Week in review: Elon Musk pumps Dogecoin again as Ethereum hits a fresh high

Elon Musk described himself as a Bitcoin advocate, but again tweeted about Dogecoin; Ethereum reached a new all-time high, Forbes listed crypto billionaires, Binance launched a cryptocurrency analogue of PayPal, and other events of the week.

Ethereum and Cosmos hit new highs; Bitcoin’s price temporarily rose above $40,000

The second-largest cryptocurrency by market cap climbed three psychological levels over the week, setting price records. On February 2, Ethereum prices breached the $1500 mark, within 24 hours — $1600. On Friday, February 5, the price set a new high above $1700.

Against the rally, the average transaction fee in the Ethereum network rose above $20, also setting a record.

Source: Blockchair.

Bitcoin’s price rose over the week and on Saturday, February 6, temporarily rose above $40,000. This was accompanied by the network hashrate rising to a record 174.9 EH/s, according to Coin Metrics.

As of writing, digital gold was trading around $38,000.

Source: TradingView.

Forbes revealed list of 11 crypto billionaires

Forbes’ list of the wealthiest crypto-industry figures included 11 billionaires. At the top of the ranking was Coinbase CEO Brian Armstrong. His fortune is estimated at $6.5 billion.

Rounding out the top three were FTX founder Sam Bankman-Fried with $4.5 billion and Ripple co-founder Chris Larsen — $2.9 billion.

The magazine considered not only asset values but also stakes in companies tied to the individuals and traditional assets.

The list also included:

• MicroStrategy chief Michael Saylor ($2 billion);
• Binance founder Changpeng Zhao ($1.9 billion);
• Gemini founders the Winklevoss twins — $1.6 billion each;
• Digital Currency Group founder Barry Silbert — $1.5 billion;
• co-founder and former Ripple CTO Jed McCaleb — $1.4 billion;
• venture investor Tim Draper — $1.1 billion;
• co-founder of Bloq Matthew Roszak — $1 billion.

Binance launches payment service with Bitcoin support

The cryptocurrency exchange Binance launched a beta version of its own payment service.

Binance Pay is available to registered users on the exchange. The account creation process in the system requires completing KYC procedures.

Company representatives said that the beta supports the exchange’s native token BNB, the Binance USD (BUSD) stablecoin, Bitcoin (BTC), Ethereum (ETH), and a single fiat currency — the euro. Also available to users is the ecosystem token of the issuer of bank-issued debit cards tied to digital assets Swipe (SXP).

Transfers are limited to up to $10,000 or 10 transactions per day.

The day before the payment service’s launch, Roskomnadzor announced Binance’s exclusion from the registry of domain names containing information prohibited in Russia.

PayPal chief pledges to expand crypto services

Dan Schulman said the company is actively investing in its cryptocurrency unit, which has more than justified expectations. He promised to present an “expanded roadmap” for blockchain and digital currencies within 2021.

PayPal’s total revenue for the fourth quarter rose 23% year over year to $6.12 billion. Crypto support, made available to PayPal customers in the United States on November 12, aided the results.

Specific figures in the context of digital assets are not disclosed. It is known that on January 11 users conducted transactions totalling a record $242 million. The company did not include in the overall payment volume those related to cryptocurrency.

Schulman also said that PayPal users who bought cryptocurrencies log into their accounts twice as often as before.

Visa to test solution for integrating Bitcoin payments by banks

The company will provide the technical solution for integrating cryptocurrency payments by traditional banks.

The first client will be First Boulevard, a US bank focused on the African American community, whose clients will be able to buy, store and trade digital assets.

75 Ethereum 2.0 validators penalised

In the night of February 2–3, 75 Ethereum 2.0 validators supported by the staking service Staked lost a portion of their staked funds — the service had attempted to boost attestation metrics to raise earnings.

Funds are now locked until full network launch, and addresses have been deprived of earning opportunities as balances fell below thresholds.

Jack Dorsey launched his own full Bitcoin node

Twitter founder and CEO Jack Dorsey launched his own full Bitcoin node. He posted a screenshot of a computer screen bearing the phrase “working Bitcoin”.

He posted a screenshot of the node’s synchronization with the blockchain, a size of about 325 GB. The process could take weeks; at the time, progress stood at just over 2%.

When asked whether he ran the node on a dedicated single-board Raspberry Pi, the renowned Bitcoin advocate replied that he had chosen a new MacBook Pro M1.

The r/Bitcoin subreddit subscriber count reached 2.3 million

The popularity of WallStreetBets (WSB) on Reddit also affected crypto subreddits. Since January 30, the r/Bitcoin community’s subscribers grew by 300,000, reaching 2.3 million by the end of the week.

Source: Metrics For Reddit.

Media even reported a potential screen adaptation of the story of WSB’s battle with Wall Street firms for Netflix and MGM. The film by the latter is reportedly to be produced by the Winklevoss brothers based on Ben Mezrich’s yet-to-be-written book— the author of “Bitcoin Billionaires” about the Winklevoss brothers and “Billionaires” about the history of Facebook.

Head of Robinhood explained the reason for halting GME and AMC trades

During a Clubhouse chat, where Musk confessed an interest in Bitcoin, Robinhood CEO Vlad Tenev explained the pause in trading of GameStop and AMC Entertainment by “unprecedented volume” and the need to meet regulatory capital requirements. The company filed for additional funding and within four days raised $3.4 billion.

The US House Financial Services Committee intends to examine the alleged collusion between Robinhood and large hedge funds. Hearings are scheduled for February 18.

Russia and Ukraine lead in dark web crypto transactions

In 2020, the total volume of cryptocurrency payments on the dark web amounted to $1.7 billion. The top three by turnover were Russia, the United States and Ukraine.

In Russia, the annual turnover of dark web crypto exceeded $288 million, in the US — $179 million, in Ukraine — $98 million.

China ranked fourth with $87 million. Vietnam ranked fifth — $56 million.

ForkLog also wrote

• A hacker withdrew $2.8 million from the DeFi pool of yEarn.Finance.
• BlockFi paid out $28 million in interest on Bitcoin and Ethereum deposits.
• German authorities confiscated 1700 BTC, but did not gain access to them.
• Media: IBM effectively shut down its blockchain divisions.
• Media: four DeFi projects on Binance Smart Chain carried out exit scams totaling 54,000 BNB.

What to read and watch next?

• How to find entry points in the cryptocurrency market using on-chain tools — a curated set of tools and indicators from Coin Metrics.
• From denial to acceptance: how the rhetoric of billionaires who once criticised Bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies evolved.
• Bitcoin and Ethereum records, miners’ successes, rapid growth of DEX, DeFi, the Reddit factor, and much more in ForkLog’s new report.

On Monday, February 1, two ForkLog speakers joined the show. Technical issues were discussed with Bitcoin Core developer Gleb Naumenko, markets and charts with Tone Vays.

Subscribe to ForkLog news on Telegram: ForkLog Feed — full news feed, ForkLog — the most important news and polls.