Ethereum Shapella Upgrade Will Happen Today
The Shapella upgrade on Ethereum will take place today. With Shapella, exits from staking systems will be activated. Although the upgrade is still minutes away, the consequences of the upgrade are still being discussed. Glassnode published a forecast report on this issue, stating that only 253 validators will completely exit the Ether stake. He added that 170,000 of the 18.1 million stakes of Ether in total will be unlocked in the first week. Even in the most negative scenario, even if the maximum amount of ETH is staken out of the stake and sold, the sell side will not create as much volume as the average weekly stock market inflows.
US Inflation Data Will Be Released Today At 15.30
Inflation data (CPI) in the US will be released at 15.30 today. The market expectation is for inflation to fall from 6.0% to 5.2%. Consumer Price Index (CPI) data can have a big impact on the value of the dollar, which can lead to changes in the value of other assets, including Bitcoin. CPI data is considered an important indicator for the US Federal Reserve (FED) to guide interest rates and monetary policies. Therefore, the release of a lower-than-expected rate in the CPI data may increase the likelihood that the Fed will keep interest rates low and the dollar will depreciate. This can cause alternative assets such as Bitcoin to appreciate in value.
JPMorgan and Fidelity’s Shapella Predictions
JPMorgan expects that unlocked Ethers could create a selling pressure. The giant bank said it expects more than 1 million stakes to be unlocked, which will increase the likelihood of a sale. Furthermore, the JPMorgan researcher added that they expect the pressure could increase further if sales pressure from troubled organizations is added to the sales pressure they expect. On the Fidelity side, he expects the Shapella effect to be different. It shows that half of the Ether positions held in the stake are at a loss before the stake. Fidelity also reminded that most of the Ethereum in the stake is already staked with liquid staking tokens, which means that users can close these positions at any time, explaining that one third of the staked tokens are staked in this way.
Central Bank of Montenegro to Develop CBDC Pilot with Ripple
The Central Bank of Montenegro has announced that it will develop a decentralized digital currency (CBDC) pilot in collaboration with Ripple. The pilot project aims to test the tokenization of Montenegro’s currency and investigate the use cases of CBDC. The results of the project could determine Montenegro’s future digital currency strategy. Ripple will provide technology and infrastructure support during the development and implementation of the CBDC pilot. This step by the Central Bank of Montenegro can be seen as an example of the activities of central banks on digital currencies at a time when CBDCs are becoming increasingly common.
France Introduces New Metaverse Project
Local metaverse startups in France are coming together to fight against the supremacy of the digital giants. While traditional metaverse platforms are considered to have the upper hand when it comes to creating and managing virtual worlds, these local initiatives aim to create customized virtual worlds that appeal to small communities. These local metaverse projects, in collaboration with partners from different industries, take care of the collection of user data and the decentralization of the platforms. The success of these initiatives is coming into the limelight at a time when digitalization is gaining momentum, with the growing demand for more customized and diversified virtual experiences for communities. However, these projects are smaller in scale than traditional metaverse platforms and face difficulties in terms of funding.
Why is TRON Losing Value?
TRON lost a great deal of value after lawsuits were filed against its founder Justin Sun by US regulators and the SEC, but it returned to its former levels within a two-day period. Justin Sun is accused in the US of unregistered securities sales, fraud and market manipulation. The biggest reason for the decline in TRON yesterday was that the Binance.US announced that it would delist TRON due to regulatory developments. TRON lost close to 7% of its value after the announcement.
Tether Blacklists Validator Address That Attracts $25 Million MEV Bots
Stablecoin provider Tether has announced that MEV (Miner Extractable Value) bots, which decentralized exchanges use to provide liquidity, were hacked for $25 million by an address. Tether announced that it had blacklisted the hacking address in response to the fact that it blocked Tether wallets and damaged Tether’s stability. This step is among the measures that Tether has taken to protect the security of users and the value of the stablecoin. The use of MEV bots has seen a huge increase in the decentralized finance (DeFi) space recently, and this attack has caused more concerns about the security of MEV bots.
Warren and AOC questioned Circle and BlockFi about doing business with the SVB.
U.S. Senator Elizabeth Warren and Representative Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez have questioned whether crypto companies like Circle and BlockFi do business with Silicon Valley Bank (SVB). Warren and Ocasio-Cortez argued that the SVB should refrain from serving cryptocurrency exchanges that pose a risk of fraud. Circle CEO Jeremy Allaire and BlockFi CEO Zac Prince responded to letters drafted by Warren and Ocasio-Cortez, detailing their companies’ compliance programs and audit processes. The SVB not only provides banking services to many crypto companies operating in the US, but is also a banking partner of Coinbase. These inquiries by Warren and Ocasio-Cortez continue to increase with the tightening of the legal regulations of the crypto money industry.
BITCOIN [BTC]
Bitcoin is pricing at $ 29,929 with a loss of 0.88% as of the morning hours today. After Bitcoin reached the 30,500 level, we see that the price has returned to the 29,800 level and has started to see a support from here. We think that the upcoming US inflation data and the effects of Ethereum staking and the FOMC Minutes will be quite critical and could have a big impact on pricing. While the expectation of inflation is a decline to 5.2%, a rise in data below the expectation may bring. In this case, we can watch the breakdown of the $30,000 region in Bitcoin, which will be quite difficult to break. We would like to remind you that before the data, more horizontal movements and small selling pressures can be seen in the whole market and large needles can be left upwards and downwards just before the inflation data, so attention should be paid to the stop and profit buying zones.
SUPPORTS 29.629 / 29.388 / 28.947
RESISTANCES 30.311 / 30.752 / 30.993
ETHEREUM [ETH]
ETH, which lost 1.28% of its value as of the morning hours, is priced at $ 1865. We see that Ethereum has seen a huge selling pressure after the rise to the 1930 resistance and has retreated to the 1855 support. We know that there are differences between expectations before the Shapella development to be held in the evening on Ethereum and that there are important companies with two-way expectations. Regardless of all of them, we think that investors using the sell strategy may create some more selling pressure with the news after the development of ETH, especially the 1840 level.
SUPPORTS 29.702 / 29.276 / 28.904
RESISTANCES 30.500 / 30.872 / 31.298
AVALANCHE [AVAX]
AWAX is trading at $17.78, down 1.93% as of the morning today. After the positive divergence seen yesterday in AVAX, we saw an upward break of the 17.90 and 18.30 levels. However, with the Ethereum-centric pullback, AVAX also fell below 17.90 again and although it tried to break down to the upside, it has not yet been able to rise above the resistance level. If there is no breakdown in AVAX, we can say that the price may fall to 17.20 levels.
SUPPORTS 29.702 / 29.276 / 28.904
RESISTANCES 30.500 / 30.872 / 31.298