Decentral Block Post

Guido Cannetti, an Argentinian Ultimate Fighting Championship (UFC) fighter, is now the first martial arts athlete in the country to receive 100% of his salary in stablecoins, amid rising inflation and Argentina's economic deteriorating, announced the crypto payroll company Bitwage on Monday.

Dubbed El Ninja, he returns to the Octagon on October 1st in the United States to face the local fighter Randy Costa. According to Bitwage, Guido will receive his payment in USDC stablecoin via the Stellar Network on Vibrant, a wallet application developed by the Stellar team specifically for Argentines experiencing inflation.

As per official government figures', inflation in the 12 months through August was 78.5% in the country, whereas prices in the first eight months of the year were up 56.4%. Argentina's central bank predicted a 95% inflation rate for the year, while some private analysts forecasted a 100% inflation rate in 2022.

“I am getting paid in USDC because it is safer for my future,” said Cannetti in a statement released by Bitwage, noting that stablecoins will spare him from the volatility and devaluation of local currency.

Among Argentine consumers surveyed by Americas Market Intelligence in April, 51% purchased crypto and 27% regularly bought cryptocurrencies, up from 12% adoption at the end of 2021. Inflation protection is the primary reason for 67% of respondents' purchases of cryptocurrencies.

ETHW has logged a significant price rebound despite its blockchain network, ETHPoW, suffering a smart contract hack in the first week after its launch.

Bull trap risks surround ETHW market

ETHW rebounded more than 150% eight days after the attack and traded for around $10.30 on Sept. 27.

Fundamentally, this suggests that traders ignored the hack and trusted ETHPoW's long-term viability as a blockchain project.

But from a technical perspective, the ETHW price rally has accompanied weaker trading volumes. In other words, fewer traders have been involved in the pumping of the ETHPoW token's price in the past eight days, as the Bitfinex exchange data shows in the chart below.

The growing divergence between ETHW's rising prices and falling trading volumes suggests that traders' interest in the ETHPoW token has been dwindling. In other words, ETHW's price risks a sharp correction in the coming days.

Interoperability-focused blockchain network Cosmos has dropped a new whitepaper proposing a revamped Cosmos Hub aimed at strengthening interoperability and security, along with key changes to its native ATOM token. 

The new Cosmos whitepaper was released on Monday at the Cosmoverse conference in Medellin, Colombia. The upgrades outlined in the whitepaper are still technically in “proposal” status but changes are expected to be made on-chain on Oct. 3.

Cosmos is an ecosystem of blockchains designed to scale and interoperate with each other. Cosmos Hub was the first blockchain to be built on Cosmos, which initially served as an intermediary between other interconnected blockchains.

The ATOM token is used to transact within the Cosmos ecosystem, which can also be used for governance and staking purposes.

Under the proposed changes, Cosmos will become a more interoperable, decentralized, and secure ecosystem.

The United Kingdom is in focus following the British pound’s fall to a new all-time low against the United States dollar. The sell-off was triggered by the aggressive tax cuts announced by Prime Minister Liz Truss’s government. The 10-year gilt yields have soared by 131 basis points in September, on track for its biggest monthly increase since 1957, according to Reuters.

The currency crisis and the soaring U.S dollar index (DXY) may not be good news for U.S. equities and the cryptocurrency markets. A ray of hope for Bitcoin (BTC) investors is that the pace of decline has slowed down in the past few days and the June low has not yet been re-tested.

That could be because Bitcoin’s long-term investors do not seem to be panicking. Data from on-chain analytics firm Glassnode shows that Bitcoin’s Coin Days Destroyed (CDD) metric, which gives more weightage to coins dormant for a long time, hit a new low. This indicates that coins held for the long-term “are the most dormant they have ever been.”

Could Bitcoin and altcoins continue their short-term outperformance? Let’s study the charts of the top-10 cryptocurrencies to find out.

BTC/USDT

The bulls continue to defend the $18,626 to $17,622 support zone with all their might. This is a positive sign as it shows that buyers are accumulating on dips to the support zone.

Cardano's (ADA) long-awaited Vasil update went live on Sept. 22, which promises to make its blockchain more scalable and cheaper than before. However, this has failed to bring bullish momentum to the ADA market.

Sell-the-news hampers Cardano

ADA's price has dropped by approximately 9.5% since the update and was changing hands for $0.43 on Sept. 26. The ADA/USD pair's drop was accompanied by a rejection candlestick on its daily price chart, confirmed by a brief rally to $0.48 on the day of the fork and a sharp correction thereafter.

ADA bulls' muted reaction to the successful Vasil update is similar to what transpired across the Ether (ETH) market after Ethereum's Merge.

In other words, a buy the rumor, sell the news event, resembling most of Cardano's previous hard forks, which have a history of preceding ADA price crashes, as shown below.

In addition, macro risks led by a very hawkish Federal Reserve also weighed down ADA's bullish expectations post-Vasil.

