Autor Cointelegraph By Editorial Staff

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 WeekUkraine has received $37M in tracked crypto donations so farCointelegraph compiled data this week for crypto donations sent to the Ukrainian government, military and charities amid the country’s ongoing conflict with Russia. By Monday, total crypto donations to the Ukrainian government and charities linked to it had reached $37 million. The “Reserve fund of Ukraine” backed by local crypto exchange Kuna appeared to be the largest recipient, garnering roughly $13 million worth of BTC, ETH, USDT and other assets. Next in line was charity organization Come Back Alive, which pulled in $7.2 million. The group says it’s aiding the Ukrainian Armed Forces’ resistance efforts. Notably, UkraineDAO also sold a tokenized Ukrainian flag for 2,174 ETH ($5.95 million) to support local civilian organizations.South Korea to invest $187M in national metaverse projectThe South Korean Ministry of Science and ICT put some serious weight behind the metaverse this week, allocating $186.7 million to create a virtual ecosystem to foster digital content and corporate growth within the country. The metaverse ecosystem is called the “Expanded Virtual World,” and the funding will be used to expand the virtual industrial growth of cities, education and media. The ministry also said that it will host community-oriented creative activities to drive interest, such as a metaverse developer contest and a hackathon.  “It is important to create a world-class metaverse ecosystem as the starting point to intensively foster a new hyper-connected industry,” stated Park Yungyu, head of communication and policy at the ministry in the announcement.Payment services provider Shift4 acquires The Giving Block for $54 millionOn Tuesday, U.S.-based payment solutions provider Shift4 announced the acquisition of The Giving Block in a cash and stock deal worth $54 million. The deal includes provisions that could generate a total earnout of up to $246 million. The Giving Block platform enables more than 1,300 nonprofit organizations and charities to accept crypto donations. According to the group’s annual report, it processed $69.64 million in crypto donations in 2021, with roughly $12.3 million coming from NFT projects. “Shift4 will invest further in The Giving Block’s successful strategy while also pursuing a $45+ billion embedded cross-sell opportunity by bundling crypto donation capabilities with traditional card acceptance,” said Shift4 in a statement. “This represents just a small portion of the $470+ billion nonprofit addressable markets that Shift4 will uniquely be able to pursue as a result of this acquisition.”eBay to add crypto payment options soon, says CEOJamie Iannone, CEO of eBay, stated during a recent interview that the e-commerce giant could soon be looking to integrate crypto payments into its marketplace. The CEO also pointed to the growing popularity of NFT buying and selling on the platform, but did not divulge any specific plans to ramp up support for NFT technology. Iannone said that eBay has been considering the idea for a long time as the company continues to explore new payment methods. He went on to hint that there could be a crypto-related announcement during eBay’s upcoming investor day on March 10. If eBay were to support crypto, it would be a second attempt from the firm, as it initially tried integrating BTC payments back in 2014.OpenSea updates banned countries list, sparking decentralization debateTop NFT marketplace OpenSea reportedly started barring Iranian users from its platform this week. The firm justified its decision by alluding to policy that prohibits people in U.S.-sanctioned territories from using its platform.Iranian OpenSea users started posting on Twitter on Thursday that their accounts were being deactivated or deleted with no prior warning. An Iranian NFT artist who goes by “Bornosor” stated on Twitter: “NOT A gm AT ALL. Woke up to my @opensea trading account being deactivated/deleted without notice or any explanation.”An OpenSea spokesperson spoke with Cointelegraph and noted that:“We have a zero-tolerance policy for the use of our services by sanctioned individuals or entities and people located in sanctioned countries. If we find individuals to be in violation of our sanctions policy, we take swift action to ban the associated accounts.”Also this week: Cointelegraph launches Innovation Circle — A private membership service for industry leadersWinners and LosersAt the end of the week, Bitcoin (BTC) is at $40,617, Ether (ETH) at $2,667 and XRP at $0.73. The total market cap is at $1.79 trillion, according to CoinMarketCap.Among the largest 100 cryptocurrencies, the top three altcoin gainers of the week are UMA (UMA) at 104.80%, Waves (WAVES) at 98.29% and THORChain (RUNE) at 64.14%.The top three altcoin losers of the week are Convex Finance (CVX) at -14.72%, Secret (SCRT) at -9.37% and Amp (AMP) at -8.46%. For more info on crypto prices, make sure to read Cointelegraph’s market analysis. Most Memorable Quotations“The demand for Bitcoin is so large in Senegal that it doesn’t matter how many exchanges you make.”Nourou, founder of Bitcoin Senegal“Eventually, the bot concludes the best move is to buy as soon as