US Macro Data and Key Network Upgrades

Several important crypto news features are on the calendar this week, ranging from the US elections and interest rate decisions. While these could influence sentiment across the broader market, other developers are ecosystem-specific.

Taken together, the following crypto market news could inspire volatility this week.

US Elections and Interest Rate Decision

As BeInCrypto reported, the US elections and the Federal Open Market Committee’s (FOMC) interest rate decisions are pillar macroeconomic events this week. The climax of the Donald Trump vs. Kamala Harris showdown will take place tomorrow, Tuesday, November 5. Meanwhile, the FOMC has meetings between Wednesday and Thursday to decide on the next interest rate cut.

Read more: How to Protect Yourself From Inflation Using Cryptocurrency

The two events will have severe implications for Bitcoin and the broader crypto market from both short and long-term perspectives.  For one, the outcome of the US elections could determine crypto regulation for the next presidential term. Meanwhile, the Fed’s preferred interest rate cut could set

“Expect Extreme Bitcoin volatility in the next few days! With the US election and FOMC meeting upon us, anticipate big swings but hold tight, and wait for clarity and the trend to form post-election. That CME gap sub 67,000 and the liquidity below the range lows just looks excessively tempting not to get swept during this week’s volatility. Then it will be up to the election result and the FOMC to drive the next trending move,” Mark Cullen, an analyst at AlphaBTC, said.

Season two of the Polygon Community Grants Program (CGP) launches in November, offering funding to all projects building on the Polygon network. While specific tracks are yet to be announced, the first season concluded on November 1, with grants awarded to up to 120 projects.

“The first season of the Polygon Community Grants Program concluded with over 1,200 applications and 120 projects awarded 17.5 million POL tokens in grants, aimed at fostering innovation within the ecosystem,” read the announcement.

The CGP aims to drive Polygon’s ecosystem growth by supporting developers and founders, empowering them to build innovative solutions on the platform.

Trader Joe’s Pump.fun Spinoff, Token Mill

LFJ, formerly known as Trader Joe’s, is set to launch its version of Solana’s token generator, Pump.fun, called Token Mill. The full reveal, including its whitepaper, is scheduled for November 7.

Some consider this launch a step toward Trader Joe’s vision of an all-encompassing on-chain exchange, now taking shape with three core components: a liquidity book, Token Mill, and a Central Limit Order Book (CLOB). The CLOB is a transparent matching system that prioritizes customer orders based on price and time, enhancing the efficiency of order fulfillment.

“Liquidity Book and Token Mill are for long-tail assets, while CLOB is for major assets. The Trifecta of decentralized exchanges, with an aggregator to unite them all,” LFJ co-founder noted.

Trader Joe’s announced rebranding to LFJ in September, revealing plans to launch aggregators, loyalty programs, portfolio systems, and new protocols. Token Mill is one of the products, alongside others like the central limit order book.

Astar Network’s Async Backing

Astar Network announced a major upgrade with asynchronous (Async) backing, which was successfully implemented in the Shibuya network. The same upgrade is expected to be applied to Astar and Shiden. The Async Backing upgrade happens on Monday, November 4, but it will not affect vesting, dApp staking, or other time-based mechanisms. These processes will automatically adjust to the new block time.

“Expect asynchronous backing on Shiden starting November 4,” Astar Network noted in October.

Noteworthy, Astar Network (ASTR) is one of Japan’s most favored smart contract platforms, facilitating support for both Ethereum Virtual Machine (EVM) and WebAssembly (Wasm) environments. This is done while ensuring interoperability between them using a unique cross-virtual machine. 

Despite the news of the upgrade, the ASTR token has been down almost 3% since the Monday session opened. As of this writing, it is trading for $0.0502.

zkSync’s $40 Million Incentive Program Voting

The zkSync network will vote for the new $40 million ecosystem incentive program starting on Tuesday, November 5. This is after a recent proposal to allocate 325,000,000 ZK tokens over nine months to deploy a program designed to establish a DeFi liquidity hub on ZKsync Era.

The program is intended to increase DeFi TVL and improve liquidity across all interoperable ZK Chains (”Elastic Chain”). Token holders have until the beginning of the voting session to finalize the delegation for the proposal.

“Total voting power will be calculated at the point the voting period starts,” ZK Nation announced.

Celestia’s Ginger Upgrade on Testnet

Celestia’s Ginger Upgrade, scheduled for November 5, will double the network’s data throughput and prepare the system for future scalability, paving the way for its Mainnet Beta launch in December.

“2x increase in data throughput (block times reduced to 6s), community can expand block sizes up to 8MB/6s, faster transaction finality and improved UX, and innovations like authored blobs, stable gas costs, and BBR for more efficient data flow,” Celestia announced recently.  

Meanwhile, analysts are optimistic about TIA, saying the token is well-positioned for a potential recovery after recently entering oversold territory.

SKY Re-rebranding Governance Voting

As BeInCrypto reported, the Sky ecosystem is considering returning to its original brand, MakerDAO, and MKR token. The deliberation came after community feedback and USDS’s success. Specifically, the community is concerned about confusion between Sky and SKY, as both the platform and governance token.

“The source of confusion lies in having Maker and Sky on the market at the same time,” one community member commented.

Read more: Top 11 DeFi Protocols To Keep an Eye on in 2024

Against this backdrop, the community is holding a governance vote on Monday, November 4, to determine whether the re-rebranding will take place. Traders and investors may consider adjusting their trading strategies to align with these top crypto news, lest they suffer as part of exit liquidity.