Here’s what happened this week in Bitcoin in 99 seconds.
Bitcoin’s hashrate jumped by as much as 35% over the past week reaching an all-time high of 61 exahash. Some speculated that new ASIC manufacturers are powering up their new hardware.
The nation of Iran unveiled its plan for a national cryptocurrency, designed to get around Western sanctions. This Rial-backed crypto is similar to Venezuela’s Petro coin, as it’s fully centralized and issued only by the country’s central bank.
The world’s most widely-read finance site, Yahoo Finance, announced that it will integrate the trading of cryptocurrencies into its iOS app. Trades will take place via Coinbase or the Robinhood app.
News broke of another major security vulnerability in the new Bitfi hardware wallet, endorsed by John McAfee. Researchers claim the new hack can drain all funds from the wallet. In response, Bitfi has issued a statement saying it will no longer describe its service as “unhackable”.
“Japan’s Amazon,” e-commerce firm Rakuten bought out a small Japanese exchange, known as Everybody’s Bitcoin, for $2.4 million. Rakuten’s comments indicate that they intend to support crypto payments.
Finally, Ethereum developers decided to reduce block rewards from 3 to 2 ETH. The change will occur in roughly one year. Some have criticized the centralized nature of the decision-making process which can be viewed on YouTube. It’s expected that less supply may eventually lead to a higher ETH price.
That’s what happened this week in Bitcoin. See you next week.
