Hello, fellow melon! 🍉

Before you go crazy on the weekend, here there are the web 3 highlights of the week. Make Satoshi proud!

Here's what you’ll get today:

📈 De-dollarization effect

👄 Trending tweets

👀 Major adoption events and announcements of the week

 🧠 Crypto quote of the week

🎯 Extra Picks with tutorials and reading material

World Order Decentralization Is Near 🌏

The rise of a monetary empire 💸

Before the US Dollar became the preferred currency for trade, the British Pound was the dominant choice due to the extensive reach of the British Empire, where "the sun never set."

During world war I, Britain borrowed heavily from the US to fund the war, resulting in an increase in US dollars held in foreign reserves. After WWII, the Bretton Woods Agreement fixed the exchange rate of the US dollar to gold, making it the dominant currency for international transactions and foreign exchange reserves, while the US became a major creditor nation and Britain a major debtor nation.

When President Nixon severed the connection between the US dollar and gold in 1971, the dollar became a currency that could be printed without limit and at a minimal cost.

To maintain the global acceptance of the US dollar, in 1973 the US made an agreement with Saudi Arabia, the largest oil producer at the time, to exclusively sell oil in dollars. In return, the US provided security guarantees to Saudi Arabia, particularly against Iran. This was known as the Petro-Dollar regime.

Leaders like Saddam and Gaddafi who tried to sell their oil or gas using currencies other than the US dollar were met with severe repercussions for both themselves and their nations.

In 2018, China launched yuan futures oil contracts. In the new arrangement, China, being the top global importer of oil and gas, opted to employ its own currency, the yuan, in lieu of the US dollar. Additionally, sellers such as Russia and Iran were promised to convert their yuan into gold via China's Shanghai Stock Exchange.

The one currency to rule them all 👑

The dollar’s share of global foreign-exchange reserves fell below 59% in the final quarter of last year, extending a two-decade decline, according to the IMF.

The US dollar is the currency of choice for international transactions, with around 88% of all foreign exchange transactions involving US dollars and it accounts for around 40% of the world's debt.

To understand what's happening, we need to know how reserve currencies work and why the US dollar is so important. Many financial transactions and global trade bills are in dollars, and most countries keep a lot of their foreign money in dollars too. This gives the US a powerful role in world affairs or an “exorbitant privilege” as former French president Valery Giscard d'Estaing famously stated it.

So to put it in simple words, imagine a family that has no credit limit for their expenses, regardless of how much they earn from their jobs. Sounds fun right? The thing, since they manage the supply of the debt currency, they can always go to their garage and print some paper to pay the debt collectors. This is a tremendous amount of leverage power to build wealth. This is what it’s at stake.

The de-dollarization is accelerating 📜

Just the past two weeks, several noteworthy announcements took place, including:

1. To decrease their dependence on the US dollar, Saudi Arabia formed a trade alliance with China, Russia, India, Pakistan, and four nations in Central Asia.

2. By conducting the first LNG gas trade with Chinese Yuan, China and France eliminated their reliance on the US dollar for energy trades.

3. China and Brazil have struck a deal to conduct their trades using their respective currencies, abandoning the US dollar.

4. Brazil, Russia, India, China, and South Africa (BRICS) are in talks of developing a new currency 

5. In a partnership with China, Saudi Arabia is constructing a Chinese oil refinery for 83.7 billion yuan (equivalent to $12.2 billion).

6. The Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) is contemplating the possibility of replacing the US dollar, euro, yen, and British pound with local currencies for financial settlements.

7. India has plans to conduct trade with specific nations using Indian rupees instead of US dollars for settlement.

8. The Chinese yuan has now become Brazil's second-largest currency in foreign reserves, surpassing the euro.

9. Kenya has signed an agreement with Saudi Arabia and the UAE to purchase oil using Kenyan shillings in lieu of US dollars.

So what’s next? 🔮

With the US dollar weakening is hard to imagine another superpower country taking its place and going all over the same journey once again. The easy answer is China.

However, I like to think that we are heading into something we have never seen in history, a decentralized world order. A multipolar world where the currency world’s reserve will be composed of a dynamic basket of currencies based on the current economic power of each country within their region.

Gold was once the world’s currency of reserve, and It’s not crazy to think that it could regain some popularity once again. However, in a digital world, can you think of a better asset than Bitcoin to take at least a share of gold’s market capitalization in this possible scenario? I can’t.

ETH hits an 8-month high but selling pressure is expected 🔥

The value of ETH reached $1,913 and experienced a 5% increase compared to the previous day. This is the highest value it has reached since August 17, 2022. Addresses holding 100-10k $ETH have accumulated $4.24B in the past 9 months.

However, despite all the buzz, the upcoming Ethereum's Shanghai upgrade on April 12th could bring $2.4B selling pressure. There could be potential sell-side pressure in the market due to the partial reward withdrawals of 1.1 million ETH and Celsius Network's plan to sell its staked balance of 158,000 ETH as part of its bankruptcy process. These two amounts add up to almost 1.3 million ETH, which is equivalent to around $2.4 billion.

Trade with caution, unless you want to end up with a portfolio that's more red than a tomato at a ketchup factory!

WORD IN THE HOOD 👄

Adoption Events of the Week 👀 

• Ralph Lauren is now allowing customers to pay using cryptocurrency at its Miami store. The company has teamed up with BitPay to enable this feature and will accept several cryptocurrencies including BTC, ETH, DOGE, and others.

• Tencent Games files new U.S. trademark applications based on earlier filings in the EU. These add to their portfolio which also includes NFT and VR-related services/goods.

Crypto Announcements of the Week 👀

• Polkadot registers trademark for a blockchain communication platform, which includes social networking software.

• MicroStrategy acquires an additional 1,045 BTC and now holds 140,000 BTC

QUOTE OF THE WEEK 🧠

PASS ON THE MELON 🍉 & HELP US SPREAD THE WORD 👇

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EXTRA PICKS 🎯

Tutorials 🎓

• Web3 is About Communities, and You Build One with a Story - Mike Troiano | TEDxBostonStudio. Link

What To Read 📖

• Bitcoin whitepaper. Link

What To Watch 📺

• When BULL Market, Altcoins, & BRICS Currency! - By Coin Bureau. Link

To your financial health! 🙏

Gen 3 Melons

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DISCLAIMER: This newsletter is for informational purposes only. None of the content from this newsletter is financial advice. It is intended to provide educational and informative content only. It is important to do your own research and make your own decisions before investing in any asset. While we strive to provide accurate and up-to-date information, we cannot guarantee the accuracy or completeness of the information provided in this article. Remember, investing is a personal decision, and what works for one person may not work for another.