People have been trying to figure out the whole cube frenzy over the last few days. The Google Trends result is self-explanatory. The spikes on the chart below are quite relentless, and the previous spikes no longer make their case.

Source: Google Trends

Setting the record straight

Before we get into the other amazing details, it's important to understand how and why this cube saga began in the first place.

Midwest is a tungsten service company that has been in business since 1958 and specializes in tungsten and alloys. Their newer cube products have recently gotten a lot of attention. Since its introduction in 2015, the cube has allowed many people to firsthand experience the density of tungsten.

Tungsten, in fact, is a metal that is 1.7 times as dense as lead. Savants have been purchasing it for quite some time, and owning one is clearly a joke on Reddit.

Because of the sudden popularity of these cubes, Midwest Tungsten Service's sales increased by more than 300 percent in October. Until recently, the majority of the firm's business came from industrial customers, according to the company's official customer breakdown data. However, the publicity prompted them to begin offering cubes in a variety of sizes ranging from 1 cm to 10 cm in order to meet the needs of its new retail customer base.

According to Midwest's recent blog, the firm was pushed to analyze and figure out the largest cube they could build due to the interest in tungsten cubes. Following the introspection, the largest 14-odd inch cube was born.

Reactions that drew a lot of attention

The cube's new owners have already begun dramatizing the situation. One of them went so far as to say that their previous life, particularly during the waiting period, had been a "bad life."

Finally got my cube, after two whole weeks of shipping. The waiting was heart wrenching - especially after understanding what I've been missing out on.

Two weeks without the intensity of density now feels like a distant memory, a past life, a bad life. pic.twitter.com/BesMsCEeQI

— torkel (@torkelrogstad) October 28, 2021

People are generally jumping on the cube bandwagon in order not to miss out on the entire cube saga. They used to be Ether rocks, but now they're tungsten cubes.

am i influencing? pic.twitter.com/5CfskSmHGA

— Meltem Demir◎rs (@Melt_Dem) October 14, 2021

Terms and conditions were followed

Midwest decided to sell the tungsten cube as an NFT in order to maintain its crypto-relevance. Owners of the NFT would be able to pay an annual visit to see/photograph/touch the physical cube that would be stored at the Midwest Tungsten Service headquarters.

As per the NFT’s description on OpenSea,

“Subsequent owners of the NFT cannot visit the cube in a year in which the cube has already been visited.”

In fact, the company went on to clarify that the cube would be stored in a room of its own that would be locked and only be accessible by the NFT owner. The cube would additionally not be available to view until 12 weeks after the first sale. With respect to the delivery, its blog noted,

“Burning the NFT will result in shipment to the most recent owner via freight truck, owner will be responsible for alerting Midwest Tungsten Service of the intention to burn and transport after freight drop-off.”

Thousands of dollars in bids!

The NFT was recently sold to a group called TungstenDAO for close to 57 ETH, or about $250,000. Although it is unclear what the group intends to do with the NFT, it appears that the purchase was made to bring the DAO to public attention.

The group bills itself as a "experimental meme incubation studio," with the goal of "amassing a collection of highly memorable assets, then creating content that reinforces their social significance and strengthens memetic desires for these assets."

Some argue that the density of the cube, combined with the intangible/immaterial nature of NFTs, is an ideal combination. Others, on the other hand, see the experience of HODLing these objects as its own reward. The most straightforward and appealing answer, on the other hand, advocates that the block is purchased to satisfy one's meme-bones.

Will TungstenDAO become the world's first multibillion-dollar meme studio? Will the cube's popularity last? Even though the answer to the aforementioned questions is most likely no, no one in the space can make that claim with certainty. Given the ever-changing trends, a cuboid or even a sphere may soon dethrone the cube.

NFTs are revolutionary by themselves, but the trends these days are getting out of hand. And, looks like the cube is merely another one trying to bite the dust.

BTC to USD, increased by 3.16 percent in the week ending November 7th. Bitcoin finished the week at $63,263.0, up 0.82 percent from the previous week.

After a bearish start to the week, Bitcoin fell to an intraweek low of $59,522.0 on Monday before making a move.

Bitcoin rose to an intraweek high of $64,291.0 on Tuesday, breaking through the first major support level at $58,069.

When Bitcoin came up against the first major resistance level at $64,129, it slid back to sub-$61,000 levels before finding support.

A bullish weekend saw Bitcoin reclaim $63,000 levels, allowing it to end the week in positive territory.

Three days in the green, including a 3.77 percent gain on Tuesday and a 2.87 percent gain on Sunday, delivered the week's gains. However, a 2.36 percent drop on Thursday limited the upside.

Bitcoin was up 3.13 percent to $65,241.0 at the time of writing. Bitcoin rallied from an early Monday low of $63,277.0 to an early Monday high of $65,241.0, indicating a bullish start to the week.

Early on, Bitcoin broke through the first major resistance level at $65,195.

In the coming week,

Bitcoin must avoid a retest of the first major resistance level at $65,195 in order to reach the second major resistance level at $67,128.

Bitcoin would require market support to break out from its October ATH of $66,958.0.

Barring a prolonged crypto rally, the second major resistance level would most likely cap any further gains.

In the event of a prolonged breakout, Bitcoin may test resistance at $70,000 before reversing. $71,897 is the third major resistance level.

A break through the first major resistance level and the pivot point at $62,359 would put the first major support level at $60,426 into play.

Unless there is a prolonged sell-off, Bitcoin should avoid falling below $58,000. The second major level of support is $57,590.

Ethereum

Ethereum increased by 7.62 percent in the week ending November 7th. Ethereum finished the week at $4,617.02, up 5.10 percent from the previous week.

After a mixed start to the week, Ethereum fell to an intraweek low of $4,151.00 on Monday before making a move.

