How deflationary is Ethereum now?

DAILY CONQUEST #084

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Overview

Markets tumble while ATOM climbs.
How is Coinbase looking to influence politics?
Has Ethereum become more centralized?

Good morning Fam,

The Ethereum Merge has transpired, and the high emissions to miners are long gone. So how deflationary is Ethereum now? What’s its case as ultra-sound money? Let’s explore.

Firstly, I’m not the only one excited about ETH’s deflationary mechanics. Here’s what Arthur Hayes had to say:

ETH/USD 1D

Maybe the Merge was a “buy the rumor, sell the news event.” Or maybe, it’s just a hangover. Whatever the case, Ether (ETH) fell considerably despite its successful upgrade to proof-of-stake (PoS). ETH price nears a $1430 support level with a good amount of momentum after falling to $1474, down -10.00% yesterday.

BTC/USDT 1D

Bitcoin (BTC) price continues to trek lower while volume continues to increase. The trip to the $19.2k support seems a strong likelihood. According to his analyses, Bitcoin trader Willy Woo tweeted about the possibility of BTC reaching a low of $9100. BTC completed the daily candle down -2.59% to $19,700.

High-resolution chart

ATOM/USD 1D

Behind increasing amounts of users, stakers, and TVL, the Cosmos Hub (ATOM) continues to climb upwards. The ATOM token has been in a clear uptrend for nearly 90 days with little signs of slowing down. As a result, ATOM completed the daily candle up +6.71% to $14.91. Some notable projects with native chains on Cosmos are Kujira (KUJI), Evmos (EVMOS), Juno (JUNO), and Osmosis (OSMO).

High-resolution chart

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Coinbase adds a politician-tracking “policy efforts” feature on the trading app. In a tweet early Thursday morning, CEO Brian Armstrong introduced a new feature on the Coinbase app that tracks the crypto-friendliness of each US politician. In addition, Armstrong wants to help pro-crypto candidates solicit donations for the Coinbase community. Armstrong stated,” Crypto advocacy is very important for our mission of increasing economic freedom in the world, and Coinbase will do its part to help.”

FTX leads the bid to buy Voyager’s digital assets. Crypto lender and exchange Voyager filed for bankruptcy earlier in the year after the drawdown in crypto markets led to the liquidation of many of its positions. The firm rejected FTX’s offer to purchase Voyager’s assets a month later. The preceding bankruptcy litigation led to an auction in which FTX currently leads. The offer amount is unknown.

Ethereum is showing signs of centralization. According to Martin Koppelmann, co-founder of Gnosis, hours after the Merge event, two validator entities created 40% of Ethereum PoS blocks: Coinbase and Lido Ether validator staking services. The large percentage of block creation brings the question of centralization to the Ethereum network. Furthermore, the tweet featured a pole in which 75% of the voters agreed that “This needs to change.”

News tidbits:

stETH is near recovering the peg to ETH after staked ETH surges post-merge.
CFTC is prepared to be crypto’s regulatory watchdog.
Binance Labs increases investment into Aptos Labs.

Seventeen seconds into the Merge, the first NFT, “The Transition,” was minted on the Ethereum PoS blockchain and cost 36.8 ETH in transaction fees.
Fortnite’s creator Epic Games store…