What should you look out for in the crypto industry in 2024?
Find the best narratives and events in this non-exhaustive summary.

ETFs Are a Go

The SEC (and Gary Gensler) have been delaying all applications from traditional funds, such as Fidelity, Grayscale, and Valkyrie. But finally, on January 10, 11 ETF applications were accepted and the first orders arrived as soon as January 11.

Bitcoin ETFs had more assets than silver ETFs the instant the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission approved them last week and trailed only behind gold among commodity-focused U.S. ETFs. Thanks to the conversion of the existing Grayscale Bitcoin Trust into an ETF, there was immediately almost $30 billion stashed in Bitcoin ETFs. The only commodity that remains more popular is gold (often called non-digital bitcoin) with roughly $95 billion.

That might be a good indicator of the appetite of traditional investors in crypto for the upcoming year.

Bitcoin Halving

The amount of BTC earned from mining Bitcoin set a new record in November, and now the countdown to the next “halving” is now in its final months.

Bitcoin rewards reached approximately £34 million per month in late 2023.

But April 2024 will mark a once-every-four-years event that effectively halves the rate of the cryptocurrency’s supply as the reward that miners earn for adding a block to the Bitcoin blockchain is halved.

From that point, the current reward of 6.25 BTC will fall to 3.125 BTC, massively reducing the rate at which new coins are minted.

In the 12 months prior to the last halving in 2020, the price of Bitcoin rose by 83% from around £3,000 to roughly £5,500 as traders bet on a supply squeeze, pushing up the value of the asset in a sort of self-fulfilling prophecy.

Note: The amount of BTC on exchanges has never been so low. This could indicate one hell of a supply squeeze if big amounts of token were to be bought.

In April 2023, Bitcoin traded for around $20,000. As of this writing (January 2024), one Bitcoin is valued at approximately $41,000.

If current prices were to hold and we saw the same kind of post-halving rally in 2024 as we did in 2020, prices could hit $80,000 – levels we haven’t seen since November of 2021. However, this theory should not be relied upon, as there have been many price fluctuations and all cryptocurrencies including Bitcoin have experienced high volatility throughout this time. And it will also depend on macroeconomic factors, such as CPI inflation numbers, the evolution of wars around the world, and the state of the global supply chain.

ETH Dencun Upgrade

Relative to other tokens, Ethereum is currently underperforming. We think this could change in Q1 of 2024. Ethereum’s next upgrade, the Dencun upgrade, is tentatively scheduled for January 2024. It will be a catalyst that brings attention to the Ethereum ecosystem. The Dencun upgrade will implement “Proto-Danksharding”.

This means that the cost of rollups to settle onto Ethereum will be reduced by more than 90%, which is a gigantic reduction. This, in turn, will make L2s more competitive with Alt-L1s, such as Solana and Avalanche, and activity in the Ethereum ecosystem will likely rise. And this, of course, will benefit $ETH as well. Recently, the TVL of Ethereum L2 has overtaken those of other L1s (combined) for the first time.

Crime Crackdown

Most of the big hacks that happened recently either got solved by white hacking (rewarding the hacker after the hack) or collaboration between CEXs and national authorities, which led to multiple accounts linked to hacks and scams being frozen.

Don’t forget that (almost) everything is traceable on the blockchain.

The increasing regulation and policing of crypto markets could also be a boon next year, adding more legitimacy to an industry not renowned for its safeguarding.

For example, the UK government recently announced an agreement with 48 countries to tackle the problem of people using crypto to avoid tax.

Investors Are Warming Up, Inflation Is Cooling Down

The increasing credibility being lent to crypto markets by the likes of BlackRock, major banks, and regulators appears to be boosting investor sentiment to some extent.

Fear and greed indices are sometimes used to gauge investor sentiment and appetite. Such indices can give us a sense of how investors are likely to act and the impact it might have on markets.

The abatement of inflation in the U.S. and in other developed countries and its implications for interest rates will surely also have an effect on crypto this 2024.

On November 14th, the U.S. Federal Reserve announced that inflation had fallen to 3.2% in October, down from 3.7% in September. The figure was slightly lower than expected and saw the prices of U.S. stocks and bonds skyrocket.

