Crypto Scoop: BTC Scales Over $25K, ETH Soars Over $2,000 As Several Altcoins Also Record Price Gains.

Cryptocurrencies continue on a recovery path as their prices soar after a crypto winter. In this week’s edition of the crypto scoop, we’ll be reviewing: 

• The price movement of top cryptocurrencies
• Ripple CEO and Vitalik Buterin’s Twitter feud
• Crypto adoption initiatives in South Africa, Zimbabwe and more
• BAYC NFT sales surge and Antony Hopkins NFT collection

Ripple CTO and VItalik Buterin Engage In Twitter Feud

While Ripple is still engaged in a lawsuit with the US Security and Exchange Commission (SEC), its CTO and Co-founder of Ethereum, Vitalik Buterin, engaged in a Twitter feud. Ripple CTO David Schwartz noted that SEC hasn’t been fair to Ripple, and neither has Vitalik Buterin. 

Earlier, Buterin had taken to Twitter, saying,  “XRP already lost their right to protection when they tried to throw us under the bus as “China-controlled, imo.”. Buterin criticised Ripple for labelling Ethereum and Bitcoin as being controlled by China in 2020 as part of its argument in the SEC case. 

Buterin criticised Ripple for labelling Ethereum and Bitcoin as being controlled by China in 2020 as part of its argument in the SEC case. 

In response to Buterin’s tweet, Schwartz didn't hold back. He instead repeated Ripple’s argument of Bitcoin and Ethereum, stating, “I think it’s perfectly fair to analogise miners in PoW systems to stockholders in companies. Just as eBay’s stockholders earn from the residual friction between buyers and sellers that eBay does not remove, so do miners in ETH and BTC.”. Schwartz then asked Buterin if the market or the government should settle the debate.

South Africa, Zimbabwe, Buenos Aires Pursue Crypto Initiatives

To stop illegal activity, the Prudential Authority of the Reserve Bank of South Africa issued guidelines to its subsidiaries that urged banks not to cut off their relationships with cryptocurrencies completely. It implied that committing such an act might put more people at risk over time.

Due to unclear regulations, certain South African banks had previously severed relations with crypto asset service providers (CASPs). H however, the notification emphasises that risk evaluation doesn't entail ultimately abandoning cryptocurrency.  It suggests that because it may restrict the options for handling problems like money laundering, such a move could even be a "threat" to overall financial integrity.

According to John Mangudya, the governor of the Zimbabwean central bank "has prepared a roadmap for implementation of CBDC [central bank digital currency] in Zimbabwe." Mangudya also disclosed that the central bank's fintech regulatory sandbox had accepted two fintech startups and is now anticipating input from stakeholders to ensure its success.

During the South American nation's ETHLatam conference on Thursday, Diego Fernández, the city's secretary of innovation and digital transformation, announced that Buenos Aires, the country's capital, aims to deploy Ethereum validation nodes in 2023.

According to Fernández, the initiative "has exploratory and regulatory aims" and will aid the city of 3 million people in "developing adaptable regulation" for cryptocurrencies.

Buenos Aires is one of the first places where the government sets up an Ethereum node or a computer running Ethereum client software.

The Buenos Aires legislature established a regulatory sandbox in 2021, and that's how the nodes will be deployed under that framework. The city of Buenos Aires will solicit assistance from private parties for the node deployment through the sandbox. Although he did not specify the number of nodes the city would deploy, he did say that they would be housed in "world-class" data centres belonging to Buenos Aires.

Ukraine’s prime minister has also revealed that Ukraine spent $54 million out of its $60 million crypto donations to purchase Drones, military software and Other Military Expenses.

BAYC NFT sales surge, and Antony Hopkins Reveals NFT collection

This week, there were more sales and trading of the Bored Ape Yacht Club collection. This is because Bored Ape #5383 was sold for 777 ETH, which is currently equivalent to $1.45 million.

According to DappRadar data, BAYC had a significant spike in traders and sales over a single day. The number of traders increased by 125% to 27, while the number of trades in the collection increased by 100% to 16. Most significantly, Bored Ape #5383 had the most selling.

Anthony Hopkins is launching a new NFT collection about his life as an artist after releasing an NFT movie. Sir Anthony Hopkins, will work with Orange Comet, an art entertainment firm that specialises in NFT minting and promotion services, to introduce his first NFT collection.

According to Orange Comet, this will be the first batch of the three-day NFT series "The Eternal Collection." Collectors will have access to more than 1000 exclusive pictures of the actor based on several archetypes during this time.

Ten of Hopkins' most significant character archetypes, including Odin from Marvel's "Thor" and Hannibal Lecter from "Silence of the Lambs," will be included. "NFTs are a blank canvas to create art in a new format,” Hopkins remarked. He stressed that, regardless of age, NFTs enable reciprocal sharing of artistic inspiration with others. “I’m probably the oldest guy in the NFT community and on social media, which proves all is possible at any age.”

Read also: How To Make Your Own NFT For Free

Luxury Resort Chain Accepts Payment In Bitcoin and Ethereum

According to reports, the luxury resort chain Soneva has started to accept cryptocurrency payments at its properties in Thailand and the Maldives.  “Accepting cryptocurrencies as a payment method is another example of enabling our international guests to easily make payments from anywhere in the world.”

Three resorts by Soneva exist in the Maldives (Soneva Fushi, Soneva Jani, and Soneva in Aqua). Thailand is also home to a resort owned by the business (Soneva Kiri). Soneva Villa Ownership can also be paid for with ether and bitcoin.

Soneva has joined together with payment platform provider Pomelo Pay and the provider of crypto payment solutions Triple-A in order to accept cryptocurrency. The Singapore Monetary Authority (MAS) has granted Triple-A a licence.

Tornado Cash Developer Arrested

Tornado Cash creator Alexey Pertsev has been arrested after the ban on Tornado Cash. He’s been charged with the use of the Ethereum-based privacy tool to launder money and conceal criminal financial flows. His wife, Ksenia Malik lashed out at authorities for treating her husband like “a dangerous criminal”. 

 Ksenia stated that Pertsev is still in the custody of Dutch authorities and she has not had the opportunity to contact him since he was imprisoned.  Malik voiced her worry that Pertsev was taken into custody without cause for what she believed to be harmless behaviour, saying “It is very unexpected for me that a person can be arrested for writing open source code.” Some supporters have launched campaigns to get him out of prison.