Ethereum rallied to a Wednesday intraweek high and ATH of $4,670.98 after avoiding the first major support level at $3,972.

Ethereum broke through the first major resistance level at $4,535 before falling back to levels below $4,400.

However, a bullish finish to the week saw Ethereum break back through the first major resistance level, ending the week at $4,600.

The week's upside was delivered by four days in the green, including a 6.29 percent rally on Tuesday.

Ethereum was up 1.71 percent to $4,696.06 at the time of writing. Ethereum had a mixed start to the week, falling to an early Monday low of $4,616.50 before rising to a new ATH of $4,711.00.

Early on, Ethereum failed to test the major support and resistance levels.

To support a run at the first major resistance level at $4,808 in the coming week, Ethereum would need to avoid the $4,480 pivot level.

However, support from the broader market would be required for Ethereum to break out from this Monday's new ATH of $4,711.00.

Barring a prolonged crypto rally, the first major resistance level would most likely cap any further gains.

Ethereum could test the second major resistance level at $5,000 if another extended breakout occurs.

A break through the $4,480 pivot would trigger the first major support level at $4,288.

Unless there is a significant sell-off this week, Ethereum should avoid falling below $4,000 per coin. The second major level of support is $3,960.

Roger Ver, an early Bitcoin promoter, paid $1,500 per month to have a billboard with a honey badger Bitcoin ad along Santa Clara's Lawrence Expressway with the words "The Honey Badger of Money" displayed.

But what do honey badger tendencies have to do with bitcoin, a digital currency stored on the internet?

In the early days of Bitcoin, some miners attempted, but failed, to attack and take over the Bitcoin blockchain network using a 51 percent hash attack. Governments have outlawed it, and Wall Street investors such as Warren Buffet have labeled it rat poison. Yet, like a honey badger attacked by bees, snakes, or lions, Bitcoin remains unharmed despite the constant barrage of hack attempts to suppress its market capital.

In the world of cryptocurrency, bitcoin is analogous to the 35-pound mammal that is immune to almost everything thrown at it, including fear, uncertainty, and doubt (FUD). It was dubbed "the honey badger of money." Bitcoin OGs are all too familiar with the honey badger memes and are certain that the coin supply and network are unchangeable and impenetrable.

This concept may still be perplexing to Bitcoiners who are new to the space. So, here are six compelling reasons why the honey badger is Bitcoin's spirit animal.

1. Fearless Money

Bitcoin, among other things, offers a new technical solution to the Byzantine Generals Problem. Bitcoin is a game-changing technology. The Bitcoin network and supporters are unafraid of making bitcoin the world's most valuable currency.

Bitcoin, like the honey badger, is bold in taking on central banks and traditional wealth assets used as store of value, such as gold and equity stocks. Bitcoin will not back down in the face of any threat to its distribution, including governments. In the future, this will lead to a stalemate in currency regulation or outright dematerialization of banks that do not peg their treasury to bitcoin.

2. Globally Distributed

Bitcoin, like the internet, was created to provide the world with a web of information. It allows millions, and soon billions, to be their own banks and ultimately control their wealth. Bitcoin has a global reach that is distributed throughout the world, rather than being centralized in one location. Because Bitcoin users can self-post their funds, decentralized nodes secure transactions, making banks obsolete.

3. Transactions are extremely quick.

Bitcoin transactions typically take between 10 and 60 minutes to settle. When it comes to moving large sums of money across the globe, those time constraints are considered extremely short.

Bitcoin skeptics or altcoin supporters will argue that Bitcoin is too slow, and that a new sleek cryptocurrency will eventually outpace it in transaction times. When you zoom out and look at how long it takes for transfers to occur under the traditional banking system, the idea that Bitcoin is slow has no merit in my opinion. Slow and steady wins the race for Bitcoin. It's all about efficiency, and with innovation comes speed.

"International wire transfers may take 1–5 days," according to Divvy Pay, a well-known corporate credit card provider. It takes 2–3 days for ACH transfers and other types of money transfers."

Minutes and hours can be critical in an emergency. Meanwhile, depending on network speed, Bitcoin can send millions of dollars of value anywhere in the world in about five to ten minutes with low fees. The Lightning Network, Bitcoin's most established second layer for faster transactions, is fast — very fast.

Lightning has a maximum throughput of 25 million transactions per second at the moment (compared with on-chain throughput of seven transactions per second). This speed is expected to increase rapidly as the network grows in conjunction with Taproot.

4. Ignorance of Borders

Bitcoin enables people to live and work wherever they want. As a result, money restriction by borders is the final throes of a decaying nation state. The internet allows people to cross national borders. Bitcoin has no regard for borders and freely moves from peer to peer. These boundaries go all the way to the edges of the universe. Yes, if Bitcoin and space travel are successful, they will become a reality in the future.

Because nodes can be run anywhere, including off-planet colonies, Bitcoin's hash center can be used beyond Earth and into the universe. Dhruv Bansal, cofounder of Unchained Capital, wrote a brilliant piece in the "Bitcoin Astronomy" series on quantitative hash rate mining on other planets.

The concepts range from a Bitcoin hash war between Mars and Earth to hybrid blockchains known as timechains and Earth's future convergence into a hyperbitcoinized world. I'm guessing the honey badger will soon be in space. That's some interesting stuff to think about for sci-fi fans.

5. Secure Encryption: Bitcoin Is Unstoppable

Gold is money that cannot be printed, and Bitcoin is money that cannot be corrupted. On the blockchain, all transactions are public, but the encryption process is highly secure.

Bitcoin Core is a software application built on the Bitcoin blockchain rails. The Bitcoin core underpinning encrypts its wallet using the Advanced Encryption Standard (AES). This is the same encryption algorithm that the NSA employs for its classified data. AES is thought to be extremely secure. Nothing can stop Bitcoin because its fundamental encryption principles are secure and immutable.

