Cryptocurrency
The next big leap for Ethereum liquid staking: The staking landscape

Imagine a world where everyone, regardless of their background, can easily access and participate in the revolutionary world of Ethereum. A world where decentralized applications empower individuals, and the potential for innovation knows no bounds. Against a highly equivocal and chaotic macroeconomic landscape, this is the world that the prophets of Ethereum dream of.
But little do they know this world is like an unrealized dream. Why? Let’s dig deeper.
Reflecting on the Ethereum liquid staking landscape
Centralized liquid staking protocols are at the forefront of the liquid staking revolution on Ethereum, and it shouldn’t come as a surprise. Why? Because they are highly scalable — thanks to the centralized validator set that they have. The biggest liquid staking protocol on Ethereum currently has a limited node operator set of 29 operators. It must then be a no-brainer that they hold a hegemony over the network. Any protocol claiming to be decentralized but running its operations as a business is also able to offer much higher standards of composability. While this composability that is offered to users is a feature, it can be counter-productive as well — primarily because of the systemic risks this can cause.
On the flip side, decentralized protocols do exist, but they are highly unscalable. And thus, they have a fraction of ETH staked in them compared to what is often staked via the centralized ones.
While decentralized protocols have attempted to reduce the minimum capital required to run a validator node from 32 to 8 ETH, that is still a sizeable amount for the wider ecosystem. Admittedly, this does open up opportunities for a wide number of stakers to start staking on the network, however, we contend that 8 ETH is still a sizeable amount. This reintroduces the problem of scalability, and thus a significant portion of ETH gets staked through a select group of professional node operators. This leads to the further concentration of staked ETH. The presence of these centralized node operators across different liquid staking protocols undermines the censorship resistance of the underlying network.
The inflow of ETH post-Shapella is a good indicator of users’ liquid staking preferences. One would hope that a lot of the incoming ETH would go to decentralized liquid staking; however, the figures state otherwise.
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Making Ethereum liquid staking scalable
One of the biggest challenges for the existing liquid staking protocols today is that they are tuned for either scalability alone or decentralization alone. The ones that are tuned for scalability alone are not decentralized, and the ones that are tuned for decentralization are not scalable. There are several examples of this — from protocols having a concentrated node operator set to those having high minimum capital requirements to run validator nodes for Ethereum.
While there have been attempts by these protocols to move towards either making their architectures scalable or decentralized, making that is quite difficult given the huge amounts of ETH that are already staked via them. Moreover, these protocol-level changes require a lot of internal deliberations (at-least for decentralized protocols) before they are rolled out.
Moreover, a core objective of any business is to make sure that they hold the hegemony over the industry to persistently retain that. This is reflected by the feigned attempts at a willingness to decentralize — but then having them falling on their head. Perhaps, there is no reason why this would happen. A centralized liquid staking protocol often operates as a business whose core objective is to compromise decentralization to achieve profitability. While I do not condemn the latter, I do feel that it comes — almost always — at the cost of decentralization.
What Ethereum needs
Ethereum prophets often call for the need to diversify staking across a multitude of protocols. And perhaps, it wouldn’t be remiss to credit those protocols that have emerged that are attempting to realize that vision. However, I must provide a caveat that any emerging protocols need strategic and critical analysis. No one would want shabby architecture being polished and presented as a resilient solution and risking the stability of Ethereum. I believe that there are two things that need immediate attention to drive growth to Ethereum liquid staking:
- Reducing the minimum capital requirements to run a validator node: This is perhaps easier stated than executed. Reducing the minimum capital requirements incentivizes a wider spectrum of users to participate in network validation.
- Building censorship resistance: This is perhaps common knowledge, but it often gets overlooked. With the pace at which the macroeconomic landscape is evolving, it is a dire need for protocols to integrate solutions that build the censorship resilience of the protocol. This is akin to hedging against potential future slowdowns in validator architecture and building a high-performant architecture that keeps the network secure.
Admittedly, I find myself at crossroads while writing these solutions because, while I assert that being aware of the existing challenges as well as the solutions is of paramount importance, it is not enough to persistently echo them. It is essential that we engage in extensive research and relentlessly test and build solutions that help solve these challenges and build a resilient architecture.
Mohak is the founder of ClayStack. He is an entrepreneur, investor, and a leader in the staking and liquid staking space.
Mohak is the founder of ClayStack. He is an entrepreneur, investor, and a leader in the staking and liquid staking space.
Cryptocurrency
BONK Explodes by 20% Daily as Bitcoin (BTC) Remains Solid at $108K: Weekend Watch

Bitcoin’s stagnation continues as the asset has made little to no attempt to move away from the $108,000 level.
While most larger-cap alts have produced insignificant gains, TON and BONK have emerged as the biggest gainers on a relatively calm Sunday morning.
BTC Calm at $108K
It has been a quiet period for the primary cryptocurrency. In fact, the latest major price moves came about two weeks ago – on June 23 and 24 – when it dumped to $98,000 before it soared past $105,000 a day later as the Middle East war was going rampantly.
Ever since then, though, the asset has been stuck in a tight trading range between $105,000 and $110,000. It tested the lower boundary on Wednesday, where the bulls stepped up and pushed it south toward the upper one.
On Thursday, BTC showed signs of a breakout attempt when it spiked to a multi-week peak of $110,500, but the bears stepped up at this point and didn’t allow a surge to a new all-time high.
The landscape has been somewhat unchanged since then, as bitcoin quickly returned to $108,000 and has not moved from that level for a few days. Its market capitalization stands strong at $2.150 trillion, while its dominance over the alts is at over 63% on CG.
BONK on the Run
As the graph below will demonstrate, most larger-cap alts are slightly in the green on a daily scale. Such minor increases are evident from the likes of ETH, BNB, SOL, TRX, DOGE, ADA, BCH, LINK, and XRP. In contrast, HYPE and PI have lost some traction over the past 24 hours.
The biggest gainers are TON and BONK. The former has risen by over 9% and sits at $3, while the meme coin has exploded by 20% and now trades at $0.000022.
The cumulative market cap of all crypto assets has remained relatively stable at $3.4 trillion on CG.
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Cryptocurrency charts by TradingView.
Cryptocurrency
We Asked 4 AIs How High Ripple (XRP) Will Go in 2025: The Answers Might Shock You

