Year in Retrospect: Crypto Initiatives, Adoption and Regulation in 2023

As the curtain falls on 2023, we can't help but look back at a year that was nothing short of a thrilling roller coaster ride in the crypto world. It's been a journey marked by exhilarating highs and daunting lows, a narrative that kept us all on the edge of our seats. In a realm where change is the only constant, the cryptocurrency sector has not just evolved; it has revolutionised itself, expanding in ways that we couldn’t imagine. 

Despite facing its fair share of challenges, the industry has leapt forward with significant strides in adoption, regulation, and groundbreaking technological advancements. And let's not forget the whirlwind of predictions and forecasts that kept the community buzzing – it was a year that truly tested our ability to keep pace with the ever-changing crypto narrative.

At Yellow Card, we've ridden this wave with gusto, achieving remarkable milestones and earning greater recognition. We've been busy enhancing our platform with exciting updates, all tailored to enrich the experience of our cherished customers.

As we bid adieu to a year of monumental highs and lows, join us in revisiting the most memorable moments and highlights that defined the crypto world in 2023.

January

January 1: Bitcoin began the year trading at $16,000 and ETH above $1,200. 

January 2:  Lido, a Decentralised Autonomous Organisation (DAO), became the largest DeFI Total Value Locked (TVL) holder.

January 6: Bitcoin's hash rate hit an all-time high (ATH) of 361.20 exahashes per second (EH/s).

January 10: Nigeria announced a road map for payments that includes stablecoins. 

January 10: Yellow Card launches Yellow Pay across Africa. 

January 11: El Salvador passed legislation that created  a legal framework for all cryptocurrencies.

January 14: The Central Bank of Tanzania officially declared that it had decided to adopt its central bank digital currency.

January 17: Yellow Card commences the second phase of its Pan-African financial literacy tour.

January 23: The Shanghai update shadow fork was successfully launched by Ethereum (ETH) core developers.

January 25: Porsche launches an  NFT collection.

January 26: Yellow Card named "One of the top 100 brands supporting SMEs in Nigeria" by Business Day.

January 31: Cardano DJED Stablecoin Goes Live.

January 26: The Central Bank of Ghana invited unlicensed fintech startups and registered financial institutions to apply for inclusion in its regulatory sandbox.

January 26: Nigeria and South Africa Rank Among The World’s 50 Crypto Hubs.

January 31: The National Bank of Rwanda announces that financial services providers are prohibited from facilitating crypto-related transactions.

February

February 3: Indonesia's Ministry of Trade announces plans for a national cryptocurrency exchange by June 2023.

February 7: Ethereum testnet Zhejiang stimulates the first ETH staking Withdrawals

February 15: Bitcoin’s price soared above $25,000 for the first time since June 2022, with Ethereum also gaining above $1,700

February 15: Yellow Card runs a once-in-a-lifetime giveaway - Win A Whole Bitcoin. 

February 14: Cardano launches its Valentine upgrade, and Robert Kiyosaki predicts that the bitcoin price will reach $500,000 by 2025. 

February 22: Spotify announces a new feature, "token-enabled playlists," allowing curated playlists to be actively played on its platform. 

February 28: Ethereum’s Sepolia testnet goes live, and Bitcoin’s hash rate soars to a record high.

March

March 4: Nigeria ranks as the second-highest country worldwide to conduct Google searches related to Crypto leverage.

March 6: Yellow Card unveils new cryptocurrencies in product update.

March 8: BTC dips below $20,000, and ETH falls below $1,500 after the fall of Silver Gate Capital.

March 16: Former CTO of Coinbase Balaji Srinivasan set a bet that due to the US economy’s hyperinflation, within 90 days, Bitcoin’s price would catapult to $1 Million. 

March 22: Bitcoin soars to $28,000, ETH hits $1,800, and Solana regains its position in the top 10 cryptocurrencies. The Fear and Greed Index hit a 16-month high of 66, showing Greed.
March 23: Terra’s Founder, Do Kwon, is Arrested in Montenegro.

April

April 3: Dogecoin surges by 30% as Elon Musk makes Twitter logo a ‘meme dog’ temporarily. 

April 12: ETH Shanghai upgrade goes live, BTC hits $30,000 and ETH soars to $2,000. 

