Major Ethereum cold wallets have transferred 11% of their funds to exchange addresses over the last few months. Although the whales may drive the price of ETH lower, the overall demand continues to be a bullish indicator.

Leading investors on the Ethereum network are transferring their holdings to exchange addresses, according to analytics platform Santiment.

The Merge to change the consensus protocol of the Ethereum network to proof of stake (PoS) has entered the countdown. The Ethereum Foundation has already confirmed that it expects the event to occur between September 10^th and 20^th.

The long-awaited Merge has driven the price of the second-largest cryptocurrency by market capitalization higher. Following the announcement of the Ethereum 2.0 date, Ether (ETH) has risen by 70% despite a correction, according to TradingView.

However, the behavior of the whales might quickly reverse the bullish trend of the price of Ether. According to Santiment, major Ethereum cold wallets have moved 11% of their ETH holdings to exchange addresses over the last few months.

The transfer of large amounts of Ether to exchanges indicates that leading investors want to sell or exchange their holdings for other cryptocurrencies. That might increase the pressure to sell ETH, causing the price to fall significantly.

The Behavior of the ETH Whales May Affect the Price

Although the whales may drive the price of ETH lower, the overall demand is still a bullish indicator. According to a CryptoQuant analyst, Ether is the most highly sought-after cryptocurrency in the market.

Last month, the trading volume of Ether accounted for 40% of the overall crypto market, while BTC gained around 30%. The Merge continues to boost the crypto asset despite the price corrections in the industry over the last few days.

Cryptocurrency exchange Binance stated it would suspend withdrawals and deposits during the Merge as a security measure. Its users will not be able to deposit or withdraw ERC-20 tokens on September 6^th.

The Merge upgrade will occur at the consensus level of Bellatrix that day, taking the first step toward ETH 2.0.

On September 14^th, the date set for the Paris execution level upgrade, there will also be withdrawal and deposit suspensions.

Despite closures, other ETH-related activities, like spot and futures trading, will remain unchanged during the Merge.

Meanwhile, Bitcoin Enters a Historically Negative Month

Since 2017, September has been a negative month for the Bitcoin (BTC) market in terms of statistics. Although the pioneering cryptocurrency has dropped by 20% since August 1^st, it might suffer a further drop this month.

During the previous five years, the monthly drop in the BTC price was around 8.5%. However, some cryptocurrency analysts think 2022 will be different, as falling prices have raised fundamentals, on-chain activity, and adoption.

A massive sell-off led the BTC price, which has been inactive for a while, to drop below USD 21,000. The demand on the Bitcoin network has decreased due to the low fee rate (below 3%) on total volume rewards.

When the total block premium exceeds 3% in terms of fees, there will be an increase in the trading volume on the network. Since the demand is still minimum, investors should look toward a bearish rally to indicate a positive trend.

By Alexander Salazar

Sasha Ivanov said that cryptocurrencies need regulation to deal with market manipulation and protect users.

Sasha Ivanov, founder, and CEO of smart contract Blockchain Waves, said the cryptocurrency industry needs regulation to address market manipulation issues and protect users against malicious actors.

In an interview with BeInCrypto, Ivanov also discussed the “six whale accounts” that had outsized loan positions they couldn’t repay, risking USDN’s parity against the dollar, and how he stepped in with $500 million of his own money to “save the day”

But the stablecoin has remained unstable, falling to around $0.90 on August 28. The Neutrino Dollar, or USDN, is an algorithmic stablecoin native to the Waves ecosystem.

Here is a summary of the major interview highlights:

BeInCrypto: How did you manage to restore USDN parity, which fell to $0.80 in April?

We understand that he took on $500 million worth of personal debt to defend parity. How exactly did that work?

Sasha Ivanov: Yes, the problems first occurred in April when six whale accounts borrowed the vast majority of Vires Finance’s liquidity and the crypto market in general crashed.

In addition to subsuming bad debt and preventing future divestitures, we have also introduced new incentives to support USDN through the Smart Utility Recapitalization Feature (SURF).

Furthermore, we have implemented a new system of dynamic loan and withdrawal limits to ensure that Vires Finance can continue to operate even in extreme crypto market conditions.

BeInCrypto: You had a public dispute with Sam Bankman-Fried over allegations of WAVES price manipulation.

How was that situation resolved?

Sasha Ivanov: Our resolution is regulation, which is on its way. In the meantime, we have been working on our own solutions, such as the upcoming release of PowerDAO to help us regulate our own ecosystem.

By doing so, our users will be safe. We are still working out the details of how it will work, but it will be totally unique for the Waves community to have a DAO created to protect their interests.

PowerDAO will have a new governance method that will reward actions and decisions that support the community and penalize actions and decisions that harm it. It is a new design for decentralized governance and we hope that it will be adopted throughout the cryptocurrency sector.

BeInCrypto: Stablecoins like USDC have become major talking points following the recent Tornado Cash sanction.

How does USDN engage with regulators when it comes to sanctioning, versus user privacy issues?

Sasha Ivanov: While this may not be the most popular opinion, I think we need regulation to protect users. As such, we are all in favor of finding some real and efficient solutions through smart conversations with regulators.

We are happy to talk to regulators at any time about how to do this sensibly and with respect for the values ​​of the people in the space.

BeInCrypto: What is the risk that USDN could see a Terra UST-style death spiral?

Sasha Ivanov: For starters, USDN is built completely differently than UST; otherwise, we would have already suffered the same fate.

A feature of our revival plan is the ability to dynamically limit withdrawals and loans if the platform becomes overused. For example, when more than 95% of funds are used, withdrawals will be limited to $1,000 per day per account.

