Weekly Review: Bitcoin Tests $73,000, Ethereum Mainnet Activates Dencun

Bitcoin tested $73,000 before entering a correction phase, MicroStrategy acquired 12,000 BTC, Ethereum developers activated the Dencun hard fork on the mainnet, a court declined to recognize Craig Wright as the creator of the first cryptocurrency, among other events of the past week.

Bitcoin Tests $73,000

On Monday, March 11, the first cryptocurrency’s price exceeded $72,000. By Wednesday, March 13, digital gold tested the $73,000 mark before entering a correction. In the early hours of March 17, the asset’s price fell below $65,000.

At the time of writing, Bitcoin is trading at $68,000.

Most digital assets in the top 10 by market capitalization ended the week in the red. Exceptions were Solana (+35.9%), BNB (+11.5%), and XRP (+2%).

The total cryptocurrency market capitalization is $2.7 trillion. Bitcoin’s dominance index is 53.4%.

MicroStrategy Acquires 12,000 BTC

MicroStrategy purchased an additional 12,000 BTC at an average price of $68,477. The acquisition was financed through the issuance of convertible bonds maturing in 2030.

Later, the company announced plans to raise another $500 million through securities to acquire Bitcoin. The issuance will depend on “market and other conditions.”

Ethereum Developers Activate Dencun Hard Fork on Mainnet

On March 13, the Ethereum team successfully implemented the Dencun (Deneb-Cancun) update on the mainnet.

A key component of the update is EIP-4844, which includes the Proto-Danksharding option designed to scale the network by creating a new type of transaction for large binary data arrays (BLOB).

Following the activation of Dencun, gas fees in networks that implemented EIP-4844 on the second layer were reduced several times, which was the main goal of the update.

Topics to Discuss with Friends

• A group of 80 “dormant” wallets moved 2,353 BTC.
• TON rose by 10% following news of a potential Telegram IPO.
• A trader spent $4 on a meme coin and gained a 17,000-fold profit.
• Analysts pointed to the growth of AI tokens and “cat” coins.

Bitcoin Mining Difficulty Hits New Record

Following the latest recalculation, the mining difficulty of the first cryptocurrency increased by 5.79%, setting a new all-time high at 83.95 T.

Court Declines to Recognize Craig Wright as Bitcoin Creator

British judge James Mellor ruled that Craig Wright is not Satoshi Nakamoto or the author of the Bitcoin white paper.

The Crypto Open Patent Alliance’s case against Wright began in 2021. The organization filed a lawsuit against the businessman to prevent him from suing developers and other members of the crypto community, as well as claiming intellectual property rights to Bitcoin technology.

“Firstly, Dr. Wright is not the author of the Bitcoin white paper. Secondly, Wright is not the person who acted under the pseudonym Satoshi Nakamoto from 2008 to 2011. Thirdly, he is not the person who created the Bitcoin system. Fourthly, Wright is not the author of the initial versions of the first cryptocurrency’s software,” the judge stated.

Additionally, Mellor suspended two other cases involving the “pseudo-Satoshi,” including proceedings against Coinbase and Jack Dorsey’s Block.

The judge also plans to sign a restraining order prohibiting Wright from ever calling himself Satoshi Nakamoto. Lawyers opposed the “ominous” decision, so the final order has yet to be issued.

Also on ForkLog:

• PancakeSwap announced the launch of the fourth version of its protocol.
• The prosecution requested 40 to 50 years in prison for Sam Bankman-Fried.
• A Solana trader missed out on $1 million in profits from the meme token BOME.
• Vitalik Buterin proposed a method to protect Ethereum from quantum computers.

Peter Schiff Regrets Not Buying Bitcoin in 2010

Euro Pacific Capital President and critic of the first cryptocurrency, Peter Schiff, admitted he would not have minded buying Bitcoin in 2010.

“Of course, I’m not an idiot. Moreover, I remember the moment when my colleague showed me Bitcoin when its price was about $1 and advised me to invest. It was around 2010. I found it amusing but did not appreciate the scale of the bubble […]. But I wouldn’t have talked about it or urged others to follow my example,” the businessman replied.

According to him, he would have simply “bet on other people being foolish enough” to buy Bitcoin at a higher price. Schiff also called investments in digital assets “gambling, not a brilliant decision.”

What Else to Read?

This week, ForkLog explained how the NAP protocol from b0rder1ess works.

In the traditional digest, we compiled the main events of the week in cybersecurity.

The most important news from crypto industry participants was collected in a separate digest.