Dogecoin Starlinks, JPMetaverse, Canadian Bitcoin Ad, 10,000 NFT Kisses and 20 Crypto Jokes

Bitcoin was on the rise this week, as traders kept an eye on Ukraine and the Fed, DOGE fell, while Elon Musk spurred speculation about Starlink and SpaceX, the chart saw a double-digit percentage increase, and even with crypto prices rising, the NFT market showed signs of a new cooldown. Bitcoin ETFs remained popular with investors despite the January price drop, and the Bitcoin mining difficulty reached another all-time high, with miners becoming more and more creative. In the world of NFTs, a rare ‘Alien’ CryptoPunk NFT was sold for USD 23m worth of ETH, Gustav Klimt’s famous’The Kiss’ sells as 10,000 NFTs, Bybit made a big token and NFT sponsorship deal with Formula One team Oracle Red Bull Racing, NYSE filed a trademark application for a series of Metaverse- and NFT-related products, Disney launched a specialized Metaverse team to explore ‘New Storytelling Frontier’, JPMorgan shared some ‘Metaverse Strategy’ advice for businesses, and Her Majesty’s Revenue and Customs seized three NFTs, which was the first time this asset type was seized in the country.

Twitter added tipping in ETH, DBS confirmed plans to launch a retail-focused crypto trading desk in 2022, Tezos integrated the Baanx app to make it easier for users to manage their digital assets, and Coinbase plans to increase its workforce by around 70% this year. Speaking of the main exchange, Coinbase saw volatility last weekend with a reported vulnerability, a paused and restarted service, and a crash of its website after the Super Bowl ad. When this happened, Drake scored USD from his three Bitcoin bets on the Super Bowl, and we examined how interesting the crypto-related Super Bowl ads were. Meanwhile, $36 million worth of crypto was reportedly stolen from users in an IRA Financial Trust hack, and Ilya Lichtenstein, associated with the Bitfinex hack, remained in federal custody while Heather Morgan was released on bail.

The Russian Central Bank and the government have again not agreed on crypto regulation, but have proposed new limits, while the central Bank is still against crypto regulatory plans. As the FSB increasingly sounded the alarm about crypto, Canada joined Lebanon and Turkey in the ‘Bitcoin marketing team’, and the Canadian police Service asked banks and exchanges to block crypto accounts associated with the trucker protests. The critics hit back at Colombia’s retrospective crypto tax plans, a French presidential candidate pushed for a tax reform for crypto and NFTs, South Korean crypto observers predict a “tectonic change” when Gopax made a deal with Jeonbuk Bank, US senators again failed to find stable ground on stablecoins, and El Salvador’s president responded with “OK Boomers” to a group of US senators who sold his BTC- Blocked adoption plans.

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