Bitcoin closed the week at its lowest level since 2020.

Bitcoin, the world's largest cryptocurrency, closed the week with the lowest score since late 2020. The mid-week drop brought the price down to $ 18 eToro platform. The price recovered slightly later in the week, despite volatile levels, and is now hovering around $ 18.

Meanwhile Ethereum continues to grapple with the aftermath of The Merge. While the token is approaching the deflation metric (more on that below), much like bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies, the price has been influenced by broader macro conditions in the investment markets.

Last week, Ethereum experienced very low prices: it posted $ 1 on Wednesday, just before a slight improvement. Currently, it is trading at $ 220 on the eToro platform.

Apple enters the NFT

Introduce silently the standard acceptance of applications based on NFT by Apple is a huge leap forward for the market. In terms of technological ecosystems, Apple is exceptionally powerful. Over the past year, we've seen big clashes with the likes of Meta over the Apple App Store; there were also serious questions about his power.

For this reason, the acceptance of NFT technology on this platform should not be underestimated. There is, however, an important caveat. The biggest problem for many developers is a huge cut in their income by the app store. Apple charges about 30 percent. developer commission - a huge part of the earnings for any user dependent on the ecosystem.

While it will definitely limit developer adoption of NFT to space, it is still an exciting step forward that should not be overlooked in the context of the wider market. There are other NFT platforms with much lower commission costs - however, none of them have the reach and impact of the Apple app store.

Ethereum emissions drop after The Merge

According to Ultra Sound Money, more than a week after The Merge, ethereum emissions fell by about 98%. While prior to The Merge, the network would have created over 130 new ETH tokens in a week, within 000 days of The Merge, only 10 were created.

The question then arises - why do we not see that the market is in a "deflationary" environment? Overall, the network still creates more ETH than it burns - the ratio is still around two to one. However, the level of new tokens flowing into the network has decreased significantly.

We also have overriding macroeconomic effects of market volatility that affect price. This has always heralded a difficult debut environment for The Merge, but it is still an early stage in the new way the network does business.

GPU Prices Fall in China

The cost of key graphics processing units (GPUs) used in cryptocurrency mining has fallen sharply in recent days, reports the South China Morning Post (SCMP). While prices are falling and supply chains are starting to relax, in the two months around Ethereum Merge, the decline has been very noticeable.

The key factor here is the much lower intensity on the ethereum network after The Merge, as well as the greatly reduced need for computing power to mine. In 2021, when prices rose sharply, such GPUs found themselves at the center of a supply chain crisis. The semiconductor shortage drove used car prices soaring as manufacturers focused on the more lucrative areas of the market.

The Merge has an impact on the real-world economy. In this context, the influence of ethereum and thus of other cryptocurrencies should not be underestimated. Time will show what effects the transition to proof-of-stake will have in other areas, but at the moment falling GPU prices may be a cause for celebration for some - especially for bitcoin miners!