Googled ‘the merge’ yet? 🐼

Author

Nisha Ramesh
September 13, 2022

Good morning with two spoonfuls of sugar,

And welcome to Switch Daily. 👋

It’s happening, it’s finally happeninggg! We waited three years for this remember? So, bring out some of your best moves coz Ethereum moves to POS starting today. And also, we’ve got loads of info to unpack. C’mon, let’s see some jiggle jiggle.

What’s in the bag today? Let’s see:

  • Market pulse

  • Google joins the merge hype

  • News with a side of fun

  • The Merge Corner (surprise, surprise)

  • Meme of the day

Market pulse 📈

The market is sending mixed signals 😶‍🌫️

It was a mixed session for the crypto market yesterday due to the price action among the top 10 cryptos. Bitcoin (BTC) and Solana (SOL) continued to be in a breakout mode, while Ether (ETH) struggled to move higher and witnessed a slight pullback.

With the Ethereum Merge exactly two days away, we may see ETH and BTC record huge volume-based trades, which can move the market significantly. The market dominance levels of both BTC and ETH have moved a bit higher over the last three to four trading sessions and are currently over 41% and 20%, respectively.

Even Google is excited! 🤩

Remember when Google was looking for talent to lead their Web3 wing in May? Looks like they found a kickass team. How do we know this? You’ll know soon.

Okay, we admit it. We are super obsessed with the Merge for a while now, so now and then we google things like the merge, Ethereum merge, eth merge, etc., to get some juicy updates. While doing our googling routine yesterday, we saw something mindblowing 😲. See for yourself.

Google has introduced a countdown timer for the merge completion time. It also displays the difficulty level (the number of times a miner must calculate the hashes to record a block of transactions) and the hash rate (the total combined computing power used on the whole network). How did Google calculate this? Well, that’s too much math for us, but if you are into that stuff, here’s a thread that will help.

As a bonus, they also threw in a pair of black and white bears with outstretched arms on the screen.

And NO! This does not signify a ‘bear’ market.

These pandas are supposed to move closer as the merge progresses and become one black and white panda once the merge is complete symbolising the Ethereum transition. Like this 👇🏽

But what does Google hiring a kickass Web3 team have to do with this? — Everything.

They came up with the whole idea in the company's internal Web3 community chats and implemented it in two weeks.

The power of Web3 + community, right? Damn right!

Aur kya scene hai? 🧐

🚩Algorand flags a $35M loss from Hodlnaut exposure

The Algorand Foundation said that it has incurred a $35 million USDC loss on its balance sheet because of its exposure to troubled crypto lending firm Hodlnaut. Read more. 

💰Thai DeFi platform Forward raises $5 million amidst tight regulations

DeFi platform Forward has raised $5 million in a funding round led by some of Thailand's largest banks. The fundraising comes amid moves by the country’s regulators to tighten rules in the crypto sector in the wake of trading irregularities and the collapse of a major acquisition involving a crypto exchange. Read more. 

🪙MicroStrategy to sell $500 mn in stock to buy more BTC

Despite the downturn in the crypto market, US software developer MicroStrategy (MSTR) remains bullish on Bitcoin as ever, with the company revealing plans to sell up to $500 million of stock to purchase more Bitcoin. Read more.

🌟Solana-based NFTs shine amid the gloom

Despite a sluggish market for non-fungible tokens (NFTs), Solana-based NFTs are surging. The number of NFTs minted on Solana surged to an ATH of 312,000 on 7 September compared to 39,000 mints on 4 September. Read more.

‘The Merge’ corner 🐼

With the merge season in full swing, we have activated this powerful space to keep you fully updated on all things — Ethereum Merge to make you the Merge master. We’re rooting for you.

Meme of the day…

Well, that's a wrap for today!

See you, tomorrow folks, 👋

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