Ethereum just lost one if it's biggest bragging points, and its transition from a deflationary to an inflationary asset marks a potentially pivotal moment in its trajectory. While the platform continues to be a dominant player in the decentralized finance (DeFi) space, these economic and market shifts warrant close observation by investors and stakeholders. 

What Happened?

Ethereum's shares the most common cause of currency inflation with governments around the world, specifically when they print too much money. There have been 68,000 new ETH issued, compared to its burning 38,000 ETH over the last 30 days - add this excess together with a bearish month, and the additional supply enters the ecosystem as inflation.

Ethereum has a system where a portion of the transaction fees (or "gas") is burned, reducing the overall supply of ETH, while another portion compensates validator nodes.

Typically this causes ETH to be deflationary - that is, when network activity is stronger, the amount of ETH burned can surpass the amount issued.

Some Perspective...

It's crucial to note that Ethereum's annual inflation rate remains relatively subdued at 0.3%, especially when compared to Bitcoin's 1.6% and certain fiat currencies, which hover around 3.7%.

Bitcoin has been categorized as inflationary due to its capped supply of 21 million coins and the halving of its block rewards approximately every four years, which restricts its issuance and, by extension, its inflationary potential. In contrast, fiat currencies, like the US dollar, can be issued without an upper limit, leading to inflation when the supply outpaces demand.

So, while 0.3% is an insignificant amount and there's no need for investors to modify their outlooks, yet, this is something worth keeping an eye on.  Unless hit with large downturn (which I haven't seen anyone predicting) Ethereum can re-take it's 'deflationary' title fairly easily. 

Plus, For the First Time in YEARS - Ethereum Users Didn't Pay the Most in Total Transaction Fees...

Another interesting thing stood out when reviewing Ethereum's previous month - a significant drop in total transaction fees. After 3+ years embarrassingly high, sometimes absurd fees - this is a good thing.

In the last 30 days, the Tron network generated $87.4 million in fees and $65.8 million in token incentives, resulting in net profits of $21.6 million. Ethereum, on the other hand, generated $82.2 million in fees but offered token incentives of $82.9 million, leading to losses of $20.6 million.

Other platforms including Lido Finance ($46.9 million), friend-tech ($30 million), Bitcoin ($27 million), Uniswap ($23 million), Aave ($8.8 million), and BNB Chain ($ 8 million), surpassed Ethereum in generating fees.

Story Published Sept 10

Update Added Sept 16: Jump to update

In a shocking turn of events, Vitalik Buterin's official Twitter account was compromised by hackers on Saturday, September 9, 2023. The breach led to a loss of nearly $700,000 in cryptocurrencies, highlighting the vulnerabilities even high-profile figures face in the digital realm.

The Deceptive Tweet

The hackers, with just a single tweet, managed to deceive a significant number of Buterin's followers. The tweet announced a purported free NFT giveaway from Consensys, a renowned blockchain technology company.

Many followers, seeing the tweet from the official account of Ethereum's creator, were lured into a trap. The link provided in the tweet redirected users to a malicious website designed to exploit their trust.

This type of scam, known as a 'drainer' tricks users into connecting their cryptocurrency wallets to a seemingly legitimate website. Once connected, the hacker can then transfer all assets from the victim's wallet to their own.

High-Value NFTs Stolen

In addition to the stolen cryptocurrencies, the hackers made away with two high-value 'Crypto Punks' NFTs. These digital collectibles have gained immense popularity and value in recent years.

The stolen NFTs were priced at a staggering 153.62 ETH (approximately USD 250,000) and 58.18 ETH (USD 95,000) respectively.

Update: 

We finally have a response from Vitalik, apparent a sim swap was the method used.

While the hacker is blame,, at least a little of the blame  must go to T-Mobile whos employees should be properly trained to spot a scam that is several years old.

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These concerns revolve about the level of centralization that Ethereum could reach now that the merge to Proof of Stake is complete.

Di Iorio's concern revolves around the possibility of major exchanges becoming an overwhelming number of the total validators on the network. 

At the root of the issue is the requirement to hold 32 ETH to launch a node -so exchanges holding thousands of ETH have an obvious advantage...

That's a little over $42,000 worth of Ethereum at the time of publishing - and it is reasonable to say this prices out the average person, who previously could have started mining for under $1000 if they were interested in contributing to the network. 

So\when the rule is "More ETH = more nodes" you immediately see the potential power major exchanges have by holding thousands of users Ethereum. Even many mid-size exchanges hold enough to launch hundreds of nodes.

However, users need to agree to use any ETH that they actually own, exchanges cannot decide how to allocate your holdings without permission.

So they're getting user permission by offering to share the profits - this factor is the reason many people see these nodes as decentralize.

Can these really be considered exchange-owned nodes if their users have the power to shut them down by collectively pulling out?

Still, ETH 2.0 is off to a more centralized start than many expected.  Last week nodes launched by just 2 addresses were validating 46% of total transactions.  One is a known pool, the other an 'unknown entity'... which nobody likes to hear. 

The move away from GPU mining is a double-edged sword when it comes to decentralization...

