ImmortalTangSan

Ethereum is a programmable blockchain and decentralized computing platform that was conceived by Vitalik Buterin in late 2013 and launched as an open blockchain in July 2015. Its core innovation is the Ethereum Virtual Machine (EVM), a Turing-complete virtual machine that runs identical smart contract bytecode on every node. In practice, Ethereum is a distributed state machine in which each block of transactions updates a global state consisting of user accounts and balances; the EVM defines the state transition rules. Users submit transactions that include code or value transfers, and the EVM deterministically executes these transactions across the network, using gas (a transaction fee in ETH) to meter and reward computation. There are two types of accounts: externally-owned accounts controlled by private keys, and smart-contract accounts whose code resides on-chain. In this way, Ethereum extends the original Bitcoin model into a full smart-contract platform, enabling decentralized applications (dApps), tokens, and autonomous protocols.

Ethereum’s consensus architecture evolved significantly over time. In its early years (2015–2022) Ethereum used a Proof-of-Work (PoW) algorithm called Ethash, similar to Bitcoin. Blocks were mined by solving computational puzzles, and miners collected new ETH plus fees. Starting in 2020 Ethereum introduced a separate Beacon Chain as a parallel Proof-of-Stake (PoS) network. Initially running side-by-side, this chain brought staking to Ethereum: anyone could lock up 32 ETH to become a validator, proposing or attesting to blocks for rewards. Each validator’s responsibility was to vote on new blocks and occasionally propose a block. If a validator fails these duties, it simply misses a payout; but if a validator deliberately misbehaves – for example signing two conflicting blocks – the protocol “slashes” the validator by burning up to 1 ETH and ejecting it from the validator set. This strong penalty scheme, along with small penalties for downtime, enforces honest participation. As of mid-2025 over 1.09 million validators are active, staking roughly 35.7 million ETH (about 29% of total supply). The validator reward formula is inverse to the square-root of total stake (i.e. more validators means slightly lower per-validator yields), and under current conditions average yield on new stake is on the order of 3–4% annually.

The Merge in September 2022 united Ethereum’s consensus and execution layers. At that point, the Beacon Chain’s PoS consensus replaced PoW on mainnet, ending mining in favor of staking. Instead of proof-of-work contests, blocks are now finalized by randomly chosen validators, making Ethereum much more energy-efficient. The Merge (codename Paris) switched off mining “difficulty bombs” and turned on the new consensus logic overnight. After The Merge there is a single Ethereum blockchain secured by PoS, with each node typically running two clients: an execution client (handling EVM state, transactions and smart contracts) and a consensus client (maintaining the beacon chain and consensus protocol). This separation of roles is more explicit, but to users and smart contracts Ethereum remains one unified network. The PoS chain also unlocks the long-planned sharding roadmap. Under PoW, sharding (splitting Ethereum into dozens of sub-chains) was infeasible. PoS, with its registry of validators, allows new scaling designs. The original shard-chains vision has since given way to “data sharding” or Danksharding. Rather than 64 full shards, Ethereum will use erasure-coded blob-carrying transactions that rollups can use for cheap data availability. Indeed, the March 2024 “Dencun” upgrade introduced Proto-Danksharding (EIP-4844), which added special blob transactions that rollup protocols can publish cheaply; these blobs contain binary data and are pruned after a short period, massively reducing Layer-2 calldata costs. Full Danksharding (targeting eventually dozens of blob slots per block and on-chain validity proofs) is still several years out, but Ethereum’s immediate road map is clear: a sequence of coordinated execution/consensus upgrades (Shapella, Dencun, Pectra, etc.) leading toward high-throughput, low-cost Layer-2 operation with minimal change to layer-1.

Institutional investment in Ethereum accelerated significantly following the SEC’s approval of multiple spot Ethereum exchange-traded funds in May 2024. Major issuers including BlackRock, Fidelity, VanEck, and Grayscale launched ETH funds that, by mid-2025, collectively hold over four million ETH. BlackRock’s iShares Ethereum Trust (ETHA) leads the group, with approximately $8 billion in assets under management—about 1.7 million ETH, or nearly 40% of total ETH held by U.S. ETFs. Other funds, such as Fidelity’s ETH offering and VanEck’s ETHV, contribute significantly to institutional holdings. BlackRock has also filed to enable ETHA to participate in Ethereum staking, a move that could introduce institutional yield exposure pending regulatory approval. Beyond ETFs, Ethereum is increasingly used in corporate treasuries; for example, BitMine Immersion, backed by Founders Fund (co-founded by Peter Thiel), holds more than 300,000 ETH—worth roughly $1 billion—as a reserve asset. These developments reflect Ethereum’s growing recognition as a long-term institutional-grade financial instrument.

