ETHEREUM Updates!! Where Is ETH Price Going In 2023?!

Ethereum is at a pivotal point on the one 
hand the SEC has been cracking down on staking   And proof-of-stake cryptocurrencies and it's 
believed that a Crackdown on defy and stable   Coins is imminent this could do indirect damage 
to eth on the other hand institutional adoption   Of ethereum has been on the rise and in the 
coming months it will undergo an upgrade that   Could take almost all the market share away from 
competing layer ones so in this video I'm going   To bring you up to speed on ethereum's most 
important updates analyze eth's price action   Explain its upcoming upgrade and tell you why 
eth could be on the brink of a boom or a bust   I'll start by saying that nothing in this 
video is financial advice it's purely for   Educational purposes and you should consider 
it to be just one of many resources you   Ought to be Consulting on your cryptoquest 
also note that I and other team members here   At coinbureau hold eth in our personal portfolios 
but we promise will be as unbiased as possible   Now it's been more than five months since our last 
ethereum update and a lot has happened since then   Shortly after that video went live borrowing and 
lending protocol Ave launched its V3 version on   Ethereum theoretically leading to more eth 
demand from crypto lenders and borrowers   More about Ave in the description I digress 
then in early February Russia's largest bank   Spare Bank announced that it would be launching 
a D5 protocol on ethereum by may this year now   We couldn't find any news of the protocol 
deploying but it is nonetheless a sign of   Continued institutional adoption of ethereum For 
Better or For Worse ethereum co-founder Joseph   Lubin also declared that eth is not a security 
now this was believed to be in response to   The rhetoric from SEC chairman Gary Gensler who 
implied that eth was a security back in September   On the same day of ethereum's transition from 
proof of work to proof of stake in retrospect   However it seems the Declaration foreshadowed an 
SEC Crackdown on the staking services offered by   Cryptocurrency exchanges that's because a few 
days later Kraken announced that it had settled   With the SEC for offering staking Services which 
the regulator believes are securities offerings   In mid-February there was speculation that the 
SEC would use the precedent it had set with   Kraken against liquid staking protocols like Lido 
Finance in retrospect it seemed to foreshadow a   Crackdown on coinbase which was sued early last 
month due in part to the staking Services The   Exchange offered there was however a silver lining 
in the midst of all this mess and that's that the   Number of ofac compliant blocks on ethereum's 
Beacon chain had fallen below 50 percent   For context over 70 of ethereum's blocks 
were enforcing sanctions after the merge   Today this figure stands at less than a third 
censorship resistance up to a point in March   Ethereum developers announced that EIP 4337 had 
been successfully implemented eip-4337 also known   As smart accounts makes it possible to introduce 
features on ethereum that will lead to mass   Adoption such as daps with no gas fees and making 
mobile wallets as secure as Hardware wallets  

You can learn more about why eip-4337 is such 
a big deal for ethereum by checking out our   In-depth video about it on coin Bureau Clips the 
link will be down in the description now because   The universe requires that all fomo be balanced 
out with thud rumors started to circulate that   Lido Finance had been served by the SEC in the 
days that followed eip-4337 Lido subsequently   Announced that it would be incorporating nfts into 
its unstaking process for liquid staked eth this   Is interesting because nfts have received next to 
no regulatory scrutiny for whatever reason as such   Lido leveraging nfts could have been a move to 
protect the protocol from said regulatory scrutiny   This could be circumstantial evidence of the rumor 
that Lido was in the sec's crosshairs a rumor   Which seems to have been just that that being said 
uni swap V3 also represents liquidity provision   Positions as nfts and uni swap founder Hayden 
Adams recently posted an ominous tweet thread   Probably nothing anyways in mid-april ethereum 
finally completed its chappella upgrade making it   Possible for validators to withdraw their staked 
eth and staking Rewards for reference chappella   Had experienced some delays and there were 
concerns that the upgrade would result in lots   Of each selling which could crash its price in 
the end these concerns were entirely unjustified   Although there was some eth selling after the 
upgrade eth's price was unaffected in fact   Eth's price pumped in the days following chappella 
presumably because the upgrade had been a success   It also effectively completed ethereum's 
transition to proof of stake but because the   Universe requires that all fomo be balanced out 
with fud the SEC announced two days later that it   Would be proposing a rule to expand the definition 
of exchange to include D5 protocols the comment   Period for the proposed rule closed on the 13th of 
June if it is implemented defy could be in trouble   Continued regulatory uncertainty around the 
crypto industry is probably why institutional   Investors have reportedly been getting exposure 
to eth Via indirect products like eth Futures on   The CME institutional interest in eth has surged 
in recent months but it seems most investing has   Been indirect now this could have less to do 
with the regulatory uncertainty around Heath   And staking and more to do with the fact that 
Regulators have been picking off crypto to Fiat   On and off ramps left and right obviously the 
last thing institutions want to do is invest in   Eth directly and not be able to cash out that said 
some institutions haven't caved these regulatory   Concerns at the end of April a subsidiary of 
French Bank associate General announced the launch   Of a euro-pegged stablecoin on ethereum meanwhile 
retail investors were going crazy trading meme   Coins like Pepe ah feel just like yesterday in 
May though the thud came back with a vengeance   First it was reported that the ethereum foundation 
had sold some eth this was taken as a sign that   Eth had hit a local top given that the foundation 
does have a history of selling around local tops   Of course it doesn't have a perfect track record 
in this regard nobody does then less than a week   Later ethereum's Beacon chain experienced 
unexpected finality issues in plain English  

