CoinMarketCap and Coinbase, among others, were affected by an unexplained glitch that caused popular coins to show enormous gains.
Once there was excitement among cryptocurrency traders, there was confusion when a glitch briefly showed huge gains for Bitcoin (BTC), Ether (ETH), and other cryptocurrencies.
It was reported that Bitcoin's value had reached $900 billion on CoinMarketCap and other price indexes, while Ethereum's value had reached $81. Cointelegraph's price indices were also temporarily impacted by the glitch.
Exchange prices were unaffected by the displayed numbers, and the platforms were able to resolve the problem quickly. Rebooting servers is a part of CoinMarketCap's remediation plan, according to the data provider.
As a result of an issue that affected the rankings on CoinMarketCap, a spokesperson told Cointelegraph that the glitch is now "back to normal." Is there any price information from the year 2026? "We'd keep the down payment for the Lamborghini."
Initially, it was thought that hackers were responsible for the prices that were displayed.
As Bosonic founder Rosario Ingargiola explained, "Everyone tunes into those disruptions, so to the extent they all use the same data source," when there is a problem and prices are severely depressed, this can result in herd behavior driving investment decisions, which can be dangerous.
Bitcoin is now accepted as a payment method by well-known mainstream companies.
Without mentioning how some of the world's largest investors continue to buy flagship cryptocurrencies, any story about Bitcoin's recent calendar year will not be complete. Hence, the year 2021 began with Elon Musk, the Dogefather, investing $1.5 billion in Bitcoin, making it the largest investment by a mainstream company in the flagship crypto.
At one point, Tesla even disclosed to the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) that it would allow customers to pay with Bitcoin (BTC) for some of its services, but that decision was subsequently reversed. As expected, the digital asset's price soared to an all-time high of $43,000 within minutes of Musk's apparent support for it becoming public knowledge.
Only Microstrategy CEO Michel Saylor, with his maximalist stance reflected in his constant accumulation of the premier cryptocurrency at both its all-time highs and lowest levels, outspent Musk in his Bitcoin purchases this year. Microstrategy now owns 124,391 BTC, a staggering amount for a company that spent nearly $6 billion to acquire. The firm's BTC investments have already generated $2.1 in profits, according to the most conservative estimates.
Participation of financial institutions
Mastercard and U.S.-based lender Bank of New York Mellon, among others, followed suit soon after Tesla CEO Elon Musk made his foray into the world of Bitcoin and began offering their clients a wide range of crypto-related services ranging from custody to payments.
With the help of New York Digital Assets (NYDIG), the fifth-largest commercial financial institution in the United States, U.S. Bank is able to assist its customers with the storage and management of cryptographic private keys for the likes of Bitcoin, Bitcoin Cash (BCH), and Litecoin (LTC). Other major U.S. financial institutions, such as State Street and Northern Trust, disclosed similar plans as well.
To follow Nasdaq-listed Marathon Patent Group's $150 million purchase of Bitcoin as reserves, social media behemoth Twitter enabled a "crypto tipping" option for its patrons at the beginning of the year. In addition, Square, helmed by Jack Dorsey, announced that it would be allocating 5% of its assets to Bitcoin, which is estimated to be worth $170 million.
As a final note, a number of smaller companies around the world followed suit, including WeWork, AXA, and Substack, in announcing that they would begin accepting Bitcoin payments.
Conversations about the environmental impact of Bitcoin increased.
A growing number of studies have revealed that Bitcoin consumes a staggering amount of electricity each year, which became a major point of contention last year.
An analysis by the University of Cambridge found that a single Bitcoin transaction used 707 kWh of electricity, which equates to 121.36 terawatt-hours annually. Many major countries, including Argentina, the Netherlands, and the United Arab Emirates (UAE), have claimed that this energy is sufficient to meet their power requirements.
In recent months, however, an increasing number of mining companies have begun to shift their operations toward the use of renewable energy sources. Consider the recent signing of a deal between MintGreen, an environmentally friendly cryptocurrency mining company in Canada, and the local energy company, Lonsdale Energy Corporation, to provide heat generated from Bitcoin mining to the residents of North Vancouver, British Columbia, by the beginning of 2022.
In a similar vein, many other companies, such as CleanSpark and Bit Digital, have made the switch to a more environmentally friendly method of harvesting Bitcoin. In fact, according to a recent study, hydroelectric power is the most common source of energy for miners at the moment, with a little more than 60% of all mining farms around the world relying on this renewable energy medium to facilitate their day-to-day activities.
Global regulatory scrutiny increase significantly
Chinese authorities were not the only ones to formulate and implement a comprehensive Bitcoin prohibition earlier this year; Egypt, Algeria, and Iraq were among the countries to impose blanket bans on cryptocurrency businesses operating within their respective borders. One reason for this could have been that more than a dozen public and private mining companies were able to accumulate hundreds of millions of dollars over the course of the third, fourth, and fifth quarters of 2021, prompting regulators to take notice of the industry like they had never done before.
In terms of money, the increased regulatory pressure was exacerbated by the fact that Bitcoin miners were able to generate over $15.3 billion in revenue in 2018, representing a 206 percent increase year-on-year when compared to the previous year. It is possible that this has prompted governments to begin looking for ways to control the exponential growth of this sector.
In some countries, such as India, where cryptocurrencies appeared to have gained a significant foothold over the last few months, the government decided to begin exploring the possibility of introducing new legislation — specifically, the Cryptocurrency and Regulation of Official Digital Currency Bill, 2021 — with the goal of prohibiting "private cryptocurrencies," a term whose precise definition has yet to be determined. Having said that, India is still interested in promoting the use of Blockchain technology, as well as the use of certain other digital assets that may fall entirely within its regulatory purview.
