Coming every Saturday, Hodler’s Digest will help you track every single important news story that happened this week. The best (and worst) quotes,
Coming every Saturday, Hodler’s Digest will help you track every single important news story that happened this week. The best (and worst) quotes, adoption and regulation highlights, leading coins, predictions and much more — a week on Cointelegraph in one link.
Top Stories This Week
Crypto markets tag $3T combined market cap for first time
At the start of this week, the combined cryptocurrency market cap broke $3 trillion for the first time. The market has fluctuated heavily this year, previously topping out at $2.62 trillion during the height of the bull run in May, before crashing down to as low as $1.24 trillion in mid-July.
CoinGecko’s data tracks 10,418 digital assets across 518 cryptocurrency exchanges, and the surging momentum in the latter half of 2021 comes on the back of Bitcoin (BTC), Ether (ETH), Polkadot (DOT) and Solana (SOL) all pushing past new all-time highs.
Bitcoin still remains the dominant force in crypto, with its $1.21 trillion market cap being more than double that of second-ranked Ethereum at $550 billion. Meanwhile, the combined capitalization of all other crypto assets sits at roughly 40%, or $1.24 trillion.
BREAKING: Mastercard launches crypto-linked cards across Asia-Pacific
On Tuesday, Mastercard announced that it will be launching crypto-linked payment cards across the Asia-Pacific region that will enable users to instantly convert their digital assets into fiat currency.
The cards are being launched in collaboration with three crypto service providers: Amber Group and Bitkub in Thailand, and CoinJar in Australia. Mastercard hasn’t outlined what crypto assets will be supported at this stage but did hint that Bitcoin and Ether would be at the top of the list.
“Rather than directly transferring cryptocurrencies to a merchant, cardholders will now be able to instantly convert their cryptocurrencies into traditional fiat currency which can be spent everywhere Mastercard is accepted around the world, both online and offline,” Mastercard said.
NewYorkCityCoin launching this week with Mayor-elect Eric Adams’ blessing
NewYorkCityCoin (NYCCoin) launched on Thursday, with Mayor-elect Eric Adams giving the coin’s issuers, CityCoins, a public endorsement ahead of the rollout. Adams stated last week that he wanted to have a CityCoin for NYC that mirrors Miami’s MiamiCoin.
While Adams welcomed the project to New York this week, CityCoins has yet to officially partner with the local government. It may want to do so soon, however, as the NYCCoin project will divert 30% of its mining rewards to a custodied reserve wallet that the local government can use to support whatever initiatives it chooses.
“We’re glad to welcome you to the global home of Web3! We’re counting on tech and innovation to help drive our city forward,” Adams said.
Elon Musk offloads $1.1B in Tesla stock
According to filings with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission, erratic billionaire and Tesla CEO Elon Musk offloaded more than 934,000 Tesla shares worth around $1.1 billion on Thursday.
Musk made around a 180% gain on his sold shares with an average sale price of around $1,170, marking his largest fire sale of Tesla stock to date. The CEO had teased a potential sale over the weekend after polling his 63 million Twitter followers about whether he should sell 10% of his Tesla stock. The poll was in response to public pushback against billionaires who may or may not have paid their fair share of tax.
This sale only accounted for 1% of Musk’s holdings, and the filings show that he planned to sell the stock as part of his tax obligations back in September. The world now awaits if he will sell another 9% to appease the 58% of respondents who voted “yes” to his poll.
Zimbabwe may be the next country to embrace Bitcoin as legal tender
Zimbabwe’s government was rumored to be looking at utilizing Bitcoin as a legal tender to meet growing demand in the country, according to local news outlets.
The news, reported on Nov. 7, suggested that discussions with local businesses are already underway. Retired Brigadier Colonel Charles Wekwete, permanent secretary and head of the e-government technology unit in the office of the president and cabinet, was confirmed as the source of the speculation.
A couple of days later, however, news also surfaced that Zimbabwe was not looking to adopt Bitcoin whatsoever, and was instead exploring central bank digital currencies (CBDCs). Zimbabwe’s minister of information, Monica Mutsvangwa, had the unfortunate job of quashing the rumors and providing a major buzzkill for Bitcoin maxis.
Winners and Losers
At the end of the week, Bitcoin (BTC) is at $63,185, Ether (ETH) at $4,577 and XRP at $1.17. The total market cap is at $2.75 trillion, according to CoinMarketCap.
Among the biggest 100 cryptocurrencies, the top three altcoin gainers of the week are Loopring (LRC) at 100.64%, Kadena (KDA) at 99.70% and Livepeer (LPT) at 80.35%.
The top three…
cointelegraph.com