Crypto Flipsider News – $700M Bitcoins Liquidated, ETH 2.0 Altair

Read in the Digest

• Biggest Liquidation Sends BTC Tumbling, but Options Expiration Could Spark New Rally
• 2.0 Altair Upgrade Goes Live, ETH Rallies Above $4,100K
• Coinbase (NASDAQ:) Becomes Most Popular iPhone App, Shiba Rally Causes Crash
• DeFi Protocol Cream Finance Suffers $130 Million Hack

Biggest Liquidation Sends BTC Tumbling, but Options Expiration Could Spark New Rally

After hitting a new all-time high on the back of the much-anticipated ETF launch, traders have liquidated the most positions in a month. According to data from Bybt, on October 27, the total liquidations of long crypto positions topped $700 million, the most since September 20.

The liquidation saw fall as much as 6.4%, causing BTC to drop to $58,132. The drop saw Bitcoin fall below its 20-day moving average, hinting at the possibility of more sales. However, BTC has gained 4.5% in the last 24 hours, and was trading at $61,095 at the time of this writing.

The 24-hour price chart of Bitcoin (BTC). Source: Tradingview

As Bitcoin recuperates, investors and traders could be in for more gain ahead of Friday’s $3.2 billion options expiry. The October 29 option is made up of $1.94 billion call (buy) and $1.24 billion put (sell) options.

If Bitcoin sustains its current bullish momentum above $60k until the options expire on October 29, bullish investors and traders could get a profit of $385 million or higher.

Flipsider:

• The regulatory uncertainty in the United States is also a decisive factor in keeping some large institutional investors from entering the sector.

Why You Should Care

With the recent performance of Bitcoin, analysts still maintain a bullish stance for Bitcoin, predicting that BTC will hit $100,000 before the end of the year.

Ethereum 2.0 Altair Upgrade Goes Live, ETH Rallies Above $4,100K

Ethereum, one of the biggest blockchain networks, has taken another step towards the much-anticipated Ethereum 2.0. Journeying towards proof-of-stake, the Ethereum network has completed its Altair upgrade to Beacon Chain.

On October 27, Raul Jordan, a core developer on the Ethereum network, announced that the Altair upgrade on the Beacon Chain had been successfully deployed. The Ethereum Foundation refers to Altair as a “warm-up upgrade” for the chain and clients.

Altair introduces light client support, minor patches to incentives, and per-validator inactivity leak accounting to the Ethereum network. Altair will be the last major change to the Ethereum blockchain until “the merge” (docking of ETH 1.0 with ETH 2.0) happens in Q1 or Q2 of 2022.

Flipsider:

• The news of the upgrade did not achieve the expected reaction, as ETH fell below $4k on October 27.

The five-day price chart of Ethereum (ETH). Source: Tradingview

• Entering October 28, ETH has gained 4.8%, pushing its prices up to $4,142 at the time of this writing.

Why…