***Qrafty smiling the biggest smile*** Welcome, digital adventurer! I, Qrafty the crypto lovin’ honey badger, welcome you to Coinqraft – The digital dispatch for discerning minds who hunger for a deep dive into the Bitcoin realm! It’s all made for you, because you want to know everything, but you don’t have the time to roam around the dark corners of the Cryptoverse!🌟

🦡 Qrafty is packed with goodies today! 🦡 Let’s dive in, as Qrafty presents the news 📰 and scoops 🔍:

1. XRP Fake News Covered By Crypto “News Outlets“

2. Bitcoin Miners Aren’t Feeling Well Financially

3. Friend dot Tech Visitors and Revenue crash 90% in a week

Bonus: A Pretty Crazy Conspiracy Story

Today’s Story

Sorry, XRP Fans: Western Union News Is Old AF

Qrafty loves XRP fans and knows how much they suffered over time, but the news about XRP being adopted by Western Union is really really old and this seems like a liquidity exit scam.

Just to have a clear idea, the article appeared initially here and was copied and regurgitated by site 1, site 2, site 3, even Nasdaq news and a lot more crypto news outlets. And these are just a few of the articles that Qrafty found… top notch crypto journalism right there, innit? NONE of them rectified the news until now, and Qrafty waited to see if they do. They didn’t. Not one.

The original news is about 5 years old (from 2018), when the CEO was the guy that the above mentioned websites mention, Hikmet Ersek. In the meantime, that CEO left and there’s a new one, by the name of Devin McGranahan.

It’s quite important to pay attention to what you are doing and it’s especially more important to have been in the market for years and know the inside stories.

Why do you say that, Qrafty?

Because that XRP solution the article mentions, called xRapid, has been discontinued. There were 3 solutions that Ripple offered: xRapid, xCurrent and xVia, which were all replaced by ODL (On Demand Liquidity).

Back in the day when this actually happened, the XRP news working with WU was massive. Everyone was as excited as a squirrel who just discovered a peanut-filled pinata at a nut convention!

But, alas, things didn’t go through, even though Ripple actually paid WU to make that trial.

So, why didn’t they continue Qrafty?

Well… the CEO said that XRP and XRapid weren’t really innovations and that Western Union’s liquidity solution was almost the same with Ripple’s solution. Moreover, WU didn’t consider that the XRP solution would improve the savings in their treasury departments or liquidity costs.

All that WU woo-woo smelled of sea lion farts. And Qrafty, along with all jungle and sea creatures know that sea lions have the smelliest farts…

Now, considering that WU was (and is) light years away from any technical innovation for moving money, the rumor was that WU took a look at Ripple’s technology and decided to copy it and implement it themselves. But that was just a rumor of the time and Qrafty cannot 100% confirm that.

Why do you say that, Qrafty?

Because XRP is a liquidity solution that actually works at scale, actually saving money when we’re talking over tens of thousands of transactions for a company like WU (btw they do millions of transactions a month, which would have reduced their costs by about 50%); unlike pretty much any other solution that has been and is currently available in the crypto market. Yes, TPS and all that… there are chains that are faster and bla bla bla… yet all those are unable to actually function in production.

So what did the people at Western Union do?

The people at WU tested XRP with… wait for it… 10 transactions! 10 transactions, mkay? They expected high savings and lower liquidity costs from 10 transactions! Wow…

Years later, it’s… today time, and notice that WU is the same age old company with the same processes and extremely high commissions for moving money here and there (Qrafty doesn’t want to mention the quality of the service because that’s too subjective). But it seems to work for them and that’s all that really matters, regardless of anyone’s opinion (including Qrafty’s).

Ok Qrafty, what’s this all about, actually?

The whole situation looks like someone is really stuck (or bored ) in XRP and needs some exit liquidity. Or the level or crypto “journalism“ is really… really terrible. Or both… and some cream with a sour crypto cherry on top.

It looks like someone tried to move the market up by manipulating people into buying XRP on these rumors called news, and then dumping on them (that’s called exit liquidity).

The final conclusion: be mindful where you get your news from. Qrafty isn’t perfect, but Qrafty always tries to welcome you with information and news collected from the crypto jungle by Qrafty himself!