possible and never sell!”Tiago Vasconcelos, founder of Aceita Bitcoin, regarding the AI Bitcoin trading bot he coded“Now is a pivotal point in #Bitcoin’s evolution — we’re on the verge of mass adoption, and I think that I can make it happen faster.”Samson Mow, CEO of Pixelmatic and former chief strategy officer of Blockstream“Investors are speculating that crypto will become increasingly important as apolitical and trustless money in a time of escalating geopolitical uncertainty, conflict, and capital controls.”Arcane Research“Crypto has been one of the great stories in finance over the course of the last 15 years. And I’ll be clear, I’ve been in the naysayer camp over that period of time. But the crypto market today has a market capitalization of about $2 trillion in round numbers, which tells you that I haven’t been right on this call.”Ken Griffin, founder of Citadel“Everyone with a heartbeat and a telephone should be able to transact value all over the world.”Didi Taihuttu, father of the Bitcoin Family“Worldwide NFT search volume fell off a cliff. Reminds me A LOT of the crypto 2017 bull market and subsequent 2018 bear market. How long will the disinterest last until it starts to pick back up? Or will it?”Andrew Steinwold, managing partner of Sfermion“Ideally, there should be a threshold where people who earn below a certain level require zero compliance/verification, because really, if, for example, that threshold was at R5,000 / month [$330], what possible harm can a person do with that amount?”Hermann Vivier, founder of Bitcoin EkasiPrediction of the Week Bitcoin returns to test $40K as macro factors pile up to squash BTC bullsBitcoin once again showed no shortage of price movement this week. The asset bounced from around $38,000 on Sunday up to almost $45,500 on Wednesday before falling back below $41,000 on Friday, according to Cointelegraph’s BTC price index. Crypto Ed, a pseudonymous trader on Twitter, concisely summed up the scene for BTC: “Bullish above 42, bearish below 40k.” Prior to his bullish/bearish conclusion, Crypto Ed explained his rationale via Bitcoin charts and technical analysis. Bitcoin’s price appears to be mirroring global macro uncertainty as investors continue to assess monetary policy and the conflict in Ukraine.FUD of the Week SEC investigating NFT market over potential securities violations: ReportsThe U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC), led by crypto-skeptic Gary Gensler, is reportedly investigating NFT creators and marketplaces for apparent securities violations. According to anonymous sources who spoke to Bloomberg, the SEC is working to ascertain whether certain NFTs are being “utilized to raise money like traditional securities,” with the agency believed to have sent subpoenas demanding information on specific NFTs and other token offerings. With billions of dollars flowing into NFTs over the past 18 months, it was only a matter of time before the SEC began taking a deeper dive into the sector’s compliance standards.Former ConsenSys employees file for audit claiming ‘serious irregularities’A group claiming to represent 35 former ConsenSys AG (CAG) employees requested an audit on Tuesday, under the Swiss Code of Obligations, to investigate “serious irregularities” they allege occurred at CAG during mid-2020.The group alleged that “fundamental intellectual property and subsidiaries were illegally transferred” from CAG (also known as Mesh) to an entity called ConsenSys Software Incorporated. They also asserted that the deal was conducted unbeknownst to minority shareholders and was specifically made to benefit founder Joseph Lubin. The company responded by issuing a statement suggesting that the complaint emanated from just one former employee: “Mesh refutes the allegations underlying the legal action as well as those contained in the factually inaccurate press release that was self-authored by one of the former employees. […] Mesh looks forward to formally refuting the allegations and accusations in Swiss courts.”UK financial watchdog is investigating 50 unauthorized crypto firmsThe United Kingdom’s Financial Conduct Authority announced on Thursday that it is investigating 50 unauthorized crypto companies. The FCA also stated that it has pursued more than 300 cases on unregistered crypto firms in the last six months.  The move is part of a push to crack down on potentially dubious firms involved in scamming activities. According to the FCA, U.K. residents sent in 16,400 inquiries between April and September 2021, which included crypto-related scams. The regulatory body outlined that it would be implementing tools, including “more assertive supervision and enforcement action,” to deter bad actors in the local crypto sector.Best Cointelegraph FeaturesWhy decentralization isn’t the ultimate goal of Web3Decentralization of Web3 infrastructure is critical to its success as it gives us back the freedom that we are currently paying for using Web2.What the launch of the FBI crypto task force means for the digital asset spaceConsolidation of law enforcement activity sends a clear message to the industry: It is time to comply.How do you DAO? Can DAOs scale and other burning questionsWhat is a DAO, how do they work and are they the future or just a passing fad?