6. Bitcoin Isn't Giving A Bit!

Bitcoin is being taxed by governments. Do you believe Bitcoin is concerned?

Any rational person who understands what a digital asset is would agree that it does not. Bitcoin is unconcerned because it does what it wants. The honey badger does pretty much whatever it wants in the animal kingdom as well. The parallels between the two are startling. Bitcoin, as a technology designed to facilitate peer-to-peer transactions, lacks emotion, but those who believe in its potential do.

There is no Bitcoin CEO or Bitcoin headquarters to protest in front of, no one or nothing to blame if it works or not. If it fails, it means that we have all failed, because it is based on consensus. Bitcoin is moving at its own pace, dematerializing relic stores of value into the Bitcoin standard. It is completely free of the physical and social flaws that societies inflict. It is unconcerned. It simply is.

This is a guest post by Dawdu Amantanah. Opinions expressed are entirely their own and do not necessarily reflect those of BTC Inc or Bitcoin Magazine.

The $93 million funding round is SoftBank's Vision Fund 2's first crypto-related investment, according to the Sandbox, which was announced on Tuesday. LG Technology Ventures, Samsung Next, Liberty City Ventures, and others also participated in the round.

The Sandbox, like the video game Minecraft, allows players to create their own virtual world, from creating their own avatars to purchasing digital plots of land. Players in The Sandbox can monetize all in-game items, whether it's the virtual real estate they created or the weapons they designed for the character. These items can be traded as NFTs on the platform's marketplace, which are digital assets stored on a blockchain that determines object ownership.

According to The Sandbox, the capital raised will allow the company to scale its growth as a digital entertainment destination where brands and celebrities can virtually engage with their fans. According to a statement, the blockchain gaming platform has amassed 12,000 digital land owners so far. Among the virtual world's "landlords" are American rapper Snoop Dogg, video game maker Atari, cryptocurrency exchange Binance, and the billionaire Winklevoss twins. As of November 2, the company reported a gross merchandise value of more than $144 million.

“This investment will help fuel the growth of the Sandbox creators’ economy as we expand beyond gaming into fashion, architecture, virtual concerts and shows, art galleries, museums, and more,”

Arthur Madrid, CEO and cofounder of the Sandbox, said in a statement.

“We are developing an entire ecosystem that opens new digital job opportunities for players and creators in our open NFT metaverse.”

The Sandbox's most recent funding round came as global tech titans stepped up their efforts to build the metaverse. The futuristic term refers to a digital universe in which users can interact virtually by combining aspects of gaming, social media, cryptocurrencies, augmented and virtual reality. Facebook changed its name to Meta last week as part of an effort to shift the company's focus away from managing its social media platform and toward building the metaverse. Meanwhile, according to Bloomberg, Microsoft has unveiled its enterprise version of the metaverse, which includes video chat software with digital avatars.

During a recent episode of the Crypto Conversation podcast, host Andy Pickering spoke with Glassnode's Lead on-chain analyst 'Checkmate' to learn more about what the market has left behind. During the same conversation, the two also discussed where it might go in the future.

Horns or claws?

Naturally, many investors and traders are unsure whether the market is in a bull or bear phase. Checkmate, for his part, discussed how on-chain metrics can indicate whether a market is bullish or bearish. He stated

“…right now we’ve got a very, very slow grind out of a bear market-type character.”

To back this up, he pointed out how floor prices can rise “even when conditions are the worst.”

The state of the market

So, the next important question, understandably, is this  – What could happen next? Checkmate looked at traders’ behavior to better understand their expectations. He claimed,

“It’s kind of like the profits are being taken and now people have really backed off and they’re just sitting tight. And what that’s telling me is that people are actually expecting higher prices and to a higher extent to what we’ve seen in previous market cycles…Bitcoin is reaching a new level of liquidity and market attention.”

Further, in conclusion, Checkmate declared,

“So my view is that I think it’s gonna be a fairly positive and healthy Q4.”

On the question of the legendary four-year cycle [exponential highs, correction, accumulation, and continuation], Checkmate had some surprising insights. He argued that the cycle came about “almost by chance” after the Mt. Gox crisis in 2013. He said,

“I do believe the four-year-cycle is most likely a thing of the past.”

Another expert weighs in.

Checkmate isn't the only one who has made a comment about it. Willy Woo, a Bitcoin on-chain analyst, recently discussed the Bitcoin four-year cycle with podcast host Peter McCormack and admitted,

“The cycle is not a cycle in my reckoning.”

Having said that, Woo described the 2020/2021 market differently than Checkmate, emphasizing its more bullish nature. It's worth noting, however, that Woo later admitted that the launch of the Bitcoin ETF in the United States had "changed the balance of the entire ecosystem."

Nonetheless, he, like many others, is bullish on Bitcoin's next run, which could see BTC reach $100,000.

Maker establishes a new high.

The month of October marked a high-water mark for most coin price movements. Maker, on the other hand, had its price skyrocket in the last few days of October and the first few days of November.

In fact, MKR has surged extremely high this week, putting several cryptocurrencies' month-long gains to the test. It was up 44.48 percent this week, to be precise. Furthermore, Maker's price has increased by almost $1100 in the last 24 hours, a 30 percent increase.

But it hasn't simply left its imprint on the spot market. The Maker protocol has performed very well even in the DeFi space, with its TVL increasing by nearly $7 billion.

As a result, the protocol outperformed Curve, the previous DeFi leader, to take the top spot on the charts.

As a result, the Maker token's market value increased for the first time in two months yesterday.

MKR presently earns over $230,000 in daily interest with over eight billion DAI issued. This not only makes the protocol a success, but it also makes MKR a profitable investment.

