Good Morning Everyone! It’s Septembear. September has been one of the worst months for crypto & stocks over the years statistically.  

Remember, tough times don’t last but tough investors do. Here is what has been happening since the last update.

ETH Merge is here!

Hell Month. September Madness. Blockchain Rush. Whatever you want to call it. ETH, the network that runs the second-most-valuable digital currency, has finally completed a major software upgrade.

What does it mean for us simple mortals?

Ethereum will use 99.95% less energy.

It’s like when you upgrade your iPhone. It’s more energy efficient & takes less work. You don’t need to sit by a charger all day to keep it alive.

PoW uses energy (in the form of computation) for security.

PoS uses capital (in the form of crypto tokens) for security. Hello Staking!

The former is obviously very energy-intensive, while the latter is extremely energy efficient.

Ethereum will become deflationary

Since ETH will use less energy to run, it will also pay out fewer block rewards to stakers. Estimates say the annual emission in new ETH will drop from 4.3% ->0.4% (10X decrease).

Ethereum with this upgrade will NOT run faster or reduces gas fees.

That job is largely left to Layer 2 chains like Arbitrum, Optimism and Starknet that run on top of Ethereum.

European Central Bank puts its money where its mouth is

The ECB last week joined other countries in raising interest rates by a record margin in the hopes of tamping down the region’s fiery inflation problem. taking Eurozone interest rates from 0% to 0.75% – it marks the largest increase since 1999.

Terra Luna founder Do Kwon in trouble

South Korea has issued an arrest warrant for Do Kwon and 5 others based on evidence of “fraudulent transactions”.

Michael Saylor in Trouble too!

Michael Saylor, the face of MicroStrategy, gets sued for tax fraud.  Let’s be frank here,  Microstrategy is one of the biggest bitcoin holders. It’s estimated Mike avoided paying ~$25m in taxes. He reported he was living in Florida on his tax documents in order to get lower income tax rates

White House Science & Technology is going crazy

The White House Office of Science and Technology has released a report that claims bitcoin mining negatively impacts the environment. It hints at possible executive orders and legislation to limit or eliminate proof-of-work mining. The report claims that bitcoin mining adds stress to the power grid and raises the average electricity cost for consumers.  Some of the report’s cited resources have been criticized for being biased and spreading misinformation.
Think about this report, what you want..

Zucks News

2.93 BILLION Facebook users will soon have access to post NFTs they own. Zucks been testing the feature out over on Instagram and now he’s ready to bring it to FB.

Binance vs. USDC

    Binance will stop supporting stablecoin USDC
     USDC = world’s 2nd largest stablecoin
     BNB (Binance stablecoin) = 3rd largest

Binance would effectively remove the USDC as a tradeable asset on its platform and automatically convert customers’ USDC holdings to its own BUSD on September 29.

Institutional adoption   

Fidelity considering Bitcoin trading on its brokerage platform.

Fidelity, which is also America’s largest 401k saving accounts provider, announced a product that allows workers to save 20% of their retirement funds in Bitcoin. It has also filed an ETF with the SEC that if approved, will allow investors direct exposure to Bitcoin.

Inflation

+8.3% YoY in August. Higher than +8.1% expected. 

  CPI year-over-year in US ·

•  June      9.1%      highest since 1981 (40+ year high) ·   
•  July       8.5% ·    
• August  8.3%      inflation dropped less than expected (8.1% expected)

Whisper number for the September 21 FOMC (federal open market comitee ) meeting is now 75-point hike. This shift from 50 to 75 points is helping drive the U.S. dollar higher and your crypto lower!

Helium

Crypto wireless network Helium may soon be absorbed into Solana,.
In short, the developers think it will improve Helium’s speed, stability, and ability to serve more users. Under the proposal, the Helium network would move all of its tokens—HNT, IOT, MOBILE, and DC (Data Credits)—from its own blockchain to Solana. Helium is a distributed wireless network that offers users crypto tokens as rewards for sharing their home internet service with a wider community. For example, a user can run a Helium node (or hotspot) attached to their modem or router, and then earn crypto tokens by securing the network and allowing nearby devices to share their connection.

That’s all folks , see you next week.