The crypto-verse comprised notable events in the past week. First came a prolonged bear trend that saw the entire crypto bleed significantly. Triggered by multiple factors, including fears of the new Omicron COVID strain, this bear market saw BTC plunge from over $59,000 to trade as low as $42,874.62.
The bearish sentiment also extended into the altcoin market, pushing most coins down by double digits. As a result, the crypto market’s capitalization plunged from $2.60 trillion to $2.19 trillion. At the time of writing, most digital assets are staging a recovery that has seen the market cap rise to $2.38 trillion.
Metaverse land sales net $100M in a week
Moving on to more bullish news, the metaverse has taken the investment world by storm. Specifically, non-fungible tokens (NFTs) representing metaverse land are highly sought after. In the past week, metaverse land sales surpassed $100 million due to the increasing demand for virtual land.
According to DappRadar, a crypto analytics firm, The Sandbox recorded a trading volume of $86.56 million. Decentraland came second after recording lands sales worth $15.53 million. CryptoVoxels and Somnium Space took third and fourth place with trading volumes of $2.68 million and $1.10 million, respectively.
Facebook lifts crypto ad ban
In a move that will help the crypto space gain more adoption, social giant Facebook lifted its crypto ad ban. The company also increased the number of licenses it accepts from three to 27. Facebook’s parent company, Meta, announced this news on December 1, noting that these changes seek to help businesses grow their audiences and reach more potential customers.
Explaining why it decided to lift the ban, the company said the crypto landscape has continued to mature and stabilize over the years. Facebook also cited clear regulations from governments across the globe.
Square rebrands to Block
Jack Dorsey-led payments firm Square changed its corporate name to Block on December 1. The new name will become effective on December 10. Square Crypto, a separate unit of the company, also rebranded to Spiral. Despite the rebranding, Dorsey said the company’s purpose of economic empowerment remains constant.
Crypto hackers steal over $300M from two projects
Malicious actors attacked two organizations in the crypto space over the past week and made away with over $300 million. The first attack was on BadgerDAO, a decentralized autonomous organization that connects BTC with DeFi applications. BadgerDAO lost $120 million in this exploit.
The second attack was on BitMart, a crypto exchange, which lost $196 million after attackers got access to two of its four hot wallets. The company’s CEO, Sheldon Xia, said the attackers accessed the hot wallets after stealing their private keys.
Charlie Munger praises China for banning crypto
American billionaire investor Charlie Munger bashed the crypto space, saying he wishes cryptocurrencies were never invented. He said this during the Sohn conference in Sydney on Friday, adding that he admires the Chinese government for imposing an outright ban on crypto because it was the right decision.
