Friday, January 7. The week is coming to an end, so we can talk about the most interesting news in the crypto industry over the past day.
BTC hashrate dropped due to internet disconnection in Kazakhstan
Against the backdrop of ongoing protests in Kazakhstan, the authorities decided to turn off the Internet, including for wired operators. During the absence of the Internet in the country, the hash rate of the first cryptocurrency fell by 12%.
Alan Dordzhiev, Chairman of the National Association of Blockchain and Data Center Industry of Kazakhstan, confirmed that “mining farms are disabled for the duration of the blocking of the Internet throughout the country.”
At the moment, the bitcoin price has updated its monthly minimum and is trading at ~$41 thousand.
Recall that in 2021, due to the ban on the mining of cryptocurrencies in China, many miners began to transport all equipment to Kazakhstan. This was facilitated by the geographical proximity of the countries and the low cost of electricity in Kazakhstan. More than 87 000 devices have been shipped to the country, according to the Financial Times.
According to the Center for Alternative Finance at the University of Cambridge, in August 2021, the share of Kazakhstan in the hashrate of the bitcoin network reached 18.1%.
Electric Capital Reports Web 3.0 Developers Grow 75% In 2021
A report by venture capital firm Electric Capital says more than 30 000 developers have joined the creation of open source projects related to cryptocurrencies and Web 3.0 in 2021. This is the highest figure on record.
During the reporting period, more than 18 000 monthly active developers made code changes to projects in the digital assets and Web 3.0 domains. Since the beginning of 2021, their number has grown by 75%.
The largest number of active developers are working on projects based on Ethereum – more than 4000 people. Then there are Polkadot – about 1400 specialists and Cosmos – just over 900 people. More than 680 developers work on open source products in the Bitcoin ecosystem.
Analysts also stressed that 500 new developers joined the work on products from the DeFi sector – an increase of 75% over the previous year.
OpenSea Raises $300 Million With A Valuation Of $13 Billion
NFT marketplace OpenSea has closed a $300 million Series C funding round. The non-fungible token platform was estimated at $13.3 billion.
The funds raised will be used to improve the quality of customer service, recruit new employees, develop products and develop the community.
OpenSea CEO Devin Finzer announced the launch of a grant program to support developers and content creators to popularize the NFT ecosystem.
Recall that in March last year, OpenSea managed to raise $23 million, and in July, closed a round of funding for Series B in the amount of $100 million.
MicroStrategy added 1914 BTC to its investment portfolio
MicroStrategy CEO Michael Sailor said MicroStrategy acquired an additional 1914 BTC for approximately $94.2 million. The average purchase price from a business analytics software provider was approximately $49 229.
According to the report, the deals were carried out from December 9 to December 29.
MicroStrategy is one of the first publicly traded organizations to invest a portion of its equity capital in digital assets. In August 2020, the supplier purchased 21 454 BTC.
In December 2020, the company began to use not only equity capital, but also debt financing to buy the first cryptocurrency, placing convertible bonds in the amount of $650 million.
Throughout the year, the firm continued to invest in bitcoin. The largest purchases were 13 005 BTC for $489 million in July and 7002 BTC for $414.4 million at the end of November.
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