Official bankruptcy court filings state that FTX owes more than $3 billion to its top 50 creditors. The largest single loan listed in the document is over $226 million, with the rest of the total debt owed falling somewhere between $21 million and $203 million.

The "hack"...

As things unfolded last week a significant number of tokens were moved from the official storage wallets of FTX. It's not surprising that some would suspect a "inside job," but former FTX employees are spreading rumors that the same authorities from the Bahamas government who are investigating the company for possible legal violations are also the thieves.

Analytics firm Chainalysis is tracking the funds that originated from the FTX exchange and say the funds are now being traded from Ethereum to Bitcoin. The FTX hacker once held 228,523 ETH, making them one of the top Ether wallets globally.

...but was there actually no hacker at all?!

To be fair, the rumors started because no one was coming forward to say otherwise.  Millions in crypto gets moved, with no legitimate entity claiming responsibility, the logical conclusion is a hack. 

After coming forward, the Bahamas government confirmed they were indeed behind it - but it wasn't corrupt officials stealing funds. Regulators in the Bahamas officially state they are in possession of the funds which were taken as part of a seizure of assets - to prevent anyone at FTX from doing anything with them.

It all seemed settled, then we learned - this isn't what happened either.

The actual story with the FTX "hack"...

Collateral Damage...

So far, Solana has lost over 60% of its value since the FTX saga began, and users have removed about an equal percentage from the total staked supply. In response, Tether announced they will be taking $1 billion USDT it had on the Solana blockchain and moving it to the Ethereum blockchain, as they don't foresee the supply being needed on the Solana blockchain in the near future.

While there's no shortage of die-hard Solana supporters posting that they're taking this opportunity to load up on SOL tokens at a discount, others are saying there's still a big hit to come, with FTX rumored to a large amount of Solana tokens that they will probably be forced to put on the market. 

Sam Bankman-Fried...

One of the most interesting things to watch in the Sam Bankman-Fried (aka SBF) fallout are those who previously praised him, now trying to figure out why they ever said things that sound completely insane today.

In all fairness, while Sam's wrongdoings were deliberate and dishonest - blaming everyone who once worked with, or once simply liked the guy is going a step too far, in my opinion. If the accusations we've heard are true, you can be sure very few people knew the truth

Sam had accumulated a sizeable list of endorsements, and it wasn't made up of a bunch of easily scammed or gullible people...

Even the person who begun FTX's downfall first believed they were legit.  Binance CEO 'CZ' started the avalanche that would burry Sam and FTX by sending out of tweet when he lost confidence in the company - but before that, he trusted Sam and FTX enough to have $2 billion of his assets tied up in their FTX's official token, FTT.

Earning trust within an industry can be a chain reaction, where getting 'in' with one person who is more established than yourself can lead to a dozen more if you play your cards right.  So who was the first 'big name' in crypto to publicly link themselves with Sam? I have no idea, and they aren't to blame for this anyway.

While researching another story I came across this, the only organization that I've seen address the situation by adding disclaimers to their old write-ups about Sam.

The organization is called 80,000 Hours, and they say their goal is to 'provide research and support to help students and graduates switch into careers that effectively tackle the world’s most pressing problems' 80,000 hours refers to the average time someone will spend working in their chosen career in their entire lifetime. 

What was a page on their site containing 10 paragraphs of pure praise for SBF, now begins with a statement:

 Our statement regarding the collapse of FTX

The collapse of FTX is likely to cause a tremendous amount of harm – to customers, employees, and many others who have relied on FTX. We are deeply concerned about those affected and, along with our community, are grappling with how to respond.

Though we do not know for sure whether anything illegal happened, we unequivocally condemn any immoral or illegal actions that may have taken place.

Prior to this, we had celebrated Sam Bankman-Fried’s apparent success, had held him up as a positive example of someone pursuing a high-impact career, and had written about how we encouraged him to use a strategy of earning to give (for example, on this page). We feel shaken by recent events, and are not sure exactly what to say or think.

In the meantime, we will start by removing instances on our site where Sam was highlighted as a positive example of someone pursuing a high-impact career, since, to say the least, we no longer endorse that. We are leaving up discussions of Sam in places that seem important for transparency, for example this blog post on the growth of effective altruism in 2021, and this user story.

In the coming weeks and months we will be thinking hard about what we should do going forward and ways in which we should have acted differently.