The market capitalization of USD Coin (USDC), a stablecoin issued by U.S.-based payment tech firm Circle, has dropped below $50 billion for the first time since January 2022.

On the weekly chart, USDC's market cap, which reflects the number of U.S. dollar-backed tokens in circulation, fell to $49.39 billion on Sep. 26, down almost 12% from its record high of $55.88 billion, established merely three months ago. 

In contrast, the market cap of Tether (USDT), which risked losing its top stablecoin position to USDC in May, crossed above $68 billion on Sep. 26, albeit still down 17.4% from its record high of $82.33 billion in May 2022.

The divergence between USDT and USDC shows investors' renewed preference for the former. Let's take a look at the factors boosting Tether as the top stablecoin.

Binance's USDC suspension

Binance, the world's largest cryptocurrency exchange by volume, announced earlier in September that it would convert its users' USDC balances for its own stablecoin, Binance USD (BUSD). The conversion will commence on Sep. 29 and does not apply to USDT.

To support the Terra community’s efforts to revive the Terra LUNA Classic (LUNC) token, crypto exchange Binance announced an off-chain burning mechanism last week. However, after receiving mixed reactions from community members, the exchange revised its burning approach. 

On Sept. 23, Binance CEO Changpeng Zhao wrote that the exchange will create an optional 1.2% tax when trading LUNC. Zhao added that they will roll out the 1.2% tax for all LUNC trading if traders who opt-in to pay the tax reach 50% of the total LUNC trading volume on the exchange, leaving the decision to users.

However, days after the post, Zhao laid out the flaws of their previous plan. Because of this, Binance announced a revised method to support the revival of LUNC. According to Zhao, the exchange will now completely burn all the trading fees that it will collect from its LUNC/BUSD and LUNC/USDT spot and margin trading pairs. The fees collected will be converted into LUNC and sent to LUNC's official burning address.

Through this, the Binance CEO believes that the exchange will be able to contribute to decreasing the supply of LUNC and be "fair" to all users.

Related: Exchanges criticized for 'nothingburger PR' posts on upcoming LUNC tax burn

Crypto exchange Coinbase has found itself in legal hot water after being accused by blockchain-based software firm Veritaseum Capital of infringing on a patent relating to its blockchain technology — and is now seeking $350 million in damages. 

According to a lawsuit filed on Thursday by U.S. law firm Brundidge & Stanger in the U.S. District Court in Delaware, Veritaseum alleges that Coinbase infringed on its cryptocurrency payment transfer technology patent, known as the “566 Patent.”

Veritaseum said the patent revolves around “novel devices, systems and methods” which enable parties to “enforce value transfer agreements” with “little or no trust” in each other, alleging Coinbase used this for many of its blockchain infrastructure services:

“Defendant’s infringing activities include but are not limited to its website [...] Coinbase Android mobile wallet [...] iOS mobile wallet [...] its Coinbase Cloud, Coinbase Commerce APIs, Query and Transact, Participate, Delegate and Validator software, Coinbase Pay, Coinbase Wallet and Coinbase Operated Public Validators.”

The law firm also explained that the patent is applicable with proof-of-stake (PoS) and proof-of-work (PoW) blockchains, which could enable the transfer of cryptocurrency payments, trading and staking services on chains supported by those consensus mechanisms.

The major United States stock market indices continued their decline last week as worsening macroeconomic conditions increased concerns of a global recession. The Dow Jones Industrial Average closed at its lowest level in 2022 and major indices recorded their fifth weekly close in the past six weeks.

Although Bitcoin (BTC) has only declined marginally this week, it risks closing at the lowest level since 2020. While a new multi-year weekly close is a negative sign, sellers will have to sustain the lower levels or else it may turn out to be a bear trap. The price action of the next few days is likely to witness heightened volatility as both the bulls and the bears battle it out for supremacy.

Several investors miss opportunities to buy during sharp corrections because they try to catch the bottom. Traders should rather focus on the projects they like and accumulate the coins in a phased manner lasting a few weeks or months. All coins do not bottom at the same time, hence it is better to focus on individual cryptocurrencies that show strength.

While Bitcoin is nearing its yearly lows, certain altcoins are holding up well. Let’s look at the charts of five cryptocurrencies that look interesting in the near term.

BTC/USDT

The Bitcoin bulls have successfully defended the $18,626 to $17,622 support zone in the past few days but they continue to face strong selling at the 20-day exponential moving average ($19,720). This suggests that bears continue to sell on minor rallies.

Bitcoin (BTC) headed for its lowest weekly close since 2020 on Sep. 25 as a week of macro turmoil took its toll.

Trader prepares for "important week" for BTC

Data from Cointelegraph Markets Pro and TradingView showed BTC/USD trading near $19,000 with hours left to run on the weekly candle.

While only down $400 since the week began, the pair offered traders little optimism amid fears that the coming days would continue the bleedout across risk assets.