The timeline of Ethereum’s development is marked by a series of named hard forks and upgrades, each adding features or optimizations. The very first mainnet release was the Frontier launch (July 30, 2015), a minimalist network aimed at developers and miners. It operated with basic functionality and a low gas price. Frontier was followed by “Thawing” (Sept 2015) which adjusted gas limits, and then Homestead (March 2016), the first major protocol upgrade that stabilized the network and set the stage for future changes. Homestead introduced various EIPs and allowed Ethereum to disable old code paths safely. In late 2016 there were emergency forks (Tangerine Whistle, Spurious Dragon) to address denial-of-service attack vector issues, and the controversial DAO Fork (Jul 2016) which reversed a $50M hacking incident (creating Ethereum Classic). By late 2017 Ethereum reached Byzantium (Oct 2017), a significant upgrade that lowered the block reward from 5 to 3 ETH and added precompiled cryptographic functions to support ZK-proof and Layer-2 scaling solutions. In early 2019, the Constantinople upgrade further lowered rewards to 2 ETH and made EVM optimizations. Later that year, Istanbul (Dec 2019) fine-tuned gas costs, improved DoS resistance, and enhanced interoperability (including enabling certain privacy-preserving proofs). These “Eth1.0” forks also introduced various EIPs (e.g. Homestead’s EIP-150, Byzantium’s EIP-649, Constantinople’s EIP-1234, etc.) to adjust parameters like refund mechanics, block gas limit, and miner reward.

The mid-2021 London upgrade (August 5, 2021) was particularly impactful. London implemented EIP-1559, a major fee-market reform. Under EIP-1559, each block includes a base fee (burned by the protocol) plus a tip to miners/validators. This not only smoothed transaction pricing but also began a net-deflationary mechanism: whenever the network is busy, more ETH is destroyed than created. Ethereum.org explains that London’s EIP-1559 “reformed the transaction fee market,” introducing the base fee burn and changing refund rules. In practice, a significant portion of transaction fees (millions of ETH per year under high usage) is now permanently removed from supply, offsetting issuance.

Meanwhile, Ethereum’s consensus layer milestones included the Beacon Chain genesis (Dec 1, 2020) and The Merge (Sept 15, 2022). The Beacon Chain launch formalized PoS in Ethereum ahead of actually turning off PoW. After the Merge, no new ETH is minted for proof-of-work: issuance now occurs only as staking rewards on the beacon chain. In effect, daily issuance dropped from about 13,000 ETH to roughly 1,700 ETH, an ~88% cut. The official Ethereum Foundation supply analysis estimates that Ethereum’s annual issuance rate went from ~4.6% under PoW down to ~0.52% under PoS (assuming current stake levels). Crucially, this post-Merge issuance can be fully offset by EIP-1559 burning: at an average gas price of about 16 gwei, the burned base fees equal the staking issuance, resulting in zero net inflation. Indeed, on many days since late 2021 Ethereum has been slightly deflationary (total supply decreasing) due to heavy fee burning. Subsequent upgrades have continued this theme: April 2023’s Shanghai/Capella (also called Shapella) enabled validators to withdraw staked ETH, injecting liquidity but not changing issuance rates. March 2024’s Dencun (Cancun+Deneb) rolled out Proto-Danksharding (EIP-4844), as noted above. And May 2025’s Pectra (Prague+Electra) focused on staker experience and account abstraction: it increased the max deposit for a single validator (EIP-7251) and, via EIP-7702, allowed normal externally-owned accounts to execute code like a smart contract. This latter feature (account abstraction) unlocks use cases like meta-transactions, batching, and sponsored gas, effectively blurring the line between wallets and contracts.

These protocol changes also drove Ethereum’s price cycles. In its first years ETH traded under $20 for much of 2015–2016. The 2017 crypto boom lifted ETH to hundreds of dollars by late 2017 (e.g. ~$334 at Byzantium). In 2018 the market crashed, but a renewed bull run in late 2020 pushed ETH above $2,000 by early 2021. The London upgrade month (Aug 2021) saw ETH around $2,621. Prices then skyrocketed with the 2021 NFT/DeFi frenzy: ETH hit its all-time high of roughly $4,855 in November 2021. The 2022 bear market (macroeconomic tightening and crypto contagions) drove ETH down to lows below $900 by late 2022. The Merge in Sept 2022 occurred around $1,472. A post-Merge rally in 2023 took ETH past $2,000 (e.g. ~$1,917 at the Shanghai upgrade) and even back to nearly $4,000 by March 2024 (notably at Dencun, ~$3,984). As of mid-July 2025, Ethereum’s market capitalization stands on the order of $430–440 billion (roughly 13–14% below its peak); e.g. on July 18, 2025 the market cap was about $434.4 B. This implies a price in the low $3,000s (CoinTelegraph notes ETH trading around $3,500 in July 2025). Investor sentiment has ebbed and flowed, but institutional interest has clearly grown, as evidenced by inflows into the new spot ETH ETFs and strategic announcements (see below).

