Blockchain believers, we adore you! We love y'all for lighting the way to better money for mankind. Separate church, state, and money!!
Monday all over, which means the Morningstar index in the FT can't be arsed to print any crypto prices! Dear readers know we strive to stay positive, but let's spare just a moment to shout an FU to the FT for not having this fixed, and two FU's to Morningstar.
Morningstar, FU!! In 2021 Morningstar said crypto is like beanie babies. Then in 2022, we reckon Mstar became a company that offered beanie babies funds, and put out research on beanie babies, cuz they launched their "inaugural" Cryptocurrency Landscape and funds. Wow so cutting edge, we are not impressed. Jerks. It's a special relationship, Mstar and the FT sitting around in London hating crypto and pretending it doesn't exist until a Tuesday.
For love of the pink lady, we turn the other cheek.
Crypto in the FT print!! Crypto that won't say crypto: UK tax regulators are so aggressive and "scattergun" that they are destroying R&D for small biz, stifling innovation. GOOD JOB FT!!! now replace the words "tax" with the words "crypto." Think of it as group therapy!!
As the BofE fail rips inflation up, cascades through a tanking Sterling, crashing gilts, causing recession, property falling, we are now at the point where money is running out of UK stocks. Richard at Jupiter sez he cannot "hand on heart" provide any answers. That's cute, and true. "Please note that Jupiter Asset Management does not currently invest in cryptocurrencies and does not directly engage with cryptocurrency platforms." So yeah, Jupiter has been losing AUM for years, really, we don't care. Any asset manager with zero buy signs for crypto over the last decade just blew the job.
Crypto is a beanie baby, ok.
What then is the tradfi energy trading system? France sent out warnings to the UK, Spain, etc. begging for power after a trading error oversold power, losing 60MM in the process. We hope some miners bought some!!
Crypto falls in sync with equities. Yeah, and right now stocks AND bonds fall in sync. 60/40 portfolios are down 15% for the year. Jean from BlackRock says the same thing we have been saying - the Fed and the ECB have not grasped the severity of the recessions needed to stop inflation, and will be forced to stop raising interest rates well short of market projections once the damage done to the economy and market becomes clearer. Oooh, it sounds so purdy when YEW say it, Jean. Say "Taylor rule" instead of the strange "market projections" please tho.
Netflix has lost half their ass. Now they are teaming up with Ubisoft to launch new Assassin's Creed spinoffs. Remember this Netflix, NOT IN THE FT of (*$#&@#($* course, Ubisoft is crypto green to GO with "playable NFTs." For those who moan, remember Ubisoft is working away to rip gamers off for extras JUST FINE without crypto. Don't conflate the questions of "should my game rip me" with "should my game have crypto."
Tradfi corruption watch - Byju is India's most valuable startup at 22 billion for online tutoring. Now Byju's is failing to publish accounts as required, and recent investors are not giving the latest quarter billion in cash. Watch this space.
but THAT's IT! - the crypto cold shoulder of the print FT is 100% today, echoing the Morningstar refusal to play. FU FT there's lots of crypto news.
Online maybe?
YES we have the Big Read on the Merge!! 
TLDR: the FT starts out neggy, it's just more hype. Next, crypto is all promises to provide a lifeline to people living under bad regimes. It goes downhill from there.
According to the FT, crypto is all criminal plus ESG crimes plus ruining vulnerable people. Only now could the Merge prove critics wrong. Rehash PoW vs PoS, Immense carbon footprint as large as Finland.
The Merge could make ETH a 24/7 global permissionless capital market, sez Avichal at Electric Capital.
To unnamed "others" (read, the FT) the Merge will betray the blockchain, no longer open, transparent and decentralized, self-policing and controlled by no group of individuals. (sic) (isn't EVERYTHING controlled by groups of individuals??? WTF?)
The Merge sets up for scaling upgrades ( not in the FT, sharding.)
To the FT, it's all hype in doubt. 2 trillion number go down rehash, 3AC, Celsius. The FT is still praying for a crypto contagion crash. Bitcoin is still burning PoW energy.
The merge could shed 99% of energy consumption. (sic) Second layer projects on ETH become greener.
Ahh, Wall Street TECH chesnut #12: changing the engine on a jet plane while it is flying, says Ed the lawyer. TECH AXIOM# 12.5 - we are building a doghouse around a running dog here, ar ar ar !!!
Lars from Saxo / Concordium says "at its core, ETH doesn't work very well. "
Risk #1 - 51% attack rehash. OMG, the FT once again drags out (dear readers remember) failed Haskell programmer Stephen to spit on crypto. Unlike physical commodities, crypto assets can simply cease to exist due to technical black swan events.
Avichal vamps on the Black Swan babble - there are unknown tail risks.
ETH is supposed to be P2P, no third parties, censorship resistant, and not supposed to allow groups to exert control over other participants.
Ed the lawyer sez old ETH is a shining beacon of decentralization, but new ETH will be more centralized than people think. 