Investors, too, heaved a sigh of relief when MKR began to rise. Investors finally woke up on October 27th and took advantage of the rally. As a result, major transaction volumes soared to a nearly three-month high. These are transactions that are valued more than $100,000 each. This suggests that whales and their wealthier cohorts were the first to respond.

Make massive transactions | Source: AMBCrypto – Intotheblock

Second, now that we are seeing an increase in Long Term Holders, holders are becoming more serious about MKR.

Finally, after seven months, these holders' numbers have increased by 9% in the previous two months. During such rallies, it is important to remember that growth will eventually work in the altcoin's advantage.

Distribution of Maker holders | Source: Intotheblock – AMBCrypto

As a result, Maker appears to be in a good place. However, investors must maintain their bullishness, or all of this progress might be overturned.

New highs for Ethereum miners

Ethereum's bullishness in October resulted in a significant increase in trading and transaction volumes, as well as significant investor inflows. The accumulation trend was on fire, resulting in a rewarding month for Ethereum miners.

Despite the fact that less than 600 new miner addresses entered the network during October, existing miners' constancy resulted in the hash Rate reaching new all-time highs every day. As long as there are no major changes, the hash rate should continue to climb in this direction.

The good news is that total fees paid to miners have reached a 5-month high of 16,317 ETH as a result of investors' bullish behavior. Fee revenue alone accounted for more than 54.1 percent of the miners' total revenue.

Fees generate cash for Ethereum miners | Source: Glassnode - AMBCrypto

Furthermore, based on investor profitability, miners are taking full advantage of the bullishness and are not even selling into strength, as investors have done.

As a result, their total reserves increased by 23k ETH in October. And it appears like they will continue to do so.

What kind of influence did EIP-1559 have?

The intriguing aspect here is that even EIP-1559's fee burn mechanism has had little to no effect on miners. Despite the fact that their revenue suffered as a result of its adoption, recent market dynamics have resulted in base fees accounting for the majority of their earnings.

In addition, over 727k ETH has been burned since August, but this only accounts for 0.61 percent of total circulation. This demonstrates that EIP-1559 has never been and will never be a concern for miners or investors.

It is worth noting that the CBA is Australia's largest bank, and no other bank has previously offered retail crypto-services in the country. In the future, the bank's CommBank app will include crypto-exchange and custody-related services for customers directly through APIs. According to CBA CEO Matt Comyn,

“We remain committed to reimagining banking and will continue to bring more functionality into the CommBank app including investing and shopping.”

Following a pilot, these features will be "progressively rolled out" over the next year. And the pilot will most likely begin in the coming weeks.

What does this mean for the industry?

The bank revealed that the offering was prompted by increased customer demand. The CEO of CBA also stated,

“The emergence and growing demand for digital currencies from customers creates both challenges and opportunities for the financial services sector, which has seen a significant number of new players and business models innovating in this area.”

He went on to say that the CBA can play an important role in providing "capability, security, and confidence" in cryptocurrency trading.

According to Chainalysis CEO and Co-Founder Michael Gronager,

“Financial institutions like CBA play an integral role in growing cryptocurrency adoption safely…”

As expected, a lot of reactions to the same were positive. Jefferies banking analyst Brian Johnson, for instance, called CBA’s crypto-strategy “clever.” He commented,

“They’ve got a lot of youth customers and holding on to them and getting more people engaged with their apps with multiple functions, that makes them really sticky and can create long-term value.”

Australia’s ambitious plans

Only a few weeks ago, the country's financial watchdog issued new guidelines for crypto-backed exchange-traded products (ETPs). Following this, the Australian Securities and Investment Commission (ASIC) permitted regulated investment vehicles centered on cryptocurrency for retail investors.

The Australian Senate committee recently proposed new licensing for crypto-exchanges, among other ambitious plans to become a leader in the sector, as demand for crypto-products skyrocketed in the island nation.

The proposal included new laws to govern Decentralized Autonomous Organizations [DAOs], capital gains taxation in DeFi, and a tax break for cryptocurrency miners who use renewable energy.

Wrapped recently announced that starting in December, they will provide support for Wrapped XRP (wXRP) on the Ethereum blockchain. Not surprisingly, it struck a chord with the market and investors alike.

The token, which will be backed by XRP 1:1, will be usable across Ethereum's DeFi ecosystem. This step will benefit not only XRP's adoption and expansion, but will also make Ethereum a more appealing DeFi option due to the availability of support for multiple tokens.

As previously stated, the market appeared to be overjoyed with this announcement. As a result, XRP's price action increased by 11.81 percent over the next four days, recovering from a 10.1 percent drop the day before.

And this boost was much needed, and the token may require another one to break free of its nearly 2-month-long consolidation. XRP has been stuck under $1.168 since September 7 and above $0.099 since the beginning of October.

A consolidation this long might not be the best thing for the token.

The last week has already been unusual, with long-term holders selling for the first time in October. This resulted in a total consumption of 323.7 billion days.

On October 27, whales made their largest movement in six months. Over 3535 transactions totaling more than $100,000, with 324 transactions totaling more than $1 million.

Furthermore, the drop in network growth that occurred the previous week had nearly recovered by the end of October.

XRP network expansion | Santiment – AMBCrypto

However, because Polkadot recently flipped XRP, XRP may have to buck up for a while to take the #7 spot. If XRP does not rise quickly, this could happen again, possibly permanently.

Jesse Powell, Kraken co-founder and CEO, recently spoke with CNBC about where the exchange is headed in the face of competition from Coinbase and other platforms. Powell stated,

“We’ve got a Skunk Works NFT project of our own. So we’re really trying to stay on the bleeding edge of crypto.”

Apart from that, Kraken’s CEO stated that the company is ‘going deeper into crypto with a wide offering for staking of cryptocurrencies.’ He also added,

“We’re supporting parachain auctions.”

