In an effort to stimulate the wider adoption of cryptocurrency and blockchain tech, social trading platform eToro is making it significantly cheaper to invest in crypto-assets.

The global company, which already boasts more than 10 million users, has reduced fees for spread trades on its platform by more than half for a number of assets, including Bitcoin. The updated spread trade fees can be found here .

“We’re committed to supporting the mass adoption of crypto. We want to make it as simple and accessible as possible for investors to buy, sell or hold crypto,” said CEO Yoni Assia. “Cutting costs so clients keep more of their gains is one part of this.”

Assia further added the initiative is part of eToro’s continued efforts to raise awareness of the benefits of using cryptocurrency and blockchain. Among other things, the company recently used Bitcoin to sponsor seven Premier League football clubs, including Tottenham Hotspur .

For those curious, eToro currently offers investment opportunities in 12 cryptocurrencies: Bitcoin, Ethereum, Bitcoin Cash, XRP, Litecoin, Ethereum Classic, Dash, Stellar, NEO, EOS , Cardano , and IOTA.

eToro also supports several cryptocurrency-to-fiat trading pairs – as well as some crypto-to-crypto pairs. But considering that eToro is currently working on expanding its operation with a cryptocurrency-only exchange service, you can expect more trading options in the near future.

Despite the high volatility associated with cryptocurrencies, Assia remains positive of the long-term potential of crypto-assets.

“We are also committed to raising awareness among investors of the potential offered by crypto and the blockchain technology that underpins it,” the eToro chief explained. “Yes, crypto is highly volatile and not appropriate for all investors, but we also believe that for many it can have a role to play as part of a diversified long-term portfolio.”

“Crypto is here to stay,” Assia said. “We believe that in the future all assets will be tokenized and that crypto is just the first step on this journey.”

CryptoKitties sudden lack of popularity is a bad omen for blockchain businesses

Everything happens quickly in the cryptocurrency world. Last December, Bitcoin’s value reached an all-time high of about $20,000, around the same time people were spending millions on CryptoKitties. BTC’s value, now, rests at $6,700. And those cats? They’re dying of neglect.

When the blockchain-based game CryptoKitties launched last December there were plenty of people in the cryptocurrency community who hated it. But its overnight success made it apparent that the haters had it wrong. The price of the platform’s cats reached a median high of over $40 at one point, with one of the highest priced cats selling for the cash equivalent of $155,000 in ETH.

Now, just six months after its launch, transactions on the CryptoKitties marketplace are down 98.4 percent .

No matter how you feel about that particular bit of information, it’s important to point out how good CryptoKitties is for everyone who wants blockchain to succeed.

One of the biggest problems with blockchain technology is explaining it to other people. It relies on concepts that aren’t easy to parse and it can be difficult for many to wrap their heads around even the basics. And that means that many of the people who stand to benefit from doing business on the blockchain won’t. It’s generally a bad idea to invest your money in something you don’t understand.

When CryptoKitties came along, it was a godsend. You want to know what blockchain is? It’s a place where anything can be guaranteed to be unique. If you own a digital kitty on the CryptoKitties platform you can rest assured that it’s at least as unique as any real cat. That’s how digital currency works too: if you have 1 ETH it’s as unique as any dollar bill or paper Euro. Trading cartoon cats is demonstrably simpler than reading a white paper. And that’s part of the reason so many people immediately flocked to CryptoKitties.

So why did they leave?

According to cofounder Bryce Bladon the data is deceptive. People are participating in CryptoKitties differently right meow, because they’ve become better cryptocurrency users.

He told Business Insider :

And that makes perfect sense, as cryptocurrency enthusiasts become more educated on the platform the number of frivolous smart contract transactions would decrease. But 98 percent?

Bladon hits the nail on the head as his comments continue:

The reason the number of transactions has plummeted, one might surmise, is partially because it’s become expensive to “play” the game. Creating new avenues of interaction is a good idea, and will almost certainly help with this problem, but fixing a leak doesn’t bail out the ship.