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 WeekFormer Cisco employee launches DAO to buy Denver BroncosA freshly launched decentralized autonomous organization dubbed BuyTheBroncosDAO is aiming to raise enough capital to purchase the NFL’s Denver Broncos for roughly $4 billion. The project is offering fans of various levels of wealth the chance to own a slice of the Broncos, as there is no minimum requirement on how much they need to contribute to participate to the DAO. “The purpose, essentially, is to establish an infrastructure so that fans from all walks of life can be owners of the Denver Broncos,” one of the DAO’s organizers and former Cisco employee Sean O’Brien told CNBC earlier this week.Dogecoin founder speaks out against ‘meme coins’Dogecoin co-founder Billy Markus blasted memecoin shillers this week, slamming projects that are not about memes or the community but are instead “made by people trying to get rich off of other people trying to get rich.” “Satire has some mildly clever elements to it. jokes are funny. spam advertising, lying about who is involved in a project, making up ridiculous promises, desperately trying to get Elon’s attention to promote you, etc. are not clever or amusing,” he said on Twitter. Markus highlighted Binance Smart Chain tokens, in particular, arguing that they have “made the internet worse in every way,” as he pointed to the mass amount of spammers who flood social media platforms with their dubious crypto advertisements.Bitcoin plunges as Putin announces ‘special military operation’ in UkraineThe crypto market tanked on Thursday following reports that the Russian government had invaded Ukraine, with assets such as Bitcoin, Ether and XRP dropping 7.3%, 9.5% and 9.2% respectively. The news of the invasion sparked major pushback from people across the globe, including members of the crypto community. Ethereum co-founder Vitalik Buterin, who was born in Russia, condemned the move on Twitter, stating: “This is a crime against the Ukrainian and Russian people. I want to wish everyone security, although I know that there will be no security. Glory to Ukraine.”By Friday, crypto markets reversed their post-Russian invasion declines after the United States announced it would be implementing sanctions against major Russian banks.Trudeau revokes emergencies act powers but the case for crypto growsCanadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau walked back the use of the Emergencies Act on Thursday. The order was invoked in the wake of mass protests across the country, including at critical border crossings between the United States and Canada. The order allowed the government to freeze $8 million from 210 bank accounts connected to Canadian “Freedom Convoy” protestors.  The highly contentious situation in Canada appears to be calming down now, however, with Trudeau noting that “we are confident that existing laws and bylaws are now sufficient to keep people safe.” The move to invoke the Emergencies Act one week prior caused a lot of pushback and debate; it also reiterated the viability of crypto, as the protestors were able to fundraise around 21 BTC after being shut off from banks and popular crowdfunding platforms such as GoFundMe.Tourism in El Salvador up 30% since Bitcoin adoption, minister saysEarlier this week Salvadoran Tourism Minister Morena Valdez claimed that the nation’s tourism industry surged more than 30% since the adoption of the Bitcoin Law in September 2021. In particular, Valdez stated that the influx of tourists from the U.S. has increased significantly to represent 60% of all travelers heading to the country at the tail end of 2021. “We did a poll to check the activity according to the before and after of Bitcoin. The tourism sector increased in November and December. This increased by more than 30%,” Valdez said in an interview with the local news agency El Salvador News English.Winners and LosersAt the end of the week, Bitcoin (BTC) is at $39,335, Ether (ETH) at $2,718 and XRP at $0.71. The total market cap is at $1.76 trillion, according to CoinMarketCap. Among the largest 100 cryptocurrencies, the top three altcoin gainers of the week are Anchor Protocol (ANC) at 63.75%, Terra (LUNA) at 32.59% and Maker (MKR) at 4.13%. The top three altcoin losers of the week are Convex Finance (CVX) at -27.07%, Harmony (ONE) at -19.65% and Oasis Network (ROSE) at -19.41%.For more info on crypto prices, make sure to read Cointelegraph’s market analysis. Most Memorable Quotations“Politicians who oppose Bitcoin are of the same brand as those who opposed the internet. It’s also an indicator of where they’re getting their money.”Aarika Rhodes, elementary school teacher and congressional candidate“Companies won’t hesitate to spend tens of millions on marketing but won’t spend a fraction of it on making sure there is something left to market.”Tree of Alpha, Twitter personality “It is interesting to note the deep bullishness for cryptocurrencies. Even in an extremely bearish crypto market in which values were to drop 80%, less than half of investors say they would reduce