It may not be as simple as looking at who now has an easier entry to becoming a validator, but for a large number of people, Ethereum's update represents a door opening.

On that note, Di Iorio also acknowledged that the Proof of Stake model allows people from countries that have banned GPU mining to participate again (such as Algeria, Bangladesh, Bolivia, China, Colombia, Egypt, Indonesi and more) many of them pointing to the large amount of electricity consumed by miners as their reasoning, an issue the new Ethereum now solves.

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Author: Oliver Redding
Seattle Newsdesk  / Breaking Crypto News

Be glad you didn't bet against ETH. If you did, my condolences.

ETH's price surge began at a time a lot of people thought it would continue going down, now these leveraged positions are being liquidated at a rapid pace.

Total liquidations in the past 24 hours have reached close to $200 million...

Most occurred on Ethereum short positions, with more than than $110 million worth of liquidated assets. Notably, the largest in the overall market was a $2 million BTCUSD position that occurred on Bybit.

Other exchanges experiencing large liquidations include OKEx, Binance, ByBit, FTX, CoinEX, Huobi, and Bitmex, among others. OKEX reported up to 75% of short positions being liquidated for a total of $4.28 million, followed by Binance with $3.36 million in total liquidations.

The Ethereum community will likely prefer the upcoming update to a proof-of-stake system. Even as the Merge approaches, the price of the coin continues to fluctuate. Today's view is more optimistic, but the preceding days were not particularly inspiring.

From August 30 to September 5, the ETH price ranged between $1533 and $1577. It saw a slight increase above that threshold on September 6, however, that was the day when Bellatrix was upgraded. After the surge, the price fell to $1560 the following day, September 7, but ended at $1629.

It is not unexpected, given these price fluctuations, that liquidations are currently pushing the limits of the markets. A large portion of traders cannot maintain their positions, and exchanges are going to close them.

Things are abnormally unpredictable right now, play it smart...

While many would argue the smartest play is simply not using any leverage, the reality is that advice will be ignored by many people regardless.  So, at least meet in the middle, and perhaps use a bit less leverage than you normally would, and set stop losses so you always sell before you liquidate your positions. 

Even while many experts believe that the best move is to avoid using any kind of leverage at all, the fact of the matter is, many people are going to disregard that advice regardless.

At the very least, come to a compromise and consider using less leverage than you typically would. If you're not using stop losses so you always sell before you liquidate your positions, start using them now (you already should have been, in any market condition).

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Author: Adam Lee 
Asia News Desk / Breaking Crypto News

THE COMPUTER SCIENTIST EXPLAINED THE "TWO REASONS" WHY HE IS WORRIED ABOUT BITCOIN'S FUTURE...

For that year, miners' earnings are expected to depend only on commissions. Thankfully, there's more than a century left before that.

His second issue revolves around the Proof-of-Work (PoW) mechanism used to verify transactions, he insists that it is less than what Proof-of-stake(PoS) can offer if measured per dollar spent in transaction fees. 

However, he clarified that he's aware there's no sign this will ever happen: "the migration of Bitcoin out of Proof of Work appears to be politically unfeasible," referring to those in the Bitcoin developer community who raised the possibility of Bitcoin one day changing from PoW to PoS were met with overwhelming resistance.

One of the main reasons the Bitcoin community is against changing to PoS, is that they believe PoS based tokens give too much power to large stakeholders...

Buterin addresses this, saying; "They are based on the misconception that PoW and PoS are governance mechanisms, when in fact they are consensus mechanisms. All they do is help the network agree on the correct chain. A block that violates the protocol rules (if it tries to print more coins than the protocol rules allow, for example) will not be accepted by the network, no matter how many miners or participants support it."

Ironically, he's sharing these opinions while Ethereum itself is on the verge of switching from PoW to PoS...

Perhaps this is a subtle way to address concerns some may have about Ethereum's upcoming change -  he's addressing them, but as a hypothetical Bitcoin migration to PoS. 

"The funny thing is that bitcoiners (who tend to be the most pro-PoW) should understand this well, as the Bitcoin civil wars in 2017 very well demonstrated that miners are quite powerless in the governance process," he suggested. "In PoS, it's exactly the same: the participants don't choose the rules, they just execute them and help order the transactions." 

However, Ethereum Developers faced virtually no resistance from the community when proposing the change to PoS, with the exception of miners whos concerns were based on their personal profits, not the overall wellbeing of the network. 

Ethereum makes the move from PoW to PoS later this month, maybe.  There's been too many delays to count, and I've learned Ethereum 2.0 is a "I'll believe it when I see it' thing now.

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Author: Justin Derbek
New York News Desk
Breaking Crypto News

We would prefer that you buy some more #bitcoin.

— Michael Saylor⚡️ (@saylor) August 17, 2022

Musk says he hasn't sold any of his privately owned crypto...

Last week we covered news that the US Treasury Department had sanctioned Ethereum's controversial transaction mixer, Tornado Cash, for allegedly enabling money laundering.

This was only the second time the US government has taken such an action against a crypto mixing site.

However, a deep analysis of blockchain transaction data is showing the platform was mostly used for completely legal activities...

