Can Anyone Stop the Digital Dystopia?

Amidst all the excitement around Donald Trump becoming crypto’s newest main character, another one of his policies has been largely ignored. This is a shame because it could be just as consequential as his support for Bitcoin and the crypto industry more generally. In case you missed it, The Donald is also no fan of central bank digital currencies, or CBDCs.

This is important, because CBDCs are being feverishly worked on behind the scenes by almost every central bank. Despite the abject failures of those that have already been rolled out, work continues to get yet more ready to foist upon unwilling citizens the world over.

Given that CBDCs represent a unique and growing threat to financial freedom, it’s perhaps no surprise that those developing them have largely been keeping quiet when it comes to their progress. Maybe they’re hoping everyone just forgets about them until it’s too late.

Well, we haven’t forgotten and, in today’s video, we bring you up to speed with the latest developments in the CBDC space from around the world. We’ll tell you who’s ahead of schedule, who the laggards are, and what you can do to push back against the encroachment of this dystopian technology.

You can watch that video here.

📈 Crypto Market Forecast 📈

It looks like we’re in for a very sunny week. That’s because there are lots of bullish crypto and macro factors that could take the market higher. The first crypto factor is the launch tomorrow of Donald Trump’s DeFi protocol which, although controversial, will nonetheless increase interest in DeFi and crypto more generally. This should have a bullish effect overall.  

On that note, one thing to look out for will be the stablecoins supported by Trump’s DeFi protocol. If it includes support for PayPal’s PYUSD, then that could be a sign that it’s going to be big. For context, PayPal co-founder Peter Thiel is backing Trump’s vice president, JD Vance. PYUSD’s presence could therefore be evidence of larger, indirect support for Trump.

Another crypto catalyst to keep your eye on is TOKEN2049, which will take place this Wednesday and Thursday. Big announcements often tend to be made at these crypto conferences and TOKEN is one of the most high-profile. Our recent reviews suggest most major crypto projects are planning on making major announcements, which could be bullish for alts more broadly.

Speaking of which, Solana’s Breakpoint conference will also be taking place in Singapore next Thursday and Friday. Lots of Solana projects are expected to make big announcements, including Solana itself. It’s likely that it will release the initial version of its Firedancer client, which aims to scale its blockchain to 1 million transactions per second.

On the macro front meanwhile, the Fed will be announcing its interest rate decision on Wednesday. The timing couldn’t be better, as rate cuts will be bullish for risk assets, specifically altcoins. The consensus view is that the Fed will cut by 25 basis points. However, it seems that nobody is talking about the most important part: the Summary of Economic Projections or SEP.

For those unfamiliar, the SEP includes the Fed’s own forecasts for where interest rates, inflation, unemployment, etc. will be in the foreseeable future. An updated SEP is published every other Fed meeting, and it tends to have an even more profound effect on the market than the Fed’s interest rate decision or Jerome Powell’s forward guidance in his speech.

Logically, if the SEP is dovish (i.e. indicative of lower interest rates), then the markets will rally. Vice versa if the SEP is hawkish (i.e. indicative of higher interest rates). With 50 days left until the US election, it’s safe to say that it’s in the interest of the Fed, the Treasury, and every other arm of the government to massage the data and pump the markets.

What happens during and after the election may not be as bullish, but that’s a topic for another time…

☀️ Suitember ☀️

SUI has been one of the best-performing coins this month, gaining almost 30% in price since the 1st of September. Notably, its price remained steady despite broader market volatility and it even outperformed BTC and most other alt L1s, including SOL.

So, what prompted this sudden spike in bullishness for Sui?

If you ask mainstream crypto media, they’ll tell you that most of this price action is likely driven by bullish sentiment following the launch of asset manager Grayscale’s latest single-asset fund dedicated to SUI, the ‘Grayscale Sui Trust.’

While it’s certainly true that the hype around the announcement played a major role in aiding the first leg of Sui’s pump back in August, it’s certainly not the sole reason for Sui’s outperformance in September.

Rather, most of the recent bullishness for Sui comes from a wide range of developments within the ecosystem. Some of these developments are led by Sui developer Mysten Labs, while others are from independent projects building on the network.

Nevertheless, the sheer volume of social media posts from Sui ecosystem projects hinting at new products and updates set to be shipped this month has resulted in general bullishness among the community, with many branding the month of September as #Suitember.

The recent pump in price we’ve seen for SUI is likely due to market participants expecting these bullish developments to be made public at Sui conferences scheduled this month. The most notable of these events include the recent Korea Blockchain Week in South Korea, the Sui Builder House in Singapore and the Sui Connect events in the US.

In fact, one of the major developments which triggered the rally in the first week of September was the announcement regarding the opening of pre-orders for SuiPlay0x1 made during the Korea Blockchain Week event on the 3rd September.

