Mooners and Shakers: Ravencoin goes up, Bitcoin goes up, and Ethereum stays flat before Merge.
A cryptocurrency that not many people know about has jumped into the top 100. What is it and where did it come from?
Ravencoin, you win. So, what's this one about? It's pumping, so let's dig into it.
Also, Bitcoin has been going up a bit, while Ethereum is currently relaxing on a deck chair and hoping to get a good Merge tan.
Ravencoin: Price movement due to the Merge?
"Deep into that crypto winter darkness, I peered. I stood there for a long time, wondering, being afraid, having doubts, and dreaming dreams that no shadowy super coder had ever been brave enough to dream before. "Nevermore," said the Ravencoin."
OK, Edgar Allen Poe didn't really write that.
So, we can be 99.93% sure that the famous American author from the 1800s would have liked crypto. Probably.
He was said to be "very interested in cryptography," and he did have some effect on modern science.
We'd love to talk more about that and read The Tell-Tale Heart again, but we're too busy talking about magic internet money.
So, what the heck is Ravencoin (RVN), and why is it flapping and cawing its way up the daily list of the top 100 cryptocurrencies?
Would it surprise you to find out that it has something to do with "Merge"? Nope? Not a chance.
Ravencoin is not a Proof-of-Stake coin, and it is not a new cryptocurrency.
The protocol was released in 2018 as an alternative to Ethereum mining. It uses a Proof-of-Work consensus algorithm blockchain that looks like Bitcoin's 21 million coin supply.
It has its own complex tokenized ecosystem that uses RVN for a wide range of DeFi and NFT applications.
Data from CoinGecko shows that Ravencoin has gone up about 30% in the last day and more than 95% in the last week.
Why? Well, everything about Ethereum (except for ETH itself today) seems to be taking turns being in the news as we get closer to the Merge to Proof-of-Stake of the leading smart contract blockchain.
Even though the Merge move is partly based on positive ESG and carbon-reduction news, there are still a lot of mining and PoW fans out there making their case and looking for alternatives to mining as the main Ethereum chain switches lanes.
Partially, yes, but maybe the main reason is this...
On September 12, FTX, a major global cryptocurrency exchange, announced that it would list Ravencoin perpetual futures. This caused the price of RVN to go up.
On to other pumping and dumping that has to do with crypto...
Top 10 overview
The total value of all cryptocurrencies on the market is about US$1.1 trillion, which is down about 0.3% from yesterday. Here's how the top 10 tokens are doing right now, according to CoinGecko.
As you might expect, the chart shows what's going on. Basically, the only things that have gone up in the last 24 hours are Bitcoin, Ethereum rival Solana, and XRP.
Let's take a quick look at Solana (SOL)...
It looks like it wants to avoid the shadow of Merge. Is there a reason for all of this happiness? We're not seeing anything big, other than some ongoing optimism about the Helium project's possible move.
But there's also this: Solana is Ethereum's biggest competitor when it comes to NFT-based activity, and that seems to be going up again on the Solana market place Magic Eden, according to data experts Nansen.
As for Bitcoin, it has kicked off with some confidence into what most people think will be a week of high volatility.
At the time of this writing, BTC is trading above US$22,000 again. Its last weekly candle closed at US$21,800. That's the best weekly close for the first cryptocurrency in about a month.
So far this week, the fact that the US dollar is losing strength and seems to have hit some chart-based resistance seems to be helping Bitcoin, other cryptocurrencies, and stonks.
But don't forget (well, you can if you want) that the US Consumer Price Index inflation data for August is about to be released. And for those who have a little too much invested in risky assets, these numbers have been a recipe for nervous trips to the bathroom and/or shouts of "Hey EVERYONE, this round's on me!"