{"id":7226,"date":"2021-04-03T14:38:41","date_gmt":"2021-04-03T18:38:41","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/cointelegraph.com\/magazine\/?p=7226"},"modified":"2021-04-03T14:38:55","modified_gmt":"2021-04-03T18:38:55","slug":"eth-breaks-record-bitcoins-brilliance-paypal-moves-0328-0403","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/cointelegraph.com\/magazine\/2021\/04\/03\/eth-breaks-record-bitcoins-brilliance-paypal-moves-0328-0403","title":{"rendered":"ETH smashes records, Bitcoin\u2019s brilliant quarter, PayPal\u2019s big move: Hodler\u2019s Digest, March 28\u2013April 3"},"content":{"rendered":"

Coming every Saturday, <\/i><\/b>Hodler\u2019s Digest<\/i><\/b><\/a> will help you track every single important news story that happened this week. The best (and worst) quotes, adoption and regulation highlights, leading coins, predictions and much more \u2014 a week on Cointelegraph in one link.<\/i><\/b><\/p>\n

Top Stories This Week<\/b><\/h2>\n

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ETH breaks record all-time high amid fresh price surge<\/b><\/a><\/h4>\n

Ether? <\/span>Record high! <\/b>Binance Coin? <\/span>Record high! <\/b>Polkadot? <\/span>Record high! <\/b>Bitcoin? <\/span>Flat as a pancake!<\/b><\/p>\n

Altcoins have been in the driver\u2019s seat this week, with Ether breaking <\/span>$2,100 <\/b>for the very first time \u2014 besting the ATH of <\/span>$2,036<\/b> that was set on Feb. 20. <\/span>Curiously, several coins belonging to so-called \u201cEthereum killer\u201d blockchains have been thriving, too.<\/b><\/p>\n

ETH\u2019s price <\/span>broke out against Bitcoin<\/span><\/a> for the first time in 23 days on Thursday, not long after credit card giant Visa announced it was piloting a program that will <\/span>allow its partners to use Ethereum\u2019s blockchain<\/span><\/a> to settle transactions made in fiat.<\/span><\/p>\n

Traders have now become exceedingly bullish on Ether\u2019s prospects and are <\/b>expecting more upside in the short-term<\/b><\/a>, with $2,500 now in play. <\/b>In particular, there\u2019s interest in the price activity we could expect in June and July when <\/span>a major improvement proposal<\/span><\/a> called EIP-1559 is set to overhaul Ethereum\u2019s existing fee structure.<\/span><\/p>\n

The celebratory atmosphere following ETH\u2019s all-time highs was dampened as the gas fee crisis rumbles on. <\/span>The cost of using this blockchain <\/b>has surged 77% in recent days<\/b><\/a>, taking the average fee to an eye-watering $22.97.<\/b><\/p>\n

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April Bulls Day? Bitcoin just closed its best March and Q1 in eight years<\/b><\/a><\/h4>\n

Bitcoin may be struggling to find its footing above <\/span>$60,000 <\/b>right now, but at least we can take succor in how well the cryptocurrency has performed so far this year.<\/span><\/p>\n

Despite March being a historically dreary month \u2014 with losses in six of the past nine years \u2014 BTC delivered gains of 29.84% over this 31-day period. <\/b>Better still, we\u2019re now heading into April, where BTC has only suffered negative returns twice since 2013.<\/span><\/p>\n

Across the first quarter of the year, covering January to March, Bitcoin also gained <\/span>103%<\/b>, clocking up the best performance in eight years.<\/span><\/p>\n

Traditionally, Q2 is the strongest time of the year for Bitcoin \u2014 with only two years seeing negative returns, both under 10%. <\/b>Bulls will now have their sights set on surpassing the gains of <\/span>159% <\/b>seen between April and June 2019.<\/span><\/p>\n

In other upbeat developments, BTC has just <\/span>closed six consecutive monthly green candles<\/span><\/a> for the first time since April 2013, and should history repeat itself, we could see further parabolic gains this year.<\/span><\/p>\n

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PayPal to start letting U.S. customers pay in Bitcoin at global merchants<\/b><\/a><\/h4>\n

Bitcoin\u2019s bounce back from <\/span>$55,000 <\/b>was likely fueled by PayPal\u2019s announcement that crypto will now be accepted as a medium of exchange at millions of global merchants.<\/span><\/p>\n

The new feature, Checkout with Crypto, means U.S. customers will be able to \u201cseamlessly\u201d use their digital assets to make purchases. <\/b>PayPal also supports Ether, Litecoin and Bitcoin Cash.<\/span><\/p>\n