Ethereum’s on-chain economy is anchored by its built-in tokenomics. Initially, block rewards plus uncle rewards accounted for almost all issuance, eventually reaching ~4–5% inflation. The EIP-1559 burn mechanism fundamentally altered this. For example, during network congestions thousands of ETH can be burned daily. Analysis shows that when average gas prices exceed ~16 gwei, the daily base-fee burn surpasses the ~1,700 ETH/day paid to stakers, turning net issuance negative. Indeed, in periods of heavy demand (e.g. during DeFi summer or NFT booms) Ethereum supply has temporarily contracted. Overall, post-Merge Ethereum is effectively at a near-zero or modest inflation rate, far lower than most traditional currencies. Explicitly, issuance today comes mainly from staking rewards (plus small validator MEV payouts and priority fees) which, on the current ~36M ETH staked, yields roughly 3–5% APR to validators. These rewards are inversely proportional to sqrt(total stake), so as more ETH is staked the yield gradually declines. In practice, most validators today see around 4% on freshly staked ETH, with higher yields for early stakers and a declining schedule as the stake level rises.

About one-third of all ETH supply is currently locked for staking, and roughly $19 B worth of ETH is posted as collateral within DeFi protocols. This makes ETH not only a monetary asset but also a key collateral token (the Cointelegraph analysis notes ETH “acts as collateral, settlement, and yield” in DeFi). Account abstraction (EIP-4337 and related features) is enhancing Ethereum’s versatility for user accounts and wallets (e.g. allowing gasless transactions and more complex signature schemes). The Pectra upgrade’s EIP-7702 specifically enables a regular user account to behave like a mini smart contract, meaning things like batching transactions and sponsored gas are possible. In short, Ethereum’s tokenomics blend moderate issuance, a built-in burn, and staking yield to create an increasingly deflationary currency-like dynamic, especially when on-chain activity is strong.

Beyond the protocol itself, Ethereum has become a vast application ecosystem. It pioneered decentralized finance (DeFi): systems like MakerDAO (launched 2017, issuing the DAI stablecoin), Compound and Aave (money markets), and Uniswap (automated market maker) allowed users to lend, borrow, trade, and earn yield without intermediaries. By mid-2025 total value locked (TVL) in Ethereum DeFi protocols is on the order of $100–150 B, reflecting both bull and bear dynamics. In 2021 Ethereum was also the center of the NFT craze: CryptoKitties (2017) was the first viral on-chain game, and in 2021 collections like CryptoPunks and Bored Ape Yacht Club (each ERC-721 tokens) reached multi-billion dollar market caps. That boom is over, but Ethereum still hosts massive NFT marketplaces (OpenSea, etc.) and has charted much higher wallet usage: daily active wallets recently exceeded 2.5 million. New areas such as gaming and metaverse tokens continue to use Ethereum as base. Stablecoins are another pillar: Tether (USDT), USDC, and DAI – pegged to dollars or other fiat – run largely on Ethereum. Cointelegraph notes that since 2020 stablecoin supply has grown ~60× to over $200 B, with over 54% of all dollar stablecoins on Ethereum. This makes Ethereum a key infrastructure for the “on-chain dollar.” Other applications include tokenized real-world assets (RWA): financial firms are experimenting with tokenizing bonds, stocks, and loans on Ethereum or connected ledgers. For example, reports indicate that a sizable fraction of tokens backing on-chain loans and debts use ETH as collateral. Even if many RWAs remain offchain, frameworks like MakerDAO have begun to accept real bonds or receivables as collateral in 2024–25. Also relevant is enterprise interest: the Enterprise Ethereum Alliance (founded 2017) counts hundreds of member companies (banks like Scotiabank, tech firms like Cisco, and even some governments) collaborating on permissioned or hybrid Ethereum deployments. Corporations such as JPMorgan (Quorum) and Consensys-based platforms, as well as cloud providers (Azure, AWS) offer Ethereum infrastructure. All told, Ethereum has become a digital economy ledger, underpinning DeFi protocols ($100+B TVL), NFT and gaming ecosystems, token standards (ERC-20 tokens for hundreds of coins), and high-volume stablecoin and payment rails.

Institutional adoption of Ethereum has gathered steam. After Bitcoin, ETH has emerged as the next asset for institutional inflows. In the U.S., the SEC approved multiple spot Ethereum exchange-traded funds (ETFs) in mid-2024. These include funds by BlackRock, Fidelity, VanEck, Ark, and others, with trading beginning July 2024. The SEC’s approval language described these products as “commodity-based trust shares,” implying ETH is treated more like a commodity than a security. This marked a reversal from a recent unpublished SEC stance (post-Merge) that had briefly considered ETH as a security, and it essentially endorses the view (shared by CFTC) that Ether is a commodity. Notably, initial spot ETH ETFs were required not to stake their ETH, reflecting ongoing regulatory sensitivity: the SEC raised questions about staking potentially being a securities-like offering. Outside the U.S., Ethereum is unregulated or lightly regulated in most markets. The EU’s MiCA framework (effective 2024) primarily targets stablecoins and crypto-asset services; under MiCA, ETH would be considered a crypto-asset and subject to consumer safeguards (for exchanges, wallets, etc.) but is not banned. Globally, regulators still debate classification: the U.S. CFTC explicitly views ETH as a commodity, while the SEC has so far avoided a firm public declaration beyond the ETF approvals. In Asia and elsewhere, governments often tolerate Ethereum usage, with some exploring tokenization of national assets on Ethereum-like platforms.

