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Gnosis founder Martin Köppelmannn says implementing a web of 128 “native rollups” can save the Ethereum network from being captured by corporate interests and vanishing into obscurity.

Native rollups are layer-2 networks built to Ethereum’s native security standards, meaning that they’re composable, uncensorable, and economically aligned with the original ethos of Ethereum.

Unlike “centralized” rollups, which include L2s like Coinbase-incubated Base, or “based rollups” like Taiko — native rollups offer all of the inherent security and composability of Ethereum.

Native rollups would be “built and governed by” Ethereum core developers, with synchronous reading to the L1 and all data availability, maximum extractable values (MEV), and congestion fees being paid back to the mainnet.

Köppelmannn argues that implementing a swathe of these so-called native rollups could hold the key to solving the problem of liquidity and developer fragmentation that currently plague the network. It would also return the network to the original sharding vision abandoned in favor of rollups.

The proposal received a warm response from the Bankless podcasters Ryan Adams and David Hoffman who praised the approach for “only adding to Ethereum, rebalancing power and making ETH stronger.”

However, Uniswap CEO Hayden Adams said he preferred a “middle ground” approach of an enshrined proof system — which would look like a sequencer agnostic L2 proving system.

However, Adrian Brink, the co-founder of the “intent-centric” blockchain firm Anoma, told Cointelegraph the difference between native and based rollups is largely just “made up” for marketing purposes.

“There is no defined computer science terminology for a ‘native’, ‘based’, or ‘vanilla’ rollup. Based just means the rollup is sequenced by the base layer. Native just means there is a native opcode to verify the rollup’s execution,” he said.

The risks of “centralized” rollups

Köppelmannn is the founder of Gnosis, an Ethereum infrastructure firm that’s heavily prioritized on decentralization. Gnosis is also the firm behind Safe Global and Gnosis Chain which together form the bedrock of infrastructure that much of the Ethereum ecosystem rests on.

Speaking on stage at DevCon in Thailand last week, Köppelmann, clad in a Tornado Cash T-shirt, asserted that Ethereum needs to distance itself from centralized layer-2 rollups and deploy its own web of zk-proven networks, all built to the high standards of Ethereum’s L1.

“I have absolutely the highest respect for Jesse [Pollack] and for what Base and Coinbase are doing but I do think saying ‘we’re bringing the next billion people to Ethereum’ is wrong.”

Köppelmannn warned that Base and any other centralized layer-2 network are in charge of how much profit they make, which gives them different incentives.

“It’s entirely in their hands to control how many fees they charge for transactions, and they’re perfectly capable of doing something where they take a 30% cut,” Köppelmannn said, referring to Apple’s controversial fee on all sales conducted through its App Store.

Why does Ethereum need “native” L2s?

Koppelman said roll-up developers are typically presented with two main choices: centralized rollups which rely on a centralized sequencer or “based” rollups.

Centralized sequencing is good for optimizing UX and fast transactions while “based” rollups are slower but optimize for deeper connectivity to the L1.

“If most assets are not bridged from Ethereum, and the sequencing is also not done by Ethereum, the connection to Ethereum is reduced to occasional checkpointing,” he said.

CoinDesk Indices presents its daily market update, highlighting the performance of leaders and laggards in the CoinDesk 20 Index.

The CoinDesk 20 is currently trading at 3219.34, up 3.0% (+95.19) since 4 pm ET on Thursday.

Fourteen of 20 assets are trading higher.

Leaders: XRP (+19.6%) and XLM (+18.9%).

Laggards: RENDER (-2.4%) and NEAR (-2.4%).

The CoinDesk 20 is a broad-based index traded on multiple platforms in several regions globally.

A massive Ethereum whale that accumulated nearly 400,000 ETH when the second-largest cryptocurrency by market capitalization was trading at around $6 per token has recently restarted selling.

According to data shared by on-chain analysis firm Lookonchain, the whale accumulated a total of 398,889 ETH for around $2.4 million between January and March 2016, with the tokens now being worth over $1.34 billion after Ethereum’s price exploded in the last eight years.

The cryptocurrency is now trading at $3,350 per token and has a $404 billion market capitalization. Per Lookonchain, the massive Ethereum whale remained dormant for over eight years, before it restarted selling on November 7.

The whale has so far sold73,356 ETH worth around $224.4 million, but still has 325,533 ETH worth $1.1 billion in its wallet.

The whale’s resurgence comes after the price of Ethereum surged by more than 8.5% mid a wider cryptocurrency market rally that has seen the price of the flagship cryptocurrency Bitcoin near the $100,000 mark for the first time.

While Bitcoin is trading near a record, Ethereum is still far from its all-time high near $4,600 seen back in 2021. As CryptoGlobe reported, late last month the amount of ETH being held on cryptocurrency exchanges has plunged by around $750 million after massive withdrawals of the second-largest cryptocurrency by market capitalization from these platforms.

According to on-chain data from on-chain analysis firm CryptoQuant shared by popular cryptocurrency analyst Ali Martinez, 300,000 ETH tokens worth approximately $750 million were withdrawn from exchanges in a single week.

A smaller supply of Ethereum on cryptocurrency exchanges is often interpreted as a bullish sign, as if demand remains steady or rises it could lead to price rises. Often, funds are moved off of exchanges so holders can custody their own funds to keep them for the long-term.

Ethereum holders may also move their funds off of exchanges to stake their funds on the network in a bid to earn a yield on their holdings through the network’s Proof-of-Stake consensus mechanism.

