Wall Street closed out a turbulent week for the markets, surging towards the close to set a new high for the week. Let’s look at some of the most significant developments in the last five days.
Bitcoin tops as the dollar drops
Bitcoin tops psychological $20,000 level in ‘bearish rally’ as U.S. dollar falls. Other digital currencies rose, including ether, which rose roughly 5%. The overall cryptocurrency market value has risen past $1 trillion once more.
The recent gain in bitcoin has been fuelled by a modest weakening of the U.S. dollar, which has enjoyed a remarkable rally this year. On Friday morning, the U.S. dollar index was down roughly 1%.
Since June, Bitcoin has been trading roughly $18,000 to $24,000 and has been unable to break out of that area.
Final countdown to the Ethereum merge
Google Is Counting Down to Ethereum Merge with Search Engine ‘Easter Egg.’ The Google “doodle” is counting down to the Ethereum merger as a show of support from the world’s most visited website.
The approval comes only days before Ethereum’s long-awaited switch to a less energy-intensive proof of stake transaction validation mechanism.
Also, read: 10 questions to stay on top of the Ethereum Merge.
The update is scheduled between September 10 and 20. Ethereum co-founder Vitalik Buterin limits his expectations between September 13 and 15.
Ethereum experts estimate the Merge will occur in the early morning of September 15, New York.
Gamestop forges a partnership with FTX
GameStop Corp., or “GameStop,” announced a collaboration with the crypto exchange FTX US (“FTX”).
The partnership aims to bring more GameStop consumers to FTX’s community and marketplaces for digital assets. GameStop will begin offering FTX gift cards in certain stores and cooperating with FTX on new eCommerce and online marketing activities.
Binance offers Ethereum staking
Just days before the merger, Binance US launches high-yield Ethereum staking.
The company’s ETH staking-rewards rate is roughly twice that of some of its biggest competitors.
On Wednesday, the business announced that users may now stake the second-largest cryptocurrency by market size and receive payouts starting at 6% APY.
“While there is a 32 ETH requirement for staking directly through the Ethereum network, users can stake on Binance.US with a minimum of just 0.001 ETH.” The blog said.
So, that was the round-up for the week. Stay tuned for more updates next week!