their investments or exit the market.”Marion Laboure, director of macro strategy and thematic research at Deutsche Bank “I’m not entirely sure what the SEC is planning on proving in the XRP litigation.”Joseph Hall, attorney and former managing executive for policy at the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission“If you’re not 100% sure you’ll always be on the right side of those in power, you’d better buy some #Bitcoin.”Samson Mow, chief strategy officer at Blockstream“We need Bitcoin to be legal tender in Mexico.”Indira Kempis, Mexican senator“Remember dogecoin was made 8 years ago. as satire. making fun of the idiotic coins. irony. satire. Current ‘meme’ coins aren’t even memes. they’re made by people trying to get rich off of other people trying to get rich. to each their own, but it is indeed a different thing.”Billy Markus, co-creator of Dogecoin“Institutions running algorithmic trading bots think BTC is a tech stock.”Ki Young Ju, CEO of CryptoQuantPrediction of the Week Ethereum to $10K? Classic bullish reversal pattern hints at potential ETH price rallyEther, the crypto industry’s second-largest asset by market capitalization, mostly traded between $2,750 and $2,350 this past week, according to Cointelegraph’s ETH price index. Although ETH’s price action experienced turbulence during the week, a chart pattern from market analyst and Twitter personality Wolf revealed a possible price target above $10,000. An ETH weekly candle chart from the analyst indicates a possible ascending triangle pattern playing out, which, long story short, could lead to ETH surpassing $10,000 based on how the chart pattern typically plays out. The chart from Wolf points to a target of about $13,250. Weekly chart patterns in general, however, typically take more time to play out than chart patterns crafted on shorter timeframes.Other thoughts and observations about ETH were also mentioned in Cointelegraph’s Wednesday article, including the possibility for a bull trap — an upward price fake-out of sorts — which would invalidate Wolf’s bullish price target.FUD of the Week SafeMoon pump-and-dump lawsuit targets Jake Paul, Soulja Boy and othersA bunch of A-list celebrities and pesky influencers have gotten themselves into hot water over the promotion of an alleged pump-and-dump scheme tied to the BNB Chain-based SafeMoon token.  In a class-action lawsuit, the team behind the token is accused of roping several popular figures to induce people to invest in SafeMoon via misleading information. Some of the more well-known names include musicians such as Nick Carter, Soulja Boy, Lil Yachty and YouTubers Jake Paul and Ben Phillips.According to court documents, SafeMoon and its subsidiaries mimicked Ponzi schemes by duping investors into purchasing the tokens under the pretext of unrealistic profit potential. Notably, it is also alleged that the project’s execs promptly fled the project as SafeMoon’s price started to tank heavily last year.Seller ‘rugs’ $30M CryptoPunks collection minutes before Sotheby’s auctionThe FUD alarm bells went off among fine art collectors this week after 0x650d, the pseudonymous owner of the CryptoPunks NFT “Punk It!” collection, suddenly withdrew from their Sotheby’s auction just moments before it was slated to go live. The collection, which contains 104 CryptoPunks, is estimated to be worth $30 million and was said to be the “highest-profile NFT sale of all time.” In the aftermath of the canceled auction, the would-be seller appeared to make fun of Sotheby’s as they discussed their motives in a blaze and sarcastic manner. For example, 0x650d first posted “nvm, decided to hodl” on Twitter and followed that up with a meme that bore the caption “Taking punks mainstream by rugging Sothebys.”Kazakh ministry halts illegal crypto mining operationsEarlier this week, 13 crypto mining operations accounting for a whopping 202 megawatts of power consumption were shut down by the Kazakhstan government. The Ministry of Energy of the Republic of Kazakhstan announced the shutdown on Monday as part of an ongoing move to regulate the local BTC sector and weed out illicit mining operations. Bitcoin mining has surged in popularity in the nation since China banned crypto mining last year, with Kazakhstan now accounting for the second-largest percentage of the global hash rate. While the government allows crypto mining, miners are legally required to obtain licenses, pay electricity bills on decent terms, and pay taxes.Best Cointelegraph FeaturesThe metaverse will bring a further erosion of privacyThe Metaverse isn’t coming, it’s already here. And that’s why we look at its impact on our privacy and how decentralization could help.Year 1602 revisited: Are DAOs the new corporate paradigm?“The ability to delegate your votes to industry or topic experts will allow owners to exercise a much stronger and clearer voice in the management of these companies.”The crypto oasis: How the UAE became the Middle East’s digital asset championThe nation has a patchwork of largely crypto-friendly, region-specific rules that can finally get standardized.