April 24: Standard Chartered Bank declares the crypto winter is over and says Bitcoin may hit $100K By Year End

May

May 4: Yellow Card introduces Payments API for business owners.

May 5: The Montana governor, Greg Gianforte, signs a bill into law that bars local governments in the state from outlawing cryptocurrency mining.

May 10: PEPE, an ERC-20 memecoin, exceeded the $1 billion market cap and attained position as the third largest memecoin in market valuation. 

May 13: Bitcoin hits a new milestone with 1 Million addresses holding at least 1 BTC

May 22: The crypto community celebrates Bitcoin Pizza Day, and a Chinese city launches a government-backed metaverse platform. 

May 25: The stablecoin-as-a-Service (SCaaS) provider launched the first Bitcoin-based stablecoin, Stably USD (#USD) operation on the Bitcoin network.
May 29: A new token allows Ethereum NFTS to be transferable to Bitcoin. 

June

June 1: Nike announced its integration with the NFT platform.Swoosh with EA Sports games, potentially allowing Nike’s virtual footwear and apparel to appear in games.
June 5: Tether invests in El Salvador’s Volcano Energy Project as a stride in enabling green mining. 

June 6: Yellow Card adds Tether Gold (XAUt) coin on its platform. 

June 9: Vitalik Buterin proposes roadmap to address Ethereum’s scaling, privacy and wallet security.

June 13: SEC’s filing against Binance and Coinbase spurs regulatory scrutiny with the BTC Fear and Greed Index entering the fear zone. 

June 15: BlackRock files for a Bitcoin exchange-traded fund (ETF) with the US Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). 

June 18: DAI emerges as the third-largest stablecoin by market cap. The market capitalisation of the six largest stablecoins, including USDT, USDC, DAI, BUSD, TUSD, and USDP, increased by over $1 billion during the weekend, marking the biggest climb in three months.

June 19: The International Monetary Fund (IMF) presents a blueprint for Cross-Border CBDCs and Terra founder Do Kwon is  Sentenced to 4-Months Jail. 

June 22: Namibia changes stance on crypto ban and passes a bill to regulate digital assets.

June 29: Bitcoin hits a one-year high of $31,400. 

July

July 12: Bank of International Settlements (BIS) reports that Central Banks are increasingly Pro-CBDC

July 13: XRP wins 3-year lawsuit against SEC and becomes 4th largest cryptocurrency

July 30: Ethereum celebrates its 8th birthday, and the Cardano Mithril upgrade goes live. 

August

August 3: Coingecko reports that in the first half of 2023, six countries have dominated Africa's interest in cryptocurrency: Nigeria, South Africa, Morocco, Ghana, Egypt, and the Ivory Coast, 

August 18: Bitcoin drops to $25,000, ETH to $1,620, spurring $1billion In liquidations

August 24: Shopify integrates Solana Pay for USDC payments

August 28: Ethereum's daily transaction fees drop to Lowest in 8 Months, making it more cost-effective

August 28: Shiba Inu launches  Shibriunm, a metaverse and NFT-focused layer 2 blockchain. 

August 29: Bitcoin hits $28,000 after Grayscale wins against SEC, spurs optimism about a Bitcoin ETF approval. 

August 31: Binance announces plans to discontinue support for native currency, BUSD

September

September 6: Cathie Wood's ARK invest files for the first US Spot Ethereum ETF.

September 12: Nigeria and Morocco make the top 20 list for global crypto adoption. Franklin Templeton applies for a Bitcoin ETF.
September 21: Tether resumes its stablecoin lending operations.

October

October 5: Zimbabwe introduces a gold-backed digital token, Zimbabwe Gold (ZiG).

October 10: Yellow Card introduces USDC on Solana Network:

October 16: Ferrari embraces cryptocurrency for luxury car payments.

October 19: The SEC voluntarily dismissed charges against Ripple CEO Brad Garlinghouse and Executive Chairman Chris Larsen, both of whom had been charged alongside the company for allegedly violating securities laws with sales of the XRP token. 

October 23: Yellow Card celebrates its expansion in 20 countries across Africa.

October 26: Bitcoin skyrockets to $30,000 after false reports of an approved spot Bitcoin ETF.

October 26: Solana Labs has launched a new incubator program called Solana Incubator to provide resources and support for startups building on the Solana blockchain.

