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 WeekHodlers beware! New malware targets MetaMask and 40 other crypto walletsAccording to a report from security researcher 3xp0rt, a powerful new malware variant known as the “Mars Stealer,” an upgrade of the information-stealing Oski trojan of 2019, can target more than 40 browser-based crypto wallets, including MetaMask and Coinbase Wallet, along with popular two-factor authentication (2FA) extensions. The nefarious software utilizes a grabber function that steals private keys after it has been downloaded, unbeknownst to the user who may have visited or utilized various channels, such as file-hosting websites, torrent clients and any other shady downloaders.Notably, the malware checks the set language of the device, and if it matches the language ID of locations such as Kazakhstan, Uzbekistan and Russia, the software leaves the system without any malicious activity. However, for any device with a language outside of those categories, the malware targets files holding sensitive information, such as crypto wallets’ address info and private keys. Then, it leaves without a trace.Jack Dorsey: Diem was a waste of time, Meta should’ve focused on BTCTwitter founder and former CEO Jack Dorsey has unsurprisingly slammed the move of a competitor, with Meta (formerly Facebook) taking the hit for its “wasted effort and time” not working on Bitcoin. Dorsey is an avid Bitcoin supporter who has made the asset a focus of his newer, shinier company, Block. During an interview with BTC bull Michael Saylor on Tuesday, Dorsey commented on the recent shutdown of Meta’s stablecoin project, Diem, which has been plagued with regulatory pushback since it began. “Those two or three years or however long it’s been could’ve been spent making Bitcoin more accessible for more people around the world,” the almighty Dorsey said from his throne.Rise of Web3: Metaverse tokens surge as Meta’s share price plungesSpeaking of Meta, the firm’s share price took a nosedive of around 26% on Thursday following a lackluster quarterly earnings report that revealed an annual profit decrease and a decline in daily active users. Meta reported $33.67 billion worth of total revenue for Q4 2021, compared to $28 billion the year prior. However, its net income fell to $10.28 billion from $11.2 billion one year earlier. A hefty $10 billion investment in its Reality Labs division also contributed to the disappointing quarterly results. While the centralized metaverse-focused firm faced choppy waters, native tokens from decentralized counterparts in The Sandbox (SAND) and Decentraland (MANA) jumped 17.5% and 20%, respectively. Commenting on the news, Animoca Brands chairman and co-founder Yat Siu suggested that this was part of a broader trend in which the top talent and users from Web2 platforms are shifting to the open world of Web3. $2.5B in stolen BTC from Bitfinex hack awakensAccording to blockchain analytics bot Whale Alert, a hefty $2.5 billion worth of BTC obtained via the 2016 Bitfinex exchange hack moved from the hacker’s wallet to an unknown address on Tuesday. The funds have remained inactive since 2016 as the hackers are essentially unable to cash out the holdings. Many onlookers have pondered whether the hacker has started moving the funds around again to manipulate the market and scare investors into selling their BTC. The largest transaction Whale Alert detected was around 10,000 BTC, or $383 million, while other transactions amounted to as little as 0.29 BTC. The wallet address that received the blacklisted BTC now holds a total of 94,643.29 BTC, which is around $3.6 billion.Another solo Bitcoin miner solves valid block, becoming the 4th in 2022A solo Bitcoin miner and Solo CKPool user with a whooping 1.14 petahashes per second (PH/s) of computing power was lucky enough to generate a $240,000 block reward on Tuesday. While the odds of it happening were estimated to be lower than 20%, it is apparently the fourth “blockfind” for the CKPool since mid-January. The miner utilizes the Solo CKPool, a service that offers anonymous solo Bitcoin mining for a fee. While the miner is described as a “whale” in this instance due to their high computational power, in January a CKPool miner with a minuscule hash rate of just 126 terahashes per second (TH/s) was able to solve a valid block. CKPool’s solo miners have solved 264 blocks over the entirety of the Bitcoin blockchain’s existence, representing a mere 0.037% of the total 721,240 blocks solved.Winners and LosersAt the end of the week, Bitcoin (BTC) is at $37,948, Ether (ETH) is at $2,830 and XRP is at $0.61. The total market cap is at $1.76 trillion, according to CoinMarketCap.The top two altcoin gainers of the week are OpenDAO (SOS) at 76.22% and ConstitutionDAO (PEOPLE) at 61.80%. The top three altcoin losers of the week are Moonbeam (GLMR) at -22.63%, Frax Share (FXS) at -18.20% and Telcoin (TEL) at -14.74%.For more info on crypto prices, make sure to read Cointelegraph’s market analysis. Most Memorable Quotations“Structurally, on-chain, it’s not a bear market setup. Even though I would say we’re at peak fear. No doubt about it, people are really scared, which is typically […] an opportunity to buy.” Willy Woo, Bitcoin on-chain analyst  “This whole thing with Libra and then Diem, I think there’s a ton of lessons [there]. […] Hopefully, they learned a lot, but I think there’s a lot of wasted