FUD rises and prices fall as Tesla drops BTC payments, Vitalik Buterin makes major altcoin moves and Craig Wright files a $6 billion Bitcoin lawsuit. These stories and more, this week in crypto.
Tesla is no longer accepting bitcoin payments for goods and services. CEO Elon Musk announced on Twitter that he was rescinding the decision given that he is concerned about the environmental impact of Bitcoin mining. Even though 75% of mining efforts use renewable energy sources. The company is now considering Dogecoin payments as an alternative.
Vitalik Buterin—the co-founder of Ethereum—has moved billions of dollars in ETH out of his public accounts, while also donating more than one billion dollars in Dogecoin-styled clone tokens to an India-based COVID relief fund. The moves were not well received as many altcoin assets subsequently dropped in price from recent highs.
Craig Wright—the Australian computer scientist who claims to have invented bitcoin—has filed a lawsuit in London to retain a crypto fortune worth nearly $6 billion. The defendants include 16 bitcoin developers behind major crypto networks including Bitcoin Satoshi Vision, Bitcoin Cash and Bitcoin Cash ABC.
Binance, one of the largest cryptocurrency exchanges, is under investigation by the Justice Department and Internal Revenue Service. The officials investigate money laundering and tax offenses and are now seeking information about Binance’s business. The investigation comes after Germany’s financial regulator BaFin warned Binance last month about offering securities tracking tokens.
Speaking on Coinbase’s earnings call, CEO Brian Armstrong said Coinbase is accelerating its process for listing coins. As part of the new policy, the leading U.S. exchange will be listing meme-based cryptocurrency dogecoin in the next six to eight weeks.
One of the leading e-commerce giants, eBay, has become the first in its industry to jump aboard the non-fungible tokens (NFTs) bandwagon. eBay now enables the sale of NFTs for digital collectibles such as video clips, images, or trading cards on its marketplace.
Samsung Galaxy owners will be able to connect hardware wallets to their smartphones and transfer coins to the built-in wallet that comes with most devices. The app can now link to Ledger hardware wallets and the new functionality facilitates the transfer of crypto funds from cold storage to the mobile app.
Investment firm UBS Group in Switzerland is considering offering crypto investment options to its wealthiest clients. The move comes after the bank says customer demand for digital currencies has increased exponentially in recent years. UBS is joining the long list of investment banks opening up opportunities to crypto.
The Colonial Pipeline Company was reportedly the victim of a cyberattack that caused it to go offline for days, leading to a heavy gas shortage in the U.S. To regain control, the company was forced to pay a cryptocurrency ransom of more than $5 million to a hacker organization, called DarkSide.
That’s what’s happened this week in crypto. See you next week.
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