Kalam Crypto #55: 2022 Wrap-Up, Solana crashes, and Turkey tests CBDCs

Kalam Crypto #55: 2022 Wrap-Up, Solana crashes, and Turkey tests CBDCs

This week, we have a 2022 wrap-up video from CoinMENA, Solana is down badly, and Turkey tests CBDCs.

02 Jan, 2023
CoinMENA Team
Author

“The Times 03/Jan/2009 Chancellor on brink of second bailout for banks” - Bitcoin Genesis Block

Ahlan wa sahlan and a happy new year! Welcome to the first newsletter of 2023 and the 55th edition of CoinMENA's weekly newsletter, Kalam Crypto. This week, we have a 2022 wrap-up video from CoinMENA, Solana is down badly, and Turkey tests CBDCs. All that and more, so let's dive into this week's letter, and talk crypto:

Prefer to listen to Kalam Crypto instead? Check out our podcast:

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CoinMENA News 🗞

🎬CoinMENA 2022 Wrap-Up:  Thank you for choosing CoinMENA as your digital assets exchange in 2022! Despite challenges in the industry, we've had a successful year, and we're excited to continue providing offers and services to you in 2023. Happy New Year from CoinMENA! Check out our wrap-up video here


Global News 🌍

Solana down bad: The once heralded “Ethereum killer” is not doing so well. SOL price is down to single digits, a 97% decline from all-time highs and 35% down since the FTX scam unraveled. Although Solana had no direct connection with FTX, they were championed by the disgraced former CEO of FTX, SBF, and Alameda held about $1.2 billion worth of SOL tokens up until the bankruptcy filing. Solana issues started early in 2022 when the blockchain was halted for 9 days in January. The troubles continued throughout as the blockchain was halted several times during the year and now looks to be collapsing with multiple key NFT projects moving to Ethereum and Polygon.


Local News 📍

Turkey begins testing CBDCs: Turkey's central bank announced they successfully carried out the first payment transactions on the Digital Turkish Lira Network. The test will be the first of many in Q1 2023. Several other countries, like Japan and India, are also working towards rolling out CBDCs as well. Worth noting that CBDC and cryptocurrencies differ in some key characteristics. The main difference is that cryptocurrencies are decentralized and operate independently, while CBDCs are digital versions of a country's fiat currency issued and regulated by the central bank.


Keep an eye on 👀

Microstrategy buys more bitcoin: Yes, you read that right. Microstrategy increased its BTC holdings by ~2,500 BTC. They now hold ~132,500 bitcoin acquired for ~$4.03 billion at an average price of ~$30,397 per bitcoin. According to the chart below, since adopting the bitcoin standard, MicroStrategy has outperformed all significant assets, indices, and big tech stocks.

micro

Did You Know 🤔

14 years ago today, Satoshi Nakamoto mined the first #bitcoin. On the #genesis_block, he engraved a headline from the newspaper “The Times 03/Jan/2009 Chancellor on brink of second bailout for banks”. The rest is history.


Tweet of the week 🐥


Quiz Corner ✅ 

Last week’s question: What does the block in blockchain consist of?

Answer: All of these (Transaction data, a hashpoint, and a timestamp.)

This week’s question: What are Non-Fungible Tokens?

  1. Cryptocurrency

  2. Crypto assets

  3. Pictures on Twitter

  4. None of the above

See the answer in next week’s newsletter.

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