Transactions couldn't confirm funnily enough it's 
believed that the meme coin craze overloaded some   Ethereum clients whatever the case the beacon 
chain was quickly upgraded and all was well again   That was until late May when vitalik warned the 
ethereum community in a lengthy blog post not to   Overload ethereum's consensus mechanism the tldr 
is that putting too much functionality directly on   Ethereum could compromise its security a claim 
that's been made by many in the Bitcoin camp   One week later ethereum wallets that had 
been dormant since the crypto Project's   Ico days started to move their eth to new wallets 
thankfully it seems none of this eath was sent to   Exchanges if it had been it would have signaled an 
intention to sell by some of ethereum's earliest   Investors unfortunately the same can't be said 
for ethereum co-founder Jeffrey wilker who sent 22   000 eth to Kraken in early June presumably 
to sell to put things into perspective this   Accounted for more than 10 percent of Jeffrey's 
Heath Holdings and he hadn't sent any eth to   Exchanges in over two and a half years fortunately 
though the universe also requires that all fud be   Balanced out with fomo a subsidiary of the Bank 
of China reportedly issued almost 30 billion   Dollars of tokenized assets on ethereum Via Hong 
Kong this was done with the help of a Swiss bank   Underscoring institutional ethereum adoption in 
both regions then in late June ethereum developers   Announced they were discussing the possibility 
of raising the maximum validator stake from 32   East to 2048. naturally this was met with no 
shortage of fud namely centralization concerns   When you think about it however you start to feel 
massive fomo for starters the minimum 32eath stake   Will stay the same all that's changing is the 
maximum sake which is currently also 32 eth   Now this is a problem because it means that 
validators have to redirect their staking   Rewards to other ethereum wallets they're not able 
to accrue them in the validator wallets raising   The maximum stake to 2048 means that validators 
will be able to accrue staking rewards and it will   Also open the door to automatically restaking 
these eth rewards compounding in other words   Given that there's nothing institutions love more 
than earning yield this would likely result in   Even more eth being staked the trade-off is that 
the total number of validators on ethereum could   Decline but consider did ethereum Speaker chain 
currently has over 700 000 validators in theory   More validators means more decentralization in 
practice however more validators could mean more   Synchronization issues the optimal number of 
ethereum validators is Up For Debate but what   We can all likely agree is that there is such a 
thing as too few validators but there's also such   A thing as too many the golden number is somewhere 
in the middle and the 2048 eth limit is probably   Intended to Target that number never mind that 
the number of validators isn't always the best   Measure of decentralization more about that in 
the description anyhow speaking of staking vitalik   Recently revealed that he's only staking a quote 
small portion of his eth he said this is because   Of security issues associated with staking and the 
complex multi-sig setup required to address them  