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$1T opportunity: JPMorgan becomes first major bank in the metaverseUnited States banking giant JPMorgan Chase has taken a dive into what it considers a significant up and coming arena of opportunity: the metaverse. The bank has recently opened a digital lounge called Onyx in Decentraland’s metaverse. Decentraland serves as one of many crypto industry projects utilizing blockchain to provide a digital world experience — in other words, a metaverse.  JPMorgan sees significant potential in the new movement toward digital worlds. “The metaverse will likely infiltrate every sector in some way in the coming years, with the market opportunity estimated at over $1 trillion in yearly revenues,” the bank said in a report. However, to reach its potential, the metaverse movement requires further development in several key areas, the report said.Onyx is also the name of JPMorgan’s blockchain-based payments system.FBI is launching team to address crypto exploitation: US Deputy Attorney GeneralThe U.S. Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) is putting together a special unit to go after illegal crypto activity, such as ransomware attacks. Armed with experts wielding knowledge of the digital asset space, the Virtual Asset Exploitation Unit will be the FBI’s team on the crypto crime front, according to comments from U.S. Deputy Attorney General Lisa Monaco at the Munich Cyber Security Conference. “Ransomware and digital extortion, like many other crimes fueled by cryptocurrency, only work if the bad guys get paid, which means we have to bust their business model,” Monaco explained. The new FBI team will act alongside the National Cryptocurrency Enforcement Team, which is headed up by the U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ). The DOJ also has plans to fight crypto crime on an international level, according to Monaco.SEC hits BlockFi with a $100 million penalty, gives 60 days to comply with a 1940 lawBlockFi came to terms with regulators this week in response to resistance from the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC), which had labeled the BlockFi Interest Account as a securities product. Operating since 2019, the offering in question from BlockFi lets users loan crypto and receive notable interest in return. BlockFi agreed to pay the SEC $50 million as penalty. In addition, 32 U.S. states took action against BlockFi, resulting in a further $50 million that BlockFi must pay to those regions — tallying $100 million total in penalties. Moving forward, BlockFi has a 60-day period to align the product with the Investment Company Act of 1940. In the meantime, BlockFi will halt onboarding new users until it becomes compliant with the regulation.Digital ruble trial goes live as Bank of Russia insists on Bitcoin banThe Bank of Russia announced this week that initial testing for its central bank digital currency (CBDC) was successful after several transfers of the digital ruble were made to Russian citizens.  A total of 12 financial institutions participated in the digital ruble pilot program, putting the central bank on track to launch its CBDC program later this year. The CBDC news came after anti-crypto comments from the head of the Bank of Russia, Elvira Nabiullina, the prior week. Because CDBCs are under the direct control of governments, they differ from traditional cryptocurrencies such as Bitcoin.Cointelegraph releases Top 100 in Crypto and Blockchain 2022This week, Cointelegraph unveiled its 2022 list of the top 100 most influential figures in the crypto and blockchain space. The Top 100 includes profiles of people and trends that impacted the crypto and blockchain space in 2021. Each profile also includes an overview of what we can expect from each influencer or trend for the remainder of 2022. Cointelegraph will unveil the list over the course of the coming days, releasing 10 profiles per day until all 100 are shown. The first group of 10 was revealed on Thursday, with Rekt Capital starting off the list at number 100. Cointelegraph has released prior installments of its top 100 list in previous years. Winners and LosersAt the end of the week, Bitcoin (BTC) is at $40,036, Ether (ETH) at $2,790 and XRP at $0.77. The total market cap is at $1.81 trillion, according to CoinMarketCap.Among the biggest 100 cryptocurrencies, the top three altcoin gainers of the week are Rally (RLY) at 18.86%, Neo (NEO) at 13.93% and Qtum (QTUM) at 9.58%. The top three altcoin losers of the week are IoTeX (IOTX) at -17.58%, Ethereum Classic (ETC) at -16.35% and Theta Network (THETA) at -16.17%. For more info on crypto prices, make sure to read Cointelegraph’s market analysis. Most Memorable