Crypto Weekly Roundup: Microstrategy’s BTC Splurge, Crypto.Com CEO Blasts CMC, Binances’ Fresh Troubles, And More

The Crypto space has had another eventful week, with significant developments regarding BTC, ETH, NFTs, Regulations, and more. Here is a quick recap of some of the biggest developments from the crypto space that took place over the past week. 

Bitcoin

Musk Weighs In On Satoshi Nakamoto’s Real Identity 

Billionaire Elon Musk has given his views on who he regards as the real Satoshi Nakamoto in an interview with Lex Friedman. Musk stated that he might actually know who the actual creator of Bitcoin was, going as far as to say that he would confirm it without hesitation if it is actually him. 

“Well, you can look at the evolution of ideas before the launch of bitcoin and see who wrote about those ideas. I don’t know who created bitcoin for practical purposes. The evolution of ideas is pretty clear for that, and it seems as though Nick Szabo is probably more than anyone else, responsible for the evolution of those ideas.” 

MicroStrategy Continues To Purchase BTC 

MicroStrategy has revealed in a filing with the SEC that it has bought a further 1914 BTC during the month of December. After this set of purchases, MicroStrategy is in the custody of 124,391 BTC, purchased at an aggregate purchase price of $3.75 billion. The purchase comes after the company purchased 1434 BTC between 29th November and 8th December. 

Ricardo Salinas Urges Followers To Ditch Fiat 

Mexican Billionaire Ricardo Salinas urged his followers to ditch traditional currencies in a Christmas message. He further called traditional currencies fake and “made of paper lies.” He implored his followers to invest in options such as crypto, especially in Bitcoin. Salinas is a backer of BTC and has regularly promoted BTC over traditional fiat currencies. 

Ethereum 

ETH Will Eventually Flip BTC 

According to Real Vision Chief Executive Raoul Pal, it’s only a matter of time before Ethereum becomes the leading cryptocurrency in the market. Pal stated that with the immense growth and the speed of innovation on Ethereum’s network, ETH would be outperforming BTC in the near future. According to Pal, BTC has seen only marginal growth during the year, which can be attributed to large investors and institutions who joined the network. 

Altcoins 

Prominent Shiba Inu Backers Bicker In Twitter Back And Forth 

A Twitter spat between prominent supporters of Shiba Inu, Ask the Doctor, and Shytoshi Kusama kept followers engrossed, with both accounts threatening each other with legal action and doxxing. The Canadian platform also threatened to expose the true identity of Shytoshi Kusama. Ask The Doctor was a prominent SHIB whale but did a complete 360, dubbing Shiba Inu as the “biggest scam in the crypto space.”

NEAR Announces UST Stablecoin Support 

NEAR announced that Terra would integrate the UST stablecoin on NEAR and Aurora. The integration means that NEAR’s high-speed network will support Terra’s UST stablecoin. The integration was possible thanks to a partnership between leading DeFi protocols NearPad and Rose. The announcement also had a significant impact on the NEAR token, with its value rising by over 30%. 

Technology 

Fashion Comes To Decentraland 

Tokens.com has announced that it has purchased land in Decentraland. It also revealed that it sees the Metaverse as a huge opportunity and wants to bring fashion brands into the Metaverse and Decentraland. While still early days, institutions and companies are beginning to understand the potential of the virtual worlds, leading to a rush to purchase land in the Metaverse. 

NFT

Decentraland Recreates NYE Drop In The Metaverse 

Jamestown and Digital Currency Group have announced a partnership to launch a version of One Times Square in the Decentraland Metaverse. The Metaverse will also see a replication of the New Year’s Eve Ball Drop Celebration hosted from the One Times Square Rooftop. 

Business 

North Korea Responsible For The Theft Of $1.7 Billion From Exchanges

According to reports emerging in South Korea, hackers from North Korea are responsible for the hackings that have led to $1.7 billion USD stolen from various cryptocurrency exchanges. Three North Korean Military Intelligence officials have been accused by the US Justice Department of carrying out the attacks on behalf of the government. 

Susan G Komen Begins Accepting Crypto Donations 

Susan G Komen, the largest breast cancer charity in the world, has announced that it will begin accepting donations in cryptocurrency through a partnership with The Giving Block. The announcement stated that the charity would be accepting BTC, along with Dogecoin and Shiba Inu. 

CoinMarketCap Slammed For Inaccurate Trading Volumes 

Crypto.com CEO Kris Marszalek heavily criticized CoinMarketCap for misreporting trading volumes related to Crypto.com. Marzakek stated that CoinMarketCap had changed the platform’s ranking to 14th, reflecting a trading volume of $1.8 billion. However, numbers reported by CoinGecko put Crypto.com at 3rd, with a trading volume of $3.1 billion. 

PwC Enters The Metaverse 

PricewaterhouseCoopers has announced that it has entered the Metaverse after purchasing LAND in the Sandbox. With the purchase, PwC becomes the first professional service to enter the Metaverse, joining the likes of other companies such as Adidas, Atari, South China Morning Post, Snoop Dogg, The Walking Dead, and several others. 

Regulation

Ontario Securities Commission Takes Binance To Task 

The Ontario Securities Commission handed Binance a stern rebuke after the latter reached out to users in Ontario, telling them that it would not be stopping its Ontario operations after positive talks with regulators. According to the OSC, Binance still lacks the regulatory clearances to operate and had stated to the OSC that no new transactions would take place after 31st December. 

France sets Sights On Influencers Promoting Crypto Scams 

France has created a task force to tackle the growing menace of influencers who promote scam cryptocurrencies and crypto scams. The task force will ensure that consumers are protected from rising Ponzi schemes and crypto scams that have led to a number of people losing their money.

Disclaimer: This article is provided for informational purposes only. It is not offered or intended to be used as legal, tax, investment, financial, or other advice.