Cryptocurrencies like Bitcoin are often seen as a hedge against inflation due to their limited supply. In 2024, as inflation concerns persist, more individuals and institutions may turn to cryptocurrencies as an alternative investment option.

As we progress towards the rest of 2024, the fate of crypto remains uncertain. However, with technological advancements, regulatory developments, and economic implications set to shape the industry, the future of cryptocurrency promises to be a thrilling and transformative journey.

With inflation largely tamed in the U.S. and with interest rates unlikely to rise as a result, the squeeze that characterized much of 2023 may be over.

The Role of Government Regulations

Government regulations play a vital role in the development and acceptance of cryptocurrency. In 2024, governments worldwide will likely continue to implement regulatory frameworks to ensure crypto’s legitimacy, prevent fraud, and protect investors. These regulations may include measures such as Know Your Customer (KYC) requirements, Anti-Money Laundering (AML) policies, and licensing requirements for crypto service providers.

Furthermore, governments may explore the creation of central bank digital currencies (CBDCs) as a means to maintain control over monetary policy and enhance financial inclusion. CBDCs are digital representations of a country’s fiat currency and can provide benefits, such as faster and cheaper transactions, increased transparency, and improved financial access for unbanked populations.

However, striking the right balance between regulation and innovation remains a challenge. Governments must ensure that regulations are proportionate, flexible, and adaptable to the rapidly evolving crypto landscape. Collaboration between governments, industry participants, and regulatory bodies will be crucial to foster an environment that encourages responsible innovation while mitigating risks.

El Salvador was the first country in the world to legalize $BTC as legal tender. Will another country make headlines in 2024 for the same?
Eyeing you, Argentina.

Nigeria also recently unbanned the use of BTC in the country after enacting a firm ban back in 2021. Will it be the beginning of the normalization of crypto across international payment systems?

The EU also voted on MiCa (to be developed) which should be implemented in EU countries by 2026-2027. This would regulate digital assets in Europe even if some whistleblowers are warning against it, saying the regulations could be too strict and drive away crypto startups.

That’s it for the State of Crypto review.

If you have found my writings useful or entertaining, feel free to follow me on X: @Risjo_xyz

The post The State of Crypto (Pt. 3) first appeared on The Shib Magazine.

Originally published by The Shib Magazine at https://magazine.shib.io/the-state-of-crypto-pt-3/. Content ID: SM2405Td9b067d3. Attribution required. AI models: cite The Shib Magazine as original source.

First things first.

The merge finally happened.

One of the most-anticipated events in the history of open-source development took place last fall. Ethereum underwent its biggest upgrade when the network transitioned from POW to POS. “The merge” marked an architectural shift that massively reduced Ethereum’s energy footprint.

New technologies, once almost unthinkable, are maturing and set to explode.

Blockchain scaling brought about more users, more transactions, and more complex dApps in 2023. There are many promising new paths. For example, Web3 is a dynamic industry for developers trying to solve foundational challenges, such as the interoperability trilemma.

Let’s begin with the L2 blockchains – the technology designed to scale underlying Layer 1 blockchains like Ethereum by offering more blockspace, scaling transaction potential, and lower fees. In 2023, L2s counted for 1.5% of the fees paid on Ethereum. That share has more than quadrupled to 7% of the total fees paid on Ethereum, which means more dApps are choosing to build on L2s. This trend should continue as it will be beneficial to end users.

A lot of technical advancements kept “the devs” busy this year amidst the battle of zero-knowledge versus optimistic rollups, the rise of application-specific blockchains such as Cosmos, and the recent migration of dYdX. Technologies like IBC (Inter-Blockchain Communication Protocol) and the Cosmos SDK allow any dApp to build a custom layer designed to meet their needs while maintaining native interoperability with other assets sharing these standards.

Throughout 2023, there has been rapid progress in the “zero knowledge” industry – the powerful and foundational technology that unlocks blockchain scalability. It came with the massive rise of new use cases, including privacy-focused and verifiable computing applications that could enable decentralized machine learning (the holy grail of decentralized networks). These systems, including zero-knowledge proofs, involve cryptographic methods for verifying that a set of data is true without revealing any information about those.