effort and time.” Jack Dorsey, founder and CEO of Block“Do not ask me to do a fucking NFT.” Kanye West, hip hop icon “Losing a half-million dollars worth of crypto by mistake is something that needs to be addressed before crypto can become mainstream. When it’s this easy to lose everything, there’s no way your grandma is going to be using it.” u/0150r, Reddit user “If you only focus on eliminating risks associated with a specific industry in regulatory efforts, you would also eliminate any potential benefits and opportunities that would otherwise be offered by the same industry.” Elçin Karatay, Turkish law expert“I think we’re not entering a long-term crypto winter. […] There have been changes in expectations of interest rates, and that’s been moving crypto markets. But it’s been moving markets more generally as well.” Sam Bankman-Fried, CEO of FTX“We can avoid making the same mistakes we did with Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, and social media generally if we can develop an intellectual framework for regulating the Metaverse now.”  Bradley Tusk, CEO and founder of Tusk Ventures“It’s become clear to me that #Bitcoin will be the one asset and L1 still around in 20+ years with increased compounding relevance over time.” David Marcus, co-founder of DiemPrediction of the Week Can Ethereum price reach $4K after a triple-support bounce?Pseudonymous chart analyst Wolf has read the tea leaves and forecasted that Ether will continue its recent rebound up to around the $4,000 region. Central to Wolf’s short-term prediction over the next couple months is whether Ether’s so-called triple-support scenario could push the price past $3,330, which would establish an inverse-head-and-shoulders (IH&S) pattern that could launch the price toward late-2021 levels. In a “perfect” scenario, a break above the IH&S neckline may push the Ether price to as high as the maximum distance between the neckline and the head, which would be around $4,000 in this case. FUD of the Week Wormhole token bridge loses $321M in largest hack so far in 2022The Wormhole token bridge was the victim of a major breach this week, as attackers made off with a whopping 120,000 Wrapped Ether (wETH) worth roughly $321 million at the time. The cross-chain bridge supports several blockchains, allowing the attacker to target the Solana side of the bridge by minting 120,000 wETH. They then redeemed 93,750 wETH for ETH, worth roughly $254 million, on the Ethereum network. The Wormhole team stated shortly after the incident that it was working to replenish enough ETH “to ensure wETH is backed 1:1,” with reports surfacing the following day that venture capital fund Jump Crypto had dipped into its own pocket to do so. The hacker has also been offered a bounty of $10 million by the Wormhole team to return the funds. Youtuber and alleged thief publicly refuses to return investors’ funds after $750k rug pullDisgraced content creator and influencer Paul “Ice Poseidon” Denino found himself in hot water this week after YouTuber and “internet detective” Coffeezilla published a not-so-flattering series of videos about him. Coffeezilla initially posted a video interview between the two in which Ice Poseidon allegedly confirmed that he rug-pulled around $750,000 worth of investors’ money from a crypto project he launched called “CxCoin.”The CxCoin project was pitched to his investors as a long-term investment. However, within a few weeks of launch, the influencer said he stopped working on the project and decided to pull out around $300,000 from the liquidity pool. He cited the crashing crypto market as the reason for this move, and then said he wouldn’t return the funds. He also allegedly bought a brand new Tesla only a few days after the funds went missing.Kanye West says no to NFTsHip hop legend Ye, more commonly known as his birth name Kanye West, shut down any notion of jumping into NFTs on Monday after he made a strongly worded Instagram post to his 10.7 million followers stating, “Do not ask me to do a fucking NFT,” and that he only wants to work on “building real products in the real world.”“STOP ASKING ME TO DO NFTs I’M NOT FINNA CO-SIGN … FOR NOW I’M NOT ON THAT WAVE I MAKE MUSIC AND PRODUCTS IN THE REAL WORLD,” he stated in a follow-up comment on his Instagram post. While some might call it FUD that a major celebrity and cultural icon like Kanye West is not hopping aboard the NFT gravy train, it is kind of refreshing to see a popular figure not mindlessly shill something they do not fully comprehend.Best Cointelegraph FeaturesWhat the hell is Web3 anyway?Web3 — or Web 3.0 as crypto boomers like to call it — is a topical buzzword with only a very vague definition. Everyone agrees it has something to do with a blockchain-based evolution of the internet but, beyond that, what is it, really?Web3 developer growth hits an all-time high as ecosystem maturesWeb3 developer growth hit an all-time high in 2021, yet challenges lie ahead for new developers flooding the space. NFT philanthropy demonstrates new ways of giving backOrganizations and artists are using NFTs to give back to children in need, demonstrating new potential for nonfungible tokens. 