Quotations“We’re literally burning the gas into the atmosphere just because it’s not economical to do anything with it. Instead, we can put it into a motor to produce electricity and use that to mine Bitcoin.”Kristian Csepcsar, chief marketing officer at Slush Pool“I mean, we can call them a gamble, but at the end, we always knew v1 [CryptoPunks] were not legit punks; they were simply artifacts that led to the creation of Punks. So they have a place in history, but I doubt that place is worth 1K ETH, lol.”lookinrare#0911, Discord user“It is becoming clear, however, that 2022 shall be a pivotal year when it comes to crypto-assets management.”Thomas Campione, blockchain and crypto-assets leader at PwC Luxembourg“I know the big ones (Bitcoiners) live in Portugal already. They are anonymous. They are not like me out there, but they already are here. They are spending their money on houses; they are spending their Bitcoins on everything.”Didi Taihuttu, father of the Bitcoin Family“We expect by this summer — pretty soon — to accept crypto for all of our state tax-related purposes.”Jared Polis, governor of Colorado “El Salvador’s adoption of Bitcoin as legal tender raises significant concerns about the economic stability and financial integrity of a vulnerable U.S. trading partner in Central America.”James Risch, United States senator“I certainly didn’t invest in crypto. I’m proud of the fact that I avoided it. It’s like some venereal disease.”Charlie Munger, vice chairman of Berkshire Hathaway“We have to abolish the last privilege of the rich, the financial ignorance.”Christophe de Beukelaer, member of the Parliament of the Brussels-Capital RegionPrediction of the Week BTC price dips below $40K as Wall Street open spells pain for Bitcoin bullsBitcoin turned lower in a somewhat turbulent week for markets. The asset tapped almost $45,000 on Tuesday before falling to around $39,500 by Friday, according to Cointelegraph’s BTC price index. Twitter personality and trader Rekt Capital expects Bitcoin to continue range-bound price movement within the bottom half of a sizable “macro” price range spanning from about $30,000 to $69,000. “$BTC will continue to occupy the lower half of the macro range until further notice,” Rekt Capital said in a tweet.FUD of the Week UK tax authority makes first NFT seizure in VAT fraud caseThree individuals were apprehended for allegedly dodging taxes owed to the United Kingdom’s government, with the country’s taxation body, Her Majesty’s Revenue and Customs, taking control of three nonfungible tokens (NFTs) in the process. The confiscated NFTs were considered seized assets and were not used by the suspects in their purported tax evasion scheme. Under false identities, the suspects allegedly avoided value-added taxes to the tune of $1.8 million by utilizing over 200 phony companies. 4% of crypto whales are criminals, and they hold $25B among them: ChainalysisOver 4,000 big crypto players have allegedly amassed some of their wealth via questionable means, according to a new report from Chainalysis. The report noted 4,068 questionable crypto whales in the industry, as per 2021 and 2022 data.Chainalysis classifies criminal whales as private crypto wallets holding more than $1 million worth of digital assets, with more than 10% of their balances coming from illicit addresses.  The write-up from Chainalysis also included a bevy of additional information.Canada invokes ‘Emergencies Act’ targeting crowdfunding and cryptoOn Tuesday, Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau invoked the Emergencies Act in an attempt to block fundraising efforts by the self-styled “Freedom Convoy,” which has been staging large-scale protests across the country. According to Chrystia Freeland, Canadian deputy prime minister, the move to block funds falls under the umbrella of protection against terrorist financing. Donors had contributed over $19 million to the protestors through online fundraising platforms GoFundMe and GiveSendGo. Since those funds have been blocked from reaching the protestors, some donors have resorted to funding the movement using Bitcoin.Best Cointelegraph FeaturesCrypto innovators of color restricted by the rules aimed to protect them“It’s an evolution here in the U.S. moreso — technologies are adopted by the wealthier people first […] and then onto others.”Crypto at the Olympics: NFT skis, Bitcoin bobsledders and CBDC controversyBitcoin and nonfungible tokens are all over the Olympics this year while China’s CBDC is there too amid a controversial rollout.Wormhole hack illustrates danger of DeFi cross-chain bridgesThe second-largest decentralized finance hack to date brings about questions about the Solana ecosystem and cross-chain protocols.

