Here’s what happened in crypto today.

Today in crypto, spot Bitcoin exchange-traded funds (ETFs) in the United States have reached a major milestone in net flows Vitalik Buterin is aiming for Ethereum and its layer 2s to reach over 100,000 transactions a second in the next step of its roadmap, and Bitcoin is attempting to break its 217-day downtrend.

Ethereum and L2s to reach over 100K TPS with ‘The Surge’ — Buterin

Ethereum co-founder Vitalik Buterin has outlined key goals for the Ethereum blockchain in the next step of its roadmap, dubbed “The Surge,” including achieving over 100,000 transactions per second (TPS) across Ethereum’s mainnet and layer 2 blockchains as well as increasing interoperability between the layer 2’s. 

“Ethereum should feel like one ecosystem, not 34 different blockchains,” Buterin wrote in a lengthy and technical Oct. 17 blog post.

He also noted the need to scale the Ethereum base chain so it can keep up with the demand from layer 2 blockchains and proposed making specific features and types of computations cheaper.

In one section of his post, Buterin highlighted the need to improve user experience between Ethereum’s layer 2 networks, stressing the need “to make using the L2 ecosystem feel like using a unified Ethereum ecosystem.”

“Our task is to bring the rollup-centric roadmap to completion, and solve these problems, while preserving the robustness and decentralization that makes the Ethereum L1 special,” Buterin wrote. 

Bitcoin eyes $68K, but uptrend may not be smooth, analyst says

Bitcoin’s BTCUSD price briefly traded above $68,000 on Oct. 16, as the world’s largest digital asset attempted to break a 217-day downtrend.

The BTC price reached an intraday peak near $68,300, putting it within 7% of its all-time high of $73,679, according to Cointelegraph and TradingView data. 

According to Hyblock Capital CEO Shubh Varma, Bitcoin’s ascent is expected to be bumpy before all-time highs are reclaimed.