Coinbase Vs Kraken

It is noteworthy that both Kraken and Coinbase offer more than 80 crypto assets while allowing staking to earn interest. However, what has come as a reveal is- Kraken’s decision to enter the traditional financial services space. The crypto exchange will do that through its banking license in Wyoming.

“So we’re getting more into traditional financial services such as stock trading, banking services, you know, maybe even small loans at some point.”

But, Powell reiterated that these are smaller projects as they are “experts in the cryptocurrency business.”

Kraken CEO @jespow tells us the crypto exchange is looking to get into traditional financial services.. including stock trading📈📉

Comes as Robinhood, Square, PayPal move onto their turf with crypto trading @CNBCTechCheck pic.twitter.com/GFy64527Pm

— Kate Rooney (@Kr00ney) November 1, 2021

Having said that, Coinbase has announced a new acquisition in a new market. It plans to buy Agara, an AI-powered support platform with offices in India and the United States. Coinbase has now entered India's start-up market for the first time.

Meanwhile, Kraken is reportedly getting ready to list Shiba Inu (SHIB), the rallying meme coin, on November 2nd. This is something Coinbase did previously in September.

Regulation-related halt

In terms of regulations, the Kraken chief said,

“Our regulators in the United States don’t seem interested in really clarifying anything for us.”

Not so long back, Coinbase had landed in trouble with the U.S. regulators before the launch of its ‘Lend’ product. In the context of listed tokens, Kraken is fairly confident. Powell said,

“We have a very thorough legal review before we list something. So if you see it available in the United States, we’re fairly confident that that asset is not a security.”

Both exchanges do not qualify for fund protection by the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation ("FDIC") in the United States.

A possibly more stringent set of guidelines for the exchanges is on the way. PWG, along with regulators such as the FDIC, recently published a regulatory report outlining the risks of digital asset trading platforms that rely on stablecoins to facilitate borrowing, lending, and trading. As a result, new recommendations may necessitate changes to the exchanges' existing business plans.

The original cryptocurrency was envisioned as a new form of money independent of any central issuer, as many people at the time had lost large sums of money due to traditional banks' financial risks and subsequent bailouts. While the peer-to-peer electronic cash narrative of Bitcoin has largely gone unnoticed, millions of investors of all sizes have joined its market to either use it as a safe haven or speculate and bet on its price.

This has been accompanied by the institutionalization of Bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies by traditional financial institutions, which now provide a wide range of investment products. Despite this deviation from Satoshi's original vision, many supporters continue to believe in the promises of change that many decentralized platforms provide.

However, prominent cryptocurrency trader Alex Good believes that the industry is not the "utopian dream" that millennials are being sold. He stated in a recent Twitter thread about an impending economic "battle,"

“Bitcoin which started as a rejection of bailout capitalism has become part of it.”

6/ Tether is running a $70+ billion offshore bank which is a huge player in the global commercial paper market with a whitepaper that warns that a risk is "they may abscond with the funds". Regulators are slow? Give me a fcking break. That was sane in 2018. Not anymore.

— Alex Good (@goodalexander) October 31, 2021

Rather, the analyst believes that the novel technology is being used by governments to strengthen their grip on their subjects, as well as traditional institutions to avoid raising taxes. He stated,

“Bitcoin and crypto more broadly is an officially sanctioned way for the ruling class to get their money out of the system before a barrage of financial repression comes into effect via CBDCs.”

He went on to say that because the traditional drivers of "bailout capitalism," such as big tech and commodities investment, were only temporary, institutions were using crypto to get off the hook "before policymakers have to raise taxes aggressively to fund giant fiscal programs."

He concluded that,

“The metaverse and the growing surveillance state will be further tools to quell social unrest and monitor citizens.”

Good's concerns about government surveillance via CBDCs have previously been expressed by a few others, most notably American CIA whistleblower Edward Snowden. CBDCs were recently dubbed "cryptofascist currencies" by a CIA subcontractor because they could provide the government with power while also restricting freedom and financial privacy.

This tremendous increase in value has piqued the interest of investors in the project's future, though rumors of a scam were also circulating. Nonetheless, cryptocurrency exchanges have kept an eye on Shiba in response to DOGE's unexpected rally and in order to meet user demand. Binance has now launched the ideal pair – SHIB/DOGE – to engage both communities.

The SHIB/DOGE pair will begin trading on Binance on Tuesday, November 2nd at 8:00 AM [UTC].

DOGE vs. SHIB

The rivalry between the two tokens is obvious, as they both promised large profits to investors while currently lacking concrete use cases. One might wonder, then, where is the competition?

Shiba Inu, despite being launched in 2020, has amassed a market capitalization of more than $40 billion. This put it ahead of Dogecoin, which had a market cap of $33 billion. The altcoin was definitely competing with DOGE, as Shiba's official website calls it "the Dogecoin killer," but only time will tell if this growth is sustainable.

Meanwhile, other exchanges were looking to cash in on the Shiba Inu craze. Coinbase, one of the world's largest centralized exchanges, listed Shiba a few weeks ago, causing the price to rise as well.

Aside from listing, Coinbase also added SHIB to its AppStore listing alongside crypto giants like Bitcoin and Ethereum, making it the number one coin on iPhone and Android online stores, as Twitter CEO Jack Dorsey pointed out.

damn pic.twitter.com/hirXmxa2gS

— jack⚡️ (@jack) October 30, 2021

SHIBA and DOGE can continue to be the market's favorite doggos for the time being, but it will be critical for the projects to support utility if they are to remain so.

Bulls would need to carry DOT's 24-hour surge above a supply zone of $46.3-$49.5 to turn the tide. Until then, the possibility of a retracement cannot be ruled out. DOT was trading at $45.3 at the time of writing, up 9% in the previous 24 hours.

