Kalam Crypto #33: On the verge of Ethereum Merge, USDC closes gap to USDT & more

“Inflation is just like alcoholism. In both cases, when you start drinking or when you start printing too much money, the good effects come first, the bad effects only come later.” Milton Friedman

Ahlan wa sahlan, and welcome to the 33rd edition of CoinMENA's weekly newsletter, Kalam Crypto. Every week we will bring you the latest news and developments from the exciting world of cryptocurrencies. This week, on the verge of the Ethereum Merge, USDC closes the gap to USDT, and more ways to earn BTC with CoinMENA. All that and more, so let's dive into this week's letter, and talk crypto:

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Global News 🌍

On the verge of the Merge: It is undoubtedly the most anticipated upgrade in Ethereum’s history. After successfully completing the Sepolia testnet merge earlier in July, ETH developers announced that the final merge test will occur between August 6 - 12 on the Goerli testnet. This week, a successful “shadow fork” was deployed on Goerli, the 10th successful shadow fork so far. Shadow forks are a trial run of some aspects of the merge. The full Goerli testnet “hard fork” will begin on August 6th. If successful, this will be the final step before the Ethereum Merge, expected to take place in mid-September. Markets seem to be feeling bullish on ETH as the price is up 60% over the past month.

Lightning Round ⚡️

A new section where we quickly go through some key headlines from the week:

US Fed increases interest rates, again: As expected, the US Federal Reserve continued its quantitative tightening efforts this month and increased interest rates by 75 bps. 

Whitehouse changes the definition of “Recession”: The United States experienced negative GDP growth for the second quarter in a row, which used to be the accepted definition of a “recession.” The Whitehouse pushing back on the definition for political reasons is not surprising. Unfortunately though, shortly after, the definition was changed on Wikipedia as well, and the page was locked for any further changes. 

USDC closing the gap to USDT: USDC, the US dollar stablecoin issued by Circle, is closing the gap to USDT. Over the past 3 months, USDT’s market capitalization has decreased from $84 to $66 billion, whereas USDC’s market capitalization increased from $49 to $55 billion. 

NFT downward trend continues: NFT marketplace volumes dropped further this month to 626m USD, down from 884m USD in June. Monthly volume peaked in January 2022 at 5.6 billion USD!

CoinMENA News 🗞

More ways to earn Bitcoin: 450 USD of BTC rewards every week! On Mondays, the 5 most creative answers will earn 50 USD of BTC each. And on Wednesdays, the first correct answer on Instagram and Twitter will earn 100 USD of BTC each. You have to be a verified CoinMENA user to claim your reward. Follow us on Twitter and Instagram to participate.

Tweet of the week 🐥

Quiz Corner ✅ 

Last week’s question: Which of the following is NOT true for crypto airdrops? 

Answer: Send cash to the users’ bank account

This week’s question: How many digital assets are currently listed on CoinMENA?

• 13

• 21

• 20

• 19

See the answer in next week’s newsletter.