Source: Adobe/Piotr Here is what happened in the Cryptoworld in the third quarter of this year:
Total crypto market capitalization in Q3 Source: CoinGecko.com July
In July, as Taproot, Bitcoin (BTC) ‘s largest upgrade in more than four years, was being tested on the testnet , crypto experts said that BTC could surpass USD 400K in ten years.
Ethereum (ETH)’s London upgrade was set for August but experts noted that some changes would take longer to have an effect.
As the US bank JPMorgan questioned El Salvador ‘s bitcoin plans, a Paraguayan MP said he would test a BTC bill . However, a draft of the bill leaked online, which made no mention of BTC , and crypto fans declared it a ‘huge nothing burger’ .
A Salvadorian economist hit out at President Nayib Bukele after a report claimed that his family had been secretly planning the release of a stablecoin and a crypto wallet . El Salvador drama didn’t finish there as demonstrators protested the Bitcoin Law in front of the Parliament.
China kept bashing bitcoin , suggesting that the country was not done yet with their crackdown on crypto mining. Also, a report noted that China’s global bitcoin hashrate had been on a decline even before the crackdown . Yet, experts argued that that could be good for bitcoin in the long term , and some Chinese crypto-related companies were still recruiting new staff despite the crackdown.
Meanwhile, the People’s Bank of China released an e-CNY whitepaper , and Beijing lashed out at three US Republican senators who had asked for a block on digital yuan for the US competitors at the Olympics.
Reports revealed that China’s blockchain technology ambitions could be greater than thought, as a media outlet said they had seen evidence of the Chinese Communist Party (CCP)’s blockchain planning .
With new regulations on the horizon, South Korean commercial banks said they “increasingly” believed only 4 crypto exchanges would survive beyond September 24. Meanwhile, the country’s ruling party launched a crypto task force that was talking about the need to “institutionalize” crypto .
Police in South Korea said that the crypto exchange V Global could be at the center of a fraud network that sucked in some USD 2bn. The majority owner of the crypto exchange Bithumb , Lee Jung-hoon, got indicted on a USD 88m fraud wrap .
South Korea’s top financial regulator, the Financial Services Commission (FSC), identified 14 “fake” bank accounts that had been used as fiat on/off ramps by domestic crypto exchanges. Meanwhile, the country’s crypto task force met with a number of major domestic crypto exchanges .
Meanwhile, some North Korean hackers raided South Korean crypto wallets to the tune of almost USD 310m in two years.
The European Central Bank (ECB) announced the launch of the digital euro project while bashing BTC . The International Monetary Fund (IMF), an international financial institution, suggested that nations pick up the pace with their digital money development.
Major crypto exchange Binance CEO had to bow to regulators amid yet another setback from the EU-operated Single Euro Payments Area (SEPA) network. UK bank Barclays ’ crypto customers began searching for workarounds after the bank suspended payments to Binance alleging that it would “protect” customers’ funds.
UK detectives broke the crypto seizure record , confiscating almost GBP 180m (USD 249m) in an unspecified cryptocurrency during an ongoing investigation.
US federal prosecutors started scrutinizing whether Tether (USDT) executives committed bank fraud .
A US bipartisan infrastructure bill that would raise USD 28bn from crypto investors was voted to advance.
Numerous dog-themed coins flooded the market with pumps and dumps , while a Dogecoin (DOGE) fan sued crypto exchange Coinbase for allegedly “misleading” sweepstake ad campaign. Crypto lender BlockFi got served with a cease and desist order by the Attorney General (AG) of New Jersey, USA. Circle , the issuer of the second-most popular stablecoin, USD Coin (USDC) , announced plans to go public on the New York Stock Exchange . Circle then revealed their USDC reserves , which claimed that cash and cash equivalents (e.g. securities) comprised 61% of their reserves, after three years. Meanwhile, its CEO thanked US Secretary Treasury Janet Yellen for putting stablecoins regulation a priority. Grayscale Bitcoin Trust ‘s shares were about to be freed for sale , bringing a discussion on what it could mean for bitcoin (BTC) price. Visa announced that its crypto card users had cumulatively spent over USD 1bn globally in the first half […]
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