The FT thinks that the Tornado Cash "banning" proves the heavy hand of the gummint works, since transactions trended down (sic- they hilariously trended UP the first two days) on T-cash.
Binance, Coinbase and Lido are the new trust factors. Brian Armstrong from Coinbase said they would quit staking before they would censor.
But this is not the censorship resistant utopia. Then again bitcoin has miners concentrated in the US and Russia, therefore is centralized.
To the FT, Blackrock launching a BTC trust is bullish.
Jeff at Arca says if ETH turns out centralized, people will walk away. He also says ETH is the lazy man's ETF. Owning ETH gives exposure to stablecoins, NFTs and DeFi. Jeff does NOT think the Merge will drive DeFI adoption (good job getting a spinnably crypto negative quote out of Arca, FT. ) That's a different question.
Testnets are fun, but nothing like the real thing! 
The REAL story: if it sounds like we have heard it all before, it's because we have. What a litany of lies and spin. Let's walk through a few points:
Crypto already HAS offered a lifeline to various folks under screwed up regimes. Dear readers know Brazil crypto clients BLEW through the 1MM mark last month with a 68% increase in domestic exchanges. That is a PROVEN fact.
A TINY percentage of crypto is criminal, cash and big banks launder WAY, like 1000x or 10,000x or more money and the FT knows it.
Most of the energy powering mining is already ESG. It is a natural fallout from the search for cheap power like hydro. This remains a red herring, never compared to real tradfi ESG waste.
ETH already IS a 24/7 permissionless capital market. Fiat collapses have ruined WAY more lives than crypto ever has. Sick of this chit. There ain't gonna be a crypto financing contagion crash, quit dreaming FT.
The Merge will reduce ETH mining energy by "approximately" 100%. The truth is 99.95%, the FT NEVER rounds in favor of the crypto narrative.
It's funny, ETH themselves (not in the FT) says it's like changing the engine ( and installing a tougher hull) on a flying SPACESHIP. That's good, that analogy needed updating.
Why the #(&#$$&!! do we have to hear Lars slag ETH?? The founder of an ETH competitor says ETH is NFG. FU.
Dear readers know we despise Stephen. How about this, you #$#@($*&!! Unlike physical assets or cash, which is gone once it is stolen, crypto provides the possibility of being recreated to fix thefts. This was proven in the first ETH hard fork. There is NO WAY ETH assets will cease to exist, you bootlicking moron, any more than a power outage takes out all of a bank's assets. WHAT a pile.
Yes there are tail risks, most interestingly ETH PoW forking, but big deal, who cares? 
Yes, Binance, Coinbase and Lido could get together and 51% attack. Maybe, maybe not, there are a LOT of “slashing” safeguards against just that built in. Ed the lawyer has never said chit about crypto for, well, ever, so we really don't care what he thinks, pretty sure he has not read the code.
The ANCIENT BS of BTC miners being centralized is dusted off one more time by the threadbare FT's anti-crypto narrative. It's funny, it used to be all OMG China has BTC miners! Quick, swap out the meme to US and Russia. Whatever, boomer.
It's very funny, two ways of looking at the T-cash attack. One way is this: Tcash and ETH are still running 24/7. Massive amounts were put thru Tornado AFTER Ofac tried to stop them. Tornado is running right now. So is a lawsuit!! Link below, 500K of DAI just went through Tcash THIS WEEK!!! 
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In any case, the FT is whipsawing - crypto is bad because free, crypto is bad because can be controlled. In ANY world, it is a journalistic SIN in this story not to mention that Coinbase is funding a lawsuit against Treasury over the attack on Tornado Cash. SHAME on you, FT!!
All in all, just the attitude of this bit is stanky. The greatest software upgrade of all time, and yet spun mostly negative. An FU over pretending crypto was not ALREADY a lifeline for Brazilians and many others. A FU for saying crypto is all criminal. Another for not admitting ETH is 24/7 permissionless right this very minute. Another FU for rounding 99.95 to 99. An FU for Lars. A big FAT FU for trotting out the Haskell dude to lie and say all of ETH could be lost in a black swan event. Another for the BTC mining is centralized antiquity. For SURE an FU for not mentioning the lawsuit against Treasury over the Tornado attack, maybe two. An FU for spreading FUD that ETH will not be decentralized anymore. The REAL story from Brian was NOT that he would NOT censor, it was that he would lead a third way out, like a lawsuit. Which he IS DOING, hello it's called REPORTING.
Judges call a halt to the FU's, capping them like a softball game score for this weak effort to p-ss on a milestone in human history. We don't care, we award a record EIGHT ( or nine!! OR MORE!!! ) out of FIVE FU's for this litany of desperate negativity for crypto. Judges say the story TRIED to be balanced, we say not really. Not EVEN.
Sorry not sorry about this rant. Soon we will look back on this and laugh - mostly at how the FT's viewpoint is gonna age like milk!!
And so is our brain if we don't get some sleep!!
Thanks, peace
LOVE
Dave
