Crypto Flipsider News – Fidelity Offer Bitcoin; ETH Falls; Ravencoin Gains 85%; Privacy Coins Delisted; Ethereum PoW Launch By DailyCoin

Read in the Digest:

• Fidelity Investment to allow 34 million retail investors to buy (BTC)

• (ETH) slips as traders hedge against ETH amidst investment product outflows

• Ravencoin (RVN) jumps 85% ahead of the merge, (LUNA) falls back

• Huobi delists seven privacy tokens, including MONERO (XMR) and ZCash (ZEC) over regulatory pressure

• Ethereum Proof-of-Work (ETHW) Team Releases Plans for Mainnet Launch

Fidelity Investment to Allow 34 Million Retail Investors to Buy Bitcoin (BTC)

Pro-bitcoin financial giant, Fidelity Investments is considering rolling out an option that will allow its 34 million individual brokerage customers to buy and trade bitcoin (BTC) via its online brokerage.

In the recent panel discussion at the SALT New York conference, Mike Novogratz, CEO of crypto investment firm Galaxy Digital, said he had heard that Fidelity Investment was moving to offer crypto to its retail customers.

According to the report, the move is sparked by BlackRock’s recent partnership with Coinbase (NASDAQ:) to offer crypto trading to its institutional customers.

Fidelity investment has an app that allows retail investors to manage their investments from their phones. However, the asset manager is yet to share details of the plans with its customers.

Flipsider:

• Fidelity’s plans to allow corporate clients to add bitcoin to the 401(k) attracted criticisms from the U.S. Labor Department and multiple U.S. senators.

Why You Should Care

The possible move from Fidelity highlights the increasing interest in crypto from Wall Street in a year where the markets have registered huge losses.

Ethereum (ETH) Slips as Traders Hedge Against ETH Amidst Investment Product Outflows

Ethereum’s blistering rally above $1,700 has cooled down as uncertainty increases ahead of the Merge. After trading as high as $1,782, the price of ETH fell to $1,669 losing more than 4.5% in the last 24 hours.

The 24 hours price chart for Ethereum (ETH). Source: CoinMarketCap

On-chain data shows that the funding rates of ETH perpetual futures contracts diverged sharply over the weekend. One of the major concerns of the merge has been the possibility of centralization on the PoS Ethereum chain.

Jason A. Williams, a founding partner of Morgan Creek Digital Assets, has criticized the PoS Ethereum chain. According to Williams, “a 51% attack on ETH 2.0 has already happened,” due to a few top individuals controlling over 51% of all Ethers (ETH) locked.

To further worsen the sentiments, CoinShares has reported massive outflows for Ethereum-based investment products. According to the report, over $61.6 million have been pulled from ETH ahead of the merge.

Flipsider:

• Bank of America (NYSE:) said in a research report Friday that the success of the Ethereum merge could lead to greater institutional adoption of the Ether.

Why You Should Care

The Ethereum merge is one of the most-anticipated crypto events which is expected to send ripples through the broader crypto

Ravencoin (RVN) Jumps 85% Ahead of the Merge, Terra (LUNA) Falls Back

As the merge approaches, Ethereum miners have been migrating to alternative networks to continue mining. One of the prefered destinations for ETH miners has been Ravencoin, helping RVN embark on a major rally.

The 24 hours price chart for Ravencoin (RVN). Source: CoinMarketCap

Ravencoin (RVN) is today’s biggest gainer, rising more than +14.5% to hit an interday high of $0.07323. Over the last seven days, the price of RVN has spiked by more than 85%, as it traded as low as $0.039 last week.

The 7 days price chart for Ravencoin (RVN). Source: CoinMarketCap

Flipsider:

• Terra (LUNA), which held the position of the top-performing crypto, posting gains of more than 200%, is now today’s top loser.
• The price of Terra’s LUNA has fallen 18% today and more than 48% since last Friday’s sudden surge to trade at $3.9 from a high of $7.09.
• The surge was built on renewed promises of sustainable development on the blockchain.

The 24 hours price chart for Terra (LUNA). Source: CoinMarketCap

Why You Should Care

The recent crypto market decline is worsened by the recent consumer price index (CPI) report which shows that inflation is worse than experts predicted.

Huobi Delists Seven Privacy Tokens, Including Monero (XMR) and Zcash (ZEC) Over Regulatory Pressure

Seychelles-based cryptocurrency exchange, Huobi announced on Monday, September 12, that it will be delisting seven privacy-focused tokens amid rising regulatory concern worldwide.

Huobi had halted spot and futures trading for Monero (XMR), (DSH), Decred (DCR), Firo (FIRO), Verge (XVG), Zcash (ZEC) and Horizen (ZEN) on September 6. The exchange said it will completely delist these privacy tokens by September 19.

In the statement, the exchange noted that its decision is an attempt to protect users’ assets, and comply with the latest financial regulations in over 100 countries in which its services as well as its company’s Token Management Rules.

The transactions of privacy-focused tokens are almost impossible for third parties to track. Article 17(16) of Huobi’s law says “trading concealment or suspension,” mandates the company to cancel or suspend any tokens that lack offline signatures and the node source code are not open-sourced.

Flipsider:

• Huobi is planning to move into the United States (where Tornado Cash was sanctioned) market after acquiring a Money Services Business (MSB) license in July 2022.

Why You Should Care

Privacy tokens have come under intense scrutiny, and the move will make it increasingly difficult for cryptocurrency-based privacy technologies to thrive.

Ethereum Proof-of-Work (ETHW) Team Releases Plans for Mainnet Launch

The team behind EthereumPoW (ETHW), a hard fork of Ethereum to retain its proof-of-work (PoW) consensus, has published its plan detailing how the mainnet will be activated following the Ethereum merge.

According to the Ethereum PoW team, the ETHW mainnet will go live 24 hours after the merge is completed. The team says it will launch a countdown timer 1 hour before the launch to prepare for its hard fork.

The ETHW mainnet will begin at 2048 empty blocks beyond the Merge block and blocks will begin activation on +2049 and beyond. The initial mining difficulty for the ETHW mainnet is estimated to be around 220 T or a hash rate of 15 TH/s.

developer Igor Artamonov suspects that the reason for the launch of the EthereumPoW mainnet after the merger is to ensure the safety of the chain. The ETHW has also gotten support from the likes of Justin Sun, and exchanges including Poloniex, Bitfinex, and Coinbase.

Flipsider:

• Anthony Di Lorio, one of Ethereum’s co-founders, has said that Ethereum’s migration to PoS would push other PoW hard forks to the side.

Why You Should Care

The Merge is expected to hold on September 15th and will transition Ethereum to the faster, more energy-efficient PoS consensus mechanism. However, the idea to remain on PoW has stuck with miners who would want to continue their profitable ETH mining.

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