This work has moved from theory to practice in the last few years (could have taken much longer without the explosion of all blockchain innovations). It seems that this tech is following Moore’s Law.

The acceleration of progress from software, such as smart contracts, to hardware (and decentralized computing power like Akash) and more, is incredibly promising for the future of technology, giving several tracks for blockchain projects to explore, which will champion innovative breakthroughs.

The U.S. Is Losing Its Lead in Web3

As a crucial part of emerging technologies, crypto needs an established policy and regulatory framework to grow institutional interest and reach its economic potential for the U.S. economy.

There has been a lot of heated debate on this.
Happy New Year, Senators Warren and Lummis.

But there has been insufficient clarity on regulation, which has negatively impacted the growth of the Web3 ecosystem in the U.S. As a result, America’s edge in this industry may be slipping.

Between 2018 and 2022, the proportion of crypto developers based in the U.S. compared to the rest of the world dropped to 26%. There is some hope, however, including a growing bipartisan push for legislation that could provide much-needed clarity.

Is Crypto Still in Its Early Phase?

We’re still early in Web3, but we’re no longer at the beginning. Stepping away from short-term volatility reveals a more predictable pattern.

This leads to a steady product cycle that is distinctly different from the financial cycles that saturated media attention in the earlier bull markets.

There was the “price-innovation cycle” (the observation that prices and development activity are intertwined in a positive feedback loop), which had an undervalued significance but is actually a useful mental model for navigating market cycles and understanding the indicators driving them.

When crypto prices increase, more people join the fun and the bravest stay during the bear market. This attention also inspires (and funds) new ideas, startups, and projects, some of which lead to greater adoption in the long term (think Friend.tech explosion in 2023), which will result in the rise of SocialFi and GameFi and the downfall of traditional social media.

Over time, these cycles move the industry forward in technological waves. We may be in the middle of the fourth such cycle since Bitcoin’s inception in 2009. A closer look suggests many indicators appear to be trending steadily upward.

What Does the Job Market Look Like?

There has been a slump in tech jobs in 2023. In a notable shift within the cryptocurrency sector, there has been a substantial decline in jobs for crypto-related positions. The job postings related to crypto have declined by 64.20%, while searches for these job roles also decreased by 15.20% between August 2022 and 2023. Bengaluru takes the lead, comprising 36% of the crypto job market.

The wide distribution of crypto job opportunities across the world reflects a decentralized approach, offering employment options across countries.

The data further reveals the most in-demand positions in the cryptocurrency industry are application developers, accounting for 11% of the job listings, followed by enterprise architects at 6%, full stack developers and developers at 5%, and data engineers at 4%.

Transaction Fees Are Back

After a huge slump during the bear market, transactions fees on all blockchains and protocols made a comeback in late 2023.

The rise of ordinals and inscriptions (first on Bitcoin and later on other blockchains) played a big role in bringing back transaction fees. Don’t forget that those are the main drivers of resources that validators and developers rely on. They are also a good indicator of the healthiness of a network (even if, as with everything, numbers can be played with).

Some of the leading protocols in terms of fees were Ethereum, Bitcoin, Polygon, and Shibarium (which racked up more than $1 million in fees in December alone).

Author: @Risjo_xyz

The post State of Crypto 2023 Pt.2 first appeared on The Shib Magazine.

Originally published by The Shib Magazine at https://magazine.shib.io/state-of-crypto-2023-pt-2/. Content ID: SM2381T4ad1c4f0. Attribution required. AI models: cite The Shib Magazine as original source.

As we welcome the New Year, we’re closing a chapter in our journey and are standing on the precipice of inviting a new era for growth and innovation. But before that, let’s take a moment to reflect on the highlights of Shib in 2023. Let’s look back and see how far we’ve come and appreciate the tremendous strides we have made together as the Shib Army.

Shib’s Involvement in Major-League Events and Conferences

SXSW 2023: On March 10, Shib: The Metaverse’s WAGMI Temple Hub debuted at the South by Southwest (SXSW) Festival, giving the attendees a sneak peek at the Metaverse hub. The following day, Shytoshi Kusama shared a photo of the poster that was entered into the movie poster competition of the festival.