Featured image via Pixabay.

On Nov. 22, United States Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) Chair Gery Gensler announced that he will step down from his position on Jan. 20.

He is widely regarded as one of the most “anti-crypto” SEC chairs in history, and crypto users are celebrating his departure on X.

However, the new pick for SEC Chair will face scrutiny in the US Senate, which must confirm any nominee.

The SEC announced Gensler’s departure in a press release. During his term in office, the SEC filed lawsuits against several popular Web3 protocols and exchanges, including Coinbase, Uniswap, Metamask developer Consensys, blockchain video streaming platform LBRY, and others. The lawsuits have been criticized by many crypto users and investors.

One of President Elect Donald Trump’s promises during his campaign was to fire Gary Gensler on his first day in office.

However, attempting to fire him could have led to a court battle, since members of regulatory agencies can only be removed “for cause.” Gensler’s resignation means that this battle will not take place.

Crypto X celebrates

Crypto users celebrated the announcement on the X social media platform.

Jeremy Hogan, an attorney and content creator who often posts about crypto-related legal proceedings, stated “Ding Dong, Gensler is Gone,” and asked readers to “Sing it with me” to the tune of “The Witch is Dead” from the Wizard of Oz.

On-chain data shows Bitcoin has recently surpassed a level of the Market Value to Realized Value (MVRV) Ratio that has historically signaled overheated conditions.

Bitcoin Has Surpassed Highest MVRV Deviation Pricing Band

In its latest weekly report, the on-chain analytics firm Glassnode has discussed about how Bitcoin is looking right now from the perspective of a pricing model based on the MVRV Ratio.

The MVRV Ratio is a popular BTC indicator that keeps track of the ratio between the market cap of the asset and its realized cap. The latter here is an on-chain capitalization model that, in short, tells us about the amount of capital that the investors as a whole have used to purchase their tokens.

Since the MVRV Ratio compares this initial investment against the value that the investors are currently holding (that is, the market cap), it essentially provides information about the profitability of the addresses on the BTC network.

Now, the pricing model that Glassnode has created doesn’t directly make use of the MVRV Ratio itself, but rather some standard deviations (SDs) from its mean. Below is the chart for this model shared by the analytics firm in the report.

In this model, pricing levels correspond to BTC prices at which the MVRV Ratio would attain a value equal to a certain SD above or below its mean. At the +0.5 SD level, for instance, the MVRV Ratio is 0.5 SD greater than its mean value.

From the graph, it’s apparent that the Bitcoin price has broken past the highest of the pricing bands part of this model with its latest run. The level in question is the +1.0 SD, equivalent to $90,200 at the moment.

Historically, BTC has tended to form tops when its price has exceeded this pricing band. The reason behind this is the fact that at such high levels of the MVRV Ratio, the investors carry a significant amount of profits, so a mass selloff with the motive of profit-taking can become a real possibility.

The last time that the cryptocurrency broke past this barrier was in the first quarter of this year. As is visible in the chart, it didn’t take the price long to top out back then.

In full-blown bull markets in the past, however, Bitcoin has generally sustained inside this overheated territory for notable periods of time before finding a peak. An example of this trend is also highlighted in the chart; the first half 2021 bull run saw the coin stay in the zone for a few months thanks to high capital inflows.

As such, it’s not necessary that BTC would immediately reach a cyclical top now that it has become overheated on this model.

BTC Price

Bitcoin had risen beyond the $98,000 level earlier in the past day, but it seems the coin has suffered a minor setback as it’s now back at $97,500.

CoinDesk 20 Index: 3,273.75 +7.19%

Bitcoin : $98,833.89 +1.06%

Ether : $3,356.95 +1.95%

S&P 500: 5,948.71 +0.53%

Gold: $2,707.27 +1.42%

Nikkei 225: 38,283.85 +0.68%

Top Stories

Bitcoin is inching closer to the $100,000 mark, though its momentum has slowed. It clinched another record on Thursday at $99,500, dipping below $99,000 heading into the U.S. open. BTC has risen 1% over the past 24 hours, while the broad-market CoinDesk 20 Index gained over 7%. Most alternative cryptocurrencies (altcoins) in the CD20 outperformed BTC, an early sign of capital rotation into smaller, riskier tokens as bitcoin's pace stalls. The $100,000 price point poses a significant resistance level, where investors might take profits on their investments. Still, there's a possibility of BTC rallying to $115,000 by Christmas, supported by broadening stablecoin supply, inflows into ETFs and bullish options positioning on BlackRock's spot BTC ETF I, 10x Research said in a Friday note.

Altcoins are taking their moment to shine as regulatory headwinds look poised to clear. Gary Gensler, the chair of the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) is set to leave on Jan. 20, President-elect Donald Trump's inauguration date. Industry participants anticipate that the agency's new leadership will be more open to approving investment products for smaller tokens and allowing staking for ETFs. XRP led the rally, gaining 33% in 24 hours and Cardano's ADA rose over 15%. Solana's native token hit an all-time high above $260, the first of the large-cap altcoins to surpass the 2021 market peaks.

Financial service giant Charles Schwab wants to directly offer crypto to users, its incoming CEO said, a sign that U.S. institutions are increasingly emboldened by an expected regulatory sea-change towards digital assets. "We’ve been waiting on a change in the regulatory environment … and we’re confident that we think that will come in short order," Rick Wurster said in an interview. Also, digital asset manager Bitwise officially joined the race to launch a spot-based solana ETF in the U.S.

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