Latest news with #EthereumVirtualMachine
Yahoo
5 days ago
- Business
- Yahoo
XRP Is Up 500% From a Year Ago. Is This Leading Cryptocurrency Still a Buy?
Key Points XRP has has soared during the past year. Its technology just got a major upgrade with long-term implications for the chain. Regulators are looking like they aren't as much of a threat anymore. 10 stocks we like better than XRP › One year ago, XRP (CRYPTO: XRP) traded near $0.55. Today it hovers around $2.94, a roughly 500% jump that leaves early buyers feeling like geniuses and latecomers trying to fight against their fear of missing out (FOMO). It's obvious that huge moves are thrilling, but they also create a classic investing challenge. Should investors cash out, or pile in with more capital to press the advantage with a proven winner? Let's sift through what actually changed for XRP and why the next leg higher might still lie ahead. The last 12 months rewrote XRP's narrative One of the main drivers for XRP's startling run has been the ever-improving technology on its ledger, the XRPL. On June 30, the XRPL Ethereum Virtual Machine (EVM) sidechain launched, giving developers Ethereum tooling for their smart contracts without leaving the XRP ecosystem. For the uninitiated, this means that programmers can use the same programming language they use to code Ethereum apps to code apps that run on the XRP Ledger. In other words, developers can now port decentralized finance (DeFi) and other apps directly to the ledger without much additional work, which is an option that XRP simply lacked before. The synthesis of this information is that XRP could now start to attract Ethereum developers who are fed up with that chain's high gas (user) fees, thereby supercharging the ecosystem with new talent and thus new apps. Regulations are also shifting very much in XRP's favor, and its long-running legal issues are finally abating. A Manhattan judge last year capped the liability of Ripple, the company that issues XRP, at a $125 million civil penalty, and, on June 27, both Ripple and the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) signaled plans to drop their lingering cross-appeals, hinting the saga is near an armistice. Regulators had originally faulted Ripple over the question of whether XRP counts as a security. Now, given the Trump administration's retooling of the crypto market, it seems very likely that this issue is a thing of the past, with the outcome of future regulations almost guaranteed to heavily benefit XRP. Why this rally might still be in its early innings So, XRP is sailing in calm waters with both internally generated and external tailwinds to make the ride for holders into a pleasure cruise. Smart contract compatibility is already broadening XRP's addressable market. DeFi lenders, prediction market operators, and synthetic asset platforms can now build without wrestling with the ledger's native scripting quirks. Even a modest migration of Ethereum-based liquidity would translate into incremental demand for XRP as the chain's reserve asset. Meanwhile, as mentioned before, policy winds look unusually favorable at the moment, and the odds are good that conditions will continue to be balmy for the next couple of years. With the SEC backing away from all-out litigation, institutional investors can engage with XRP and use it for their financial plumbing without worrying that subpoenas will land on their desks. Rule tweaks this summer also sparked confidence that spot XRP exchange-traded funds (ETFs) could clear the agency's October 17 decision deadline, a move that would lead asset managers to accumulate coins for creation baskets and, if holders are a tad lucky, create a supply shock that sends prices soaring. What's the right move? Despite the above, it's also obviously true that XRP no longer looks cheap on a one-year chart. It's guaranteed that its volatile swings in price will remain ferocious. Yet the blend of a brand-new developer runway, dissipating legal risk, looming ETF catalysts, and on-chain utility signals that the recent surge rests on more than thin air. It's still worth buying today. Should XRPL's revamped tool set and institutional push work as advertised, today's lofty price quote could look tame a few years down the road. Diversify, think long term, and let the thesis, not the thrill, guide your allocation. Should you invest $1,000 in XRP right now? Before you buy stock in XRP, consider this: The Motley Fool Stock Advisor analyst team just identified what they believe are the for investors to buy now… and XRP wasn't one of them. The 10 stocks that made the cut could produce monster returns in the coming years. Consider when Netflix made this list on December 17, 2004... if you invested $1,000 at the time of our recommendation, you'd have $631,505!* Or when Nvidia made this list on April 15, 2005... if you invested $1,000 at the time of our recommendation, you'd have $1,103,313!* Now, it's worth noting Stock Advisor's total average return is 1,039% — a market-crushing outperformance compared to 181% for the S&P 500. Don't miss out on the latest top 10 list, available when you join Stock Advisor. See the 10 stocks » *Stock Advisor returns as of August 4, 2025 Alex Carchidi has positions in Ethereum. The Motley Fool has positions in and recommends Ethereum and XRP. The Motley Fool has a disclosure policy. XRP Is Up 500% From a Year Ago. Is This Leading Cryptocurrency Still a Buy? was originally published by The Motley Fool Sign in to access your portfolio