Finally, the environmental impact of Ethereum shifted dramatically with PoS. Under proof-of-work, Ethereum’s energy use was comparable to a small country; estimates around 2021 put it near Bangladesh’s power footprint. PoS changed that: official tests and studies estimated the Merge cut Ethereum’s energy consumption by about 99.95%, making it roughly 2000× more efficient. For perspective, the post-Merge network uses similar energy to a modest server farm, and the carbon emitted per transaction fell from about 110 kg CO₂ to roughly 0.01 kg. This virtually eliminates the network’s carbon footprint, aligning Ethereum with ESG (environmental, social, and governance) criteria and reducing a major criticism of blockchains. Indeed, Ethereum proponents now compare ETH’s role to “digital oil” or digital infrastructure rather than fuel; the ETH token itself is finite by design (with a target of roughly 1.51% max issuance yearly) and is largely staked or used in onchain finance. In summary, Ethereum’s evolution from 2015 to 2025 has been transformative: it grew from a developer testbed into a full-fledged decentralized computing platform and financial ecosystem. Through successive upgrades it added Turing-complete smart contracts, moved to sustainable staking, introduced deflationary monetary policy, and enabled Layer-2 scaling. Its onchain economy and market history reflect speculative booms and busts, but today Ethereum stands as a multi-hundred-billion-dollar network with broad application utility and growing institutional and regulatory integration. All claims above are supported by the Ethereum Foundation’s documentation and recent industry analyses.
$ETH
#ETHBreaks3700 #StablecoinLaw #CryptoMarket4T #GENIUSAct #AltcoinBreakout

Bitcoin is a peer‐to‐peer electronic cash system secured by cryptography. Technically, it operates as a decentralized blockchain of timestamped transaction blocks. Each block contains a batch of transactions, a reference (hash) to the prior block, a timestamp, a Merkle root, and a nonce. Miners compete to solve a proof‐of‐work puzzle: they hash the block header (using the SHA-256 algorithm) with different nonces until they find a hash below a target threshold. This process ensures that adding a block requires substantial computation and energy, deterring tampering. When a miner finds a valid block, she broadcasts it; if a majority (51% or more) of other miners agree, her block becomes part of the longest chain and she claims the block reward. Crucially, altering any transaction data even slightly completely changes the block’s hash, so an attacker would have to redo the proof‐of‐work for that block and all subsequent blocks to reverse history. The Bitcoin protocol automatically adjusts difficulty every 2,016 blocks (roughly every two weeks) to maintain an average 10‐minute block time, regardless of changes in total network hash rate. Blocks were originally limited to 1 megabyte in byte‐size, but since the 2017 Segregated Witness (SegWit) upgrade blocks are limited by a “weight” metric of 4 million units (roughly a 4MB effective cap). This cap prevents runaway data growth so that ordinary users can continue running full nodes, a key security assumption of Bitcoin. Overall, Bitcoin’s security rests on the economic cost of mining and the distributed consensus rule, assuming no single actor controls a majority of hashing power.

Bitcoin’s monetary policy is fixed in code. Its supply schedule was published in Satoshi Nakamoto’s 2008 whitepaper and has been followed since the 2009 genesis block. New bitcoin are created as block rewards to miners, but this reward is cut in half every 210,000 blocks (about four years). For example, the reward was 50 BTC until 2012, then 25 BTC until 2016, 12.5 BTC until 2020, and 6.25 BTC until April 2024. The April 2024 “halving” reduced the subsidy from 6.25 to 3.125 BTC per block. This halving mechanism guarantees a steadily declining issuance rate and caps the ultimate supply at 21 million coins. (By design, the last fraction of a Bitcoin will be mined around the year 2140.) As of mid-2025 roughly 19.9 million coins have been mined, leaving about 1.1 million yet to be generated. Because halvings dramatically cut the flow of new coins, Bitcoin’s inflation rate has dropped to low single digits; for example, pre-halving inflation was around 1.7% annualized. These dynamics lead some observers to model Bitcoin’s value via “stock-to-flow” scarcity measures, since the stock (circulating supply) grows slowly relative to the halved flows. However, like gold, Bitcoin’s supply is fully algorithmic and does not depend on human decisions, providing predictable scarcity.

