Crypto Flipsider News – Elon Musk Buys Twitter, DOGE Jumps 35%, Stripe Test New Crypto Payment on Twitter; $1 Million BAYC Instagram Hack; Fidelity Allows Bitcoin in 401(k) Accounts; Australian Crypto ETF Delayed; Cardano’s Block Size Increased by 10%
Read in the Digest:
- Elon Musk completes Twitter purchase, DOGE jumps 35%, Stripe tests new crypto payment on Twitter.
- $1 Million Worth of Bored Ape Yacht Club NFTs stolen in Instagram heist.
- Fidelity will allow retirement savers to put Bitcoin in 401(k) accounts.
- Australian crypto ETF delayed due to pressure from unidentified broker.
- Cardano’s block size Increased by 10%, ADA gains 8%.
Elon Musk Completes Twitter Purchase, DOGE Jumps 35%, Stripe Tests New Crypto Payment on Twitter
Following a recent meeting, executives of Twitter have agreed on a definitive deal to sell the popular microblogging platform to Elon Musk, the world’s richest man, at approximately $44 billion.
Musk announced on Monday that he had reached an agreement to purchase the social media platform for $54.20 per share in cash. The centibillionaire has promised free speech on Twitter, authentication of all humans, a purge of spambots and to make its algorithms open source.
Musk’s purchase, who is the self-acclaimed Dogefather, sent the price of Dogecoin (DOGE) into a wild rally. Over the last 24 hours, DOGE has gained by 35% to trade as high as $0.1677, bringing Dogecoin back into the top 10 crypto rankings as its market cap hit $21.5 billion.
The 24 hour price chart for Dogecoin (DOGE). Source: Tradingview
Stripe is also testing a new feature on Twitter that will allow users to receive their payouts in crypto. The feature allows creators who earn money on Twitter to take their earnings in the USDC (USD Coin) stablecoin.
Flipsider:
- Veteran futures trader Peter Brandt has called on Congress to stop Elon Musk’s Twitter takeover as it could affect the rights of the New York Times and NBC.
Why You Should Care
The crypto community is speculating about how crypto Twitter could possibly benefit from the Musk take over.
$1 Million Worth of Bored Ape Yacht Club NFTs Stolen in Instagram Heist
The Bored Ape Yacht Club, one of the most popular NFT collections around, has experienced another heist as the official Instagram account of the popular NFT project was hacked on Monday and used for the attack.
After hijacking the BAYC‘s official Instagram account, the hacker posted a phishing link which promised holders free land tokens for the upcoming metaverse. Unsuspecting holders of BAYC NFTs who opened the link and connected their crypto wallets had their NFT assets stolen.
The hacker made way with 4 BAYC NFTs (together worth over $1 million), 6 Mutant Apes, and 3 Bored Ape Kennel Club NFTs. The attack also affected one user who found their clone X, worth about $54,000, to be missing.
According to a Motherboard report, 134 NFTs had been transferred to the hacker’s wallet as of Monday morning. It estimates that the cumulative value of the NFTs stolen by the hacker amounted to roughly $3 million.
Flipsider:
- News about the hack did not stop ApeCoin from rallying and closing in on its all-time high. APE gained 7% in value over the last 24 hours to trade as high as $19.52.
The 24 hour price chart for ApeCoin (APE). Source: Tradingview
Why You Should Care
With scams and hacks becoming more prevalent in the crypto space, asset holders have been advised to avoid clicking links, especially those linked to freebies.
Fidelity Will Allow Retirement Savers to Put BTC in 401(k) Accounts
Fidelity Investment, the biggest provider of pension plans in the United States, announced on Tuesday that it will allow its participants to add Bitcoin to their 401(k) saving plans.
Fidelity said the savings plan, which would integrate digital assets into the 401(k) account, will be available by the middle of this year. However, their employers will have to decide whether to include the digital assets account.
Participants can choose the percentage of funds to be invested into the digital asset, but the company has limited it to 20% of the total funds. The account fee will be between 0.75 percent and 0.90 percent of assets.
Flipsider:
- Last month the Department of Labor, which oversees workplace retirement plans, advised employers and supervisors against investing retirement funds into cryptocurrencies.
Why You Should Care
This move could be a turning point for cryptocurrency adoption in the U.S, as Fidelity is the country’s number one provider of pension plans, managing the retirement savings of over 20 million people.
Australian Crypto ETF Delayed Due to Pressure From Unidentified Broker
The historic launch of Australia’s first cryptocurrency-backed exchange-traded funds has hit a last-minute snag. According to reports, the launch was delayed less than 24-hours before its proposed listing on CBOE Australia.
The funds, which were supposed to open on CBOE on April 27th, have been delayed because a “prime” or “executing” broker is yet to approve the products. The Wednesday launch was set to put an end to a frustrating five-month wait.
According to reports, the broker has experienced a hold-up in appointing a market maker for the product’s launch. According to CBOE, “standard checks prior to the commencement of trading are still being completed.”
Kanish Chugh, the ETF Securities head of Distribution, has said that the delay is “no-fault whatsoever of ETF Securities or the exchange,” adding that the fund is working to quickly resolve the issue.
Flipsider:
- Based on the anticipation of the fund, analysts have predicted that the funds could enjoy $1 billion-plus inflows in early trade after its launch.
Why You Should Care
The broker, Cosmos AM, has approval from the exchange to commence quoting, and CBOE Australia has said that an update will be provided in “the coming days.”
Cardano’s Block Size Increased by 10%, ADA Gains 8%
In the build-up to its highly anticipated mainnet hard fork, Input Output Global (IOG) has confirmed the approval and implementation of a proposal to increase the network’s block size by 10%.
The proposal, which increased Cardano’s block size from 80KB to 88KB, was carried out on Monday, April 25th (UTC 20:20:00) at the boundary of epoch 335. According to IOG, the increment will bring about a “significant network enhancement.”
By increasing its block size, IOG expects an increase in Cardano’s throughput and the performance of decentralized applications (dApps) on the blockchain.
Flipsider:
- Cardano (ADA) has gained more than 8% over the last 24 hours, benefiting from the news and the rally of the broader crypto market.
The 24 hour price chart for Cardano (ADA). Source: Tradingview
Why You Should Care
According to IOG, the block increase is one of a series of network upgrades that will improve the scaling capabilities of the Cardano network before its hard fork.
Text source: DailyCoin.com