Polkadot Daily Chart

Polkadot's rising wedge began to manifest in late August, after the price maintained its streak of higher highs and higher lows into November. However, once investors cash out their gains, the pattern is prone to breakdowns.

In the case of DOT, an overhead resistance of $46.3-$49.5 posed a similar threat if a majority of investors took profits. If this is the case, DOT could face a 30% drop from the breakout point, based on the pattern's highest and lowest points.

Bulls can look to provide countermeasures in the $28.5-$29 range to rekindle momentum for a new rally. DOT can set its sights on $40 once earlier swing highs of $34 and $36 are overturned.

On the other hand, an early close above $49.7 could serve as a catalyst for further gains. A breakout in the opposite direction would send DOT soaring towards its target of around $65 per share.

Reasoning

Unfortunately, the combination of DOT's daily RSI and MACD contributed to an unfavorable result. A series of lower peaks along the RSI indicated a bearish divergence in DOT's price action. The bearish crossover of the MACD may also generate additional selling pressure in the coming days.

Conclusion

If the price breaks south from its rising wedge, DOT could see a 30% drop. Traders can profit from this development by shorting DOT below $40. With a stop-loss of $50, the take-profit can be set within a strong defensive zone of $28.5-$29.5.

Meanwhile, bulls may hope that the DOT's 24-hour surge will propel it above the $50 mark. This would negate DOT's wedge and allow for additional gains.

It saw recent upgrades such as Berlin, London, and Altair on its way to becoming a proof-of-stake (PoS) network. However, according to a recently submitted white paper, there are some points to consider regarding this upgrade. On a "proof-of-work Ethereum" blockchain, there are three attack vectors, according to the report.

Computer scientists from Stanford University and the Ethereum Foundation believe that specific types of attacks on Ethereum are possible. Tuur Demeester, a Bitcoin enthusiast, shared the aforementioned paper to emphasize the same. It shed light on two key aspects: "short-term reorganizations" and "adversarial network delay."

Quotes from ETH 2.0 attacks paper, via @KyleLogiks:

“With 99.6% probability an adversary with .09% stake can execute a 1-record for any given day”

“Under adversarial network delay, an adversary can perform a 10-reorg by merely controlling 19 validators”https://t.co/HGazdB0acV pic.twitter.com/MsZoyUGdev

— Tuur Demeester (@TuurDemeester) October 30, 2021

The first two types of attacks were covered in the paper "Three Attacks on Proof-of-Stake Ethereum," and now comes the third. "By combining techniques from both refined attacks, we obtain a third attack that allows an adversary with vanishingly small stake and no control over network message propagation (assuming instead probabilistic message propagation) to cause even long-range consensus chain reorganizations," according to the paper.

Furthermore,

“Honest-but-rational or ideologically motivated validators could use this attack to increase their profits or stall the protocol, threatening incentive alignment and security of PoS Ethereum. The attack can also lead to destabilization of consensus from congestion in vote processing.”

The attack could also result in "destabilization of consensus due to congestion in vote processing," according to the paper's authors. In addition, Bram Cohen, the creator of BitTorrent and the founder of the Chia project, shared a similar insight.

 He tweeted,

“Some issues with ETH2 consensus, we obtain a third attack which allows an adversary with vanishingly small fraction of stake to cause even long-range consensus chain reorganizations”

Needless to say, he was quickly chastised by various pro-ETH supporters. For example, this ETH supporter stated,

Some issues with ETH2 consensus "we obtain a third attack which allows an adversary with vanishingly small fraction of stake to cause even long-range consensus chain reorganizations" https://t.co/Vz3KG3ai1W

— Bram Cohen🌱 (@bramcohen) October 30, 2021

Fast forward to the present, and ETH and its burning mechanism have come a long way since the last update. Over the last 24 hours, Ethereum burned 10.06 ETH worth $42,895 every minute, according to Etherchain. At the time of writing, it had consumed approximately 701,630 ETH, which equated to approximately $3 billion (approx.).

The same story has been told on other platforms. For example, Ultrasound.money, an ETH supply-tracking website, deduced the following conclusions. At the time of writing, the Non-fungible token (NFT) marketplace OpenSea was responsible for the most ETH burns, torching 91,172 ETH worth over $398 million. Here's a list of some more:

This category also includes the decentralized exchange (DEX) Uniswap (version 2), which has 51,331 ETH worth over $230 million. Ethereum's current main use cases are Ergo, NFT, and DeFi.

Needless to say, the total amount mentioned above is in the billions of dollars. For example, Chinese journalist Wu Blockchain tweeted:

According to oklink, the amount of ETH burned on October 31st reached 697,591, which is more than 3 billion U.S. dollars, and is currently 3.051b.

— Wu Blockchain (@WuBlockchain) October 31, 2021

The said report, highlighted key attributes concerning the largest token. It noted,:

“Ethereum’s current burn rate is around 5 ETH/min, and the average burning value of a single block remains above 1.1 ETH. The annual new supply of Ethereum is 5 million, which means that at the current burn rate, more than 50% of the new supply is burned. If ETH1.0 and ETH2.0 are successfully merged, Ethereum may move toward deflation.”

Several other factors have recently influenced Ethereum's performance. Aside from the previously mentioned factors, institutional adoption was critical.

Consider this: according to the report, 12 Ethereum securities products held a total of 1.4294 million ETH worth more than $5 billion, accounting for 1.23 percent of the Ethereum market cap. CoinShares Ether Tracker Euro, a CoinShares Ethereum securities product, held nearly 380,000 ETH, ranking first among Ethereum securities products.

Furthermore, despite certain consolidation periods, pro-ETH analysts have maintained their bullish outlooks. Either now or in the past.

