ETH/BTC is trading near yearly lows, continuing a downward trend that began in September 2022, according to cryptocurrency research firm K33 Research.

Despite the pessimistic outlook, K33 analysts reiterated their stance that a move to Ethereum is a wise choice before the end of the year, as the approval of an ETF based on Ethereum futures in the coming weeks could reverse this downward trend.

Multiple applications for Ethereum futures ETFs have been submitted in recent months, including proposals from Ark Invest, ProShares, Valkyrie, and Grayscale.

Analysts say the Ethereum futures ETF may get a final ruling in mid-October.

According to Foundry’s latest hashrate map, Texas accounts for 28.5% of all U.S. Bitcoin hashrate, followed by Georgia at 9.64%, New York at 8.75%, and New Hampshire at 5.33%.

The data was drawn between July 21 and 27, 2023, when Texas faced power curtailments. According to the report, this data means that the hash rate in Texas may be higher than the value reported on the map.

Overall, Foundry said that by July 2023, Bitcoin’s global hash rate had reached 400 EH/s, almost double the rate at the end of 2021, when it was 174 EH/s.

Dankrad Feist, a researcher at the Ethereum Foundation, said on social media that this is not how decentralization works.

There are no financial incentives that automatically guarantee our values, such as immutability or censorship resistance, the values of the Ethereum community do that. Our technology and the incentives built into our system are the tools to achieve this.

If you think that the value of cryptocurrency is simply maximizing personal profit, then you are missing the point and are in the wrong place.

The reason why Ethereum works hard is because people have values. If people forget their values, Ethereum will die. Yes, we do work hard to build our system to be as robust as possible and to align economic incentives with our values as much as possible.

But complete consistency is ultimately impossible, for the simple reason that centralized systems are more efficient than decentralized systems.

Bank for International Settlements (BIS) President Agustín Carstens said at the BIS Innovation Center meeting in Switzerland on September 27 that a legal framework ensuring user privacy and freedom to choose between central bank digital currencies (CBDC) and other forms of currency will is the key to driving CBDC adoption.

Most fundamentally, the legitimacy of a CBDC will derive from the central bank’s legal authority to issue it, and this authority must be firmly based on law.

Carstens added that different countries’ laws regulate the type of currency that their central banks can issue, which typically includes physical cash as well as credit balances in current and reserve accounts. According to a paper published by the IMF in 2021, nearly 80% of central banks are either not allowed under current laws. To issue digital currency, the legal framework is unclear.

Carstens also pointed to a study by the Bank for International Settlements, which showed that 93% of the world’s central banks are involved in developing CBDCs at various stages.

Considering that most of these institutions are actively seeking to meet public demand for digital forms of fiat currency, Carstens said that outdated or unclear legal frameworks that hinder their deployment are unacceptable.

U.S. Rep. Al Green asked SEC Chairman Gary Gensler during a hearing on Wednesday whether he believed the United States could have a properly regulated digital currency.

Gensler responded: “I think the U.S. dollar is pretty strong and we already use it as a form of digital dollar. Crypto tokens are different in that they are not currencies and do not fulfill the three functions of money: a store of value, a unit of account, or The medium of exchange, maybe one day, but frankly, it’s not going to happen in 2023.”

SEC Chairman Gary Gensler will testify before the House Financial Services Committee tomorrow.

According to prepared testimony, Gensler again stated that most cryptocurrencies and crypto companies are subject to federal securities laws.

“These securities laws have been around for decades, and given the widespread noncompliance with securities laws in this industry, it’s not surprising that we’re seeing a lot of problems in these markets,” he said. “We’ve seen this story before.”

This is reminiscent of the situation in the 1920s before the federal securities laws were implemented.

In his testimony, Gensler cited the agency’s rulemaking, including a statement issued in April that crypto platforms had become part of the definition of an exchange, including DeFi platforms.

Data shows that the 24-hour trading volume of the NFT project Pudgy Penguins has just exceeded 1,000 ETH.

Additionally, Pudgy Penguins floor prices have increased by 7.2% in the past 24 hours and by 23.2% in the past seven days.

Walmart will sell the Pudgy Penguins NFT toy line in two thousand stores across the United States, with prices ranging from $2.99 to $11.97, and each Pudgy toy will have access to Pudgy World.

Binance was granted an extension on September 26 to respond to a court order in a lawsuit filed by the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC).

U.S. District Court Judge Zia M. Faruqui for the District of Columbia granted motions by BAM Trading and BAM Management for an extension of time to respond to two previous court orders.

The first order requires the defendants to explain why certain documents related to the SEC’s motion to compel discovery should continue to be sealed or redacted, and the second order requires the defendants to justify the sealing of documents related to the SEC’s response to its motion to compel discovery.

BAM Trading and BAM Management now have until September 27 to respond to the show-cause order. The SEC did not oppose their request to extend the deadline.

Separately, BAM Trading and BAM Management filed an unopposed motion to postpone an Oct. 12 status conference. The two companies were the only defendants asking for more time to respond.

According to data from DefiLlama, the total locked value (TVL) of Binance’s liquidity-staking Ethereum reached $1.2 billion.

In April this year, Binance launched WBETH, an upgraded version of BETH, a liquid staking derivative that allows investors to use tokens to lend and borrow on DeFi protocols outside of Binance while receiving staking rewards.

When users participate in staking by locking (staking) ETH through Binance, they receive derivative tokens representing the pledged assets.

21Shares’ Dune dashboard shows that with 1.2 million ETH staked, Binance is one of the largest players on the Ethereum staking network, behind only Lido Finance and Coinbase.

The Federal Reserve Banks of Boston and New York released a paper on September 27 titled Flight to Safety: Are Stablecoins the New Money Market Fund? Report.

The report compares stablecoins such as USDT and USDC to money market funds. Key findings in the report include the observation that stablecoins and money market funds follow similar patterns in their operation, and that stablecoins may bring benefits to the broader financial world. The system brings instability.

The report stated that the findings indicate that stablecoins are vulnerable to runs during widespread crypto market disruptions and special stress events.

If stablecoins continue to grow and become more closely linked to major financial markets such as short-term funding markets, they could become a source of financial instability for the broader financial system.