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Top cryptocurrencies soar to month highs as the much-anticipated Ethereum Shanghai goes live.

This week we see price gains among top cryptocurrencies, the Shanghai launch and crypto initiatives across several countries. In this edition of the crypto scoop, we review the following:

Bitcoin’s $30,000 milestone
Ethereum’s Shanghai launch
Cardano whales’ accumulation spree
Crypto initiatives in Zambia, Texas and Montana
France’s metaverse initiative
Twitter’s new crypto partnership

Bitcoin's price chart (Source: Coinmarketcap)

Bitcoin Soars To $30,000 As Top Cryptocurrencies Record Price Gains

This week, Bitcoin scaled over $30,000 for the first time since June 2022, attaining a 10-month high. Google Trends reports that the search term “bitcoin” attained a score of 93 out of 100 in the last seven days. The total market cap of cryptocurrencies rose by 4.42% as the market took a green turn. Solana saw up to 15% gains, and Litecoin recorded a five-week high.

Robert F. Kennedy, Jr.who recently filed to run for president of the United States in the 2024 election, asserted that Bitcoin, the peer-to-peer electronic cash system, is giving people the means of protection from the financial turmoil that will lead to an inevitable crash. He explained, “Cryptocurrencies like Bitcoin give the public an escape route.”

Ethereum's price chart (Source: Coinmarketcap)

Ethereum Hits $2,000 As Its Shanghai Upgrade Goes Live.

At 10:27 PM UTC on April 12, Ethereum successfully rolled out the Shanghai upgrade, and ETH's price skyrocketed beyond the $2,000 mark. The Shanghai update to Ethereum enables validators who had previously staked ETH on-chain to withdraw those tokens for the first time since its move to a Proof-of-Stake Network.

Over the next 18 months, Ethereum will only allow 1,350 full validators to withdraw their stake per day so that the upgrade won't flood the market with ETH. At most, 43,200 ETH ($83 million at the current exchange rate) can be added to the market each day because each validator stakes 32 ETH, and it is improbable that all validators will withdraw their ETH.

While Glassnode estimated that $300M Ether would be withdrawn after the Shanghai upgrade, Token Unlocks reports that only 84,000 ETH has been withdrawn at the time of writing.

Cardano (ADA) Whales On An Accumulation Spree Over The Last Two Weeks

Ali Martinez, a crypto analyst and trader, revealed on-chain data indicating that ADA whales have been accumulating ADA over the past two weeks. This group of token owners, who currently own between 100 million and 1 billion ADA, amassed 560 million ADA, or around $218.4 million, during this time frame.

A closer look at Into The Block’s graph revealed that the total number of addresses in the Cardano network is consistently increasing. There are 4.44 million addresses with a balance and 37.51 million wallets with no balance, bringing the total to 41.95 million.

Crypto Initiatives in Zambia, Texas And Montana

According to Felix Mutati, Zambia's minister of science and technology, the country intends to complete testing of the simulation of actual cryptocurrency use by the end of June to assist in developing legislation that strikes a balance between innovation and citizen safety. Mutati notes, "Our main goal in the area of cryptocurrency is to strike a balance between innovation in terms of digital payments ... against citizens' safety, particularly given that cryptocurrency is very volatile.”

Texas Lawmakers Senator Hughes and Representative Dorazio proposed the creation of a Gold-Backed digital currency. Senate Bill 2334 and House Bill 4903 proposed the adoption of the gold digital currency in Texas as an alternative to a dollar-backed CBDC.

Montana’s House of Representatives on April 12, with 64 votes in favour and 35 against, voted for a bill that will protect citizens' “right to mine” in the state. The bill was sent back to the Senate following House voting and is now pending the Governor’s approval before it is signed into law.

French Government Announces A Metaverse Initiative

On Tuesday, the French government announced the official launch of a public consultation on "immersive virtual universes," also known as the metaverse, under President Emmanuel Macron. The consultation aims to develop substitute services for those provided by international tech giants. In a news release, the French Ministry of Economy and Finance stated that a digital transition is imminent and that the development of metaverses has been a topic of discussion in the business community for several months.

The ministry stated that the outcomes of the consultation, which concludes on May 2, will be utilised to create a development-focused policy and regional substitutes for metaverses run by tech giants.

Twitter Announces Crypto Partnership With eToro.

Twitter expressed plans to launch a new feature allowing users to trade cryptocurrencies and other assets on its platform in partnership with eToro. This new feature will build on Twitter's "cashtags" function, which enables users to view real-time trading data from TradingView.

Dogecoin’s price dropped to 8.5 cents after Twitter changed its logo from Shiba inu to its iconic bird but surged to $0.0877 after the announcement.

Crypto Scoop: BTC Hits $30,000, ETH Soars To $2,000 As Its Shanghai Upgrade Goes Live