T U B E

• Ethereum Classic’s hashrate saw a significant increase just before the Ethereum network transitioned from proof-of-work (PoW) to proof-of-stake (PoS).
• Since the transition, however, the network’s hashrate has decreased significantly by 44.33%.
• Additionally, Ethereum Classic’s price has decreased 35.82% and its total value locked (TVL) in decentralized finance (defi) protocols has dropped 56.84%.

Ethereum Classic Hashrate

Just before the Ethereum network transitioned from a proof-of-work (PoW) blockchain to proof-of-stake (PoS), Ethereum Classic’s hashrate saw a significant increase. On Jan. 17, 2022, ETC had 23.87 terahash per second (TH/s) of hashrate and as of Jan. 30, 2023 it had 119.32 TH/s of hashrate – a 399% increase in 12 months since The Merge. However, 134 days ago ETC’s computational power was more than 44% higher than it is today at 214.37 TH/s of hash rate at its peak before ETH PoW to PoS Transition.. F2pool is currently the largest Ethereum Classic mining pool with 26.91 TH/s or 22.55% of the total hash rate followed by Ethermine with 16.48 TH/s accounting for 13.81%. The other top ten pools add up to 95.11 TH/s which combined makes up 79 % of the total Ethereum classic hash rate .

Ethereum Classic Price

On Sept 15th 2022 ,the day of The Merge ,ETC was valued at around $35 .81 per coin after reaching $39 per unit previously . As of Jan 30th 2023 it is trading at $22 .98 per unit – a decrease of 35 . 82 % from its value after transition .

Total Value Locked in Decentralized Finance Protocols

As of Sept 15th 2022 , Ethereum classic had approximately 873 , 161 USD in Total Value Locked (TVL) in decentralized finance protocols while as on Jan 30th 2023 this number decreased by 56 . 84 % to 376 , 803 USD TVL . Hebeswap dominates with 58 . 74 % of this TVL making it one of the most popular DEX platform on ETC network right now .

Conclusion

Since ETH switched from PoW to PoS , ETC has seen an impressive increase in its Hash Rate but also lossed much luster as well as 44 % drop in Hash Rate when compared 134 days ago . Also ETC price has declined 35 % and TVL on Defi protocols have dropped drastically by 57 % during same time period giving us mixed signals about future performance & trends that we need to look out for carefully moving forward ..

Next Steps

It will be interesting to see if there are any new developments that can help boost both price &hash rate again for long term investors looking for investments opportunities in cryptocurrency market sometime soon..

• Bitget recently held their Hero Trader Awards 2022, a competition to select the best 15 copy traders with high moral standards and professional qualities.
• 75 Star Traders participated in the contest, and the event parsed winners into five categories with prize pools ranging from 8,000 to 3,000 USDT.
• Winners of the competition will receive additional benefits such as invitations to a series of AMAs and seminars on Twitter, and eligibility to join the Bitget Hero Traders Foundation.

Bitget, a leading cryptocurrency derivatives exchange, recently held their Hero Trader Awards 2022 competition, aiming to select the best 15 copy traders with high moral standards and professional qualities through community voting. The event was organized to commemorate the advancement of copy trading based on transaction data from Bitget’s One-Click Copy Trade in 2022, which was used to select 75 Star Traders to participate in the contest.

One-Click Copy Trade is Bitget’s flagship offering of crypto copy trade, and since its launch in Jan 19th, 2023, the product has amassed more than 80,000 traders and over 380,000 followers, along with 42,000,000 profitable copy trades. Recently, Bitget has become the first cryptocurrency exchange to launch copy trading in the spot market.

The contest parsed winners into five categories – Grand Champion Award, Robin Hood Award, Mansa Award, Hermes Award, and Genghis Award, as users voted for their favorite candidates based on a range of trading variables, helping Bitget select the 15 finalists among the best copy traders. The prize pools range from 8,000 to 3,000 USDT, and other prizes include poker themed NFTs, copy trading follower count increases, and various exclusives.

In addition to the prizes, Bitget will also give additional benefits to the Hero Trader Award candidates, including invitations to a series of AMAs and seminars on Twitter, as well as eligibility to join the Bitget Hero Traders Foundation with the opportunity to participate in follow-up activities and training for the foundation.

Bitget strives to improve products through innovation and is a pioneer in crypto copy trading. The company hopes that this event will help to further promote copy trading, while also recognizing and rewarding the hard work and dedication of the best copy traders in the industry.

