Kalam Crypto #26: Bitcoin remains king, Bored Ape’s Discord exploit, and more

This week, Bitcoin remains king, Bored Ape’s Discord exploit, Oman backs Crusoe Energy, and some exciting announcements and offers from CoinMENA. All that and more, so let's dive into this week's letter, and talk crypto.

06 Jun, 2022

CoinMENA Team

Author

“Risk comes from not knowing what you’re doing” – Warren Buffett

Ahlan wa sahlan, and welcome to the 26th edition of CoinMENA's weekly newsletter, Kalam Crypto. Every week we will bring you the latest news and developments from the exciting world of cryptocurrencies. This week, Bitcoin remains king, Bored Ape’s Discord exploit, Oman backs Crusoe Energy, and some exciting announcements and offers from CoinMENA. 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:

Global News 🌍

Bitcoin remains king: Despite the emergence of many altcoins and crypto projects, Bitcoin remains king. We say this for a number of good reasons: As "crypto winter" casts grey skies over the industry and an ongoing bear market, Bitcoin dominance — a measure of Bitcoin’s share from the total crypto market cap — continues to break through local highs reaching 46.5%, the highest since October 2021, when it traded at $60,000. Bitcoin dominance is up 20% in 2022. What does this mean? Looking back, we saw how Bitcoin's dominance rose from 35% to 73% in September 2019 after Ethereum dropped 87% in price. Similarly, some of the other top altcoins show a potential downside trend when valued alongside Bitcoin when their prices fall. Although an increased dominance is usually a sign of weakening in the crypto industry, it's a positive one for Bitcoin maximalists. Moreover, more than half a billion dollars has been invested in exchange-traded Bitcoin funds since the start of the year, with $126 million of it flowing into ETPs last week. Investors are buying the dip, adding to bitcoin positions.

Findings from The Block Bitcoin Survey conducted by Wakefield Research earlier this year showed bitcoin is the most well-known cryptocurrency, with 88% of respondents from the Americas, EMEA, and APAC, claiming to have heard of it, with nearly 2x less awareness of Ethereum at 43%.

SOS for SOL, Solana goes down, yet again! Solana dealt with another network outage lasting for over four hours on Wednesday, bringing its market cap down by over 11%. The downtime was caused by a bug that stopped blockchain production, forcing a rollback and restart from validators. This is the latest reputational hit for Solana in a series of outages this year alone, with the last one being just a month ago.

BAYC Discord compromised, 200 ETH worth of NFTs stolen: A malicious actor has made off with $357,000 worth of Bored Ape NFTs following a “brief” exploit to Bored Ape Yacht Club’s Discord server. BAYC has become a sweet target for phishing attacks over the last year, being one of the most valuable NFT collections on the market.

Japan adopts law for stablecoin regulation: Japan is among the first major economies to make the legal status of stablecoins clear. The new legislation, to come into effect in 2023, defines stablecoins as digital money and restricts issuance to licensed financial institutions. The law states that stablecoins must be pegged to the yen or another legal tender and must also guarantee redemption to the user at face value.

Local News 📍

Oman backs Crusoe Energy mining crypto to cut gas flaring: Oman’s Investment Authority took a $350 million equity stake in Crusoe Energy that says it aids fossil fuel producers in cutting flaring by using stranded natural gas to power cryptocurrency mining instead. Crusoe plans to open an office in Muscat to help deploy power generators and mining equipment to capture the gas at well sites. The MENA region accounts for about 38% of the world’s flaring, and Oman has signed on to the World Bank’s initiative to end routine flaring by 2030.

1 million women in Abu Dhabi get gifted blockchain domain names: Unstoppable Domains, a decentralized domain name provider, partnered with Abu Dhabi Investment Office and Access Abu Dhabi to run a giveaway to ensure each woman residing in Abu Dhabi receives a domain name and gets an opportunity to enter Web3 to shape the future.

Keep an eye on 👀

Bitcoin Lightning Network capacity crosses 3900 BTC, a new ATH: Bitcoin's Lightning Network, a Layer 2 solution introduced in 2018 to help scale Bitcoin's transaction throughput, achieved an all-time high capacity of 3,915.8 BTC. Lightning Network’s capacity has nearly tripled over the last year. Broader adoption trends, including the number of channels and nodes, continue to move higher.

CoinMENA News 🗞

CoinMENA’s license for Crypto-Assets Services upgraded to Category 3: We are proud to share that CoinMENA’s license for Crypto-Assets Services was upgraded from Category 2 to Category 3 by The Governor of The Central Bank of Bahrain, His Excellency Mr. Rasheed Al-Maraj.

Referral Program reward is back to 10 USD: Invite your friends to CoinMENA using your own referral link, and you will both earn an equal bonus when they verify their accounts!

Something SPECIAL coming soon: Countdown to our users’ favorite offer is approaching! To participate, simply verify your CoinMENA account and follow us on social media to be the first to know!

Tweet of the week 🐥

Ethereum founder Vitalik Buterin responds to an open letter published Wednesday, signed by 26 tech professionals urging lawmakers in Washington to be wary of crypto.

Quiz Corner ✅

Last week’s question: Which was the first game to be built on the Ethereum blockchain?

Answer: CryptoKitties

This week’s question: Who is the largest HODLer of bitcoin?