Last Week [in] Crypto: The Friday Roundup of the Week in News

Friday marks the end of another glorious week in crypto, but this was the week it happened. More details to follow. 

In other news, the Bitcoin hashrate hit a new all-time high, Huobi thinks privacy is overrated, and Craig Wright begins another legal battle. There was also a birthday party. And so we begin…

The Merge

Yes, it happened. The thing we’ve all been counting down the blocks for. No more postponements, no more delays. The Merge marked the moment when Ethereum finally switched from being a proof-of-work (PoW) chain to proof-of-stake (PoS).

The anticipation was almost too much to bear, but our minds and bodies were ready. Seven years after it was first announced, at block 15,537,393, it finally came. We merged.

After the big event Vitalik Buterin is rumored to have puffed deeply on a cigarette before asking, “How was it for you?” 

Best merge ever, Vitalik. 

The new (PoS Ethereum won’t have it all its own way. There is a rival in the form of EthereumPoW, giving PoW Ethereum miners a new place to call home. Thus far, ETHW has failed to hold its initial valuation, but there may be more fight in the upstart chain yet. Time will tell.

Hashrate High

Number go up! On Monday, Be[In]Crypto reported that the Bitcoin hashrate hit an all-time high of 281.79 million, bringing forward the projected date of the next Bitcoin halving. There is a longstanding belief in the community that halving events have a positive effect on the price of BTC. Bring it on. 

Privacy no more

Monday was a busy day for crypto, and a busy day for Huobi who announced it would be delisting a whole host of cryptocurrencies. The company said it would delist the privacy coins Monero (XMR), Zcash (ZEC), Dash (DASH), Decred (DCR), Firo (formerly Zcoin), Verge (XVG), and Horizon (ZEN).

The exact reason for this delisting process remains a mystery known only to Huobi, which is absolutely fine. We should, like, totally respect their privacy about that.

More crypto legal shenanigans

It wouldn’t be a week in crypto without some legal dispute. On Tuesday, Craig Wright began his latest in a long string of legal cases, this time against Magnus Granath, aka Hodlonaut.

Hodlonaut had rather unkindly implied that Mr. Wright is a fraud. Mr. Wright is friendly with billionaire Calvin Ayre, who has more money than God and is quite happy to bankroll any legal case Mr. Wright wants. We wish all parties, precisely equally, the very best of luck.

In other legal fun, South Korea issued an arrest warrant for Luna founder Do Kwon. The warrant cites offenses which include a “violation of capital market regulations.” There may be significant hoops to jump through before lawmakers detain the former founder, however, as he currently resides in Singapore.

NFTs

The week offered plenty to excite degenerate JPEG fans. A leaked report suggests that Bored Ape Yacht Club could be set to launch another non-fungible token (NFT) collection. The project, rumored to be called Mecha Apes, suggests that Otherside Mecha pieces could be set to rocket in value. Or not. DYOR. Elsewhere, BAYC is set to enter the music business, and absolutely nobody can stop them.

In non-monkey news, coffee house Starbucks announced their intention to issue an NFT rewards program with MATIC.

Be[In]Crypto celebrates its fourth birthday

As a crypto news outlet, Be[In]Crypto prefers to report on stories rather than become the story, but this week marked an important milestone for the organization, and we think it’s worth celebrating – Be[In]Crypto is now four years old!

To mark the occasion we’ve had a total site redesign that should make your reading experience much more enjoyable. We hope you like it, and know that even if we might be a little prettier than before, we still offer the same crypto news goodness on the inside.

Four years ago, Be[In]Crypto started with just four people. Today, we are a worldwide news outlet, and we sit comfortably in the top 3 crypto publications globally. We can’t rest now however, and our mission to inform and empower our readers only gathers pace.

Thank you dear readers for joining us on the journey so far. For here, we move on together, upwards only.