One of the most widely anticipated and monitored events in the history of crypto, the Ethereum “Merge”, went smoothly early Thursday morning, as scheduled!

At approximately 06:43 UTC, Ethereum successfully transitioned from a proof-of-work consensus mechanism to proof-of-stake, intended to reduce both energy consumption and the supply of the native ether token. Despite the upgrade’s success, both BTC and ETH declined in price on Thursday, as did the prices across traditional financial markets.

Ether (ETH) fell 9% on above-average volume following the Merge and continued down for the remainder of the day. Bitcoin (BTC) declined 2% on moderate volume initially and saw an even more aggressive drop in prices as the day wore on. Most other cryptocurrencies broadly failed to regain lost ground after the surprise United States inflation data on September 13th sent assets into the red!

Financial behemoths Charles Schwab, Citadel Securities, and Fidelity Digital Assets have collaborated on launching a bitcoin and cryptocurrency exchange named EDX Markets (EDXM).

The exchange is said to be a first-of-its-kind launched with a promise of being a “safer, faster and more efficient cryptocurrency trading.” To attain its objective, the EDXM will rely on the technology built by The Member Exchange (MEMX), an equity exchange, for scaling its operation to serve retail and institutional investors in several markets.

“We look forward to welcoming additional participants to the exchange, which will drive ongoing trading in this important asset class while creating a virtuous cycle of continually enhanced liquidity and efficiency supported by MEMX’s cutting-edge technology,” said Jamil Nazarali, CEO of EDX Markets and former global head of business development at Citadel Securities.

In other major headlines,

• BNB Chain and Google Cloud Collaborate to Advance the Growth of Web3. Read More
• Ukrainian Supermarket Chain to Accept Cryptocurrencies Through Binance Pay. Read More
• Investors Add $74M to Crypto-Focused Valkyrie Trusts. Read More
• Ethereum Energy consumption, Carbon Footprint Reduce 99.99% after Merge. Read More

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Despite China’s ban on digital asset services, a Chinese court has ruled that citizens may continue to trade cryptocurrencies. Notably, China has an existing ban on trading cryptocurrencies, claiming a threat to the financial sector’s stability.

According to the Beijing Number One Intermediate People’s Court, interested investors can only trade cryptocurrencies, which should be recognized as virtual assets rather than currency. The decision was made in a court case involving a crypto loan in Litecoin (LTC) with the promise of interest payments in digital currencies. 

According to the facts of the case, Zhai Wenjie lent his friend Ding Hao 50,000 Litecoin in 2015. According to Zhai Wenjie, Ding Hao agreed to pay 1,000 Litecoins in interest every month, which the defendant denied. “According to real administrative regulations and cases, our country only denies the monetary attributes of virtual currency and prohibits its circulation as currency, but the virtual currency itself is a virtual property protected by the law,” the court ruled.

In other news,

• Russia Ministry of Finance Plans to Legalize Crypto for International Transactions. Read More
• Treasury Sanctions Pro-Russia Groups Raising Funds With Crypto. Read More
• Agency Needs to Prepare Regulating Crypto, Says CFTC Chair. Read More
• Ether staking could trigger securities laws — Gensler. Read More

Major cryptocurrency exchanges, FTX and Bybit, are among the first crypto trading platforms to launch spot trading for Ethereum proof-of-work (PoW) tokens.

While the Ethereum blockchain has not forked into two separate networks just yet, crypto exchanges are rushing to start trading EthereumPoW (ETHW) tokens.

At the time of writing, ETHW Fork IOU token is now trading on five exchanges, including the global FTX exchange, the FTX US platform, Bybit, Gate.io and MEXC Global, according to data from CoinGecko.

FTX is now handling more than 80% of ETHW trading, which is estimated to amount to $24.7 million at the time of writing. Bybit and MEXC Global account for 10% and 17.6% of ETHW trading volumes, respectively. 

This comes after the Ethereum hard fork followed the recent Ethereum Merge event. Some community participants preferred to keep supporting the mining-based PoW Ethereum version, and the fork is expected to split the chain in two, the proof-of-stake version and a PoW-based one.

In other news,

• Coinbase Enlists Broadridge Financial to Improve Liquidity. Read More
• FTX Freezes Under Strain of CPI Volatility. Read More
• Crypto exchange Reku raises US$11 million Series A led by AC Ventures. Read More
• Binance Sees Record Increase in Indian Users After Government Starts Imposing New Crypto Tax. Read More

Infinity Exchange has just closed a $4.2 million seed round to pave the way for the institutionalization of DeFi. The platform is a decentralized finance protocol that provides institutional grade capital efficiency for traders, yield farmers, and global fixed income investors,

The company closed a seed funding round led by prominent financial institutions, including market makers and funds GSR, SIG, CMS, C-Squared, and Flow Traders The funds will be used to expand the company’s operations and develop its product offerings, including fixed and floating rate markets and futures and spot trading markets. The platform is looking to form the first complete financial markets protocol in DeFi.

The core of Infinity Exchange is its risk management and interest rate protocol, which was created by Kevin Lepsoe, a former Morgan Stanley executive. It is designed to allow institutional investors to participate in developing DeFi 2.0, an in-house blockchain. The platform utilizes a hybrid approach that combines the mechanics of traditional financial markets with the features of DeFi 2.0, allowing investors to trade trillions of dollars of assets.

In other news,

• Cake DeFi Launches “Birthday Research”, a Global Blockchain & Crypto R&D Hub. Read More  
• Apollo DAO to close vaults on Terra Classic. Read More  
• Tether Launches USDT Stablecoin on Near Network to Unlock New DeFi Products. Read More
• Russian Crypto Startup InDeFi to Launch Ruble Stablecoin Following DAI Model. Read More