$ETH
On verge of price discovery

Next leg up should be one of the wildest yet

Looks great vs $BTC as well pic.twitter.com/2ngKCsNvrg

— Pentoshi Won’t Dm You. hates Dm’s. DM's are scams (@Pentosh1) October 28, 2021

For a long time, Bitcoin has been referred to as digital gold. However, because the story hasn't ended yet, the arguments for and against the idea are equally strong. Nonetheless, with BTC consistently trading above $60,000, many argue that Bitcoin is 'better at being gold than gold itself.'

Despite the volatility, the king coin continues to pique the interest of investors due to its long track record of creating and sustaining value. In fact, the aggregate Bitcoin balances on exchanges were on a major downtrend during this cycle. The current exchange balance levels are the same as in September 2018.

Furthermore, with new addresses being created, outflows peaking, and price volatility remaining relatively low, BTC comfortably remained above $60,000. The market appeared to be inundated with positive supply shock stories. But the important question is what gave BTC the upper hand in the store of value battle.

BTC has the advantage.

The real yield was the primary reason people began buying gold, but investors may be leaning toward Bitcoin as a replacement. Gold's real yield is currently at 4%, the lowest it has been in more than a decade. If the real yield is negative, you are basically paying for the privilege of taking someone else's risk.

Normally, when the real yield falls into negative territory, it triggers a run-up in gold, but this time that was not the case.

There is speculation that one reason for this negative real yield is that money inflows are being diverted away from gold, but are they going into Bitcoin? There are some indicators that point to it.

To begin, the evolution of Bitcoin's market cap expressed as a percentage of the market size of physical gold demonstrates that BTC is skyrocketing.

Bitcoin grew from less than 1% of the gold market to 2.5 % four years later and now stands at a mind-boggling 12%. At the moment, it appears that BTC is simply stealing money that would otherwise go to gold, but the dynamics could change dramatically in the future.

Furthermore, BTC's inherent scarcity, combined with its striking resemblance to the dot-com bubble of the 1990s, strengthens the narrative for BTC.

For the time being, BTC has a long way to go. Despite the vast differences that separate gold investors and Bitcoin traders, both may share aspects of an anti-fiat philosophy.

Maintaining critical levels

Despite the sideways movement, one thing that stood out over the last week was the fact that Bitcoin futures ETFs were making things easier. Because ETFs must purchase futures contracts on the CME, open interest increased.

There was a larger premium of futures over spot BTC and noticeably wider spreads, indicating a larger premium of futures over spot BTC. However, total BTC options open interest (OI) and options volumes have been steadily declining over the last few days.

Deribit OI fell from $13 billion to $11 billion, while options volume fell from over $1 billion to $423 million in less than a day, representing a drop of nearly 50% in volume in less than a day.

Nonetheless, BTC held the $60K level, which was a good sign of price stability. One reason for the drop in OI could be the monthly expiry on October 29th. Because BTC was above $58,000 on the day, bulls profited by more than $400 million.

Perplexing situation

Bitcoin's price was more or less stable. Analysts appeared to have conflicting views on the coin's short-term price direction. There were two more prominent market opinions, one bearish and the other bullish:

1. What is taking place is a rapid balancing process and preparation for the push for new all-time highs.
2. The recent consolidation could signal the start of a larger correction that could send BTC to the $45K to $50K range.

Arguments supporting the first hypothesis included the fact that HODLers remained uninterested in selling, while selling and profit-taking appeared to be minimal.

Notably, while the volume of old coins was increasing, it was still at historically low levels. Most importantly, a May accumulation trend was still in effect. On a broader scale, the market was bullish on Bitcoin.

Nonetheless, there were enough counterpoints to the aforementioned trend as well; for example, there are over 6K puts for the BTC $50K level.

In fact, there appeared to be very little activity, with puts continuing to outnumber calls three to two in the CME Bitcoin options market.

Most importantly, one trend indicating a short-term correction was that BTC spot Exchanges Inflow (MA7) appeared to be increasing now.

In the past, BTC price has mostly experienced corrections when BTC spot Exchanges Inflow (MA7) increased. We may see a "short-term" correction until some of the spot that flew into exchanges is dealt with.

Overall, with a calmer spot market and a somewhat perplexing options market, the monthly and weekly closes of BTC could determine the price flow ahead.

What exactly is Lepasa?

Lepasa is an NFT platform founded by a group of blockchain technology experts and traditional artists with the goal of creating a mythological virtual life. NFTs on the platform are ERC-721 tokens that users on the Ethereum blockchain can own.

Lepasa is based on a decentralized model because the platform's creators believe that no single authority should have complete control over the platform or the ability to change the rules of the software, its contents, or the token's economics.

The ecosystem of Lepasa

Lepasa, as previously stated, is a community-driven platform that is creating an ecosystem for gamers, artists, and crypto enthusiasts. The Lepasa ecosystem is made up of the following components:

• E-commerce: E-commerce is popular all over the world, and with Lepasa, users can sell physical items through their virtual store on the platform.
• Virtual tourism is another industry with a lot of potential. Lepasa can be used by artists, students, and researchers to create, explore, and learn.
• Applications: Lepasa's scripting language would allow developers to create 3D applications, games, and dynamic scenes with the ability to create objects, load textures, encode user interactions, sounds, and payments, among other things.
• Digital collectibles: Lepasa users can publish, distribute, and collect digital assets. Users will be able to trade on the platform by using the scripting system, which will be supported by the naming system.
• Advertising: Lepasa also offers brands the opportunity to promote their products, services, or events by placing billboards near or on land blocks. The platform also allows them to showcase their products and interact with the audience.
• Socializing: The platform enables communities to create chat groups, online forums, and other centralized multiplayer games. Aside from online groups, offline communities can find a place to gather and interact in Lepasa.

