Week in review: Bitcoin tests $45,000 as Ethereum burns over $7 billion in fees

Bitcoin quotes tested the $45,000 level, the Russian Ministry of Economic Development backed a bill to legalise digital gold, since the activation of the London hard fork the Ethereum network has burned more than $7 billion worth of ETH, and other events of the week.

Bitcoin tests $45,000

On Friday, March 25, Bitcoin rose above $45,000, nearly reaching the local high set at the start of the month.

However, a correction followed. The leading cryptocurrency failed to hold this level, and at the time of writing the asset was trading near $44,900.

Possible driver of the rally was rumors that Luna Foundation Guard (LFG) planned to invest in Bitcoin to back the stability of the UST stablecoin.

On March 26, Morgan Creek Digital co-founder Anthony Pompliano confirmed this information. Over the last 24 hours, more than 24,955 BTC were sent to the alleged LFG wallet.

Nearly all top-10 assets by market cap closed the week in the green. Cardano performed best (+25.5%). The reason — the announcement of Coinbase staking ADA.

According to CoinCodex, among mid-cap digital assets the native token of the Zilliqa blockchain recorded the biggest weekly gain, rising by more than 166%.

The biggest loser was the governance token of the DeFi project Anchor Protocol. ANC fell by 7.47%.

Total cryptocurrency market capitalization stood at $2.12 trillion. Bitcoin’s dominance index fell to 40.2%.

Crypto.com to sponsor the FIFA World Cup

The Fédération Internationale de Football Association (FIFA) announced that the cryptocurrency platform Crypto.com would become the official sponsor of the World Cup in Qatar. The World Cup final will be held from 21 November to 18 December 2022.

Since 2020 there has been a ban on crypto operations in the country.

Since the London hard fork, Ethereum has burned over 2 million ETH

Since August 2021 the Ethereum network has burned over 2 million ETH worth more than $7 billion. The leader by burned volume is the NFT marketplace OpenSea with over 230,000 ETH.

On average the protocol burns about 6 ETH per minute. The NFT segment accounts for 35% of all burned coins or 701,597 ETH. DeFi services are second with 651,336 ETH (33%).

Russian Ministry of Economic Development backs Bitcoin legalization bill

The Ministry of Economic Development conceptually endorsed the Finance Ministry’s “On Digital Currency” bill and proposed refining some provisions.

According to the department, clarifications are needed on the definition of mining, the procedure for paying with digital currency, and certain requirements for persons acting as operators of digital asset exchanges and operators of digital trading platforms.

The Duma considers selling oil and other resources for Bitcoin. The Prime Minister acknowledged the need to integrate cryptocurrencies into Russia’s economy

The head of the State Duma’s energy committee, Pavel Zavalny, suggested that countries could pay for Russian gas and other resources in cryptocurrency. He said that a currency Russia cannot store, acquire or use for settlements becomes “phantom money.”

The Prime Minister, Mikhail Mishustin acknowledged the need to integrate cryptocurrencies into Russia’s economy, but noted that such a decision should be taken in coordination with the central bank. Mishustin also urged continued discussion on regulating mining.

Other news from Russia

• Russian court recognized Meta as an extremist organization.
• Hackers Anonymous claimed a breach of Bank of Russia. The central bank denied the claim, but on March 26 the group published regulator files.
• Duma obliged candidates in elections to disclose cryptocurrency holdings.
• In Russia detained a suspect in embezzlement of assets from the WEX bitcoin exchange — the “red admin” Aleksey Bilyuchenko.
• In the Federation Council allowed a ban on VPN services. No plan to hold users accountable was announced.
• Apple confirmed the suspension of Mir card support in Apple Pay.

Over the week, FSB officers in Dagestan and local police identified suspects in organizing a financial pyramid offering investments in digital assets with yields up to 500% per year. The losses were estimated at 1 billion rubles.

Meanwhile, Moscow police detained a hacker suspected of stealing Bitcoin worth more than 28 million rubles.

Creator of Bored Ape Yacht Club raises $450 million at a $4 billion valuation

The company behind the NFT collection Bored Ape Yacht Club, Yuga Labs raised $450 million in a funding round valuing it at $4 billion.

The raised funds will be used to scale the team and finance future developments, including the Otherside metaverse.

FTX opens Australia unit and eyes UK market

The parachain project Acala from the Polkadot ecosystem announced the launch of the $250 million aUSD Ecosystem Fund. It is designed to stimulate the use of the Acala USD (aUSD) stablecoin.

Eight parachain winners and various industry participants, including Alameda Research, Arrington Capital, Digital Currency Group, IOSG, Jump Crypto, Kraken Ventures and Pantera Capital, are involved in the initiative.

GameStop launches beta NFT marketplace

US retailer GameStop launched a platform for NFT trading built on Ethereum-based Layer-2 solution Loopring. In the wake of the announcement, the Loopring token (LRC) surged nearly 45% at one point.

Robinhood releases crypto cashback debit card

The online broker Robinhood said it would replace its debit cards with new Cash Cards that offer cashback in digital assets. The Cash Card carries no fees or interest. Purchases are rounded up to the next dollar.

Trust Wallet returns to the App Store, but not for users in Russia

On March 22 the Trust Wallet team said the app had been temporarily unavailable in the iOS App Store.

By March 25 the team said the app was available again. However Russian users report that the wallet cannot be downloaded from a Russian account.

The founder of Trust Wallet, Viktor Radchenko will step down from the CEO role to devote more time to family and other projects. He will be succeeded by the Binance chief marketing officer, Eowin Chen.

European Parliament to vote on mandatory verification of DeFi-wallet users

On March 31, the ECON Committee will vote on amendments to the regulation governing information sharing between counterparties in transfers. The proposal envisages collecting data on users of non-custodial crypto wallets.

Specifically, the document in its current form would obligate providers of services linked to digital assets not only to gather personal data during transactions with non-custodial wallets, but also to verify its accuracy.

Also on ForkLog:

• TIME magazine will begin to accept ApeCoin as payment for subscriptions.
• Madonna purchased an NFT from the Bored Ape Yacht Club collection for $556,000.
• Avalanche Foundation launched a $100 million fund for entertainment ventures.

What else to read and watch

ForkLog AI has compiled the most important AI news from the past week.

Blockchain technology remains one of the hottest trends among financial, government and corporate organisations worldwide. ForkLog magazine offers an overview of the most interesting recent initiatives.

On Monday, March 21, ForkLog Live hosted a discussion on Bitcoin’s near-term prospects, Web 3.0 concepts and the current economic outlook. Guests included ForkLog LIVE resident Ton Weiss, Unix/Network expert Alex Petrov and Hyperflex CTO Vladimir Maslyakov.

Read ForkLog’s bitcoin news on our Telegram — cryptocurrency news, prices and analytics.