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Also: Former CEO Jack Dorsey is building decentralized Twitter
NO. 2 CRYPTOCALS START A NEW ERA
The most anticipated cryptocurrency update called Merge is complete. On September 15, the Ethereum blockchain completed its transition to near carbon neutrality by merging with a special purpose decentralized ledger called the Beacon Chain, which adopted a share consensus mechanism. Some investors call the event the most important catalyst in cryptocurrency history, as Ethereum supports the most applications, such as decentralized financial protocols and fungible tokens (NFTs), that are part of the emerging Web3 landscape. . -the largest cryptocurrency, currently with a market capitalization of 195 billion dollars, second only to bitcoin, which is almost twice as large. However, buying on rumors, selling on news, ether quickly lost its modest 3% gain after the crash and continued to slide on Thursday. As of Friday afternoon, ETH was down 16.1% for the week.
TO START THE REVOLUTIONARY ETHEREUM
Mergers can go well, but Ethereum's proof-of-work version, ETHPoW, is maintained by a group of miners who validate transactions and create new coins with old parameters. The group, led by well-known ex-miner Chandler Guo, announced plans earlier this week to cut or split the chain within 24 hours of the merger. The branch went live, but the coin, ETHW, plunged 60% after trading began on Thursday evening after users reported that they were unable to access the network with the credentials they provided. According to news platform The Defiant, a report monitored by the ETHPoW group. Furthermore, Guo himself told CoinDesk on Friday that only 10% of miners, especially those with access to cheap electricity, can sustain ether mining in the long term.
The White House has published plans to regulate cryptocurrencies
The White House unveiled a new framework for regulating digital assets, including cryptocurrencies, marking the Biden administration's most significant effort to implement cryptocurrency regulatory policies. The guidelines specifically ask the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) and the Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC) to "continue to attack" investigations into illegal practices. In addition, the Ministry of Finance is conducting independent assessments of "illegal financial risk assessments" on decentralized finance platforms (DeFi) and NFTs, due to be completed in February 2023 and July 2023, respectively. the plan is to explore the creation of a US Central Bank digital currency or digital dollar, an area where China has made significant progress, enabling faster and easier cross-border transactions. Friday's announcement follows a presidential executive order that began in March calling on various federal agencies to examine the risks and opportunities of digital assets and prepare reports based on their findings.
REDDIT'S OHANIAN SHARES $54 MILLION EVENT LAUNCHING Doodles
In the troubled times of generally volatile token (NFT) markets, Doodles, which makes colorful profile pictures, raised $54 million from Seven Seven Six with the backing of Reddit co-founder Alexis Ohanian. Acrew Capital, FTX Ventures and 10T Holdings also participated in the fundraising. Doodles, which started printing pastel NFTs less than a year ago, has created one of the largest collections of profile pictures on the web. According to NFTriceFloor, a portfolio of 10,000 images is worth about $121 million. That's still far from the top NFT series, Bored Ape Yacht Club, at $1.27 billion. Doodles plans to expand the proceeds of the capital flow, which it says will increase its value to $704 million, into music and games, with the NFT sector showing growing interest.
CHAIN BLOCK TOP 50
Walmart WMT: The U.S. Food and Drug Administration is finally taking food safety seriously after hundreds of millions of pounds of food were recalled last year for listeria, salmonella and E. coli infections. In September 2020, manufacturers and retailers announced that they would be responsible for tracking more than a dozen high-risk foods, such as romaine lettuce, soft cheese and fish, at all points in the supply chain for faster identification and disposal. contaminated items. . . Walmart already tracks 1,500 items on its blockchain, three times more than a year ago. Food safety initiatives are more visible to shoppers: Sam's Club's recent pilot program in China allows shoppers to scan QR codes to learn where produce is grown and when it's harvested.
IN ANOTHER PLACE
Ether's New 'Peg' Model May Get SEC Attention [The Wall Street Journal]
US SEC crypto rules raise fees for lenders, halt projects [Reuters]
Terra Kwon founder under more pressure for cryptocurrency [Bloomberg]