Crypto Today: Ethereum continues its path towards the PoS protocol, now with the Istanbul update

Tomas Salles FXStreet

Here's what you need to know on Monday

Markets:

The BTC/USD pair is currently trading at $7,469 (-0.68%), after four days of attempts to overcome the $7,600 resistance level.

The ETH/USD pair is currently trading at $149.25 (-1.11%). Over the weekend, it moved above the $150 resistance level.

XRP/USD is currently trading at $0.229 (-0.45%), showing strength to stay above the critical support level at $0.21.

Among the 100 most important cryptocurrencies, the best of the day are NRG $2.72 (+15.23%), ALGO $0.3238 (+12.77%) and BCN $0.000346 (+12.03%). The day's losers are MIN $2.09 (-21.83%), EKT $0.1209 (-8.43%) and FET $0.0635 (-6.79%).

Chart of the day:

Bitcoin addresses ATH

Source: Coinmetrics.io

Market:

- Istanbul, the Ethereum hard fork upgrade, is already live without impacting the price and stability of the Ethereum network. Updating is part of a more extensive process aimed at migrating to a "Proof of Stake" (PoS) system.

- A study published by Deutsche Bank concludes that electronic coins will replace current fiduciary currencies by 2030. The German bank argues that there will be a generational shift and a strong upswing in inflation after decades of low price growth.

- Only 23504 blocks of the Bitcoin network remain to be mined before the next halving, which is scheduled to occur in mid-May, according to Binance US.

Regulation:

- The US IRS (Internal Revenue Service) will send for its new tax campaign a new form related to the possession and negotiation of cryptocurrencies. The form asks about involvement with products and assets crypto.

- South Korea will apply taxes on cryptocurrencies transactions in the next fiscal year.