• The Ethereum Merge occurred yesterday minutes before midnight Pacific Time.  This is a significant milestone for the Ethereum community and entire blockchain space. See our “Story of the Week” section below for a full breakdown.
• Bitcoin prices hit a three-week high ahead of Tuesday’s CPI print, before pulling back violently along with other risk assets. Inflation came in hotter than expected causing risk-off sentiment to grip markets. Bitcoin’s correlation to the NASDAQ hit a 4-month high on Tuesday of 0.9 as central bank policy and inflation dominate the crypto story. Bitcoin’s correlation to the Gold also hit a 2 year high of 0.89, as another ‘inflation hedge’ got caught up in an old-fashioned liquidity crunch. Long term, we continue to see both gold and Bitcoin as key diversifiers and hedge assets in a portfolio.
• BTC turned positive relative to ETH, following weeks of underperformance, as investors hedged their exposure and took profits going into the Ethereum Merge.
• Enterprise Web3 adoption accelerates: Starbucks announced its first leap into Web3: Starbucks Odyssey, as its called, will “offer members the ability to earn and buy digital collectible stamps (NFTs) that will unlock access to new, immersive coffee experiences. The release also states: “As one of the first companies to integrate NFTs with an industry-leading loyalty program at scale, Starbucks will create an accessible Web3 community that will enable new ways to engage with members and partners.”

Charles Schwab, Citadel and Fidelity Digital (a wholly owned subsidiary of Fidelity) are launching a digital asset exchange known as EDX Markets. This followed a report in the Wall Street Journal that Fidelity was mulling adding Bitcoin trading to its brokerage platform. That move would make it possible for 34 million customers to buy and sell Bitcoin directly. Fidelity would join Robinhood, Square, WealthSimple and others who have strengthened their cryptoasset offering in recent years. Despite the pullback in prices, traditional financial firms clearly continue to forge ahead on their digital asset plans.