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In 2024, the Cardano (ADA) ecosystem has seen remarkable growth in its smart contract capabilities, with Plutus V2 contracts taking center stage.  At the start of the year on January 1, there were 8,083 Plutus V2 scripts. Fast forward to September 18, and that number has skyrocketed to 80,437—an increase of 72,354 contracts.  Cardano smart contracts. Source: Cardano Blockchain Insights While the growth of Plutus V2 has been headline-grabbing, Plutus V1 scripts also saw steady development. Starting the year with 6,296 contracts, the number of V1 scripts reached 6,711 by mid-September, marking an additional 415 scripts. Although more modest, this increase reflects the enduring role of earlier iterations of Cardano’s smart contracts. Picks for you R. Kiyosaki warns of a ‘total collusion’ between Wall Street and Fed ...

ETH price is showing strength, but network and derivatives data suggest that ETH will struggle to hold the $1,850 price level. Ether (ETH) price had been battling the $1,850 resistance level, but it broke through on April 4 when Ether rallied to a 7-month high above $1,900. Recently there has been a lot of speculation on Ether price catalysts, let’s see if it’s possible to identify any fundamental factors behind the price movement.  The upcoming Shanghai hard fork could be one factor in Ether’s recent bullish momentum. On April 12, the ability for validators to withdraw their deposits opens, giving staking participants freedom of movement, but also t creating a sell-off risk for Ether. There are now 17.81 million Ether staked on the Beacon Chain, though some safeguards have been put in place to prevent a flood of Ether from disrupting the market. For example, because there is a daily limit of 2,200 withdrawals, the maximum daily unlocks are 70,000 ETH. Scalability and selfish val...

Despite similar price action, Fantom and Optimism ecosystems are moving in opposite directions and this is reflected in each token’s price. The price action of Optimism (OP) and Fantom (FTM) tokens have been quite identical since the last quarter of 2022. The difference is, volatility is slightly higher for OP, which surged 240% year-to-date, compared to the 180% gains seen in FTM. The Fantom Foundation has made several improvements since Q4 2022, which have catalyzed an uptrend in the token’s price. However, Fantom’s ecosystem remains primitive while its competitors expanded to support new use cases. On the other hand, Optimism has shown robust community and decentralized application (dApp) development thanks to the loyalty of Ethereum developers and the Optimism Foundation’s effective strategy in aligning token incentives with governance. OP/USD (orange) and FTM/USD (blue) price chart. Source: TradingView Fantom’s ecosystem development stalls The Fantom ecosystem received an adverse...