Possibly behind the equity rally in July and the first half of August was the hope that inflation has peaked and the Federal Reserve would resort to rate cuts next year. That dovish Fed narrative, however, fizzled out in the second half last month, bringing renewed weakness in stocks and cryptocurrencies, with ether tumbling more than 20% from a peak hit on Aug. 14. Source EtherliftMergeOptimism CryptoX Portal
Traders are increasingly deploying two strategies that utilize futures ahead of the Ethereum Merge, leading to a surge in ether futures volumes. Original
The tighter the labor market, the stickier inflation and the more pro-tightening, or hawkish, the Fed will be. Risk assets, including cryptocurrencies, are addicted to cheap liquidity and have taken a beating this year, mainly because of the Fed’s interest-rate-hike cycle. This year, the central bank has raised rates by 225 basis points. (A basis point is one-hundredth of a percentage point.) Original
The value for ETHPOW tokens suggested by futures basis is significantly lower than the price at which IOUs representing the token are currently trading on exchanges MEXC, CoinW, Phemex, Bitrue, and Gate.io. At press time, the ETHPOW IOUs traded at $50, according to CoinMarketCap data. Prices reached as high as $140 early last month, indicating frenzy around the potential hard fork token. Source EtherEthereumETHPOWForkFuturesHardPotentialSuggestTokenTrade CryptoX Portal
The latest price moves in bitcoin (BTC) and crypto markets in context for August 31, 2022. First Mover is CoinDesk’s daily newsletter that contextualizes the latest actions in the crypto markets. Source
According to Coinglass data, liquidations on bitcoin futures hovered at $54 million over the same period, with other major cryptocurrencies, such as solana and avalanche, seeing just over $3 million. Bitcoin futures usually have the highest liquidations in the futures markets owing to their popularity and liquidity. Source
Ahead of the rapidly approaching Ethereum (ETH) Merge on Sept. 15, Ethermine, the world’s largest Ethereum mining pool has unveiled a new staking pool for users. Notably however, it is not available to U.S. miners The new service offers Ethermine members a chance to collectively stake their ETH and earn interest on top of their deposits. As little as 0.1 ETH ($159) required to enter. However the smaller the holding, the greater the fee. The platform is currently offering stakers an annual ETH interest rate of 4.43%. At the time…
Decentralized finance (DeFi) lending protocol Compound (COMP) has suffered a critical failure, effectively halting the trade of Compound Ether (cETH), after a bug was discovered in the code that causes transactions for suppliers and borrowers of ether to revert. Source
“The rising ratio indicates open interest is outpacing market size and increases the risk of volatility,” one researcher said. Original
Bitcoin (BTC) started the week in positive territory, rising 3% on average trading volume. The largest cryptocurrency by market capitalization rebounded on Monday following three consecutive days of losses. Market Wrap is CoinDesk’s daily newsletter diving into what happened in today’s crypto markets. Original