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 WeekRussian government and central bank agree to treat Bitcoin as currencyThe Russian government and central bank made an agreement to regulate crypto as an “analogue of currencies” instead of “digital financial assets.” The updated regulation is part of a draft law that is slated to launch on Feb. 18, and will see approved cryptocurrencies such as Bitcoin function in lawful exchanges through the banking system or licensed intermediaries. As part of the incoming framework, crypto transactions worth more than 600,000 rubles ($8,000) would have to be declared; otherwise, such transactions could be considered a criminal act. Those who illegally accept cryptocurrencies as payment will incur fines.Upcoming Apple iPhone feature to give merchants a way to accept crypto paymentsThis week, Apple unveiled a new Tap to Pay feature for its iPhones that will enable businesses and merchants to conduct contactless point-of-sale transactions with Apple Pay, credit cards, debit cards and digital wallets. The move also enables customers who use crypto payment methods such as Coinbase Card and Crypto.com Visa Card to use their holdings to make payments via Tap to Pay. However, it will most likely involve the conversion of crypto to fiat in real time to do so. Apple announced Stripe as the first platform to offer Tap to Pay on the iPhone and indicated that other payment platforms and apps will introduce the feature throughout 2022.XRP gains 30% after Ripple gets permission to explain ‘fair notice defense’ vs. SECThe price of XRP surged 30% this week on the back of positive developments in the long-running court case between Ripple Labs and the United States Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). According to court documents from last week, Judge Analisa Torres permitted Ripple to respond to the SEC’s memorandum of law in support of the motion to strike Ripple’s fourth affirmative defense. The judge also ordered for the unsealing of three documents concerning the case, including two email threads belonging to Ripple CEO Brad Garlinghouse and co-founder Chris Larsen respectively, as well as Garlinghouse’s deposition notice.Shortly after the news was published, the price of XRP rallied around 30% between Feb. 3 and Feb. 7. The gains have held up well over that period, with CoinMarketCap data showing a 32% gain in XRP’s price over the past seven days at the time of writing.YouTube sees ‘incredible potential’ in NFT video sales despite backlash threatYouTube is looking at integrating NFTs, blockchain and Web3 tech into its platform in a bid to roll out new features for its partnered creators. In a Thursday blog post, YouTube’s chief product officer Neal Mohan also stated the firm is aiming to ramp up its metaverse-based services. Mohan outlined that YouTube creators are looking for new ways to make content and add revenue streams, and the Web3 tech could be the solution, stating: “Web3 also opens up new opportunities for creators. We believe new technologies like blockchain and NFTs can allow creators to build deeper relationships with their fans. Together, they’ll be able to collaborate on new projects and make money in ways not previously possible.”McDonald’s files trademarks for McMetaverse restaurants… that deliverIn a move that seems entirely unnecessary, fast-food giant McDonald’s was said to be eyeing the metaverse this week after reports surfaced that the firm had registered 10 virtual world-related trademarks.  Trademark attorney and founder of Gerben Perrott PLLC, Josh Gerben, stated via Twitter that the McDonald’s trademark applications involved “a virtual restaurant featuring actual and virtual goods” and “operating a virtual restaurant featuring home delivery.”Based on the application, McDonald’s seeks to provide downloadable multimedia files for artwork, audio and video files, and NFTs. At the same time, it’s also working on providing virtual concerts and events.Winners and LosersAt the end of the week, Bitcoin (BTC) is at $43,485 Ether (ETH) is at $3,103 and XRP is at $0.81. The total market cap is at $1.67 trillion, according to CoinMarketCap.The top three gainers of the week are Gala (GALA) at 63.46%, IoTeX (IOTX) at 39.76% and Shiba Inu (SHIB) at 39.27%. The top three altcoin losers of the week are Maker (MKR) at -8%, Convex Finance (CVX) at -5.8%  and Nexo (NEXO) at -3.42%.For more info on crypto prices, make sure to read Cointelegraph’s market analysis. Most Memorable Quotations“After working in traditional finance for over a decade, I became disillusioned by the many limitations and injustices I witnessed. The industry is plagued by unreasonable fees and inefficient systems. In various ways, these all serve to favor the wealthy and suppress the underprivileged.” Jack Tao, founder and CEO of Phemex“To be a world leader, Canada needs to make sure crypto-asset experts and investors are telling us what policy they need or what policy they don’t need.” Michelle Rempel Garner, member of parliament in the House of Commons of Canada“I think you’re going to see every brand that you can think of make these [metaverse-related trademark] filings within the next 12 months. I don’t think anyone wants to be the next Blockbuster and just completely