It’s been a tough week in crypto!
Just when traders expected to hit $50,000 due to all the excitement over ETFs, it crashed below $40,000 instead.
After creeping towards that big 45k level, traders were caught off guard when prices flashed crashed, wiping out positions betting on more gains. But the crypto OG has bounced back above $40k as buyers jumped in to grab the discount.
With Bitcoin’s price spinning, there have been lots of other stories developing in crypto. Some big players got hacked, costing millions as hackers exploited vulnerabilities. Hot memecoins pumped across chains, scoring wins for many investors.
So let’s unpack everything that went down this past week in crypto.
TLDR:
Now let’s dive deeper into each of those stories…
DOGE To Become X’s Payment Method? 😳
Such hype, much gains for Dogecoin bagholders this week after X triggered rumors of enabling DOGE payments!
The memecoin pumped nearly 18% over the weekend- reaching a 7-day high.
This buying frenzy ignited shortly after X revealed its ‘@XPayments’ Twitter account last Friday.
Despite radio silence so far from the mega platform, the timing triggered speculation that DOGE could feature in X’s future functionality.
Both Elon and X’s official accounts dropped these hints here and there. Read the full story!
Anti-CBDC Politician Drops Out, Backs Trump
The anti-CBDC presidential posse lost a key member this week after Ron DeSantis tapped out of the 2024 race.
In a surprise tweet on Sunday night, Florida’s governor buckled under the pressure – suspending his campaign bid due to poor primary prospects.
DeSantis reaffirmed loyalty to former President Trump. Recently, Donald Trump showed his support for crypto by opposing CBDCs.
So the US is finally moving towards crypto? Read the full story!
$4 Billion Into Bitcoin ETFs 🥹
Freshly approved spot BTC ETFs now wrangle over $4 billion in assets under management just one week post launch!
Bloomberg’s own ETF analyst Eric Balchunas leaked the latest stats:
Fidelity and BlackRock have both brought over $1.2 billion each.
Invesco and VanEck also clocked their biggest single-day roundups on Friday – roping in $63 million and $100 million.
Can you guess which one of these saw the biggest single-day funds? Read the full story!
OKX Users Will Be Compensated
The native token of OKX suffered a flash crash on Tuesday.
OKB prices crashed by 48% out of nowhere, liquidating leveraged traders before recovering. Over $6.5 billion in market cap vanished instantly.
OKX blamed the mega-dump on cascading liquidation triggered after OKB slipped below key support levels in an overall bearish day for crypto markets.
But while prices bounced back, the scale of the plunge was an anomaly that calls for new risk controls, per the exchange.
In a rare move for such a fast-moving industry, OKX promised to “fully compensate” affected users.
Did they announce a plan? How are they going to compensate the affected users? Read the full story!
SEC Delays BlackRock’s Spot Ether ETF
The SEC is taking its sweet time approving BlackRock’s spot Ethereum ETF, delaying its decision just ahead of a looming deadline (Deja vu, anyone?).
Citing the need for further review, regulators pushed back the ruling originally due Jan 25th.
While disappointing, analysts say delays could continue popping up over the next few months. The real test comes this May, with a 70% chance of approval by the 23rd, according to one ETF expert.
But why May? Read the full story!
Top Regulator Speaks in Support of Ethereum ETF
The SEC shouldn’t require yet another lawsuit to start approving Ethereum ETFs, says crypto-friendly commissioner Hester Peirce.
Speaking to reporters, Peirce argued the recent court order forcing the SEC’s hand on Bitcoin ETFs should sufficiently demonstrate when the agency is overstepping.
With key disclosures in place, Peirce believes there’s no reason to stall multiple pending spot Ether fund applications any longer.
Did the SEC make any statement in this regard? What’s the deadline for the Ethereum ETF decision? Read the full story!
Hackers Drain $15M in Tokens From Animoca-Backed Gamee
Blockchain game Gamee suffered a devastating exploit this week resulting in $15 million worth of tokens stolen.
Hackers compromised a Polygon address to steal 600 million Gamee tokens (GMEE) and instantly convert them to over $15 million in ETH and MATIC.
The stolen assets came from Gamee’s own reserves. No player funds were affected, per the Web3 gaming startup.
How did this event impact the price of the token? Who was behind this attack? Did they trace the hackers? Read the full story!
Crypto Billionaire Predicts Bitcoin Crash
Bitcoin could nosedive to $30,000 this year, warns celebrity crypto investor Arthur Hayes.
The former BitMEX founder made the forecast in a blog post this week. He believes Bitcoin could tank as traditional markets face turmoil.
“I think Bitcoin will find a local bottom between $30,000 and $35,000,” predicted Hayes.
But what reason did he give to support this prediction? Read the full story!
Memecoin Soars 50%
Solana-based memecoin Dogwifhat (WIF) enjoyed a wild 50% pump after crypto exchange Bitget added support for the asset.
Prices exploded from $0.23 up to $0.34 before cooling off. Still, WIF remains below its all-time high from last week.
Did other Solana-based memecoins enjoy similar pumps? Read the full story!
Polygon Goes Beast Mode, Base Struggles ⚔️
Coinbase’s attempt to ride the layer-2 train didn’t turn out well last year.
According to Flipside Crypto, Base has onboarded less than 2 million users since its launch. Base saw its initial hype taper off as big chains and more mature L2s like Arbitrum sucked all air out of the room.
Meanwhile, Polygon has exploded, adding over 15 million new users last year.
In fact, Polygon nearly matched ETH’s 15.4 million new users in 2023 – a crazy stat for a layer 2.
Wondering which other chains experienced massive growth? Read the full story!
Airdrop Tokens… 🪂
AltLayer has concluded a mega token airdrop worth over $100 million.
The Web3 startup distributed 300 million ALT tokens to its community this week, including NFT holders, stakers and testnet participants.
Roughly 500K wallets qualified to claim the tokens, which became tradeable on Thursday following an initial offering on Binance.
ALT quickly rallied nearly 12% out the door, hitting $0.31 with substantial volume topping $650 million over 24 hours.
Will the project feature another round of airdrops? Read the full story!
and… that’s a wrap!
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