These are quite busy days in the cryptocurrency market, since we still do not know for sure what will happen to Sam Bankman-Fried and all the people affected by the fall of the FTX cryptocurrency exchange. This last week there has been quite a bit of controversy, with various topics such as the Kim Kardashian lawsuit, as well as good news, with the development of new products, important updates and large companies seeking to delve deeper into the crypto-asset ecosystem. Below, we present the most relevant news of the week.
Is the new Ethereum update coming soon?
Last Thursday, December 8, at the last All Core Developers meeting of the year, Ethereum developers agreed to implement the long-awaited Shanghai update in March 2023.
The Shanghai update, formally known as Ethereum Improvement Proposal 4895, will allow validators to withdraw their staked tokens (ETH) from the Beacon Chain consensus layer, thanks to the successful completion of The Ethereum Merge, which took place held on September 15.
It should be noted that the Shanghai update is a precursor to a scalability update that would seek to improve the performance of transactions on the Ethereum network.
Is Sam Bankman-Fried testifying?
As rightly stated, it continues the novel and the case of FTX founder Sam Bankman-Fried, who has now vowed to testify before Congress after he finished “learning and reviewing” the events that caused the popular cryptocurrency exchange to shut down. filed for bankruptcy last month. Bankman-Fried’s pledge was made in response to a tweet from House Financial Services Speaker Maxine Waters last week asking her to join the committee’s hearing on the FTX collapse tomorrow, December 13th.
“Once I am done learning and reviewing what happened, I would feel it my duty to appear before the committee and explain,” Bankman-Fried said in a tweet on Sunday. It is important that we are attentive to the statements that this character can give, since his words could impact the market significantly.
Kim Kardashian and other celebrities win lawsuit against crypto investors!
A California federal judge on Wednesday ended a lawsuit against celebrity Kim Kardashian, boxing legend Floyd Mayweather Jr. and others for their role in promoting a cryptocurrency, saying it was unclear whether the suing investors actually saw the promotions.
The lawsuit filed in January claims that EthereumMax executives paid various celebrities to induce investors to buy the EMax token, increasing its price and allowing them to sell their own tokens at a profit. It should even be noted that Kim Kardashian herself had been fined $1.26 million by the SEC for promoting EthereumMax in a June 2021 post on Instagram. For his part, Mayweather wore the company logo on his boxing shorts and on his clothing during a fight.
Michael Rhodes, Kardashian’s lead attorney, said the defense is “satisfied with the court’s well-reasoned ruling.” Mayweather’s lawyers did not immediately respond to a request for comment. Also named in the lawsuit is former NBA star Paul Pierce. What a controversy! Do you think it is a good argument for them to have won the lawsuit?
Goldman Sachs goes shopping in the crypto market! Is the market “on sale”?
Wall Street giant Goldman Sachs is looking to spend tens of millions of dollars to buy or invest in struggling cryptocurrency companies. The collapse of FTX increased the need for more trusted players in the space and well-established, highly regulated companies like Goldman Sachs.
Goldman Sachs has increased its trading volumes significantly since the crash, and it has been revealed that the number of financial institutions seeking to trade FTX has increased accordingly.
According to the company’s head of digital assets, these companies can now be bought at a discount. Goldman Sachs, it is worth adding, has invested in 11 digital asset companies to date. Is the participation of this company something positive for the crypto market?
Is CoinBase looking to tear down Tether?
Cryptocurrency exchange CoinBase is looking to completely seize stablecoin funds in the market, and is also looking to topple Tether by offering incentives in its own stablecoin, USDC.
In a company blog post published last Thursday, CoinBase tempted its users to “switch to the reputable and trusted digital dollar: USDC.” This publication also mentions that USDC is one of the most reliable and reputable stablecoins, fully backed by quality reserves. This move is clearly looking to compete with the USDT stablecoin, which remains the market leader.
Also, as an incentive, CoinBase has removed the fees for converting USDT to USDC, which makes it clearer to us what the company’s intentions are.
A new crypto iPod?
Last Thursday Tony Fadell, who was one of the fundamental pillars for the development of Apple’s first flagship products, announced for Ledger, a company that is in charge of developing cold wallets to protect crypto assets, the launch of his new device, Ledger Stax. This allows users to protect cryptocurrencies and NFTs outside the network, with private keys and offering a high level of security.
The main feature of this new wallet is that it includes a significantly larger screen that completely covers the front, allowing users to see complete transactions at a glance, as well as an integrated magnet, which allows it to be stacked with mobile devices.
Steve Jobs recruited Tony Fadell to build the iPod in 2001, who oversaw the development of 18 generations of iPods and the first three iterations of the iPhone before leaving Apple in 2010.
In that year, after 3 successful generations of this device were launched, several businessmen convinced Fadell to venture Bitcoin into this type of device. However, we never got to see it on the market, until now. Is this the long-awaited “crypto iPod”?
Starbucks launches loyalty program with NFTs!
Starbucks continues to innovate within the world of Web3 and NFTs for its loyalty program, as announced a couple of months ago.
In September 2022, the company announced that it would launch an NFT video game for its new loyalty experience, called Starbucks Odyssey, over the Polygon network. Last Friday, it was announced what will be available to a number of users in early 2023. This will have a series of fun and interactive activities to earn Journey Stamps, which are collectible NFTs, and Odyssey points, which provide access to new advantages and experiences.
In addition, it should be noted that these NFTs can be purchased with a credit card, without the need for a crypto-asset wallet, so it will be interesting to see how the purchase and custody process of these assets will be carried out.
Bitcoin is practically static, above $17,000, as it has been for a couple of days. The interesting thing is that, in this area, we can find a very interesting resistance level, in which the price has managed to stagnate, but has respected it in a great way. Should we see a bearish breach, we could see a rampant slide down to $12,600. Keep an eye out for news this year-end, including the Sam Bankman-Fried statements and the resolution of the FTX case!
BTC/USDT 1D (TradingView chart).
For its part, Ethereum is trading near $1,250, and similarly to Bitcoin it is just below a resistance level where it has been bouncing for a couple of days. If it continues with its downward trend, it could soon fall to $1,000.
ETH/USDT 1D (TradingView chart).
It has been quite an interesting week, since on the one hand the uncertainty about the situation of FTX and the market crisis continues, while on the other we can see interesting developments and the interest in participating in the crypto asset market by giants such as Goldman Sachs and Starbucks. Although the crypto winter has been a blow to a large number of investors, the value offered by a large number of these projects lends credibility in the long term. Without further ado, we wish you an amazing week.