Yahoo
28-07-2025
- Business
- Yahoo
Stablecoin-Focused Bitcoin Sidechain Plasma Draws $373M in Oversubscribed Token Sale
Stablecoin-focused blockchain Plasma has closed its public token sale with $373 million in commitments, more than seven times the $50 million it was targeting. The sale, according to available data, has led to an oversubscription of around $320 million looking to get around $209,000 worth of XPL that weren't purchased. The token's launch is expected to occur within 40 days, while refunds for overcommitted funds will be processed in the near future. At launch, the Plasma network will hold $1 billion in stablecoins, becoming the fastest blockchain to reach that figure, according to the project. Plasma, an Ethereum Virtual Machine (EVM)-compatible Bitcoin sidechain, aims to provide fee-free stablecoin transfers, starting with Tether's USDT. Plasma enters a competitive market dominated by Tron and Ethereum, which settles billions in stablecoin transfers daily and has seen Tether itself shift its focus to Layer 2s. It has secured funding from notable investors including Peter Thiel's Founders Fund, Framework Ventures, and Bitfinex. U.S. investors face a 12-month lock on their tokens, but for the rest of the world, XPL will be unlocked at launch. Error in retrieving data Sign in to access your portfolio Error in retrieving data Error in retrieving data Error in retrieving data Error in retrieving data
Yahoo
09-07-2025
- Business
- Yahoo
Monad Acquires Portal Labs to Expand Stablecoin Payments on High-Speed Blockchain
Monad Foundation, the organization behind high-speed layer-1 blockchain Monad, is acquiring stablecoin infrastructure platform Portal Labs in an effort to scale up blockchain-based payments. Monad said the acquisition will accelerate its push into the stablecoin space and improve tools available for developers and fintechs building with digital dollars. Monad is a layer-1 blockchain compatible with the Ethereum Virtual Machine (EVM) and capable of over 10,000 transactions per second. Portal, which offers embedded wallet infrastructure designed for stablecoin payments, will remain a separate brand operating as a wholly-owned subsidiary. Raj Parekh, Portal's co-founder and a former executive at Visa's global crypto division, is joining Monad as head of payments and stablecoins. The news comes as stablecoins are having a breakthrough moment into the broader financial world, with fintechs and banks exploring ways to integrate the asset class for payments across borders. Stablecoins are a type of cryptocurrency with prices tied to an external asset, predominantly to the U.S. dollar, and promise faster and cheaper transactions using blockchain rails compared to traiditional channels. Analysts at Global bank Citi projected that stablecoins could become a $3.7 trillion asset class by 2030 with regulatory support. Acquisitions are also rising as the stablecoin space heats up. Payments firm Stripe has recently acquired stablecoin infrastructure firm Bridge and wallet platform Privy to enhance its blockchain-powered payment capabilities. "Payments are a killer use case for blockchains and present an exciting unlock for widespread crypto adoption," said Keone Hon, co-founder and general manager at Monad Foundation, in a statement. "Portal's production-grade stablecoin rails will provide enterprises and developers with plug-and-play solutions to incorporate stablecoin payments into their platforms and apps,' he in retrieving data Sign in to access your portfolio Error in retrieving data Error in retrieving data Error in retrieving data Error in retrieving data
Business Insider
03-07-2025
- Business
- Business Insider
Cronos Delivers Sub-Second Block Time, Cementing Status Among Top 10 Fastest Chains