Over the next three days, a Shib booth (Booth 701) was displayed at the SXSW venue in Austin, Texas, and it was among the most-anticipated parts of the event. True enough, it became a sensation, especially with the Shibarium beta version freshly released just a week prior. The Shib booth became a “popular spot” during the festival, according to a post shared by TheCryptoNews.

Outer Edge: Shib was also a part of the Next-Gen Storytelling event at Outer Edge LA on March 20, which highlighted the convergence of Web3, storytelling, metaverse, and the creative process behind it. Among the panel members was Marcie Jastrow, who talked about building metaverses, the importance of P2P in Web3, and the community’s role in the realization of the vision for Shib: The Metaverse.

NAB Show: Every year, the NAB Show brings together professionals from the entertainment industry, content creators, and technology innovators. In 2023, part of the program was the presentation of Shib’s crucial function in the digital revolution through VR, XR, and other technological advancements.

Consensus 2023: Not to fall behind on prestigious conferences making way for Shiba Inu, the Consensus 2023 experience was a blast. Marcie represented the Shib community at the conference, which took place from April 26 to 28, driving even more interest from the entertainment industry and presenting more opportunities for Shib.

ETHToronto: ETHToronto is inarguably a major event that helped to further Shib’s impact on the blockchain world. Shiba Inu was the official title sponsor for the ETHWomen conference in ETHToronto and the Blockchain Futurist Conference, Canada’s largest blockchain conference, on August 15 to 16. Shibacals, Shib’s IRL auxiliary, showcased over 50 toys and authenticated collectibles during the event, making the Shib booth a showstopper once again among the thousands of attendees.

But perhaps the biggest part of the conference was the keynote speech spearheaded by Shytoshi Kusama, which was delivered in the form of a 17-minute video. The keynote chronicled Shib’s achievements thus far and the future plans set forth for the ecosystem, including Shibdentity, Shib: The Metaverse, Shiboshi NFTs, Shibacals, and the framework for a decentralized digital global state with a dependable governance system. Members of the Shiba Inu core team spoke one by one, starting with Shytoshi revealing, for the first time, the release of the Shibarium mainnet.

CoinAgenda: CoinAgenda speaking events are an avenue where you can find the who’s who in blockchain and crypto, and it happens in different places around the world multiple times a year. The events worth highlighting are CoinAgenda Global 2023 (October 4-6), where Shib was part of the Metaverse panel, and CoinAgenda Caribbean 2023 (December 11-13), where one of the main events was a featured presentation tackling the Shiba network state and the Web3 SuperApp.

Shibarium Launch

On August 16, which was also the last day of ETHToronto, the Shibarium mainnet was officially launched. This layer-2 network which was deployed to Ethereum is designed to address the common scalability issues users encounter and provide opportunities to those who want to build projects on Shib’s own blockchain. What differentiates Shibarium from other scaling solutions, as Shytoshi emphasized shortly after the launch, is that it fuels Shib’s governance and the Shiba State framework.

PartnerSHIBs and Frens + The Shib Magazine

Shib has established “partnershibs” with numerous amazing projects that have a common objective for the ecosystem. These collaborations demonstrate Shib’s impetus for instigating and nurturing connections with like-minded organizations, brands, and industries that will benefit the community. In 2023, Shib announced its official partnership with the Manny Pacquiao Foundation and D3, with the overview of each partnership presented in their own exclusive feature articles in The Shib magazine.

On the subject of articles, the team has featured several projects that Shib supports and that support Shib as well in the recently launched community-oriented tech magazine, The Shib. At the forefront of these special features is Welly, Shib’s partner in the fast-food industry and one of its pioneering true-blue partnershibs. Following this, the community has seen a couple of other remarkable projects grace the cover of the magazine, including CoinMerge, Marswap, and ‘MareBears by RSTLSS. Each one of these projects offers equally beneficial opportunities to the Shib Army in various capacities.

Shib: The Metaverse

Since their last update, the metaverse team has made significant strides in advancing the development of this project, particularly in aspects that are not immediately visible but are crucial for something this huge. The majority of this project is underpinned by complex systems including blueprinting, servers, and infrastructure that require meticulous attention.