The sheer magnitude of a 98 percent drop in transactions can’t be blamed entirely on scaling issues. The only way a business can sustain that level of change, and still seem viable, is if the remaining two percent of transactions are for monetary amounts equal to or near the amount lost through lack of engagement.

And we’re certain the team behind CryptoKitties knows this. We’re definitely not predicting it’ll go under. We’re not saying you should sell your kitties and close your account, or anything of the sort. It’s quite probable that CryptoKitties will live on as long as it has a dedicated community who cares about their cats.

The bigger point is that we’re in uncharted territory here. We can’t access historical data on blockchain companies over the past few decades because it doesn’t exist. BTC, a coin that represents the most popular blockchain-based technology in use, is reportedly only in 28.5 million wallets , after 10 years. That’s certainly not the mainstream adoption everyone was hoping for.

It’s likely to get harder to convince VCs and other investors to spend millions of dollars on an unproven blockchain business the longer the industry’s overall “dip” continues. People won’t wait two or three years for the data to indicate there’s a better-than-average chance putting their business on the blockchain will payoff.

Last year’s indications that blockchain and cryptocurrency were going to moon until the end of time now seem misleading and smack of the same kind of buildup that led to the dotcom bubble. Like any real business, building in the blockchain space is probably going to take real work in the future — and that could seriously affect the ability for companies to run successful ICOs.

And maybe this bubble never bursts, that’s the problem with bubbles: you can never tell. Perhaps year-over-year, perpetually, hundreds of new blockchain companies can all squeeze into Lambos and create a never-ending convoy to the moon.

If the bubble does burst, however, it could actually end up paving the way towards mainstream adoption. Imagine what would happen if the only people buying in to ICOs were people who knew what they were doing, or if the only blockchain companies getting lucrative investments were those that had a feasible product.

Many companies could be left behind. And the fact that CryptoKitties is struggling should be more than enough indication that it’s time we all rethought our investments. But, like the dotcom bubble, if this one bursts it should result in an environment where the cream can rise to the top. And, hopefully, CryptoKitties will land on its feet too.

Two more universities get into blockchain education with specialized online courses

This week sees two more universities get into the blockchain game by offering courses in cryptocurrency, fintech, and distributed ledger technology.

Earlier this week, Ireland‘s Minister for Business, Enterprise, and Innovation Heather Humphreys launched the country’s first Master’s in blockchain technology. While on the other side of the Atlantic, the Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania introduced a new course on all things fintech .

Ireland‘s new blockchain Master’s was developed in collaboration with Technology Ireland ICT Skillnet, a government funded ICT training organization, and Dublin City University. The course is targeted primarily at IT professionals looking to build their blockchain dev skills.

The “ MSc in Blockchain ” aims to close the skills gap that ICT Skillnet claims is currently preventing adoption of the technology, and to help Ireland become one of the world’s leading developers of blockchain related technology, according to the prospectus .

Although it’s an online course, only residents of the Republic of Ireland can apply, though.

The University of Pennsylvania‘s business school, The Wharton School is – as you might expect – taking a more business-oriented approach. Its new “ Fintech: Foundations and Applications of Financial Technologies ” course has been launched in response to the world’s “rapidly changing business landscape,” an announcement reads .

The course will cover cryptocurrency and blockchain, and other topics including: payments, crowdfunding, and modern investing. Wharton’s course, which will be available through online learning platform Coursera, is aimed at complete beginners and will be open to everyone.

This means that although it’ll be taught by Wharton educators, you won’t receive any university credits. The course takes 16 weeks to complete, and will set you back about $80 (70 euro) a month for a Coursera subscription.

Over the last 12 months, nearly half the world’s top universities have launched new courses designed to educate the next generation of blockchain professionals.

IBM also partnered with the University of Louisville to offer the IBM Skills Academy , which offered courses in a range of developing technologies, including blockchain.

Blockchain courses are nothing new, but it certainly seems to be a growing industry in its own right.