If you are out there trying the best you can to use your career to help solve the world’s most pressing problems with honesty and integrity, we also want to say we support and value you.

We are following the situation closely and hope to write more soon.

It's election day in America, for those unfamiliar with US politics, this one is a 'mid term' - no new President will be selected, but seats in virtually all other elected rolls are up for grabs.

All 435 members of the House of Representatives and 34 senators are running.  According to media reports, political action committees and bitcoin lobbyists have contributed millions of dollars to candidates races.

As of two weeks ago, crypto-related donors had given more money than the traditional big election spenders - surpassing both defense and big pharma.

The industry expected 2022 would be the year policymakers came up with a plan for regulating crypto - that didn't happen...

Unresolved policy disputes between lawmakers and lobbyists left this unfinished, as Congressmembers and Senators left Washington DC until the new year.

That means those elected today are virtually guaranteed to be the ones voting on crypto regulation in the near future.

Crypto becomes a mainstream topic for voters...

According to a poll by Grayscale early October, 38% of voters said candidates "crypto policy positions" mattered to them when deciding who to vote for. 

Another poll by the Crypto Council for Innovation, taken around the same time, had 45% of voters agreeing that lawmakers should "treat crypto as a serious and valid part of the economy."

The ideal outcome for crypto...

Most crypto traders want a Republican majority in either or both chambers, since Republicans have been some of their most loyal supporters in the past.

The Republicans have also indicated the willingness to move bills that many in the industry say create a reasonable regulated environment, where protections for investors can be implemented without slowing down the progress of a fast growing industry.

"We believe crypto is one of the few sectors we follow where the midterms will have a material impact on policy. Republicans tend to be more accepting of fewer limits on crypto products because they are decentralized and different - We believe a GOP sweep of the midterm elections would be the best outcome for crypto" said Jaret Seiberg, an analyst at financial services company Cowen.

Generally favoring less government involvement in free markets, Republicans would also likely put pressure on agencies like the SEC stop over-aggressive regulation of crypto firms and seek reasonable regulation aimed at protecting investors.

A history of bipartisan support...

While crypto does have a history of finding supporters from both major parties, many see the Democrats as 'dropping the ball'.  Some expressed the desire for what sounded like reasonable solutions to the regulation issues, some even co-authored bills with Republicans. 

But at the end of the day, they had 2 years where they held most of the power, and nothing was accomplished.

Then, with some opinions from members of the Biden administration that sounded like they don't understand the basics of what crypto is, many who consider crypto an important issue switched to a firm "Republicans only' stance this election.

The crypto industry may get their wish...

Polls are indicating that Republicans will take back the House and probably the Senate as well.  

A common prediction from crypto traders on multiple platforms right now is that a Republican win of both the House and Senate tonight could immediately trigger some market movement upward, we'll probably soon see if they're correct.

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Author: Ross Davis
Silicon Valley Newsroom
GCP | Breaking Crypto News

"Regarding any speculation as to whether this is a move against a competitor, it is not" said Binance CEO 'CZ' on Twitter, while confirming "recent revelations that have come to light" are behind a decision to sell-off $2.1 billion USD worth of FTT, the native token of rival exchange FTX.

Binance first obtained the tokens last year, as part of their payment from a pre-planned exit from investment in FTX equity.

Can't Have it Both Ways...

CZ first attempts to include the FTT sell-off as part of everyday 'business-as-usual' saying:

"Liquidating our FTT is just post-exit risk management, learning from LUNA."

That sounds like he's saying it's a purely strategic move, like the reasoning behind it could be something as simple as not believing the bear market has hit bottom - until in his next sentence where he immediately makes it clear - there's more to this story.

"We gave support before, but we won't pretend to make love after divorce. We are not against anyone. But we won't support people who lobby against other industry players behind their backs. Onwards."

FTX is accused as a company, or perhaps CEO Sam Bankman-Fried himself of doing something behind the scenes, with at least the goal of hurting a competing crypto company...

At least that seems to be the accusation CZ, the Binance CEO, is making, although vaguely, and because of their mention of LUNA (which famously crashed, then crashed the market, and never recovered) and FTT together - the FTX CEO has been trying to assure customers that their token has none of the same risk factors (and from what we can see, that's true).

Any comparison of FTT with LUNA is a bit unfair...

There's no reason for CZ to bring back memories of the LUNA disaster when mentioning FTT - none of LUNA's risk factors can be applied to FTT.

