Decentral Block Post

The crypto community is having a field day mocking a new Celsius-themed Monopoly board game named “Celsiusopoly,” which has emerged on a United States-based online e-commerce marketplace. 

The announcement of the Celsius-themed board game came from the marketplace’s head of sales and partnerships, Stephanie Martin, who said the planning and production of the Monopoly spin-off came on the back of “months and months” of hard work.

According to the marketplace’s website, the Celsiusopoly board game is selling for $99.00, and some sales have reportedly already been made.

However, the ill-timed release of the board game has seen the crypto community relentlessly mocking the crypto-lender-themed product, with one Twitter user questioning:

“Who actually thought this would be a good idea... ? You have no respect for all people that lost their life or are in deep financial hardship cause of Celsius.”

The crypto industry has seen more than a 26% reduction in weekly active developers over the last three months amid a prolonged market slump, the latest data shows. 

According to Blockchain data aggregator Artemis, the four leading smart contract platforms — Ethereum, Polkadot, Solana and Cosmos — experienced even higher drop-off, clocking 30.5%, 43.6%, 48.4% and 48.9%, respectively, reductions in developer activity over the last three months. 

Interestingly, decentralized data storage protocol Interplanetary File System (IPFS) and blockchain network Internet Computer were among the few top smart contract platforms to have seen growth throughout this period, with increases of 206.6% and 21.7%, respectively.

Blockchain developers are primarily responsible for designing blockchain architecture, maintaining and upgrading infrastructure and building smart contracts that power decentralized applications (DApps).

Blockchain developer activity is considered one of the most important metrics for the success of a smart contract platform, as one that lacks developers will likely struggle to grow.

Polygon Chief Security Officer Mudit Gupta has urged Web3 companies to hire traditional security experts to put an end to easily preventable hacks, arguing that perfect code and cryptography are not enough. 

Speaking to Cointelegraph, Gupta outlined that several of the recent hacks in crypto were ultimately a result of Web2 security vulnerabilities such as private key management and phishing attacks to gain logins, rather than poorly designed blockchain tech.

Adding to his point, Gupta emphasized that getting a certified smart contract security audit without adopting standard Web2 cybersecurity practices is not sufficient to protect a protocol and user's wallets from being exploited:

“I've been pushing at least all of the major companies to get a dedicated security person who actually knows that key management is important.”

“You have API keys that are used for decades and decades. So there are proper best practices and procedures one should be following. To keep these keys secure. There should be proper audit trail logging and proper risk management around these things. But as we've seen these crypto companies just ignored all of it,” he added.

Bitcoin (BTC) could dive another 50% from current levels if the upcoming winter proves a major test for Europe.

That was the conclusion of a veteran crypto market analyst this week, with BTC/USD failing to reclaim $20,000 support.

In an interview with Cointelegraph, Filbfilb, creator of trading suite Decentrader, forecast a potential BTC price bottom coming in at as low  $10,000 in 2022.

As the European energy crisis intensifies, risk assets face a major test, he believes, and the extent to which crypto suffers depends considerably on how diplomacy can win out to avert a major emergency into 2023.

The figures are not just pie in the sky; at the height of the last halving cycle’s bear market in 2018, Filbfilb perfectly timed the market bottom as BTC/USD put in a floor of $3,100.

After trading near the $20,000 level for several days, Bitcoin (BTC) turned down sharply and dropped below $19,000 on Sept. 6. The fall was not limited to the cryptocurrency markets as the United States equities markets also closed lower on Sept. 6.

Risky assets have been facing selling pressure in the past few days as investors are worried that the Federal Reserve could continue with its aggressive tightening policy. 

The CME FedWatch Tool shows that the probability for a 75 basis point rate hike in the September meeting has risen to 80% from 69% a week back. This extended the rise in the U.S. dollar index (DXY), which closed above 110 on Sept. 6.

The U.S. equities markets and the cryptocurrency markets are attempting a relief rally on Sept. 7 but the recovery is likely to sustain only after the DXY shows signs of topping out.

