Valuables is a service that lets you put up cryptocurrency to “own” tweets as NFTs. Elon’s “One word: Doge” is up for grabs. Tesla founder Elon Musk is no stranger to posting silly things on Twitter. He’s used the platform to mock public safety precautions connected with the pandemic, and to inadvertently(?) depress the value of his own company’s stock. He’s also tweeted from time to time about the niche cryptocurrency Dogecoin, which is based on the popular “doge” meme. His posts have significantly influenced the price of the coin.…

Jimmy Donaldson, aka “Mr Beast,” a prominent YouTuber boasting 50.2 million subscribers and 8.5 billion total views, now owns a verified Brave browser account — potentially exposing some of his enormous audience to virtual currency. Donaldson is not new to crypto and is believed to have made a considerable amount of money via cryptocurrency investments. The star previously hosted videos discussing crypto before his channel exploded in popularity and he reportedly purchased a $100,000 car using his crypto profits. However, his account was later purged of all content relating to…

After several years of research and development and numerous breakthroughs in cryptography and computer science, Dfinity launched the mainnet of its “Internet Computer” on Dec. 18. The Internet Computer promises to be the first blockchain computer running at web speed with unbounded capacity. It achieves this speed through something called Chain Key Technology, which splits calls to smart contracts into two types: update calls and query calls. Update calls are finalized in one to two seconds, based on the time it takes for new blocks to be produced. However, query…

On December 28, the Ministry of Digital Transformation of Ukraine and the Stellar Development Foundation (SDF) signed a Memorandum of Understanding and Cooperation, within which they will work on the development of a strategy for virtual assets in Ukraine. Under the Memorandum, the Ministry of Digital Transformation and SDF will work to develop a modern virtual asset market infrastructure and enhance Ukraine’s status as an innovative digital country in the financial market in Eastern Europe. “The Ministry of Digital Transformation is working on creating the legal environment for the development…

Estonia has withdrawn permits from one thousand crypto companies this year. One of the countries lauded as being among the most crypto friendly in the European Union revoked the licenses of more than 1,000 crypto firms in 2020. According to news outlet Postimees, Estonia’s Financial Intelligence Unit, or FIU, has revoked the licenses of roughly 70% of virtual currency companies operating in the country this year. Veiko Tali, the Deputy Secretary General of the Government Committee for the Prevention of Money Laundering and Terrorist Financing, said the remaining crypto firms…

The price of BTC has more than doubled since the Bitcoin’s third block reward halving in May. To be precise, BTC has gained 110%, with prices rallying from $8,566 on May 11 to test $18,000 as of this writing. According to report from crypto analytics firm Chainalysis, levels of liquidity and exchange flows have changed dramatically since the halving. The firm identifies illiquid, or investor-held Bitcoin, as “wallets that send less than 25% of Bitcoin they’ve ever received,” while the remaining wallets are classed as liquid Bitcoin, or trader-held Bitcoin.…

Japan’s three largest banks, as part of a group of 30 private sector actors, are set to collaborate on an experiment with a digital yen. The group consists of banks, various Japanese brokerages, utility and telecom firms and retailers, according to a Reuters report. For the purposes of the experiment, the private banks will be responsible for issuing the currency, although the prospect of other actors becoming involved in issuance has not been ruled out, according to the chair of the new group, Hiromi Yamaoka. Yamaoka is a former executive…