Good morning, day, or evening, depending on where you are, Ambire frens. Every day in crypto is unique, with both opportunities and challenges.

Today we'll be talking about:

• 😲 BIG rumors: SEC planning to unleash hell on ETH?

• 💰W3OF Degen Portfolio update

• 🪧 NFTs are back - with Punks on top

• 🪙 Cardano’s first stable rugged... in reverse?

• 👴 Forgotten ICO era app becomes a top 3 most actively developed project

BIG rumors: Is the SEC planning to unleash hell on ETH?

• The Ethereum Foundation is a non-profit tasked with maintaining the Ethereum ecosystem.

• Founded by Vitalik Buterin and other co-founders in 2014, the Foundation has become a central authority in developing Ethereum as one of the leading blockchains in the crypto space.

However, a large shadow has been cast over the Foundation recently, as it was revealed that they are currently under investigation by an unnamed "state authority." 😲 

In a GitHub commit made on February 26th, it was disclosed that the organization had received a voluntary enquiry from this entity and were bound to confidentiality.

Ethereum foundation is based in Switzerland, known for its crypto friendly regulations 🤔 

However, it is now being speculated that a Swiss regulator may have requested documents from the Foundation. According to reports, this could be in collaboration with the US Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC).

SEC's war against crypto never stopped

Despite the market being bullish, with some coins hitting all-time highs, the SEC remains a formidable opponent to the crypto industry. The agency has been closely monitoring and plotting its next move on various fronts 🥷 

One of the most awaited decisions from SEC is regarding Ether ETFs. The SEC might want to brand ETH a security though, and if that happens, it could devastate the market.

ETH foundation also removed the following text from their website:

The text itself was most likely included as a warrant canary 🐦️ which typically serves as an indicator that the company has not received any secret subpoenas or document requests from government authorities.

The removal of this text could suggest that the Ethereum Foundation now received such a request.

In the end, crypto just wouldn't be the same without constant FUD and speculation, wouldn't it?

W3OF Degen Portfolio: where are we now

A few weeks ago we launched a Web3 on Fire (W3OF) Degen Portfolio where the community decided where we were to invest $1,000. Here’s where we are at on Friday, March 22nd, 2024:

Looks like we bought a local top and are currently -24% of our initial $1,000 investment. But don’t worry - we still have time to defend our degen status! Join in the conversation in the Ambire Discord server below:

NFTs are back - with Punks on top

NFTs have been considered "a fad" by some commentators in the past, and indeed it seemed at times that the craze had died down and the whole industry was about to crash and disappear 😅 

But NFTs keep returning

The NFT market saw a surge in sales yet again, with CryptoPunks leading the pack 🖼️ 

The top-ranked NFT collection made US$17.22 million in just 24 hours, outperforming other popular collections like Pudgy Penguins and NodeMonkes.

• The transaction value of CryptoPunk #7804 alone was worth 4,850 ETH or $16.38 million, making it the second most expensive sale in CryptoPunk's history.

• With a total of five expensive transactions within the 24-hour timeframe, CryptoPunks has once again solidified its position as one of the top NFT collections of all time.

ETH network maintained its dominance in the NFT market yet again, with an amazing $32.81 million in sales. 💰️ The second and third-ranked blockchains, Bitcoin and Solana, experienced a decline in their NFT sales performance.

Despite the decrease, Ordinals’ volume still sits at a respectable US$2.91 billion, while Solana has reached a total of US$5.25 billion.

Cardano’s first stable rugged... in reverse?

Stablecoins and "depegging" (events in which their value becomes de-pegged from the asset they are supposed to track) have been hot topics in the world of crypto, previously seen with the likes of UST and the Luna crash.

However, with the launch of USDM on Cardano's network, a different type of depegging has taken place - one that actually pushed the stablecoin's value up by ~500% 🤯 

• Mehen, a fresh startup, was behind USDM's creation and launch earlier this week.

• Already making a big splash by partnering with major decentralized exchanges on the network, the stablecoin has been gaining serious traction within the community.

👉️ This is not surprising, given that Cardano did not have a fiat-backed stablecoin option prior to USDM.

But as demand for USDM grew exponentially, its price rose to a surprising $5. Mehen issued a warning against purchasing the stablecoin at such an inflated price, but it was too late and the hype cycle had already taken over 🤦 

Does that mean that the opposite could happen in a scenario where USDM's demand drops? It's definitely a hint 🔍️ 

But at least this launch has opened up some new DeFi doors for Cardano, because really, a chain without any stablecoins? 🤔 

Forgotten ICO era app becomes a top 3 most actively developed project

It seems that nothing truly disappears in the crypto world, as a once-forgotten messaging app from the ICO boom era has resurfaced and is now one of the most actively developed projects in the crypto ecosystem ⛵️ 

• Status, a messaging app/dapp built on the Ethereum blockchain, has recently seen a huge pump in development activity with over 434 GitHub commits in the past month.

• This places it just behind Cardano and Chainlink as the third-most actively developed project 🛠️ 

Originally launched during the ICO boom in July 2017, Status raised a $100 m for its native SNT token, but was mostly inactive since then.

The slow development of the app led to criticism, and in 2020, its CEO and Chief Communications Officer were named as defendants in a class-action lawsuit for an allegedly unregistered securities offering.

Status has announced plans to release alpha and beta versions of its app in 2023, addressing past setbacks and challenges in development.

Later, the team wrote in a blog post that their initial vision of creating a consumer-facing super app proved to be too ambitious, leading to internal issues and staff layoffs during the 2018 market crash 📉 

Thanks to recent developments, increase in crypto prices and obviously hard work, Status has been able to revive its ambitious plans and is now actively working towards realizing its original vision.

Other worthy reads

Memecoin roundtable discussion by 0xResearch:

Decentralized AI thesis by Nirman AI:

Interesting details emerged about Polygon’s deal w/ Starbucks:

MEMES

That's all for now, frens.

We'll meet in a week! And remember, the market conditions are temporary, but our commitment to building a better DeFi is here to stay. Thanks for joining us, and we look forward to seeing you back next week. Cheers!

Yours, The 🔥 Team

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