XRP Gears up for Biggest Breakout in Price History, Crucial Bitcoin Security Warning Issued by Samson Mow, Coinbase Announces Two New Listings: Crypto News Digest by U.Today
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Aurelia Butler
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US July inflation likely steady as Fed faces battle to justify higher rates: RBC
“We expect further signs of easing inflation in July,” RBC said, forecasting the headline price growth held at 3% on an annual basis but with a second straight small 0.1% monthly increase in core (excluding food and energy) prices.”That should reassure the Fed that those annual rates will continue to move lower,” it added, as factors putting upward pressure on inflation have narrowed. The Labor Department is set to release consumer price index for July on Wednesday at 08:30 EDT.Home rents, which make up a “disproportionate share of the remaining annual price growth,” RBC adds, is slowing as the impact of “earlier easing in market rent increases eventually passes through to lease agreements.”On the economic front, there’s little to suggest that the Fed should hit the panic button in the wake of rent jobs-led growth scare, but the U.S. central bank’s higher for longer rate regime is becoming difficult to justify. “Evidence is building that broader economic conditions have already normalized and inflation is more likely to drift lower,” RBC said. The case for the Fed to justify keeping rates at more than 200 basis points above its own estimate of the long-run ‘neutral’ rate’ is becoming “increasingly difficult.”The Fed believes the current neutral rate, one that neither boosts nor holds back economic growth, is 2.5%, which is nearly 300 basis points below the current rate of 5.25% to 5.5%, or 5.375% at the midpoint.While a 25 basis point cut is priced in for September, RBC believes the “risks of a larger cut are contingent on further downside in economic growth or inflation surprises.” More
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Earthquake of magnitude 4.4 strikes Los Angeles area – USGS
The quake hit near the LA neighborhood of Highland Park, northeast of downtown, and was at a depth of 12.1 km (7.5 miles). The shaking was felt throughout the Los Angeles area. The Los Angeles Fire Department said it went into “Earthquake Mode” and reported that “there are currently no initial reports of structural damage or injuries.” More
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US SEC sues over alleged $650 million global crypto fraud
NEW YORK (Reuters) – The U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission on Monday sued the cryptocurrency company NovaTech and its married co-founders, saying they fraudulently raised over $650 million from more than 200,000 investors worldwide, including many Haitian-Americans.NovaTech and co-founders Cynthia and Eddy Petion allegedly promised investors their money would be safe, with Cynthia Petion assuring they would be “in profit from day one.”The SEC said the Petions instead used new money mainly to repay earlier investors and pay commissions to promoters, while siphoning millions of dollars for themselves. It said the scheme lasted for four years until NovaTech’s May 2023 collapse.Monday’s lawsuit in Miami federal court came two months after New York Attorney General Letitia James sued NovaTech and the Petions in a state court in Manhattan, estimating their fraud at more than $1 billion.The regulators said NovaTech tried to appeal to victims’ religious faith through social media, Telegram and WhatsApp, and sometimes in the Haitian Creole language, with Cynthia Petion branding herself “Reverend CEO” and saying NovaTech was “God’s vision.”Lawyers for NovaTech and the Petions, who are believed to live in Panama, could not immediately be identified.Both regulators called the fraud a pyramid scheme, where companies pay bonuses or commissions to recruit new investors.The SEC also charged six NovaTech promoters with fraud, saying they kept recruiting investors despite “red flags,” such as delayed withdrawals and U.S. and Canadian regulatory actions, that raised questions about NovaTech’s legitimacy.One promoter, Martin Zizi, agreed to pay a $100,000 civil fine. His lawyer did not immediately respond to a request for comment.Both lawsuits seek restitution for victims and civil fines.The case is SEC v Nova Tech Ltd, U.S. District Court, Southern District of Florida, No. 24-23058. More
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Fed behind the curve, but it doesn’t matter as there’s room for policy response