• The U.S. Federal Reserve Board has rejected the attempt of Custodia Bank to become member of the Federal Reserve System.
• The decision was announced Friday, and the application submitted by the digital asset bank was inconsistent with legal requirements.
• The Federal Reserve Board argued that the firm’s novel business model and proposed focus on crypto-assets presented significant safety and soundness risks.

The United States Federal Reserve Board has announced its rejection of Custodia Bank’s application for membership in the Federal Reserve System. The announcement, which was made on Friday, highlighted the application’s inconsistentcy with legal requirements.

The Federal Reserve Board argued that the business model proposed by Custodia presented significant safety and soundness risks. Custodia is a special purpose depository institution which does not have federal deposit insurance and wanted to engage in „untested crypto activities,“ such as issuing a crypto asset. The Board noted that such activities are highly likely to be inconsistent with safe and sound banking practices, and that the risk management framework proposed by the bank was insufficient to address relevant concerns.

In light of these and other concerns, the Federal Reserve Board determined that Custodia’s application was inconsistent with the factors the Board is required to evaluate by law. The order will be released following a review for confidential information.

Membership in the Federal Reserve System would have allowed Custodia, a bank chartered by the state of Wyoming, to offer a range of banking services, such as checking and savings accounts and loans. It would also have allowed the bank to access to the Fed’s payments system and access to liquidity facilities. However, the Federal Reserve Board concluded that the risks associated with the business model proposed by the company were too great to take on at this time.

The decision from the Federal Reserve Board underscores the need for banks and financial institutions to ensure that their business models are in line with regulations, and that their risk management frameworks are able to address money laundering and terrorism financing risks. It also highlights the importance of banks being able to demonstrate that they have the capacity to manage the risks associated with emerging technologies.

• The Bank of Ghana has opened an application process for innovators to be included in its regulatory sandbox.
• The sandbox will support innovations that attempt to solve the financial exclusion challenge and new digital business models not covered by existing regulation.
• Applications for admission into the sandbox will close on March 14th 2023.

The Bank of Ghana is offering a unique opportunity for financial innovators to be included in its regulatory sandbox. The application process for innovators to participate in the sandbox opened on Feb. 13th, 2023 and will close on March 14th, 2023.

The regulatory sandbox is an important step forward in the Bank of Ghana’s commitment to providing the enabling environment for innovation to promote financial inclusion, and facilitate Ghana’s digitization and cash-lite agenda. The sandbox will support innovations that include new digital business models not currently covered explicitly or implicitly under any regulation. It will also support innovations that attempt to solve the financial exclusion challenge as well as any new and immature digital financial service technology.

In order to apply for admission to the sandbox, interested participants are required to submit a complete form which can be accessed via a link. Prospective participants will be informed of the outcome of their respective applications within 21 working days after the closure of the application window.

The Bank of Ghana believes that the sandbox is an important step in deepening financial inclusion and promoting innovative solutions in the financial sector. The Bank is inviting financial institutions and unlicensed fintech startups to apply for admission into the sandbox. It is hoped that the sandbox will encourage the development of new products and services that can benefit all Ghanaian citizens.

The Bank of Ghana is confident that the regulatory sandbox will contribute to the growth of the financial sector in Ghana and ultimately lead to improved financial inclusion for all.

-Centralized exchanges have been the popular choice due to the mismanagement and fraud that has occurred in the past.
-The move to DeFi will require a better user experience in order to make it more accessible to new users.
-In order to make DeFi more viable, developers must create products that are as familiar and easy-to-use as the best web2 analogs.

The past year has seen a seismic shift in the world of cryptocurrency, with an increased focus on decentralized finance (DeFi). This shift is in part due to the gross mismanagement, opacity, and outright fraud that has been seen in many centralized exchanges over the past few years. People are now turning back to the core tenets of crypto, such as decentralization, self-custody, transparency, and censorship resistance, and this has led to a surge in DeFi adoption.

Despite the potential of DeFi, there are still a number of challenges that need to be addressed before it can truly become a viable alternative to centralized services. One of these is the user experience (UX) issue. Bitcoin.com’s Head of Product Experience, Alex Knight, has explained the problems and solutions of the UX challenges in web3 applications. In essence, the self-custodial web3 model leads to a user experience that is fundamentally different from the one people are used to in the custodial web2 model, and this can create significant friction.

