Daily News | Litecoin Officially Halved, 6 Companies Including Grayscale Applied for Ethereum Futures ETFs, Kenya Suspended Operation of Worldcoin, Fitch Downgraded the US Credit Rating

2023-08-03, 04:07

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## Crypto Daily Digest: After the halving of Litecoin, the market was silent, and six companies such as Grayscale applied for Ethereum futures ETF
On August 2, <a href="/price/litecoin-ltc" target="_blank" class="blog_inner_link">Litecoin</a> halved the block reward for the third time at the block height of 2,520,000, from 12.5 LTC to 6.25 LTC.

This halving is the third halving of Litecoin since its launch in 2011. The first halving took place in 2015, and the second halving took place in 2019.

In 2019, when the last halving of Litecoin, the price of Litecoin was around $90. In 2023, when Litecoin halved, the coin price was still around $90.

The silent halving, the silent market, and the market sentiment that even halving in a bear market cannot push have to wait until market confidence recovers, and the upward trend may have a response.

Eric Balchunas, senior ETF analyst of Bloomberg, tweeted that at present, six companies are applying for <a href="/price/ethereum-eth" target="_blank" class="blog_inner_link">Ethereum</a> futures ETF. In addition to submitting Volatility Shares on July 28 local time, Bitwise, Roundhill, VanEck, Proshares, and Grayscale submitted an application for Ethereum Futures ETF on August 1 local time. The time limit for the SEC to decide on the application of Volatility Shares is October 11, and the time limit for making decisions on the application of the other five Ethereum futures ETFs is October 16.

The Ethereum Futures ETFs being applied by six companies are Ether Strategy ETF, Bitwise Ethereum Strategy ETF, Roundhill Ethereum Strategy ETF, Ethereum Strategy ETF, Proshares Short Ethereum Strategy ETF, and Grayscale Ethereum Futures ETF (ETHG).

According to CoinDesk, the Kenyan Ministry of the Interior released a statement on its Facebook page on Wednesday stating that it has suspended the operation of Worldcoin. The statement signed by Minister Kithure Kindiki stated: "The government is concerned about the ongoing activities of an organization that claims to be 'WORLD COIN,' which collects eye/iris data for citizen registration." The relevant financial, security, and data protection services have begun an investigation, To determine the legality and data protection of the project.

Game retailer GameStop has stated that it will stop supporting its crypto wallets due to "regulatory uncertainty." According to the company's website, GameStop will remove its iOS and Chrome Extension wallets from the market on November 1, which allows users to manage their cryptocurrency and NFT. The move marks that GameStop is abandoning its cryptocurrency strategy.

The company said it would no longer focus on cryptocurrency after its net loss of $94.7 million in the third quarter of last year and layoffs in the digital assets department. GameStop launched the NFT market a year ago, allowing game players, creators, collectors, and other community members to purchase, sell, and trade NFTs.

According to the NFT sales data tracked by CryptoSlam on 21 blockchains, the total NFT sales in July were approximately $492 million. Among these sales, the sales of NFT on the Ethereum chain accounted for 55%, about $270 million. The second largest blockchain in NFT sales is <a href="/price/bitcoin-btc" target="_blank" class="blog_inner_link">Bitcoin</a> Chain, with a total of $64.92 million; Next are <a href="/price/solana-sol" target="_blank" class="blog_inner_link">Solana</a> ($37.61 million), <a href="/price/bnb-bnb" target="_blank" class="blog_inner_link">BNB</a> ($24.58 million), and <a href="/price/polygon-matic" target="_blank" class="blog_inner_link">Polygon</a> ($23.43 million).

According to Defillama data, the Base network TVL has now dropped to $6.96 million, a decrease of 83% from the peak of $41.2 million on July 31, possibly due to the withdrawal of liquidity by the meme token BALD project team and the LeetSwap hacking incident.

## Today’s Main Token Trends
### BTC
![](https://gimg2.gateimg.com/image/article/1691045357BTC.png)
After briefly touching the $30,000 mark yesterday, it dropped to the $29,000 level. The short-term strategy continues to focus on its upward trendline. Risky bullish entry strategy: $28,550; risky bearish entry strategy: $27,950 with continuous observation until the $26,500 level.

### ETH
![](https://gimg2.gateimg.com/image/article/1691045375ETH.png)
For aggressive short-term recommendations, observe whether it stabilizes above the upward trend. If it holds steady and continues to rise, it can be viewed as a signal to enter a long position. For conservative short-term strategies, it is still waiting for a breakthrough of $2,037 with a continuous upward target of $2,358. Note that the current trend is still bearish.

### CRV
![](https://gimg2.gateimg.com/image/article/1691045394CRV.png)
Curve founder Michael Egorov has engaged in over-the-counter transactions with varying values (totaling $14.5 million) for CRV, with an OTC average price of approximately $0.4 per USD. Short-term CRV shows a rare "ascending shoulder bottom" bullish structure, with upward targets at $0.608, $0.639, and $0.68 per USD.
 
## Macro: Fitch Ratings downgrades US credit rating, potentially impacting global financial markets
Fitch, one of the world's three largest credit rating companies, announced a downgrade of the US credit rating, becoming the biggest news in the global capital markets and financial markets in the past two days.

Fitch explained that the main reason for their downgrade of the US credit rating is due to the increasingly heavy debt burden and political dysfunction of the US. They downgraded the credit rating of the United States by one notch from its previous AAA rating to AA+.

The credit rating downgrade has a huge impact on the global capital market because the US treasury bonds play an important role in the global market. It is considered a safe haven security with almost no risk of return and is the most trustworthy security in the world.

The US government borrows money to raise many cheap and sustainable debt funds by issuing a treasury bond. However, after the credit rating is lowered, the cost of US treasury bond bonds will increase, and the cost of US government borrowing will also increase, weakening its refinancing ability and have a huge impact on the global financial market.

Among the three major rating agencies worldwide, S&P's downgraded the US government rating by one notch from its highest level as early as 2011. And another rating company, Moody's, continues to give the United States the highest rating.

The Biden administration's response to this incident emphasized two points. Firstly, they believe that Fitch's rating decision is arbitrary, as it is based on outdated data and seems to underestimate the risks of political struggle and the improved ability of the US government to take care of itself. Secondly, the Biden administration stated that before making this decision, Fitch had several communications with the US government, but believed that Fitch still adhered to its decision.

Regarding the views of investors and economists, some believe that a rating downgrade will gradually reduce the confidence of global financial markets in the US government's credit. Although the stock market may be somewhat affected, the impact will not be as significant as in 2011, as the Federal Reserve has already implemented interest rate hikes and has the space to lower them.

However, due to the significant increase in stock market valuations, especially in the technology sector, some people are concerned that a downgrade may have a greater impact on the overvalued technology sector.

Overall, the market's impact on Fitch's downgrade of the US credit rating will further ferment and require calm observation.

<div class="blog-details-info">
<div>Author:**Byron B.**, Gate.io Researcher
<div>Translator:Joy Z.
<div class="info-tips">\*This article represents only the views of the researcher and does not constitute any investment suggestions.
<div>\*Gate.io reserves all rights to this article. Reposting of the article will be permitted provided Gate.io is referenced. In all cases, legal action will be taken due to copyright infringement.
</div>