[Daily] Ethereum is afraid

Good morning! Welcome to The Daily Moon. Colombian courts have dived straight into the metaverse. The country’s first legal trial was held in the digital universe with virtual avatars of the judges in black robes. Just a few days ago, ChatGPT was used to decide on a disability insurance case in Colombia. Guess there is such a thing as too much technology.

As of Tuesday, 8PM IST

The markets were back in the red. Bitcoin slipped below $23,500 on fears of aggressive rate hikes globally. Ethereum was dragged down by fears of a recession even as its Shapella upgrade was successful. S&P 500 and Nasdaq were down in early trade due to aggressive selling. Back home, Sensex and Nifty fell for the eighth day in a row on rising inflation concerns in Europe.

ETH Gets A Sell Scare

With just weeks to go before the Shanghai upgrade, ETH is on edge. Ethereum fell ~5% in the past week. Now, short-term holders have spooked the second-largest crypto.

What happened?A few ETH addresses have sold their tokens at a loss. Nobody knows why there is a rush to sell, especially since the upgrade may trigger a bull rally. The scepticism among sellers affects the broader ETH market.

1. Dump causes a price slump.

2. Slump may nudge HODLers to sell.

While short term investors are prone to selling, dumps make the network vulnerable. Why? The whale figure is already at 39% of the total ETH supply. In comparison, Bitcoin just has 11% in the hands of whales. Too few people hold too much ETH supply.

Is there a way out?Shanghai is the answer. Ethereum’s Sepolia testnet has been upgraded though the token’s not seen much of an impact, there’s hope that the final update will bring in the bulls. After all, millions of staked Ether can be unstaked then.

Meanwhile, stakers continue to stake. The total staking inflows hit 179,328 ETH on Monday.

Apes Get Bitcoin FOMO

Bitcoin NFTs are a hot property. And now Yuga Labs has entered the fray. The Bored Apes’ maker has launched an NFT collection called TwelveFold on the Bitcoin blockchain.

But why?We told you how Ordinals Inscriptions have helped developers find new use-cases for Bitcoin. The Ordinals’ NFT mints have crossed 200,000 even though the miner fees are slightly down. Yuga didn't want to be left out. With its debut, there’ll be another surge. Similar to Ordinals, TwelveFold will also be inscribed on satoshis. It will be a limited edition of 300 pieces with no cross-chain links to Bored Apes or other Yuga projects on Ethereum.

What’s next?With a big name like Yuga building on Bitcoin, it’s just a matter of time before an influx of dApps on the network. We hope the NFTs don’t look as ugly as the apes.

Everyone Gets An NFT

The NFT market is down not dead. And if Web3-related trademark applications are any indication, it is up and about.

Everyone is getting the feelsWhat is interesting is how trademark applications aren’t limited to the usual suspects. Sure, there are a bunch of automobile and tech firms in the mix, but there are also a few surprises. You have folks such as pet food firm Pedigree, insurance company Nationwide, Irish distillers Jameson, and even the National Geographic Society.

Gearing up for a Japanese metaverseAdd to these NFT related filings, ten companies in Japan are creating a “Japan Metaverse Economic Zone”.

To our mind, there are only two plausible ways to explain this. It is either FOMO. Or Zuck was actually on to something all along. Now if he could only make money off it.

The Crypto Long Con

This could be a sequel to Catch Me if You Can. Because this con is straight out of a Hollywood thriller. This crypto con went from Amsterdam to Rome. More Ocean’s 12 then.

The rip dealThe process of conning people out of their crypto is smart and sophisticated. Scamsters pose as investment agents, they set up face-to-face meetings with potential victims. After explaining the legitimate sounding terms of these deals, they get victims to set up crypto wallets. And as soon as the wallets receive funds, the scamsters drain them. This kind of scheme has a name: rip deal.

So they steal private keys?The fraudsters don’t touch the victims’ devices. And the working theories go everywhere. From hidden cameras in the meeting places to hypnosis. Authorities in Germany, Italy, and Austria are investigating.

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