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<\/span>The prices of crypto market leaders Bitcoin<\/a><\/span> and Ethereum<\/a><\/span> typically move together. But some weeks form an exception, and this was just such a week.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n Bitcoin, the No. 1 cryptocurrency in the world with a $380 billion market cap, fell another 2% over the past week and trades for around $19,860 on CoinMarketCap at the time of writing on Saturday morning.<\/span><\/p>\n Ethereum, the No. 2 crypto asset with a market cap of $190 billion, rose a modest 3.5% over the past week and currently trades at $1,556.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n New data<\/span><\/a> this week from the Ethereum Name Service (ENS) tells a more bullish story. ENS was launched five years ago by members of the Ethereum foundation to enable people to register memorable domains for their crypto wallets, instead of being limited to the unwieldy string of random numbers and letters that typically represents a blockchain address.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n ENS reported its third highest month of revenue over August, with 2.17 million .ENS domain names created on the service. A fortnight ago, the service <\/span>reported<\/span><\/a> that over the preceding three months, the number of registrations for .ENS domain names had doubled.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n This dramatic spike in ENS activity is likely in anticipation of Ethereum\u2019s major network overhaul coming this month. The <\/span>Ethereum merge<\/span><\/a> will transition the network from the energy-intensive proof-of-work<\/a> (PoW) consensus mechanism to the 99.95% greener proof-of-stake<\/a><\/span> (PoS) algorithm.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n The biggest loser among the top thirty cryptocurrencies was Avalanche. AVAX sank 10% over the week; it\u2019s worth under $20 this Saturday.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n Two cryptocurrencies in the top 20 enjoyed big rallies, and one of them may come as a surprise to many: Litecoin<\/a><\/span> (LTC) blew up 15% in the past week to over $60, while Polygon<\/a><\/span>\u2019s MATIC surged 11% and currently trades for around $0.90. Polygon\u2019s blistering rally came <\/span>amid adoption news<\/span><\/a> from trading app Robinhood and social media giant Meta.<\/span><\/p>\n The other leading cryptocurrencies barely moved this week.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n On Monday, the managing director of Singapore\u2019s Monetary Authority (MAS), the country\u2019s central bank and financial watchdog, Ravi Menon, <\/span>said<\/span><\/a> at a Green Shoots fintech seminar that the regulator will begin adding hoops to jump through for retail investors who want to get into crypto. The proposals include customer suitability tests and limiting access to credit facilities.<\/span><\/p>\n Menon said the measures are to protect consumers, elaborating that while Singapore welcomes fintech innovation, investors \u201cseem to be <\/span>irrationally oblivious<\/span><\/a> about the risks of cryptocurrency trading,\u201d but an outright ban \u201cis not likely to work.\u201d The MAS is also looking to bring in international regulatory reviews and collaborate on harm reduction measures.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n <\/p>\n Paraguayan leaders <\/span>also spoke about regulation<\/span><\/a> on Monday. President Mario Abdo Ben\u00edtez vetoed a bill that would have regulated various crypto activities in the country, including mining. According to the Executive <\/span>decree<\/span><\/a>, the primary reason for the veto was that energy costs would allegedly outweigh the employment benefits.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n In the U.S., Rep. Raja Krishnamoorthi\u2014Chair of the Subcommittee on Economic and Consumer Policy, a part of the House, which forms Congress along with the Senate\u2014<\/span>sent letters<\/span><\/a> to five of the largest crypto exchanges in the U.S. on Tuesday, requesting \u201cinformation and documents\u201d on how they\u2019re working <\/span>to <\/span>\u201ccombat cryptocurrency-related fraud.\u201d<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n Krishnamoorthi also mailed four federal agencies\u2014the <\/span>U.S. Department of Treasury<\/span><\/a>, <\/span>Securities and Exchange Commission<\/span><\/a>, <\/span>Commodity Futures Trading Commission<\/span><\/a>, and <\/span>Federal Trade Commission<\/span><\/a>\u2014to solicit policy suggestions and opinions on whether cryptocurrencies should be defined as \u201ccommodities, securities, or both.\u201d\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n Facebook and Instagram parent company Meta rolled out new NFT<\/a><\/span> features for its properties that day, including the ability to cross-post NFTs in-app for select U.S. users.<\/span><\/p>\n Meta currently supports <\/span>Ethereum<\/span>, <\/span>Polygon<\/span>, and <\/span>Flow<\/a><\/span><\/span> NFTs on both Facebook and Instagram. It also supports a number of <\/span>crypto wallets<\/span><\/a>, including <\/span>MetaMask<\/a><\/span><\/span>, Rainbow, Trust Wallet, Coinbase Wallet<\/a><\/span>, and Dapper, which can all be connected to verify and share NFTs.<\/span><\/p>\n <\/p>\n On Wednesday, ticketing titan Ticketmaster announced it will utilize Dapper Labs\u2019 <\/span>Flow<\/span> blockchain to <\/span>mint NFT tickets<\/span><\/a> for certain events. In the last six months, Dapper Labs and Ticketmaster have quietly piloted an NFT program in which Ticketmaster issued ticket NFTs as memorabilia to attendees of <\/span>specific events<\/span><\/a>, like this year\u2019s Super Bowl LVI.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n More than five million Flow NFTs were minted during the pilot, according to Dapper.\u00a0\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n Singapore-based crypto lender Hodlnaut was granted judicial management <\/span>to organize and restructure<\/span><\/a> by the country\u2019s High Courts on Tuesday. The firm <\/span>filed<\/span><\/a> for judicial management on August 13 seeking temporary protection from legal claims. Just five days prior, it had <\/span>frozen customer withdrawals<\/span><\/a> to \u201cstabilize liquidity\u201d during the industry\u2019s ongoing liquidity crisis.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n <\/p>\n On Thursday, bankrupt crypto lender Celsius said in a <\/span>court filing<\/span><\/a> that it is seeking to return <\/span>some of its customers\u2019 funds<\/span><\/a>. The company is currently offering to release nearly $50 million in crypto belonging to customers who were a part of the \u201ccustody\u201d program\u2014accounts that stored crypto but did not generate returns.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n If Celsius\u2019s proposal is approved, the returned funds would only cover a fraction of the lender\u2019s obligations: custody accounts make up $210.02 million in crypto, according to the filing. However, customers expecting returns who invested crypto in Celsius\u2019s popular \u201cearn\u201d program account for $4.3 billion in assets; there was no word on when they\u2019ll get their money back.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n Bitcoin is getting harder to mine. According to data from <\/span>BTC.com<\/span><\/a>, Bitcoin\u2019s mining difficulty jumped 9.26% over the last two weeks. As difficulty increases, miners may face slimmer profits, since more computing power (and energy) is needed to mine while the value of Bitcoin has remained stagnant.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n Scott Norris, co-founder of private Bitcoin miner LSJ Ops, <\/span>told <\/span>Decrypt<\/span><\/i><\/a> that \u201cdifficulty shrinking is the cause for concern,\u201d because it would mean more miners are dropping off the network\u2014making it less efficient.<\/span><\/p>\n Norris added: \u201cA difficulty increase is an indicator of a strong and growing network, it’s actually a good thing,\u201d he said, adding that \u201csectors like gas and hydro are championing cheap energy costs and allowing for a new generation of long term mining to emerge.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\nRegulators target crypto risks\u00a0<\/span><\/h2>\n
Meta and Ticketmaster embrace NFTs<\/span><\/h2>\n
Crypto lenders attempt to address liquidity crises<\/span><\/h2>\n
Bitcoin mining difficulty leaps<\/span><\/h2>\n