BITCOIN and Ethereum remain more or less unchanged since last weekend – down 1 per cent – to close out 2022 after a tough year for the cryptocurrency market.
Solana (SOL) faced the heaviest losses this week of the top twenty cryptocurrencies by market capitalisation, plummeting by 17 per cent and hitting a two-year low.
The sell-off began in November 2022 after FTX collapsed as the network had been heavily backed by CEO Sam Bankman-Fried.
Dogecoin also lost 11 per cent of its value this week after rumors the network will follow Ethereum and transition from a proof-of-work (PoW) to proof-of-stake (PoS).
Dogecoin’s developers deny the rumors, however, principal engineer Michi Lumin said there is a plan to present a PoS proposal to the community.
But it wasn’t all doom and gloom this week as Japan’s Financial Services Agency (FCA) released a draft of regulatory guidelines on the acceptance of foreign-issued stablecoins.
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China’s first national-compliant cryptocurrency trading platform was also unveiled.
The China Digital Asset Trading Platform runs on a blockchain called the China Cultural Protection Chain and has been developed by the government-backed China Technology Exchange, China Cultural Relics Exchange Center, and the Huaban Digital Copyright Service Center.
And Turkey’s central bank announced it had finished the first set of experiments for a digital lira.
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Here’s a full debrief of what happened this week…
CRYPTOCURRENCY NEWS
Avraham Eisenberg was arrested in Puerto Rico and has been charged with commodities fraud and market manipulation. Eisenberg is alleged to be behind the $100 million Mango Markets exploit.
The widow of Hal Finney, who was the receiver of the first Bitcoin transaction, announced a Bitcoin-themed marathon to raise money for research into ALS, the neurodegenerative disease that killed Finney in 2014.
FTX founder Sam Bankman-Fried will allegedly plead not guilty to eight charges of fraud from US authorities.
Cryptocurrency wallets linked to Alameda Research – FTX founder Sam Bankman-Fried’s trading firm – have allegedly moved funds and are using coin mixers to obscure transactions.
Coinbase stock (COIN) fell to an all-time low of $32.40 per share.
Billionaire Mark Cuban said he is still bullish on Bitcoin and wants the price to continue to fall.
METAVERSE NEWS
Tokio Marine, the biggest property insurer in Japan, will allow its users to review and purchase insurance products on a metaverse platform, using real employees as clerks in the virtual world.
Virtual and augmented reality headset sales dropped 12 per cent globally in 2022.
Samsung said it will invest more than $35 million in metaverse projects targeting customers in Latin America.
NFT NEWS
Donald Trump’s official NFT secondary market sales have slumped by 98 per cent.
NFT sales over the last seven days are down 14 per cent on the previous week. However, figures are still impressive with $147,054,554 changing hands between 334,668 NFT buyers.
Rolls-Royce is launching ‘The Six Elements’ – six unique Phantom Extended Series II cars that come with a one-of-a-kind NFT, in collaboration with British artist Sacha Jafri.
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