Bitcoin found itself at a key level as Ethereum and Cardano took a couple of steps closer to their significant upcoming upgrades. Let's take a look at what happened Last Week in Crypto:
➤ BTC Ranges As Bank of America Approves Bitcoin Futures
➤ FUN Token Savings in Full Swing at Binance
➤ Ethereum Drops Below $2,000, Cardano Transitions to Alonzo White
➤ Crypto News Weekly Roundup
Bitcoin at Key Level As Bank of America Introduces BTC Futures Trading
In a major development last week, Bank of America reportedly approved Bitcoin futures trading for a select few clients. This news comes after the second-largest bank in the US was reported to be creating a new division dedicated to crypto a couple of weeks ago.
This helped BTC climb to $34,500 before dropping down to $31,500. If you take a look at the chart above, the orange line indicates the key level that BTC needs to turn into support. Further upside is reliant on Bitcoin reclaiming this level. If it falls below the orange line, we could see a retest of the $30,000 and $29,000 levels again.
FUN Token Savings in Full Swing at Binance
On 1st July, FUN Token became one of only six coins to be listed for Locked Savings at Binance, joining the likes of BTC, USDT, and LINK. FUN Token holders at both Binance and FreeBitco.in are making the most of their holdings with Binance's Savings program.
FUN Token holders have two savings options at Binance:
1. Locked Savings With Locked Savings, holders can avail up to 45% APY on their FUN Tokens. Users can lock in FUN Tokens for a specified period of time, accrue interest for that period of time, and then redeem the total amount.
2. Flexible Savings With Flexible Savings, users can commit their FUN Tokens and redeem them anytime they want. Users accrue interest for the period of time they subscribe. Flexible Savings provide a lower rate of interest than Locked Savings.
ETH Drops Below $2,000 Again Even As ETH 2.0 Draws Closer
Last week, inflation in the US hit 5.4%, its highest level since 1991, striking fear into American citizens' hearts over the rising inflation rates. This had an adverse effect on both Bitcoin and Ether with ETH falling below $2,000 and hitting a two-week low.
On the technical side, the London hard fork of the Ethereum blockchain is set to launch on 4th August and would five Improvement Protocols including the controversial EIP-1559 and EIP-3554 which will introduce incremental difficulty to ETH mining, thus pushing more and more miners to ETH 2.0 which is a Proof-of-Stake blockchain.
The Shanghai hard fork, set to be launched in October, would be the final step in the journey towards merging both blockchains.
Cardano Moves One Step Closer to Launching Smart Contracts Functionality
On 15th July, IOHK, the team behind Cardano, announced that their Alonzo testnet had transitioned from Blue to White. Blue was the first step in which a few smart contract features were available to a limited number of insiders. With White, around 500 more validators, stake pool operators, and developers will be able to test the features. Alonzo White will run for two to four weeks before before transitioning to Alonzo Purple which will be the final testnet.