Cronos has announced the completion of a major performance upgrade to the Cronos EVM mainnet, delivering up to 10x reduction in block time and pushing the network into the sub-second era. This enhancement significantly improves network responsiveness and throughput, supporting the next generation of high-performance decentralized applications. As of 3 July 2025, the network upgrade will go live on mainnet, bringing Cronos EVM's average block interval from approximately 5.6 seconds down to under one second. This achievement reinforces its position as one of the most compatible, low-latency and scalable Ethereum Virtual Machine (EVM) chains. With its instant finality, Cronos now ranks among the world's 10 fastest blockchains for on-chain finality, opening the door to real-time DeFi, AI and payments. This leap in speed is enabled by recent scalability innovations, including BlockSTM, the parallel execution engine introduced in the Pallene upgrade, which allows multiple transactions to be processed simultaneously within each block. The latest block time optimization complements this by increasing block production frequency, resulting in faster finality and smoother user interactions. Combined, these upgrades are expected to: Increase overall transaction throughput (TPS) Enable near-instant responsiveness across DeFi, AI and payments Improve developer UX for high-frequency applications Reduce latency for real-time, on-chain interactions Mirko Zhao, Cronos Labs Lead and Head of Product & Engineering commented, 'By unlocking sub-second performance, we're not just making the network faster — we're enabling a new class of ultra-fast blockchain applications. This upgrade reinforces our long-term commitment to developer experience and performance at scale.' This upgrade follows Cronos' broader roadmap focused on performance, affordability and AI agent readiness. Prior to this upgrade, Cronos implemented a 10x base gas fee reduction in June, making the network more accessible to both users and developers. The network has also broken new ground in real-world adoption. In partnership with it became the first blockchain to support direct funding of a prepaid card with crypto. A supporting feature, Auto-Harvest, automates the process of converting DeFi rewards into fiat top-ups, bridging the gap between on-chain activity and everyday payments. About Cronos Cronos is a leading blockchain ecosystem that has partnered with and more than 500 application developers and contributors representing an addressable user base of more than a hundred million people around the world. Cronos' mission is to make it easy and safe for the next billion crypto users to adopt self-custody in Web3, with a focus on Decentralized Finance and Gaming. The Cronos universe encompasses 3 chains: Cronos EVM, the leading Ethereum-compatible blockchain built on the Cosmos SDK; Cronos POS, a leading Cosmos chain for payments and NFTs; and Cronos zkEVM, a new high performance layer 2 network secured by Ethereum. Cronos ranks among the top 15 blockchain ecosystems, encompassing more than 6 billion dollars of user assets. Since inception, it has securely settled more than 100 million transactions. Transaction fees are paid in Cronos ($CRO), a blue chip cryptocurrency. Cronos is supported by Cronos Labs, a Web3 start-up accelerator focused on DeFi, GameFi and the development of the Cronos ecosystem.
Yahoo
01-07-2025
- Business
- Yahoo
Bitcoin Layer-2 Botanix Mainnet Debuts, Cuts Block Times to 5 Seconds
The mainnet of Botanix, a network designed to bring Ethereum-equivalent utility to the Bitcoin ecosystem, has gone live, slashing the time it takes to add new blocks to five seconds from 10 minutes. The network is compatible with the Ethereum Virtual Machine (EVM), the software that powers the Ethereum blockchain, allowing Ethereum-based applications and smart contracts to be copied and pasted onto Bitcoin, developer Botanix Labs said in an email. Botanix is one of several projects attempting to scale the Bitcoin blockchain and make it a more conducive venue for decentralized finance (DeFi) by enhancing its utility and programmability. Others include Rootstock, Stacks and BOB ("Build on Bitcoin"), which have all adopted the BitVM computing paradigm that can make complex computations verifiable on Bitcoin, paving the way for smart-contract provision, similar to Ethereum's. The expansion of Bitcoin's utility would allow developers to take advantage of the value held in BTC, which dwarfs that of all other digital assets. Botanix Labs also emphasized its decentralized governance structure. The mainnet launch coincides with its transition to being operated by a foundation of 16 node operators. Botanix said it expects the number to grow beyond 100 in 2026. The founding federation includes some of the biggest names in cryptocurrency, including as Mike Novogratz's financial services firm Galaxy Digital and crypto custody specialist Fireblocks. "If we want a world that runs on Bitcoin, we have to build systems that honor its core principles of self-custody, open participation and global fault tolerance,' Botanix Labs CEO Willem Schroé said. 'Too many Bitcoiners have been burned by centralized platforms, which is why Botanix is fully decentralized at launch. No single party, including us, can touch a user's Bitcoin." Several products that will form the basis of Botanix's Bitcoin DeFi (BTCFi) offering also debuted in conjunction the mainnet launch. These include BTC-backed stablecoin Palladium and decentralized exchange Bitzy. Error in retrieving data Sign in to access your portfolio Error in retrieving data Error in retrieving data Error in retrieving data Error in retrieving data