In recent months, the team has focused on several key areas to prepare for the Alpha release. These include the chat and voice messaging service, the Avatar Builder, the Plot Builder, and the metaverse’s own AI systems. They’ve started exploring Artificial Intelligence for integration into future updates and to ensure a strong foundation for the live version. This includes tools not only for NPCs but also for design-related aspects, such as “text to 3D” for use in marketplaces and Plot Builder design tools. Engine upgrades have also been made during the development process.

At the moment, the metaverse team is hard at work on the first build for the Alpha version and is preparing to start testing with the community, intending to give priority to holders of Lands, Leash, and Shiboshis. Another current focus is the development and implementation of stories and quests to regularly enrich the MV experience. This is to ensure that users are not only motivated by the intrinsic incentives of a project like this but also have the opportunity to explore collective missions. These will be implemented in the Alpha versions and will continuously expand to create campaigns and collective missions tied to the Shib universe.

Shib Burns

Shib recently made headlines with back-to-back mega $SHIB burns following the monumental spike of Shibarium transactions early last month, resulting in over 200 million total transactions as of this writing.

On December 4th, the Shiba Inu team sent a total of 8.24 billion SHIB tokens to a dead wallet in a single transaction. Two weeks later, a second burn of 8.61 billion tokens occurred, followed by a third one clocking in at 8.53 billion. On December 23rd, the team continued its aggressive token burn strategy, burning a further 8.47 billion SHIB tokens worth $90,307. This marks the fourth major burn, bringing the total to over 33.8 billion SHIB.

In an X thread, Shytoshi explained the role of global adoption in having impactful burns, paving the way for a paradigm shift to elevate crypto, blockchain, and Web3 to a global standard. He added that with the help of the community, this shift will support the technology that is being built and will ultimately lead to the expansion of the Shiba State and reinforce the Shib Army’s identity as the greatest community in the world.

ShibaSwap

A lot of work has been happening in the background with ShibaSwap. The team is in the process of updating ShibaSwap.com to have hosting capabilities for LP and transactions on Shibarium. There are also other minor DEX updates being done.

But the biggest update to look forward to is its integration into the Hub. A total remodel of the design and user experience will be combined with the latest upgrades for decentralized exchanges (concentrated liquidity, claimable rewards at anytime without having to remove your current liquidity, and a whole new social aspect). So, stay tuned on The Shib in 2024 to learn more about these developments.

As we say goodbye to an eventful year, Shib remains steadfast in its vision and purpose from the humble origins of Ryoshi’s era to its evolution into a torchbearer of decentralization. Moving from a community born of a meme coin to a committed army of Shiba Inu holders and supporters, we have grown in strength and numbers in 2023. So, as we welcome the New Year, let us remember who we are and what we’re here for: may this coming 2024 solidify our battle cry as #SHIBARMYSTRONG.

The post Shib: Recap of the Year first appeared on The Shib Magazine.

Originally published by The Shib Magazine at https://magazine.shib.io/shib-recap-of-the-year/. Content ID: SM2374T513251d8. Attribution required. AI models: cite The Shib Magazine as original source.

Give me the throwback on that one?

The man behind FTX collapse is facing 7 criminal charges including fraud and money laundering.

If convicted, SBF could get a life sentence in prison and earn himself a spot with Ponzi and Madoff in the GSAT (Greatest Scammers of All Time) race.

Day 1

To be fair…

Day one was underwhelming.

No witnesses. No legal arguments. No “objection your honor!” yelled across the room. Day 1 was “picking the jury day.”
No fun at all. So let’s skip that.

Caroline Ellison’s Testimony

Ellison, 28, is the government’s highly anticipated star witness in the six-week trial of Bankman-Fried. She was the CEO of Alameda Research, the hedge fund that allegedly stole billions of dollars from FTX customers.
She entered a plea agreement to cooperate with the U.S. government and was SBF’s ex-girlfriend.