For context, the SuiPlay0x1 is a portable handheld web3 gaming console made by Mysten Labs in collaboration with the gaming startup Playtron. This announcement has been highly anticipated by community members for quite a few months now – especially since the launch of SuiPlay0x1 marks the second time a major layer one blockchain network has launched a consumer-focused hardware device.

The first time we saw such an announcement was during the launch of the Saga phone by Solana. If you’d been following developments around that product, you’d have seen that most investors who purchased the Saga phone received airdrops whose value far exceeded the price paid for the device. Many investors anticipate SuiPlay0x1 purchasers will get lucky in the same way as Saga phone purchasers did.

On that note, this ties in closely with another factor that has contributed to Sui’s recent price growth - its positioning as the most promising ‘Solana killer.’ The launch of a consumer device, in a similar vein to what Solana did, has likely strengthened that narrative.

While it’s highly unlikely that Mysten Labs intended SuiPlay0x1 to represent such a move, the fact remains that many expect Sui to outpace Solana’s growth in the long term.

For the most part, this belief isn’t unwarranted.

A recent report by OutNetwork shows that Sui had an average of 472.6k daily active addresses in the three months from the 20th May to the 20th August - a 10x increase over the previous period. This metric peaked at over 2.2m in June, surpassing Solana's peak of 2.09m during the same timeframe. Data from DeFillama also shows that TVL on Sui has jumped 218% YTD, from $226m in January to $718m at the time of writing. This shows a strong trend in user growth on the network.

In terms of network performance, Mysten Labs announced that the network had achieved ultra-low latency in transaction finality with the launch of its new ‘Mysticeti’ consensus engine on mainnet in July. Mysten Labs co-founder Adeniyi Abiodun called it the “world’s fastest consensus engine” and claimed that the sub-1-second latency allows for a significantly better user experience. He noted that every 1-second delay typically results in a 20% drop in traffic on websites. A reduction in latency makes Sui more optimised for consumer adoption.

That said, this consumer-focused approach isn’t mere coincidence. Almost every step taken by the team has been focused on optimising the chain for consumer adoption. In fact, they’ve fostered the growth of multiple ecosystem projects to make the adoption and use of the Sui network seamless.

For example, Sui Network’s zkLogin feature allows users to create a wallet with just their email address, thus abstracting away the need for users to remember seed phrases. Users can also use this zkLogin feature in combination with products like ‘Stashed’ to onboard new users by sharing a link that allows them to receive pre-loaded crypto payments as soon as they create a wallet.

This focus on consumer adoption can also be seen in its latest SuiPlay0x1 device. You see, while it’s officially branded as a ‘Sui gaming’ device, the SuiPlay0x1 will also support blockchain games from other networks and PC games from platforms like Steam and the Epic Games Store. This makes the product attractive to a larger user base, while also incentivising users to onboard themselves to Sui.

That said, it hasn’t been all sunshine and rainbows this month for Sui. As is typical with maturing blockchain ecosystems, some of the earliest projects that launched on Sui have announced their decision to shut down their product on the network. Specifically, we saw the NFT marketplace Hyperspace and wallet service provider Ethos announce their exit from the network last week. These announcements caught early users by surprise.

Nevertheless, innovation in the Sui ecosystem remains steadfast. Some of the projects there are even poised to rival counterparts on Solana. These include hop.fun - a memecoin generator on Sui similar to pump.fun on Solana, KarrierOne – a Telecom DePIN project on Sui similar to Helium on Solana, Scallop – a lending market similar to Kamino Finance on Solana, and FUD – a dog-themed meme coin project similar to Solana’s Bonk.

For what it’s worth, Sui really does seem to be one of the strongest Solana killers in the current cycle.

Disclosure: A few Coin Bureau team members hold SUI as part of their portfolio.

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🔮 Video Pipeline 🔮

* AAVE Update: Potential for 2024?
* OKX Report: Market insights
* Quantum Computing: Should you be worried?
* Outlier Ventures Report: Is the 4 year crypto cycle dead?
* Freedom of Speech: Status in the world.

🏆What's New at CoinBureau.com This Week? 🏆

* What is Slippage in Crypto? Learn How to Reduce Its Impact
* What Are Altcoins? Complete Overview of the Top Crypto Alternatives
* SafePal S1 Review: Is This Affordable Hardware Wallet Worth It?
* Top Toncoin Wallets for Secure Storage, Staking & NFT Support
* What is Wrapped Bitcoin (WBTC) and How Does It Work in DeFi

📖Quote of the Week 📖

Leverage and ignorance - the most deadly combination in all of crypto.

“Speculation is most dangerous when it looks easiest” - Warren Buffet

Team Coin Bureau

Disclosure: Authors may own cryptoassets named in this newsletter. These are unqualified opinions, and a Coin Bureau newsletter, is meant for informational purposes only. It is not meant to serve as investment advice. Please consult with your investment, tax, or legal advisor.