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 WeekAnalysts say Bitcoin’s bounce at $36K means ‘it’s time to start thinking about a bottom’Bitcoin had a turbulent week, its price dropping as low as $33,300 and surging as high as $38,000 before retracting back to the $36,000 region at the time of writing. Many analysts have attributed the uninspiring performance of BTC, along with other assets such as stocks, to macro factors such as expectations that the United States Federal Reserve will embark on several interest rate hikes throughout 2022 to tame inflation. While many people claim the Fed’s actions will put an end to the current bull market, other forward-looking individuals such as Bollinger Bands creator John Bollinger have questioned whether the market bottom is in and if it’s time to accumulate and hodl again. “It’s time to start thinking about a bottom in cryptos,” Bollinger tweeted. “However, the ability to get outside the lower Bollinger Band repeatedly strongly suggests a retest of some sort will be needed. My plan is wait for a bottom and a bounce, then look for a retest as an entry.”NFL star’s massive tax bill highlights problems with BTC salariesSpeaking of Bitcoin woes, someone who may be feeling the sting of the current state of the market is NFL star Odell “OBJ” Beckham Jr. On Nov. 12 last year, OBJ signed a one-year deal with the Los Angeles Rams worth $750,000. A few weeks later, he announced a partnership with Cash App to receive 100% of that yearly salary in BTC. At the time, Bitcoin was breaking new all-time highs around $69,044 but has since plummeted around 46% to $36,000. Sports business analyst and senior executive producer for The Action Network Darren Rovell said that OBJ’s salary is now worth significantly less than it was when he signed the deal. However, he appears to have used some fuzzy math in coming up with his numbers given that NFL salaries are paid weekly, not upfront.Fading power? Weak DOGE spike after Elon Musk makes McDonald’s offerOn Tuesday, erratic billionaire, Tesla CEO and space tycoon Elon Musk offered to eat a Happy Meal from McDonald’s live on TV if the global fast-food giant started accepting Dogecoin as an official payment method. The founder of Tesla, who allegedly obtained that title via intense litigation against the firm’s actual founders many moons ago, has often sent shock waves across crypto markets with a single tweet. However, it appears his influence may finally be waning. On this occasion, DOGE only spiked a mere 7% to roughly $0.145 after his tweet and has since dropped back to $0.138 at the time of writing. Around 10 hours after his tweet, McDonald’s responded by stating, “Only if Tesla accepts Grimacecoin,” making reference to a fake coin depicting Grimace, a fuzzy purple McDonaldland mascot introduced in the 1970s.Eth2 is no more after Ethereum Foundation ditches name in rebrandThe Ethereum Foundation revealed that it had removed all references to “Eth1” and “Eth2” this week in favor of calling the original blockchain the “execution layer” and the upgraded proof-of-stake (PoS) chain the “consensus layer.” Individual features of the network such as the Beacon Chain, “the merge,” and shard chains are now also referred to as “upgrades.” The foundation cited several reasons for its decision to upgrade its terminology, arguing that the previous terms provided a “broken mental model for new users” and that the rebrand helps with scam prevention, inclusivity and staking clarity. Under the new terminology, the combination of the execution layer (Eth1) and the consensus layer (Eth2) will be labeled as “Ethereum” moving forward. “One major problem with the Eth2 branding is that it creates a broken mental model for new users of Ethereum. They intuitively think that Eth1 comes first and Eth2 comes after. Or that Eth1 ceases to exist once Eth2 exists,” the foundation wrote, adding that “neither of these is true. By removing Eth2 terminology, we save all future users from navigating this confusing mental model.”YouTube head of gaming Ryan Wyatt to resign and join Polygon Studios as CEOYouTube’s head of gaming Ryan Wyatt announced on Tuesday that he will be leaving the firm in February to pursue his passion for blockchain and Web3 development.Wyatt has lined up a role as CEO of Polygon Studios, the gaming and NFT arm of the layer-2 Ethereum scaling network. Polygon reportedly has plans to support its subsidiary studio with $100 million worth of funding towards Web3 and NFT gaming projects. “I will be focusing on growing the developer ecosystem through investment, marketing and developer support and bridging the gap between Web 2.0 and 3.0,” Wyatt said. “I’ll be leading the Polygon Studios organization across gaming, entertainment, fashion, news, sports and more.”Winners and LosersAt the end of the week, Bitcoin (BTC) is at $36,580, Ether (ETH) is at $2,394 and XRP is at $0.59. The total market cap is at $1.65 trillion, according to CoinMarketCap.The top two altcoin gainers of the week are Son of Babydoge (SOB) at 385383025% and PsyOptions (PSY) at 1632684%.  