Crypto will be converted into fiat as soon as the transaction takes place, and the payments giant says this will create \u201ccertainty of value and no additional transaction fees.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

PayPal CEO Dan Schulman said: <\/span>\u201cEnabling cryptocurrencies to make purchases at businesses around the world is the next chapter in driving the ubiquity and mass acceptance of digital currencies.\u201d<\/b><\/p>\n

One fly in the ointment here concerns how America\u2019s taxman, the Internal Revenue Service, regards crypto as property rather than currency. <\/span>This means that even spending Bitcoin that has risen in value could be regarded as a taxable event.<\/b><\/p>\n

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Coinbase expects direct listing on April 14<\/b><\/a><\/h4>\n

The U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission has given its blessing for Coinbase to make its stock market debut, with the exchange confirming it will happen on April 14. <\/span>It\u2019ll feature on the Nasdaq Global Select Market under the ticker symbol COIN.<\/b><\/p>\n

Coinbase had been expected to go public in March but reportedly delayed its plans after <\/span>paying a $6.5-million fee as part of a settlement<\/span><\/a> with the Commodity Futures Trading Commission.<\/span><\/p>\n

Crypto analyst Filbfilb says the direct listing <\/b>could spark \u201cincreased volatility\u201d for Bitcoin\u2019s price<\/b><\/a>, especially if Coinbase suffers immediate sell-offs like Deliveroo did during its ill-fated IPO in London.<\/b><\/p>\n

In other developments, <\/span>Messari has compiled a report<\/span><\/a> concluding that the so-called \u201cCoinbase effect\u201d \u2014 a popular belief that new token listings on the exchange tend to outperform launches on other exchanges \u2014 is true.<\/span><\/p>\n

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Michael Jordan, Will Smith join $305-million funding round for NBA Top Shot maker Dapper Labs<\/b><\/a><\/h4>\n

Dapper Labs has raised <\/span>$305 million <\/b>in a star-studded funding round \u2014 meaning it now reportedly holds a valuation of $2.6 billion.<\/span><\/p>\n

The company, which has brought CryptoKitties and NBA Top Shot to life, says it wants to go beyond American basketball and extend the \u201csame magic\u201d to other sports franchises.<\/b><\/p>\n

In other news, <\/span>intrepid Cardano developers<\/span><\/a> have found a way to mint bootleg nonfungible tokens \u2014 despite the fact that the blockchain doesn\u2019t support smart contracts yet. <\/span>Meanwhile, <\/b>The Weeknd announced he\u2019s releasing his first NFT<\/b><\/a> via Nifty Gateway, featuring \u201cnew music and limited edition art.\u201d<\/b><\/p>\n

Nifty Gateway has also announced that it is <\/span>planning to become carbon-negative<\/span><\/a> in the near future by calculating its emissions and purchasing twice as many carbon offsets each month.<\/span><\/p>\n

The craze behind NFTs <\/b>now appears to have reached peak parody<\/b><\/a>, too, after NBC\u2019s famed <\/b>Saturday Night Live<\/i><\/b> sketch show addressed nonfungible tokens in a skit featuring Kate McKinnon as U.S. Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen.<\/b><\/p>\n

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Announcement of the week<\/b><\/h3>\n

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Markets Pro delivers up to 1,497% ROI as quant-style crypto analysis arrives for every investor<\/b><\/a><\/h4>\n

It\u2019s now been a month since <\/span>Cointelegraph Markets Pro<\/span><\/a> launched \u2014 bringing professional crypto market intelligence to every investor.<\/span><\/p>\n

New figures this week showed that 41 of the 42 trading strategies tested by Markets Pro are currently beating Bitcoin\u2019s investment returns, and 36 of them are winning against an evenly weighted basket of the top 100 altcoins.<\/b><\/p>\n

Two key features are offered to subscribers. The first is the <\/span>VORTECS\u2122 Score<\/b>, which is derived from an algorithm that examines multiple different variables (including sentiment, tweet volume, price volatility and trading volume) and compares those with historically similar marketscapes.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

And the second is <\/span>NewsQuakes\u2122<\/b>: alerts on events that have historically had a significant impact on an asset\u2019s price over the following 24 hours.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Cointelegraph Markets Pro is <\/span>available exclusively to subscribers<\/span><\/a> on a monthly basis at $99 per month, or annually with two free months included.<\/span><\/p>\n

