- May 22 Bitcoin Pizza Day
- DASH network failure
- Ledger delays launch of SEED Recover feature
- A lone miner has mined a block in the Bitcoin network
- ETH balance on exchanges fell to a minimum
- Launch of the first stablecoin BRC20
- Dubai to build world's first Bitcoin tower
May 22 Bitcoin Pizza Day
Every year on May 22, the cryptocurrency community celebrates Bitcoin Pizza Day, which is forever engraved in the history of the industry. In 2010, programmer Laszlo Heinitz made a purchase that became a symbol of the era: two pizzas purchased for an incredible amount of 10,000 BTC. To date, these coins are valued in dollar terms at a staggering $270 million.
In May 2020, Laszlo remembered this moment and shared a story, revealing that he mined the amount of 100,000 BTC and decided to spend part of this amount on pizza. The rest of the coins he either exchanged or sold. Although he only made a few thousand dollars from the operation, it was enough to raise funds for a new computer.
DASH network failure
While activating the v19 update, the DASH network experienced a glitch resulting in no blocks coming out for 9 hours. FixedFloat temporarily suspended exchanges with DASH, at the time of writing, the currency is available for exchanges in standard mode.
Ledger delays launch of SEED Recover feature
After Ledger faced fierce criticism from the crypto community, the company made the decision to delay the release of the key recovery feature. Last week, Ledger introduced a new service called Ledger Recover, which will allow users to save encrypted backups of their original phrases using three guardians. This will give wallet owners the ability to recover their private keys even if the original phrases are lost or forgotten. However, this feature will require a KYC client verification process to verify the user's identity.
Immediately after this announcement, Ledger faced criticism from members of the cryptocurrency community who expressed their opposition to the idea of sharing seed phrases with anyone. Twitter and Reddit users said they feel cheated by the Ledger, which previously claimed that their wallet private keys would never leave the device. Ledger CEO Pascal Gauthier apologized to the community and stated that the company learned from the incident. He also noted that some parts of the Ledger code have already been made open source, and more steps will be taken in this direction in the near future.
A lone miner has mined a block in the Bitcoin network
A lone miner was able to independently mine a block in the Bitcoin network and receive a reward of 6.25 BTC for this. The power of its mining equipment reaches 750 TH. Under such conditions, the success rate is only about 0.00000003%. This is indeed a rare and fortunate event.
ETH balance on exchanges fell to a minimum
At the moment, only 4.15% of the total amount of ETH issued is on centralized exchanges, which is the lowest value since 2016. In comparison, during the bull market in 2021, this figure was around 25-26%.
The reduction in the amount of ETH on exchanges is considered a positive signal, since it means that a small number of coins are planned to be sold, which in turn does not put pressure on the price. In addition, the successful launch of staking also has a positive impact. Every day more and more coins enter staking, which increases the demand for ETH. For example, since the activation of the Shapella update, when the withdrawal of ETH became possible, 4.83 million coins were sent to staking, and the net inflow was 1.98 million ETH. This indicates a growing interest in staking and increased activity on the Ethereum network.
Launch of the first stablecoin BRC20
Stable, a company specializing in payment solutions for cryptocurrencies, has announced the release of its new stablecoin called Stable USD. This stablecoin will be backed by the US dollar and represented as a BRC-20 standard token on the Bitcoin blockchain. Stable USD will be the first stablecoin on the Bitcoin blockchain to use the BRC-20 standard. Previously, Tether issued its USDT stablecoin based on the primary cryptocurrency through the Omni protocol, but this protocol is not very popular.
The trading symbol for the new stablecoin from Stable will be #USD. It will be backed by a US dollar reserve at a ratio of 1:1. The collateral will be held in a secure account with a regulated custodian in the United States, for the benefit of token holders who have passed customer identification (KYC) and money laundering (AML) verification. Monthly reports will be published regularly to ensure transparency of the asset reserve.
Dubai to build world's first Bitcoin tower
Dubai is planning to build the world's first Bitcoin tower, which will become the main place for research and development in the field of blockchain technology. The tower will not only be a venue for conferences, meetings and educational seminars, but also a real center of attraction for everyone interested in this innovative field.
One of the key features of the building will be a multi-level data center designed to facilitate the use of blockchain technology and conduct cryptocurrency transactions. This center will have advanced systems and high performance to ensure efficient and reliable operations. On top of that, space will be set aside inside the tower for companies offering blockchain-based products and services. Here they will be able to demonstrate their innovative developments and attract the attention of potential customers and partners.
