Daily Flash | Ether Back On Bullish Track After US Labor Day, Russian Central Bank To Legalize Crypto, Cardano To Launch NFT Marketplace Wafini

---

Today's Headline - Terror Groups Turn to NFTs to Spread Terror Message and Raise Funds: Wall Street Journal Report

According to this report from WSJ, terror groups such as the Islamic State may have begun using blockchain technology to raise funds and gather forces. This seems to have become especially true after an NFT with pro-terrorism messages was discovered by an individual last month.

The NFT titled "IS-NEWS #01" showcased an image bearing the Islamic State’s emblem with text praising Afghanistan-based Islamic militants for attacking a Taliban position. Intelligence and national security analysts have stated that “it was only a matter of time” before terror groups leveraged the technology for spreading their ideology.

The digital token was reportedly listed on NFT marketplace OpenSea, but the company quickly took the listing down and closed the posters account, citing a “zero-tolerance policy on inciting hate and violence.”

---

Chart of the Day - Bitcoin Long-Term Holder Supple vs. Accumulation Addresses vs. Illiquid Supply

As of this writing,
Bitcoin (BTC) is changing hands at around $20,020, up 0.33% in the past 24 hours,
while Ether (ETH) is trading at $1,647, or up 4.48% during the same period.

Major altcoins are mostly trading in the green,
with the exception of Cosmos (ATOM) which is down by 1.18%,
while Cardano (ADA) is up by 0.34%,
Solana (SOL) +2.67%,
Polkadot (DOT) +1.15%,
and Avalanche (AVAX) +6.85%.


Notable gainers include:
Synapse (SYN) at $1.62 (+27.18%),
Sperax (SPA) at $0.0216 (+28.99%),
Ethereum Classic (ETC) at $40.99 (+25.61%).

Notable losers include:
Phantasma (SOUL) at $0.260 (-12.64%),
Aleph.im (ALPEH) at $0.164 (-9.16%),
Nexo (NEXO) at $0.971 (-7.42%).

On Monday, as US participants were taking a national break from Labor Day, the crypto market remained relatively calm. Bitcoin (BTC) waffled around the $20,000 mark for the ninth straight day, while Ether (ETH) bulls managed to bring the price of ETH above the $1,600 threshold on the day.


The resistance zone, formed between the last price on Monday ($20,290) and a daily resistance level of $20,398, which the bulls will likely attempt to break given enough catalyst, seems further away each time the bulls managed to pull back from the current support zone since each recovery is weaker than the last, and has now been reinforced by the 12-Day EMA ($20,227) situated within the zone.

If the bears succeed in breaking below the support zone, the next stop will likely be formed between a daily support level of $18,975 and the 141.4% Fibonacci extension level ($19,100) measured from Aug. 13 - 19, before diving deeper towards the weekly support level of $18,431.


The bulls will now attempt to push the price of ETH towards the 100-Day EMA ($1,705) which coincides with the height of Aug. 26 before the unexpected slump. The next overhead resistance stands at $1,775 which is also the 50% Fibonacci level measured from Apr. 3 - Jun. 18.

To invalidate this outlook, the bears will have to bring prices below the weekly resistance level of $1,611 which coincides with the 20-Day EMA ($1,609). The next closest support would be the 38.2% Fibonacci level ($1,500) measured from Apr. 3 - Jun. 18.

---

Influencer of the Day - How Preston Van Loon became key to The Merge: The Block Report

To make sure The Merge goes well, developers have carried out The Merge on the Kiln, Ropsten, Sepolia and Goerli testnets and performed shadow forks (where the actual mainnet is forked on only a few nodes to see if it works).

Preston Van Loon, co-founder of Prysmatic Labs, was one of the key developers behind the wildly successful Prysm client which would run the consensus layer of the blockchain, enabling validators to stake their tokens and be awarded the right to process transactions.

Besides Prysm, there are three other main consensus layer clients: Lighthouse, Teku and Nimbus.

Van Loon acknowledged that there isn’t really a back-up plan in case something goes wrong with The Merge, for instance if the clients fall out of sync or if the consensus mechanism can’t agree on who gets to process transactions. In the unlikely situation that it doesn’t work, core developers could issue a rollback to undo it, he said.

But while one challenge would be finding the bug in the code, the bigger challenge would be coordinating all 6,800 node operators to agree on the same course of action. That’s why it’s so important that Van Loon and the other core developers make sure such disagreements have been all been anticipated and reconciled before Ethereum undergoes its final transformation.

---

Buzzes of Yesterday

Highlights:
#Speculators Flock to GMX After Arbitrum Nitro Upgrade In Anticipation of Token Release
#LG Eletronics Launches NFT Platform
#Mining Pool Poolin Suspends Withdrawal
#Russian Central Bank To Legalize Crypto For Cross-Border Payment

DeFi

NFTs & Metaverse

Mining

Business & Finance

Governments & Policies

Crimes

Author: Gate.io Researcher Peter L.
This article represents only the researcher's views and does not constitute any investment advice.
Gate.io reserves all rights to this article. Reposting the article will be permitted provided Gate.io is referenced.
In all other cases, legal action will be taken due to copyright infringement.