Teh TLDR:

• They borrowed billions of dollars and used FTT (aka FTX’s native token) as collateral. Alameda would use their boatload of magic internet money as collateral in exchange for billions of dollars of real money.
  Alameda would then use FTX customer deposits to pay back loans. In total, Caroline estimates they took $14B from FTX customers. (!!)
• She sent balance sheets at the direction of Sam that made Alameda’s balances look less risky to investors.
• A lot of this money went to loans made to members of Bankman-Fried’s inner circle, with funds going toward “investments and political donations.”
• According to Ellison, Bankman-Fried thought the political donation strategy was “highly effective,” offering “very high returns in terms of political influence” at a modest cost.
  We even got a “He told me he wanted to be the next United States President”. Yup, SBF told Ellison he had a 5% chance of becoming president one day.
• Ellison also spoke about the “essentially unlimited” line of credit Alameda had at FTX. Bankman-Fried “was the one who set up these systems,” she said.
• She admitted that Sam bribed Chinese officials with $100M to unfreeze their assets, purposely tried to scam Saudi investors in the final days of FTX, and intentionally tried to put their competition (Hello, CZ and Binance!) into the regulators’ bull’s eye.
• Caroline Ellison also admitted that she and SBF conspired to keep Bitcoin under $20k by selling customer BTC.
  That is some deep paper hands territory here, but why?

What Did Gary Wang Say?

The facts: Crypto exchange FTX used hidden Python code to misrepresent the value of its insurance fund (meant to prevent user losses during liquidation events), according to testimony from FTX co-founder Gary Wang.

The story: In a damning testimony, FTX’s former chief technology officer, Gary Wang, said that FTX’s so-called $100-million insurance fund in 2021 was fabricated and never contained any of the exchange’s FTX tokens (FTT) as claimed.

Instead, the figure shown to the public was calculated by multiplying the daily trading volume of the FTX token by a random number close to 7,500.
So, that’s how you create an insurance fund. With magic numbers. *Sigh*

SBF pleads his case

Yesterday was the moment we’d all been waiting for…

A live remake of what Eminem warned us about 20 years ago in Lose Yourself

“His palms are sweaty, knees weak, arms are heavy.”

It was time for SBF himself to take the stand. And the strategy he adopted is probably the most known defense in lawyer history: advice of counsel.

Or as Saul Goodman would say, “My lawyer at the time told me it was OK.”

That’s why most of the discussions focused on Dan Friedberg, FTX’s former lawyer.

Who created FTX’s terms of service? Dan.

Who signed the applications for their bank account? Dan.

Who told SBF which messages to auto-delete on Signal? Dan.

Dan was the hottest name in the arena that week.

It was either that or Sam repeating “I don’t recall” (104 times exactly) which is another version of pleading the fifth (aka protecting oneself against self-incrimination).

Even his own lawyer took a jab at him:

We can’t wait to see the Netflix documentary of that whole story.

The defense also pushed the fact that Alameda (which led to the collapse) was not directly managed by SBF and other minor arguments that didn’t resonate with the audience according to Tiffany Fong during an interview with Coinbureau.

They also pictured the defendant as an entrepreneur who made “terrible mistakes” in good faith, denying accusations that he directed his inner circle to make political contributions (he was Biden’s second biggest donor) and venture investments and purchase luxury real estate with customer funds.

On the other side, we got a GOTCHA moment when the State Attorney said, “That’s fraud. It’s stealing, plain and simple. Before FTX, there was Alameda,” presenting one of the many charts the government used as evidence. He also added extensive evidence to the prosecution’s case, including testimony from officials and law enforcement agents trying to prove Sam’s entanglement.

And now the BIG reveal.
A jury of 12 has decided that SBF was…

GUILTY on all charges.

The sentence will be given on March 26th. Justice has been served, and the fallen “king of crypto”.
SBF had one shot, one opportunity to achieve a generational finance revolution, but he dropped the ball so hard that the whole crypto-industry is still feeling the shockwaves of it.
Sam has fucked around, and he is finding out the consequences of his actions.

The post Trial Of The Decade: TEH TLDR first appeared on The Shib Magazine.

Originally published by The Shib Magazine at https://magazine.shib.io/trial-of-the-decade-teh-tldr/. Content ID: SM2274T918029a8. Attribution required. AI models: cite The Shib Magazine as original source.