Even if prices consolidate for the foreseeable future, Bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies took a battering over the weekend, data reveals a market with better trading conditions.

By looking at the winners and losers from the previous week, it’s undeniable that traders took a huge hit, as the whole crypto market value decreased by 12.7% when Bitcoin sank to $41,000. On December 3, the amount fell from $2.37 trillion to $1.92 trillion, and a total of $2 billion in long future contracts were liquidated. Let’s lay back and see what has happened in the crypto universe.

Number Of Cardano Wallets Staking ADA Crosses 1 Million

Cardano has crossed the 1 million staking wallets milestone. The project has garnered a cult-like following since it debuted in 2017. The altcoin held the number one spot for the network with the highest amount of coins staked until recently when Solana took over that title. A total of 33,085,775,493 ADA were staked on the Cardano network. This represents 72% of the total circulating supply staked. The first DEX, SundaeSwap, was set to launch on Cardano’s testnet today.

The People’s Bank Of China’s Report On Blockchain Tech And Their Upcoming CBDC

Di Gang, deputy director of the Digital Currency Institute of the People’s Bank of China, recently presented an extensive report on blockchain technology. The report was at “the 18th annual global meeting of the International Finance Forum (IFF) on Dec. 5,” Chinese journalist Colin Wu translated the main points. “Blockchain technology has realized landing in cross-border payment, supply chain finance, agricultural finance, trade finance, inclusive finance, social city, “three rural areas”, people’s livelihood, etc.” Numerical Research Institute is already working on an implementation of a “blockchain platform for trade finance”. The People’s Bank of China identified the following difficulties with blockchain technology. There are still many nodes inside the blockchain that are anonymized and dense, which are difficult to supervise by decentralization. Someone needs to build an interoperability standard system for this type of technology.

Bitcoin Falls Flat: Examining A Rare Bull Market Corrective Pattern

The top cryptocurrency by a market cap set a new high above and beyond its April peak. Price has since corrected back down by as much as 38%, which is called a “running flat”. The Bitcoin price action fits the Fibonacci relationship of the Elliott Wave pattern flawlessly. The higher high and B wave stopped out at around 123.6% of wave A down, then fell precisely to 61.8% of wave B. An expanded flat would instead be closer to $19,500 – where BTC peaked in 2017.

El Salvador Calls Another Bitcoin Dip With 150 BTC Purchase

El Salvador has pledged to purchase bitcoins every time the price of the digital asset drops. The country had purchased 100 bitcoins during the last bitcoin dip. This time around, it has taken another opportunity to increase its BTC holdings, adding 150 coins. President Nayib Bukele took to Twitter to announce the purchase. El Salvador’s President Nayib Bukele announced to his 3.2 million Twitter followers that the country had purchased 150 coins at an average price of $48,670. With its latest purchase, El Salvador now holds 1,370 BTC which is down 0.37% from a year ago.

Lightning Speed: Mind-blowing Facts About The Lightning Network

NewsBTC explores the possibilities that Bitcoin’s Lightning Network opens. Peter St Onge was at the Free State Project’s Porcfest in New Hampshire when he had an epiphany. “The Lightning Network is now moving Bitcoin closer to becoming a truly universal medium of exchange that is controlled by the people, not by governments”. The Lightning Network (LN) is a network of peer-to-peer crypto-currencies that transfers money instantly, 24/7 including holidays, and is able to leap national borders and regulatory gatekeepers with zero effort. First, it knocks the legs out of competing “medium of exchange” coins like Dogecoin, Bcash, Ripple, Litecoin, or their many knock-offs. Second, it can very quickly go from irrelevant to dominant as a medium of exchange.

IOTA to Release Smart Contract Network ‘Assembly’ And Distribute ASMB Token

Assembly is a governance layer one for permissionless smart contracts, along with the native token ASMB that will open the doors for the network’s main stakeholders. As a decentralized network, Assembly has no central system to reach if a user requires assistance. All that is required to deploy smart contract chains or become a validator is to run a node or own “a small amount” of the ASMB token. Assemble is an extension of the Smart Contracts framework (live in Beta), and adds a validator pool, the ASMB token, staking, and slashing. In the beginning, tokens will be created during a 90-day period when users will be able to “stake IOTA tokens in order to earn ASMB tokens” -by locking IOTA on the Firefly wallet. 20% of the initial token supply will go to IOTA holders.

Calls For Tesla To Resume Bitcoin Payments As Mining Reaches 57% Renewable Energy

The Bitcoin Mining Council has released a report addressing the energy consumption of mining activities. Renewable energy usage had gone up in Q3, touching at 57.7% renewable energy. Concerns over its environmental impact had been cited during the China crackdown that saw miners exit out of the region en masse. Tesla had also cited the same reasons when it had removed the BTC payments option for its electric vehicles. The Bitcoin Mining Council has reported that mining activities are now being powered by more than 50% clean energy.

