One week in review:
Nov. 23–29 We've selected the hottest materials of the past week for you to stay up to date with the latest crypto news: | | #1. Bitcoin price tumbles, falling below $17,000 in biggest crash since March | | | At the start of the week, the crypto markets were brimming with optimism. Bitcoin was one resistance zone away from all-time highs; altcoins were rallying by triple digits. With Bitcoin's market cap at all-time highs, it was time to celebrate with a nice turkey dinner and all the trimmings. Unfortunately, Thanksgiving left the crypto world with a rather bitter aftertaste. | | | On Nov. 26, BTC's price suffered one of its biggest dollar losses since March. All told, the world's biggest cryptocurrency collapsed by more than 15%. Massive liquidations were blamed for the crash from $19,484 to $16,334 in the space of a day. | | #2. Ethereum 2.0 confirmed for Dec. 1 launch, just hours before deadline | | | Eth2's beacon chain has been confirmed for Dec. 1 after 16,834 validators transferred 524,288 ETH into a deposit contract. There had been doubts over whether the deposit contract would hit the minimum threshold by Nov. 24, paving the way for Phase 0 to begin in earnest a week later. | | | But transfers rapidly increased as the deadline neared. There was a celebratory atmosphere in the Ethereum community, not least because it finally marks the beginning of an upgrade that has been plagued by delays and complications. | | | While genesis participants will not be able to withdraw their coins until Eth2 reaches Phase 1.5 — which will merge the Ethereum mainnet with Eth2's beacon chain and sharded environment — many hodlers are waiting for third parties to launch withdrawal-enabled staking services, despite the potential risk of exit scams. | | #3. Facebook's Libra to reportedly launch in January 2021 as USD stablecoin | | | After months of uncertainty and regulatory drama, Facebook's embattled Libra project might be nearing launch at last… kind of. Reports suggest that Libra will initially take the form of a U.S.-dollar-backed digital currency — and it could see the light of day as soon as January 2021. | | | The exact launch date is still unknown and would depend on the Libra Association receiving approval from regulators in Switzerland to operate as a payments service. | | #4. Prediction of the Week Institutional money may propel Bitcoin to $250,000 in a year, says macro investor | | | Global Macro Investor CEO Raoul Pal has predicted that Bitcoin could hit $150,000 by November 2021 in the most conservative scenario — and could even surge to $250,000 owing to the large amount of institutional money currently flowing into the market. | | | According to Pal, most of Bitcoin's additional supply is currently being absorbed by PayPal, Square and Grayscale. He believes that the resulting supply squeeze is the catalyst for Bitcoin's latest surge. Pal went on to predict that additional monetary stimulus to sustain economies in the wake of COVID-19 will devalue fiat, and this, together with low interest rates, will propel Bitcoin's price to new highs. | | #5. FUD of the Week PayPal suspends user for crypto trading using PayPal's own service | | | A PayPal user has claimed their account was restricted… because they were performing too many trades on the platform's new crypto service. On Reddit, the user in question claimed that PayPal had sent them a message, informing them that their account was being permanently limited "due to potential risk." But "TheCoolDoc" claimed they had only made 10 crypto transactions over a week — purchasing during dips and selling when prices were high. | | | Bizarrely, PayPal had asked for an explanation for each transaction. Hours later, the user was told they would not be able to conduct any further business using the platform — and the funds in their account were placed on a 180-day hold. Other Reddit users pointed out that the service is supposed to be more of a Bitcoin bank account than a trading account. Nonetheless, TheCoolDoc has vowed that they will "never buy a Satoshi of crypto" from PayPal again. | | #6. FUD of the Week Chinese police seized crypto assets worth $4.2 billion today from PlusToken Ponzi | | | The PlusToken scandal has reportedly resulted in a titanic seizure of crypto assets by Chinese authorities — worth $4.2 billion at today's prices. Court rulings posted by The Block show authorities have seized 194,775 BTC and 883,083 ETH — alongside millions of Litecoin, Dogecoin and XRP. | | | Gains from the seized crypto assets will be forfeited to the national treasury. The precise details of how the assets will be dealt with and processed in accordance with national laws have not been fully spelled out. | | | The PlusToken scheme had presented itself as a South Korean crypto platform that could generate 8%–16% returns per month, drawing in 2 million members. It later turned out to be one of the industry's biggest-ever exit scams. | | | Feel free to explore the most important news with Hodler's Digest: | | | |
