This Week in Crypto – July 2nd
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Major Upgrades for Ethereum Classic with Upcoming Hard Fork
Lower gas prices and greater security are just some of the promises in store for this upgrade. This update is dubbed “Magneto” by the community. These upgrades include the four Ethereum Improvement Proposals (EIP) first seen in Ethereum’s Berlin upgrade earlier this year. The proposals aim to improve network security in addition to saving on gas prices (fees for verifying a transaction). This is possible by storing users’ addresses and keys in one place to access with a single transaction.
Magneto is scheduled for launch in late July. Beta testing began in early June. Once these tests conclude, the Magneto fork is set to officially release.
“To ensure a successful fork, we ask ETC consumers to upgrade their node software to a Magneto compatible version if they have not done so already. If you’re not operating nodes or services, but use ETC through other services, then check with that service to ensure they’re supporting the Magneto hard fork.”
Stevan Lohja, developer relations manager at Mantis
Indian Crypto Investment Surges 19,900% in One Year
Over the past year, Indian investors have poured $38.8 billion into cryptocurrency. In spite of uncertain regulations regarding crypto assets, nationwide investments increased by roughly 19,900% over the past year. This all started in mid-2020 during the global pandemic of COVID-19. Estimates put the total invested in crypto across India at $40 billion, up from $200 million from the year before. Over the past year, roughly 15 million Indians were exposed to cryptocurrency.
This follows the Reserve Bank of India’s ban on financial institutions. With these changes, businesses providing banking services to firms operating with digital assets are once again able to do so. Data suggests the Indian Supreme Court’s March 2020 decision to overturn this ban was the right choice. This is a small victory in the face of constant threats of harsher legislation. The Supreme Court repealed the ban last March, despite further threats of new legislation.
Twitter Giving Away… Unusual Nonfungible Tokens
The social media giant, Twitter, is giving away 140 free nonfungible tokens to its followers. On Wednesday, they announced that they would be giving away these tokens in a series of tweets. Many of the NFT’s appear to creatively showcase the evolution of the social media network. The original tweet now has nearly 38 thousand likes, and the excitement is spreading like wildfire.
The first NFT drop was for “Reply Guy,” or “The man behind the mansplaining.”
140 free NFTs for 140 of you, besties pic.twitter.com/0Pm0tNhIRg
— Twitter (@Twitter) June 30, 2021
Another NFT titled “First Born” features Twitter CEO Jack Dorsey’s first-ever tweet from 2006. March of this year, he sold a tokenized version of the first-ever tweet for a staggering $2.9 million. Dorsey is one of crypto’s biggest advocates. He stands by his words, stating Bitcoin (BTC) is “probably the best” native currency on the internet.
Another one of his companies, Square, is the third-largest corporate holder of Bitcoin following MicroStrategy and Tesla. In February of this year, Twitter announced it purchased an additional $170 million worth of Bitcoin. Both purchases equate to about 5% of the company’s cash holdings. The market for NFT’s is projected to double in the coming months as trade volumes continue to grow. The first quarter saw $2 billion in total NFT sales, as per industry sources.
Elon Musk’s Attempt to Pump Dogecoin Leads to Unbearably Cringe-Worthy Tweets
They say all publicity is good publicity, but this latest news really tests that theory. In a series of humiliating tweets, Tesla CEO Elon Musk has proven that he doesn’t have the public sway he thought. Taking a page straight out of the ex-US President’s handbook, a series of humiliating tweets by Musk were posted on July 1st at 1am.
Release the Doge! pic.twitter.com/9bXCWQLIhu
— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) July 1, 2021
Both posts are trending on Reddit’s “Cringetopia” group.
Baby Doge, doo, doo, doo, doo, doo,
— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) July 1, 2021
Baby Doge, doo, doo, doo, doo, doo,
Baby Doge, doo, doo, doo, doo, doo,
Baby Doge
Although Dogecoin (DOGE) prices did go up slightly following each tweet, this was an embarrassing flop Musk can add to his list of failures. After the first tweet went live, the DOGE/USD exchange rate rose from $0.24 to $0.247 as people began to buy and sell. After the second tweet, DOGE/USD rose 5.22% to $0.260. Hours later by 5am, Dogecoin was down by nearly 0.5%, suggesting Musk’s influence on the crypto market is in decline. The pair is currently worth half of its value from two months ago.
That’s the end of this week’s recap. If you want to learn more about cryptocurrency with NetCents, make sure to subscribe to our blog below! If you see an interesting story that you think we should feature, send us a message on Facebook, Twitter, or Instagram.
Did you miss last week’s news? Read it here!
