Daily Flash | The Success Of The Merge Failed To Catalyze Bullishness, ETHPoW Token Down 70%, SEC Eyeing Ethereum Scrutiny

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Chart of the Day - Strong Performance for Proof of Work Coins

As of this writing,
Bitcoin (BTC) is changing hands at around $19,782, down 1.27% in the past 24 hours,
while Ether (ETH) is trading at $1,476 or down 7.78% during the same period.

Major Layer-1 Tokens are showing a mix of gains and losses,
with Cosmos (ATOM) up by 13.4%,
while Cardano (ADA) is down by 0.07%,
Solana (SOL )-0.38%,
Polkadot (DOT) -1.58%,
and Avalanche (AVAX) -1.86%.


Notable gainers include:
Santos FC Fan Token (SANTOS) at $13.32 (33.49%),
Lazio Fan Token (LAZIO) at $6.61 (21.96%),
Rari Governance Token (RGT) at $3.49 (16.16%).

Notable losers include:
Mainframe (MFT) at $0.00587 (-21.35%),
XMON (XMON) at $17,499.30 (-18.54%),
Aergo (AERGO) at $0.152 (-18.69%).

On Thursday, at approximately 06:43 UTC, Ethereum successfully transitioned from a proof-of-work consensus mechanism to proof-of-stake, intended to reduce both energy consumption and the supply of the native ether token.

Although the upgrade went without a hitch, both BTC and ETH declined in price on Thursday, as did the prices across traditional financial markets, signaling the hype for The Merge was not enough to bolster the confidence of cryptocurrency investors.

The Dow Jones Industrial Average (DJIA), S&P 500 (SPX), and tech-heavy Nasdaq composite index (IXIC) were mostly flat, down 0.6%, 1.1%, and 1.4%, respectively.


Notably, BTC found a bottom at the lower level of the support zone formed between the daily candle of Sep. 1, which is reinforced by a monthly level of $19,858 and the 23.6% Fibonacci level ($20,000) measured from Aug. 15 - Sept. 6.

The bulls will attempt to keep prices from falling below the support zone, while the bears will attempt to break the barrier and drag prices toward the next support zone formed between a daily level of $18,975 and a weekly level of $18,431.

If the bulls manage to bring BTC back above the monthly level of $19,858 within the current support zone, then it is likely a retest of the 12-Day EMA will occur in the coming days.


Notably, ETH closed on the day below a support zone formed between the last price ($1,630) on a daily candle of Sept. 7 and the 38.2% Fibonacci level ($1,505) measured from Apr. 3 - Jun. 18, but above the 141.4% Fibonacci extension level ($1,467) measured from Sept. 11 - 13.

The bears will likely use the current downtrend as an advantage and attempt to bring ETH towards the next support zone formed between a monthly level of $1,428 and the 127.2% Fibonacci extension level ($1,385) measured from Aug. 14 - Aug. 20.

The bulls, on the other hand, won’t go down so easily as they will attempt to make a comeback if the price of ETH does touch the monthly support level of $1,428, but the 38.2% Fibonacci level will indeed act as a strong resistance.

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Headline of the Day - Ethereum Staking Centralization Concerns Arise, Majority Controlled by Top Pools: BeInCrypto Report

With Ethereum successfully transitioning from PoW to PoS consensus mechanism, more than 70% of ETH that was staked is found to be controlled by six pools, according to data presented by Nansen.

Notably, 31% of the entire amount of ETH staked is through the decentralized liquid staking pool, Lido while Unlabelled controls 23%. About 30% of the ETH is staked by Coinbase, Kraken, and Binance. Staked.us holds another 3%.

Nansen remarked,

“Looking at the overall picture, however, most of the staked ETH (71%) is not in profit at current prices. Stake withdrawals and exiting as a validator would currently take around 300 days with over 13m ETH staked. The approximately 1m locked ETH at this price level could be dripped into the market if they are withdrawn via the unlock queue. However, it should be noted that among these early stakers are strong Ethereum believers and may not necessarily wish to sell their stake.”

