This week in coins. Illustration by Mitchell Preffer for Decrypt. Reports of a new COVID variant dubbed Omicron impacted crypto markets this week, briefly pulling the price of Bitcoin down to $53.5k yesterday, and the price of Ethereum to $3,933. Within a few hours yesterday, Bitcoin sank almost 9% from $58.7k. The last time the world’s largest cryptocurrency fell to…
The music industry has undergone a massive transformation in recent years. We have seen the advent of the internet leave its mark on music, and most notably, 1999 spelled the coming of Napster. This then-revolutionary peer-to-peer online streaming service defined a whole generation and enabled musicians to share their creations with the world. Streaming has become the dominant format for…
If you look at crypto assets’ price movements as a series of isolated events, the picture is messy. Sure, some traders can occasionally win big off one-time events or thanks to sensing a meme-inspired trend. In the long run, however, most of these “fortuitous” traders tend to lose. Why? Because they have to pick big-time winners to cover all the…
As the end of the year approaches, digital currency values have risen a great deal in 2021 and crypto asset miners have been profiting as a result. According to statistics, the most profitable coin to mine at the end of November is kadena, as an 18 terahash (TH/s) machine can get up to $326 per day. Scrypt coins are the…
In brief ConstitutionDAO raised over $45 million from donors to buy a first-edition copy of the U.S. constitution. The DAO failed to win the auction and announced it was going to refund contributors. Since the DAO closed on November 23, its native PEOPLE token has risen nearly 4,000% to a new all-time high of $0.16. ContitutionDAO’s PEOPLE token sailed to…
In 2021, crypto has gone more mainstream than ever before, and there’s now a growing library of books exploring Bitcoin and blockchain tech for the legions of crypto-curious. Just in time for the holiday shopping season, Decrypt’s staff has rounded up our favorites for your edification. (For those in the U.S.: Click the book title to buy independent through Bookshop.org.)…
Bitcoin’s hashrate has been volatile in recent times following the same patterns as the crypto asset’s price. Three days ago, Bitcoin’s hashrate neared the 180 exahash (EH/s) zone only to plummet to 128 EH/s two days later. The recent shifts have taken place before the upcoming network difficulty adjustment, which is due to change on Sunday. After nine increases in…
Facebook has been planning its foray into the metaverse for some time now — possibly even several years. But it’s only recently that its ambitious expansion plans have catapulted the concept into mainstream headlines across the globe. Renaming the parent company to Meta was perhaps the biggest, boldest statement of intent the firm could make. Suddenly, major news outlets were…
Nonfungible tokens (NFTs) are evolving from a niche interest to a mainstream conversation. The variety of NFT art — from cuddly to edgy to menacing — is drawing in a new audience of enthusiasts. Beyond the art, NFTs are providing a glimpse into a new layer of social interaction. When framed as micro-social networks, NFTs could lead the way to…
Two months after El Salvador’s state-sponsored Bitcoin wallet launched by gifting Salvadorans $30 worth of the cryptocurrency, many still don’t know what to do with the tech. When Chivo wallet kicked off on September 7, it suffered technical glitches, with citizens unable to download the app. And when they finally did have it on their phones, there were reports it…