"A competitor is trying to go after us with false rumors. FTX is fine. Assets are fine" said CEO Sam Bankman-Fried his first public response.

However - Binance CEO CZ has proven to be a level-headed voice of reason in the industry, and seems to have a reasonable outlook on the 'big picture' of cryptos future - so if he's accusing FTX or their CEO of crossing a line, it's probably true. 

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Author: Oliver Redding
Seattle Newsdesk  / Breaking Crypto News

Why did Elon Musk's purchase of Twitter include $500 million from Binance, the biggest cryptocurrency exchange in the world?

The exchange platform's creator and CEO, Changpeng Zhao, well known by his alias CZ, explained the decision today.

CZ gave three reasons for why Binance was backing Musk's Twitter campaign...

First, to support international freedom of expression. That is exactly how he sees the social network. He said, "That is something incredibly significant."

Second, Binance likes supporting "excellent entrepreneurs." The CEO of Binance believes that Elon Musk, the founder of firms like Tesla and SpaceX, is a fantastic businessman.

Third, the potential for Twitter to develop into a "super app". Musk himself had previously made a comment about this. Zhao likens WeChat, a Chinese platform that combines a social network, a commerce site, and a way to make payments, to Twitter.

“We want to help bring Twitter to Web3 and help solve problems like charging for subscriptions. Something that could be done very easily globally using cryptocurrencies as a means of payment.” Changpeng Zhao, CEO of Binance added.

CZ rushed in as soon as Musk announced his desire to buy the social network, making little effort to keep their $500 million contribution to the buyout a secret.

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Author: Oliver Redding
Seattle Newsdesk  / Breaking Crypto News

Dogecoin, the tenth-largest cryptocurrency with a market cap of $10.5 billion, outperformed any of the other top 50 coins over the last 24 hours, with gains of over 15%. 

For the week, DOGECOIN gained nearly 30% and was only outperformed by Telegram's TON token.

Behind The Rise...

Elon Musk's takeover of Twitter nw seems to be a 'sure thing', as the Tesla and SpaceX CEO walked through the doors of the Twitter offices earlier today. 

From what we can tell, social sentiment is driving the price, with people assuming Twitter will eventually implement the use of Dogecoin, somehow.

Bad Time To Bet Against The DOGE...

Almost $9 million in Dogecoin futures positions were liquidated over the past 24 hours, almost all by people taking short positions.

The increased attention going to DOGE seems to have spread to its main competitor, SHIBA, which posted gains of around 7%. 

It's Easy To Downplay the strength of DOGE - but this 'joke coin' is showing some legitimately strong fundamentals...

A large, seemingly majority of people holding DOGE today appear to be true believers in the coin's long-term potential.

Wallets holding DOGE for more than 1 year are currently at an all-time high of 2.8 million, according to IntoTheBlock. 

Also, wallets that buy and sell within a month are at an all-time low - only 132,000 wallets can be considered 'short-term traders' - this is the lowest since mid 2020.

Recently, Dogecoin was the reason for a new lawsuit that has been filed against Elon Musk...

Apple has established a rule for how apps can work with NFTs,  basically stating that there cannot be any app features that a user can unlock by buying/owning a particular NFT.

Some apps already do this, like Moonbirds NFTs and Bored Ape Yacht Club NFTs can unlock exclusive chat rooms, products, and other benefits within their apps - well, not anymore.

Additionally, developers are prohibited from producing "buttons, external links, or other calls to action" that could instruct users on how to purchase NFTs outside of the App Store on other websites. The App Store prefers that customers buy things inside of apps.

Apple Protecting Profits...

This is purely profit motivated.

Currently, if an app has premium features, users unlock them for a fee, processed by Apple. The app developer gets their cut, and so does Apple. 

But if someone can unlock app features by purchasing an NFT from anywhere online, then an app includes a way for someone to verify ownership of that NFT -  Apple was just removed from the process.

Making Enemies in the NFT World...

This comes after another recent move by Apple that angered the NFT world, when they announced they will allow NFT sales, but they will include a 30% going to them.

While it's hard to pity the projects that mass produce low quality gimmick NFTs, the actual artists who put a lot of time and work in to creating unique excuse content to be sold as NFTs, a 30% cut going to a company that just processed a transaction is rather offensive. 

