From El Salvador officially adopting bitcoin as legal tender to the NFT market booming: 4 things that happened in crypto this past week
The top cryptocurrencies by market value are in the red on Tuesday.
Bitcoin is currently trading at around $47,000 after it surpassed $52,000 early Tuesday morning, its highest level since May. Ether is also down, currently trading at around $3,500, though it briefly went above $4,000 on Friday.
Despite the tumble, other altcoins, like Solana, jumped up the ranks. Late last week, Solana overtook dogecoin and is now the seventh-largest cryptocurrency by market value. And on Tuesday, it hit an all-time high of nearly $195.
Here are four other key things that happened in crypto this past week, from El Salvador officially adopting bitcoin as legal tender and the NFT, or nonfungible token, market booming.
1. El Salvador bought over $20 million worth of bitcoin
On Tuesday, El Salvador's law adopting bitcoin as legal tender went into effect.
It allows bitcoin to be used as payment for goods and taxes. Businesses can price their goods in bitcoin, and exchanges will not be subject to capital gains tax.
And on Monday, El Salvador bought over $20.9 million worth of bitcoin, according to tweets by President Nayib Bukele. Bukele said that the country purchased 400 bitcoin, the first step in its plan to add the cryptocurrency to its balance sheet.
"El Salvador just bought 200 new coins. We now hold 400," Bukele tweeted on Monday.
2. The SEC is reportedly investigating Uniswap Labs
The Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) is investigating Uniswap Labs, the start-up behind Uniswap, the Wall Street Journal reported on Friday. Uniswap is one of the largest decentralized exchange protocols and is highly regarded within the decentralized finance, or DeFi, space.
Regulators are seeking information about how investors use Uniswap and how it's marketed, according to the Journal. It also reported that the investigation is in the early stages and may not lead to any formal charges.
Thousands of digital coins can be traded on Uniswap. In the last 24 hours, Uniswap had over $1.77 billion in volume and $4.41 million generated in fees, according to its website.
A spokesperson for Uniswap Labs told the Journal that the start-up is "committed to complying with the laws and regulations governing our industry and to providing information to regulators that will assist them with any inquiry."
3. FTX.US plans to start offering crypto derivatives to clients
On Aug. 31, FTX.US, the U.S. affiliate of global cryptocurrency exchange FTX International, announced that it will acquire LedgerX, a cryptocurrency derivatives exchange regulated by the Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC), for an undisclosed amount.
Derivatives are financial contracts like futures or options, where pricing is based on the value of an underlying asset.
LedgerX offers futures, options and swaps on cryptocurrencies like bitcoin and ether. Similar to any investment, derivatives come with their own set of risks, but can also be used to gain exposure to assets without actually buying them.
4. NFT market boom continues
The market for NFTs has exploded. In August alone, OpenSea, the world's largest NFT marketplace, saw over $2 billion in transactions, with some individual NFT collectibles selling for millions of dollars.
Even mainstream auction houses, like Sotheby's and Christie's, continue to sell rare NFTs.
On Thursday, for example, Sotheby's began an auction of 107 Bored Ape Yacht Club NFTs, which will end on Sept. 9. The current bid for the collection of 107 NFTs is at $19 million, exceeding Sotheby's estimate of a maximum of $18 million. Each Bored Ape is considered a collectible, since they're unique and programmatically generated.
Other new NFT projects, like Loot, which are lists of randomized adventurer gear sold as NFTs, had the crypto community buzzing as well.
Some of the first NFT projects haven't lost steam either. CryptoKitties, one of the earliest NFTs from 2017, saw over $7 million in trading volume last week, according to DappRadar.
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