“We also maintain that the nervousness about US slow down is overdone,” Macquarie said in a recent note, following the recent growth economic scare. A slew of softer reports including the July jobs report triggered fears that a U.S. was headed for recession, prompting many to call for aggressive Federal Reserve rate cuts. Following economic data including last week’s better-than-feared jobless claims data, recession fears have receded. While acknowledging that the U.S. economy is slowing and the Fed is behind the curve, Macquarie believes that the doesn’t rally matter as “strong fundamentals, excess capital, instantaneous repricing and an immense policy toolkit, can reverse positions quickly with limited damage.”Macquarie’s outlook echoes of that of the Fed chairman Jerome Powell, who has previously mentioned the central bank would be prepared to act should the softness in the labor market unexpectedly accelerate. “If the labor market were to weaken unexpectedly or inflation were to fall more quickly than anticipated, we are prepared to respond. Policy is well positioned to deal with the risks and uncertainties that we face in pursuing both sides of our dual mandate,” Powell said at the FOMC press conference on Jul. 31. The current backdrop reflects a “twilight of no recessions but also no “strong recoveries, complemented by lower rates and higher liquidity,” Macquarie said, marking fertile ground for speculation across asset classes.In this “twilight of abundance”, however, investors need to opt for stock picking rather than factor and style strategies as the latter would “likely fail due to degradation of economic and capital market,” Macquarie added. More
Bitcoin Epic Price Pattern Spotted by Peter Brandt, But There’s a Warning
Brandt revealed his disciplined approach to trading, saying, “I do not trade opinions. I trade set-ups via classical charting principles. I avoid trades when price is range bound. My entry is on completed patterns.””BTC displays what is known as an inverted or expanding triangle,” Brandt added.A triangle is a chart pattern depicted by trendlines along a converging price range, indicating a pause in the prevailing trend. Technical analysts categorize triangles as continuation patterns of an existing trend or a reversal.Bitcoin (BTC), the largest cryptocurrency by market capitalization, experienced a sell-off during Sunday’s trading session. The selling continued, with Bitcoin touching an intraday low of $57,663 on Monday.At the time of writing, BTC had dropped 2.09% in the previous 24 hours to $59,450, down from a high of $62,755 on Thursday.Despite the triangle pattern being a continuation pattern, traders are often urged to look for breakouts before they make a move to enter or exit a position.This is because, in technical analysis, a breakout from a pattern often signifies the start of a new trend, but until that breakout occurs, the direction of the move remains speculative.The expanding triangle pattern suggests that Bitcoin might be gearing up for a potentially significant move, but without a confirmed breakout, the direction of that move remains unknown.The caution from Peter Brandt highlights the importance of patience and not making hasty decisions but rather waiting for confirmation before entering a trade.This article was originally published on U.Today More
What is Polkadot 2.0: A roadmap interoperability and scalability
While it might sound like a pure technical process, Polkadot 2.0 isn’t tied to one specific event. Instead, it represents a series of changes that will expand the blockchain’s capabilities. Founder Gavin Wood describes Polkadot 2.0 as an adaptable and widespread computing resource when it rolls out. He touts the upgrade as bringing in new features designed to boost scalability, lower entry barriers, and better meet market needs.Polkadot’s journey started with the release of its whitepaper in November 2016 and hit a major milestone in 2023 with the launch of its final codebase. The roll out set the stage for rapid expansion, including the addition of 50 interconnected chains and more than 200 projects using its SDK. Each of Polkadot’s projects is built on its own distinct blockchain, known as a parachain.That said, Polkadot 2.0 is packed with key technical upgrades like Async Backing, Agile Coretime, and Elastic (NYSE:ESTC) Scaling. These changes are expected to make the network more scalable and improve performance, leading to faster transactions and better resource management.Beyond the technical side, the upgrade also focuses on user experience with a refreshed website, updated messaging, and a new visual identity. The impact of Polkadot 2.0 is already being felt across the crypto industry, with projects like Mythical Games and Frequency choosing Polkadot as their platform. More specifically, the ecosystem is now turning its attention to applications, with Agile Coretime introducing a more adaptable way to allocate blockspace. This gives developers