The Bitcoin Chart Fiasco

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⭐️Today's selection:

• 🦭Deep Dive
• 🛒Meme Coin Market Fever
• ⛽Gas Price Dilemma
• 🧩️Thursday Quiz
• 👌Selected Meme of The Day
• 📰Bite-Sized News

DEEP DIVE

What happened to the Bitcoin chart yesterday?

There was an epic rise up to 30k during the day, and then a huge downward candle by -10%.

Some attributed this to a publication by the Arkham Intelligence team, which announced the movement of funds on the wallets of the State Department and Mt.Gox. 

Meaning, the US authorities are about to sell their Bitcoin gained from the Silkroad hacker…

At first, this information appeared on the page of a crypto-observer with the nickname "db".

Soon after that, Arkham published a response, apologizing for the fake information, noting that it was an error in the notification mechanism.

But the problem is that the drop started BEFORE the notification from Arkham.

Btw, Arkham tracks cryptocurrency transactions and provides free tools to monitor fund flows, including visualizers, filtering, alerts, and an explorer.

Arkham added that they could not have crashed the course.

Supposedly, it fell from 19:17 to 20:01 UTC, while the message from db was published at 20:07 UTC.

So, someone just decided to sell and cover it up with a false notification?

This is where the market maker, Jump Trading, comes in.

They quickly sold many Bitcoin across exchanges, seemingly taking advantage of the situation.

Just like that, unexpected moves from unexpected players mess up the cards for short-term investors. Long-term wins!

TL;DR: Yesterday, Bitcoin's price chart surprised observers, as it suddenly went through a -10% drop. As analysts later observed, the drop was caused by large Bitcoin amounts being sold by Jump Trading, the market maker.

MEME COIN MARKET FEVER

The meme coin market fever has had a significant impact on the market this month.

By saying 'meme coin fever', we mean the fact that the number of scam projects and fake "coins" in the sector has significantly increased.

Some users behind such fraudulent schemes could even be called peculiar record holders.

For example, consider this. 114 scams. All during the period of one month and a half!

Crypto-Sleuth ZachXBT reported that one person created 114 fraudulent meme coins in the last month and a half. All the stolen funds were transferred to a single address.

It's interesting how much this individual has stolen… though it's rather hard to calculate!

Why hasn't this been detected by major CEXs since the user is using the Coinbase payment system? Well, this scam mastermind transfers small amounts, so it is not easy to track his activity.

How does it work?

A user creates a fake token, hiding behind a popular internet meme. They then "pump" up the value of the asset by buying and selling it back.

Bots, seeing that the value is rising, start investing in the project. 

When the value peaks, the user sells off all their tokens and withdraws their profit.

There are many variations of this scheme, from simple approaches to elaborate rug pulls with pre-promotion of the token.

ZachXBT also noted that there could be many more projects like this.

His analysis only included those that brought some dividends to the organizer of the fraudulent scheme.

So, that scammer on a daily basis is looking something like this:

We'll see how long can they keep getting away with this.

TL;DR: There's been an increase in fake, scam coin projects recently. One user in particular, created 114 such scam tokens during the time period of a month and a half.

GAS PRICE DILEMMA

The meme coin craze has brought not only a surge in scams but also skyrocketing gas prices!

Therefore the question arises, could anyone expect to see... $500 for a transaction fee on the Ethereum network??

Vitalik Buterin believes that if Ethereum developers don't optimize the network before the next bull market, it's entirely possible that transaction fees could reach as high as $500…

That's why after the successful launch of the recent Shapella update, developers are increasing their efforts to speed up and reduce the cost of transactions.

For those who are not familiar, fees on the Ethereum network depend not only on network congestion but also on the price of ETH.

Therefore, a bull market would make Ethereum transactions significantly more expensive.

What to expect now?

This year, Ethereum developers plan to add something known as the Verkle Trees, which will simplify the lives of validators.

They will no longer need to store a complete copy of the blockchain to check blocks.

In addition, this fall, the Ethereum network will integrate Proto-Danksharding, a new type of transaction that reduces fees in Layer-2 protocols that work on top of Ethereum.

After testing Proto-Danksharding, developers will release Danksharding (at some point in the future), which will enable Ethereum to process around 100,000 transactions per second.

But until Danksharding is here, Ethereum users have a plethora of Layer-2 networks to choose from - each with its own unique flavor and benefits.

Whether you prefer rollups, zero-knowledge or sidechains, there's a solution out there to meet your needs. So, explore and discover the perfect fit for you!

TL;DR: Ethereum is facing a problem - continually increasing gas fees. Ethereum developers prioritize optimizing this aspect of their blockchain's functionality.

THURSDAY QUIZ

So, Ethereum gas is rather high right now: 33 Gwei.

but... What is 'Gwei'? (in the Ethereum network)

For a hint, you can go out and check out this cheat sheet.

SELECTED MEME OF THE DAY

BITE-SIZED NEWS

• Celsius Creditors Request Judge's Permission to Issue Subpoena to FTX. Celsius creditors believe that some FTX users may have artificially inflated CEL price.
• Cybercriminals Bag $4 Million via Crypto Phishing Scams Promoted on Google. A surge in malicious phishing ads popping up on Google searches.
• In April, Non-Fungible Token Market Recorded More Sellers than Buyers. 47 days and counting.