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Author: Oliver Redding
Seattle Newsdesk  / Breaking Crypto News

The Global Chief Technology Officer and Chief Development Officer of Walmart, Suresh Kumar says crypto will play an integral payment role for the company, as they and others enter the metaverse. Kumar discussed the role of crypto in Walmart’s future:

With the emerging technology, Kumar aims to make payment options friction-free for customers who want to transact. Kumar believes that the payments disruptions will begin in terms of different payment methods and different payment options.

"Crypto will continue to play a significant role in that. And obviously, we want to be there where the customer really needs us to be. So whether it is physical or virtual goods, it plays a part in what the customer wants." says Kumar.

The CTO also noted that a large number of customers will be approached through the Metaverse and other live streams on social media apps, and that crypto could be an important payment option in such areas.

Retail in the metaverse...

Last month, Walmart made its debut on Roblox Worlds as a testing ground for the metaverse. Walmart created “Walmart Land” and “Walmart’s Universe of Play” within Roblox.

Earlier this year, Walmart took a leap into blockchain technology to create an automated process for handling invoices and payments of its 70 third-party freight carriers. By using blockchain, Walmart has eliminated its issues of incompatible enterprise systems by replacing them with a shared single source of credible information for Walmart and its carriers.

Today, Mastercard announced their goal of supporting more financial institutions in offering cryptocurrency trading.

People are still optimistic about the future of cryptocurrencies despite the present bear market. According to Jorn Lambert, chief digital officer at Mastercard, "there is still a high desire for cryptocurrencies among clients".

“There’s a lot of consumers out there that are really interested in this, and intrigued by crypto, but would feel a lot more confident if those services were offered by their financial institutions... It’s a little scary to some people still.” Mastercard’s chief digital officer, Jorn Lambert, told CNBC.

Is the dream of escaping banks dead?

Many in the cryptocurrency community view blockchain technology as a way to liberate people from banks, now every major banking institution seems to be aggressively moving to take positions within the crypto market.

According to Mastercard, many people prefer having their bank involved. They claim that when they surveyed customers, almost 60% of those surveyed stated they were willing to own cryptocurrency in the future but preferred to do so through their current bank.

Mastercard's bold offer to banks: We're ready to handle every major concern...

Large investment banks like Goldman Sachs, Morgan Stanley, and JPMorgan already have specialized crypto teams, but still haven't offered a way for their clients to buy cryptocurrency - but they may be more likely to begin if all they need to do is trust Mastercard, rather than directly partner with an exchange.

Mastercard says that if a bank chooses them to handle crypto offerings to customers, they will handle both security and regulatory compliance - the two main concerns that have held many intuitions back. 

Opening to a new market usually comes with a new load of liabilities - but with Mastercard taking responsibility for them adhering to crypto compliance guidelines, confirming transactions, and offering anti-money-laundering and identity monitoring services, there's not many reasons left to say no.

Bad News for existing exchanges... maybe...

The program will involve Mastercard routing orders to Paxos, an exchange they've already been working closely with - so if banks do embrace this Mastercard model, it may take a bite out of the pool of potential future users of Coinbase, Kraken, Gemini, and other exchanges operating in the U.S.

However, if successful, Mastercard's program will likely inspire banks to create their own, similar partnerships directly with crypto exchanges. 

The pilot program will launch in the first quarter of 2023. There is currently no information on which banks will participate.


------- 
Author: Justin Derbek
New York News Desk
Breaking Crypto News

The European Union's Markets in Crypto Assets (MiCA) regulation is progressing towards completion fast, and by all indications will become law in the 27 countries that make up the European Union, possibly before the end of the year.

The response from the crypto industry as well as critics has been generally positive, with many believing the law has found the right balance between protecting consumers from scammers and other criminal conduct, empowering enforcers to go after those criminals, all while acknowledging the future potential of the technology and the importance of allowing legitimate use to proceed with as little interference as possible. 

Europe Takes The Lead After Biden Administration Fails to Show Ability to Understand Crypto Market...

The EU clearly plans to take the lead when it comes to setting the world regulatory standards of the cryptocurrency ecosystem. In online crypto communities some European traders are now suggesting that "the US should just follow our lead". 

This new determination to be the standard-setters seems to have ignited when the Biden administration shared their "first comprehensive framework for the responsible development of digital assets" - which basically asked government agencies to submit answers to their  completely open ended question of what they believe they need to properly regulate the industry, this warned the rest of the world that current US leadership appears to be unqualified to regulate crypto (and probably all tech) as senior citizens fill many of the vital roles. 

