crypto

Sage D. Young2h

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

Yaël Bizouati-Kennedy7h

When will bitcoin break $100,000 again?

Bitcoin is having a strong start to 2026 that could see it catch up with precious metals’ rally. Bitcoin ETFs are also rallying, and saw their second consecutive day of massive inflows, recording $843.6 million on Wednesday, according to SoSoValue, bringing the total for the week to $1.7 billion.

Jake Kennis, research analyst at Nansen, told Sherwood News that a combination of easing inflation fears, geopolitical safe haven demand, stronger ETF inflows, and a technical breakout above $94,000 to $96,000 resistance are all converging to push BTC toward $100,000.

“The rally has solid institutional and onchain backing, but elevated leverage in futures markets and profit-taking by top traders near the $97K–$100K psychological resistance could trigger volatility,” Kennis said.

While bitcoin has retreated after nearing key resistance levels, Timot Lamarre, director of market research at Unchained, said that despite the asset having been well off all-time highs, it is set up for a sustainable run above $100,000.

“Institutions continue to open up bitcoin buying opportunities to new pools of capital, the macro environment continues to move toward significant monetary easing, and governments, companies, and individuals continue to increase their bitcoin stockpiles,” he said.

The analytics team at B2BINPAY echoed the sentiment, saying that the market structure remains bullish, “with potential to reach $100–105K in the coming weeks, potentially reaching the $120K–140K range later in 2026 if demand stays in place.”

A failure would likely mean a pullback to the $88,000 to $90,000 range, where liquidity is already concentrated, they said.

“Another crucial marker is leverage. Funding rates and open interest are far from extreme, with total OI at around $65B. That’s high. Yet, it’s still below the prior record/near-record zone seen in 2025, around $72B–$75B. So the market isn’t stretched,” the analysts said.

markets

Luke Kawa & Millie Giles8h

BitMine announces $200 million investment in Beast Industries, the business arm of YouTube star MrBeast

Not content with generating money through digital assets, BitMine Immersion Technologies is also attempting to cash in on another largely incorporeal industry: the attention spans of young people.

The ethereum treasury company announced a $200 million equity investment into Beast Industries, the holding company for the various ventures of YouTube star Jimmy Donaldson, aka MrBeast. While most of these operations revolve around digital content, we’d be remiss not to note that this also includes Feastables.

“MrBeast and Beast Industries, in our view, is the leading content creator of our generation, with a reach and engagement unmatched with GenZ, GenAlpha and Millennials,” said BitMine Chairman Tom Lee. “Beast Industries is the largest and most innovative creator based platform in the world and our corporate and personal values are strongly aligned.”

Beast Industries CEO Jeff Housenbold added that the company was looking forward to “exploring ways to further collaborate and incorporate DeFi into our upcoming financial services platform.”

However, in my personal view this is hardly the most eye-catching collaboration MrBeast has been involved with in the past 24 hours...

Mr Beast YouTube views

Yaël Bizouati-Kennedy

TD Cowen lowers Strategy price target while bitcoin continues to rise

The analysts also set a base case assumption of bitcoin hitting $177,000 by December 26, with an upside scenario of $225,000 and a much bleaker downside scenario of $60,000.

Bitcoin Conference Draws Cryptocurrency Fans To Miami

Sage D. Young1/14/26

Cryptocurrency scammers stole an all-time high of $17 billion last year, crypto analytics firm Chainalysis estimated in a Tuesday report. The figure is a more than 21% increase from the $14 billion stolen in 2024.

Scams are becoming more sophisticated as impersonations of legitimate organizations grow more popular and the use of artificial intelligence improves the effectiveness of scams.

Impersonation scams, such as an actor posing as a support representative for the largest US-based exchange, Coinbase, have climbed over 1,400% compared to 2024, with the average payment amount made in this cluster jumping more than 600%.

Meanwhile, scams using deepfake technology and artificial intelligence have not only increased transaction volume, suggesting broader victim reach, but also generated higher returns for the scammers.

“Our analysis reveals that, on average, scams with on-chain links to AI vendors extract $3.2 million per operation compared to $719,000 for those without an on-chain link — 4.5 times more revenue per scam,” the Chainalysis report stated. “We are moving toward a future in which virtually all scams will incorporate AI into their operations to some degree.”

crypto

Sage D. Young1/14/26

A record 36 million ethereum tokens are now dedicated to staking

The number of ethereum tokens dedicated to staking, the duty to defend the blockchain, has ascended to a high-water mark.

Stakers, who provide security to the network, akin to soldiers in an army according to cofounder Vitalik Buterin, have devoted roughly 36 million tokens — 30% of ethereum’s total supply — to staking, per on-chain data from blockchain explorer beaconcha.in. At current prices, those tokens are worth $119.3 billion.

The new record comes as institutional players grow their share in the staking scene. Ether.fi, a restaking protocol known for its crypto-powered credit card, has added 276,288 tokens in the past month toward security, while leading ethereum treasury firm BitMine Immersion Technologies increased its total staked ETH from 659,219 to 1,256,083 tokens last week, a 90% climb.

Meanwhile, the entry queue stands at 2,348,580 ethereum tokens, making the current wait time to begin staking 40 days and 19 hours.

Ether.fi CEO and cofounder Mike Silagadze told Sherwood News the increase in its staked ethereum comes from institutional deposits, specifically from large family offices and SharpLink Gaming, the second-largest ethereum treasury firm.

The native token for ethereum has seen over $38.5 billion in trading volume in the past 24 hours, with its price jumping more than 6% in that period.

Ethereum staking hits all-time high with almost 30% of ETH supply locked

Ethereum staking hits all-time high with almost 30% of ETH supply locked

The new record comes as institutional players grow their share in the staking scene. Ether.fi, a restaking protocol known for its crypto-powered credit card, has added 276,288 tokens in the past month toward security, while leading ethereum treasury firm BitMine Immersion Technologies increased its total staked ETH from 659,219 to 1,256,083 tokens last week, a 90% climb.

Meanwhile, the entry queue stands at 2,348,580 ethereum tokens, making the current wait time to begin staking 40 days and 19 hours.

Ether.fi CEO and cofounder Mike Silagadze told Sherwood News the increase in its staked ethereum comes from institutional deposits, specifically from large family offices and SharpLink Gaming, the second-largest ethereum treasury firm.

The native token for ethereum has seen over $38.5 billion in trading volume in the past 24 hours, with its price jumping more than 6% in that period.

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