Read in the Digest:
- 52% of Ethereum blocks face censorship from OFAC-compliant flashbots.
- Development activity in the Polkadot ecosystem at an all-time high.
- Australia suspends three crypto-related funds by Holon Investments.
- Nvidia (NASDAQ:NVDA) removes anti-crypto mining software on RTX 30-series GPUs.
Bitcoin (BTC) and Ethereum (ETH) gain – QNT & CSPR Lead Top Gainers
After trading in a tight range over the weekend, cryptocurrencies are showing some signs of bullishness. Bitcoin (BTC), the world’s largest crypto, has gained 2% over the last 24 hours to reclaim $19k and trade at as high as $19,491.
The 24 hour price chart for Bitcoin (BTC). Source: CoinMarketCap
Ethereum (ETH) is proving even more bullish than BTC, having gained 2.9% in the last 24 hours to trade at as high as $1,3222. Quant Network (QNT), which has decoupled from the larger market downtrend, leads Monday’s biggest gainers.
The 24 hour price chart for Ethereum (ETH). Source: CoinMarketCap
Over the last 24 hours, QNT has rallied by 17% to set a new 10-month high at $226.09. The push helped Quant into the top 30 cryptocurrencies ranked by market cap, coming in at 28th with $2.56 billion.
The 24 hour price chart for Quant (QNT). Source: CoinMarketCap
Casper (CSPR), the blockchain network designed to boost the global adoption of blockchain technology, smart contracts, and dApps, is also one of today’s top gainers, having surged 14% to top out at $0.05363.
The 24 hour price chart for Casper (CSPR). Source: CoinMarketCap
Flipsider:
- Despite the rally, sentiment around ETH remains highly bearish, with shark and whale addresses dumping 3.3 million ETH (worth an approximate $4.3 billion USD at today’s prices) over the past five weeks.
52% of Ethereum Blocks Face Censorship from OFAC-Compliant Flashbots
Since Ethereum’s transition to a Proof of Stake (PoS) model, censorship has been one of the community’s primary concerns. This is due to a rise in the number of maximum extractable value (MEV) boost-relays compliant with the rules laid out by the U.S. Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC).
The PoS version of Ethereum requires validators instead of miners, leading to the issue, as most new validators on Ethereum use MEV-boost relays as a way to maximize their yields. The largest MEV-boost relays, Flashbots, announced its “OFAC Compliance” after the Tornado Cash sanction.
According to data from MEV Watch, 52% of Ethereum’s blocks produced over the last 24 hours were built by such OFAC-compliant MEV-boost relays.
Concerns about Ethereum have intensified, as these relays have openly stated their intention to censor transactions related to Tornado Cash and all other protocols that may be targeted by the U.S. Treasury in the future.
Flipsider:
- Of the top seven top Ethereum MEV relays, BloxRoute Max Profit, BloxRoute Ethical, and Manifold are Ethereum MEV-boost relays that do not censor transactions.
Why You Should Care
With no solution in sight, Ethereum developers have urged validators to connect to non-censoring relays, such as bloXroute’s, if they want to prevent censorship on Ethereum.
Development Activity in the Polkadot Ecosystem at an All-Time High
The launch of Polkadot (DOT) parachain auctions last year has seemingly succeeded in its goal of bringing significant development to the multichain protocol, as the network witnessed over 500 daily contributions in August and September.
Over the same period, Polkadot’s GitHub recorded 14,930 contributions from developers, with 66 blockchains now live on Polkadot and Kusama, as development activity on Polkdot skyrocketed to hit a new all-time high.
Since its inception, 26,258 of the more than 140,000 messages exchanged between chains were sent between parachains via the 135 messaging channels on Polkadot’s cross-consensus interoperability standard, XCM.
Polkadot founder Rob Habermeier recently published a host of updates on enhancing the scalability of the networks. If the upgrade goes live, parachain block time will be reduced by 50%, while block space will be increased by up to 10 times.
Flipsider:
- According to data from Messari, since late August, DOT’s volatility has been in decline, and sits at a metric of 0.51 at the time of writing.
Why You Should Care
Polkadot’s commitment to solving the blockchain interoperability problem and promoting a heterogeneous multi-chain framework are the main reasons behind its increasing usage.
Australia Suspends Three Crypto-Related Funds by Holon Investments
The Australian Securities and Exchange Commission (ASIC) has suspended Sydney-based asset manager Holon Global Investments from offering three of its crypto funds to retail investors, as of a release made on October 17th.
The interim stop order, valid for 21 days, prevents Holon from offering general advice, sharing a PDS, and issuing shares in three crypto-related funds—tracking Bitcoin, Ethereum and Filecoin—to retail investors.
According to the ASIC, the issuance of the stop order is due to incomplete target market determination (TMDs) submissions. The regulator also asserts that the funds are not suitable for the wide target market defined in their TMDs.
The regulator further states that Holon has failed to appropriately consider the features and risks of the funds in determining its target markets, and the funds may lure retail investors into investing in products that may not be suitable for their financial objectives, situation, or needs.
Flipsider:
- The interim stop order could still be revoked before the given 21-day ultimatum if the ASIC approves Holon’s submission before the final stop.
Why You Should Care
If Holon fails to address the issues raised in regards to its TMDs or redefine its target investors and risk profile, the ASIC will place a final stop order on the funds.
Nvidia Removes Anti-Crypto Mining Software on RTX 30-Series GPUs
To curb the purchase of graphics cards intended for use by cryptocurrency mining operations during the 2021 crypto boom, Nvidia introduced “Lite Hash Rate” (LHR) versions of its most popular RTX 30-series cards as a way to limit crypto mining on the firmware level.
According to reports, the world’s largest GPU company, Nvidia Corporation, has now removed this limitation, which detected and slowed RTX 30-series GPUs when used in Ethereum mining.
Tom’s Hardware reported on Reddit that Nvidia RTX 3050 through RTX 3080 Ti graphics cards can now once again mine Ethereum-type crypto-coins at full speed and power. New tests conducted by miners now reveal that the hash rate of RTX 3080 Tis has increased from 75MH/s, to over 103MH/s.
The LHR appears to have been removed from the firmware as part of the latest driver update. The measure comes less than a month after Ethereum’s move away from mining.
Flipsider:
- Nvidia recently “unlaunched” its latest GPU, the GeForce RTX 4080 12GB graphics card, due to naming issues.
Why You Should Care
Ethereum’s move away from mining may have had an impact on the decision to remove the LHR, as high demand from miners intially caused the prices of GPUs to spike due to consequent shortages.