Looking at the stake purchases, the report also found that more than 70% of ETH that was staked was acquired for a price higher than its current market value. Therefore, it isn’t likely that stakers will rush to sell their ETH after the Shanghai rollout.

The Shanghai upgrade, which is scheduled for six to 12 months after The Merge, is a crucial next step after the PoS switchover as it unlocks the staked ETH. Staked ETH (current accruing rewards) and newly created ETH right after The Merge will all remain locked on the Beacon Chain and not be withdrawable until the Shanghai upgrade goes live.

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Today’s Topic - US Treasury Blacklists Several Bitcoin Addresses Tied to Iran Ransomware Attacks: Decrypt Report

According to an announcement from the US Treasury, the Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC) has imposed sanctions on 10 individuals and two businesses connected to a ransomware ring linked to Iran's Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) and blacklisted their Bitcoin wallet addresses. The ransomware group reportedly targeted a municipality in New Jersey and a children's hospital in 2021.

The announcement read,

"This IRGC-affiliated group is known to exploit software vulnerabilities in order to carry out their ransomware activities, as well as engage in unauthorised computer access, data exfiltration, and other malicious cyber activities,"

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Influencer of the Day - Ethereum Successfully Executes Highly-Anticipated Merge Event

At long last, Ethereum’s highly anticipated ‘Merge’ event was successfully executed yesterday at 06:42:42 UTC at block 15537393. The event saw the network shift into the proof-of-stake consensus mechanism with the Ethereum mainnet execution layer merging with the Beacon Chain’s consensus layer at the Terminal Total Difficulty of 58750000000000000000000. The merge will result in the network’s energy consumption declining by an estimated 99%.

Ethereum co-founder Vitalik Buterin stated,

“This is the first step in Ethereum’s big journey toward being a very mature system. And there’s steps left to go. We still have to scale, we have to fix privacy. To me, the Merge symbolises the difference between an early stage Ethereum and the Ethereum we’ve always wanted.”

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Buzzes of Yesterday

Highlights:
#Last Ethereum Block Minted As NFT
#ETHW Tanks 70% After The Merge
#ETC Hash Rate Soars 280%
#El Salvador Credit Rating Downgraded to CC
#SEC Wants To Scrutinize Ethereum
#CFTC Prepares To Regulate Crypto Market
#Do Kwon Passport Revoked

DeFi

Cosmos’ ATOM Up While Rest of Crypto Market Is Down, TVL Surges

NFTs & Metaverse

Last Ethereum Block Before Merge Minted $47K NFT

Esports teams to get playable NFT characters in Immutable's Guild of Guardians

Fortnite Creator's Epic Games Store Launches First NFT Game

Mining

ETHPoW (ETHW) Token Plummets After The Merge: From $69.21 to $15.73

Ex-ETH Miner Hive Blockchain Eyes Buying Opportunities Post-Merge

Ethereum Classic’s hash rate soars 280% in a single day

Business & Finance

Fitch downgrades El Salvador's rating to 'CC'

Hashdex’s bitcoin futures ETF approval signals a possible opening for a spot ETF

Shopify Competitor BigCommerce inks crypto payments deals with BitPay, CoinPayments

Governments & Policies

SEC Chair Gary Gensler hinted Ethereum could face scrutiny after The Merge, Citing staking services look “very similar” to lending

OpenNode receives approval to test Bitcoin payments in Bahrain

CFTC Chair Rostin Behnam told US Senators that the Agency is Preparing to Oversee Crypto

Crime & Order

U.S. Treasury sanctions neo-Nazi Russian wallet addresses

South Korean authorities seek to invalidate Do Kwon's passport

Author: Gate.io Researcher Peter L.
This article represents only the researcher's views and does not constitute any investment advice.
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