In a surprising twist that has set the crypto community abuzz, Elon Musk, the CEO of Tesla and a prominent figure in the crypto space, has recently hit the "follow" button on Twitter for Vitalik Buterin, the co-founder of Ethereum (CRYPTO: ETH). This unexpected move has sparked speculation about a potential collaboration between the two industry titans and has left many wondering if it could have implications for Dogecoin (CRYPTO: DOGE), the meme cryptocurrency closely associated with Musk.

Musk, known for his active and influential presence on Twitter, has amassed a massive following of 144.2 million users. However, his own follow list has remained relatively small, with only 334 accounts being followed. The decision to include Buterin, a key player in the world of blockchain and crypto, has raised eyebrows and ignited intense speculation about the possible motives behind this social media connection.

This is not the first time Musk has shown an interest in Ethereum. Back in April 2019, he tweeted the word "Ethereum," prompting a flurry of responses. Buterin himself extended an invitation for Musk to attend Devcon, a major Ethereum conference, later that year. Musk responded with a query about potential developments on the Ethereum platform, indicating his curiosity about the technology.

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See Also:Internet Rumor Connects Vitalik Buterin And Elon Musk To Creating Shiba Inu: Here's How

Adding fuel to the speculation, a 2022 report from Watcher Guru drew connections between the creation of Shiba Inu (CRYPTO: SHIB), a popular meme coin, and Musk and Buterin. The report highlighted a series of tweets exchanged between Musk and Buterin in 2019, suggesting a potential link between their conversations and the subsequent launch of Shiba Inu in August 2020.

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However, it's worth noting that both Musk's and Buterin's tweets from that period have been deleted, leaving room for speculation but lacking concrete evidence of any direct involvement in Shiba Inu's creation. The founder of Shiba Inu, known as Ryoshi, mentioned in a blog post that they met a friend at Devcon Osaka who had influence in the crypto space and alluded to their friend's wealth, leading some to draw connections to Musk.

While it remains unclear whether Musk's Twitter follow holds any deeper significance, it is undeniable that his tweets and actions often impact the cryptocurrency market. From his early support for Dogecoin to his influential tweets about Bitcoin, Musk's words have had the power to sway investor sentiment and drive market trends.

As the crypto community eagerly watches for further developments, speculations abound regarding potential collaborations or partnerships between Musk and Buterin. Whether this newfound Twitter connection will have any direct impact on Dogecoin or other cryptocurrencies remains uncertain. Nonetheless, it serves as a reminder of the influential role social media can play in the crypto world and the endless possibilities that lie ahead in this rapidly evolving landscape.

Now Read:Bitcoin, Ethereum Set To Rally? Josh Brown Says Crypto Has Entered 'New Phase' As Institutional Investors Look To Jump In

This content was partially produced with the help of AI tools and was reviewed and published by Benzinga editors.

Photo: Created with images from Wikimedia Commons

2023 Benzinga.com. Benzinga does not provide investment advice. All rights reserved.

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Elon Musk Starts Following Ethereum Co-Founder Vitalik Buterin On Twitter, Will Dogecoin End Up In The Do - Benzinga

Ouch, Brits cried out in unison after seeing this mornings inflation read.

Instead of an expected three basis point fall, year-on-year consumer prices remained sticky at 8.7%, with core prices actually increasing three basis points to 7.1%.

This all but confirms yet another interest rate hike from the Bank of England tomorrow, bringing the running total to a bakers dozen.

Bitcoins price fell half a percent immediately following the inflation call, but substantial gains over the past two days have kept the BTC/USDT pair in a healthy position.

Following a 5% surge on Monday and further gains in this mornings Asia reading window, bitcoin BTC/USDT managed to hit six-week highs of US$29,000 before a slight correction back to US$28,870 in recent hours.

Bitcoin (BTC) nabs a sharp price rally Source: currency.com

Much of the bullishness was due to the launch of EDX Markets, a news cryptocurrency exchange backed by traditional financial heavyweights Fidelity, Charles Schwab (NYSE:SCHW) and Citadel.

Products traded on EDX include Bitcoin (BTC), Ethereum (ETH), Litecoin (LTC) and Bitcoin Cash (BCH).

In a time when incumbent crypto exchanges such as Coinbase, Binance and Kraken are feeling the regulatory whip, EDX sounds like it could be a gamble, but chief executive Jamil Nazarali touted EDXs compliance and investor protections under a new non-custodial model.

EDXs prospects aside, the crypto markets clearly saw this as a bullish move that could open bitcoin and Ethereum up to swathes of new investors.

The ETH/USDT pair didnt see as much upside as BTC/USDT, but still managed to add over 3% to change hands at US$1,812 at the time of writing.

The altcoin space enjoyed a boost too, with Solana (SOL), Cardano (ADA), Polygon (MATIC) and LTC enjoying mid-to-high single-digit gains.

However, as discussed yesterday, bitcoins dominance has consistently surged as altcoins become increasingly out of favour among the cryptocurrency community.

At 51% of the global cryptocurrency market capitalisation of US$1.14tn, bitcoins dominance of the wider crypto markets remains at a two-year high.

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Bitcoin and Ethereum: Markets digest UK inflation and Fidelity ... - Proactive Investors USA

While the Arbitrum governance token ARB has been in a consistent downturn since the airdrop in late March, its ecosystem shows healthy growth.

A recent Nansen report shows that Arbitrums activity improved after the airdrop, stabilizing at a level higher than before the airdrop. The daily active users, gas fees and transaction count have maintained consistently higher levels since April 2023.

The gap between the number of active users on Arbitrum and Optimism widened after the Aribtrum airdrop, closing in on Ethereum.

