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The 5 weirdest crypto stories of 2021

In 2021, the market cap of cryptocurrencies skyrocketed 286% 12 months over 12 months, uplifting a $2.17 trillion business into the stratosphere. However, with this huge creation of wealth comes the explosion of strange tales all through the sector. From the suspicious dying of a number of crypto-evangelists and crypto scams involving hacked Twitter accounts of heads of states to much-promoted superstar NFT drops that bombed on the public sale, 2021 was really a wild 12 months for the cryptocurrency our on-line world. With out additional ado, let’s take a look at the highest strangest tales which have captivated blockchain fanatics this 12 months.

No 1. The dying of John McAfee

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On June 23, John McAfee, crypto-evangelist and namesake founding father of antivirus software program firm McAfee, was discovered useless in a Spanish jail cell in an obvious suicide by hanging. America, one of many few nations that impose a taxation-by-citizenship regime — that’s, Individuals are taxed on their worldwide earnings every year no matter their nation of residence — had been looking for McAfee’s extradition for failing to file his earnings tax returns from 2014 to 2018 and allegedly not reporting earnings for his crypto initiatives. McAfee was arrested in Spain pending U.S. tax evasion prices. Again in 2018, McAfee was allegedly charging as a lot as $105,000 per Tweet to advertise preliminary coin choices (ICOs) on social media.

In one other Tweet two years prior, McAfee said: “If I suicide myself, I did not. I used to be whacked,” resulting in conspiracy theories that the businessman’s dying might have resulted from an orchestrated assault. McAfee is remembered for his pioneering ventures in programming, early adoption of Bitcoin (BTC) and his eccentric character. He famously mentioned that he would “eat [his own] dick on nationwide tv” if the worth of BTC didn’t attain $500,000 by 2020. In November, McAfee’s unique software program improvement firm was acquired by personal traders for $14 billion. McAfee is survived by his widow Janice McAfee and his kids (of which McAfee claimed to have no less than 47).

No 2. India‘s prime minister seems to tweet out a BTC rip-off

Indian prime minister Narendra Modi‘s Twitter account was hacked once more in December, with scammers claiming that India had adopted BTC as nationwide tender, and 500 BTC can be found for quick distribution to Indian nationals who enroll by way of a phishing hyperlink. The tweet was briefly viewable to the general public and Modi‘s 73.4 million followers earlier than it was taken down. The 12 months prior, a cybercrime group often known as “John Wick” hacked the prime minister‘s Twitter account and posted messages asking his followers to make crypto donations.

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A number of hypotheses exist as to why Modi grew to become a goal of those Bitcoin rip-off hacks. One attainable motive was revenge for the continued Bitcoin scandal in India‘s Karnataka state. In response to Indian media shops, Karnataka police and governmental officers allegedly obtained 12,900 BTC in bribes from hacker Srikrishna Ramesh, who was arrested for hacking three crypto exchanges and different web sites within the earlier years. When Karnataka chief minister Basavaraj Bommai requested concerning the concern in a gathering with Modi in November, the prime minister allegedly dismissed the difficulty. India presently faces a chaotic regulatory setting concerning the state of crypto affairs within the nation.

Narendra Modi’s deleted Bitcoin Tweet | Supply: India Right now / Twitter

No 3. ConstitutionDAO‘s “Uno Reverse”

Again in November, a gaggle of retail traders shaped a decentralized autonomous group, or DAO, aspiring to pool cash to buy the final privately-owned first-edition print copy of america Structure at a public public sale hosted by Sotheby‘s. Structure DAO raised $49 million by way of Ether (ETH) donations from 17,437 individuals. On the day of the public sale, nonetheless, the piece of the structure was outbid by Ken Griffin, CEO of Citadel, whose agency owned hedge funds that shorted Gamestop shares to the discontent of many retail traders selling the inventory.

The ConstitutionDAO disbanded shortly afterward and issued refunds to its stakeholders. Whereas it might be that the “proletariat” traders don’t have anything to lose however their chains, it‘s clear that the “bourgeois” gained‘t permit them to be unshackled so simply.

No 4. Elon, Tesla and Bitcoin

Cryptocurrencies have been on a wild curler coaster trip this 12 months, presumably partially to Tesla‘s CEO Elon Musk. Selling digital meme currencies reminiscent of Dogecoin (DOGE) and apart, Musk‘s indecisive method when it got here to Tesla‘s Bitcoin adoption created and worn out many fortunes.

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In March, Musk despatched traders right into a shopping for frenzy after asserting that Tesla would settle for BTC as cost for customers to buy its electrical vehicles. Two months later, the momentum reversed and changed into a full-on market rout after Musk dropped the plans, citing environmental considerations with community mining. Then in October, Tesla mentioned it will rethink including BTC as a way of cost. Via all this, nonetheless, Musk grew to become extra fashionable as a helmsman, main retail traders and crypto fanatics alike by means of the storms of capital markets. He was just lately elected Individual of the Yr by Instances Journal.

No 5. The unsold NFTs of Tupac Shakur

For 29 years, former hip-hop journalist Lawrence “Loupy D” Dotson held on to a sequence of images of famed-rapper Tupac Shakur. The photographs have been taken on the rapper‘s “2Pacalypse Now” debut album launch social gathering in 1992 and have been introduced for public public sale within the type of nonfungible tokens, or NFTs, in November of this 12 months. In an interview with Cointelegraph, Loupy D said: “I additionally thought-about picture displays, museums, every kind of how. With NFTs, it’s not simply concerning the asset itself however the story behind the asset. I knew I wanted to get my story on the market within the public eye.”

The OpenSea public sale had notable press protection beforehand, together with from RollingStone and Fortune.com. For every week, the public sale continued. Nonetheless, not a single piece was bought out of the 18 Tupac picture NFTs. In his disappointment, Loupy D took them off the platform and opened them up for personal inquiries. However, to be honest, the photographer might have been asking an excessive amount of, as every NFT piece had a minimal bid of 25 ETH ($100,000). Earlier this 12 months, one other artist asked 200 ETH ($1 million on the time) for a photograph of Tupac Shakur taken 14 days earlier than his dying in a drive-by taking pictures. That NFT has not bought regardless of the worth dropping all the way down to 10 ETH. Merely asking an excessive amount of or has Tupac‘s recognition pale? You be the choose. 

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