Okcoin Integrates With Polygon to Reduce Users’ Ethereum Gas Fees

Okcoin Integrates With Polygon to Reduce Users’ Ethereum Gas Fees

The U.S. arm of the cryptocurrency exchange Okcoin has integrated with Ethereum layer 2 scaling project Polygon to allow users to directly access the decentralized finance (DeFi) ecosystem without using an Ethereum wallet.

The function of the integration is to allow users to avoid skyrocketing gas fees on Ethereum, which have gotten so high they are pricing some smaller players out of the burgeoning DeFi space.

Users can now withdraw any of the 13 available trading ERC-20 assets (including ETH, UNI, USDT, LINK, COMP and more) from their Okcoin wallet to Polygon’s sidechain. In doing so, users can save up to 25% on gas fees because they no longer have to bridge their assets from an exchange to an Ethereum wallet to Polygon, incurring two transaction fees for using the token bridge.

“Polygon has gotten tremendous early traction as a scaling solution and has taken the lead in scaling Ethereum,” said Okcoin COO Jason Lau. “Projects and users have both flocked to take advantage of the benefits it offers through much faster and cheaper ERC transactions. It’s seen both assets and transactions increase dramatically since the beginning of the year. Projects like Aave, Sushiswap, Balancer and 1inch also have integrations, so there’s a free flow through the Polygon network.”

Removing friction

Lau said this integration makes it quicker to get assets onto Polygon with one-click withdrawals. Transactions are also cheaper because users can skip their own wallets and move assets directly to Polygon.

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The user experience is also more streamlined, with Okcoin handling the complexities of bridging assets between the base layer and layer 2.

Lau pointed out that high gas fees are driven by Ethereum’s own increasing popularity, and Polygon is the one of the major players helping to scale the network. He said Okcoin’s integration with Polygon will make it easier to access layer 2 DeFi applications, with convenient payment rails such as debit, credit, Apple Pay and ACH.

The next steps involve giving users open access to the Polygon ecosystem for things like yield farming. This would essentially let users farm on Sushiswap, for example, directly via Okcoin, similar to the current Okcoin Earn function. With Earn, Okcoin covers gas fees and users can deposit stablecoin assets into DeFi liquidity protocols to earn annual percentage yield from protocols such as Curve, Yearn.Finance and Compound.

Ethereum: Has the Run to $9000 Started?!

Almost two weeks ago, see here, I showed Ethereum (ETH), was according to the Elliott Wave Principle (EWP) in “[red] wave-v of [black] major wave-c of blue Primary-IV,” which “should ideally target between $1445-1850.” ETH bottomed on May 23rd at $1736. Right smack in the middle of my ideal (black) target zone. See Figure 1 below. It has since rallied and is now trading at $2750s—a 58% rise.

Figure 1. ETH daily EWP count and technical indicators.

Long-term upside potential outweighs short-term downside risk

Last week I showed my Premium Crypto Trading Members ETH should ideally bottom around $2010-2325, and on Sunday, May 30th, it bottomed at $2275. Again, right smack in the middle of my ideal (orange) target zone. See Figure 1 above.

With two out of two forecasts correct, the EWP is once again an accurate and reliable forecasting tool. But then I always become wary as the winning streak always ends at some point. I.e., most analysts -including me- are right about 65-75% of the time.

However, if ETH can rally above the $2920 high made last week, without dropping below Sunday’s low first ($2275) and especially not below $1736, then it has great potential for the ideal impulse wave count as shown in Figure 1, and Blue Primary wave-V should then ideally target $8600-9200.

Primary-v will as shown, subdivide into five smaller (black) major waves. I have annotated where each of those waves should ideally top and bottom. Now we will let the market dictate if it wants to follow this typical Fibonacci-based impulse pattern or potentially go beyond those, i.e., extend. Wave-extensions can never be forecasted, only anticipated.

Bottom line: Two weeks ago, I correctly concluded, based on the EWP, “the downside risk from current levels is still almost 50% ($2700 vs. $1850-1445).” But also mentioned, “upside potential from current levels is now most likely 500+%.” ETH bottomed at $1736 and is up over 50% since. Suppose it can stay above critical downside levels, i.e., the lows made over the last two weeks and breakout above $2920 going forward. In that case, it has the potential to move to ideally $4400-4600 for wave-1 of wave-V, drop to $2800-3400 for wave-2 of wave-V and then rally to as high as $9200 for wave-5 of wave-V. From there, a multi-month correction will start.

Story continues

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This article was originally posted on FX Empire

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Will Ethereum Kill Bitcoin?

A common critique of Bitcoin (CRYPTO:BTC) is that it is outdated technology in the fast-moving world of cryptocurrency and it will eventually be replaced by something better. There are different versions of this theory, with some saying another decentralized cryptocurrency will overtake bitcoin as the best crypto money and others saying bitcoin will eventually be made obsolete by central bank digital currencies (CBDCs).

Let’s focus on the former theory. The Ethereum (CRYPTO:ETH) network’s underlying ETH cryptocurrency has the most support. During the initial coin offering (ICO) bubble of 2017, various crypto market commentators claimed that ETH overtaking BTC as the largest and most popular cryptocurrency is inevitable. Although this didn’t happen back then, the idea of a “flippening” taking place has gained traction once again, as the BTC-denominated price of ETH has nearly tripled so far this year.

The argument for ETH over BTC

The main argument for Ethereum over Bitcoin is that the latter of the two cryptocurrency networks is limited by a lack of technical functionality in the form of smart contracts. Smart contracts enable advanced crypto use cases such as non-fungible tokens (NFTs) and decentralized finance (DeFi). Mark Cuban has pointed to these sorts of use cases as his reasoning for preferring ETH over BTC.

DeFi in particular has been the main source of attention for Ethereum over the past year or so, as various apps have enabled new ways of doing traditional financial activities like issuing assets, trading, borrowing, lending, and more. The argument is that ETH will overtake BTC as the most widely used cryptocurrency due to these additional applications.

The argument for BTC over ETH

A key argument against the idea that DeFi and other types of decentralized applications is that much of the activity on Ethereum today is likely unsustainable. Many of the Ethereum use cases that are popular today, such as stablecoins and the trading of those stablecoins against ETH, involve the reintroduction of third-party risk, which puts into question whether it makes sense to build these applications on a decentralized blockchain.

Bitcoin itself also has various solutions for implementing many of the use cases that have gained popularity on Ethereum. Sovryn is a relatively new DeFi application built on Bitcoin that combines many of Ethereum’s touted use cases into a single interface. It has long been argued that Bitcoin can adopt any new tech that is developed by its competitors, and Sovryn is an illustration of that point happening right in front of our eyes.

If Bitcoin is able to adopt the features of its competitors, then the real competition between cryptocurrencies has more to do with their monetary properties than anything else. And in that department, bitcoin is still by far the most liquid, stable form of crypto money with the most credible, unwavering monetary policy.