the flexibility to buy blockspace based on their exact needs, allowing the system to manage computational resources more efficiently by responding to real-time demand.At its core, Polkadot is a Layer 0 solution specifically designed to address blockchain interoperability, providing developers with a platform to create both applications and chains. Its architecture includes a main Relay Chain, responsible for the network’s security, consensus, and interoperability, alongside multiple parachains. These parachains are application-specific Layer 1 blockchains, each capable of having its own tokens.To explain the upcoming shift, Wood compares the move to Polkadot 2.0 to a pancake business. Imagine a company that makes its own sugar, water, milk, and eggs, but focuses solely on selling pancakes. In this analogy, the pancakes represent ‘parachains,’ and the pancake company represents Polkadot 1.0. More
Aleph Zero Launches Its EVM-Layer on Mainnet
Aleph Zero launches its ultra-fast Ethereum-compatible layer-2, expanding its privacy tools and new apps compatible with the world’s biggest web3 ecosystem.Aleph Zero — a blockchain ecosystem engineered for speed, data confidentiality, and ease of development — today announced the mainnet launch of its new EVM-compatible Layer-2 solution. This significant milestone marks Aleph Zero’s expansion into the Ethereum ecosystem, which will expedite the development and broaden the reach of its zkOS privacy-enhancing solutions.The Aleph Zero EVM Layer-2 is built in partnership with Gelato, a leading Rollup-as-a-Service provider, and leverages Arbitrum Orbit technology. This combination results in an exceptionally fast and efficient blockchain, boasting a block time of up to 250 milliseconds with near-instant transaction finality. The network is capable of processing thousands of transactions per second, positioning it as one of the fastest EVM-compatible chains available.AZERO, the ecosystem token, will be used on the Layer-2 to power all gas transactions similarly to how it’s being used now on the Layer-1.zkOS Features Coming to Aleph Zero’s EVM-Layer in Q4zkOS is Aleph Zero’s new comprehensive privacy framework designed to make integrating confidentiality features into blockchain applications more accessible and user-friendly. This aligns with Aleph Zero’s vision of making privacy-enhancing technologies easier to use, with the optimization benchmarks showing the system’s ability of proving ZK proofs in less than a second on consumer devices.zkOS consolidates Aleph Zero’s privacy products into a single, developer-friendly toolkit that doesn’t require deep cryptographic knowledge to implement. zkOS aims to solve existing challenges in on-chain privacy, such as poor user experience, long proving times, and limited multisig capabilities. By optimizing zero-knowledge proof generation to under a second on consumer devices, zkOS strives to make privacy features more practical and economically beneficial for both new and existing applications across multiple blockchain ecosystems.This whitelabel service allows organizations to quickly introduce innovative apps that boost retention and loyalty within their user base, with an easy-to-deploy product that can be customized towards the needs of any organization.Among the key features, users will find the newsfeed, an embedded crypto wallet, on-chain loyalty points system, thematic games for fan engagement, branded card payments, loyalty points cashback, among others. An important part of the app is its privacy-respecting nature that makes it compliant with the GDPR laws.vib3s is powered by the Aleph Zero blockchain and the Upcade gaming hub, as well as solutions from Holyheld, Thirdweb, idOS, and others.The project will launch its first implementation this month, targeting a large-scale entertainment use case in Europe.For more information about Aleph Zero, users can visit https://alephzero.org. About Aleph ZeroAleph Zero is an ecosystem of blockchain solutions that are engineered for speed, data confidentiality, and ease of development. It achieves efficiencies akin to conventional web2 systems, upholds rigorous standards for data protection via highly optimized Zero Knowledge Proofs, and offers a comprehensive toolset for development across web3 that range from WASM to EVM environments. Aleph Zero’s versatility is highlighted by over 40 use cases being actively developed, showcasing its adaptability across various sectors and applications. These use cases are part of an engaged community and growing ecosystem of web3 applications that are supported by Aleph Zero programs.For any enquiries about this release, users can contact [email protected] or [email protected] ManagerJosh AdamsAleph [email protected] article was originally published on Chainwire More