Creators of competing layer 1 kryptos were quick 
to criticize not going to name names of course   Now while I'm not qualified enough to speak 
to the security issues associated with eth   Staking or setting up complex multi-cigs 
I do have a feeling that this might not be   The only reason why vitalik isn't staking 
too much of his Eve another reason could   Be taxes try explaining staking income to 
the tax man regardless there's no denying   That vitalik's comments don't Inspire 
too much confidence about staking eth   As was mentioned in our weekly news review however 
this is a part of ethereum's growing pains staking   Issues ultimately mean that we're still early 
and that eth still has a lot more room to grow   On that note you might have noticed that eth is up 
almost 2x since the start of the Year this is due   To a combination of macro factors crypto factors 
and fundamentals such as eth supply and eth demand   The primary macro Factor has been liquidity 
which had been positive for the first half   Of the year for those unfamiliar liquidity is 
another word for money that's in the markets   Liquidity had been on the rise since January 
because the debt ceiling had been reached this   Forced the U.S government to spend money in the 
economy as it couldn't issue debt there was also   That de facto Bank bailout in March as well today 
however the liquidity picture looks a bit more   Mixed banks are reportedly borrowing billions 
through the fed's btfp facility which is likely   Increasing liquidity at the same time however 
the U.S government has been issuing billions of   Dollars of debt to refill its bank account at 
the FED which is likely draining liquidity if   You watched our video about the refill of the US 
government's bank account you'll know that this   Could suppress eth's price the same way it did 
during the refill in early January 2022 thankfully   This hasn't happened and that's probably because 
the liquidity drain has been coming from elsewhere   As far as crypto factors go there are two which 
have been affecting eth's price the first is the   Aforementioned shapella upgrade which was by all 
accounts a great success as you can see eth's most   Recent high of around 2.1 K was reached on the 
same week that chappella went live the second   Crypto Factor that's been affecting eth's price is 
regulatory uncertainty at first glance this hasn't   Had much of an effect on the price but when you 
measure eth's price in BTC terms you can clearly   See that it's been underperforming despite the 
impressive pump in Fiat terms the bad news is that   Eth's underperformance against BTC is likely to 
continue until there's more regulatory certainty   In the US and elsewhere the good news is that eth 
could still see impressive gains in Fiat terms   This assumes the crypto Market will 
continue to Rally let's hope that it does   When it comes to fundamentals eth's supply has 
been deflationary more eth is being burned via   Transaction fees than is being minted via 
staking rewards the caveat is that eth's   Deflationary Trend seems to be reversing if this 
continues eth could become inflationary again in   The coming weeks now this shouldn't be a problem 
because each demand continues to be robust the  

Amount of eth being staked continues to rise along 
with the number of validators the number of unique   Wallets on the ethereum blockchain also continues 
to be in a strong uptrend 240 million and Counting   At first glance the declining number of daily 
transactions on ethereum is a bearish sign that's   Until you remember that ethereum has an entire 
ecosystem of layer twos that's been growing fast   Lo and behold the number of transactions on these 
layer twos has been spiking more than compensating   For the short form now this raises the question 
of whether all the layer 2 activity is enough to   Create demand for eth given the low fees on these 
layer twos the answer is yes if there is enough   Activity on these layer twos and so far this seems 
to be the case even so the gradual decrease in eth   Burns could be a sign that activity as a whole is 
slowly declining then again all it takes for this   Activity to pick up again is another Trend be it 
a meme coin craze or a reissued nft collection for   Example these kinds of catalysts are impossible 
to predict which is why it's better to focus on   Upcoming milestones for ethereum that could send 
eth's price higher as it so happens there are two   The biggest upcoming milestone for ethereum 
is the eip-4844 upgrade which is colloquially   Referred to as proto-dank sharding the reason 
why proto-dank sharding is a big deal is because   It will basically allow ethereum to reach a level 
of scalability that's comparable with centralized   Computer systems this will be achieved by 
addressing ethereum's main bottleneck to   Scalability which is data availability as 
explained by ethereum developer Proto in a   Presentation this is because it's hard to request 
transaction data on a cryptocurrency blockchain   In a way that's both fast and decentralized 
proto-denck sharding solves this by making it   Possible for special Blobs of data to exist 
on the ethereum blockchain these blobs make   Transaction data more readily available which 
should increase ethereum scalability lower its   Fees and increase transaction speeds on its layer 
twos that's the simple explanation be sure to   Watch Proto's presentation if you want the complex 
explanation the link will be in the description   Now protodanksharding was first proposed as an EIP 
in February 2022 and ethereum developers have been   Working on implementing it since then primarily 
developers from the optimism layer 2. eip-4844 is   Expected to be implemented sometime in the second 
half of this year but no exact date has been given   Besides proto-danksharding ethereum developers 
have apparently been hyper focused on privacy   Back in January vitalik penned a blog post where 
he referred to privacy as quote one of the largest   Remaining challenges in the ethereum ecosystem 
and proposed stealth addresses as one solution   In April privacy on ethereum came into the 
spotlight again because of supposed privacy   Concerns related to eth staking just last month 
vitalik penned another blog post where he noted   Privacy as being one of the quote three 
transitions that ethereum must implement   Or else it will fail the sudden focus on 
privacy is not all that surprising when   You realize that institutional investors 
want privacy more than anyone else and  