In order to make DeFi more accessible to new users, developers must create products that offer the same level of familiarity and ease-of-use as the best web2 analogs. This requires clever design, education, and incentives. For example, Bitcoin.com has long-provided an intuitive experience with its self-custodial multichain wallet app, but it is only suitable for simple actions such as buying, selling, sending, and receiving crypto. In order to make DeFi more viable, developers must build upon this by integrating more complex DeFi features, such as decentralized exchanges, liquidity pools, and yield farming.

In addition to UX challenges, DeFi also needs to significantly improve its performance when compared to centralized services. This includes reducing transaction fees, increasing transaction throughput, and improving scalability. To do this, developers must focus on developing more efficient consensus algorithms, such as proof-of-stake or zk-SNARKs, and on developing infrastructure such as layer two solutions.

Finally, the shift to DeFi must be expedited in order to truly capitalize on its potential. To do this, the cryptocurrency industry must continue to make DeFi more accessible to new users and improve its performance. If these challenges can be addressed, then DeFi could truly become a viable alternative to centralized services and revolutionize the way we interact with financial services.

• Morgan Stanley CEO James Gorman recently discussed the US economy and China’s relationship with the US in an interview with CNBC.
• Gorman stated that inflation has peaked and China has made a “major, major pivot” economically.
• He also said that the Federal Reserve is likely to increase interest rates by 25 basis points at the next FOMC meeting.

Morgan Stanley CEO James Gorman recently held an interview with CNBC in Davos, Switzerland in which he discussed the US economy and China’s relationship with the US. Gorman stated that two changes have happened recently that „really matter“ to the economy. The first is that inflation has peaked, and the second is that China has made a „major, major pivot“ economically.

Gorman explained that the inflation numbers are better than they were and that the Federal Reserve is likely to increase interest rates by 25 basis points at the next Federal Open Market Committee (FOMC) meeting. He also said that he could see the Fed doing 25, followed by 25, followed by a pause.

Regarding the second change, the Morgan Stanley chief noted that China has made a major pivot economically. He said that the focus was on the reopening, which was obviously critical, but that the recent pivot economically – the relationship thawing with the US, the meeting with the vice premier and Secretary Yellen – is a big deal. He also said that the US has to be careful with how it deals with China and that it is important to have a „strategic dialogue“ rather than an „adversarial dialogue“.

Overall, Gorman believes that these two changes have significantly impacted the US economy and that the Federal Reserve will likely increase interest rates soon. He also believes that having a strategic dialogue with China is key to maintaining a strong relationship between the two countries.

• NFT sales dropped significantly this week, down 59.35% from the prior week.
• Ethereum accounted for 75.33% of the total sales during the past seven days, with Solana coming in second at 18.04%.
• The top-selling NFT collection this week was the Bored Ape Yacht Club (BAYC), followed by Mutant Ape Yacht Club (MAYC), Azuki, Art Blocks, and Bored Ape Kennel Club.

Non-fungible token (NFT) sales have seen a sharp decline in the last seven days compared to the week prior. This downward trend comes despite a 26% increase in sales the week prior. During the past seven days, only $208.68 million in NFT sales were recorded, a drop of 59.35% from the week before. Of the total amount, $157.20 million stemmed from the Ethereum blockchain, accounting for 75.33% of the total sales.

The top-selling NFT collection this week was the Bored Ape Yacht Club (BAYC), with $16.69 million in sales, equating to 7.998% of the $208 million in sales this week. This was followed by Mutant Ape Yacht Club (MAYC) at $13.66 million, Azuki at $11.50 million, Art Blocks at $10.95 million, and Bored Ape Kennel Club at $9.71 million. Other popular collections included Otherdeed, Sorare, The Captainz, Beanz, and Mutant Hound Collars. According to data from nftpricefloor.com, the BAYC collection had the highest floor value in terms of NFT floor values on Sunday, Jan. 15, 2023. BAYC was followed by Cryptopunks, MAYC, Autoglyphs, and The Sandbox, respectively.

The sharp decline in NFT sales this week signals a potential shift in the digital collectible market. Despite the overall decrease in sales, Ethereum has remained the dominant platform among the top 20 blockchains issuing NFTs. Solana followed in second with 18.04% of the week’s total sales, or $37.66 million. Ethereum and Solana were followed by Immutable X, Binance Coin (BNB), and Cardano as the top five chains in terms of this week’s NFT sales data.

