Ethereum L2 ecosystem sets a new record with 12.42 million transactions per day
On August 13, the number of transactions processed by Ethereum's second-layer solutions reached a historic high—12.52 million transactions in a single day. This figure has grown by over 140% since the beginning of this year. The Base blockchain played a significant role in this growth, processing nearly 4 million transactions daily by the end of July.
Additionally, the total market supply of stablecoins in the Ethereum L2 ecosystem has surpassed the combined total of Solana and BNB Chain, reaching $9.69 billion. However, despite these successes, the number of active addresses in the L2 segment began to decline after peaking in mid-July.
ETH supply reaches 120.28 million
According to data from Ultrasound.money, the supply of the second-largest cryptocurrency by market capitalization has reached 120.28 million ETH. This increase has been driven by the growing number of tokens locked in staking and re-staking protocols.
In the past seven days, the supply increased by 18,086.4 ETH, of which 2,229.6 ETH exited circulation due to the burn mechanism introduced by EIP-1559. This brought the net supply to 15,856.9 ETH, with the annual inflation rate rising to 0.69%. The popularity of liquid staking and re-staking platforms may also contribute to the increase in supply, as more tokens are locked in protocols.
Bitcoin mining difficulty decreases by 4.19%
In the latest revision, Bitcoin's mining difficulty decreased by 4.19%, dropping to 86.87 T. Since the last revision, the average hash rate has been 740.3 EH/s, with a block interval of 8 minutes and 24 seconds. According to Glassnode data, the smoothed 7-day moving average hash rate is 622.4 EH/s.
After the difficulty adjustment, the hash rate fell to $43.4 per PH per day. As Bitcoin's price dropped below $50,000, the hash rate further declined to $36 per PH/s per day, raising concerns among cryptocurrency analysts about the extremely low profitability of Bitcoin mining.
Ton announces the launch of tgBTC
Toncoin developers announced the launch of wrapped Bitcoin tgBTC on the TON blockchain. TgBTC will open up new opportunities for transactions, staking, and other financial activities. This innovation will also create conditions for the development of applications integrated with BTC. The launch of tgBTC strengthens TON's position in the cryptocurrency ecosystem and attracts new users.
MetaMask partners with Mastercard to launch payment card
According to CoinDesk, the non-custodial cryptocurrency wallet MetaMask announced a partnership with Baanx to launch a blockchain Mastercard debit card. The product will initially be offered to users in the EU and the UK in a pilot mode. A full rollout is planned for later this year, with further expansion to other regions.
The card allows users to spend digital assets directly from their crypto wallets without the extra step of converting them to fiat currency. Users will be able to use USDC, USDT, and wETH to purchase goods and services on the Layer 2 Ethereum network Linea, developed by ConsenSys, the company behind MetaMask.
Costly mistake: Gas fees on the Ethereum network reach $89,000
The cryptocurrency industry occasionally sees users making transactions with abnormally high fees due to mistakes or carelessness. A recent case has drawn attention from the community, where an unidentified user paid a gas fee of 34 ETH (approximately $89,239) while the transaction sent was worth only 0.88 ETH, equivalent to about $2,262. At the time of writing, the average gas fee on the Ethereum network was only 1.422 Gwei, roughly $0.08. Such errors highlight the importance of careful management of cryptocurrency transactions, especially in an environment where every mistake can lead to significant losses.