The Ethereum network activated the Bellatrix upgrade, Binance is converting some stablecoins into BUSD, Ethereum Classic’s hash rate reached a new high ahead of The Merge, and other events from the week just past.
Bitcoin price fell below $19,000, then recovered to $21,000
During the night of September 7, Bitcoin’s price fell to $18,500 for the first time since mid-July. Ethereum traded briefly below $1,500.
By the next day, leading cryptocurrencies rebounded to their previous levels. On September 9, Bitcoin rose above $21,000, and Ethereum — $1,700.
At the time of writing, the digital gold was trading around $21,700.
In an interview with Cointelegraph predicted a drop in Bitcoin from current levels to $10,000–$11,000. In 2018, he rose to fame for correctly forecasting the end of the bear market.
All top-10 assets by market capitalisation closed the week in the green. The best performers were Solana (+15.4%) and Ethereum (+13.9%).
Chainalysis warned of potential price divergence between Ethereum and Bitcoin after The Merge. Analysts contend that staking will render the second-largest cryptocurrency similar to bonds or exchange-traded products and, accordingly, could attract institutional capital.
Aggregate market capitalisation stood at $1.1 trillion. Bitcoin’s dominance index rose to 37.4%.
Developers activated Bellatrix update
On September 6 the Ethereum team activated the Bellatrix upgrade, in line with the previously announced plan. The upgrade marks the final step before migrating the mainnet to a Proof-of-Stake (PoS). The completion of The Merge is tentatively planned for September 15. Earlier, indicated 73% of Ethereum nodes were ready to transition to PoS. As a result, there was a spike in missed blocks.
Meanwhile, DeFi lending protocols voted to restrict or halt Ethereum borrowing, as they are used to obtain potential fork-tokens.
The situation is fraught with other problems — elevated borrowing costs hinder liquidations. This raises the risk of protocol insolvency and makes recursive stETH/ETH positions unprofitable, intensifying price decoupling. The largest Curve pool also saw the stETH/ETH rate fall again to $0.95.
Leading DEX Uniswap announced that its protocols will not support any Ethereum forks on the Proof-of-Work after The Merge.
Binance converts USDC, USDP and TUSD on balances to BUSD
Starting September 29, the cryptocurrency exchange Binance will automatically convert stablecoins USDC, USDP and TUSD on user balances into BUSD at 1:1. The aim is to boost liquidity and capital efficiency for clients.
The changes will affect almost all platform functions and services — staking, spot, futures, Binance Pay, lending, etc.
The founder of market-maker Wintermute Evgeny Gaevoy saw a risk of reduced USDT market share and a positive for the segment. According to him, such a measure would lead to liquidity concentration in a single “stable coin”, rather than across several. The CEO of Circle, the co-emitter of USDC, Jeremy Allaire, agreed with the position.
Ethereum Classic hash rate hits all-time high
With The Merge approaching, Ethereum Classic (ETC) reached a record high of 46 TH/s. By comparison, Ethereum (ETH) hashrate stands at about 910 TH/s — roughly 19 times higher.
Mining revenue per hash (hashprice) for Ethereum is also higher — by about 95%. The forthcoming Merge is nevertheless positive for ETC as well — the token posted the strongest weekly gain among the top-20 assets (around 20%).
This week Ethereum Classic also drew criticism from Cardano founder Charles Hoskinson. He called the blockchain a ‘dead project’.
Bear market did not deter hackers
On September 5, intruders hacked PwC Venezuela’s Twitter account to promote a fake XRP airdrop in the name of Ripple CEO Brad Garlinghouse. Eight hours after the incident, administrators regained access to the page and removed the phishing links.
On September 7, the day of the iPhone 14 launch, unknown attackers launched a broadcast of an old interview with Apple CEO Tim Cook in an attempt to steal crypto by presenting it as a giveaway. They also added Bitcoin and Ethereum logos and the caption “Urgent News.” At one point the viewership reached around 70,000, though the number of real victims is not disclosed.
On the same day, DeFi platform Nereus Finance on Avalanche came under arbitrage attack with a 51 million USDC flash loan. The hacker earned about 370,000 USDC, according to CertiK.
On September 8, hackers compromised The Sandbox’s Instagram account and placed a phishing link in its description. No figures on victims or stolen assets were disclosed.
Meanwhile, law enforcement, with the assistance of Chainalysis, arrested the Bitcoin stolen during March’s Ronin hack worth more than $30 million.
What to discuss with friends?
- Fake ‘Bitcoin farm’ on Twitter raised $100,000 in a couple of hours.
- Binance CEO agreed with Elon Musk’s claim of “90% bots” in Twitter comments.
- Another solo miner mined a Bitcoin block.
- The crypto market flooded with meme tokens devoted to Queen Elizabeth II.
Another 5,000 BTC moved from Mt.Gox. Ties to Jed McCaleb
On September 4, an unknown moved another 5,000 BTC that had been deposited on Kraken. The coins were purchased by the user in 2013 at around $660 per BTC.
The Bitcoins were moved via internal transfers to Mt.Gox–linked wallets. Several facts suggest they likely belong to Mt.Gox founder Jed McCaleb; the platform’s new owner Mark Karpeles indirectly confirmed ownership.
Bitcoin mining pool Poolin admits liquidity problems
The Poolin mining pool faced liquidity shortages, but users’ funds remain safe. Since August, users have reported withdrawal issues from wallets on the platform. Support said this is due to risk management; custody and mining services operate independently of one another.
Arthur Hayes forecasts Ethereum to rise to $3,000 after The Merge
Former BitMEX CEO Arthur Hayes predicted a surge in Ethereum to around $3,000 after the mainnet shifts to PoS.
In his view, reducing ETH supply would be a powerful price catalyst. Hayes also cited DeFi development as another driver of demand for Ethereum.
Also on ForkLog:
- MicroStrategy will sell up to $500 million of stock. Proceeds could be invested in Bitcoin.
- Another solo miner mined a Bitcoin block.
- Terra Luna Classic rose by 400% after activation of the burn mechanism.
- Fake ‘Bitcoin farm’ on Twitter raised $100,000 in a couple of hours.
What else to read?
Bitcoin’s dominance fell below 40% — back to levels seen at the start of 2022 and 2018; Maker holders fret over DAI collateral risk; miners’ and Ethereum’s earnings rose by 12% and 22% respectively. We review August’s key events in the monthly report.
Educational cards explain what mining, the RSI indicator, the Stellar blockchain, sidechains, and soulbound tokens are.
In traditional digests we summarise the week’s main events in cybersecurity and artificial intelligence.
The DeFi sector continues to attract heightened attention from crypto investors. ForkLog has gathered the key events and news of recent weeks in the digest.
Read ForkLog’s bitcoin news in our Telegram — cryptocurrency news, prices and analysis.