It remains to be seen whether this downward trend in NFT sales will continue or if it is a sign of a larger shift in the digital collectible market. Ethereum’s continued dominance in the space, however, is a positive sign for the blockchain’s future in the industry.

• Sam Bankman-Fried (SBF), the former CEO of FTX, has started a Substack newsletter and published his first post about the fall of FTX and Alameda Research, the quantitative trading firm he founded in 2019.
• The post maintains that an “extreme, quick, targeted crash precipitated by the CEO of Binance made Alameda insolvent” and emphasizes that SBF did not steal any customer funds.
• SBF believes that three factors contributed to the fall of FTX and Alameda, including Alameda’s balance sheet swelling and Alameda’s failure to “sufficiently hedge its market exposure”, and that the final nail in the coffin for FTX was driven by Binance CEO Changpeng ‚CZ‘ Zhao.

Sam Bankman-Fried (SBF) has been in the public eye ever since his arrest and initial court appearances before a Southern District of New York judge. To address the allegations and public scrutiny, SBF has taken to the internet to express his thoughts and opinions regarding the situation. On January 12, 2023, SBF began a Substack newsletter called “SBF’s Substack” and published his first post about the fall of FTX and Alameda Research, the quantitative trading firm he founded in 2019.

In the post, SBF maintains that an “extreme, quick, targeted crash precipitated by the CEO of Binance made Alameda insolvent” and emphasizes that he did not steal any customer funds. The former FTX executive also believes that three factors contributed to the fall of FTX and Alameda, including Alameda’s balance sheet swelling, Alameda’s failure to “sufficiently hedge its market exposure”, and the final nail in the coffin for FTX driven by Binance CEO Changpeng ‚CZ‘ Zhao. SBF also conducted a one-on-one interview at his home in Palo Alto with Puck News reporter Theodore Schleifer.

In the interview, SBF stated that he was “disappointed” with the way things unfolded and that he “made a lot of mistakes” while he was CEO of FTX. He also mentioned the “collateral damage” of the situation, including his former co-workers, ex-Alameda CEO Caroline Ellison and FTX co-founder Gary Wang, who have made allegations against him.

While SBF awaits his trial, he has taken up the hobby of playing video games and blogging about it on his Substack newsletter. He continues to maintain his innocence and is looking forward to the day when he can move on from this situation. Regardless of the outcome of the trial, SBF’s case is sure to have a lasting impact on the crypto industry and on the future of FTX.

• Dogecoin (DOGE) and Shiba Inu (SHIB) surged to multi-week highs on Thursday.
• DOGE/USD climbed to an intraday peak of $0.07503 and SHIB/USD reached a peak of $0.000008531.
• The move came after a period of consolidation following the holiday season, with both coins breaking out of key resistance zones.

On Thursday, Dogecoin (DOGE) and Shiba Inu (SHIB) surged to multi-week highs, with both tokens experiencing a period of intense price action. After several days of consolidation following the holiday season, Dogecoin (DOGE) and Shiba Inu (SHIB) both rose for a second consecutive session, with the coins breaking out of key resistance zones.

Dogecoin (DOGE) moved away from a recent spell of consolidation, with the coin climbing to an intraday peak of $0.07503 earlier today. This took the token to its highest point since December 27, when price was in the midst of a prolonged sell-off. The move also saw Dogecoin’s 14-day relative strength index (RSI) break out of a key resistance zone, with the index currently tracking at 42.81, slightly above a ceiling of 42.00.

Shiba Inu (SHIB) also saw a notable gain on Thursday, with SHIB/USD surging to a peak of $0.000008531 earlier today. This was the coin’s strongest point since December 18, prior to the holiday season consolidation. SHIB/USD also broke out of a point of resistance at $0.00000850, with the RSI following suit, surging past its own ceiling at the 50.00 level, and is currently tracking at 51.63.

The gains come ahead of Friday’s U.S. nonfarm payrolls numbers, with traders finally returning from recent Christmas and New Year’s celebrations. Despite the signs of strength, both coins remain well-off their all-time highs, with Dogecoin currently down over 80% from its April peak of $0.45, and Shiba Inu off over 95% from its early May high of $0.00005279.

Overall, Thursday saw Dogecoin (DOGE) and Shiba Inu (SHIB) surge to multi-week highs, with both coins breaking out of key resistance zones following a period of consolidation. The gains come amid a return of traders from their Christmas and New Year’s celebrations, with traders keeping a close eye on tomorrow’s U.S. nonfarm payrolls numbers.