The price of the second-largest cryptocurrency by market capitalization, Ethereum, kept on rising over the weekend to hit a new all-time high of $4,143.03. The new milestone was hit roughly a week after it broke the $3,000 barrier.

VanEck, the US-based financial services firm, with a proposed bitcoin exchange-traded fund (ETF) under review by the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC), has filed to launch an Ethereum ETF.

Elon Musk’s SpaceX is accepting Dogecoin (DOGE) payments to launch a lunar mission, funded by Canadian-based firm Geometric Energy Corp.

Sponsored: Great news! All 5 billion STC tokens available for the Launchpad were sold, 9 days sooner than expected. This is not a surprise, knowing that over 500 universities backup the Student Coin project thanks to its unique approach to crypto. 

Top stories in the Crypto Roundup today:

• Ethereum Hits New All-Time High Above $4,000
• VanEck Files to Launch Ethereum Exchange-Traded Fund
• Musk’s SpaceX Accepts DOGE Payments to Launch Lunar Mission
• Daily Movers – LTC, XLM, XVS
• Sponsored: The STC Token is Ready for Crypto Exchanges

Ethereum Hits New All-Time High Above $4,000

The price of the second-largest cryptocurrency by market capitalization Ethereum has continued rising over the weekend to hit a new all-time high at $4,143.03. The new milestone was achieved roughly a week after it broke the $3,000 barrier.

Ethereum’s market capitalization is now at about $476 billion, making it larger than consumer staples giant Walmart. Part of the cryptocurrency’s price rise may be linked to increasing institutional interest in ETH, with reports suggesting institutions invested over $30 million in it at the end of last month.

Increasing Ethereum adoption may also be pushing its price upward. Money managers are believed to own $13.9 billion worth of ETH, and just last week the European Investment Bank announced it would be issuing a $120 million bond on the Ethereum network in collaboration with other banking entities.

The growing decentralized finance sector has been increasing demand for the cryptocurrency while major upgrades including EIP-1559 and Ethereum 2.0 are on the horizon. EIP-1559 is set to be included in the “London” hard fork and will change Ethereum’s fee structure to help decrease gas costs while potentially making ETH a deflationary asset.

Ethereum 2.0, on the other hand, is a major network upgrade that will see ETH move from a Proof-of-Work (PoW) to a Proof-of-Stake (PoS) consensus mechanism and is expected to help it scale.

VanEck Files to Launch Ethereum Exchange-Traded Fund

VanEck, the US-based financial services firm, with a proposed bitcoin exchange-traded fund (ETF) under review by the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC), has filed to launch an Ethereum ETF.

The proposed ETF, the VanEck Ethereum Trust, would allow retail and institutional traders to gain exposure to the second-largest cryptocurrency by market capitalization without having to directly invest in ETH, nor having to manage private or public keys.

The VanEck Ethereum Trust, if approved, will hold ETH and value its shares daily based on the MVIS CryptoCompare Ethereum benchmark rate. The application comes after three Ethereum ETFs were launched in Canada last month, and could lead to the launch of the first ETH ETF in the United States.

Regulators in the U.S. haven’t yet approved a cryptocurrency ETF, even though at least 11 companies are looking to launch one. In the past, the SEC has taken as much time as it legally can to evaluate crypto ETF proposals and has delayed a decision on VanEck’s Bitcoin ETF application until at least June.

Musk’s SpaceX Accepts DOGE Payments to Launch Lunar Mission

Elon Musk’s SpaceX is accepting Dogecoin (DOGE) payments to launch a lunar mission, funded by Canadian-based firm Geometric Energy Corp.

The mission will launch aboard a SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket in the first quarter of next year, and its financial value wasn’t disclosed. The payload is set to obtain lunar-spatial intelligence from sensors and cameras on board.

SpaceX Vice President of Commercial Sales Tom Ochinero said in a press release:

"This mission will demonstrate the application of cryptocurrency beyond Earth orbit and set the foundation for interplanetary commerce.”

The announcement comes shortly after the price of DOGE started plunging after Musk explained cryptocurrency as a guest host on the “Saturday Night Live” comedy sketch TV show and called Dogecoin a “hustle.”

Daily Movers – LTC, XLM, XVS

Several tokens are leading the charge in the last 24-hour period. Some of these are well-known cryptocurrencies with more liquid trading pairs, so we’ll be focusing on these over low-cap cryptos that may have higher percentage changes.

Litecoin (LTC) - Litecoin provides faster transaction confirmations (2.5 minutes on average) and uses a memory-hard, scrypt-based mining proof-of-work algorithm to target the regular computers and GPUs most people already have - which are its main differentials to Bitcoin.

Stellar (XLM) - Stellar is a decentralized platform that aims to connect banks, payments systems, and people. Integrate to move money quickly, reliably, and at almost no cost. Supported by a non-profit, Stellar's goal is to bring the world together by increasing interoperability between diverse financial systems and currencies.

Venus (XVS) - Venus Protocol (“Venus”) is an algorithmic-based money market system designed to bring a complete decentralized finance-based lending and credit system onto Binance Smart Chain. Venus enables users to utilize their cryptocurrencies by supplying collateral to the network that may be borrowed by pledging over-collateralized cryptocurrencies

The STC Token is Ready for Crypto Exchanges

Great news! All 5 billion STC tokens available for the Launchpad were sold, 9 days sooner than expected. 

This is not a surprise, knowing that over 500 universities backup the Student Coin project thanks to its unique approach to crypto. 

Where can the STC token be bought?

If you want to make the best out of the Student Coin ecosystem, you can buy STC tokens directly from the StudentCoin.app. 

But if you like working with more than one crypto platform, you’ll be happy to know that more than ten major exchanges are ready for the STC Token. 

The token is already listed on Uniswap, Waves Exchange, Bithumb Global, and CoinTiger. Later this month, we will also see the STC token on:

• Coinsbit - 12 May 2021;
• P2PB2B and Bitcoin.com Exchange - 13 May 2021; 
• ProBit - 15 May 2021.

And by the end of May, we will also add to the list HitBTC, Changelly, Changelly Pro, CrossTower, Bequant and two other major exchanges.

Why should you be interested in STC?

Because it is more than just an instrument for trading. The STC token is the base for the customized tokens you can build on the STC Terminal. 

Using the Terminal, you can create your own token without needing any tech knowledge. Then you can issue a crowdfunding proposal in exchange for it. 

And the STC Wallet also comes with the staking option, that will be live before May 9th. It’s basically an all-in-one platform. 

Who launched Student Coin?

Student Coin was the outcome of the hard work of 44 team members under the leadership of Wojciech Podobas. The team also has the former CTO of IBM among members and the Stanford University teacher Andrew Kusmierz.

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