Every week, I will be collecting some news stories / opinion pieces that I have found to be interesting in the crypto world and condensing them down into one easily digestible article. All the article and images are taken from a news source that I like to use and an alternative to CoinTelegram called BeInCrypto.
BeInCrypto is a news website founded in August 2018 that specialises in cryptographic technology, privacy, fintech, and the Internet — among other related topics. The primary goal of the website is to inject transparency into an industry rife with disingenuous reporting, unlabelled sponsored articles, and paid news masquerading as honest journalism. You can visit their website by clicking here or join their new Telegram Trading channel by clicking here. I am also part of that group and like the content they are discussing. There is a lot of news that came out last week, So let's get started!
Musk Puts Bitcoin on Pause, Tesla Suspends BTC Payments
Tesla CEO Elon Musk has roiled the crypto markets after announcing that Tesla would stop accepting bitcoin as payment for its vehicles. The reason cited was that bitcoin mining consumed far too much energy and was damaging the environment. The market responded by turning red, with bitcoin dropping around 16% in just a few hours. In response to the announcement, a slew of tweets from the crypto community seem to take issue with that notion.
What do you think about this? You can read more about this topic by clicking here.
MicroStrategy Buys Another 271 BTC for $15 Million
MicroStrategy has bought $15 million worth of bitcoin (BTC) on May 13. They purchased 271 coins at an average price of $55,387. CEO Michael Saylorbought at the dip after BTC took a knock in the wake of Elon Musk tweeting that Tesla will no longer accept Bitcoin for purchases. What do you think about this? You can read more about this story by clicking here.
$5M Crypto Ransom Paid to Hackers to Restart Colonial Pipeline
The Colonial Pipeline has begun operating normally again after paying a $5 million ransom in crypto to bad actors who digitally hijacked the pipeline’s controls.
The attack was carried out last week by the hacker group DarkSide. The firm that owns the pipeline initially said that it would not pay hackers. What do you think about this? How does this paint cryptocurrency? To read more about this story, click here.
Hungary Hopes Tax Slash Will Incentivize Investors to Declare Crypto Earnings
The Hungarian government has announced a cut on tax for all cryptocurrency earnings, starting next year.
Reports indicate that the government plans to slash the tax on digital asset earnings by 50%. Currently, Hungary applies a 30.5% tax on cryptocurrency earnings, a fact that has led them to believe that investors are not declaring those earnings at all in a bid to escape the higher tax rates.
What do you think about this? You can read more about the topic by clicking on the link here.
Facebook Diem Association to Move from Switzerland to US
The Diem Association, the entity handling Facebook’s stablecoin project, has announced a partnership with its subsidiary Diem Networks U.S. and Silvergate Capital Corporation. As a result of the partnership, Silvergate Bank will become the exclusive issuer of the Diem USD stablecoin, and the Diem Association will also move to the U.S. from Switzerland.
What do you think about this sudden move? You can read more about this topic by clicking here.
Samsung Galaxy Devices Will Support Blockchain Hardware Wallets
Samsung Electronics has announced that owners of their Galaxy devices can now manage and trade their crypto assets from third-party wallets on smartphones. The update is aimed at granting more access to users for blockchain transactions. This will be accomplished by importing digital assets stored on specific cold wallets to the Samsung Blockchain Wallet.
What do you think about this? Will you consider getting a Samsung in the future? To read more about this update, click here.
Internet Computer (ICP) Market Value Reaches $45B Two Days after Launch
The native token of the Internet Computer protocol (ICP) has reached a market value of $45 billion just two days after launching.
On May 10, 469,213,710 ICP utility tokens went live under the authority of the Network Nervous System. This enabled them to move onto exchanges such as Coinbase, which had plans to list the asset on Coinbase Pro.
According to CoinMarketCap, this makes it the eighth largest cryptocurrency in terms of market capitalization. The goal of the Internet Computer protocol is to “extend the functionality of the public internet.” For instance, enabling software developers or content creators to publish anything without having to go through centralized corporations like Amazon.
Currently it has decreased down to 31 billion as the market cools a little, what do you think about this project? You can read more about this by clicking here.
Christie’s Auctions Nine Rare CryptoPunk NFTs for Nearly $17M
British auction house Christie’s sold nine CryptoPunk NFTs for nearly $17 million, according to a tweet posted on May 12. This marks one of the biggest involvements in NFTs by Christie since it began dabbling with the new asset class recently.
What do you think about this? You can read more about this story here.
Dogecoin Holders Duped During Musk’s SNL Performance
During Elon Musk’s May 8 performance on Saturday Night Live (SNL), fraudsters used his image and likeness to promote Dogecoin giveaways.
Dogecoin holders were lured into sending the cryptocurrency to unknown accounts with the assurance of receiving back a higher return. The losses of those who sent money could amount to more than $5 million. To read more about this, click here.
21% of Bitcoins From Bitfinex Hack Have Been Transferred
Blockchain analytics firm Elliptic has studied the flow of bitcoins (BTC) taken from the $7 billion Bitfinex hack, revealing that only 21% of the total have been moved.
The research shows that of the 120,000 bitcoins stolen from the Bitfinex hack in 2016, just under 96,000 still remain in the original wallet that the hacker used. To read more about this, click here.
That is my weekly roundup of the interesting news coming from the crypto world. What do you think about the topics / news stories and what was your favourite article? If you liked the content, please consider following me and tipping the article.
Also if you are on Twitter, why not give me a follow and start some conversations? You can find me here - https://twitter.com/dizzlecrypto.
Until next time, stay classy crypto world!
