🆕Ethereum Updates: Dencun Testnet Dates, Exit Queue Spikes, ETF Speculation

TLDR Ethereum's core developers have confirmed dates for Dencun's testnet deployments. Ethereum's next major upgrade will first go live on Goerli on Jan. 17, before deployments on Sepolia and Holesky on Jan. 30 and Feb. 7 respectively.

SO WHAT Dencun will reduce the fees on Layer 2 by replacing gas-intensive calldata with blobs, also improving data availability in the process. Ethereum's developers are increasingly turning their attention to the network's following "Pectra" upgrade, which will focus on bolstering decentralization through the introduction of Verkle Trees.

READ MORE: Ethereum Developers Confirm Dencun Testnet Dates, Look To Following ‘Pectra’ Upgrade

TLDR The queue for validators offboarding Ethereum has surged to a record high of nearly 16,300, beating out the previous top by 325% and equating to a more than five-day wait. The spike appears to have been triggered by Celsius moving to unstake all of its ETH in preparation for creditor distributions.

SO WHAT Data from Arkham Intelligence suggests Celsius holds $227M worth of Ether, despite reportedly selling $243M over the past 30 days. Despite the heavy selling, analysts are bullish that ETH may rally on spot ETF anticipation.

READ MORE: Ethereum’s Exit Queue Jumps To Record High As Celsius Unstakes

TLDR Institutional crypto products took in $2.25B during 2023, their third-strongest year on record.

SO WHAT The bullish performance was propelled by spot Bitcoin ETF speculation, with $1.5B worth of inflows going to products offering exposure to BTC. Two-thirds of the annual inflows were received during the fourth quarter.

READ MORE: Institutional Investors Piled Into Bitcoin In 2023

TLDR Declan Fox, the senior product manager for Linea at Consensys, delivers a call to action for rollup providers to outline plans for progressive decentralization and trust minimization. Fox also argues that zero-knowledge solutions are best poised to facilitate decentralized security.

SO WHAT Competition to scale Ethereum is heating up, with a new generation of zero-knowledge rollups seeking to dethrone the incumbent optimistic rollups in Arbitrum and Optimism.

Read More: Linea's Journey Towards Progressive Decentralization: The Key To Minimizing Trust With Zero-Knowledge Technology

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