[Daily] Bitcoin has had a breakup

Good morning! Welcome to The Daily Moon. NFTs have yet another use case, and this time it is air tickets. A tech company has tied up with an Argentine airline to offer NFT tickets. Flyers can activate these NFT to make changes to their travel itinerary and transfer the ticket to someone else. Going places, literally. 🤯

As of Thursday, 7PM IST

The markets were volatile ahead of the US jobs data release. Bitcoin slipped as traders bid on price dips. Ethereum was under pressure due to profit booking ahead of Shanghai. S&P 500 and Nasdaq saw a sell-off in technology stocks in early trade. Back home, Sensex and Nifty ended higher on a surprise pause in rate hikes by the RBI.  

BTC And ETH Go Solo

Bitcoin and Ethereum may appear to be twinning but they don’t really follow each other anymore. Data suggests that the price momentum for BTC and ETH has moved in opposite directions. 

What do the charts show?The Relative Strength Index, a technical metric that measures price fluctuations, is telling stories. 

1. Bitcoin’s RSI is above 70 which means that it is overbought. It indicates that the crypto may turn bearish.

2. Ethereum is below 70 which means that it has room to grow in the bull market. 

Just a word of caution. Overbought and underbought are not really signs of exit. It simply shows that an asset has reached its peak in the current market conditions. 

Is Shanghai enough?ETH is bullish since its Shanghai upgrade is scheduled for next week. The ~17.8 million staked Ether will get unstaked after the upgrade. Despite the euphoria, there are a few concerns: 

• What if there is a mass dump of tokens? There’s a daily limit of 2,200 Ether withdrawals but even that can create a selloff risk.

• What about scalability? Average transaction fee on ETH is ~$5, which makes it unaffordable for many developers. 

• What about derivatives? ETH contracts are trading at a discount, which means that the market isn’t too optimistic. 

Hopefully we’ll have the answers when this Surge phase of upgrades conclude in 2023. 

AI Is In Trouble 

It is a bad time for AI. The UK government has nudged regulators to come with AI rules. Italy has banned ChatGPT. An Australian mayor has threatened to sue ChatGPT creator OpenAI. And Canada has started a probe into ChatGPT. 

AI magic isn’t workingWe had our share of fun with ChatGPT. The AI chatbot wrote essays, gave quick answers to complex Maths problems, and was even ready to play agony aunt. Then came privacy concerns and fake news. 

Brian Hood, the mayor of an Australian town was incorrectly classified as a bribery scandal accused by ChatGPT. Someone has filed a complaint about data misuse in Canada. In response, the country’s privacy watchdog will look into whether ChatGPT collected personal information without necessary disclosures. 

Will it pause?It’s too late to step back. Google and Microsoft are in stiff competition, and Amazon will make a hard push through Alexa and its AWS AI Accelerator. Perhaps, there need to be guardrails like we have for crypto. A DAO to decentralise data collection and storage can be a good alternative. 

The Swiss Crypto Advantage

The US crypto banking crisis has meant fewer options for crypto firms’ banking needs. And guess who has come as a saviour for them? Switzerland. 

Clear regulationsThe Swiss have got the basic tenets right. Switzerland considers crypto as assets. No dilly dallying here over whether they are a security or an asset. That naturally makes it easier for crypto businesses to thrive there. And get banking support. Win-win. A recent example is this large Swiss bank partnering with a digital assets bank. 

A sweet dealIt’s true that the country has had banking troubles of its own recently with Credit Suisse. But it is also emerging as a crypto banking favourite. You could think of it as the Lindt chocolate making nation’s gift to the crypto ecosystem.

Stamps: The New Bitcoin NFTs

Bitcoin Ordinals have been making waves. And we were barely coming to terms with them, when we learnt about Stamps. 

Like the postal things?Not really. Stamps is Secure Tradeable Art Maintained Securely. And they’re the new NFTs flooding Bitcoin. The technology is different from Ordinals, and claims to be able to preserve art forever. But they’re expensive. So currently, it’s just good for small resolution pictures or GIFs. 

Early signsThe Stamps website shows over 8,300 Stamps minted since their launch a month ago. This compares with under 500 Ordinals in the same time period after their launch. Ordinals have taken off and had a lot of air time. Will Stamps catch up? Watch this space.

And that’s it for today. If this email was forwarded to you, please consider subscribing. It’s free. We’ll never show you an ad or charge you for this. We swear.

To sweeten the deal, here's an offer you cannot refuse! You can refer this newsletter to your friends, family and any amazing community. The top referrer every month wins a guidebook to upcoming potential airdrops and exclusive premier content! Click below to share your unique referral link!

Who are we? This newsletter’s ambition is to educate (and to entertain). The world of money is changing everyday and we want to help you decode what’s happening in the world of crypto, public markets in the US and India.