ignore a new technology that’s coming.” Josh Gerben, trademark attorney and founder of Gerben Perrott PLLC“As Web3 and blockchain technologies move forward and the crypto market comes of age, we know that media is an essential element to build widespread consumer understanding and education.” Changpeng Zhao, founder and CEO of Binance“Today’s arrests, and the department’s largest financial seizure ever, show that cryptocurrency is not a safe haven for criminals.” Lisa Monaco, deputy attorney general for the U.S. Department of Justice“We see the future of the metaverse as being truly decentralized and existing almost completely on the blockchain, so the future of marriage in the metaverse will not need to have a record of their marriage in the real world.” Jordan Rose, founder and president of Rose Law Group“There are dozens of artists preparing lawsuits against OpenSea for selling infringing NFTs. These examples are a sneak preview of a wave of litigation heading towards the space. It’s both good and bad in that it discourages creativity and growth in some ways, but it’s beneficial because it will ultimately help provide some guidelines in terms of clear legal parameters and guidelines for the space.” Jeff Gluck, CEO of CXIP Labs“The current [Bitcoin] supply dynamics can best be described as a powder keg. The question remains who lights the match.” FSInsight’s “Digital Assets In A Post-Cycle World” reportPrediction of the Week A quarter of people will have spent time in the metaverse by 2026: ResearchTech research and consulting company Gartner published a report on Monday estimating that 25% of people will be spending at least one hour a day in the metaverse by 2026, for activities such as work, shopping, education, socializing and entertainment. The ambitious estimate appears to be the brainchild of Gartner vice president Marty Resnick, who predicted in the report that around 30% of the world’s organizations will have metaverse-based products and services within the next four years: “Eventually, they will take place in a single environment — the metaverse — with multiple destinations across technologies and experiences.”FUD of the Week DoJ seizes $3.6B in crypto and arrests two in connection with 2016 Bitfinex hackThe U.S. Department of Justice dropped a bombshell announcement on Tuesday, revealing that it had made arrests of two individuals and seized 119,756 Bitcoin ($5.1 billion at current prices) stolen from the Bitfinex exchange in 2016. Ilya Lichtenstein and his wife Heather Morgan are alleged to have conspired to launder crypto connected to the infamous Bitfinex hack, with the DoJ stating that it had traced 25,000 siphoned BTC being transferred to financial accounts owned by the pair. “In a futile effort to maintain digital anonymity, the defendants laundered stolen funds through a labyrinth of cryptocurrency transactions,”  said Deputy Attorney General Lisa Monaco. “Thanks to the meticulous work of law enforcement, the department once again showed how it can and will follow the money, no matter what form it takes.”Central Bank of Ireland nixes crypto funds: Too difficult ‘for a retail investor’The Central Bank of Ireland stated this week that it may not approve crypto investment funds because they are supposedly too complicated for the lowly retail investor. The comments were made via the February 2022 “Securities Markets Risk Outlook Report” in which the central bank warned that the crypto market provides a “potential threat to investor protection.”  The central bank said:“The Central Bank is highly unlikely to approve a UCITS or a Retail Investor AIF proposing any exposure to crypto-assets, taking into account the specific risks attached to crypto-assets and the possibility that appropriate risk assessment could be difficult for a retail investor without a high degree of expertise.”BBC pulls doco as doubts emerge over trader who turned $50 into $8MThe British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC) pulled a documentary featuring a 20-year-old crypto trader who claimed to have turned $50 into $8 million last year. The story was set to explore how Hanad Hassan made his fortune and started to give back to the community following his newfound wealth. The BBC’s promo for the documentary stated that Hassan launched a crypto project called Orfano that donated all of its profits to charity, stating that as much as $200,000 had been allocated to a good cause last year. However, The Guardian essentially called out the BBC for conducting shoddy research, with the publication’s media editor, Jim Waterson, writing:“The Guardian asked the BBC if it was confident in [Hassan’s] claimed financial returns and questioned why the program’s promotional material did not mention that Hassan’s cryptocurrency Orfano was abruptly shut down in October, with many unhappy investors claiming they were left out of pocket as a result.”“The BBC swiftly said it had withdrawn the show but did not make any further comment on its editorial checks,” Waterson continued.Best Cointelegraph FeaturesCharity hack fixes your crypto CGT bill: EndaomentRobbie Heeger’s Endaoment has facilitated the donation of over $30 million of cryptocurrency to 243 different charities. 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