🚨 New token alert — all you need to know about Half SHIB: Top crypto news analyzed.

Hey there, crypto pal!

It's Vanessa here, from the best Web3 community ever — buidlbee! As usual, I bring you the talk of the town from the crypto streets, the news and analyses guaranteed to bring you one step closer to that crypto bag 🤑

Let's get into it...

• What's better than one SHIB? Half a SHIB? 🤔

• What did the Feds say? 😲

• What exactly is the Ethereum Shanghai upgrade? 🤓

I bring you news of a new, highly unusual crypto project — Half Shiba Inu ($SHIBA0.5). The token appeared on Google trends last week, and you know we had to get to the bottom of it 🧐

So what is Half Shib, its goals, and most importantly, is it a worthwhile investment?

Launched on January 16, its developers are pretty hush-hush about the ordeal, merely describing it as one of the first tokens to be paired with the $SHIB liquidity pool to utilize the original SHIB and prevent bots/snipers. This basically means $SHIB0.5 can be exchanged for $SHIB and back after first exchanging ETH tokens for SHIB.

• Its main goal is supposedly to cut down the enormous 549T Shiba Inus in circulation, thereby, increasing the value of the coin.

• For every swap transaction, SHIB is burned, converted to SHIB0.5, and at the moment, over $1B worth of SHIB has been burned.

• SHIB0.5 currently has 516 holders, a maximum supply of 1M tokens, and over 3.7K transfers.

• It will be migrating to Shibarium once launched, allowing Shibaswap to burn SHIB in every transaction.

• There is no official information yet linking HalfShib to the original Shiba Inu. However, a participant in the Shibarium project confirmed that the token has nothing to do with the Shib ecosystem and can neither confirm nor deny if it's a scam.

So is HalfShib a scam? The streets of Twitter have mixed feelings. See examples here and here. There are some users warning investors to beware of the new token.

The project might have a few red flags. In our recent article about this, we break down tips from the chairman of the SEC to help identify scam projects. It's worth noting that SHIB0.5 doesn't appear on security subreddits like CryptoScams and CryptoScamsReport or on the Scam Alert database.

There's one clear scam you should be aware of, however, and that's the SHIB token giveaway, which involves a link for connecting your wallet and almost immediately robbing you blind!

The crypto and asset market as a whole has been impatiently awaiting the results from the Federal Open Market Committee (FOMC), where the Federal Reserve decides the federal funds rate. This meeting happened yesterday — the first out of eight sessions a year — and I'm here to break down the results of that meeting as layman as possible.

What's all the hype about?

The federal funds rate is the interest rate at which U.S. banks lend their excess reserves to other banks. Changes in this rate affect the financial system as a whole, including Bitcoin, as it determines the cost of borrowed money. The lower the rate, the higher the demand for credit from the Federal Reserve, which in turn, gives banks extra liquidity and allows them to lower the lending rate to companies and individuals. This is also a good thing for the crypto market.

The last meeting happened in December when the rate was hiked to 4.5%, causing a market plunge. Bitcoin fell by 9.76% from $18,244 to $16,480, while Ethereum was down 11.52% from $1,320 to $1,168.

Prior to the meeting, DCME financial group had a 99.9% prediction probability of the rate being hiked by 0.25%, and now that the results are in, it's safe to say that prediction was spot on. The market still seems to be doing okay, so we can celebrate for now 😅

There's no way you haven't heard of the upcoming Ethereum Shanghai Upgrade. After Ethereum's merge to Proof of Stake (PoS), validators use staked ETH to verify transactions and boost security, as well as, earn rewards from newly-minted staked ETH. However, the migration didn't include a certain feature which the Shanghai upgrade seeks to now do. The testnet was launched yesterday.

The update will allow users to finally withdraw their staked ETH, unlocking over 13.6M tokens ($27B) staked on the network. With Ether being blocked during staking, liquid staking has been on the rise. It allows investors — through DeFi projects — to use a tokenized liquid derivative version of their staked tokens, even after they've been locked.

With the upcoming Shanghai project, DeFi tokens that power liquid staking like Lido (LDO) and Rocket Pool (RPL) have been on the rise, with the former going from $1.98 to $2.20, and the latter jumping from $37 to $40 over the week.

What will happen to ETH after Shanghai? Currently, 14% of all ETH tokens are staked and when withdrawals finally become allowed, it will increase liquidity. Furthermore, users that didn't go the liquid staking route, will be able to do ETH staking, which could possibly increase demand. Opening withdrawals could also possibly take away from the uniqueness of ETH staking, which could reduce demand.

There are different possible scenarios on how the value of ETH could be impacted, so all we can do is wait and see, friend. What do you think? Leave a comment in our article and let me know.

Whew, that was a long one filled with so much knowledge. 😅 You're welcome. Now, share all this new knowledge with like-minded friends, and I'll see you tomorrow with more tips to help you make it with crypto! 🔥