Bitcoin’s development history reflects a series of software upgrades and community debates. After the 2008 whitepaper, the Bitcoin network launched in January 2009 with the mining of the genesis block. Satoshi stepped back by 2010, and since then an open community of developers (primarily Bitcoin Core) has managed the protocol through Bitcoin Improvement Proposals (BIPs). Two major soft-fork upgrades have expanded Bitcoin’s capabilities: SegWit in 2017 fixed transaction malleability and introduced a block weight limit, and Taproot in 2021 added Schnorr signature capability and more efficient multisignature and scripting (improving privacy and smart-contract flexibility). These were generally non-contentious, requiring miner signaling and community support before activation. However, there have also been contentious hard forks: most notably Bitcoin Cash (August 2017) and Bitcoin SV (November 2018) split off over block size and other disputes. Both later forks increased block sizes (e.g. Bitcoin Cash to 8MB) but remain separate networks. Off-chain innovations have also been deployed: the Lightning Network (first live in 2018) is a layer-2 payment channel system that allows near-instant, low-fee bitcoin transfers. By 2025 Lightning has grown substantially (global channel capacity on the order of thousands of BTC), enabling more everyday and cross-border transactions without burdening the main chain. In sum, Bitcoin’s governance remains decentralized (changes pass via rough consensus of nodes and miners), but the protocol continues to evolve through careful, backward-compatible upgrades.

Bitcoin’s market history has been dramatic. After languishing at a few cents in early 2010, it first reached $1,000 in late 2013. It then surged to around $20,000 by the end of 2017 before a deep bear market that bottomed near $3,000 in late 2018. Another major run-up occurred in 2020–2021: Bitcoin reached roughly $29,000 in late 2020 and broke above $60,000 in early 2021, peaking near $69,000 in November 2021. This boom, often driven by “fear-of-missing-out” and broad cryptocurrency mania, was followed by a sharp decline in 2022, during which Bitcoin fell as low as ~$16,000 by late 2022 (on macro headwinds and crypto sector turmoil). Historically, Bitcoin exhibits high volatility: from 2020–2024 its price swings were approximately three to four times larger than major stock indices on a realized volatility basis. (An analysis by Fidelity noted that Bitcoin’s annualized volatility frequently exceeded 100% in its early years, though it has declined as the market has grown.) By mid-2025 we are clearly in a new bull market: Bitcoin’s price recently reached new all-time highs. In early July 2025 it climbed above $120,000, bringing its market capitalization to roughly $2.4 trillion with about 19.9 million coins in circulation. (As of July 18, 2025, bitcoin was trading around $118,700, with a market cap of about $2.36 trillion.) Daily volatility remains significant (single-day moves of several percent are common), but on a multi-year basis volatility has moderated as institutional flows have increased. Notably, analysts report that the recent rally has been supported by accumulation from long-term holders and a shrinking supply available on exchanges – as one analyst put it, fewer liquid coins means “each new dollar of demand pushes price higher”. On-chain metrics (like rising MVRV ratios and declining exchange balances) suggest bullish sentiment among many stakeholders.

Institutional adoption has been a major driver of recent demand. In early 2023 U.S. regulators approved a suite of spot Bitcoin exchange-traded funds (ETFs), and by 2025 these ETF products account for massive flows. The largest is BlackRock’s iShares Bitcoin Trust (ticker IBIT), which by mid-2025 had amassed over $76–80 billion in assets under management, representing some 700,000+ BTC (about 3.5% of all bitcoins). This pace of institutional investment is unprecedented; one report noted IBIT reached these levels faster than any traditional ETF in history. IBIT now holds over half of all U.S. spot Bitcoin ETF assets, far more than Fidelity’s FBTC (~203,000 BTC) or Grayscale’s GBTC (~184,000 BTC). Altogether, these funds have introduced hundreds of thousands of new buyers of Bitcoin from pension funds, endowments, and wealthy individuals. ETF providers like Grayscale (GBTC), Ark 21Shares, Bitwise and others also contribute; flows have been volatile (for example, January 2025 saw inflows, while some months saw redemptions), but net demand remains strong given the rise to new highs.

Public companies have also added Bitcoin to their treasuries. The best-known is MicroStrategy, which as of July 2025 held roughly 601,550 BTC (about $71.2 billion at current prices) on its balance sheet, with an average cost around $66,000 per coin. This vast holding (far more than any other public company) gives MicroStrategy about $35.6 billion in cost basis for its Bitcoin. Tesla remains a smaller holder; its Q1 2025 report confirmed it held 11,509 BTC (bought at an average ~$30,000), worth about $951 million at end-Q1 prices. Tesla did not sell any of its bitcoin in Q1 2025, and as prices rose above $93,000 by mid-July the value of Tesla’s stash briefly topped $1 billion. Other companies with meaningful Bitcoin exposure include Square (Block, Inc.) and various smaller firms, though no one else approaches MicroStrategy’s scale. Some governments have also experimented with Bitcoin reserves. El Salvador, which adopted bitcoin as legal tender in 2021, has been accumulating it (reportedly over 6,200 BTC held, ~$738 million as of mid-2025). (However, the IMF has urged caution, noting El Salvador’s increases have sometimes reflected internal consolidation rather than new buys.) The Central African Republic (CAR), which made bitcoin legal tender in 2022, has since repealed that status due to regional pressure. Notably, in 2025 Texas became the first large U.S. state to create a Strategic Bitcoin Reserve: a bill (SB21) passed the Texas legislature (101–42 in the House) to allow the state comptroller to invest some general funds in bitcoin (and potentially other large-cap crypto). A similar law was just signed in New Hampshire (May 2025) and dozens of other states have considered such measures. Meanwhile at the federal level, Senator Cynthia Lummis (R-WY) and others introduced the BITCOIN Act of 2025 (S.954) in March 2025 to establish a national strategic Bitcoin reserve and policy framework. These initiatives reflect growing mainstream acceptance of Bitcoin as a treasury asset.