The trading volume on Arbitrum-based decentralized exchanges paints a similar picture, showing an evident rise in volume after the airdrop.

Moreover, Nansens report shows that ARB airdrop recipients only accounted for around 5% of the activity on the blockchain and that Arbitrum has attracted considerably more new users after the airdrop.

Moreover, an upcoming update on Ethereum in the second half of 2023, dubbed as Cancun-Deneb (Dencun), will include EIP-4844 (proto-Danksharding), which will reduce the transaction fees on Arbitrum, increasing the blockchains value proposition.

Additionally, the Arbitrum Foundation recently revealed accumulated data from its sequencer, a part of the layer-2 fees paid by users for posting the data onto Ethereum.

The foundation has decided to pass on the sequencers earnings, totaling 3,352 Ether (ETH), or $5.4 million, to the Arbitrum DAO, and the ETH will be managed by ARB holders.

A revenue source for the DAO a decentralized autonomous organization can potentially create yields for ARB holders if the community votes to direct the rewards to holders. It remains to be seen how the funds will be managed by the foundation and the DAO.

Nansens data shows that the smart money and funds that accumulated ARB after the airdrop still havent sold, which is encouraging. The on-chain analytics firm tags Ethereum addresses of high-volume and profitable traders as smart money.

The funding rate for ARB perpetual swap contracts turned negative like the rest of the crypto market after the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC)brought lawsuits against the industrys largest exchanges, Binance and Coinbase, per CoinGlass data.

Related: Deposits to zkSync surpass $110M as its DeFi ecosystem explodes

Funding rates are paid by perpetual swap traders for shorting or longing an asset depending on its demand. If the demand for short orders is higher, it is deemed more expensive, so traders on the short side pay longs.

Currently, the funding rates are near zero, suggesting that futures traders are neutral on ARB.

The ARB/USD pair has observed a downward trend since the tokens launch in March. The compression of the channel shows the possibility of a descending wedge pattern, which has a tendency to break to the upside.

However, if ARB breaks below the support line of the wedge pattern around $0.90, the move to the downside can amplify quickly.

On the ETH scale, ARB broke below Mays low of 0.00057 ETH after the SECs lawsuits. At the time of publication, the token was trading at 0.00056 ETH.

Technically, ARB shows the possibility of a negative trend reversal. Nevertheless, the upcoming Dencun update on Ethereum and decisions taken by the Arbitrum Foundation in directing revenue from the L2 rollup will ultimately dictate ARBs price action.

This article does not contain investment advice or recommendations. Every investment and trading move involves risk, and readers should conduct their own research when making a decision.

This article is for general information purposes and is not intended to be and should not be taken as legal or investment advice. The views, thoughts, and opinions expressed here are the authors alone and do not necessarily reflect or represent the views and opinions of Cointelegraph.

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Ethereum network upgrade and uptick in Arbitrum active users could trigger an ARB price reversal - Cointelegraph

What happened

The price of several cryptocurrencies fell today after the Federal Reserve left interest rates unchanged at the conclusion of its June meeting yesterday but indicated that more rate hikes could be coming later this year.

Since late afternoon yesterday, the price of the world's largest cryptocurrency, Bitcoin (CRYPTO:BTC), traded roughly 2% lower as of 11:11 a.m. ET today, although had been down as much as 3.8% over the last 24 hours.

Meanwhile, the price of the world's second-largest cryptocurrency, Ethereum (CRYPTO:ETH), traded 2.2% lower but had been down close to 6%, while the price of the meme token Shiba Inu (CRYPTO:SHIB) was down about 0.6% after having been down as much as 4%.

Crypto largely seems to be moving overall after the Fed left interest rates unchanged for the first time since March 2022. While this was expected, the Fed then spooked the market, indicating that it expects there to potentially be two more rate hikes this year and that a rate cut could be far away.

Fed Chair Jerome Powell said after the Fed's meeting:

It will be appropriate to cut rates at such time, as inflation is coming down really significantly. And again, we're talking about a couple of years out. As anyone can see, not a single person on the committee wrote down a rate cut this year, nor do I think it is at all likely to be appropriate.

As many will remember, rising interest rates crushed the likes of Bitcoin and the crypto market in 2022, so the thought of the Fed not pausing is bound to worry crypto investors.

"Once the penny dropped that more hikes are likely and we're in a higher-for-longer rates environment, Bitcoin lost its hold," said Nexo managing partner Antoni Trenchev, according to Barron's. "Bitcoin is nervously looking at the low $20,000s. It'll be a while before this torrid time for crypto blows over."

Still, the market isn't necessarily buying the Fed's story. According toCME Group's FedWatch tool, the bulk of traders are betting that the Fed will raise interest rates at its next meeting in July. But if you look out to December, traders are split on interest rates ending the year where they are now, between 5% and 5.25%, or a quarter-point higher.

I would agree with the market that there is a long way to go before the Fed does two more rate hikes this year, but it still could happen, so it can't be ruled out.

It's going to depend on the data. As the Consumer Price Index numbers demonstrated earlier this month, some parts of the economy are still running hot, as prices for shelter, transportation services, used cars, and even food bounced a little bit in May. The Fed may look for some of these prices to soften as well as for further cracks in the labor market before it can declare victory in its war with inflation, which means the data going forward is going to be very important.

Ultimately, I still think it's worthwhile having some exposure to Bitcoin and Ethereum, which I think will be here for the long haul. I continue to have no interest in Shiba Inu.

Bram Berkowitz has positions in Bitcoin and Ethereum. The Motley Fool has positions in and recommends Bitcoin and Ethereum. The Motley Fool recommends CME Group. The Motley Fool has a disclosure policy.

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Why Bitcoin, Ethereum, and Shiba Inu Are Falling Today - The Motley Fool