Ethereum L2 Ecosystem Sets New Record of 12.42 Million Daily Transactions
On August 13, a record number of transactions were processed by Ethereum-based layer 2 solutions — 12.52 million in one day. Since the beginning of the year, this figure has increased by more than 140%. The Base blockchain played a significant role in this growth, reaching almost 4 million processed transactions per day by the end of July.
In addition, the total market supply of stablecoins in the Ethereum L2 ecosystem exceeded Solana and BNB Chain combined, reaching $9.69 billion. However, despite these successes, the number of active addresses in the L2 segment, having reached a peak in mid-July, began to decline.
ETH Supply Reaches 120.28 Million Coins
The second-largest cryptocurrency by market cap has seen its supply reach 120.28 million ETH, according to Ultrasound.money. This growth was driven by an increase in the number of coins locked in staking and restaking protocols.
Over the past seven days, the supply has increased by 18,086.4 ETH, of which 2,229.6 ETH was removed from circulation thanks to the burn mechanism introduced by EIP-1559. This brings the net supply to 15,856.9 ETH, pushing the annual inflation rate up to 0.69%. The popularity of liquid staking and restaking platforms is likely also contributing to the supply increase, as more coins are locked in protocols.
Bitcoin Mining Difficulty Drops 4.19%
The latest revision saw Bitcoin’s mining difficulty decrease by 4.19%, dropping to 86.87 T. Since the previous revision, the average hashrate was 740.3 EH/s, with a block interval of eight minutes and 24 seconds. According to Glassnode, the smoothed 7-day moving average hashrate was 622.4 EH/s.
After the difficulty correction, the hashrate dropped to $43.4 per PH per day. With the Bitcoin price falling below $50,000 and the hashrate further dropping to $36 per PH/s per day, crypto analysts have expressed concerns about the critically low profitability of Bitcoin mining.
Ton Announces tgBTC Launch
Toncoin developers have announced the launch of wrapped Bitcoin tgBTC on the TON blockchain. TgBTC will open up new opportunities for transactions, staking, and other financial operations. This innovation will also create conditions for developing applications with BTC integration. The launch of tgBTC strengthens TON's position in the cryptocurrency ecosystem and attracts new users.
MetaMask Partners with Mastercard to Launch Payment Card
MetaMask, a non-custodial cryptocurrency wallet, has announced the launch of a blockchain Mastercard debit card in partnership with Baanx, CoinDesk reports. The product will initially be offered in pilot mode to users in the EU and the UK. The full launch is planned for later this year, with further expansion to other regions.
The card allows users to spend digital assets directly from their crypto wallet, bypassing the additional steps of converting them into fiat currency. Users will be able to pay for goods and services in USDC, USDT, and wETH on the second-layer Ethereum network Linea, developed by ConsenSys, the company behind MetaMask.
Expensive Mistake: $89,000 for Gas on Ethereum Network
The cryptocurrency industry occasionally sees situations where users, either through mistake or carelessness, make transactions with abnormally high fees. A recent case caught the attention of the community when an unknown user paid 34 ETH (around $89,239) in gas fees while sending a transaction worth only 0.88 ETH, which is equivalent to approximately $2,262. At the time of writing, the average gas fee on the Ethereum network is only 1.422 Gwei, which is approximately $0.08. Such errors highlight the importance of careful management of cryptocurrency transactions, especially in an environment where every mistake can cost huge amounts of money.