This limit will be automatically reduced as the use of funds decreases. When it falls below 80%, all withdrawal limits will be lifted until those thresholds are reached again. This means that USDN will not collapse even in the worst case in the future.

By Audy Castaneda

Rival NFT collection CryptoPunks hit a two-month low, after being outsold all-time.

Bored Ape Yacht Club’s non-fungible token (NFT) collection has hit a new all-time high, according to data from Dune Analytics.

Bored Ape Yacht Club has seen its sales outperform competitor projects such as Mutant Ape Yacht Club (MAYC), Art Blocks, Otherdeed, NBA Top Shot, Azuki, CloneX, VeeFriends, and Moonbirds. More importantly, BAYC’s $2.4 billion in sales volume has exceeded one of the most successful digital collectibles projects, CryptoPunks.

The minimum price of the record-breaking Yuga Labs NFT collection reached 176,989 ETH, according to user analysis. The analysis also revealed that BAYC hit a two-month high in terms of average price, at 440.51 ETH.

In contrast, the average price of the rival NFT CryptoPunks collection hit a two-month low, at 33.73 ETH. With $2.4 billion in total sales, BAYC managed to overtake CryptoPunks earlier this week by taking the top spot in overall sales.

Increased interest in Bored Apes

Comprised of 10,000 unique NFT digital collectible ape avatars, BAYC did not do particularly well after its initial launch in April 2021. However, with cryptocurrency markets having struggled over the course of the past year, BAYC seems to have hit its peak, reaching $2 billion in sales in May this year.

BAYC currently has the most turnover of any NFT collection over the past day at just over $2 million, according to data from CryptoSlam.

However, data from DappRadar puts the figure closer to $1.67 million. The crypto data provider also listed NFT BAYC #6588 as the top NFT sale over the past day, at $1.19 million.

Appearance at the MTV Awards

Yuga Labs, the company behind Bored Apes Yacht Club, is currently developing its first metaverse game dubbed ‘Otherside.’ At present, Otherside remains in its development phase and no official release date has been offered.

Until the VMAs, very few had experienced what Otherside may offer upon its release. Only developers and owners of Otherdeed land NFTs had been able to experience an alternate reality.

BAYC has even become popular enough to permeate the highest levels of Western popular culture. Earlier this week, rappers Eminem and Snoop Dogg performed at the MTV Music Video Awards as avatars of the Bored Ape. Sunday’s VMA performance began with Snoop Dogg smoking a comically oversized joint and Eminem suffering the ill effects of the secondhand smoke. From here the two fell down the rabbit hole to the Otherside metaverse. The two performed variously from the top of an MTV logo, from the roof of

Stake.com creators Ed Craven and Bijan Tehrani, who just bought the most expensive house in Melbourne, called the lawsuit “completely frivolous” and “probably false.”

A former Stake.com partner who claims he was shut out of the blockbuster venture is suing the Australian creators of the world’s largest Bitcoin casino in the US for $400 million in damages. However, the creators of Stake.com, Ed Craven and Bijan Tehrani, who have just bought the most expensive house in Melbourne, called the lawsuit “totally frivolous” and “probably false.”

Stake.com: a $1 Billion Operation

Thought to be an offshore operation, crypto casino Stake.com was actually formed in Melbourne in 2017 by Craven and Tehrani, according to a late 2021 investigation by The Age and the Sydney Morning Herald. With Canadian pop artist Drake as its main brand ambassador, Stake.com, the main shirt sponsor of the English Premier League football team Everton, has become a company with a potential market value of up to 1 billion dollars.

Craven recently made headlines in Australia when he paid $80 million for a Toorak house, breaking the town’s previous record. Other Toorak properties were purchased for $38 million earlier this year by entities connected to Craven.

Christopher Freeman, who currently resides in Florida, filed a civil lawsuit in the Southern District of New York, claiming he was tricked into not participating in the creation of Stake.com and is seeking $400 million ($580 million) in punitive action damages, as well as the payment of his initial investment in a company that served as a precursor to Stake.com.

The casino claims to have processed US$100 billion worth of bets across its casino and sportsbook companies, but it works much like a typical casino and only accepts cryptocurrencies as payment. Freeman claims in his court case that he went to elementary and high school in Connecticut with Tehrani and that he was friends with the founder of Stake.com since they were young children.

Event Breakdown

Initially, according to Freeman, he owned 20% of Primedice, while Tehrani and Craven each owned 40%, reflecting their early investment in the company. Within nine months of founding Primedice, Freeman claims his shares were reduced to 14% to compensate other key members of the development team.

Freeman claims that despite the trio’s agreement that Primedice would only grant shares to people who have invested money in the company, this share transfer went through. As the value of cryptocurrencies rose, Freeman claims that in 2016 he discussed the concept of a crypto casino with his business partners, but Tehrani and Craven reportedly turned it down due to potential regulatory concerns.

Freeman claims he was put off joining Tehrani and Craven’s claimed new company, Stake.com, in the same year after being told he could only participate if he moved to Australia and that the new business would only deal in fiat currencies, like the US dollar, or the euro.

According to court documents, “Freeman, who was committed to and comfortable with the concepts of online gambling, believed that a fiat casino was the wrong thing to do (fiat-facilitated online gaming is a big deal).”

Stake.com said in a statement that: “the complaint filed by Chris Freeman contains allegations that are internally inconsistent, intentionally misleading and demonstratievely false.”

The company described the claim as a “desperate attempt to spread false information,” adding that Freeman was not entitled to the money he said he was owed.

By Audy Castaneda