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Winners and Losers<\/b><\/h2>\n

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At the end of the week, Bitcoin is at <\/span>$59,699.22<\/b>, Ether at <\/span>$2,111.64 <\/b>and XRP at <\/span>$0.63<\/b>. The total market cap is at <\/span>$1,965,398,828,338<\/b>.<\/span><\/p>\n

Among the biggest 100 cryptocurrencies, the top three altcoin gainers of the week are <\/span>Holo<\/b>, <\/span>BitTorrent <\/b>and <\/span>Helium<\/b>. The top three altcoin losers of the week are <\/span>Voyager Token<\/b>, <\/span>SwissBorg<\/b> and <\/span>Pundi X<\/b>.<\/span><\/p>\n

For more info on crypto prices, make sure to read <\/span>Cointelegraph\u2019s market analysis<\/span><\/a>.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

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Most Memorable Quotations<\/b><\/h2>\n

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\u201cExpecting Ethereum to outperform Bitcoin for all of Q2.\u201d<\/span><\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Rookie<\/b><\/a>, crypto trader<\/b><\/p>\n

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\u201cIs Theta actually worth all the hype? I am not sure because it\u2019s too early to tell. I want to see how well their mainnet does.\u201d<\/span><\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Marie Tatibouet<\/b><\/a>, Gate.io chief marketing officer\u00a0<\/b><\/p>\n

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\u201cSpaceX is going to put a literal Dogecoin on the literal moon.\u201d<\/span><\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Elon Musk<\/b><\/a>, Tesla CEO and \u201cTechnoking\u201d<\/b><\/p>\n

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\u201cBitcoin currently in between 2013 and 2017 tracks.\u201d<\/span><\/p><\/blockquote>\n

PlanB<\/b><\/a>, stock-to-flow model creator<\/b><\/p>\n

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\u201cTether-Winky, Buy the Dipsey, Laa Laa, Poor.\u201d<\/span><\/p><\/blockquote>\n

@CryptoCred<\/b><\/a><\/p>\n

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\u201cI do think Bitcoin is on an inevitable path to having the same market cap and then a higher market cap as gold.\u201d<\/span><\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Mike Novogratz<\/b><\/a>, Galaxy Digital CEO<\/b><\/p>\n

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\u201cWe are working closely with teams across the firm to explore ways to offer thoughtful and appropriate access to the ecosystem for private wealth clients, and that is something we expect to offer in the near term.\u201d<\/span><\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Mary Rich<\/b><\/a>, Goldman Sachs head of digital assets<\/b><\/p>\n

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\u201cThis is the first time you can seamlessly use cryptocurrencies in the same way as a credit card or a debit card inside your PayPal wallet.\u201d<\/span><\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Dan Schulman<\/b><\/a>, PayPal CEO<\/b><\/p>\n

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\u201cA part of the problem with Bitcoin is 90% of it is not done in the United States. 90% of it is done in countries that have dirty energy. So that\u2019s the reason why it\u2019s considered to be a dirty activity.\u201d<\/span><\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Francis Suarez<\/b><\/a>, Miami mayor<\/b><\/p>\n

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Prediction of the Week<\/b><\/h2>\n

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One BTC will be worth a Lambo by 2022, and a Bugatti by 2023: Kraken CEO<\/b><\/a><\/h4>\n

After previously declaring that Bitcoin will be worth \u201cinfinity\u201d in the future<\/span> (Digests passim)<\/span><\/i>, Kraken CEO is making a triumphant return to Prediction of the Week.<\/span><\/p>\n

Speaking to Bloomberg, Jesse Powell was keen to offer alternatives to measuring Bitcoin\u2019s value in dollars \u2014 by comparing future price action to high-end sports cars\u2026 which can also have their value measured in dollars.<\/b><\/p>\n

Powell said that one Bitcoin, which is currently worth a Tesla Model 3, could be worth one Lambo by the end of this year\u2026 and one Bugatti by 2023.<\/span><\/p>\n

He added: <\/span>\u201cThere could be 10 times as many U.S. dollars out there a year from now, so it\u2019s really hard to measure Bitcoin against the dollar.\u201d<\/b><\/p>\n

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FUD of the Week\u00a0<\/b><\/h2>\n

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iPhone user blames Apple for $600,000 Bitcoin theft via fake app<\/b><\/a><\/h4>\n

A scam cryptocurrency app in Apple\u2019s App Store has reportedly swindled <\/span>17.1 BTC <\/b>from one unsuspecting user.<\/span><\/p>\n