TL;DR
- Ripple’s price actions are a big prediction topic within the cryptocurrency community, with analysts and believers rushing to offer their insights and forecasts.
- However, we decided to take a different approach this time and asked four of the biggest AI chatbots (ChatGPT, Perplexity, Grok, and Gemini) about their take on the matter.
2025 Price Targets
All four AI solutions seemed very coherent about XRP’s price potential this year, as Perplexity explained it:
“Ripple’s (XRP) price in 2025 is broadly expected to rise significantly from current levels, with expert forecasts varying but generally bullish.”
Although Ripple’s cross-border token has stalled in the past few months and is actually slightly in the red since the start of the year, all AIs had similar conclusions about its price moves until the end of the year.
ChatGPT laid out three potential scenarios, with the conservative one being at $3.4, which would match the asset’s all-time (and yearly) high. The optimistic is set at $5-$6, and the “aggressive forecasts” put the token at $10-$15 by the end of the year.
Google’s Gemini had similar ideas in mind, saying that “a realistic high could be in the $5-$10 range.” Perplexity also joined the $5-$10 club, which could be reached under “favorable conditions” (more on that later).
Grok was slightly more specific and was the only one that said XRP can finish the year lower than its current price tag. It noted that a “realistic price range” for the asset this year is somewhere between $1.8 and $5.81. Although that’s a pretty wide range, it concluded that the most likely peak will come somewhere between $3 and $4.5.
The Favorable Conditions
When it came down to outlining the factors that could impact XRP’s price moves this year, the AIs were once again aligned in their answers. First, they mentioned regulatory clarity and the official conclusion of the lawsuit against the SEC.
Although Ripple CEO Brad Garlinghouse stated in March that the case had been resolved and there had been several developments on the matter, the judge overseeing the case has yet to agree fully.
Second, the AIs brought up institutional adoption and bullish partnerships, such as those with Santander, SBI Holdings, and others. A spot XRP ETF will also play a significant role in the asset’s price trajectory this year, if approved, said the chatbots. According to ETF experts, the current odds stand at nearly 100%.
Lastly, the AI solutions highlighted the overall crypto market trends:
“Bitcoin’s post-halving performance and a pro-crypto U.S. administration under President Trump could fuel bullish sentiment across the crypto market, benefiting XRP,” – answered Grok, which was similar to what the others had to say.
Despite these bullish predictions for 2025, all four chatbots clarified that these are just that – speculative forecasts that might or might not come to fruition. Investors should do their own research before allocating funds to any cryptocurrency (or other asset, for that matter).
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Cryptocurrency
Ethereum Price to Hit $6K This Year? Analysts Make Bold Call

If pseudonymous analyst Weslad is to be believed, Ethereum (ETH) is caught in a tug-of-war between wildly differing futures: a historic surge past $6,000 or a soul-sapping plunge to $1,800.
The market technician claims that ETH is completing a massive ABCDE wave structure within a years-long “symmetrical pennant,” which can only mean one thing: explosion.
The Roaring Bull Case
In a recent breakdown, Weslad explained that Ethereum’s price action since its $4,851 all-time high has formed a giant consolidation pattern. According to him, this structure is now approaching a critical inflection point known as wave D, testing its upper boundary.
At the same time, a bullish Inverse Head and Shoulders (IH&S) pattern is emerging on the daily chart, with its neckline acting as stubborn resistance near $2,855.
This technical confluence suggests a coiled spring ready to unleash tremendous energy into the market, leading the analyst to state unequivocally:
“A confirmed breakout above the neckline [$2,855] would likely validate both the IH&S and the breakout from wave D, setting the stage for a potential expansion move toward the $6,000 target and beyond.”
Weslad’s audacious target found an ally in fellow strategist Jeremy Fielder, who declared in a video posted on X:
“We’re looking at $6,500 Ethereum by the end of the year and then a possible 10,000 Ethereum in early next year… Regulation is now pro-crypto. That’s all you need to know.”
He based his argument on the accelerating adoption of Web3 and a favorable regulatory shift, dismissing granular metrics in favor of a sweeping bullish tide.
While not as lofty a milestone as Weslad’s and Fielder’s, market watcher Titan of Crypto’s $4,100 target is not far off the ballpark. His thesis is hinged on Ethereum’s successful recovery back inside its crucial weekly trading range, noting that momentum is building towards the range high.
Looming Bear Trap
But don’t celebrate just yet. Weslad’s otherwise bullish analysis also comes with a stark warning for the downside scenario. He suggested that if ETH faces rejection at the critical $2,855 neckline resistance or the upper boundary of the pennant, a retracement into wave E becomes highly probable.
According to him, this trajectory would drag the price down towards a “high-confluence demand zone” spanning $1,400 to $1,800. That’s a potential 40% collapse from current levels.
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