Bitcoin drops 6.5% after Fed’s 75 bps rate hike; Tether under pressure to produce documents on USDT reserve

The biggest news in the cryptosphere for Sept. 21 includes Bitcoin tanking 6.5% after Fed announced a 75 bps rate hike, a court ordering Tether to provide documents on its reserves, and Ethereum Devs looking to enable withdrawals in the upcoming Shanghai upgrade.

CryptoSlate Top Stories

Developer consensus supports Ethereum withdrawals in upcoming Shanghai upgrade

CryptoSlate in a Sept. 20 article which was informed by a conversation with Ethereum Core Dev Micah Zoltu wrote that the upcoming Shanghai upgrade may not activate staking withdrawals.

In a follow-up discussion, Core Devs Coordinator Trenton Van Epps clarified that the subject of enabling withdrawals is being considered by the Ethereum Devs collective along with a range of other improvement proposals.

Iran to launch CBDC on Sept. 22

The Central Bank of Iran (CBI) is set to launch its digital currency dubbed “Crypto-Rial” by  Sept. 22

The Crypto Rial will be created by converting some Iranian Rail banknotes into cryptocurrency.

Canadian Crypto King’s assets confiscated as investors try to recoup millions entrusted to him

Investors have filed a lawsuit against 23-year-old Aiden Pleterski and creditors are looking into the whereabouts of the funds of at least $35 million entrusted to him and his company, AP Private Equity.

The presiding court has moved to confiscate assets worth $2 million from the self-proclaimed “Crypto King.”

IMF calls for coordinated approach to global crypto regulation

With the crypto market becoming increasingly integrated into the global financial system, the IMF has called on regulators worldwide to adopt a coordinated framework for regulating cryptocurrency.

The IMF explained that diverging regulatory approaches will create an unfair system where market participants migrate to regions with the least regulation.

New York court orders Tether to provide documents on USDT reserve

USDT issuer Tether is facing a lawsuit for allegedly lying about its USDT reserve which inflated the crypto market and crashed on traders.

The presiding court has asked Tether to provide financial records that prove its USDT reserve.

Tether in a follow-up update said it will submit the requested documents.

Cardano’s price jumps before imminent Vasil hard fork

Cardano’s ADA token price rose by 2.1% to $0.45 in the last 24 hours before the Vasil hard fork slated for Sept. 22.

Social interest in Cardano has also spiked by 35.16%, over the last seven days.

The Vasil upgrade is expected to contribute to Cardano’s faster blockchain validation, better security, and improved smart contract capabilities.

Fed announces 75 bps rate hike; Bitcoin tanks 6.5% on the news

At the end of the FOMC meeting today, The U.S. Federal Reserve raised interest rates by 75 basis points, bringing the Federal Funds Rate to 3.25%.

Following the news, Bitcoin declined by 6.5% and reached a bottom of $18,600.

Kraken CEO Jesse Powell moving to Chairman role to focus on crypto industry advocacy

Jesse Powell will become Kraken’s chairman, as Dave Ripley takes over as the CEO.

Going forward, Powell will focus on product development and crypto industry advocacy on behalf of Kraken.

CryptoSlate Exclusive

Immutable’s Guild of Guardians on building trust to onboard traditional gamers

Head of Marketing at Immutable Studios Sangita Sarkar told CryptoSlate that the upcoming Guild of Guardians game will be focused on gameplay as it seeks to promote the concept of “play-and-earn” instead of play-to-earn.

Toxica creator thinks NFTs are the future of independent filmmaking

Rona Walter McGunn worked with Cardano to release the first feature film fully released on the blockchain. The movie TOXICA was released as a Cardano NFT.

McGunn in an exclusive conversation with CryptoSlate said that releasing TOXICA as an NFT gave her the artistic freedom to create a masterpiece that brought more utility to the viewers.

Research Highlight

Ethereum’s move to PoS is trading off decentralization for scalability

On-chain data analyzed by CryptoSlate showed that post-merge, Ethereum is benefiting from increased scalability at the expense of its decentralization.

Ethereum PoS network experienced a significant increase in scalability. The block time was reduced from 13.5 seconds to 12 seconds, while its block space increased to 15% per day.

Stakers on the network have deposited about 13.8 million ETH to the ETH2 deposit contract. However, the network is currently centralized as 70% of the staked amount is concentrated with just four staking service providers- Lido, Coinbase, Kraken, and Binance.

News from around the Cryptoverse

JP Morgan CEO calls Crypto tokens ‘decentralized scams’

JP Morgan CEO Jamie Dimon called crypto tokens like Bitcoin “decentralized Ponzi schemes,’ according to Bloomberg News.

Dimon said that US-backed stablecoins would not be problematic in the presence of proper regulation.

Crypto Market

In the last 24 hours, Bitcoin declined 2.38% and was trading at $18,394. Ethereum declined a further 6.72% and is trading at $1,236.

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