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The crypto market once again remained largely stagnant over the last seven days, due to continued uncertainty over expected Fed interest rate hikes. 

Bitcoin is currently trading at under $20,000, as its increasingly close correlation with equities continues. Much like bitcoin’s wobble, the Nasdaq and S&P closed 3.25% and 2.7% down, reflecting yet another tough week for markets.

Ether has fared slightly better, trading now at $1,560, roughly the same as last week. This likely reflects bullishness around the upcoming Merge, coming up fast on September 15th. 

While the Fed’s hawkish approach is no doubt impacting sentiment, we have also entered September, statistically one of the most difficult investing months. Add to this the news that the EU’s Markets in Crypto Assets (MiCA) regulation could be ready sooner than expected, potentially in just six weeks, and it’s not hard to see why uncertainty remains. 
 

Could The Merge make Ether environmentally friendlier?

With The Merge just over a week away and the Beacon upgrade due today, many are now starting to speculate as to how the blockchain will operate (and how successfully) moving forward. However, some analysts now expect the switch to ‘proof of stake’ to lower its energy consumption, potentially by 99%. For context, this would equate to the electricity consumption of Portugal. 

While this is just a hypothesis for now, as no proof of stake networks (Cardano, Solana) exist on the scale that Ethereum will be operating on, it will leave Bitcoin as the remaining largest ‘proof of work’ network.
 

Plastic California no more

California is officially the US’ most crypto-inquisitive state, according to CoinGecko. Looking at searches relating to bitcoin and ether, California accounted for 43% of US traffic on the site, despite the state representing only 12% of the US population. 

Illinois and New York took second and third place, lagging Silicon Valley’s home state by some margin. Bitcoin searches far outweighed ether across the country, except for in four states (Colorado, Wisconsin, New Jersey, and Florida), where the second largest cryptoasset garnered more attention.

While California’s dominance may not be surprising as a tech/blockchain hub and home to scientific institutions, it’s clear from the research that interest in crypto is still concentrated. It will be interesting to see how this spreads and if more assets are captured – then, perhaps, we might be able to see a more realistic pattern of interest and activity. 
 

LG brings NFTs to your living room

LG is following Samsung into the NFT arena by launching LG Art Lab, which lets you “buy, sell and enjoy high-quality digital artwork” from your TV.

While only available for users in the US for now, it will allow TV owners to log in via a portal and view digital artwork. These will be available via LG’s ‘NFT drops’, the first of which is slated for September 22nd. 

This increased accessibility demonstrates how far NFTs have come in so little time - piercing the zeitgeist and seemingly becoming as normal as watching TV. With Samsung and now LG leading the way, it will be interesting to see how this trend develops, and how users interact with this new feature.

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