Although the bear market has been brutal, it is an encouraging sign to see that venture capital firms have continued to plow money into cryptocurrency and blockchain companies. According to a KPMG report released on Sept. 6, the total investments in the first half of 2022 by these firms hit $14.2 billion, which comes after the record $32.1 billion investments made in 2021.

Cardano (ADA) will undergo a major network update called "Vasil" on Sept. 22, potentially making its blockchain more scalable and cheaper. Nonetheless, the news has failed to spark any decisive upside momentum in ADA's market.

Macro factors weigh on ADA's best upside scenario

In detail, ADA's price has risen approximately 3.5% to $0.51 since the Vasil launch announcement, including a circa 14% rally followed by its near-perfect wipeout. In other words, traders initially bought the Vasil hype but were quick to exit markets, as illustrated by the price action below.

Cardano Founder Charles Hoskinson blamed "macro factors" for ADA's underperformance despite the Vasil euphoria, noting that the crypto markets, on the whole, are "disconnected from reality." He added:

"Cardano has never been stronger and frankly many other projects are also solid across the industry, yet you don't see that reflected — just a sea of red."

The statements appeared as riskier assets prepared for another deep plunge in the days leading up to the Federal Open Market Committee's (FOMC) meeting on Sept. 20 through Sept. 21.

Australia’s ministerial department of Treasury reached out to the public to seek consultation regarding draft legislation that would exclude cryptocurrencies from being taxed as a foreign currency if passed.

In a press release, Assistant Treasurer Stephen Jones highlighted the Australian government’s intent to exclude crypto assets from being regarded as a foreign currency for tax purposes. However, the legislation would have no impact on the collection of capital gains taxes on crypto held as investments.

The public has been provided with 25 days, from Sept. 6 to Sept. 30, to share their opinion on the proposed legislation.

If signed into law, the legislation will see the amendment of the existing definition of digital currency in the Goods and Services Tax (GST) Act — effectively excluding crypto assets from the definition of foreign currency. GST is a broad-based tax levied on goods, services and items sold or consumed in Australia.

The Treasury noted that the respondent’s personal information, including name and address, will be made public if not proactively opted out from the same.

Ethereum Name Service (ENS) domain names have surpassed Bored Ape Yacht Club (BAYC) as the most traded asset on NFT marketplace OpenSea over the last seven days — seemingly ahead of the Ethereum Merge. 

According to OpenSea data, the weekly volume of the Ethereum domain NFTs eclipsed 2,249 ETH at the time of writing, beating out RTFKT Clone X (1,992 ETH) and Bored Ape Yacht Club (1,777 ETH).

ENS domains are a distributed, open and expandable naming system on the Ethereum blockchain that allows users to turn a long string of keys for a crypto address into a single ENS domain such as “vitalik.eth.”

This simplifies the complexity of copying and pasting a lengthy wallet address to send and receive crypto, as users only need to share their domain name like any other ordinary address or identification details.

These domain names can be bought, sold and traded between users in the form of NFTs.

Ethereum Classic (ETC) price rallied on Sept. 5 on back-to-back positive reports concerning its adoption among crypto miners.

Top mining pool supports Ethereum Classic

On the daily chart, ETC's price surged 14.5% to nearly $37.25 per token. Its massive gains came days after BTC.com, a blockchain explorer and crypto mining pool, launched a specialized Ethereum Classic pool with "zero-fee" mining for three months.

The announcement appeared after "the Merge," a long-awaited network update that would switch Ethereum's energy-intensive proof-of-work (PoW) protocol to a "cost-efficient" and scalable alternative, the proof-of-stake (PoS) on Sept. 19 or before.

But the switch to PoS will make Ethereum's PoW miners futile. On the other hand, Ethereum Classic, the original version of Ethereum, which still uses PoW, could become a haven for the miners affected by the Merge.

The network is already attracting PoW miners en masse, confirmed by its hashrate, which touched a record high of 41.81 Terrahash per second (TH/s) on Sept. 4. For the unversed, hashrate is the total computational power used to mine and process transactions on a PoW blockchain.