Phillipe Christodoulou had thought he had downloaded official Trezor software, given how it had many five-star reviews. <\/span>Little did he know that the company doesn\u2019t currently provide such an app.<\/b><\/p>\n

After entering his seed phrase, Christodoulou says his funds were stolen. <\/span>His crypto haul was worth $600,000 at the time, but now it\u2019s worth $1 million.<\/b><\/p>\n

The Washington Post<\/span> reports that he has now filed a report with the FBI, but it seems the victim is reserving most of his anger for the tech giant: <\/span>\u201cThey betrayed the trust that I had in them. Apple doesn\u2019t deserve to get away with this.\u201d<\/b><\/p>\n

Trezor spokesperson Kristyna Mazankova told Cointelegraph that the firm has been fighting fraudulent apps for years \u2014 but claimed the wallet company \u201cnever gets any response from either Apple or Google.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

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Oops! A 100% Bitcoin hodl outperformed CNBC\u2019s 2017 altcoin basket by 170%<\/b><\/a><\/h4>\n

Ah, 2017. A crazy time that was slap bang in the middle of the ICO boom.<\/span><\/p>\n

An investment portfolio that was championed by CNBC at the time has now resurfaced, which was made up of 30% Bitcoin and 70% altcoins.<\/b><\/p>\n

Four years on, those who invested <\/span>$10,000 <\/b>at the time would now have about <\/span>$52,300<\/b>. Had they just bought and hodled Bitcoin, they would now have over <\/span>$140,000<\/b>.<\/span><\/p>\n

StatsBTC, which crunched the numbers, noted: <\/span>\u201cThe 30% #BTC allocation is responsible for 75% of the return.\u201d<\/b><\/p>\n

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South Korean government makes $10.5-million profit from four-year-old Bitcoin crime haul<\/b><\/a>
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South Korean prosecutors have finally sold a Bitcoin haul they confiscated from a criminal in 2017, and it\u2019s worth <\/span>$10.5 million<\/b> more than it was at the time of the arrest.<\/span>
\n<\/b><\/a><\/p>\n

This is believed to be the first time that authorities in the country have sold confiscated Bitcoin \u2014 and at the time the crypto was seized, it was worth a paltry <\/span>$238,000<\/b>.<\/span>
\n<\/b><\/a><\/p>\n

In late March, the South Korean government enacted widespread crypto-specific laws for the first time, putting more pressure on exchanges and virtual asset service providers to use real-name trading accounts and to report their activities to Korea\u2019s Financial Intelligence Unit.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

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Best Cointelegraph Features<\/b><\/h2>\n

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A new era of content monetization? Blockchain tech can get you paid<\/b><\/a><\/h4>\n

Current content monetization systems are seen as broken, but some blockchain solutions claim to hold the key to solving their issues.<\/span><\/p>\n

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Making DeFi idiot-proof with Kava\u2019s gamer CEO, Brian Kerr<\/b><\/a><\/h4>\n

Kerr says a major reason that decentralized finance has not yet hit the mainstream is that \u201c93% of holders are never gonna touch their own keys.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

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This is how to make \u2014 and lose \u2014 a fortune with NFTs<\/b><\/a><\/h4>\n

The rise of nonfungible tokens, or NFTs, has been nothing short of astounding this year. Google searches for \u201cNFT\u201d are up over 600% since mid-February.<\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The best (and worst) quotes, adoption and regulation highlights, leading coins, predictions and much more \u2014 one week on Cointelegraph in one link!<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":15,"featured_media":7231,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"mc4wp_mailchimp_campaign":[],"_links_to":"","_links_to_target":""},"categories":[35,2413],"tags":[2741,2821,2722,2731,2727,2723,2736,2815,2733,2763,2894],"yst_prominent_words":[225,222,701,1893,2236,2176,582,863],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/cointelegraph.com\/magazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7226"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/cointelegraph.com\/magazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/cointelegraph.com\/magazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cointelegraph.com\/magazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/15"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cointelegraph.com\/magazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=7226"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/cointelegraph.com\/magazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7226\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":7232,"href":"https:\/\/cointelegraph.com\/magazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7226\/revisions\/7232"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cointelegraph.com\/magazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/7231"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/cointelegraph.com\/magazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=7226"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cointelegraph.com\/magazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=7226"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cointelegraph.com\/magazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=7226"},{"taxonomy":"yst_prominent_words","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cointelegraph.com\/magazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/yst_prominent_words?post=7226"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}