Regulators worldwide have been evolving their stance on Bitcoin and crypto. In the European Union, the MiCA regulation (Markets in Crypto-Assets) was adopted in 2023 and is being implemented across member states; it provides the first comprehensive EU-wide rules for crypto markets and service providers, increasing legal clarity (though it is mostly focused on stablecoins and service licenses, not bitcoin per se). In the U.S., policy is shifting from hostility toward legitimacy: the SEC’s approval of spot Bitcoin ETFs in 2023 was a watershed, and federal agencies have begun to roll back some crypto-specific rules. For example, in July 2025 the U.S. Treasury and IRS formally repealed a previously proposed “broker rule” that would have required exchanges and decentralized platforms to report user transaction data to tax authorities, a move praised by industry as preserving user privacy and liquidity. Congress has held hearings on crypto market structure (including Bitcoin ETFs and stablecoins) and has paused or delayed broader crypto bills (such as GENIUS and CLARITY). At the same time, some state and federal legislators are crafting Bitcoin-friendly policies as noted above. Across the globe, a few countries have endorsed Bitcoin: El Salvador remains the only country with legal tender status, while others (Bhutan, Ukraine) have discussed forming central reserves of Bitcoin (often linked to mining projects). In contrast, China’s outright bans on trading and mining remain in place; yet even in China there is unofficial interest in digital assets, with government entities recently discussing policies for regulated stablecoins tied to the yuan. Other large economies have been cautious: India is debating its own crypto legislation with tight regulations, while the EU is pushing a common rulebook.

Mining economics have been affected by the April 2024 halving and seasonal factors. The total hash rate (network computing power) initially dipped in spring 2025 as the lower reward squeezed marginal miners, but rebounded by summer. Recent data showed the seven-day average hash rate back above 900 exahashes per second (EH/s), recovering from a mid-2025 low during U.S. summer heatwaves. As miners reactivated, difficulty – which had fallen ~7.5% in early May – was projected to rise about 6% in the next adjustment. Even with Bitcoin’s price near $108,000, miner revenues per unit of hashpower (“hashprice”) have fallen; estimates show revenue around $55 per PH/s (petahash/s) down from about $58/PH/s pre-halving. This squeeze has led some publicly traded miners to change strategy: Bit Digital announced selling all Bitcoin holdings and shifting to Ethereum mining, and Core Scientific (now being acquired by CoreWeave) has indicated it will wind down its public Bitcoin mining operation.

The geography and energy mix of mining continue to evolve. As of 2024–2025, North America dominates reported mining activity (with the U.S. alone roughly 36–38% of global hash rate), followed by Russia (~16%) and China (~14%). Significant mining also occurs in Canada, Norway, Paraguay, the Middle East, and elsewhere. Notably, China retains ~14% of hashing power despite its 2021 crackdown – this is believed to come from underground and hydropower projects in Sichuan and other regions. Other emerging hubs are Russia (hydropower, natural gas in Siberia) and regions like the Middle East/Africa (e.g. Ethiopia, which holds ~1.5% share). Miners continue to seek cheap energy: many use stranded natural gas in the U.S. and Argentina, or hydroelectric dams in Canada and Brazil. According to the Cambridge Bitcoin Electricity Consumption Index, Bitcoin’s total electricity use in 2024 was on the order of 138 terawatt-hours (roughly 0.5% of global electricity). Importantly, Cambridge’s latest study finds that about 52.4% of mining energy now comes from sustainable sources (42.6% renewable like hydro/wind, and 9.8% nuclear), while natural gas constitutes 38% and coal only about 9%. North America is estimated to account for over 82% of reported mining energy (U.S. ~75%, Canada ~7%). Debate over Bitcoin’s carbon footprint continues: proponents cite the rising use of renewables and the ability to integrate with intermittent power, while critics point to significant emissions (roughly 39.8 million metric tons CO₂e in 2024) and resources used.

Globally, Bitcoin’s relevance is especially high in regions facing inflation or capital controls. Research indicates that lower- and middle-income countries dominate cryptocurrency usage because of real-world needs like remittances, banking the unbanked, and hedging local currency inflation. For example, Turkey’s high inflation and strict currency controls have spurred retail interest, as have similar conditions in Latin America (e.g. Argentina) and parts of Africa. Bitcoin’s relatively censorship-resistant, borderless nature allows people to move value outside their national currency systems. Additionally, mobile and peer-to-peer trading apps are thriving in Asia and Africa, often pegged to stablecoins for everyday transactions. One analyst report notes that African innovators are leading the way on Lightning payments: Nigeria is cited as a top adopter metric in the region, with companies like Bitnob using Lightning channels for low-fee remittances and payments. In many emerging markets, Bitcoin is colloquially viewed as “digital gold” – a store of value against inflation and as a means of global financial access. Even in developed countries, Bitcoin’s geopolitical role is highlighted by discussions of national reserves: an emerging “America-first” stance proposes a federal Bitcoin reserve (as in the BITCOIN Act) to hedge against dollar debasement, and analysts have noted legislative proposals in Russia, Vietnam, and elsewhere to hold crypto as a defense against sanctions or monetary instability.