“The whole week traded within the monday range. Weekly close gonna be bearish, looking like a pin bar,” popular trading account Crypto Yoddha told Twitter followers in a summary post.

“Also consolidating at the range low. So need a bounce first before taking a position. Next week is gonna be important. (Q3 close + Monthly close).”

The infamous collapse of the Terra ecosystem, which erased market prices of TerraUSD (UST) and LUNA tokens, continues to trouble anxious investors as co-founder Do Kwon, crypto exchanges and the community together tries to identify the best route for a sustainable price recovery.

Most recently, Changpeng ‘CZ’ Zhao, the CEO of crypto exchange Binance, recommended a flat 1.2% trading tax on LUNC trades that could be burned to reduce the token’s total supply and improve its price performance. Addressing the community, CZ stated:

“We will implement an opt-in button (on the Binance exchange), for people to opt-in to pay a 1.2% tax for their LUNC trading.”

However, the exchange would begin the taxation for opt-in traders following the consensus of 25% of the LUNC investors, making sure that early adopters “are not the only few paying an extra 1.2%.”

A blanket trading tax of 1.2% will be implemented for all LUNC trading only after opt-in traders reach 50% of the total LUNC trading volume on the exchange.

It's a question that's infatuated scientists for decades: how can we prolong life expectancy — giving humans everywhere more years of good health?

This field is known as longevity science, and within this industry, experts argue care which regards ageing as a normal but treatable ailment are rare — and of the approaches available, they can only be accessed by those who are highly educated and privileged.

Just some of the key tenets that govern this approach to medicine involve therapeutics, personalized medicine, predictive diagnostics and artificial intelligence. The goal is to eliminate a "one size fits all" attitude toward treatment, and ensure that therapies are customized to an individual's unique medical profile. This can matter in many different ways — to the best method for tackling cancer, to the food we eat and our risk of heart disease.

And while predictive diagnostics offers an existing way of unlocking better patient outcomes, this often hinges upon using large amounts of anonymized data to determine what's happened in the past, and how greater levels of success are achieved in the future.

The S&P 500 index has declined about 5% this week while the Nasdaq Composite is down more than 5.5%. Investors fear that the Federal Reserve’s aggressive rate hikes could cause an economic downturn. The yield curve between the two-year and 10-year Treasury notes, which is watched closely by analysts for predicting a recession, has inverted the most since the year 2000. 

Among all the mayhem, it is encouraging to see that Bitcoin (BTC) has outperformed both the major indices and has fallen less than 4% in the week. Could this be a sign that Bitcoin’s bottom may be close by?

On-chain data shows that the amount of Bitcoin supply held by long-term holders in losses reached about 30%, which is 2% to 5% below the level that coincided with Bitcoin’s bottom in March 2020 and December 2018. This metric suggests that Bitcoin could have more room to fall before it bottoms out.

Let’s study the charts of the S&P 500 index, the U.S. dollar index (DXY) and the major cryptocurrencies to determine whether the trend will continue or if a reversal is likely.

SPX

The S&P 500 index (SPX) broke below the 3,900 support on Sept. 16 and the bears successfully defended the level on retests on Sept. 17 and 21. Hence, this becomes an important level to keep an eye on as a break above 3,900 will be the first sign that bulls are on a comeback.

Crypto prices keep falling, but why? This year’s market crash has turned most winning portfolios into net losers, and new investors are probably losing hope in Bitcoin (BTC).

Investors know that cryptocurrencies exhibit higher than average volatility, but this year’s drawdown has been extreme. After hitting a stratospheric all-time high at $69,400, Bitcoin price crumbled over the next 11 months to an unexpected yearly low at $17,600.

That’s a nearly 75% drawdown in value.

Ether (ETH), the largest altcoin by market capitalization, also saw an 82% correction as its price tumbled from $4,800 to $900 in seven months.

Years of historical data show that drawdowns in the 55%–85% range are the norm after parabolic bull market rallies, but the factors weighing on crypto prices today differ from those that triggered sell-offs in the past.

XRP price posted a sharp rally against Bitcoin (BTC) on continued optimism about a potential settlement between Ripple, a San Francisco-based blockchain payment firm, and the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC).

Settlement rumors fuel XRP price boom 

On Sep. 23, the XRP/BTC pair surged to 0.00002877 — its best level in 13 months — from 0.00002132, a 35% price rally versus Bitcoin in one day. Meanwhile, the same timeframe saw XRP rising as much as 42% against the U.S. dollar.

The big price leaps in the XRP market started appearing after Ripple and SEC filed motions for a summary judgment with the court on Sep. 12 regarding their ongoing legal battle over allegations that Ripple committed securities fraud.

In other words, Ripple and SEC agreed that the court should use available evidence to reach a verdict by December 2022 on whether the blockchain firm illegally raised funds by selling XRP, and thus avoiding trial. 

XRP's price has boomed approximately 75% and 60% versus Bitcoin and the dollar, respectively, since Ripple's court filing, fueled by optimism of a possible win for Ripple.