Ethereum is a versatile blockchain platform enabling global value transfer with its cryptocurrency, ether, without third-party intervention. Beyond transactions, it offers diverse functionalities. The price of Ethereum (ETH) briefly surged over $2,900 on Monday, reigniting interest in the community ahead of the upcoming Dencun upgrade. This upswing followed Ethereum co-founder Vitalik Buterin's recent post on artificial intelligence (AI) and its potential applications in cryptocurrency.
The current Ethereum price stands at $2,918.20, up 4.48% in the last 24 hours, with a market capitalization of $352.00B. Ethereum has seen a 28.00% change. Classified as a Smart Contract Platform under CoinDesk's DACS, Ethereum's capabilities extend far beyond basic transactions.
Since the start of 2024, Ethereum's price has risen by 24%, positioning the altcoin for a potential rally to $4,000. A key driver of Ethereum's current rally is strong whale accumulation. According to Lookonchain, an Ethereum whale recently made several significant transactions, including withdrawing US$100 million from Binance and using US$60 million to purchase 21,353 ETH at an average price of $2,810 per token. This whale has accumulated a total of 52,759 ETH, worth approximately $145.4 million, since February 8th, from both centralized and decentralized exchanges.
This whale activity reflects growing confidence in Ethereum's potential amid market volatility. Many Ether bulls are optimistic about reaching the $3,000 mark, but historical data shows that sustaining such a price level is challenging. For example, a previous surge in ETH price by 42% over three weeks was followed by a 46% drop over the next 40 days.
Traders are now cautious about whether Ethereum could see a similar outcome. Additionally, there is bullish sentiment around the possibility of the SEC approving spot Ethereum ETFs by May 23, 2024. VanEck, Kraken, and BlackRock have all applied for Ethereum ETFs, with the SEC postponing its decision on BlackRock's iShares Ethereum Trust until March 10, 2024, to carefully consider the application.
Vitalik Buterin, the creator of Ethereum, has recently shown a keen interest in artificial intelligence (AI), discussing its advantages and disadvantages. He highlighted the overlap between cryptocurrencies and AI, emphasizing potential use cases and associated risks.
In a post dated February 19, Buterin expressed his enthusiasm for AI, particularly in the context of AI-assisted formal verification of code and bug detection. He believes that AI has the potential to revolutionize bug fixing, which he identifies as Ethereum's most significant technical risk.
Wolfgang Grieskamp from Aptos Labs added to the discussion, noting the challenges in verifying the Ethereum Virtual Machine (EVM) due to its design, which makes discovering simple control flows difficult. He expressed uncertainty about AI's effectiveness in this regard, suggesting that formal verification of Move (Libra's programming language) is currently easier and more effective, with the potential for further enhancement through AI.
Ethereum's upcoming Dencun (Deneb and Cancun) upgrade, set for March 13, is highly anticipated by Vitalik Buterin, who is particularly enthusiastic about Verkle trees. According to a site managed by Ethereum Foundation developers, Buterin highlighted that this upgrade will facilitate stateless validator clients, enabling staking nodes to operate with minimal hard disk space and sync almost instantly. As a result, solo staking users can expect a significantly improved experience.
In summary, Buterin and experts like Grieskamp are optimistic about the role of AI in enhancing code verification and bug fixing, particularly in the context of Ethereum and other blockchain platforms.
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