Coming soon: green NFTs

Good morning! Welcome to The Daily Moon. Time’s running out for Do Kwon. A South Korean court has issued an arrest warrant against the Terra co-founder. They want answers on why he was unable to predict the stablecoin crash. 

US inflation spooked the markets. Bitcoin was down to $20,300 and Ethereum fell to $1,600. Nasdaq rose marginally in early trade. Back home, Sensex and Nifty wiped off their gains.

Binance Finds Indian Love 

The crypto bear market is in full force. And if you sell, there’s the taxman waiting. Indian crypto traders have switched to Binance and FTX to avoid the extra 1% tax on transactions. 

What’s the tax deal?A refresher: India has a 30+1 tax system for the crypto sector. Profits from crypto are taxed at 30%. Plus, there is a 1% levy on crypto transactions. So if you sell one Bitcoin for $20,000, there’ll be a $200 tax deduction. 

But foreign exchanges such as Binance and FTX haven’t implemented the 1% levy yet.  

Who’s gained and who’s lost?Downloads of Sam Bankman-Fried’s FTX rose to 96,000 in July from ~40,000 in January. Binance had 425,000 downloads in August, the highest this year. 

Indian exchanges have slumped. WazirX’s downloads fell to 92,000 in August from 596,000 in January. CoinDCX’s downloads fell to 163,000 in August from 2.2 million in January. 

FYI Binance and WazirX are also involved in a spat over the latter's ownership. Binance’s founder CEO Changpeng Zhao even encouraged Indian users to transfer their funds to his exchange. 

Now what?The excitement may be short-lived. Binance and FTX are non-committal about whether crypto trades will stay levy-free in India. 

NFTs Happy Merge Song 

There are many things that don’t work with NFTs. Their pointlessness apart, they were environmentally unfriendly. But The Merge changes things.

Game onWith the Merge, energy consumption will be reduced by about 99.95%. This will naturally extend to NFTs, and also games that support NFTs. Game developers have called upon large corporations to abandon their NFT plans because of their impact on the environment. The move to proof-of-stake (PoS) will change that.

Staking their betsDeFi protocol Maker has moved closer to staked Ethereum. It’ll now allow more staked Ethereum, $200 million to be precise, as collateral against its stablecoin DAI.  That means lesser dependence on Circle’s USDC. Maker hasn’t done this to gain from the Merge; it just wants to avoid risks such as Tornado Cash. 

FYI US authorities termed the crypto mixer Tornado Cash illegal on money laundering charges. Circle also blacklisted connected USDC wallets. 

Bitcoin’s Wobbly Again?

With a hotter-than-expected figure, the US inflation data pulled down the crypto market. Bitcoin fell to $20,000 levels and Ethereum hovered around $1,600. Traders have bet on prices to fall further. 

The panic cycle begins A Glassnode report has said Bitcoin’s recent fall to the $18,500 price region was its second-lowest low of the bear cycle. Close to 11.8% of the supply is from investors who are in ‘HODL’ mode for price recovery. Panic selloff by short-term holders has led to a price slide.  

The Merge impactWith Ethereum’s move to proof-of-stake, there is a lot of talk about how the event will impact Bitcoin. We’ve heard how Ethereum could reign as the “greener” alternative. The crypto community has been asking too if Bitcoin will crash post the Merge. But it’s just speculation, right now.

Celsius Has A Plan B 

Celsius hasn’t given up. The crypto lender has a comeback plan amidst bankruptcy. Under a revival project called Kelvin, CEO Alex Mashinsky wants to pivot Celsius into a crypto storage entity. 

What’s brewing?The bankrupt crypto lender wants to store the crypto of its users and earn money by charging a fee. This could repay creditors. During the court hearing, Mashinsky compared Celsius’ possible revival to that of Apple. 

Now there are many more parties. US consumer protection body Federal Trade Commission wants to join Celsius’ insolvency case. It will probe how the crypto lender failed. For now, Celsius has more issues than it can handle. 

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Who are we? There is a lot happening in our world. Everything has layers, and each layer has to be carefully peeled so you, the reader, know how the world of money is changing every day. That’s our promise. Help you unpeel the onions, which are the public markets in the US, India, and crypto, so that you know just a little more.