The growing influx of optimism and the next wave of newcomers in the crypto economy have made markets around cryptocurrencies heat up. The coming altcoin news show that besides Bitcoin, Ethereum has also smashed the highest price this year. The bullish crypto situation ignited this week, seeing Bitcoin go higher than $11,300 and Ethereum trade at more than $317. On Friday, the BTC price ended the week by bursting through $10,000 which was seen as a major psychological level. It rose by $700 intraday as many best cryptocurrency news sites showed - settling above $10,150 for the evening. Ever since then, BTC has gone on to reach highs of $10,800 and then $11,300. The June 21st spike made bullish crypto all over the news and powered BTC to its best price so far in 2019, putting the "digital gold" up by 60% since this point last year. The cryptocurrency is now 155% over the last three months and 1,593% over the last five years. At any level above $10,000 - Bitcoin is halfway to its December 2017 all-time high of $20,000. The bullish crypto situation has been likely driven by Libra - the cryptocurrency that the social media network and giant Facebook announced earlier this week. A debate has exploded around it in both crypto and mainstream circles. As the latest cryptocurrency news show, Bitcoin has been brought to the fore as the biggest blockchain with the biggest native cryptocurrency. The founder of the exchange Gemini, Tyler Winklevoss, was bullish on crypto and identified a lot of opportunities if Bitcoin goes above $10k. As he said in a tweet: https://twitter.com/tylerwinklevoss/status/1141387824379441152 This is definitely a very optimistic projection even with the bullish crypto situation right now. However, such a rapid movement would not be unexpected. When Bitcoin hit $10,000 in November 2017, it took less than two weeks for FOMO to nudge the cryptocurrency and make it rocket past $15,000. So, there is no telling if the same trajectory will play itself out once more this year for BTC and ETH. However, the bullish crypto phase is here and we may be days away from a new all time high on the markets. The coming altcoin news have shown that despite BTC and ETH, there is a real growth on the altcoin markets and it seems that institutional investors as well as FOMO (fear of missing out) by individuals are driving it.

The price of Ethereum is viral in the coming altcoin news for surpassing the $300 mark today and hitting ten-month highs. The world's second largest cryptocurrency by market capitalization managed to climb above the psychological hurdle at 01:10 UTC, extending its gains. As Ethereum clocks a new all time high at $317, we can confidently say that that is a level that was last seen in August 2018. As we are writing, ETH is changing hands at $304 and rising by 9.7% in the past 24 hours. The yearly gains as Ethereum clocks a new high, are at 129% which is a solid increase as the Bitcoin and altcoin news website CoinMarketCap shows. Right now, Ethereum looks like it more than just doubled this year. Its price is currently set at $317, which is a new high and more than 270% gains on the low that ETH saw at $82 in December last year. The price, however, is still 78% down from the record highs of $1,431 registered in January 2018. Furthermore, the cryptocurrency managed to retrace a 16% of the sell-off from $1,431 to $82. As Ethereum clocks new highs, the latest cryptocurrency news also feature Bitcoin (BTC) and its retracement of more than 40% of the bear market slide, currently trading at a 15 month high of $10,800. As we look forward, it seems like Ethereum highs are coming and are more visible on the horizon. The ongoing rally while Ethereum clocks $318 and the technical charts are all biased bullish. Right now, the 50- and 100-candle price averages on the three day chart produced a bullish crossover for the first time in two years. It is worth noting that the prices had rallied by more than 900% in three months following the confirmation of the bull cross in May 2017. So, if history guides us, we can see that Ethereum is set to challenge the April 2018 low of $364 in the next couple of months. A break higher than this would expose its resistance at $401. Supporting the bullish case are many analysts who thing that the ETH volumes are rising - both in terms of price as well as in terms of them on decentralized applications (Dapps). As Diar reported in April, there were record highs in this number.