The top three altcoin losers of the week are Mercenary (MGOLD) at -100%, Ruyi (RYB) at -99.99% and MYTEAMFINANCE (MYF) at -99.97%. For more info on crypto prices, make sure to read Cointelegraph’s market analysis. Most Memorable Quotations“Overall, the Fed is comfortable with equity and risk markets selling off as it tightens financial conditions and so could reduce inflation. Bond yields have risen after the meetings, equity and crypto markets have given back gains. The Fed continues to add downside risks to risky markets.” Bilal Hafeez, CEO and head of research at Macro Hive “Facebook seems to be the antithesis of what actual consumers want their digital futures to look like. […] Mark [Zuckerberg] and his team are not the best custodians of our digital futures.” Michael Auerbach, founder of Subversive Capital “We need simplicity of usage. We need easy programmability. We need composability that is natural to the applications. I don’t see the current Ethereum evolutions targeting any of those goals.” Illia Polosukhin, co-founder of Near Protocol“Of course, we also have certain competitive advantages here, especially in the so-called mining. I mean the surplus of electricity and the well-trained personnel available in the country.” Vladimir Putin, President of Russia“We’re not necessarily out there looking for celebrities, but when they make a blatant or open comment that says ‘Hey, IRS, you should probably come look at me,’ that’s what we do.”  Ryan Korner, IRS criminal investigation agent “El Salvador just bought 410 Bitcoin for only 15 million dollars. Some guys are selling really cheap.”Nayib Bukele, President of El Salvador“I will eat a Happy Meal on TV if McDonald’s accepts Dogecoin.”Elon Musk, CEO of Tesla “When it comes to custody, customers want to wake up in the morning knowing their assets are still there. Security in the digital asset space has evolved over the last few years to provide better control and better transparency — that’s why most of us are using multi-party computation today,” Michael Shaulov, CEO of FireblocksPrediction of the Week ETH to hit $20-trillion market cap by 2030: Ark InvestCathie Wood’s Ark Invest bullishly predicted that Ether could reach a total market cap of around $20 trillion within the next 10 years, suggesting an average ETH price of between $170,000 and $180,000. The optimistic prediction came via Ark’s “Big Ideas 2022” report, with the firm highlighting the Ethereum network’s rapid rate of adoption and growth in utility and efficiency over the past couple of years as key indicators for future price targets. According to Ark, smart contracts and decentralized applications on Ethereum are “usurping traditional financial functions at the margin.” The report highlighted that banking and lending, exchanges, brokerages, asset management, insurance and derivatives can all be found on Ethereum-based smart contracts.FUD of the Week Qubit Finance suffers $80 million loss following hackIt was reported on Friday that Binance Smart Chain-based protocol Qubit Finance was hacked, resulting in an estimated loss of more than $80 million worth of digital assets. The addresses linked to the assault stole 206,809 Binance Coin tokens from Qubit’s QBridge protocol. According to blockchain analysis firm PeckShield, the protocol was hacked to create “a huge amount of xETH collateral” that was subsequently used to drain the entire quantity of BNB stored on QBridge. The Qubit team released a statement notifying clients that they are still monitoring the hacker and their impacted assets. The post explained that the team has contacted the attacker to offer the maximum reward as determined by their bounty program. There may be some hope in getting a large portion of the funds back, as supposed white hats lately have been returning the funds in exchange for decently sized bounties.Indonesian regulator takes cue from Islamic NGOs, bars crypto sales for institutionsIndonesia’s financial watchdog Otoritas Jasa Keuangan (OJK) has come out with an anti-crypto stance, warning local financial institutions on Tuesday against offering or facilitating any crypto asset sales.OKJ’s official Instagram account posted the warning, sounding the alarm over the usual negative crypto tropes such as the growing number of Ponzi schemes and market volatility-related risks.The post also quoted the chairman Wimboh Santoso, who stated that financial institutions are strictly prohibited from offering crypto sale services in any form.“OJK has strictly prohibited financial service institutions from using, marketing, and/or facilitating crypto asset trading,” he wrote in an official Instagram post.More evidence game devs hate NFTs and cryptoData from the latest edition of the annual “State Of The Game Industry 2022” by the Game Developers Conference revealed that most game developers and studios have no interest in developing or working with NFTs or crypto payments.The survey polled 2,700 game devs, and 72% of respondents indicated that their studio is “not interested” in integrating crypto as a payment tool, while 70% stated that they had no interest in NFTs. Furthermore, a mere 1% outlined that they were already working with NFT tech or crypto. There were also 14 comments posted from respondents in the survey regarding NFTs and crypto, with only one input holding positive views. Regarding NFTs, one developer in particular wrote: “How this hasn’t been identified as a pyramid scheme is beyond me.”Best Cointelegraph FeaturesHere’s how to keep your crypto safeThe first step in compounding gains with crypto investments is to be super diligent and to avoid losing your vigilance.Bitcoin ‘Doji’ points to bullish reversal scenario as BTC holds $36K supportBTC is down more than 50% from its $69,000 all-time high and traders seem to have no clue about the cryptocurrency’s next move. Blockchain-enabled digital fashion creates new business models for brandsA “digital-first” model is disrupting the fashion sector, as blockchain technology shows advanced capabilities in Web3 e-commerce and sustainability.

