Headlines
▌Ethereum Foundation Confirms September 6th as Ethereum Merger Date
The developers of Ethereum have officially confirmed September 6 as the date of the Ethereum merger. "After years of hard work, the proof-of-stake upgrade for Ethereum is finally here," the Ethereum Foundation said in a blog post on Wednesday. "All successful upgrades to public testnets are now complete, and the merger has been scheduled for Ethereum mainnet." It will be split into two upgrades, called Bellatrix and Paris. According to this blog post, Bellatrix is on September 6th at 11:34AM UTC, while Paris will be triggered sometime between September 10th and September 20th.
Cryptocurrency
▌Data: 998 BTC Transferred from Gemini to Coinbase
▌Coinbase Will List cbETH, Which Stands for Pledged ETH and Pledged Interest
On August 25, Coinbase will support Coinbase Wrapped Staked ETH (cbETH) on the Ethereum network. The price of cbETH does not track the price of ETH 1:1, cbETH represents the pledged ETH plus all its accrued pledge interest, the conversion rates and balances are initialised (16 Jun 2022 19:34 UTC). Coinbase currently supports cbETH deposits, and trading will begin on or after 9AM PT on August 25, 2022 if liquidity conditions are met. Once a sufficient supply of the asset has been established, trading for the CBETH-USD pair will start in stages. It is reported that Coinbase Wrapped Staked ETH (cbETH) is a utility token representing ETH2 and is ETH pledged by Coinbase. cbETH can be sold or sent off-platform, while ETH2 will remain locked until a future protocol upgrade.
▌Tether: U.S. Law Enforcement Has Not Contacted Tether with a Request to Freeze of OFAC-Sanctioned Addresses
Tether officially issued a statement saying that it has not received any instructions from US law enforcement to freeze the addresses sanctioned by OFAC and will maintain the status quo while waiting for instructions. The company has been working closely with law enforcement worldwide to assist in investigations, including freezing addresses. Tether also contacts key law enforcement officials on an almost daily basis. When the company receives a legitimate request to freeze private wallets from verified law enforcement agencies, it complies with the freeze (without freezing wallets of exchanges/services).
Key Economic Events
▌Nobel Laureate Economist Stiglitz: Rate Hikes That Are Too Steep May Worsen Inflation
Central banks that hike borrowing costs too aggressively to tame supply-driven inflation risk exacerbating price gains, according to Nobel laureate economist Joseph Stiglitz. “Elevating rates of interest doesn’t clear up the supply-side issues,” he stated. “It might probably even make it worse, as a result of what we wish to do proper now’s make investments extra within the supply-side bottlenecks, however elevating rates of interest makes it harder to make these investments.” “How will elevating rates of interest result in extra meals, extra power, and clear up the chip provide downside? In no way,” Stiglitz stated. “They won't go at the basic source of the problem - and the real risk is that will make things worse.”