In fact, just over 30% of the funds sent to that protocol were used for money laundering, at least according to one blockchain analytics firm. 

Slowmist, which included their findings in a report on blockchain security, using the first 6 months of 2022, they found Tornado Cash received total deposits of 955,277 ETH (worth $1.7 Billion at current prices), with 300,160 ETH being related to potential illegal activity. 

This means that there's no (known) legal issues with approximately 70% of the operations of the platform.

If you read the US Treasury Department's press release announcing the sanction against Tornado Cash, you would have the impression that the site was built for, and only used for illegal purposes.  They described it as “A virtual currency mixer that launders the proceeds of cybercrimes, including those committed against victims in the United States."

For some perspective: If true, the study shows Tornado Cash may equally as popular with criminals as printed US Currency...

If we go by the estimates of Harvard University Professor of Economics Kenneth Rogoff - up to 34% of printed money is currently being used to facilitate illegal transactions.

But if I had to guess what primary factor was in the US government deciding to officially act against Tornado Cash, it would be the news that North Korean hackers, aka the 'Lazarus Group' were also using the mixer to launder crypto the have been obtaining through various, always illegal methods. 

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Author: Mark Pippen
London News Desk 
Breaking Crypto News

Billionare investor Carl Icahn is "not an investor yet" when it comes to crypto - but it has his attention.  

He is the founder and controlling shareholder of Icahn Enterprises, with $27.7 billion in assets.  He is also credited with creating the "Activist Investor'  investment strategy, which is now used by hedge funds around the world.  The strategy is basically that when a hedge fund owns 10% or more of a company, they can use the threat of selling their stock to pressure a company to change policy they disagree with.

Not Looking To 'Dabble' In Crypto...

He's not talking about getting his feet wet, he's someone who dives in.

 Icahn says he'd enter the market in "A big way for us, you know, a billion dollars, billion and a half dollars, something like that." refusing to be any more specific on the amount, he added "I'm not going to say exactly."

He Gets It..

Ichan says he disagrees with what he hears crypto's critics saying, saying he sees the value of some crypto assets clearer than the dollar, stating "The only value of the dollar really is because you can use it to pay taxes."

What Could He Buy?

He's done his homework, clearly, which makes me think his plan to invest isn't all talk. 

Bitcoin, in his opinion, is only practical as a store of value, whereas Ether can be used as a store of value and as a payment item - so he prefers Ethereum.

He elaborated, saying, "Ethereum is the underlying blockchain. So, Ethereum has two things you can use as a payment system or you can use the store of value." So, you need Ethereum, the blockchain, to assure you that you have something. You never had that before where you can buy a cryptocurrency and you can say, 'I’m safe' because you have the blockchain makes it very safe for you. I’m oversimplifying. " While not quite as clear as his other statements, I think I get where he was trying to go. He's saying that whether it be a token that uses the Ethereum blockchain, or an NFT, the ledger is a trustworthy tool to give an accurate account of your assets on that blockchain.

A Flood of Institutional Money Incoming?

Icahn is among other heavyweights such as Ray Dalio, Stanley Druckenmiller, and Paul Tudor Jones, all of whom have expressed recent interest in expanding their investments into the crypto market.

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Author: Oliver Redding
Seattle Newsdesk  / Breaking Crypto News

The world's most popular Crypto wallet Metamask announced they have patched a security hole that potentially could have been a DISASTER.

Thankfully, it was first discovered by 'good hackers' who immediately informed Metamask of the flaw, and told them how to fix it.  Going by the name 'The United Global Whitehat Security Team' (UGWST), the organization was able to claim a $120,000 reward for finding the vulnerability.

Metamask tells us that there were no users affected by this vulnerability. UGWST seems to be the first and only to discover it, and they only shared their findings with Metamask.

The strategy consists of camouflaging malicious code on a site so that the user clicks on it without realizing it. For example, if you fall into clickjacking , by clicking "Play" on a video you could be conferring access to your funds in a wallet.

Metamask developers immediately fixed it...

Only users of the browser extension were ever at risk, but this is the most popular method of accessing Metamask wallets.  The hackers demonstrated launching Metamask an iframe (that is, a website within another website) and setting it to 0% opacity, in other words in a completely transparent window - user would have no idea it existed.  Then it's a matter of tricking the user to click specific locations on their screen, unaware they're actually pressing an invisible button that confirms a transaction.

It could look like a pop-up ad, but the 'X' to close it is actually the button to confirm sending all your Ethereum to someone, for example.

Make Sure You're Up To Date...

By default Metamask automatically updates, but double check yours to be safe.  Open Metamask, go to 'settings', then 'about', and make sure you have version 10.14.6 or above.

If any of those numbers are lower, you need to update. 

Hacking for good can be a profitable venture...

Metamask awarding the bug finders $120,000 is a very common practice, virtually all major players in tech offer a 'bug bounty' giving hackers an alternative, completely legal way to turn their discoveries into profit. 

UGWST, the organization that discovered this has also helped Apple, Reddit, Microsoft, and performed security audits for Crypto.com and OpenSea. 

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Author: Oliver Redding
Seattle Newsdesk  / Breaking Crypto News / Dimefi Review