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 WeekNFT-focused Animoca Brands valued at $5B following $358M raiseNFT and virtual property-focused firm Animoca Brands secured $358 million worth of funding earlier this week at a valuation of $5 billion. The company said the fresh funds will go towards financing strategic acquisitions and investments, product development, and IP accumulation. The firm has gone from strength to strength over the past 12 months, raising more than $216 million in 2021, while its valuation has more than doubled since its previous capital raise in October.  A key area of focus for Animoca is GameFi, with the firm pointing to research suggesting that the video gaming sector will grow to around $829 billion by 2028. The firm is also invested heavily in the virtual property and Metaverse space, with The Sandbox metaverse being one of its prime jewels.Bitcoin dumps to hit six-month lows near $38KBitcoin’s price dropped a hefty 7.5% in the space of 12 hours to briefly sit around $38,000 in the early hours of Friday morning (UTC). During the depths of the selloff on Tuesday, BTC’s price fell below $35,000.It is unclear what sparked the sharp price dip and whether it is purely crypto-related or a symptom of a larger trend across the traditional financial market. However, it is quite certain that, while BTC and other assets are down, crypto influencers will be flocking to Twitter to cheesily ask their followers if they have “bought the dip yet?” like they do every single time the markets are in the red. One potential reason for Bitcoin’s downfall could be that bears are trying to tank the price so that they hit their targets before their futures contracts expire. The InvesetAnswers Twitter account, which has over 85,000 followers, suggested that bears “need #Bitcoin under $41,000 to pocket $132 million in gains” by Friday.OpenSea surpasses $3.5B in monthly Ether trading volume setting new ATHWhile the crypto market may have cooled in January, it appears that the NFT sector is booming with countless investors who are aping into tokenized collectibles, among other things.  It was reported on Monday that top NFT marketplace OpenSea had reached a new all-time high in terms of monthly volume after it topped $3.5 billion. At the time of writing, the figure stands at a whopping $4.3 billion, suggesting an average daily volume of around $204 million in January so far. The surge in NFT trade volume appears to be led by the price increases of several Yuga Labs projects such as the Bored Ape Yacht Club, the Mutant Ape Yacht Club and the Bored Ape Kennel Club.An Indonesian 22-year-old makes $1M by selling NFT selfies on OpenSeaReports surfaced at the start of this week regarding a crafty 22-year-old college student from Indonesia who made around $1 million selling NFTs depicting five years’ worth of selfies. Semarang-based computer science student Sultan Gustaf Al Ghozali converted and sold nearly 1,000 selfie images as NFTs on OpenSea. According to Ghozali, he took photos of himself, either standing or sitting in front of his PC for five years, as a way to look back on his journey to graduation. He set the initial price for each NFT selfie at $3 without expecting interest from serious buyers, but the project exploded in popularity on the back of support from prominent members of Crypto Twitter.Microsoft’s massive Metaverse move: Buying Activision for $69BMicrosoft announced on Tuesday that it is acquiring gaming giant Activision Blizzard for $95 per share at a valuation of $68.7 billion, with the deal slated to close in the 2023 fiscal year. Activision Blizzard boasts a strong list of iconic gaming series such as Call of Duty, Overwatch and World of Warcraft. Activision titles will be added to Microsoft’s Xbox and PC Game Pass service. Microsoft noted that the acquisition will help the company provide the “building blocks for the Metaverse.” CEO and chairman Satya Nadella explained:“Gaming is the most dynamic and exciting category in entertainment across all platforms today and will play a key role in the development of metaverse platforms.”Winners and LosersAt the end of the week on Friday, Bitcoin (BTC) is at $38,651, Ether (ETH) at $2,807 and XRP at $0.68. The total market cap is at $1.80 trillion, according to CoinMarketCap.Among the biggest 100 cryptocurrencies, the top two altcoin gainers of the week are Perpetual Protocol (PERP) at 3.62% and BitTorrent (BTT) at 2.04%.  The top three altcoin losers of the week are Harmony (ONE) at -35.08%, Loopring (LRC) at -34.25% and Kadena (KDA) at -32.04%.For more info on crypto prices, make sure to read Cointelegraph’s market analysis. Most Memorable Quotations“Most crypto assets currently use distributed ledger technology (DLT), it might be that this changes as the technology and industry evolve. Therefore, the government proposes to remove the reference to DLT from the definition of qualifying crypto assets.”Her Majesty’s Treasury (United Kingdom) report“After doing a lot of research on Bitcoin, I really believe it is the future of money, man. Bitcoin is valuable, secure, and no one can mess with it.”Francis Ngannou, UFC heavyweight champion“Bitcoin 90-day correlation to the S&P 500 is currently at its highest since October 2020.”Arcane Research report“Bitcoin is in a unique phase, I think, of transitioning from a risk-on to risk-off