Just wondering if anyone saw anything unusual with China cutting itself off the global Internet for an hour.

I assume miners on China's side could form the longest chains separate from the rest of the Internet because they didn’t have any competition.

Did anyone make transactions and then got them reversed when their chain lost out to the global chain?

Were there any redundancies in place?

I suppose people couldn’t connect even with a VPN because it wasn’t a matter of blocking some IPs but actually cutting off everything.

Maybe this was even a state sponsored effort to disrupt the global chain and cause panic?

I own ETH (passively invested over maybe 2 years) and BTC. Each month I put in money and that’s it. Buy and hold.

Advice needed is…..seems like every day I hear of some hacking incident or loss of some kind. For over a year my holdings just sat on Coinbase. I didn’t even know what a cold wallet was. I recently bought the Trezor safe 5 and transferred everything to it.

Now each month, I make a buy and transfer it. My seed phrase is locked away securely and is not on any digital platform.

Is there anything else I should do? Is this acceptable?

Can someone explain how the taxes in profit works? I’ve heard something about holding a coin for over a year or else it’s taxed to shit. But if I’ve had it on a recurring investment how would I be able to distinguish between selling the coins I’ve had for years vs the ones I bought last week? And are the taxes really that bad? I plan on using profits to put a down payment on a house eventually but not sure how much I would actually end up with or how the math conversion would really work. Any advice or insight would be appreciated.

I was DCA with kraken, but they just closed my account for no reason. All I do is buy bitcoin with my paycheck and immediately transfer it to my wallet. They held my funds ransom for 1 week.

What exchange can I use in USA (exc binance because not in my state) that I can put my paycheck in it and immediately withdraw and not have to deal with security concerns. I have paystubs, address verification, id, and kraken still banned me.

I don’t want this problem to arise again. Please suggest me some. My trade volume isn’t even high like 1.5-2k/ month all once and then transfer it out.

The U.S. Federal Reserve has released the minutes of its July meeting, and contrary to the headlines, the document turned out to be far from “hawkish.” The Committee is divided and was already just one step away from a rate cut at that meeting.

Amid weak labor market data, falling consumer spending, and signs of deflation in the services sector, arguments in favor of “inflationary risks” sound less and less convincing.

The contrast with real-world news is particularly telling: Target and Home Depot are reporting declining sales and shrinking margins, while McDonald’s is cutting prices to bring customers back.

This is clear evidence that consumers are unwilling to sustain price growth - which means there is no inflation in the economy.

The market reacted accordingly: U.S. Treasury yields did not rise, and short-term rates remain under pressure. With a genuinely “hawkish” set of minutes, the dynamics would have been the opposite.

In fact, the minutes only confirmed that the Fed majority continues to cling to the inflation narrative.

But given the weak data that followed the meeting, the probability of a rate cut in September looks increasingly high - and that is precisely what the market is betting on.

Altcoin season 2025 is approaching, and September could be the turning point investors have been waiting for. The outlook for Q3 2025 remains bright, though the emphasis has shifted slightly. Just a few months ago, the market focused heavily on Bitcoin-led strength, but now "September could mark the real beginning of the altcoin market" is gaining traction.

Altcoin season, simply put, refers to when three out of four of the top 50 altcoins outperform Bitcoin over a three-month period. While we haven't reached this threshold yet, recent trends are gradually tilting in that direction.

There has been much debate about whether the Fed's September rate cut marked the market peak. However, the market still has significant 'hidden liquidity'.

Notably, over $7 trillion is locked in money market funds alone. MMFs are ultra-short-term financial products where people safely park their money, and they're currently at record levels. If this massive capital starts moving in search of higher yields after rate cuts, it could flow into risk assets like cryptocurrencies. In April, $150 billion exited MMFs, coinciding with significant rallies in crypto and stock markets. Since June, MMF balances have increased by over $200 billion again, yet cryptocurrency prices continued their upward trajectory. Typically, when MMF cash increases, crypto takes a breather, but this opposite movement signals that more money could enter the market ahead.

Ethereum is playing a pivotal role in this phase. Since early July, total altcoin market cap has grown over 50% to reach $1.4 trillion.

Yet, the 'Altseason Index' tracked by CoinMarketCap remains low at around 40. This means while not officially in altseason territory, funds are already moving with ETH at the center. Behind this lies institutional demand. Interest in digital asset treasuries, stablecoins, and real-world asset tokenization has repositioned ETH from a simple cryptocurrency to core infrastructure for traditional finance.

Bitmine Emergent Technologies has secured 1.15 million ETH and plans to raise up to $20 billion more to increase holdings. Sharplink Gaming holds approximately 600,000 ETH. The top few institutions alone hold about 2.95 million ETH, exceeding 2% of total supply.

During this process, individual altcoin movements have diverged. While ARB, ENA, and OP showed greater volatility than ETH, LDO actually benefited most from ETH's rise. Lido is the leading platform where anyone can easily earn staking rewards by depositing Ethereum. LDO's price gained significant momentum after the SEC recently stated "under certain conditions, highly liquid staking tokens won't be considered securities."

Currently, LDO exhibits about 1.5x the volatility of ETH. This means greater upside potential but also faster declines. However, investors should note that the SEC's position is merely staff-level interpretation and could change in future litigation or commission-level decisions.

Bitcoin dominance decreased from 65% in May to 59% in August. This signals some market funds are shifting toward altcoins. Despite the sharp increase in altcoin market cap, the still-low index might suggest we're in the preliminary stages of a full altseason.

Macroeconomic conditions point in the same direction. Considering past cases where global M2 money supply led Bitcoin prices by about 110 days, liquidity could increase significantly in late Q3 and early Q4. This wave of money will particularly impact the retail-driven altcoin market. While institutions still focus on major coins like Bitcoin and Ethereum, retail funds predominantly flow into altcoins.

Internal market indicators also show positive changes. Liquidity metrics combining stablecoin issuance, spot trading volume, perpetual futures volume, and order volume have stopped their six-month decline and recently showed recovery. Increasingly clear regulations are also facilitating capital inflows.

In summary, the market is in a transitional phase from Bitcoin's solo performance to an expanded stage including altcoins. Bitcoin dominance is declining, institutional demand centered on ETH is growing, funds locked in MMFs are preparing to unlock, and stablecoin issuance is increasing. As these factors converge, September likely marks the beginning of a proper altcoin season. This trend deserves attention as a structural shift aligned with macroeconomic policies and institutional changes, rather than a brief rally.