What Happened in Crypto This Week
Issue #20 of the ShareCrypto Newsletter!
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Top News
Bitcoin Soars To $60,000 All-Time High
Bitcoin, the world's biggest cryptocurrency, on Saturday crossed a record high of $60,000. Bitcoin has risen sharply this year, partly due to broader acceptance as a form of payment. In recent weeks, companies have taken advantage of its strength to raise hundreds of millions of dollars in funding. A $1.5 billion bitcoin bet last month by Tesla Inc. saw Elon Musk's electric car company join others in swapping some traditional cash for Bitcoin.
An Artist Named Beeple Sold An NFT For A Record $69M
Mike Winkelmann, known as Beeple, sold a digital print for $69 million at Christie's. NFTs, or non-fungible tokens, have exploded in value over the past few weeks. They're digital files that live on a blockchain and can be verified by a third-party. The sale places Winkelman among the top three most valuable living artists, Christie's says. The auction house has sold some of the most famous paintings in history, including the last-discovered Leonardo da Vinci. The NFT sale comes after a series of increasingly valuable NFT sales in the past month, including one that sold for $6.6 million.
Bitcoin News
JP Morgan Launches New Plan To Get Investors Interested In Bitcoin
JP Morgan is launching a structured note offering linked to the "J.P. Morgan Cryptocurrency Exposure Basket" The basket consists of 11 stocks of U.S. listed companies that the bank believes are related directly or indirectly to crypto assets. The notes cost a minimum of $1,000 and will mature on May 5th, 2022. Earlier this week, news broke that JPMorgan is reportedly outlining opportunities in the crypto markets for its private banking clients.
MicroStrategy Buys An Additional $15M In Bitcoin
MicroStrategy Incorporated just bought another $15 million worth of Bitcoin, taking its total holdings to 91,326 BTC worth over $2.2 billion. This marks MicroStrategy's third Bitcoin purchase in 2021 and comes only a few weeks after it announced a $1.026 billion Bitcoin purchase from the proceeds of its convertible note sale. Since its initial investment in August 2020, the price of Bitcoin has surged by over 400%.
Laszlo Hanyecz’s Iconic Bitcoin For Pizza Purchase Now Worth $316M
Programmer Laszlo Hanyecz traded 10,000 bitcoin for two Papa John's pizzas on May 22, 2010. The day is now known as "Bitcoin Pizza Day" and is the most celebrated day in the crypto world. Thanks to Saturday's record-breaking price of $60,000, his stash would now be worth $316 million. The surging price of Bitcoin on Saturday marked an increase of 1,000% in the past year. The cryptocurrency boasts a market capitalization of more than $1.1 trillion.
Altcoin News
Elon Musk Says Coinbase Should List Dogecoin
Elon Musk says Coinbase should allow Dogecoin on its platform. Musk is no stranger to crypto, having bought $1.5 billion in Bitcoin in early February. DOGE is a meme coin created in 2013 by software programmers Billy Markus and Jackson Palmer. Lil Yachty, Gene Simmons and Snoop Dogg have all pumped money into the currency. Doge coin was at one point more popular than Bitcoin on Twitter, with 10.4% of all mentions.
Ethereum Blockchain Network Upgrade To Increase Ethereum’s Scalability & Value
Vitalik Buterin says Optimism is launching its mainnet soon, which would give users access to layer-two solutions for scaling. Rollups allow transactions to be bundled and stored on designated sidechains, thereby easing the burden of Ethereum's network activity and increasing the protocol's scalability. Buterin: "We're fully confident that by the time that we need any more scaling than that, sharding will have already been ready by then."
Ethereum Set To Rise Off NFT Mania
A record-shattering $69.4 million NFT sale sent the art world ablaze on Thursday. Christie's buyer paid in Ether, the Ether-based cryptocurrency used for the NFT network. Three years ago, NFTs were known as "CryptoKitties," a collectible online cat craze that quickly collapsed. All transactions are done using Ether, which is part of the Ether network, and all pieces of art have a unique token that anyone can verify.
DeFi News
72% Of Accredited Investors Are Interested in DeFi
According to a survey: 72.2% of accredited investors are "very likely to invest" in DeFi in the next 12 months. 70% of the surveyed U.S. accredited investors have invested in bitcoin. Surveyed investors see bitcoin as a store of value that will yield high returns. 78% of them think "regulators need to protect investors more" in the crypto industry. The survey found that respondents invest more now than before the coronavirus pandemic.
Market Movers
The Biggest Gainers and Losers
Gainers (7 Days)
• SXPDOWN (SXPDOWN) - Up 475,349%
• CALCURACOIN (CLC) - Up 2,863%
• DOV (DOV) - Up 1,900%
Losers (7 Days)
• cherry (CHERRY) - Down -98%
• Viking Swap (VIKING) - Down 93%
• bAlpha (BALPHA) - Down 92%
Exchange News
Binance Under Investigation By The U.S. CFTC
The U.S. CTFC is looking into whether U.S. residents have traded derivatives that Binance monitors. Binance hasn't formally been accused of any violations. The possibility of a probe speaks to the growing regulatory scrutiny as cryptocurrencies have risen in value.
Blockchain News
China Plans Out Five Year Policy Plan To Adopt Blockchain
A draft of China's national five-year policy plan mentions bitcoin and other cryptocurrency for first time. China has banned the trading of cryptocurrency, but it will play a key role in the country's digital economy. Digital economy expected to contribute to China's GDP and "transform China into a global leader".
NFT News
Patrick Mahomes Is Into NFT Collectibles
Patrick Mahomes will sell collectible non-fungible tokens in a set dubbed the "Museum of Mahomes" Three digital pieces of art will be sold in an online auction that begins at 6:30 p.m. Wednesday. Starting prices will range from $2,500 to $15,000. NFT prices soared to new heights this week after a computer-generated avatar of an alien sold for $7.5 million.
NFT’s Are Revolutionizing Collectibles & Rare Art
NFTs are a digital object that can be a drawing, animation, piece of music, photo, or video with a certificate of authenticity. The virtual object, which is actually a computer file, can be exchanged or sold with its certificate. The NFT market is already worth several billion dollars.
Other Stories You May Enjoy
Warren Buffett Still Isn’t Interested in Bitcoin
Morningstar Is Educating Investors On Crypto
Barstool CEO Dave Portnoy Regrets His Initial Opinion on Bitcoin
Major Entertainment Companies Like Disney Will Be Jumping Into The NFT Industry
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