In sum, as of July 19, 2025, Bitcoin stands at a historic juncture: its technical foundations remain intact and secure, its monetary policy fixed and understood, and its ecosystem mature yet still innovating. Recent price strength has been underpinned by institutional flows (especially from ETFs) and macroeconomic liquidity, even as volatility and speculative swings persist. Regulatory actions – from European MiCA to U.S. ETF approvals to strategic reserve legislation – are bringing Bitcoin further into mainstream finance. At the same time, mining trends, energy considerations, and global adoption show Bitcoin’s complex interplay with economics and geopolitics. Authoritative data and official reports underscore these facts: for instance, Cambridge’s research on energy use, official Bitcoin holdings trackers for companies and countries, and analytics on ETF inflows all paint a coherent picture. Overall, Bitcoin in mid-2025 is a vastly different, more mature asset than at its inception, yet it continues to evolve with each technological upgrade, market cycle, and regulatory shift – all while remaining true to its core principles of fixed supply, decentralized consensus, and cryptographic security.
$BTC
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@Lagrange Official (ticker LA) is a novel blockchain project focused on supplying zero-knowledge (ZK) proving infrastructure for AI and other workloads. It comprises two main protocols: a decentralized ZK Prover Network and a hyper-parallel “ZK Coprocessor.” Its flagship zkML engine, DeepProve, can verify AI model inferences with cryptographic proofs while keeping model parameters private (for example, proving “output Y came from model X on input Z” without revealing the model weights). The Prover Network is designed to enable any zk-rollup or DApp to outsource proof generation in a secure, decentralized way, lowering costs and improving liveness; it is already operated by major institutions such as Coinbase Cloud, Kraken, OKX, and others. The SQL-based ZK Coprocessor is an off-chain computation layer that allows smart contracts to perform heavy queries on historical chain data or compute-intensive tasks off-chain and then verify the results on-chain with ZK proofs. In essence, smart contracts on any EVM chain can request proofs of complex computations or data queries – even across different chains – without having to trust external bridges, thanks to the Coprocessor’s design. Lagrange’s architecture is modular and highly parallel: it uses independent prover “subnets” tailored to specific applications (e.g. one subnet per rollup or service), which eliminates congestion and scales out proof generation. The project touts that over 85 institutional validators (through EigenLayer) already run its software, giving it high availability and throughput.

Unlike a standalone blockchain, Lagrange does not use its own consensus mechanism – instead it operates as a layer secured by Ethereum. The LA token is an ERC-20 and the network’s protocols rely on Ethereum’s proof-of-stake security. All prover tasks and coprocessor operations happen off-chain and are finalized via cryptographic proofs verified on Ethereum, so the system inherits Ethereum’s security model. The whitepaper describes a “work-based” incentive design: provers (node operators) must stake LA tokens to participate and bid in auctions to produce proofs, and they put up that stake as collateral for liveness guarantees. If a prover fails to deliver a proof on time or acts maliciously, their stake can be slashed. Meanwhile, token emissions are controlled to subsidize proof generation – a 4% annual inflation rate is planned to fund rewards for provers and ecosystem growth. These new tokens are vested over time, creating built-in “sinks” that slow their release and help prevent immediate sell-offs. The Binance research notes that the economics are driven by “proof demand = token demand,” meaning as more proofs are requested and fees paid, more LA is staked and circulated. Additionally, LA is intended to serve for governance: token holders will vote in a future DAO on changes such as fee schedules and treasury allocation. In summary, LA’s tokenomics center on an initial supply of 1 billion tokens with 4% yearly inflation; only ~193 million (19.3%) were circulating at the time of the July 2025 launch, with the rest locked up for team, investors, and ecosystem according to vesting schedules. This aligns with the whitepaper’s emphasis on long-term lockups and gradual unlocks to “mitigate speculative pressure”. There is no dedicated burn mechanism, so the token is inflationary by design, and token holders can stake or delegate LA to earn fees from the network (clients pay fees in LA for proof services).

