Crypto Scoop: Bitcoin Hits A New Milestone With 1 Million Addresses Holding At Least 1 BTC

Bitcoin and Tether attain new milestones as we see crypto growth and initiatives across Africa. In this edition of the crypto scoop, we review the following: 

• Bitcoin’s 1 million address milestone
• Ethereum’s beacon chain glitch
• Tether’s growth and bitcoin initiative
• Crypto initiatives and growth in Nigeria and Zimbabwe

Ethereum Blockchain Experiences A Glitch Slowing Transactions

On May 11, developers reported that for a little under 30 minutes, the Ethereum blockchain was unable to complete transactions. It lasted for about 25 minutes, and Ethereum contributor terence.eth reported that the problem had been resolved. He wrote: "Mainnet has been finalised, and we are investigating the incident now. More to come!"

Although Ethereum's beacon chain stopped finalising, Ethereum contributor Superphiz asserted that the blockchain is "designed to be resilient" against such problems. Throughout the incident, the chain continued to process transactions partially.

Although the root cause is still unknown, Superphiz speculated that an absence of diverse clients may have contributed to the problem. He noted that if no client had more than a third of the network's dominance, the loss of finality might have been prevented. He continued by saying that the blockchain avoided forking because no client had a supermajority.

Glassnode defines "Finality" as the situation where a supermajority of validators, or two-thirds of the total stake, have attested to the blockchain's final state, ensuring that a block and its processed transactions cannot be modified or eliminated.

Tether‘s Records Growth And Announces Bitcoin Initiative

Tether, the parent company of USDT, is closer than ever to achieving its highest-ever market capitalisation with just $433 million away from its ATH. Tether currently holds a market value of $82.84 billion. In addition, Tether reported a net profit of approximately $1.5 billion in the first quarter of 2023, up from $960 million at the end of Q4 2022. 

Tether announced that from May, the company would regularly allocate as much as 15% of its net realised operating profits to investing in Bitcoin. CTO of Tether, Paolo Ardonino, explained, “The decision to invest in Bitcoin, the world’s first and largest cryptocurrency, is underpinned by its strength and potential as an investment asset. Bitcoin has continually proven its resilience and has emerged as a long-term store of value with substantial growth potential.” 

He continued, “Its limited supply, decentralised nature, and widespread adoption have positioned it as a favoured choice among institutional and retail investors alike. Our investment in Bitcoin is not only a way to enhance the performance of our portfolio, but it is also a method of aligning ourselves with a transformative technology that has the potential to reshape the way we conduct business and live our lives.”