Ether Has Slid 15% Since the Merge

MicroStrategy bought another 301 BTC for $6 million, now holds 130,000 bitcoin. Bitcoin is on the rebound but the market is still bearish. If bitcoin investors were whales, MicroStrategy is Moby Dick. Follow Moby.

Ether has dropped 15 percent since the Merge, but why? Ethereum miners dumped almost 30,000 ETH prior to the Merge. Did the Merge give institutional investors a new destination? Ethereum POW sees its first smart contracts exploit. I would expect Ethereum miners to dump their ETH. After all, they can’t mine any more. If they’re moving on from Ethereum, selling their ETH would be smart thing to do. Of course, that was a major catalyst of ether losing its value during the Merge. But I wonder if a subsequent sell-off in the rest of the market followed.

United States District Judge Katherine Polk Failla has ordered Tether to produce documents proving its financial backing. This is significant in a number of ways. First, if Tether can’t prove its backings are solid, it could fall under further regulatory scrutiny. If it is determined that weak backing has contributed to damaging the crypto market as alleged, there could be a hefty fine. Finally, if Tether is deemed guilty of wrongdoing, it will undoubtedly lead to stablecoin regulation arriving sooner rather than later, and the damage to Tether in the market could result in USD Coin taking the market lead.

The second episode of Defluenced dropped today. See what Unkle Bonehead and I have to say about criteria for judging cryptosocial media.

Solana outperforms Ethereum in daily transactions. Solana’s carbon emissions are up 26 percent since March.

Ethereum Co-founder Vitalik Buterin says DAOs can be more efficient than centralized decision-making structures in some situations. I totally agree. I’ve said it before and I’ll say it a thousand more times: Every upside has a downside. DAOs are inefficient by design for normal decision-making, but when you have two competing factions that are at loggerheads—such as the U.S.’s perpetual two-party system—decentralization can break a gridlock and lead to more creative solutions to complex problems. Does it take longer? Absolutely. But the one thing that no one should want with complex problems with no easy solutions is fast, efficient centralized decision-making left in the hands of a few.

Mark Cuban calls Ethereum Merge a “non-event” while other crypto influencers fawn over it.

OpenSea is opening its home page to creator NFT airdrops.

What Cardano’s Vasil hard fork is all about. HINT: It’s not the hokey pokey. January Walker, a Congressional candidate in Utah, says Cardano is one of the most efficient blockchains. The hard fork is scheduled for tomorrow, but it’s getting some criticism. Meanwhile, the Cardano Foundation wants to improve Georgia’s wine-making reputation.

What are the implications of cryptocurrencies for consumers, businesses, and investors? This is an analysis of a U.S. Treasury report from Libertarian think tank CATO Institute. Read the Treasury report for yourself.

Can Coinbase help ENS domain name usage grow? What Web3 identity needs, according to Coinbase.

The top 3 DAO tokens by market cap.

Magic Eden CEO says its natural to expand from Solana to Ethereum.

Are Roth IRAs the ideal long-term cryptocurrency investment?

Since Facebook rebranded to Meta, Mark Zuckerberg’s fortune has been cut in half. He’s still in the top 20 richest men in the world, thanks to the millions of Facebook users who mindlessly show up to shout at each other over election outcomes and show off pictures of their last meal.

The Sandbox hosts its first wedding.

Why I’m giving up on Loop: Following the Terra Luna crash earlier this year, Loop Markets decided to move from the Terra blockchain to Juno. They sent instructions to their users for claiming a reset on the Loop tokens lost during the crash. After following their instructions, I couldn’t activate my wallet properly and went into the Loop Telegram to get help. It was no help. Their customer service rep essentially told me I was the problem, instead of actually helping me solve my problem. Now, I’ve got an email from Loop inviting me to “Loopert’s big LOOP airdrop on Juno.” Are they calling themselves “Loopert” now? There is no way I’m participating in that airdrop. For one thing, I’m tired of jumping through hoops for Loop. Last year, they rebranded from Trybe and left the EOS blockchain to join Terra. Supposedly, Terra was going to support them more than EOS did. We see how that turned out. On top of that, every few days some technical issue would prevent me from posting to their community platform, and I’m just flat out tired of dealing with Loop’s attempts to join the next best thing. I can’t for the life of me understand why an airdrop must be delivered through an NFT. Crypto developers boggle my mind.

TribeDAO is dividing into two tribes.

The American Conservative calls central bank digital currency (CBDC) “totalitarian.” Nevertheless, government agencies are rising to the call. What would a U.S. digital dollar really mean? More than half of voters are skeptical of a CBDC. Are you? Let me know in the comments.

Intellectual property rights are not a neat fit for Web3.

Enjin Co-founder says the answer to shadow banning is to use NFTs for tracking users in the metaverse. If NFTs are used for tracking, and I suspect some brilliantly evil marketing guru will come up with a way for them be used that way, they will be more onerous than cookies. I can delete my cookies. The only way I’ll be able to get out of being tracked by an NFT is to sell it, in which case it will begin to track someone else. Can the metaverse exist without a blockchain? Nvidia wants to power the metaverse with Omniverse, now launched in 100 countries.

Crypto app downloads fall by 55 percent.

Colorado accepts tax payments in crypto.

China expands its digital currency trial into four provinces, including Guangdong.

Aussie regulator is getting serious about regulating digital assets.

Hong Kong trials its CBDC.

A Philippine island has facilitated a partnership between crypto wallet Pouch and 120 businesses to grow an ecosystem of bitcoin payments. I like to see initiatives like this. Perhaps the road to mass adoption is one little island at a time.

The Twitter account of the Oman embassy in India was hacked to promote an XRP scam.

Snark and commentary in italics. Inclusion of an item in Cryptocracy does not mean I agree or endorse the ideas presented.

Cryptocracy is a decentralized newsletter published several times a week. I curate the latest news and crypto analysis from some of the brightest minds in crypto, and sometimes offer a little insightful and snarky commentary. Always fresh, always interesting, and always crypto.

First published at Cryptocracy. Not to be construed as financial advice. Do your own research.

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