global digital store of value, replacing gold and becoming global collateral. So, I think that’s going to be happening this year.”Mike McGlone, senior commodity strategist at Bloomberg“To date, the DeFi space has been used primarily for speculative activities. Users invest, borrow and trade crypto assets in a largely unregulated environment. The absence of controls such as Know Your Customer (KYC) and Anti-Money Laundering rules, might well be one important factor in DeFi’s growth.”Agustín Carstens, general manager of the Bank of International Settlements (BIS)“We made the move to the corporate balance sheet on a Bitcoin-standard back in August of 2020, and since then, we’re up more than 300 percent on our initial investment. […] It’s really done its job of protecting us against inflation and it worked as we intended it to.”Aly Hamam, co-owner of Tahini’s restaurant chain“While most tend to focus on high-profile ransomware attacks against big corporations and government agencies, cybercriminals are using less sophisticated types of malware to steal millions in cryptocurrency from individual holders.”Chainalysis“We’re not sellers. […] We’re only acquiring and holding Bitcoin, right? That’s our strategy.”Michael Saylor, CEO of MicroStrategy“The reason why regulators have to limit advertising is probably because of such high demand. Most of our  users come from word of mouth anyway. […] So, I don’t think it’s going to have a huge impact.”Changpeng Zhao, CEO of BinancePrediction of the Week Nations to adopt Bitcoin, crypto users to reach 1B by 2023: ReportAfter trading sideways for most of the week, Bitcoin’s price nosedived on Thursday and continued lower on Friday. BTC dropped from $43,596 down to $38,251 inside of Thursday, according to Cointelegraph’s BTC price index, before reaching new six-month lows on Saturday. January has largely been a downward and sideways month for Bitcoin’s price action, which is not unlike its historical price performance during the month. One report Cointelegraph covered this week, however, sees potential for further crypto adoption in 2022. Digital currency exchange Crypto.com produced a report showing a large uptick in crypto industry participants in 2021. According to the firm, there were 295 million crypto owners at the end of 2021, up from 106 million in the first month of the year. Crypto.com believes crypto ownership could surpass 1 billion this year. “Nations can no longer afford to ignore the growing push towards crypto by the public,” the report said.FUD of the Week Crypto.com shares details on security breach: 483 accounts compromisedCrypto.com revealed details about its security breach that resulted in the loss of roughly $33.8 million worth of digital assets on Monday. The firm initially halted withdrawals on the platform and revoked all customer two-factor authentication (2FA) tokens after spotting “unauthorized activity on a small number of user accounts.”In a statement on Thursday, Crypto.com said that 483 accounts had been compromised, with “4,836.26 ETH, 443.93 BTC and approximately US$66,200 in other currencies” stolen from clients.The firm stated that it has now implemented an additional layer of protection in which a new whitelisted withdrawal address must be registered within 24 hours before the first withdrawal. It is unclear if that solution will soothe the users who had their funds drained already.Singapore bars crypto service providers from advertising in public spacesThe Monetary Authority of Singapore (MAS) issued a new set of guidelines on Monday for digital payment token (DPT) providers, barring them from marketing their services in public places, such as on public transportation, social media platforms and broadcast and print media.MAS also warned the public of the high-risk nature of crypto assets as it introduced new guidelines that will apply to all registered crypto service providers as well as those that are in a transitional period. The guidelines stipulated:“MAS stresses that DPT service providers should conduct themselves with the understanding that trading of DPTs is not suitable for the general public. These Guidelines set out MAS’ expectation that DPT service providers should not promote their DPT services to the general public in Singapore.”EU securities regulator calls for proof-of-work crypto mining banIn a recent interview, European Securities and Markets Authority vice chair Erik Thedéen raised concerns over the growing use of renewable energy in Bitcoin mining.Thedéen asserted that Bitcoin mining has become a “national issue” and sounded the alarm over crypto potentially undermining climate change goals. He specifically took aim at proof-of-work (PoW) mining, which is primarily used by Bitcoin and a few other forked altcoins.He advocated for proof-of-stake (PoS) as a better, energy-efficient alternative, with some commentators suggesting that he could be a secret Ether bull waiting for the rollout of Eth2 later this year. (As a refresh: Eth2 will transition the Ethereum network from PoW to PoS.)“We need to have a discussion about shifting the industry to a more efficient technology,” he said.Best Cointelegraph FeaturesBlockchain assessment: How to assess different chains?Before investing your valuable resources, you should assess blockchain projects based on various factors, including community, use case, the team and longevity, among other factors. Early birds: US legislators invested in crypto and their digital asset politicsUnited States lawmakers remain underinvested in crypto, but this is likely to change in 2022.MiamiCoin has now raised $24.7 million… but who will benefit?CityCoins presented an overview of MiamiCoin technology on the third day of The North American Bitcoin Conference in Miami, Florida.

