We are one week away from the long-awaited migration of the Ethereum network, moving the consensus mode from proof of work that proof-of-stake. The upcoming ETH merger has been one of the most anticipated events in the crypto community for years. This is certainly a capital development of the project, but also a colossal technical challenge. Many compare what awaits developers to changing an airplane engine mid-flight. The stakes are higher than ever!
Despite a minor recent technical issue, the mid-September migration date remains in place. Yesterday, Péter Szilágyi, an Ethereum software developer, announced on Twitter that they had found a regression that results in a corrupted state. In a later update, the developer pointed out that the issue is likely to affect users of the edition by corrupting their database and leading to data loss. Despite the issues, the developers managed to deliver the fix after just one day. Go Ethereum published a hot fix to fix the mistake. After this fix was released, Szilágyi advised the community to wait until development was complete to make sure they were on the “correct version”. The developer apologized on Twitter for missing the issue during the testing phase and promised to figure out how to do better stress testing before the official migration.
It is interesting to note that the amount of ETH deposits in contracts of staking hit an all-time weekly high… down. We could a priori expect the opposite! What explains this trend?
The most likely hypothesis is that some investors may believe that short-term returns could be higher if they just hold their ETH tokens in the current chain in hopes of receiving ETHW – the supposed cryptocurrency that may emerge from the controversial attempt to resist the merger. through a hard fork Ethereum. The most popular platform staking offers a return of 3.9% for investing Ethers. Many probably believe that the value of the ETHW token will be worth more. Furthermore, it seems obvious that those who wanted to put their Ether into such contracts have already had plenty of time to do so, highlighting the fact that over 11% of the entire Ethereum supply has already been put into circulation. staking. Finally, don’t overlook investors who simply want to wait until the merger to make sure everything goes well. A few weeks away from the latter, it actually makes a lot of sense.
The Beacon Chain – the PoS-based coordination mechanism of the new network – has been running alongside the current Ethereum chain since December 2020, when investors were first invited to deposit their tokens to act as validators. The total amount of ETH deposited in the Beacon chain is currently over 13.3 million, representing 11.18% of the Ethereum supply in circulation.
CME Group seems to want to capitalize on the possible enthusiasm around Ethereum. Indeed, the derivatives exchange is preparing to add ETH options, just before the merger. The launch is scheduled for September 12. Remember that options give the owner the right – but not the obligation – to buy or sell the underlying asset at an agreed price at any time before the contract expires. These Ethereum option contracts would allow investors to bet on the future price of Ethereum with the option to pay out at any time before the contract expires. “As the highly anticipated Ethereum merger approaches next month, we continue to see market participants turn to CME Group to manage Ether price risk.” commented Tim McCourt, head of equity and foreign exchange products. “Our new ether options will provide a wide range of clients with greater flexibility and precision to manage their ether exposure ahead of market-moving events.”
The saga surrounding crypto-lending platform Celsius doesn’t seem to want to slow down, quite the contrary. The company filed a counterclaim in US bankruptcy court on Tuesday against Jason Stone and his company KeyFi. In this complaint, Celsius alleges that Stone misrepresented himself as a pioneer and expert in the field staking and decentralized financial investments. “Unfortunately, Defendants Stone and KeyFi, Stone’s majority-owned corporate vehicle, have proven unable to deploy the tokens profitably and appear to have lost thousands of Celsius tokens due to their gross mismanagement,” Celsius said. “But the defendants were not only incompetent, they were thieves.” Stone, whose KeyFi was acquired by Celsius in 2020, sued Celsius in July for allegedly refusing to honor the contract. In the lawsuit, KeyFi alleges that Celsius used client funds to “manipulate crypto asset markets, failing to implement basic accounting controls that put those same deposits at risk and failing to deliver on its promises.”
The Ontario Securities Commission today issued a warning listing 13 crypto companies that are “not registered to trade or advise on securities in Ontario.” From the lot, we notice the presence of the Kucoin exchange. In a legal victory in June, the OSC successfully banned Kucoin from doing business in Ontario and fined it just over $1.6 million for failing to register as a securities provider before the deadline of April 19, 2021. Recall that Binance also stopped offering its services to Ontario residents late last year.
A Coinbase user is suing the exchange for $5 million for failing to properly secure customer accounts and “violating” federal securities laws, among other allegations. The lawsuit, filed last week and representing more than 100 people, alleges that the largest cryptocurrency exchange in the United States locked out its users’ accounts for long periods of time – causing them financial harm. The plaintiffs allege that the exchange fell during periods of market volatility – which is indeed common in cryptocurrency exchanges – making it difficult for users to withdraw money. In the second quarter of this year, Coinbase saw a 60% drop in revenue and reported a net loss of $1.1 billion.
At the risk of sounding like a broken old record, after a pullback in the stock and crypto markets over the past seven days, investors appear to be awaiting comments from Fed Chairman Jerome Powell scheduled for Friday. With inflation apparently finally peaking, speculators are now awaiting guidance from the central bank’s monetary policy. Is the Fed still concerned enough about inflation, but comfortable with the pace of the current economic slowdown, to maintain its aggressive monetary policy of raising rates by 75 basis points? Or it will show pigeons and announce a more moderate increase of 50 points? Markets still disagree on what comes next.
Technically, bitcoin once again lost its important 200-week moving average as the week closed. However, the bull run was not completely ended by the jump to $20,800. A technical indicator could also give investors a boost for optimism. Indeed, the 50-week moving average will soon cross upwards with the 100-week moving average. As one analyst put it, “Bitcoin’s 1-year moving average is now above its 2-year moving average, in line with a corrective phase after a speculative rally” can relate, adding that “it looks good from a technical point of view …, whatever it is feeling. Those who bought these levels have done well before.”
This article is brought to you by Fonds Rivemont. Rivemont Crypto Fund is the first and only actively managed cryptocurrency fund in Canada. RRSP and TFSA eligible. Accredited investors can learn more here.
Disclaimer: This column does not necessarily reflect the opinion of CryptonewsFR and does not constitute investment advice or trading instructions..
Follow our affiliate links:
- For the purchase of cryptocurrencies in the SEPA zone, Europe and French citizensvisit Coinhouse
- To buy cryptocurrency in Canadavisit Bitbuy
- To generate interest with your bitcoinsgo to the BlockFi website
- To secure or store your cryptocurrenciesget Ledger or Trezor wallets
- To trade your cryptocurrencies anonymouslyinstall the NordVPN app
To invest in cryptocurrency mining or masternode:
To accumulate coins while playing:
- In poker on the CoinPoker gaming platform
- To global fantasy football on the Sorare platform
Stay informed with our free weekly newsletter and on our social networks:
