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Ethereum is currently outperforming the market, jumping by over 40% from US$1,000 on July 13 to US$1,400 on July 16. Meanwhile, Bitcoin broke a four-day rally and briefly slipped below US$21,000 before paring losses.
At the time of writing, Bitcoin (BTC) is trading at US$21,292.44 (-0.28%) while Ethereum (ETH) is trading at US$1,408.22 (+4.04%). Major altcoins such as Solana (SOL), Avalanche (AVAX), and Polkadot (DOT) have also been trading in green over the past 24 hours.
While the exact reason behind ETH’s sudden rally remains unknown, the development comes ahead of the launch of Ethereum’s highly anticipated “The Merge”, which will see the network transition from a Proof-of-Work (PoW) to Proof-of Stake (PoS) consensus mechanism.
Read more: Blockchain Consensus Mechanisms
Last week, Ethereum foundation member Tim Beiko suggested a “soft” launch date of September 19 for The Merge at the latest Consensus Layer Call, dropping the biggest hint yet that The Merge could take place within a few weeks.
Liquidators move to secure 3AC’s Singapore assets
According to local broadsheet The Straits Times, the British Virgin Island (BVI) court-appointed liquidator of embattled crypto hedge fund Three Arrows Capital (3AC), Teneo, has hired a Singapore law firm, WongPartnership LLP, to plead Singapore’s High Court to recognise the BVI liquidation order.
If the High Court recognises the liquidation order, Teneo will be able to continue the liquidation process in the city state, which would also allow them to subpoena 3AC’s co-founders Su Zhu and Kyle Davies. Teneo might also be able to secure 3AC’s assets in Singapore for the firm’s creditors.
The location of 3AC’s founders – Su Zhu and Kyle Davies are still unknown. Last week, Zhu broke his month-long silence on Twitter and accused Teneo of operating in bad faith. The tweet included screenshots of a pair of emails Zhu’s attorney had sent to Teneo’s Russell Crumpler.
Coinbase axes affiliate marketing
Crypto exchange Coinbase is “temporarily shutting down” its US affiliate program for influencers and publishers, according to leaked emails shared with Business Insider.
Last month, the firm announced that that 18 percent of its staff was being laid off. The US-based exchange has lost more than 70% of its value this year, will the selloff in cryptocurrencies and an uncertain economic landscape sapping risk appetites and spurring a decline in users and revenue.
Trading Volume
According to data from CoinMarketCap, the global crypto market cap stands at US$972.33 billion, a 0.85% increase since yesterday. The total crypto market volume over the last 24 hours is US$59.11 billion, a 5.11% decrease.
Fear & Greed Index
Risk appetites are still sapped – the Crypto Fear and Greed Index currently stands at 20, indicating extreme fear. The index uses 5-6 measurements to assess the current sentiment of the market and then rates that level of emotion on a scale of 1-100 – 1 is extreme fear and 100 is extreme greed.
Though remaining at extreme fear levels for numerous weeks now, investor sentiment has been growing slowly during this time to a level not seen in several months.
