This is a guest post from Voyager, a crypto brokerage firm with a commission-free trading app.
Bitcoin (BTC) had a volatile week, clocking a high of $9,904 on Monday and a low of $8,806 Thursday in the Voyager app. BTC closed out the last seven days down 10.7% and is currently trading at $8,818.
Following the halving, altcoins are putting on a strong showing. THETA Token (THETA) leads the pack, gaining more than 80% this week, followed by OmiseGO (OMG) at 60%, WAX (WAX) at 55% and Nano (NANO) at 23%.
Will the Real Satoshi Please Stand up
This week was everything that’s both awesome and strange about crypto. First, 40 BTC moved from a wallet that’s been dormant since 2009, leading many to speculate it was Satoshi Nakamoto.
Since there were only a handful of members in the Bitcoin community in 2009, there’s a chance it’s Satoshi’s, whoever that is. Naturally, the mysterious transaction and the fact that Bitcoin’s founding father could be its owner snowballed into a full-blown internet investigation.
A series of in-depth videos emerged, offering “proof” that Satoshi is “fill in the blank.” Of course, it’s nearly impossible to prove any of these claims, and if you ask me, that’s part of the beauty of Bitcoin. But, there’s also no harm in taking a trip down the rabbit hole, right?
In other exciting crypto news, it’s Bitcoin Pizza day! On May 22, 2010, Laszlo Hanyecz, aka ‘Bitcoin Pizza Guy,’ bought two Papa John’s pizzas with 10,000 BTC. Today, those pizzas would be worth roughly $92 million. Two large pizzas from your local Papa John’s? A mere $30.
While Hanyecz will likely regret using BTC to buy those pies for the rest of his life, his bad investment represents the first-ever Bitcoin transaction, and that’s something to celebrate. So, happy Bitcoin Pizza day friends!
High Stakes for Ethereum
Ethereum is having a well-deserved moment. Last week, we covered Visa’s recently filed patent to build stablecoins and central bank digital currencies (CBDC) on the Ethereum blockchain and Reddit’s launch of Ethereum-based rewards tokens.
This week, Ethereum hit another important milestone. Topaz, the testnet from Prysmetic Labs running a version of the Ethereum 2.0 upgrade, now has 29,300 validators staking more than 1 million ETH. Preston Van Loon, CEO of Prysmatic labs, told DeCrypt that this is good news for ETH2, “The 1MM ETH milestone with high rates of stability give us confidence that ETH2 can handle this level of activity when phase 0 launches later this year.”
Ethereum’s 2.0 upgrade will move to a proof-of-stake (PoS) consensus. PoS offers those with a stake of network tokens the right to earn a reward for validating blocks, unlike the proof of work (PoW) consensus, which assigns block confirmation rights to those with the largest amount of computing power.
This change will give investors the chance to earn ETH for staking their holdings, leading some experts to believe that Ethereum will grow into a more functional store of value.
More News…
CoinTelegraph: Iran’s President Asks Gov’t to Plan National Crypto Mining Strategy
Coindesk: Colombia, Deloitte, ConsenSys Sign On to WEF’s ‘Blockchain Bill of Rights’
Untold Stories: Pay Your Rent With Tesla Stock? Steve Ehrlich Voyager CEO on Tokenization and Fungibility
The original Voyager post can be read here. You can earn $25 in BTC by signing up for the Voyager app and trading $100 (or use code SLUDGE25).