White House seems "only focused on the risks and not the opportunities" that the cryptocurrency sector has to offer....

Both Biden and officials appointed by him seem to have taken media clickbait articles as fact, and often remarks focus on addressing only the negative aspects in the crypto world.

But law isn't just about stopping the bad guys, it's also about protecting the good ones. Which is why lawmakers shouldn't be looking at anything but hard data and reality to form their opinions.

In reality, about 2.1% of crypto is being used for illegal purposes like money laundering or purchases of items found on the darkweb, according to the firm that works with the FBI analyzing blockchain data for illegal activity, Chainalysis.

According to the UN, as much as 5% of ALL global currency is being used to facilitate something illegal, meaning Fiat currency, specifically paper cash, remains the preferred format of currency in the criminal underworld.

The European Union recently just slipped in harsh new rules regarding Dollar-pegged stablecoins...

How the US could still be first to implement comprehensive crypto regulations...

There are some major flaws in the he most current version of the EU's 'Markets in Crypto Assets' regulatory proposal...

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.

-------------------
Author: Oliver Redding
Seattle Newsdesk  / Breaking Crypto News

British investors are turning to Bitcoin as a result of the recent decline in the value of the pound sterling (GBP) relative to the dollar, which has been driven by worries that the country's financial crisis will worsen.

The noticeable increase in bitcoin trading volume against pound reflects many investors view that Bitcoin offers an easily accessible place to move funds when they feel risk of inflation is high. Which is why the week began with Bitcoin trading volume of people buying with the British Pound hit a record high of GBP 840 million (valued at $881 million USD)

The average daily trade volume of bitcoin in pounds is seen in the chart below at slightly over $72 million. Making this an increase of approximately 1,150%...

"When a fiat currency is threatened, investors start to favor bitcoin." said James Butterfill, research director at coinshares.

GBP to BTC Volume via Coinshares

Gabor Gurbacs, digital asset/crypto investment strategist at investment giant VanEck explains “Given that the UK is now outside of the EU bureaucratic apparatus, it will get another chance to become a Bitcoin hub. I think UK leaders will use this opportunity reasonably well.”

However, a number of analysts have noted that a strong US dollar is partly to blame for the recent declines in the value of the British pound and the euro, and it is extremely likely that this factor is also in the way of a crypto market recovery.

Or to put it another way, we might not notice a significant rise in bitcoin and cryptocurrency ownership until the US dollar starts to lose its position as the strongest currency in the world.

Still, this is one of multiple recent stories giving crypto investors a strong indication that it isn't a matter of 'if' the market will come back, but 'when'... 

There are more than 900,000 wallets with at east 1 full Bitcoin in them, according to data from the blockchain explorer Glassnode. 

In addition to this, wallets holding at least 0.1 BTC are also at an all-time high.

This is considered major long-term bullish indicator...

This reflects that investors are taking advantage of the current bear-market low prices, as they continue to accumulate Bitcoin with a plan to hold it for months, or even years.

Bitcoin's price is 72% below its historical maximum reached 10 months ago in November 2021, at almost USD 69,000.

If you believe Bitcoin will return to previous highs (as it always has), then you understand why someone would want to take advantage of the current price. 

Here's where things get weird...

In 2021, while Bitcoin's price was on the rise with heavy demand fueling price gains, the number of wallets holding 1 Bitcoin actually declined.

But as you can see from the chart, the amount of 1 or more Bitcoin has been steadily increasing throughout 2022... as the price dropped. 

Wallets Holding 1BTC or more on the rise (yellow) while price declines (black)

What does this mean?

These are the smart traders. Those with experience learn to buy at the bottom, and sell at the top. 

 As Wall Street traders continue to cross over into crypto, it's no surprise that we're seeing more experienced investors in the crypto market.  Where many see a 'crash' they see an 'entry point'.

Remember Warren Buffet's famous piece of advice - “Be Fearful When Others Are Greedy and Greedy When Others Are Fearful” - in other words, buy when everyone else is selling. 

But even with a record number of savvy traders, there isn't enough of them to move Bitcoin's price upwards, but they do probably deserve some credit for Bitcoin staying stable in its current $18k - $21k range.  So far, when Bitcoin has gone below $20k, it soon finds people ready to buy.  