On the markets, Lagrange has attracted attention since its mid-2025 token launch. The project secured high-profile exchange listings: it launched trading on Bitget in early June 2025 and on Binance (LA/USDT, USDC, etc.) on July 9, 2025. It is also reported to be trading or available to trade on other major platforms such as Gate.io, Bybit, MEXC and a Coinbase listing (though officially Coinbase currently only provides an information page, not a trading pair). As a result, LA has data pages on all leading aggregators: for example, CoinMarketCap ranks it around #475 by market cap. According to CoinMarketCap, the live price is about $0.35 (USD) as of mid-July 2025, with a 24-hour volume on the order of $60–$65 million. Its circulating supply is listed as 193,000,000 LA, matching the Binance report. Hence the market cap is on the order of $68 million (Coinbase’s statistics likewise show ~€58M). Notably, the token has seen extreme volatility: CoinMarketCap shows an all-time high of $4.50 and low of $0.2079, both recorded on June 4, 2025 (indicative of a brief parabolic spike at listing followed by a crash). After that event, the price cooled into the $0.3–0.4 range. Recent technical readings suggest bearish momentum. For instance, a BeInCrypto technical analysis notes that on weekly charts the RSI is very low and MACD is trending downward, indicating a bearish trend. Coinbase’s market dashboard also noted LA falling ~14% over a recent 17-hour period. In short, LA’s trading pattern has been choppy around its launch, with initial hype faded and sentiment currently cautious. Investors cite levels around $0.39–$0.40 as key support. (Bearish analysts have warned that a failure to break higher could keep it consolidating or lower, while a sustained push above ~$0.80 might spark renewed rallies.) Regardless, the fundamentals emphasize that as the Prover Network generates more proofs (for rollups like zkSync, Polygon, etc.), token demand and fee income for stakers should grow.

Lagrange Labs, the company behind LA, has built credibility through its team and backers. CEO and co-founder Ismael Hishon-Rezaizadeh is a graduate of McGill University with prior experience at John Hancock and Renegade Partners. The founding engineer is Kashish Shah (formerly at AWS), and the blockchain engineer Andrus S is a former Kraken and Nym engineer. Early-stage venture capital has poured in: a pre-seed round in early 2023 raised $4 million (led by 1kx, with participants like Maven11, Lattice, CMT Digital). More notably, a $13.2 million seed round in late 2024 was led by Peter Thiel’s Founders Fund (with participation from Archetype, Maven11, Fenbushi, CMT, Mantle, etc.). These backers are among the top-tier crypto investors, underlining confidence in the team and technology. Lagrange also aligns with prominent infrastructure projects: for example, about $6 billion of Ether is staked via EigenLayer to secure Lagrange’s proving nodes, and the firm lists Coinbase Cloud, Kraken, OKX, and P2P as independent operators of its network. This means that well-known validators and exchanges have financial skin in the game and are helping run its proof systems.

The ecosystem around Lagrange is also expanding through partnerships. In AI, Lagrange has a signed strategic partnership with NVIDIA to co-develop core technologies, such as accelerated proof generation for AI models. In Web3, it has formally partnered with Matter Labs (the team behind zkSync): a press release in March 2025 announced that Matter Labs will route up to 75% of its outsourced ZK proof demand to Lagrange’s network over the next two years. This effectively makes Lagrange a primary prover network for zkSync’s proofs, a significant endorsement of its infrastructure. The project also cooperates with other Layer-2 and cross-chain ecosystems; for example, it is integrated with rollups like ZKsync, Polygon zkEVM, Linea, and bridging protocols like LayerZero, AltLayer, #Caldera . For identity and security, Lagrange is working with Privado (for identity proofs) and was selected for Intel’s Liftoff startup accelerator. These alliances – spanning crypto exchanges, infrastructure providers, AI companies, and standards committees – build the project’s credibility. The ZK Coprocessor product already has pilots with applications such as the Azuki NFT platform and DeFi protocols like Gearbox and Frax (enabling off-chain queries of on-chain data for incentives programs and accounting). Although some details (like specific NFT or DeFi integrations) are primarily documented in project blogs, the official sources confirm the broad strategy of plugging Lagrange into both DeFi/NFT use cases and cross-chain data queries via its proof infrastructure.

Finally, Lagrange has a clear roadmap and tangible progress toward it. The public roadmap for 2025 emphasizes extending proof services to major AI models (such as Meta’s LLaMA, Anthropic’s Claude, Google’s Gemini, etc.) and adding support for advanced proof types (proving model training, fairness guarantees, fine-tuning, and reasoning). It also plans to implement hardware acceleration (GPU or custom silicon) and massively parallel proving to boost throughput. In parallel, Lagrange is on track with earlier milestones: its decentralized ZK Prover Network has already launched on testnet via EigenLayer (with Coinbase, Kraken, OKX, and others running nodes) and is slated for mainnet before the token’s full rollout. The SQL ZK Coprocessor has reached a production-ready 1.0 stage, enabling smart contracts to execute complex historical queries (Bloomingbit reported support for Azuki and Gearbox in its first release). The team also recently spun up an independent Lagrange Foundation (for token issuance and governance under regulatory compliance) and delivered a community airdrop via Binance’s HODLer program at launch. On the fundraising side, after the seed round the project secured, it is reportedly preparing or has executed additional financing (investors like Founders Fund and Volt Capital are on board) to scale development. In sum, Lagrange presents itself as a tech-driven infrastructure play – riding the convergence of AI and ZK cryptography – supported by a strong team and backers. The public documents and research notes portray it as well-funded and partnership-rich, with key components already in testnet and ambitious goals for 2025.
$LA
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