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 WeekBinance CEO CZ is the richest crypto billionaire at $96B: BloombergBloomberg has estimated Binance CEO Changpeng Zhao — also known as “CZ”— to be the 11th-richest person in the world at a net worth of around $96 billion, making him the wealthiest billionaire in crypto. However, Bloomberg’s tabulation excluded CZ’s personal holdings of crypto assets such as Bitcoin and Binance Coin, suggesting that the $96 billion could become much larger in the future. To make the list of the top 10 richest people, CZ will need to look under his sofa and find a spare $11 billion to surpass Oracle co-founder Larry Ellison. Topping the list is South African bad boy and Tesla co-founder Elon Musk, who has accumulated $263 billion on the back of the success of his heavily subsidized electric vehicle company. Disney patents technology for a theme park metaverseDisney has obtained a patent that will enable the creation of personalized interactive attractions for its theme park visitors. The technology could reportedly be used to develop licensed, headset-free augmented reality attractions, involving such features as personalized 3D effects displayed on physical spaces across its parks that correspond with visitors’ journeys to different locations. The patent, dubbed the “Virtual-world Simulator,” was filed in the United States. It appears the move is part of Disney’s broader push to enter the metaverse sector, with CEO Bob Chapek noting in a Q4 conference call last year: “We’ll be able to connect the physical and digital worlds even more closely, allowing for storytelling without boundaries in our own Disney metaverse.”Billionaire investor Bill Miller puts 50% of net worth in BitcoinFamous investor Bill Miller has now put 50% of his net worth in Bitcoin, as well as major industry firms like Michael Saylor’s MicroStrategy and BTC mining firm Stronghold Digital Mining.Miller was an early investor in Amazon, which he says still accounts for nearly 100% of the rest of his portfolio. He said he’s been gradually accumulating Bitcoin since the price hit $30,000 in mid-2021. The investor stated that he no longer considers himself just a “Bitcoin observer” but rather a real Bitcoin bull. Miller initially bought his first Bitcoin back in 2014 when BTC was trading around $200 and then purchased a “little bit more overtime” when it became $500.Tonga to copy El Salvador bill making Bitcoin legal tender, says former MPFormer Tongan member of parliament Lord Fusitu’a outlined a bill for Bitcoin to become legal tender in the island nation. Fusitu’a stated that the country’s Bitcoin bill is almost “identical” to the one that was enacted in El Salvador. Fusitu’a, who currently serves as chairman of the Oceania chapter of the Global Organization of Parliamentarians Against Corruption, outlined five points in the roadmap for the bill’s adoption, predicting that it will pass in parliament around September or October, and potentially be legislated by the end of 2022 if all goes to plan. In 2021, it was widely speculated that Tonga would become one of the next countries to adopt BTC as legal tender, and optimism appears to be high among Tongans in 2022.Jack Dorsey announces Bitcoin Legal Defense FundFormer Twitter CEO, Bitcoin maxi and Block founder Jack Dorsey announced plans to create a “Bitcoin Legal Defense Fund” with Chaincode Labs co-founder Alex Morcos and University of Sussex academic Martin White.The announcement, shared via Dorsey’s mailing list, states that the fund will help provide a legal defense for Bitcoin developers, who are “currently the subject of multi-front litigation.” “The main purpose of this Fund is to defend developers from lawsuits regarding their activities in the Bitcoin ecosystem, including finding and retaining defense counsel, developing litigation strategy, and paying legal bills,” the announcement stated.Winners and LosersAt the end of the week, Bitcoin (BTC) is at $43,121, Ether (ETH) at $3,292 and XRP at $0.77. The total market cap is at $2.05 trillion, according to CoinMarketCap.Among the biggest 100 cryptocurrencies, the top three altcoin gainers of the week are Oasis Network (ROSE) at 47.47%, Secret (SCRT) at 32.23% and NEAR Protocol (NEAR) at 25.73%. The top three altcoin losers of the week are Loopring (LRC) at -14.23%, yearn.finance (YFI) at -13.52% and Ravencoin (RVN) at -13.01%.For more info on crypto prices, make sure to read Cointelegraph’s market analysis. Most Memorable Quotations“It’s more going to be an exercise in asking questions and seeking input from the public rather than taking a lot of positions on various issues, although we do take some positions.”Jerome Powell, chair of the U.S. Federal Reserve, on the Fed’s upcoming digital currency report“Centralization is antithetical to the ethos of DeFi and poses major security risks. Single points of failure can be exploited by dedicated hackers and malicious insiders alike.”CertiK“We’re already at a quarter of that number, so we’ve got 24% of Americans owning Bitcoin. It won’t be that much of a