🙃 Qrafty hopes that today’s main story brought brave badgery value to you! Now it’s time for a break, you deserve a bit of fun! 😇 👇️ 

The markets aren’t looking too healthy… but the general atmosphere is like everyone’s partying and going wild… Qrafty doesn’t see a very bright outcome out of all this debt.

A good giggle… priceless. For everything else there’s… laughing hysterically.

Here is the main news of the day 👇️ 

1. Bitcoin revenue per terahash approaching record lows

This is a rather expected phenomenon, as miner revenue per terahash is nearing its fresh lows. At the same time, the Bitcoin halving is less than a year away, on April 16, 2024 when block rewards will reduce from 6.25 bitcoin to 3.125 bitcoin, per block.

Qrafty, can we speak in human language and not crypto language?

Got it, my bad. Qrafty made a short overview about what mining is and how it works, a while ago. Imagine you're a crypto miner, and your hashing power is like a mental superpower: your ability to solve math puzzles. The faster you solve them, the higher your hashing power. At the same time, you are also securing the network by solving those puzzles.

Now, miner revenue per terahash is the magical gold coins you earn for using that power to solve crypto puzzles. It's the bling-bling they earn for solving complex math puzzles and securing the blockchain.

Ok, so what’s the deal with the revenue per terahash?

As you are using you mental superpower to solve those puzzles, you are using mental energy, right? So you need to constantly eat in order for your brain to have energy to solve those problems, otherwise the network collapses without miners.

Well, miners use electrical energy. Which means they have a cost associates with their labour. If Bitcoin goes below a certain price, it’s not profitable to mine Bitcoin anymore.

Hmm… I still don’t quite get it, Qrafty…

Okay, let’s look at it from a different angle: gold miners! They use very expensive equipment, go in very remote locations and take on a huge risk to mine that area where they believe they might find gold. They don’t have any guarantee that they’ll find gold there, unlike Bitcoin miners (who always strike digital gold, get it?).

So these people invest a LOT of money and energy and time into digging up those areas and seeing what’s there. If they don’t find anything, it’s a huge loss. But if they do, there are a few scenarios:

• they win bigtime, because the price of gold is high and they found enough to make a profit to cover their expenses, equipment, power and life comfortably for a while;

• they get breakeven, for the same reasons above but they didn’t find enough gold;

• or they’ll lose money, because they haven’t found nearly enough to cover their expenses;

It’s pretty much the same picture here, but with Bitcoin price going down and mining equipment price going up along with high competition in the market. This creates a very unhealthy environment where BTC mining hashrate continues to rise to record highs….while BTC prices continue to go down.

A disaster in the making for the crypto mining industry. Mining companies are pouring money into new equipment in desperation to expand capacity before the halving….but all of those investments are being negated by the increased competition, which leads to mining companies being unprofitable and diluting their investors. Hope that makes it more clear 😁 

2. BitBoy gets kicked out of his company

Ben Armstrong, the controversial figure of the crypto jungle, renowned for his… let’s say highly doubtful approach to honesty and bubbly personality, has been voted out of his company by his associates.

The wind softly moves among the jungle trees and whispers that after being sober for more than 10 years, some bad habits have returned and he was booted out. There’s also some speculation about his involvement regarding a lot of scam coins that rugged and cheated investors.

3. Hong Kong officially launches its BTC trading platform

The Financial Secretary of China’s administrative region of Hong Kong says blockchain is "breakthrough" technology and in July they revealed their intention of creating a task force aimed at developing blockchain and web3 technology.

Well… these guys seem to move quite fast and they actually did it, they launched their first licensed retail virtual-asset exchange.

4. Friend dot tech revenue drops 90% in one day

This must be some kind of new record in crypto… but not by much! On the 21st of August 2023, the platform’s revenue was $840,000 and yesterday was $80,500…

IF you want to know more about the buzzy platform, check out Qrafty’s piece here explaining what it is about. It’s entirely possible that the initial hype took a chill and the team can take a breather to analyze what worked and what didn’t work, paving the way for the next leg of their journey.

The most important thing to observe is that the number of users dropped from 4,700 to 600 and user retention is the most important aspect in any tech platform, regardless of its type. We will see if the team can pull this off or it will be just another scam or rug on the Base chain, which is slowly but surely becoming famous for this type of projects.

