The Ethereum Merger: With Success, Coinbase Illuminates Politicians as Crypto-Friendly, and Dogecoin Becomes the Second Largest Proof-of-Work Coin. These stories and more this week in crypto.
Ethereum Merger Successful
The long-awaited “Merge” of the Ethereum network was successfully executed on Thursday, September 15th. This completes Ethereum’s transition from a proof-of-work to a proof-of-stake consensus, reducing network power consumption by 99.95%.
In an effort to make history, one user paid $60,000, or about 36 Ether in fees, to mint the first NFT on Ethereum after the merger. This non-fungible token became the first to be minted with the network governed by the proof-of-stake consensus algorithm.
White House cryptographic framework published
Citing crypto’s potential for misuse, while noting its growing role in global finance, the White House has just released its first framework for what crypto regulation should look like in the US. The framework describes how the financial services industry should evolve to facilitate borderless transactions and how to crack down on fraud in the digital asset space.
Coinbase Tool Shows Crypto Sentiment
Coinbase users will be able to see which US politicians are “crypto-friendly” with a new tool built into the app. the ad on Twitter from CEO Brian Armstrong. The tool shows how different members of Congress measure their crypto sentiment, which can range from “very positive” to “very negative.”
Tornado cash funds can be reclaimed
US residents can now request the recovery of blocked funds from Tornado Cash, the Ethereum “mixer” that was blacklisted by the Treasury Department last month due to allegations that hackers from North Korea used it to launder funds. Although the funds of legitimate users were blocked and the legal position to sanction decentralized software was questionable, the sanction caused a backlash from the crypto industry.
Arrest warrant for Do Kwon
A South Korean court has issued an arrest warrant against Do Kwon, the lead developer of the Luna and TerraUSD cryptocurrencies, whose spectacular collapse in May sent the crypto market crashing. Kwon, the founder of Terraform Labs, has been accused of fraud by investors in the wake of the collapse.
China: Cryptocurrency trading is prohibited, property is protected
In a landmark case, the Beijing People’s Court ruled that even though China bans cryptocurrency trading, ownership of crypto is still protected by law. The court said that crypto should be considered virtual property and explained that no law, administrative regulation or departmental regulation denies the protection of cryptocurrency itself as virtual property.
Asia leading crypto adoption
A new report shows that China has returned to the list of top 10 countries for crypto adoption after falling off the list last year. The APAC region accounted for six of the top 10 countries in the index, with Vietnam topping the list for the second consecutive year, with more than 20% of Vietnamese consumers using or owning crypto assets.
The second largest PoW Crypto is Dogecoin
Following the Ethereum merger, meme-inspired cryptocurrency Dogecoin is now officially the second largest proof-of-work crypto in terms of market cap. Bitcoin, of course, remains ahead of Dogecoin’s market cap of $7.83 billion. However, the well-followed memecoin is still comfortably ahead of the rest of the major proof-of-work cryptos, such as Ethereum Classic, Litecoin, and Monero.
That’s what happened this week in crypto, see you next week.