stretch for it to get to a third. Bitcoin is becoming more and more mainstream. People are hearing about it everywhere — it isn’t going away.”Ric Edelman, founder of Edelman Financial Engines“Wikipedia really can’t be in the business of deciding what counts as art or not, which is why putting NFTs, art or not, in their own list makes things a lot simpler.”Jonas, Wikipedia editor“Solana prioritizes scalability, but a relatively less decentralized and secure blockchain has tradeoffs, illustrated by several network performance issues since inception.”Alkesh Shah, digital asset strategist for Bank of America“The number of addresses with the minimum number of Bitcoin is actually growing compared to the number of whales. I think you get a profound retail trend everywhere in the world; people onboarding Bitcoin, they trust Bitcoin more and more. It’s really the people that will push the price up.” Pascal Gauthier, CEO of Ledger“Subsequent employee surveys made it clear: recharge weeks work.”L.J. Brock, chief people officer at Coinbase“Most cryptocurrency investors are ready to pay tax but are concerned whether their move will violate the Revenue Code.”Suppakrit Boonsat, president of the Thai Digital Asset AssociationPrediction of the Week Traders say Bitcoin run to $44K may be a relief bounce, citing a repeat of December’s ‘nuke’Bitcoin had somewhat of a rocky trading week, as the flagship cryptocurrency fell to a price of $39,675 on Monday, according to Cointelegraph’s BTC price index. BTC found itself priced at $44,315 by Wednesday. The asset hit $44,448 on Thursday before subsequently dropping later in the week. Although Bitcoin’s price increased on Tuesday, its Wednesday rally came on the same day it was reported that U.S. inflation rose at an annual pace of 7% in December, the highest in 40 years.  Even though Bitcoin’s price rallied in the days following Monday’s drop below $40,000, the potential for further downward action remains a possibility as of Wednesday, according to widely-followed Twitter personality Material Scientist.“Remainder of bids was just pulled,” one of the tweets stated. “Either they’re done accumulating and use liquidity to chase now, or we see the same thing as in late November (pulled bids + stacked asks a few days later).”In the case of Bitcoin trading, bids refer to buyer demand seen on exchange order books. Following its $68,969 peak in November 2021, BTC declined notably through the rest of the month, falling down to $41,614 by early December.FUD of the Week LCX loses $6.8M in a hot wallet compromise over Ethereum blockchainLiechtenstein-based crypto exchange LCX confirmed on Sunday that one of its hot wallets was compromised after the platform temporarily suspended all deposits and withdrawals. The hack was initially highlighted by blockchain security firm PeckShield, which spotted a suspicious transfer of ERC-20 tokens from LCX to an unknown Ethereum wallet. The compromise was then promptly confirmed by LCX, which announced that several crypto tokens were compromised, including Ether, USD Coin (USDC), Sandbox (SAND) and its native LCX token. According to an investigation by PeckShield, LCX lost a total of around $6.8 million via the hot wallet hack.FTC issues public warning about new crypto ATM scamThe U.S. Federal Trade Commission (FTC) posted an alert earlier this week regarding a new crypto ATM scam that involves nefarious QR codes. The FTC stated that the scam starts with fraudsters impersonating figures, such as public officials, law enforcement agents, or potential dating partners on dating apps, who all spin various fables to dupe the victim into sending crypto.If the victim falls for the fake story, they are directed to withdraw cash and then head to a crypto ATM and purchase some crypto. Once they purchase the crypto, the fraudster shares a QR code with the victim that diverts the funds back to the scammer upon scanning.    “Here’s the main thing to know: nobody from the government, law enforcement, utility company or prize promoter will ever tell you to pay them with cryptocurrency. If someone does, it’s a scam, every time,” the FTC said.Pakistan’s central bank reportedly wants to ban cryptoAccording to reports from local media outlets, the State Bank of Pakistan (SBP) wants to ban all crypto transactions in Pakistan, arguing that assets such as Bitcoin are illegal and shouldn’t be used for trade.Pakistan’s Sindh High Court reportedly held a hearing related to the legal status of crypto in the country, with several Pakistani authorities, including the SBP, calling for a ban on the sector via a document submitted to the court. Alongside the usual tropes of investor protection and money laundering and terrorism concerns, the document urged the court to follow the model of countries such as China, whose government has stamped out the local crypto sector to pave way for a spawn of satan central bank digital currency (CBDC).Best Cointelegraph FeaturesQuickSwap founder: L2s are the path to mass adoption“If I’m a normal user and I want to do a small trade, I cannot do it on Ethereum.”Green and gold: The crypto projects saving the planetAs the world argued about the ethics of crypto, these projects changed the world for the better during 2021.Volcanos, Bitcoin and remittances: A Tongan lord plans for financial securityA former lawmaker from the island nation wants to use Bitcoin to secure his country’s financial security.