Friday, April 19, 2024
Social icon element need JNews Essential plugin to be activated.
No Result
View All Result
No Result
View All Result

The 5 weirdest crypto stories of 2021

diffrint by diffrint
December 20, 2021
in Ethereum
0
The 5 weirdest crypto stories of 2021

Related articles

[ad_1]

In 2021, the market cap of cryptocurrencies skyrocketed 286% 12 months over 12 months, uplifting a $2.17 trillion business into the stratosphere. However, with this huge creation of wealth comes the explosion of weird tales all through the sector. From the suspicious demise of a number of crypto-evangelists and crypto scams involving hacked Twitter accounts of heads of states to much-promoted celeb NFT drops that bombed on the public sale, 2021 was really a wild 12 months for the cryptocurrency our on-line world. With out additional ado, let’s take a look at the highest strangest tales which have captivated blockchain lovers this 12 months.

No 1. The demise of John McAfee

On June 23, John McAfee, crypto-evangelist and namesake founding father of antivirus software program firm McAfee, was found dead in a Spanish jail cell in an obvious suicide by hanging. America, one of many few international locations that impose a taxation-by-citizenship regime — that’s, Individuals are taxed on their worldwide earnings annually no matter their nation of residence — had been in search of McAfee’s extradition for failing to file his earnings tax returns from 2014 to 2018 and allegedly not reporting earnings for his crypto initiatives. McAfee was arrested in Spain pending U.S. tax evasion costs. Again in 2018, McAfee was allegedly charging as a lot as $105,000 per Tweet to advertise preliminary coin choices (ICOs) on social media.

In one other Tweet two years prior, McAfee acknowledged: “If I suicide myself, I did not. I used to be whacked,” resulting in conspiracy theories that the businessman’s death might have resulted from an orchestrated assault. McAfee is remembered for his pioneering ventures in programming, early adoption of Bitcoin (BTC) and his eccentric character. He famously stated that he would “eat [his own] dick on nationwide tv” if the value of BTC didn’t attain $500,000 by 2020. In November, McAfee’s authentic software program growth firm was acquired by non-public buyers for $14 billion. McAfee is survived by his widow Janice McAfee and his kids (of which McAfee claimed to have not less than 47).

No 2. India‘s prime minister seems to tweet out a BTC rip-off

Indian prime minister Narendra Modi‘s Twitter account was hacked once more in December, with scammers claiming that India had adopted BTC as national tender, and 500 BTC can be found for instant distribution to Indian nationals who join through a phishing hyperlink. The tweet was briefly viewable to the general public and Modi‘s 73.4 million followers earlier than it was taken down. The 12 months prior, a cybercrime group often known as “John Wick” hacked the prime minister‘s Twitter account and posted messages asking his followers to make crypto donations.

A number of hypotheses exist as to why Modi turned a goal of those Bitcoin rip-off hacks. One potential motive was revenge for the continuing Bitcoin scandal in India‘s Karnataka state. In line with Indian media retailers, Karnataka police and governmental officers allegedly obtained 12,900 BTC in bribes from hacker Srikrishna Ramesh, who was arrested for hacking three crypto exchanges and different web sites within the earlier years. When Karnataka chief minister Basavaraj Bommai requested concerning the situation in a gathering with Modi in November, the prime minister allegedly disregarded the difficulty. India at present faces a chaotic regulatory environment relating to the state of crypto affairs within the nation.

Narendra Modi’s deleted Bitcoin Tweet | Supply: India At the moment / Twitter

No 3. ConstitutionDAO‘s “Uno Reverse”

Again in November, a bunch of retail buyers fashioned a decentralized autonomous group, or DAO, aspiring to pool cash to buy the last privately-owned first-edition print copy of the USA Structure at a public public sale hosted by Sotheby‘s. Structure DAO raised $49 million through Ether (ETH) donations from 17,437 members. On the day of the public sale, nevertheless, the piece of the structure was outbid by Ken Griffin, CEO of Citadel, whose agency owned hedge funds that shorted Gamestop shares to the discontent of many retail buyers selling the inventory.

The ConstitutionDAO disbanded shortly afterward and issued refunds to its stakeholders. Whereas it might be that the “proletariat” buyers don’t have anything to lose however their chains, it‘s clear that the “bourgeois” received‘t permit them to be unshackled so simply.

No 4. Elon, Tesla and Bitcoin

Cryptocurrencies have been on a wild curler coaster trip this 12 months, probably partly to Tesla‘s CEO Elon Musk. Selling digital meme currencies reminiscent of Dogecoin (DOGE) and apart, Musk‘s indecisive strategy when it got here to Tesla‘s Bitcoin adoption created and worn out many fortunes.

In March, Musk despatched buyers right into a shopping for frenzy after asserting that Tesla would accept BTC as payment for customers to buy its electrical automobiles. Two months later, the momentum reversed and become a full-on market rout after Musk dropped the plans, citing environmental issues with community mining. Then in October, Tesla stated it might reconsider adding BTC as a way of cost. By means of all this, nevertheless, Musk turned extra well-liked as a helmsman, main retail buyers and crypto lovers alike by way of the storms of capital markets. He was lately elected Individual of the 12 months by Instances Journal.

No 5. The unsold NFTs of Tupac Shakur

For 29 years, former hip-hop journalist Lawrence “Loupy D” Dotson held on to a sequence of pictures of famed-rapper Tupac Shakur. The pictures have been taken on the rapper‘s “2Pacalypse Now” debut album launch get together in 1992 and have been introduced for public public sale within the type of nonfungible tokens, or NFTs, in November of this 12 months. In an interview with Cointelegraph, Loupy D acknowledged: “I additionally thought of picture reveals, museums, every kind of how. With NFTs, it’s not simply concerning the asset itself however the story behind the asset. I knew I wanted to get my story on the market within the public eye.”

The OpenSea public sale had notable press protection beforehand, together with from RollingStone and Fortune.com. For every week, the public sale continued. Nevertheless, not a single piece was offered out of the 18 Tupac picture NFTs. In his disappointment, Loupy D took them off the platform and opened them up for personal inquiries. However, to be truthful, the photographer might have been asking an excessive amount of, as every NFT piece had a minimal bid of 25 ETH ($100,000). Earlier this 12 months, one other artist asked 200 ETH ($1 million on the time) for a photograph of Tupac Shakur taken 14 days earlier than his demise in a drive-by taking pictures. That NFT has not offered regardless of the value dropping all the way down to 10 ETH. Merely asking an excessive amount of or has Tupac‘s recognition light? You be the choose.