A return to a bull market will be fueled by tens of thousands of people buying hundreds of dollars' worth of Bitcoin, not hundreds of people buying thousands worth. 

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Author: Justin Derbek
New York News Desk
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

So it's confirmed - A group of developers are working behind the scenes with Ethereum miners to hard fork the Ethereum blockchain after next week’s merge. This means there will still be a version of the network running on the current Proof-of-Work (PoW) consensus mechanism while the 'official' Ethereum 2.0 blockchain transitions to Proof-of-Stake (PoS).

With that comes a separate and completely independent Ethereum token, currently being called 'ETHPoW' but the coin's official name is still undecided. 

All Ethereum holders will receive ETHPoW automatically, an amount equal to the regular Ethereum you hold...

Major exchanges Binance, MEXC Global, Gate.io, and FTX have already agreed to list and support trading of the forked token. Poloniex is even a step ahead of the rest, and has already listed a placeholder token that will be swapped for the real thing once it's live.

Coinbase and Kraken both say they're open to supporting it, but haven't yet made a full commitment, likely waiting to see if the coin will have any demand or value.

ETHPoW will join the two existing Ethereum tokens - the 'official' Ethereum (ETH) and Etherum Classic (ETC)...

The upcoming 2.0 fork won't be Ethereum's first, the previous fork ended with two coins and two versions of Ethereum - Ethereum and Ethereum Classic. 

To summarize what happened then - in 2016, hackers exploited a security hole in a project called 'The DAO' allowing them to steal about $50 million worth of ETH. A solution was proposed to re-launch Ethereum with the history of the hacked coins completely erased, like it never happened.

How they went about doing this caused a lot of controversy, it was all decided when the proposal was put to a short notice on-chain vote. Only 5.5% of potential voters participated, but since the majority of them voted 'yes', the fork happened.

Those in the Ethereum community who disagreed with the decision simply ignored the change and continued to participate on the original Ethereum network, which became known as Ethereum Classic. 

While Ethereum Classic is considered one of the most successful forked tokens, ETHPoW's Success is far from a 'sure thing'..

When Ethereum Classic started, its support, in large part, came from the controversy that created it.

Some in the community strongly disagreed with the idea of editing the 'true' history of the Ethereum blockchain, and Ethereum Classic kept that intact. Others disagreed with how the decision to fork the coin was made, saying they would support any decision that had over 50% of potential voters backing it, but the fork went ahead without even coming close.  

Ethereum Classic succeeded, and is still active today, because the people behind it truly believed in it.

But when it comes to Ethereum 2.0 - it isn't controversial, it doesn't violate the beliefs of a large portion of the community.  

The only segment of the community united against 2.0 are miners, because once Ethereum has fully moved to the 2.0 Proof-of-Stake consensus mechanism, miners are no longer needed to verify transactions. Their motivation to continue supporting the old version of Ethereum is entirely profit-based. These are the same miners who loved it when we couldn't send $1 on the Ethereum blockchain without paying a $75 fee.

That just doesn't sound like the beginning of a token that will have long term success.

Take a look at the two most successful forks in crypto's history - Ethereum Classic and Bitcoin Cash. All others have faded away, while these two remain in the top 50 because they're backed by a community of supporters who believe their existence is important. You can find their supporters making passionate arguments on where they think the 'official' version of the coin went wrong, and why these alternatives make things right.

This is why dumping ETHPoW as soon as possible may end up being the smartest move... 

There already is an Ethereum alternative for anyone who doesn't want to support the 'official' version - Ethereum Classic. It's already accomplished the hardest part - establishing itself among the small list of coins traders can trust to retain value, and can be found on every major exchange. 

There just isn't a good reason for another alternative - maybe the Ethereum brand is big enough where it finds support even if it isn't necessary. But even forks of Bitcoin that every Bitcoin holder received for free met a quick death, because people didn't believe they needed to survive. 

How to make sure you'll be able to access your ETHPoW as soon as it becomes available...

If your Ethereum is on an exchange they will need to take several additional steps to distribute each users portion, this is because they store multiple users coins together. In the past, some exchange users waited weeks or even months longer than those holding crypto in their own private wallets. 

Do you think ETHPoW has long term potential, or think odds are against it? Tweet us your thoughts @TheCryptoPress


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Author: Ross Davis
Silicon Valley Newsroom
GCP | Breaking Crypto News