These numbers have evidently surpassed the threshold that Tesla CEO Elon Musk had set back in June as a prerequisite for resuming BTC payments. The first time the automotive manufacturer had implemented crypto payments had sent the price of BTC surging.

What Ethereum 2.0 Looks Like As Vitalik Buterin Celebrates Its Birthday

One year since the proof-of-stake Beacon Chain went live. Eth2 aims to “support 1000s of transactions per second” so the high gas fees problem can be solved. The next stage, The Merge, is possible to happen around May or June next year if the code is completed by February. This will ‘merge’ the Beacon Chain into the mainnet. The Arrow Glacier upgrade is scheduled for block 13,773,000, which is expected on December 8, 2021.

As it has been explained, it is meant to finalize the transition to proof-of-stake (PoS). The move to PoS will not immediately provide any significant extra throughput to the chain, so I don’t expect it to have a measurable effect on gas prices.

Understanding Bitcoin UTXO: Mid-To-Long Term Holders Responsible For November Correction

Data reveals that mostly mid-to-long term holders were selling their Bitcoin during November, thus being responsible for the correction. UTXO stands for Unspent Transaction Output; you can think of it as a Bitcoin mechanic that keeps track of coins on the chain. Based on the amount of time each coin hasn’t been moved for, the corresponding holders can be categorized into short-term, mid-term, and long-term. The Bitcoin short-term supply (STH) grew from 14.9% in October to 17.2% at the end of the month. This growth suggests that some holders in the long age bands sold off their coins.

The 3-5 year supply also had a slight decrease in November, suggesting that some of these long-term holders reaped their profits. At the time of writing, Bitcoin’s price floats around $55.5k, up 2% in the last seven days.

SEC Boss Acknowledges That Bitcoin Is A Competitor For U.S. Banking System

The SEC has made several attempts to try to regulate the crypto industry. A growing concern now is the role BTC plays in the economy. Gary Gensler said that BTC is now a competitor to the U.S. banking system. Some countries have implemented favorable laws for bitcoin, others have gone the route of trying to stop the digital asset. The deflationary nature of Bitcoin has been one of the most important things for investors who bought the asset.

Satoshi Nakamoto, the creator of Bitcoin, had structured the asset in a way that it couldn’t be replicated or controlled by a single entity. However, the same reasons that make Bitcoin such an attractive investment for investors are the same ones that make governments see the digital asset as a threat.

“The United States Is Already Mining” Bitcoin… “Maybe,” Says Compass Mining CEO

Compass Mining CEO Whit Gibbs was a guest on Anthony Pompliano’s “The Best Business Show”. He talked about other countries following El Salvador’s footsteps and starting mining Bitcoin. He also mentioned Venezuela and other not-friendly to the U.S. countries already doing it. Gibbs: The US I think is on the front foot. They are very forward-thinking when it comes to supporting this.

A federal law enforcement agency was mining Bitcoin in 2012-2013, now other countries around the world are doing the same thing. A North African country that’s a hotspot for the United States is getting into Bitcoin Mining. A very close neighbor of Latvia, “that may have stopped a plane to remove a journalist,” is already mining Bitcoin with nuclear power. The Compass Mining CEO closes his stellar presentation with, “I believe that they’re mining Bitcoin because they see it as the future, and they want to boost their economy”.

Largest DeFi Hack Yet? BadgerDAO Hack Results In Loss Of $120M+

Delegates on the BadgerDAO protocol were reportedly tricked into approving unwanted transactions. Hackers made off with north of $120M, spanning over 2 BTC and over 150 ETH and going all the way across a variety of assets. DeFi reported around mid-year that crypto hacks and fraud were on pace for a record year. The news comes after a $35M hack of the Vee Finance protocol in recent months. Many community members noted that the protocol “pausing” the smart contracts – as sensical as it is to protect user funds – goes against the principles of decentralization. Some further speculation came around a loss of funds from the CeFi platform Celsius Network, but these are rumors with little substance.

Grubhub Announces Free Bitcoin Rewards On Food Deliveries

Grubhub has partnered with Bitcoin rewards company Lolli to allow its users to earn Bitcoin on every order. Users must activate Lolli on the web or mobile before placing an order at Grubhub. A user earns up to $15, or roughly 0.00026 BTC at the current price of $56,902, they would be able to transfer it to their own virtual wallet. Grubhub has partnered with Lolli, the first bitcoin rewards app that allows people to shop online and earn BTC. The company has teamed up with over 1000 top brands and merchants, including Microsoft, Kroger, Sephora, and Macy’s, to offer customers BTC rewards. Grubhub is not the first – nor will it be the last – company in the food industry to integrate crypto into its products.