Remember that the chappella upgrade has 
increased institutional interest in eth   The trick is to implement this privacy in a 
way that doesn't get delisted from exchanges   In case you haven't noticed crypto privacy isn't 
all that popular with Regulators regardless of the   Country and even regardless of the cryptocurrency 
case in point Litecoin was delisted from South   Korean exchanges after it implemented its 
privacy preserving sidechain last year Litecoin   The unprecedented regulatory environment we've 
seen since the start of the year is only going to   Make implementing privacy on ethereum that much 
more difficult this is probably why ethereum's   Privacy Solutions have centered around layer twos 
but this could still cause issues as we've seen   With Litecoin this brings us to the challenges 
ethereum faces and the first is regulation or   Rather lack thereof until there's regulatory 
Clarity in the U.S and elsewhere it's going to   Be hard for eth to reach its new all-time highs 
that's because institutional investors will be   Hesitant to deploy Capital directly into eth it's 
not just the institutional investors either it   Looks like retail investors risk losing access 
to things like staking and not just in the US   Singapore is reportedly discussing a proposal that 
would prevent retail investors from staking and   Countries such as Canada have introduced limits 
on retail crypto investing for what it's worth   Any regulation will be good regulation in the long 
run that's because as soon as a baseline has been   Established institutional interests will be able 
to Lobby Regulators in the direction they want   Regulations to go we believe that institutions 
will eventually Lobby to preserve on-chain   Privacy this will benefit retail investors but 
it assumes they won't be completely priced out of   These privacy layers and this ties into the Second 
Challenge ethereum faces and that's centralization   Not at the base layer but at the layer 2 level 
you see as ethereum fees continue to rise layer 2   Usage will increase as we mentioned in our video 
about bitcoin's ordinals nfts and brc20 tokens   Most layer 2 scaling Solutions including bitcoin's 
lightning Network are surprisingly centralized   This means that they're not all that different 
from the existing Financial system and this is   Where many retail users could end up this is a 
problem because it means that retail crypto users   Could eventually lose their Financial Freedom 
on chain it would defeat the entire purpose   Of cryptocurrency take a second to consider 
that coinbase's layer 2 scaling solution for   Ethereum will reportedly be compliant with AML 
regulations the trade-off in this case is that   Regulatory Compliance will make these layer 
2 scaling solutions that much more appealing   To institutional investors some would say it 
would be rational to take any gains made from   These layer twos and stick them on a layer 1 that 
can't be as easily controlled but hey who knows   And this relates to the third challenge ethereum 
faces and that's competition if retail users do   Get priced out of using ethereum itself they could 
start switching to ethereum competitors to ensure   That they retain their Financial Freedom on chain 
this could also happen for other reasons such as  

Staking issues from our perspective however the 
biggest blow to ethereum would be if something   Happened to its more centralized middleware I'm 
referring to ethereum infrastructure such as   Inferior which has a history of complying with U.S 
sanctions inferior has also experienced outages on   Two occasions now for those who don't know why 
this is such a big problem infuria provides RPC   Endpoints for metamask one of the most popular 
web 3 wallets in the world both infuria and   Metamask are operated by a centralized company 
consensus Joe Lubin happens to be the founder and   CEO of consensus and you'll recall that he's 
been reiterating that eth is not a security   Consensus itself has also been issuing similar 
statements and recently spoke out against the   Sec's defy rules on the off chance that the SEC 
is insane enough to go after eth infuria could   Restrict retail ethereum usage in the U.S the 
worst part though is that the SEC doesn't even   Have to go after eth to do damage if the exchange 
definition is expanded in fuhrer and metamask   Could again be in the crosshairs believe it or 
not but if either of these black swans did happen   It would be bullish for ethereum in the long term 
that's because it would force the entire ethereum   Ecosystem back towards decentralization something 
that's been slowly happening ever since regulatory   Scrutiny of crypto began last year obviously these 
black swans would be bearish for ethereum in the   Short term but the Silver Lining is that it would 
be even more bearish for competing layer ones   Which are facing even more regulatory scrutiny 
than ethereum this could paradoxically result   In more money flowing into eth from other alts 
this is all but guaranteed if protodanksharding   Delivers on its promises the only reason why there 
are competing layer ones is because ethereum isn't   Cheap or scalable enough for most people to use 
this will change after eip-4844 is implemented   And it should result in significant flows into 
eth from other layer ones in some then ethereum   Is truly at a Crossroads with unreasonable 
regulations on one hand and unprecedented adoption   On the other regardless of the path it goes down 
in the short term the long-term destination is   The same eth reaching new all-time highs and 
revolutionizing the financial system and you can   Find out how high institutional investors think 
eth will go using the link in the description   And that's all for today's video folks if you 
found it informative let me know by Smashing   That like button if you want to make sure you 
don't miss our next crypto update subscribe   To the channel and ping that notification 
Bell if you know any eth or BTC Maxis why   Not share this video with them and piss them 
both off and if you're looking for a safe place   To store your eth or somewhere to trade it 
without getting wrecked by fees check out the   Coin Bureau deals page it's got the biggest 
discounts on the best crypto wallets and up   To forty thousand dollars of bonus airdrops on 
the best crypto exchanges the link is of course   In the description thank you all for 
watching and I'll see you next time