Following Ethereum’s Shanghai upgrade, which went live Wednesday evening, ether has gained just over 3%, approaching the $2,000 mark. Prices rose as deposits into the Ethereum network outpaced withdrawals, disappointing bears expecting a mass outflow of coins following the upgrade. The native token of Ethereum’s blockchain outperformed market leader bitcoin, having lagged in the lead up to the upgrade. “We’re seeing a ‘sell the rumor buy the fact’ redux,” Paradigm’s David Brickell said. Analysts were divided on potential price action in the days prior to the upgrade, with many predicting that fresh supply would increase sell pressure, with others anticipating a psychological battle of traders punishing the over-crowded short trade.

Ether's 24-hour price chart

Crypto exchange Kraken led ether’s unstaking parade, making up 62% of the exit queue, according to on-chain data tracked by the Rated network explorer. The number of validators in the exit queue had surpassed the 15,000 mark at press time, per Parsec Finance. Kraken’s dominance of the unstaking queue is largely expected, given the legal issues it has faced with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). In February, the SEC determined Kraken’s staking offerings – but not staking programs offered by competing exchanges – to be unregistered securities.

Trading platform eToro is set to offer trading services of crypto and other assets directly to Twitter users via a new partnership with the social media company, the firm announced Thursday. The new service – named "$Cashtags" – is available from Thursday and will see the social investing firm provide its users with real-time prices for cryptocurrencies, stocks and other assets while directing them to the eToro platform to make trades. The news was first reported by CNBC and then confirmed by eToro on its official Twitter account. $Cashtags aligns with Twitter owner Elon Musk's plans to integrate financial services into the platform, as part of his intentions to create a "super app."“The next bull market is going to be wild,” trader and analyst Alex Kruger, tweeted, referring to the eToro/Twitter tie-up.

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A large bitcoin investor sent some $330 million in bitcoin (BTC) to crypto exchange Bitfinex on Wednesday, according to blockchain sleuth Lookonchain.

The bitcoin "whale," said Lookonchain, transferred 11,000 BTC tokens to a Bitfinex wallet at a BTC price of $30,114.

Whales are crypto investors who control large amounts of digital assets. Their purchases and sales can have a sizable impact on markets, thus crypto watchers closely follow their behavior to anticipate market movements.

The transfer may indicate the investor who controls the wallet is realizing profits after bitcoin’s remarkably strong performance this year.

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– Omkar Godbole

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