Overview
- Fed minutes.
- Canadian altcoin limitation.
- Aave urges members to support The Merge.
- Celsius raises hope.
- dYdX guns for FTX.
Good morning Banter Fam,
The Federal Reserve (FED) released the July 22-23 minutes today, indicating continuing interest rate hikes until inflation reduces considerably.
Some notes:
- Fed officials consider the current 2.25% – 2.50% range as “neutral.”
- The Fed will continue fighting inflation with rate increases with a goal of 2% inflation, with higher inflation rates to likely remain through 2023.
- Strong job numbers, low unemployment.
- Current CPI: 8.5%.
- September rate hike of 0.50%.
The report held no significant surprises, and the markets have seemingly priced in future rate hikes. Thus, behind solid job numbers and low unemployment, look for a continued effort from the Fed to fight inflation.
Although, there was an inconspicuous warning in the report that hints at future turmoil:
“Declines in the prices of oil and some other commodities could not be relied on as providing a basis for sustained lower inflation, as these prices could quickly rebound.”
Considering the S&P 500 is only 10% from its January highs, the warning could indicate that market optimism may require quenching while iterating the macro obstacles ahead. Such obstacles such as the UK’s CPI topping doubling digits today or China’s first real estate bank lending decline in 10 years.
Bottom line: always be prepared for surprises in these tough macro conditions.
Market update 🌍
BTC/USDT 1D
Ready the hatch skipper; we are going down!
Bitcoin (BTC) pierced through its uptrend support (green), implying an end to its recent climb after reaching a high of $24,446 yesterday. Unless price re-enters the trend, BTC looks primed to revisit the $21,800 support level. Additionally, the Ethereum chart looks similar after breaking below its upward trendline. BTC completed the daily candle down -2.61% to $23,340.
High-resolution chart
NDX/USD 1D
The stock market, particularly the tech sectors index, Nasdaq (NDX), continued its upward tear. The NDX is up 37% since hitting lows on May 19. Its relative strength index (RSI) has remained in an overbought zone (>70) for nearly a month on the daily charts. Looking back since 2014, it’s the most extended duration the RSI has maintained those record levels, highlighting the recent trend’s tenacity. Expect a pullback at some point. NDX closed the day up 1.14% to $193.78.
High-resolution chart
| US markets close | Gain |
| S&P 500 | -0.72% |
| Nasdaq | +1.14% |
| Dow | -1.16% |
| VIX | +1.17% |
Notable Gainers (24h):
| Protocol (Coin) | Price ($) | Gain (%) |
| Celsius Network (CEL) | 2.82 | +19.2 |
| EOS (EOS) | 1.48 | +7.4 |
| Chiliz (CHZ) | 0.22 | +6.1 |
| Flux (FLUX) | 1.06 | +11.4 |
| Ethereum Name Ser (ENS) | 15.77 | +5.0 |
| Kujira (KUJI) | 1.76 | +12.9 |
| Bitcoin Fear and Greed Index | 30 Fear |
| “Crypto” Google Trends 90d | 41 |
| “Bitcoin” Google Trends 90d | 25 |
Newswatch 📰
Canadian altcoin limitation. Nine provinces in Canada have put a $30,000 regulatory limit on the amount citizens can invest in crypto annually. Yet, oddly, the measures allow for unlimited purchasing of four cryptocurrencies: Bitcoin, Litecoin, Bitcoin Cash, and Ethereum. The reason? To protect consumers. Sigh. By the looks of it, the regulatory body apparently received crypto education in 2018.
Aave urges members to support The Merge. Defi protocol Aave has requested its DAO members to review the latest Aave Request for Comment (ARC) and participate in committing the protocol to Ethereum’s Proof of Stake (PoS) merge. In addition, the proposal would disallow Aave deployments on Ethereum hard forks.
Celsius raises hope. In its Second Day Hearing Presentation, the embattled crypto lender, Celsius Network, announced its second meeting with the Unsecured Creditors Committee (UCC) on August the 23rd to discuss a “restructuring framework” and forward plan regarding customer recovery of crypto assets.
Celsius Customer Correspondence:
News Tidbits:
- Crypto Exchange Genesis is cutting 20% of its workforce as CEO Micheal Moro exits.
- CoinGecko introduces a tokenomics tab!
At the protocol level ⛓
dYdX guns for FTX. dYdX founder, Antonio Juliano, has his sights on surpassing the likes of FTX after uprooting the platform from StarkNet L2 to the Cosmos blockchain. The key? To win out via the derivatives market. The “Think 10x Bigger” report digs further into the project’s vision, current state, design, and risk. A must-read if you’re an investor in dYdX.
Protocol level tidbits:
- MakerDAO enables a deployment bridge for DAI into Arbitrum Nova.
- Introducing Nostra, lending and borrowing liquidity protocol on StarkNet.
- Introducing FireDancer, an open source validator client for Solana.
- Deep dive into the Sui blockchain.
NFT & metaverse update 🐵
- The Sandbox Season 3 begins August the 24th.
Banter’s take
With the recent rise in markets, the news began shifting towards the blockchain level instead of macro – what a relief for now.
And truthfully, it’s encouraging to see the abundance of on-chain building activities.
Some major signs of recent building:
- Ethereum Merge.
- Emerging smart contract platforms: Aptos, Sui, Optimism, Arbitrum, Near.
- Ecosystem building: DogeChain, Near, StarkNet, Polkadot.
- Handfuls of daily protocol releases.
- Lofty goals: dYdX attempts to surpass centralized exchanges.
The signs are encouraging. It was building DeFi that chauffeured crypto through the previous bear market in 2020, and it’s building that may support the next iteration.
Gabri
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Disclaimer
Good Morning crypto (issued by Crypto Banter) is a newsletter for entertainment purposes only.
All opinions expressed by the publisher, writers, and chartists should not be construed as financial advice and do not necessarily reflect the views of Crypto Banter. The publisher, writers, and chartists may hold positions in the tokens and assets discussed. Readers are encouraged to do their own research.
