[Daily] Dollar’s feeling low

Good morning! Welcome to The Daily Moon. Remember the weird auctions for Yuga Labs’ TwelveFold NFTs? Turns out, there were crazy bids aplenty. The highest bidder paid ~7 BTC ($161,000) for one of the 288 Bitcoin NFTs. Thanks to them, Yuga Labs raked in a neat $16.5 million in just 24 hours.

As of Tuesday, 8PM IST

The markets were choppy ahead of the Fed chair's comments on the US economy. Bitcoin's Silvergate-linked losses continued. Ethereum was battling investor exits. S&P 500 and Nasdaq faced selloff pressure in early trade. Back home, Sensex and Nifty were closed for Holi.

Is ETH Ready For Shanghai?

Ethereum has just a few weeks left for the Shanghai upgrade. The network was volatile amidst confusion over the upgrade timelines. Some have exited due to fear of losses, but retail investors HODL.

What’s the status?The Shanghai hard fork has been pushed from mid-March to the first week of April. ETH fell soon after this announcement because un-staking will take a little longer.

Why are traders jittery?Traders are unsure about ETH’s prices. So instead of HODLing, they’ve sold. But it’s not a recent phenomenon. Data showed that traders with profits of $40,000 and above sold at least 50% of their ETH since May 2022. These traders have hit pause in anticipation of future fluctuations.

Retail is aliveRetail investors have kept their HODL promise. That’s the reason why non-zero addresses on Ethereum hit an all-time high of 95.04 million. There’s excitement ahead of Shanghai among these HODLers because they’ll get to unstake their locked Ether.

NFTs are bearishNFT trades on ETH have slowed down since mid-February. From a high of $2.34 million, volumes have slipped to ~$730,000 levels. It’s bad news for the blockchain because NFTs generate gas fees and improve the network’s value.

It’s a precarious situation right now. We are hoping that Shanghai is the magic pill that the market awaits.

Dollar’s Not So Powerful

A hyperactive regulator and an unpredictable economy. These twin factors have reduced the US Dollar’s dominance in crypto. It has also become tougher to access the greenback to buy digital assets, so investors have shifted elsewhere.

Who’s winning?A report said that the dollar-denominated Bitcoin’s market share has dropped. Meanwhile, Euro Tether and USD-denominated Bitcoin have gotten popular. Banks have cut-off crypto firms in the US, so these entities have started to look for other fiat currency alternatives.

Dollar-led crypto trading pairs were down to 326 in 2022 from 400 in 2021 on exchanges. Euro-trading pairs rose to 165 from 96 during the same period.

But why?There was always a mutual dislike between crypto (including DeFi) and TradFi. The suspension of crypto payments by Silvergate Bank means that the options are limited. Stablecoins can plug the gaps for now, but we’ll still need a regulated bank to facilitate payments. Is Europe the answer?

Tornado Cash: Regulator Friendly Edition

Remember Tornado Cash? The crypto mixer tool that found itself on the list of sanctioned electronic services in the US? Well, it is back. And this time around, it is working on a version that addresses the issue that got it banned.

Isolating illicit fundsThe main issue regulators had with Tornado Cash was money laundering. Specifically through North Korea-based Lazarus Group. Earlier this week, Tornado Cash creator posted the code of this new crypto mixer, which he’s calling Privacy Pools, on Github.

It’s early stage and experimental as of now. But depositors and withdrawers can opt out of anonymity sets that have addresses related to stolen or laundered funds.

How will it work?A former Tornado Cash developer has explained this here:

This demo video shows how illicit funds will be isolated without revealing full transaction histories. Tornado Cash was one of the best Ethereum privacy tools before the ban. And if this sequel works, it will be a welcome thing in the community.

Amazon’s Way To Crypto’s Heart: NFTs

Well, it was a matter of time. With all large tech companies going big on crypto and the metaverse, Amazon was perhaps the only one left with no real skin in the game.

What’s up?It is launching a “digital assets enterprise”. As early as this spring. April 24 to be exact. It is expected to be an NFT marketplace that will be integrated into Amazon’s e-commerce app.

Inching towards cryptoAmazon has dabbled in crypto through different routes, but never directly or in a big way. There was this experiment with Bitcoin through its cloud service Amazon Web Services. AWS has also been powering Ethereum workloads. And then there was this January partnership with Ava Labs, to make it easier for developers to use blockchain tech. This seems to be more than that, and a major development once it launches. 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.

Also, 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.