week.

HONG KONG-LIFESTYLE-BITCOIN

crypto

Sage D. Young8h

Kraken receives approval for “master account” from the Kansas City Fed in first for crypto companies

The Federal Reserve Bank of Kansas City approved a limited purpose account for Kraken Financial, making the exchange the first cryptocurrency company to gain access to the Fed’s payment infrastructure, according to a Wednesday report from The Wall Street Journal.

The approval “marks the convergence of crypto infrastructure and sovereign financial rails,” according to Kraken co-CEO Arjun Sethi. With a Federal Reserve master account, Kraken can directly connect to core US payment systems used by traditional banks and credit unions, enabling faster and more efficient fiat movement for Kraken’s institutional clients.

Sethi continued, “This creates a uniquely resilient foundation. It gives us the ability to settle directly on Fedwire, reduce dependency on correspondent banks, and integrate regulated fiat liquidity directly into digital asset markets.”

The approval of a Fed master account comes as Kraken, which was founded in 2011, is preparing for an initial public offering.

Kansas City Fed President Jeff Schmid in a press release said the payments landscape is actively evolving. “Throughout this transformation, the integrity and stability of the U.S. payments system remain our priority,” Schmid said.

Yaël Bizouati-Kennedy

As bitcoin mining economics “have gone from bad to worse,” companies pivot and sell to survive

Core Scientific is just the latest miner offloading its bitcoin, as other miners turn their compute power to AI.

US-CRYPTOCURRENCY-CLIMATE-EMPLOYMENT-CHINA

crypto

Sage D. Young3/2/26

Crypto spot ETF flows diverge, a sign of investor rotation

Investors appear to be rotating where they are placing their crypto bets, but not necessarily fleeing the asset class entirely.

Last month, spot bitcoin ETFs registered $206.5 million in outflows, marking their fourth straight month of redemptions. Ethereum spot ETFs saw even heavier withdrawal as $369.9 million left the investment vehicles, also marking a fourth consecutive monthly outflow.

Since November, spot bitcoin and ethereum ETFs have posted more than $9.1 billion in cumulative outflows.

Bitcoin and ethereum are the market’s virtual ATMs, according to Chris Soriano, cofounder and chief commercial officer at BridgePort. “It’s no surprise when institutions start laying off risk or meet redemptions, they naturally sell what’s most liquid first,” Soriano told Sherwood News. “This is no different than when a traditional fund manager trims S&P 500 exposure before touching their small-cap growth positions.”

On the other hand, newer funds based on altcoins haven’t stopped recording monthly green candles.

Spot XRP ETFs pulled in $58 million last month and have yet to post a single negative month since their launch in November. Spot solana ETFs attracted $63 million and, likewise, remain in the black since their debut in October.

The outflows of the two largest cryptocurrencies combined with the modest inflows of the two smaller tokens suggest a rotation regime, Soriano argued. “Institutions trimming their core liquid holdings while selectively adding to high-conviction, higher-beta positions where they think there’s more juice in the squeeze. It’s not a contradiction; it’s portfolio mechanics behaving exactly as you’d expect,” Soriano continued.

He added that XRP and solana’s markets are also thinner, which means the same dollar of buying pressure registers as a louder, more persistent inflow signal than it ever would in BTC or ETH.

Nic Roberts-Huntley, CEO and cofounder of Blueprint Finance, told Sherwood that bitcoin and etheruem’s outflows combined with XRP and solana’s inflows “may signal a broader market transition, one where capital increasingly chases specific use cases rather than the entire asset class moving in lockstep.”

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