Greyscale Ethereum Trust, the ethereum-based token is now available for trading on OTC markets according to an official blog post published on June 20. Let’s read more about it in the latest cryptocurrency news. According to the blog post, ETH is an open-ended trust that holds Ethereum. This listing will open the possibilities for investing in Ethereum without having to hold the cryptocurrency. This means that the First US-based ‘’publicly quoted security solely invested in and deriving value from the price of Etehreum is available.’’ The Director of Grayscale Investments and Research Matt Beck noted on how investing in Ethereum can help investors build a decent and profitable portfolio by saying:

 “Cryptocurrencies — such as Ethereum — offer exposure to a unique set of market opportunities and risks that are uncorrelated to traditional assets. As a result, they can further diversify modern portfolios, enhancing returns per unit of risk (when positions are sized appropriately and maintained over long investment horizons).”

His stance is very close to the one of the CEO of Morgan Creek Capital Mark Yusko after he pointed out back in May that investors should hold bitcoin because of its low correlation and high diversification. Greyscale Ethereum Trust and Grayscale Investments which is a United States-based investment firm behind ETHE, also offers a trust for bitcoin as well as for other cryptocurrencies as explained in the coming altcoin news including bitcoin Cash (BCH), Ripple (XRP), Ethereum Classic (ETC), Litecoin (LTC), Stellar Lumens (XLM), Zcash (ZEC) and Horizen (ZEN). Greyscale got the green light to trade via the OTC markets back in May from the Financial Industry Regulatory Authority (FINRA) but the company noted in its disclaimer that the trusts are not registered with the Major American governmental watchdog the Securities and Exchange Commission:

“The Products are NOT registered with the Securities and Exchange Commission (“SEC”) or any other regulatory agency in any jurisdiction, and are NOT subject to the same regulatory requirements as SEC-registered exchange traded funds or mutual funds [...] The Offered Products are being offered in private placements pursuant to the exemption from registration provided by Rule 506(c) under Regulation D of the Securities Act. As a result, the shares of each Offered Product are restricted and subject to significant limitations on resales and transfers.”

A new iteration of the Ethereum blockchain called 'Phase Zero' has brought up a lot of positive altcoin news in the headlines today. As the news show, the next Ethereum blockchain iteration (which is dubbed Ethereum 2.0) may see a partial launch as early as January 2020. First proposed by the Ethereum Foundation researcher Justin Drake in a bi-weekly coordination call between the Ethereum 2.0 developers, the date which was suggested for the next Ethereum blockchain was raised after affirming that a code freeze over the first iteration of Ethereum 2.0, called Phase Zero, was "on track" for June 30.

“We still have quite a bit of time before the end of 2019 so I think looking at a target genesis date towards end of 2019 could be realistic. One thing that could work well is the 3rd of January 2020,” Drake noted during the call.

Still, the coming altcoin news show that January 3rd 2020 is not a date that is set in stone - in spite of the reports which show the contrary. According to a fellow Ethereum Foundation researcher named Danny Ryan, the proposed date has not been finalized and additional work on testing the Ethereum 2.0 will factor in such a decision.

“Although it is feasible, the client teams are not yet ready to commit to a date, especially considering we haven’t entered into multi-client testnets yet. With each phase of development there are plenty of unknowns so we will just keep … tackling them as they come," Ryan stressed.

The next Ethereum blockchain iteration was observed from many angles. The developers spoke more deeply to the requirements needed for a stable launch. Then, Drake highlighted that researchers are currently targeting a minimum amount of 2 million ETH to be staked on the Ethereum 2.0 network. This, as many best cryptocurrency news sites shared, would mean that the re-vamped ETH blockchain would be launching with over $500 million in ETH locked by prospective Ethereum 2.0 validators who would have the role of miners on the current Ethereum blockchain. Even though the timeline for the next Ethereum blockchain iteration is not yet finalized, past experience suggest that a mainnet launch in January 2020 is within reach for many of the developers and researchers.