Overview
- Mt Gox FUD storm.
- Crypto climbs despite stock market wows.
- Federal Reserve announces FedNow payments service.
- FTX to acquire Huobi?
- Facebook introduces NFT integration.
Good morning Banter Fam,
Misinformation is rampant in crypto.
The latest misformation was a tweet by @TheAltcoinHub that stated 140k BTC from the Mt Gox legislation would be released into the hands of those affected. After waiting nearly a decade, many figured the cohort would sell a large portion of the long-awaited BTC pool.
Altcoin Hub’s message became the topic of interest for many crypto influencers and a reason to fear a further price slide in an already struggling crypto market.
But like many of crypto’s FUD storms and influencer campaigns, small pieces of misinformation turned into full-fledged fear trolls that had traders shaking at their laptops. But was all the fuss in vain?
The storm eventually cleared, and a few hours after The Altcoin Hub’s tweet, a Mt Gox creditor, Eric Wall, replied, “The repayment system is not live yet” and ” in the current state, you still cannot register where you want your BTC and BCH to be sent.” Additionally, he noted that payouts are to transpire in tranches, and many of those owed bitcoin opted to sell their claim to the creditor Fortress—sigh of relief.
Overall, the gloom and doom scenario wasn’t the giant troll many expected but instead another crypto lesson for us participants.
So, can we put the Mt Gox fear fest to rest?
Market update 🌍
BTC/USDT
Despite the US stock market looking shaky, Bitcoin curbed three days of losses by climbing +3.73% yesterday. The stochastic RSI continues to range in an oversold zone while the Relative Strength Index (RSI) hovers at a modest 36. Until BTC shows a definitive alteration of its bearish course, expect more downward price action in the short term. BTC closed the daily candle at $20,285.
High-resolution chart
ETH/BTC
On the other hand, Ether (ETH) continues to hold firm versus BTC at 0.0757%, and the upcoming merge speculators continue to provide strong support for ETH price when weighed against BTC.
High-resolution chart
VIX
The stock market fear proxy, S&P 500 Volatility Index or VIX, showed a slight increase during the market opening, only to be quelled to 26.60 by the end of the trading session. Although the market reached a peak fear on Friday, Aug 28, the markets on Monday paused the sell-off. Watching the VIX can help interpret the stock market’s current sentiment, which plays a substantial role during turbulent times.
High-resolution chart
| US markets close | Gain/Loss |
| S&P 500 | -0.67% |
| Nasdaq | -1.60% |
| Dow | +1.63% |
| VIX | +2.54% |
Notable Gainers (24h):
| Protocol (Coin) | Price ($) | Gain (%) |
| Lido DAO (LDO) | 1.84 | +15.7 |
| Synthetix Network (SNX) | 3.42 | +15.6 |
| Cosmos Hub (ATOM) | 11.52 | +11.6 |
| Flow (FLOW) | 1.91 | +11.1 |
| Evmos (EVMOS) | 2.42 | + 9.4 |
| Maker (MKR) | 803.97 | + 9.0 |
| Kusama (KSM) | 49.37 | +8.4 |
| Aave (AAVE) | 85.30 | +8.3 |
| Uniswap (UNI) | 6.26 | +7.9 |
| Voyager (VGX) | 0.54 | +27 |
| Compound (COMP) | 52.07 | +18.5 |
| Synapse (SYN) | 1.30 | +15.4 |
| Balancer (BAL) | 6.43 | +12.7 |
| Bitcoin Fear and Greed Index | 27 Fear |
| “Crypto” Google Trends 90d | 37 |
| “Bitcoin” Google Trends 90d | 27 |
Newswatch 📰
Who needs stablecoins when you have FedNow? Federal Reserve Governor, Michelle Bowman, announced the agency’s plan to release the instant payment processing service FedNow by July 2023. The new service is a precursor to a CBDC digital dollar and a way to fill the niche. Moreover, Bowman took a small shot at crypto by stating, “I am hearing more discussions involving banks’ interest in offering services involving crypto-assets. The chatter seems to originate more from those outside the banking industry, but I’ll put that aside for now.” FedNow will come with complementary government surveillance.
SBF denies Huobi acquisition. After Bloomberg reported that FTX was in talks with Huobi, FTX CEO Sam Bankman-Fried tweeted that the firm is not planning to acquire the crypto exchange. However, speculation rose after employees switched email addresses from Houbi.com to htx-inc.com, and rumors sprung that the deal was finalized.
Iran crypto sanctions bypass. Iran is now allowing businesses to utilize crypto for import transactions to help bypass US sanctions, according to its official news agency Tasnim. Iran followed a similar path to Russia after the US began its sanction following hostile acts in Ukraine.
News tidbits:
- Argentina’s Mendoza province now accepts cryptocurrencies for tax payments.
- Cardano builder, IOHK, funds Stanford blockchain research hub with $4.5m.
- A woman gets sued by Crypto.com for buying a mansion with crypto mistakenly sent to her seven months ago.
Protocol level updates
Polkadot’s Moonbeam integrates the cross-chain messaging protocol LayerZero. The move could help Moonbeam integrate apps from chains such as Ethereum, Binance Smart Chain, Polygon, and numerous others.
Protocol-level tidbits:
NFT & metaverse update 🐵
Facebook to support NFTs. Facebook users can now begin sharing digital collectibles and link crypto wallets to the social media app. Facebook supports Ethereum, Polygon, and Flow. The integration exposes billions of potential worldwide Facebook users to NFTs.
DigiDaigaku Soars. The NFT project DigiDaigaku has soared out of the gate and raised $200m with a floor price of 15.75 ETH. The collection of 2022 unique characters was developed by world renowned game makers Gabriel Lepan and Halbert Nakagawa.
Banter’s take
The crypto market held up nicely compared to the US stock market yesterday, but there are no significant signs that point toward the end of bearish price action. The next few months will remain tough after the Federal Reserve’s Jerome Powell extinguished any hopium surrounding a FED pivot on its quantitative hardening and interest rate hikes at Friday’s Jackson Hole. Although, it remains a great time to dollar cost average (DCA) while sentiment is down.
The price bottom may not be in yet, but in truth, nobody knows when it will be. The market still has a lot of macro complications to digest (China housing crisis, US housing decline, rising energy cost, the war in the Ukraine), so don’t get overly optimistic! Patience is key.
Thanks for reading.
Gabri
Follow me on Twitter for daily updates!
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.