The cryptocurrency markets have been quiet over the weekend. The sideways price action continues on Sept. 5 and there is unlikely to be any fresh triggers from the United States equities markets which are closed for Labor Day.

However, the bullish picture for cryptocurrencies looks clouded as the energy crisis in Europe sent the euro to a two-decade low versus the U.S. dollar. Meanwhile, the U.S. dollar index (DXY) which has an inverse correlation with the equities markets and cryptocurrencies soared above 110 for the first time since June 2002.

A positive sign among all the mayhem is that Bitcoin (BTC) has not given up much ground over the past few days and continues to trade near the psychological level of $20,000. This suggests that traders are not panicking and dumping their positions in a hurry.

Could bulls push and sustain Bitcoin above $20,000 and will this trigger buying in altcoins? Let’s study the charts of the top-10 cryptocurrencies to find out.

BTC/USDT

Bitcoin has been stuck inside a tight range between $19,520 and $20,576 for the past few days. This indicates indecision among the bulls and the bears. Although bulls are buying the dips, they have failed to clear the overhead resistance.

Network outages continue to be the Solana network’s biggest challenge, according to its co-founder Anatoly Yakovenko.

Launched in 2020, the Solana network has suffered a number of network outages, which have come from a number of different congestion and spam events, according to Yakovenko.

In a Sept. 2 interview with Real Vision co-founder Raoul Pal, Yakovenko said the network outages had been Solana’s “curse,” but said the outages have resulted because of the network's low-cost transactions. 

"That's been, I guess, our curse, but it's because the network is so cheap and fast that there are enough users and applications that are driving that."

However, while the outages have “prevented users” from using the network, the Solana CEO said the network itself hasn’t been compromised. He also argued that each blockchain is built differently and has their own “failure case.”

The decline in the United States equities markets last week extended the market-wide losing streak to three consecutive weeks. The Nasdaq Composite fell for six days in a row for the first time since 2019. The markets negative reaction to a seemingly positive August jobs report suggests that traders are nervous about the Federal Reserve’s future steps and its effects on the economy.

Weakness in the U.S. equities markets pulled Bitcoin (BTC) back below $20,000 on Sept. 2 and bears sustained the price below the level during the weekend. This pulled Bitcoin’s market dominance to just under 39% on Sept. 4, its lowest level since June 2018, according to data from CoinMarketCap.

Although the sentiment remains negative and it is difficult to call a bottom, investors who believe in the long-term prospects of cryptocurrencies could take the opportunity to gradually build positions at lower levels instead of trying to catch the bottom. However, investors could avoid chasing prices higher during bear market rallies and look to buy when the price falls to strong support levels.

If Bitcoin stages a recovery, select altcoins could move higher. Let’s study the charts of top-5 cryptocurrencies that are looking strong on the charts.

BTC/USDT

Bitcoin has been trading in a tight range between $19,520 and $20,576 for the past few days which shows a balance between the buyers and sellers in the near term. Although bulls are buying on dips, they have failed to overcome the selling at higher levels.

Markets are scary right now, and while the situation is likely to worsen, it doesn’t mean investors need to sit out and watch from the sidelines. In fact, history has proven that one of the best times to buy Bitcoin (BTC) is when no one is talking about Bitcoin.

Remember the 2018–2020 crypto winter? I do. Hardly anyone, including mainstream media, was talking about crypto in a positive or negative way. It was during this time of prolonged downtrend and lengthy sideways chop that smart investors were accumulating in preparation for the next bull trend.

Of course, nobody knew “when” this parabolic advance would take place, but the example is purely meant to illustrate that crypto might be in a crab market, but there are still great strategies for investing in Bitcoin.

Let’s take a look at three.

Accumulation via dollar-cost averaging

It’s helpful to be price agnostic when it comes to investing in assets over the long term. A price agnostic investor is immune to fluctuations in value and will identify a few assets that they believe in and continue to add to the positions. If the project has good fundamentals, a strong, active use case and a healthy network, it makes more sense to just dollar-cost average (DCA) into a position.