Today in crypto, spot Bitcoin exchange-traded funds (ETFs) in the United States have reached a major milestone in net flows, crossing the $20 billion mark on Oct. 17, Vitalik Buterin is aiming for Ethereum and its layer 2s to reach over 100,000 transactions per second (TPS) in the next step of its roadmap, and Bitcoin is attempting to break its 217-day downtrend.
Bitcoin ETFs hit $20 billion milestone as price remains stuck in downtrend
US-based spot Bitcoin BTCUSD ETFs crossed $20 billion in total net flows on Oct. 17.
The $20 billion is the “most difficult metric to grow” for ETFs, according to Eric Balchunas, senior ETF analyst at Bloomberg, who wrote in an Oct. 17 X post:
“Bitcoin ETFs have crossed $20 billion in total net flows (the most important number, most difficult metric to grow in ETF world) for the first time after a huge week of $1.5 billion.”
It only took the US spot Bitcoin ETFs 10 months to cross the $20 billion net flow milestone, which suggests significant investor interest. In contrast, it took gold ETFs approximately five years to cross this milestone, according to Balchunas.
The US ETFs amassed $458 million worth of BTC on Oct. 16, according to Farside Investors data.
Ethereum and L2s to reach over 100,000 TPS with “The Surge” — Buterin
Ethereum co-founder Vitalik Buterin has outlined key goals for the Ethereum blockchain in the next step of its roadmap, dubbed “The Surge,” including achieving over 100,000 transactions per second (TPS) across Ethereum’s mainnet and layer 2 blockchains as well as increasing interoperability between the layer 2’s.
“Ethereum should feel like one ecosystem, not 34 different blockchains,” Buterin wrote in a lengthy and technical Oct. 17 blog post.
He also noted the need to scale the Ethereum base chain so it can keep up with the demand from layer 2 blockchains and proposed making specific features and types of computations cheaper.
In one section of his post, Buterin highlighted the need to improve user experience between Ethereum’s layer 2 networks, stressing the need “to make using the L2 ecosystem feel like using a unified Ethereum ecosystem.”
“Our task is to bring the rollup-centric roadmap to completion, and solve these problems, while preserving the robustness and decentralization that makes the Ethereum L1 special,” Buterin wrote.
Bitcoin eyes $68K, but uptrend may not be smooth, analyst says
Bitcoin’s BTCUSD price briefly traded above $68,000 on Oct. 16, as the world’s largest digital asset attempted to break a 217-day downtrend.
The BTC price reached an intraday peak near $68,300, putting it within 7% of its all-time high of $73,679, according to Cointelegraph and TradingView data.
According to Hyblock Capital CEO Shubh Varma, Bitcoin’s ascent is expected to be bumpy before all-time highs are reclaimed.
“The prudent move may be to expect a final dip before the market attempts another leg up,” Varma opined in an Oct. 16 report.
According to Varma, “less than 40% of retail traders” on Binance are holding long positions. “This could indicate a potential reversal, but if retail traders begin piling into long positions en masse, it could be a bearish signal,” he explained.
Despite Bitcoin’s rally in recent days, analyst Peter Brandt said the digital asset needs to break above the current range for the uptrend to continue.
“Will Bitcoin escape through the window or have the window slammed on its head?” Brandt said, pointing to the upper bound of $68,224 as a critical level.
