Sam Bankman-Fried: A Tale of a 110-Year Prison Sentence

Sunday is upon us.

Welcome to another exciting edition of The Merge.

It's that time of the week when we bring you the freshest insights and the latest tools to equip you for the crypto world.

This Week’s Roundup:

• Sam Bankman-Fried’s 110-Year Prison Sentence

• Boba Guys & Shopify Sip on Web3: Brewing a Revolution on Solana

• Swiss National Bank & UBS Pioneer CBDC’s

• Hong Kong Embraces CCIP for it’s Blockchain Evolution

Read Time: 8 Minutes

Latest Developments

Sam Bankman-Fried: A Tale of a 110-Year Prison Sentence

Background:

Sam Bankman-Fried, the CEO of FTX, underwent a high-stakes trial, which captured the attention of the crypto industry. His actions and the outcome could set legal precedents in the crypto space. Ultimately he was found guilty across all 7 counts and faces 110 years imprisonment.

When It's Happening: 

The verdict was delivered on November 3, 2023, causing immediate reactions across the crypto community.

Why It's Important to Investors: 

Regulatory clarity and the legal standing of influential figures can significantly impact the market.

Investors need to monitor the implications of this verdict as it could have ripple effects on crypto operations and investor confidence.

Boba Guys & Shopify Sip on Web3: Brewing a Revolution on Solana

Background:

Boba Guys, a popular bubble tea chain, and Shopify users participated in the Solana Breakpoint event, showcasing the real-world adoption of Web3 tools on the Solana blockchain, underlining the growing trend of mainstream businesses entering the blockchain space.

When It's Happening: 

The event occurred recently at Solana’s 2023 Breakpoint Conference in Amsterdam and was a huge use case to show the emergence of real-world blockchain adoption.

You can watch the presentation here.

Why It's Important to Investors: 

Real-world adoption of Web3 and blockchain technology indicates progress in the crypto space. Boba’s use case of rewarding through loyalty schemes is especially great for Solana and its wider ecosystem as it’s integral to showcase how these technologies can exist alongside and intertwine with web2 environments that customers and businesses are used to.

Investors should pay attention to these use cases as they can influence the adoption and value of relevant cryptocurrencies. It highlights the potential for blockchain technology to disrupt traditional industries.

Swiss National Bank & UBS Pioneer CBDC’s

 Background:

The Swiss National Bank (SNB) initiated a pilot project in collaboration with UBS and other banks to explore the use of wholesale digital currency, marking a step in the development of central bank digital currencies (CBDCs).

It builds on the findings of earlier Helvetia phases by the BIS Innovation Hub, the Swiss National Bank (SNB) and the financial infrastructure operator SIX (Helvetia Phase I and II).

When It's Happening: 

The pilot will run from December 2023 through to June 2024 as Phase III and will utilise real Swiss francs (wCBDC) to settle digital security transactions.

The objective of the pilot is to test, in a live production environment, the settlement of primary and secondary market transactions in wCBDC.

Participating banks will be able to issue digital Swiss Franc bonds, which will be settled against wCBDC on a delivery-versus-payment basis.

Why It's Important to Investors: 

The evolution of CBDCs has the potential to reshape the financial landscape and impact cryptocurrencies. Investors should follow these developments to gauge how CBDCs might affect the broader digital asset market.

Hong Kong Embraces CCIP for it’s Blockchain Evolution

Background:

King Leung, Head of Financial Services and Fintech at InvestHK, and Chainlink co-founder Sergey Nazarov had a fireside chat discussing how Chainlink's Cross-Chain Interoperability Protocol (CCIP) can link public blockchains and private bank chains to create the largest global liquidity layer in the world, thereby unlocking the full potential of tokenized real-world assets (RWAs).

ANZ, one of Australia’s largest institutional banks, is already utilizing CCIP to power cross-chain, cross-currency real-world assets such as reef credits that incentivize agricultural efforts to protect the Great Barrier Reef.

Beyond allowing banks to create and sell assets cross-chain, CCIP transmits cross-chain messaging that programmatically affects the outcome of RWAs on their destination chain.

When It's Happening: 

It was announced during a presentation by both Sergey and King Leung at the Hong Kong FinTech week on Friday 03 November.

You can watch the presentation here.

Why It's Important to Investors: 

CCIP adoption can enhance the utility and value of Chainlink's native token, LINK. It is important that investors continue to monitor these types of developments as they can influence investment strategies and long-term potential.

Latest Tools to Use

📈 TradingView: The go-to platform for advanced chart analysis and market insights (link)

🦙 DefiLlama: Analytics dashboard which shows the Total Value Locked (TVL) across all of the major DeFI protocols (link)

🦎 CoinGecko: Keep up to date with prices, trading volumes, and crucial crypto data (link)

💰 Staking Calculator: Calculate current rewards and future run scenarios to estimate future returns of different tokens (link)

🪙 Token Terminal: A platform that aggregates financial and alternative data on blockchains and decentralised applications that run on blockchains (link)

🧾 CryptoTaxCalculator: Simplify tax reporting and stay compliant with this useful tool (link)

Keep your finger on the pulse of these developments and explore the latest tools to make your crypto journey more productive.

Key Indicators

MVRV

The MVRV Z-Score uses blockchain analysis to identify periods where bitcoin is significantly over or undervalued relative to its ‘fair value’.

It can be a good sign to an investor/trader of when to buy or sell. You can read more in detail about how it can be used here.

Current MVRV Score: 0.58

Fear and Greed

Investors need to be cautious of their own nature as their emotions could cloud their rational decision-making and judgement.

This Index is a collection of sources to track the general sentiment of the crypto market.

Current Fear & Greed Index: 68

Extreme fear can be a sign that investors are too worried. That could be a buying opportunity.

When Investors are getting too greedy, that means the market is due for a correction.

Free Alpha

That’s all from us this week, before we let you go here are some of our favourite Twitter pages for great content and deep dives on specific Crypto projects.

Shout us out if you find them valuable (we’re sure you will):

Just remember if you’re reading this, we’re so early in this journey of technology.

Zoom out, stick to your intuition and have patience - all great things come with time.

Wrapping Up

As always, we'll be back next week with more insights and updates from the crypto universe.

If you have any questions or topics you'd like us to cover in future newsletters, feel free to reach out.

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Disclaimer: This newsletter is for informational purposes only and should not be considered financial advice. Please conduct your own research before making any investment decisions.