The $Lepa cryptocurrency

On the Lepasa platform, the $Lepa token is an ERC-20 token. CertiK, a leading smart contract auditing firm, has audited the token.

Any user who wishes to purchase NFTs or any future offering on the Lepasa platform must do so using the $Lepa token.

The token also includes a burn mechanism, which creates scarcity and increases the token's value. It will also be available on QuickSwap, PancakeSwap, and Uniswap in the near future.

The distribution of tokens

The total supply of $Lepa token is 100 million, with 10% of the token initially circulating. A 39 percent share is designated for strategic and private distribution, with the remaining 25 percent designated for marketing and business development. A ten percent share is set aside for the team, the foundational reserve, and the liquidity. The remaining 5% share is reserved for the advisors.

The $Lepa token has a listing price of $0.15.

Conclusion

As previously stated, Lepasa was created with the goal of creating a mythological virtual world with unique fine art 3D NFTs that provide users with more than just an image but also access to actual source files. These source files include a plethora of possibilities, including games, videos, pictures, and other NFTs.

The platform's utility token, too, has a limited supply, which means it has the potential to provide huge returns to investors in both the long and short term. In addition to partnering with Polygon|Matic, Lepasa has been featured on CoinMarketCap and NewsBTC.

For more information on Lepasa, please visit their official website, as well as their Twitter and Telegram accounts.

Disclaimer: This is a paid post and should not be treated as news/advice.

[ded] Change is enjoyable.

dcSpark, a crypto infrastructure architect, announced that Project Catalyst members had voted to allocate a total of $165,000 to its proposals.

We are happy to announce that all our proposals in #ProjectCatalyst were funded!!

Everyone at dcSpark will like to thank the Cardano $ADA community for supporting us with your votes!!

There’s good progress with @FlintWallet & @Milkomeda_com, visit our Discord to catch up⚡️

1/3 pic.twitter.com/awWTB8a1Qe

— dcSpark (@dcspark_io) October 29, 2021

A rollback handler, multi-signature for Ethereum Virtual Machine [EVM] bridges, and a standard for cross-chain asset transfers were among them.

What impact will these proposals have on the Cardano ecosystem? Rollbacks help maintain the integrity of a blockchain when it splits into branches. However, this can have a significant impact on the user experience. The dcSpark solution 'Multiverse' was designed to help nodes understand what is going on and to speed up the process.

Meanwhile, Milkomeda is a protocol designed to add EVM capabilities to chains such as Solana and Cardano. This should make asset transfers easier for users.

dcSpark claimed in a recent statement,

“In other words, as an example for Cardano, Milkomeda will allow sidechains to be deployed that connect directly to the mainchain and use wADA (wrapped ADA) as the asset to pay for transaction fees.”

It is worth noting, however, that Milkomeda stated on October 28th that Catalyst's funds were "barely enough" for its needs.

Funds from Catalyst are hardly enough to fund anything for our case -- also we haven't even received any funds for Milkomeda... We actually we had to go out to look for investment

— Milkomeda (@Milkomeda_com) October 27, 2021

Cardano founder Charles Hoskinson, on the other hand, reportedly called Milkomeda a "valuable addition" and emphasized the importance of interoperability among chains and operating systems.

dcSpark, for its part, revealed that it had requested funding from Project Catalyst to conduct "developer evangelism" in Japan during the Blockchain Expo.

Catalyst fund 5 update:

Earlier this year we asked for Catalyst $ADA funding for developer evangelism work in Japan

This week our team spent 3 days talking to people about how they can use @Milkomeda_com to deploy their Solidity contracts on Cardano

Thank you for your support! pic.twitter.com/g7OghHCNLQ

— dcSpark (@dcspark_io) October 30, 2021

Project Catalyst voters must reach an 8,000 ADA threshold in order to vote on proposals and keep spammers out.

Cardano wielding a katana

Cardano's ADA debuted in Japan in August of this year. While the East Asian country is thought to be open to crypto innovation, it closely monitors the industry and cracks down hard on rule breakers.

Japanese regulators were looking into Cardano investors in October for allegedly evading taxes. According to local reports, approximately 1.4 billion yen [roughly $12 million] was lost due to general tax evasion. Furthermore, Japanese regulators are concerned about the lack of transparency in the cryptocurrency industry.

MATIC flipped a lot of altcoins.

The altcoin's 41.83 percent gain this week resulted in it displacing some major tokens on the top 20 list of cryptocurrencies. Polygon, with a market capitalization of $13.37 billion, outperformed Bitcoin Cash, Litecoin, Algorand, and the Binance USD stable coin to rank 17th.

Polygon has been pushing the envelope on many fronts in order to make itself accessible to everyone through a variety of means. One such effort was the organization of India's first hackathon, BUILDIT. In fact, the company recently invested in Colexion, Asia's largest NFT marketplace, in an effort to expand its reach into the Asian market. So, in addition to development, investment has become a tool for their expansion.

But first, let's talk about an investor move that could slow Polygon's rise.

What action did Polygon's investors take?

Because of the rally, most investors took advantage of the opportunity to profit, and we could see the results on-chain as well. As the market began to rise, investors began to sell, and in less than 10 days, over 100 million MATIC worth nearly $200 million was sold.

A large portion of these sellers were also long-term holders (LTHs) who moved their holdings and consumed 26.9 billion days in three days.

When the market is not strong or when a potential reversal is visible, cashing out is a good idea. However, cashing out when the asset is expected to rise further can have a negative impact.

As a result of this selling, MATIC is down nearly 8% today. This may now be the cause of losses for investors, despite the fact that MATIC holders have profited throughout the month of October. In fact, as a result of the strong performance, profit margins for investors increased from 44.16 percent to 93.24 percent at the time of this report.