Two noteworthy areas in the crypto ecosystem | Q&A

Replying to recent readers' questions.

- Where to see Vader's ratings on projects

Vader has a dedicated Twitter account @VaderResearch, where it frequently publishes its ratings on various projects. I just take it as a reference, not as a basis.

- Can I still hold Pol? I found that the project has developed some issues.

Whether to hold or not is still a personal judgment.

Earlier, I exchanged part of this coin for OP and another part for ARB. After that, I didn't pay much attention to it.

Some time ago, I saw information online saying that one of the co-founders of the team resigned. I wonder if the so-called "issues" refer to this?

After seeing this information, I looked at the project's development and compared it with other layer two expansions, leaving a small portion of POL as gas fees for the ecosystem, while exchanging the rest for OP and ARB.

Thinking back to Ethereum's current layer two expansions, their development is indeed a bit "strange": projects that once had high hopes for issuing tokens have now become quiet; meanwhile, Base, which has not issued tokens, is currently developing the most vigorously.

This situation is probably something no one anticipated at the beginning.

- Bitcoin and Ethereum holdings.

A reader mentioned in a comment that I once pointed out that Bitcoin holdings should be greater than Ethereum.

Looking back, that must have been a long time ago. In fact, especially after 2022, my Ethereum holdings began to exceed my Bitcoin holdings because I believe Ethereum's future potential will be greater than Bitcoin's.

However, in 2023, when the Bitcoin inscription ecosystem began to show signs, I remember writing in an article that I would increase my Bitcoin holdings.

Later, especially last year and this year, when Bitcoin's price was already high and Ethereum's price remained sluggish, repeatedly falling below $2500, I started dollar-cost averaging into Ethereum, so now my Ethereum holdings are greater than my Bitcoin holdings.

Recently, many people online have been discussing the public company SharpLink's acquisition of Ethereum, imitating MicroStrategy, hoping that this acquisition can significantly boost Ethereum's price.

I specifically checked SharpLink's Twitter for related news, and the publicly available price is $463 million for 176,271 Ethereum. I calculated that the average price is $2626, which is higher than my dollar-cost averaging price.

Is this acquisition strategy useful?

In the short term, it may be useful, but in the long term, I think its usefulness is very limited.

Ethereum is different from Bitcoin; Bitcoin is a limited edition collectible, and using a hoarding strategy can definitely drive up the price. However, Ethereum is not positioned as a collectible but as an infinitely produced "commodity" or "currency," and hoarding will not work in the long run. What truly matters is to have it "used" extensively.

In this regard, I think two other trends are more noteworthy:

First, the ecosystems developing on various Ethereum layer two expansions that I have been following, mainly Base at the moment.

Second, traditional institutions starting to get involved in stablecoins and begin building their own layer two expansions based on Ethereum.

The current involvement of traditional institutions in stablecoins seems to be purely for business expansion, but in the future, I believe they are likely to build their own ecosystems based on their stablecoin businesses. Further development of these ecosystems will likely lead to the construction of their own layer two expansions.

In this regard, Ant Group is a typical example; it is currently building its own layer two expansion while simultaneously applying for stablecoin licenses in Hong Kong and Singapore.

When these institutions have their own layer two expansions, they will ultimately operate their own nodes within the Ethereum ecosystem to participate in Ethereum's actual operations. And to operate nodes, they must purchase Ethereum. This is the direct driver for pushing up Ethereum's price.