5. US House Owners Aren’t Really Happy

Things aren’t looking great for US homeowners. Most people are caught in a financial whirlwind where buying a house feels like chasing a mirage across a desert of high prices and interest rates that seem to defy gravity.

It's like trying to lasso a shooting star. The cost of insurance alone resembles a rocket launch, soaring to astronomical heights. But even for those who already own a house, the story isn't a walk in the park.

Selling means grappling with an 8% mortgage that clings like a barnacle, while letting go of a comfortable 3% mortgage feels like releasing a security blanket. As for renting, that avenue isn't any gentler on the wallet, leaving many to feel like they're playing a never-ending game of financial hopscotch.

But wait… there’s more!

The national average home insurance for $250,000 in coverage is $1,428/year, which is a new record and a more than 20% increase.

This is on top of an average monthly mortgage payment that just crossed $2,500/month. Qrafty asks: where is this going and how’s is going to end?

6. SEC charges Youtuber for selling securities

The founder of the Impact Theory channel, Tom Bilyeu, was charged by the SEC with selling unregistered securities and will pay a fine of $6.1 million while also being the agency’s first enforcement action regarding an NFT project.

Long story short, senor Bilyeu sold $30 million worth of unregistered securities named “Founders Key“. But wait… there’s more! He told NFT buyers that they would profit if the Impact Theory podcast is successful. And this, my friend, is Howey Test 101: a security is an investment of money in a common enterprise with the expectation of profit derived from the work of others.

Now, the SEC is accusing the podcast owner and asking for $6.1 million. Which means the owner will get $24 millies left in his pocket.

The SEC is happy, the NFT owner is happy… it’s just the buyers who have some worthless jpg which they paid for that lost. Cool story, right?

Hey hey 🙃 Qrafty hopes you are enjoying the experience here and would like to regularly get Qrafty’s letters!

If so, please click on the button below. Qrafty is really really grateful to have you here, so thank you!

Remember, life's a sitcom, so keep the laugh track rolling!

Qrafty’s thought of the day

Other stories from today worth considering

Bitcoin and Football? Absolutely!

Plan ₿ partnered with football club, FC Lugano. In case you didn’t know who Plan ₿ is, it’s the same person who’s Bitcoin price model stated that BTC price is going to reach $100,000 in Q4 of 2021. That didn’t happen, did it?

Aside from that, since both Bitcoin and football are religions, both of these areas are filled with degenerates who gamble their lives away and go crazy when their team wins… or their coin pumps. So yeah, it’s a match made in heaven.

Evergrande stock falls 90% after trading reopens

That’s pretty nasty… Evergrande is China’s second largest developer and Qrafty wrote about its bankruptcy a short while ago. The market was halted (because in TradFi, unlike crypto, that’s actually possible) and after resuming, people just rushed to get rid of that toxic stock… It was like a lot of people trying to exit (or enter, depends what kind of pessimist you are) through a very narrow door

Speculation on Prigojin’s crypto wallet

Word around the jungle today that the late’s Prigozhin crypto wallet might be worth around 2 billion. Since it’s Monday and Qrafty is crazy, let’s have some fun with speculation and see what is the most brain dead theory that Qrafty can find…

Now, Qrafty has the tinfoil hat on and heard a pretty cool story for those nights when you feel like going a bit crazy… :))

Here’s how it goes: it seems that a particular 3 letter US agency paid Mr. Prigozhin to get his Wagner rebels to turn around and go after Putin in Moscow, effectively staging a coup d’etat, trying to overtake Putin and free Russia.

How much was Prigozhin paid, Qrafty? 

Weeeell… here’s what’s funny: he was offered 6 billion USD, 3 billion up front and the rest after the rebellion was successful. The success of the coup didn’t happen, obviously. And since we have our tin foil hats on, there’s also talk that he wasn’t on that plane that was dropped, either. You gotta love some conspiracy theories!

Market Whispers

Bitcoin does not like Mondays so it has a ton of mood swings, like starting the day dipping to 25850, took a nap there for 5 hours and woke up to 26240.

Don't get to excited, now is back at 26k...so no trading for Qrafty today, maybe tomorrow we find some clear direction 🙏🏻

Today is CRACKERS OVER THE KEYBOARD DAY!

That’s all from Qrafty 🦡 for today! Qrafty thanks you and wishes you to live each moment as if you are listening to the music you love most!

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