While BTC’s price has retraced from the recent Monday peak, the network’s fundamentals continue to improve, as shown by the mining difficulty.

The metric that showcases how hard miners have to work to produce a block has risen to its highest level ever of 95.67T.

The mining difficulty is incorporated into the world’s largest blockchain as a self-adjusting mechanism to ensure the stable production of new BTC. It happens every 2,016 blocks (approximately two weeks) and makes it either harder or easier for miners to do their job.

In a sense, if there are more miners operating on the blockchain, the difficulty increases and vice-versa. The recent surge to a new all-time high shows that more and more miners are putting their computational devices to work, which results in a more robust and better-performing network.

The metric reached a 2024 low of 79T in July but has increased by approximately 20% since then to its current level. Moreover, it’s up by 55% since last October when it was at 61T.

Another metric showing the overall stability of the largest blockchain, Bitcoin’s hash rate, has also been on the rise lately. In fact, it charted a fresh all-time high at over 900 EH/s.

However, it has lost some of its momentum and is now down to 730EH/s. Despite this slight decline in the past few days, the hash rate has surged by 70% since this time last year.

BTC’s price actions have faced similar retracement since Monday. As reported at the time, bitcoin peaked at $69,500 but has dropped by about three grand and now sits at around $66,500.

Ethereum co-founder Vitalik Buterin has added his voice to the chorus of condemnation facing MicroStrategy co-founder Michael Saylor following the latter’s comments advocating for institutional Bitcoin (BTC) custody.

Buterin’s critique came after Saylor suggested in a recent interview that large institutions holding Bitcoin can reduce the chances of asset seizure, which lawless crypto holders could more likely cause.

Saylor Advocates for Institutional Custody

In the October 21 sit down with Madison Reidy, the self-described Bitcoin maximalist discussed a wide range of issues, including the potential for broader asset adoption among companies and governments. He also advocated for the need for user-friendly BTC investment products, suggesting they are crucial for the cryptocurrency’s mainstream acceptance.

However, it was Saylor’s response to Reidy’s question regarding the potential risk of making Bitcoin more centralized by putting it in the hands of a few large institutions that drew the ire of the community.

She suggested that such a scenario could increase the risk of seizure and confiscation, as happened with gold in the 1930s. Saylor dismissed the concern, calling those who held it “paranoid crypto-anarchists.”

“People say that, but it’s mostly paranoid crypto-anarchists. It’s a myth and a trope that repeats itself. First of all, the government didn’t really seize gold back then; people voluntarily turned it in,” said MicroStrategy’s former CEO.

Saylor argued that regulated entities such as BlackRock and Fidelity, rather than individuals or small custodians, should be the primary holders of Bitcoin. He claimed this would protect the cryptocurrency from government seizure while ensuring its stability in the broader financial system.

Further, he declared that these same anarchists could actually originate a Bitcoin seizure event due to their disregard for the rule of law:

“I think when Bitcoin is held by a bunch of crypto-anarchists who aren’t regulated entities, who don’t acknowledge government or don’t acknowledge taxes, or don’t acknowledge reporting requirements, that increase the risk of seizure.”

Buterin’s Stance on Self-Custody

But Vitalik Buterin disagreed. In an October 23 response to a post by crypto security expert Jameson Lopp, the Ethereum co-founder said Saylor’s argument effectively promotes centralization, which Bitcoin was designed to avoid.

In his opinion, trusting institutional players with the asset’s custody erodes the very foundation of decentralization on which cryptocurrencies are built.

Buterin also took aim at his earlier involvement in the “mountain man” stereotype surrounding BTC self-custody, calling the notion outdated. He stated that advancements such as zero-knowledge proof and account abstraction have evolved the security trade-offs for self-custody.

The developer maintains that Saylor’s vision of institutional custody is dangerous, suggesting that self-custody, while not without challenges, is important to Bitcoin’s long-term security and integrity.

Buterin’s Ethereum has also had its own issues with centralization. A report from 2023 showed that more than 60% of its nodes were run through centralized entities like Amazon Web Services (AWS) and Google Cloud. It prompted the co-founder to suggest using stateless clients as a possible workaround for the issue, although he acknowledged it may take between 10 and 20 years to get there.

TL;DR

• Bullish analysts envision new peaks for XRP, but there is a catch.
• Despite recent underperformance, the asset continues to see increased adoption from major crypto exchanges, which could boost its liquidity and support future price growth.

XRP Rally Under This Condition

The cryptocurrency market recorded an uptick in the past few weeks, with Bitcoin (BTC), Solana (SOL), Dogecoin (DOGE), and other leading assets witnessing substantial gains.

However, Ripple’s XRP was among the very few that did not catch the wave. Its price is down over 10% on a monthly scale, currently trading at around $0.52 (per CoinGecko’s data).

The unsatisfying performance, though, has not changed the stance of some optimistic analysts who believe XRP will experience a bull run sooner or later.

One example is the popular X user Dark Defender, who assumed that the token’s price might skyrocket to a new all-time high of $5.85 and even $18.22 if it exceeds the major resistance level of $0.66:

“And as soon as we see XRP above $0.66, a day, a week, a month, then we will see tremendous moves. $0.6649, the final boss, and was not and still not easy to eliminate.”

The analyst claimed these targets remain plausible as long as XRP’s price does not plunge below $0.48 and “most importantly” $0.3917.

“We know and see what is going on in the background. Less people remain in the ship, we see. But I trust myself, Ripple, and XRP. Exciting times are ahead of us,” Dark Defender concluded.

XRP’s Adoption on the Rise

Despite not performing well lately, the token continues to receive further support from leading crypto exchanges. The latest to jump on the bandwagon is the Seychelles-based MEXC, which claims to have over 10 million users. 

Other well-known platforms that allow trading services with XRP include Binance, Kraken, Crypto.com, Coinbase, KuCoin, Bitstamp, Bybit, Huobi, and more. Interestingly, some delisted the asset shortly after the US SEC started its legal war with Ripple toward the end of 2020.

The company, though, secured a vital (yet partial) court victory in the summer of 2023, and many of these exchanges restored services with XRP.

Increased adoption from trading venues enhances the liquidity of the token and boosts its credibility and accessibility. As such, it could be considered a bullish factor for the price.