Bitcoin and cryptocurrencies continue to fall as Elon Musk hints that Tesla may sell its bitcoin holdings this quarter. These and more news stories are in this handy daily digest so you're always up to date with the latest developments in the crypto world.
Cryptocurrencies and altcoins
📍El market Plans cryptocurrencies, continues to be dyed red, while experts consider that Bitcoin (BTC) could continue the fall below the support of $40.000, dragging down a large number of altcoins with it. Although the current drop in crypto markets is still not comparable to that seen in March 2020, the value of BTC could reach a new 2021 low, and with it, several of the market's top cryptocurrencies.
The value of BTC at the time of this writing is $43.000, while Ethereum (ETH) flirts with $3.200. Others altcoins like BNB, LTC, LINK; DOT, BCH, ETC, VET and several others, have also suffered significant drops in value, losing more than 20% of their value in the last week.
📍Despite the fall, several recognized experts in the crypto industry, such as Willy Woo y Raoul Pal, point out that the market is showing positive signs, which may indicate the start of a short-term bullish trend. Both agree that the current correction is “perfectly normal and healthy” for Bitcoin and cryptocurrencies.
📍Meanwhile, Elon Musk continues to stir up controversy in the crypto community, saying that Bitcoin has bottomed out and that Tesla could sell its holdings in this cryptocurrency. A post by Mr Whale indicates that the crypto community will unleash their fury on Musk when they learn that Tesla has sold its BTC holdings this quarter, to which Musk responded: "indeed"; implying that there is a possibility of this happening.
However, the owner of Tesla clarified that the company has not yet sold any of its bitcoins. When Musk announced that Tesla would suspend payments in BTC, he stated that he would maintain his holdings in this cryptocurrency.
Bitcoin and Blockchain Adoption
📍Vitalik Buterin, co-founder of Ethereum, burned over 410 billion SHIB tokens, sending them to a steer axle truck dead. This amount represents almost half of the total supply of Shiba Inu, which Buterin received as a gift from the token's creators.
The Ethereum co-founder praised the generosity of dog-inspired token developers who have sent him large amounts, though he asked that next time, the tokens be given to aid and charity foundations directly. The SHIB tokens burned are worth about $6.700 billion. At the time of this writing, SHIB has not reacted to Buterin's actions, and its value remains below $XNUMX million. $0,0000165 per unit.
📍78% of Bitcoin miners support Taproot. The number of miners in favor of Taproot continues to grow, seeking the 90% needed to start activating this update on the Bitcoin network. Binance Pool and BTC.Top are the most recent mining pools in to accept activation. These add up to almost 11% in favor of Taproot.
📍Tether (USDT), the most traded stablecoin in the crypto industry, reaches the blockchain by Avalanche to expand its usability. As Tether explained in its releaseAvalanche is an open-source platform built to launch highly decentralized applications, new financial primitives, and new interoperable blockchains. This integration will be available by mid-next month.
With its integration into Avalanche, USDT would operate on 9 blockchains, including Algorand, Bitcoin Cash's Simple Ledger Protocol, Ethereum, EOS, Liquid Network, Omni, Tron, and Solana.
Cybersecurity
📍A new protocol DeFi Binance Smart Chain (BSC) cryptocurrency loses nearly $11 million in security exploit. The victim, the decentralized protocol bear saw 10,8 million disappear in the stablecoin Binance USD (BUSD), valued at around $11 million at the time of the attack, after hackers exploited a security vulnerability present in its BUSD–Alpaca liquidity vault. According to the report Shared by bEarn developers, hackers were able to drain funds from the liquidity pool due to incorrect implementation of the “withdraw”, which allowed the withdrawal of funds using a flash loan.
The developers said they reported the hack to Binance to quickly track and block the funds and will compensate affected users for their losses.
📍Blockchain forensics firm Crystal Blockchain has tracked down the addresses DarkSide used to collect the bitcoin ransom from Colonial Pipeline. Just like reported Bit2Me News, the largest oil pipeline company in the United States, Colonial Pipeline, was the victim of a cyberattack carried out by the DarkSide group. The hackers encrypted the company's systems, causing it to shut down its services for almost a week, which erupted into a shortage crisis in the southeast of the country.
In order to regain access to its services, Colonial Pipeline agreed to pay 75 bitcoins, valued at $5 million at the time of payment, to the hacking group. Crystal Blockchain has tracked the steer axle truck DarkSide, following the movement of money, which has been sent to little-known cryptocurrency exchange platforms, Wasabi Wallet addresses and the dark web marketplace Hydra, the analytics firm reported. CoinDesk.
Rules and Regulations
📍In Iran, cryptocurrency miners operating equipment using domestic power will be subject to heavy penalties and fines, the country's energy minister said. According to informs According to a local media outlet, Mostafa Rajabi, spokesman for Iran’s Energy Minister, stated that the impact of cryptocurrency mining on the domestic energy system forces authorities to impose heavy sanctions and fines for those who are identified as miners, and who do so by taking advantage of the country’s domestic energy supply.
📍According to a message posted on the official Twitter account of Bridge Oracle CEO Sina Estavi, Iranian officials arrested Estavi on orders from the Special Court for Economic Crimes. Although the message was deleted from the Twitter account, the website archives show the post, which indicated that Iranian officials had taken control of Estavi's accounts, including his website.
Although Estavi's arrest has not been confirmed by the authorities, they have reported recently that several of Bridge Oracle's employees were arrested for causing disruption to the country's economic system.
Continue reading: Bitcoin defenders: MicroStrategy and the Dallas Mavericks will continue to accept BTC as a means of payment