October 26: Ethereum’s Dencun upgrade is postponed to 2024.

October 31: Solana (SOL) surged to a 14-month high, hitting $46, its highest since August 2022, after Solana's scaling solution, Firedancer, goes live on the testnet.

November

November 2: ProShares announced the launch of the Short Ether Strategy ETF (SETH), which will soon trade on the NYSE Arca.

November 3: Former FTX CEO Sam Bankman-Fried is found guilty on all 7 charges in the FTX fraud trial.

November 6: Ripple XRP secures its position as the fourth-largest cryptocurrency by market capitalisation and gets approved for use within the Dubai International Financial Centre (DIFC).

November 9: The cryptocurrency market experienced a staggering $50 billion surge, driven by Bitcoin's meteoric rise to an 18-month high of $37,000.

November 10: South Africa becomes the sole African nation to adopt a crypto-asset reporting framework for tax transparency.

November 14: Vitalik Buterin advocates for revisiting Ethereum's Plasma as a valuable scaling solution.

November 15: Yellow Card becomes the first fintech in Africa to launch Paypal USD (PYUSD) on its platform. 

November 17: Yellow Card honoured as Disruptor of the Year at the 2023 Africa Financial Industry Summit.

November 19: Bitcoin achieved a historic milestone on November 19, 2023, by registering the highest number of daily transactions within a 24-hour span—710,579 transfers. 

November 21: Binance pleads guilty to charges and is set to pay $4.3 billion in penalties. CEO Changpeng Zhao is forced to step down, and Richard Teng takes over as CEO.

November 24: Yellow Card celebrates inclusion through new and updated illustrations. 

November 28: Bitcoin marked the 11th anniversary of Bitcoin's first halving, a milestone that witnessed the cryptocurrency's remarkable ascent from $12 to the current price of $38,000. 

December

December 4: Kenya’s parliamentary committee approved a bill to include cryptocurrencies in the definition of securities, proposing taxes on crypto exchanges, digital wallets, and capital gains from crypto assets.

December 6: Bitcoin broke through the $44,000 barrier, a level not seen since April 2022 after the tumultuous crash of Terra, marking a year-to-date gain of 165%. Tether's market cap hit an all-time high of $90 billion.

December 7: CryptoQuant suggests that Bitcoin’s price could rise above the $50,000 mark in early 2024. 

December 10: Cardano's DeFi ecosystem surpassed $370 million, placing Cardano in the top 10 TVL records for the first time in 21 months.

December 11: CoinGecko reveals that over half of the world's countries, totalling 119 states and 4 UK overseas territories, have legalised cryptocurrency.  Crypto slate reports that Bitcoin is now 77% less sensitive to liquidations than in 2021, signalling market maturity.

December 11: Coin Journal's analysis reveals a crypto surge in Nigeria, with 47% of the population actively engaged in the crypto space. FIFA announces the launch of NFT collectables. 

December 12: El Salvador's bitcoin bonds, known as the "Volcano Bond," have received regulatory approval for an early 2024 issuance in a groundbreaking move. 

December 14: Former CEO of BitMEX, Arthur Hayes, predicts a $1 million price for Bitcoin. 

Bitwise outlined ten predictions for the upcoming year, including Bitcoin hitting an all-time high above $80,000, potential spot Bitcoin ETF approvals, and Taylor Swift launching NFTs.

Conclusion

As we turn the page on the year, our gaze shifts towards the horizon of 2024 with a blend of anticipation and optimism. The journey through 2023 has not only reshaped our understanding of digital currencies but has also set the stage for what promises to be an even more transformative year ahead.

In 2024, the crypto world is expected to continue its trajectory of growth and evolution, driven by advancements in technology, increasing global adoption, and a maturing regulatory environment. We foresee a year where blockchain technology will further permeate various sectors, from finance to entertainment, solidifying its role as a cornerstone of the digital age.

For Yellow Card, the coming year is about building on our successes and learning from the challenges of 2023. We are committed to staying at the forefront of this dynamic industry, continuously enhancing our platform to provide the best possible service to our customers. Our focus will remain on expanding our reach, improving user experience, and introducing new features that align with the evolving needs of our customers to help them navigate the crypto world confidently.

We are excited to embark on this journey with you!

Cheers to more growth in 2024! Happy HODL-days!