What Are the Biggest Crypto News Stories? [2024]

Everyone familiar with cryptocurrencies has been following their news feeds with shocking and dramatic price swings, new developments and issues regarding the legal status of digital assets. Knowing what are the biggest crypto news stories gives an indication on the kind of dynamic environment which is characterized by cryptos. In this blog post, I am going to discuss some of the best and most important moments in the crypto world sharing real numbers and facts.

The Historic Bull Runs and Crashes of Bitcoin

When listing the major crypto news stories, the fluctuating price of Bitcoin is on top of the list due to the cryptocurrency’s history. The previously mentioned Bitcoin is the world’s first and one of the most popular cryptocurrencies and has already witnessed several peak and low moments. The first event that can be considered significant was in December of 2017, BTC hit a high of approximately $19,000. This was brought about by a general adoption of the currency by the public, frequent media coverage and a lot of investment made in the currency through the use of social media.

Though, this was succeeded by a free-fall and in December 2018, Bitcoin’s price reached to $3200. This extremely sharp drop showed that the market of cryptocurrency is very much vortex-like. Moving to 2021, Bitcoin again posted an all-time high of over $64,000 in April, with the help of institutional investors and acceptance by more organizations such as Tesla and MicroStrategy. Nevertheless, the same year, The Bitcoin has another bearish run, getting down to $30,000 by July.

Transition of Ethereum from Proof of Work to Proof of Stake

Other critical discussion points in what are the biggest crypto news stories include the evolution of Ethereum from the Proof of Work model to the Proof of Stake model. This new major upgrade is also referred to as Ethereum 2. 0, can be oriented on increasing scalability, security, and energy save. It started with the inception of the Beacon Chain in December, 2020 – a new POS-chain that coexists with Ethereum’s POS-W chain.

Probably, one of the most important steps was the “London Hard Fork” in August 2021 that incorporated the EIP-1559 enhancement. This update radically shifted Ethereum’s fee model to make transaction costs more reliable and also to destroy a part of the fees to lower the overall offer of Ether. That burning process has resulted in deletion of lots of Ether with or without value, thus affecting its supply and price.

They are completed with Ethereum 1. Transition to Ethereum 2. 0 is expected to be completed by next year or the year after namely in the current 2022 or 2023 with the unification of the Ethereum mainnet, and the Beacon Chain. This transition is expected to bring down Ethereum’s energy consumption and at the same time improve capability to accommodate more transaction.

Regulatory Crackdowns in China

If one tries to answer the question about what are the biggest crypto news stories and or regulatory measures that have impacted the marketplace, a key consideration should be given to the effects of China. China has been quite hostile to Cryptocurrencies having banned it multiple times in the past few years. During 2021 the Chinese authorities extended the crackdown on the cryptocurrency mining and trading activities.

China launched the internet crackdown on cryptocurrencies in 2021 May, where the State Council prohibited the crypto mining. This announcement saw mining operations moving from China which was the leading country in bitcoin mining contributing more than 50% of the global hash rate. The short-term effect was a decrease in the Bitcoin hash rate and mining temporarily flooding the market with the cryptocurrency.

However, all the described without lobal restrictions were tightened to new extent in September, 2021 when the People’s Bank of China banned all cryptocurrency transactions. The following action led to a drastic reduction of the Bitcoin and other leading cryptocurrencies to prove that regulation affects the market greatly.

The rise of Non Fungible Token (NFT)

As we know the NFTs also known as Non- Fungible Token came into the scene few years back to rule the world. It is difficult to talk about what are the most important crypto news when ignoring the fact that 2021 saw a massive rise of Non-Fungible Tokens (NFTs). NFTs are special tokens, which give the owner a title to certain object, for instance, art, music or pieces of virtual territory. For this reason, the NFT market surge has been proven to be phenomenal in 2021, an aspect mirroring the billions of NFTs sales.

One of the most notable NFT sales was the digital artwork “Everydays: including “The First 5000 Days” artwork by the contemporary artist Beeple, which was sold for $69 million at Christie’s auction in March 2021. While this sale was a success in terms of its monetary value, it also served to introduce blockchain to the interested public as the future of art market.

OpenSea, Rarible, and Foundation are some of the most famous Marketplaces that were created for selling NFTs and where artists, buyers, and investors turn to. This has also seen virtual world such as Decentraland and The Sandbox created to enable users to trade virtual land and also build upon it.

El Salvador’s Bitcoin Legal Tender

The act of El Salvador making the Bitcoin legal tender is widely accepted as one of the biggest cryptocurrency stories. As of June 2021, El Salvador’s President, Mr. Nayib Bukele endorsed the use of Bitcoin as legal tenders along side the US dollar. The law was enacted in September 2021; thus, El Salvador became the first country in the world to formally embrace Bitcoin in this way.

This was to offer the financially excluded population a chance at banking and to lower the fees of overseas Salvadorans to remit money back home. The government introduced the Chivo Wallet which is a government backed wallet and placed Bitcoin ATMs in several parts of the country to enable people to transact in Bitcoin.

However, this decision came under a lot of criticisms and skepticism from the international bodies such as the International Monetary Fund, the World Bank among other for issues to do with effects on economic stability and issues to do with regulation among others. Nevertheless, El Salvador’s decision can be considered as a pioneering move, which provoked other countries to discuss the usage of cryptocurrencies.

Table of the Major Corporate and Institutional Investment

Another prospective feature that is essential to the question of what are the biggest crypto news stories is the presence of the corporate and institutional investments. Business entities and organizations have realized that the cryptocurrency shall be used as investment instruments and tools against inflation rates.

Tesla’s board or management announcing in February 2021 that the company had purchased US$ 1. cents, it has made one of its steps among such milestones when it proclaims that it is buying up to $5 billion worth of Bitcoin and would take Bitcoin as payment for the cars. When Tesla, one of the leading companies of the world, invested in it, this gave Bitcoin credibility and it directly impacted the price to rise.

Likewise, there is a business intelligence firm known as MicroStrategy that has, among all the firms, been among the most too systematic in the investment in BTC. Currently, it has purchased over 100,000 Bitcoins, and that this asset is considered to be its official treasury currency. The Chief Executive Officer of the company; the man behind the giant is a Bitcoin lover, and he has been forcing other firms to adopt Bitcoin Inventory.

One could also realize that the introduction of Bitcoin futures ETFs in United States in October 2021 can also be considered as another main event that occurred. These present a well regulated manner of attaining publicity to Bitcoin but with out truly holding the risky commodity, thus incorporating Bitcoin into the monetary technique.

See Also: How To Buy NFTs? Complete Guide [2024]

Conclusion: Exogenous Threats, Opportunities, and Pattern of Cryptocurrencies

To identify what of the presented pieces of information in the field of crypto is the most significant and defining is useful in gaining insight into the field which is still rather young and constantly changing. Exemplified by Bitcoin’s value attempting and Ether, every instance is related to facets shaping the current crypto environment, ranging from China’s style to NFTs.

Both as to usage and importance, which is a currency, the pertinent of the key moments to become an investor or a supporter of this new type of finance is to grow fast. Based on the understanding of the analysis from this study, the four characteristics which revealed that relate to the crypto market include innovation, high risk and return, difficult to regulate…Thus, this paper argues that since markets are dynamic, more research should be carried out on this subject.

Thus, knowing the identified events and their consequences, you can realize the specific characteristics of the functioning of the cryptocurrency market and make the correct decision within the chosen sphere.