Hodler’s Digest comes every Saturday and helps you keep track of every single important message that happened this week. The best (and worst) quotes, introductory and regulatory highlights, leading coins, predictions, and more – one week on Cointelegraph in one link.

This week’s top stories

The Bitcoin network welcomes the Taproot soft fork upgrade

The Bitcoin (BTC) Network went through its first major upgrade since 2017 after the Taproot soft fork went live between blocks 709.488 and 709.632 following a 90 percent lock-in consensus from miners and mining pools.

Taproot will apparently improve the scripting capabilities and privacy of the Bitcoin network by enabling a concept called Merkelized Abstract Syntax Tree that can increase the efficiency of smart contracts without revealing private data behind the contract in transactions.

Well-known Bitcoin developer Hampus Sjöberg spoke to Cointelegraph and emphasized the importance of the upgrade when he pointed out that Taproot shows that Bitcoin can again do network upgrades.

Animoca Brands Reveals Plans for K-Pop NFT Metaverse

Leading NFT gaming company Animoca Brands has partnered with Cube Entertainment, a South Korean record label, talent agency and music production company, to create a “K-pop music metaverse”.

The deal, announced on Monday, sees the duo working together to introduce NFTs for K-pop stars and popular actors under the representation of Cube such as BtoB, Pentagon, (G) I-DLE and Lightsum.

Animoca said the partnership will enable “true digital property rights and other blockchain benefits” for the artists on Cube’s list as well as their fans. Ahn Woo-hyung, CEO of Cube, said the collaboration “will be an important beginning to lead the global digital culture market and advance the digital content industry.”

Google searches for NFTs soar to record highs

On Tuesday, it was reported that Google searches for NFTs rose to record highs in the second half of 2021. According to Google Trends, NFT searches hit new highs in October, surpassing the earlier peak of interest during the first NFT boom in early 2021.

Google’s data also shows that “NFT” has overtaken many of the keywords that have long dominated crypto-related search traffic, including “DeFi”, “Ethereum” and “Blockchain”. While Dogecoin (DOGE) previously caught market attention in the second quarter, the data suggests that interest shifted to the NFT sector as traffic for the Memecoin fell in the third quarter.

Geographically, NFT search traffic is dominated by Asian countries, with China, Uganda, Singapore, Hong Kong, and the Philippines topping the keyword’s search rankings.

Mt. Gox Rehabilitation Plan Is Now “Final And Binding”

The recovery plan to compensate the creditors of the now defunct Japanese crypto exchange Mt. Gox was finalized this week after confirmation by the Tokyo District Court.

Mt. Gox filed for bankruptcy in 2014 due to a hack that resulted in the loss of 850,000 BTC, valued at $ 460 million at the time. Creditors have been waiting for compensation for nearly a decade, and the recovery plan was first brought to the Japanese court on their behalf in 2018.

Gox trustee Nobuaki Kobayashi announced on Tuesday that the recovery plan originally submitted to Tokyo District Court in February is now “final and binding.” While Kobayashi has yet to clear the details of the repayments, he reportedly has around 150,000 BTC to repay creditors.

Staples Center in Los Angeles will be renamed Crypto.com Arena

Crypto.com (CRO) has spent $ 700 million on 20-year naming rights for the Staples Center, with the home of the NBA’s Los Angeles Clippers and Los Angeles Lakers now officially known as the Crypto.com Arena.

The deal was signed by the arena’s owner, AEG, a multinational sports and entertainment company that owns multiple facilities as well as sports franchises such as the Los Angeles Galaxy of the MLS.

The 20,000-seat stadium will wear the new branding for the first time on Christmas Day, when the LA Lakers take on the Brooklyn Nets. Crypto.com has been on an uptrend lately, with the price rising more than 160% in the past 30 days and trading at $ 0.505671 at the time of writing.

Winner and Loser

At the end of the week, Bitcoin (BTC) is at $ 58,311, Ether (ETH) at $ 4,275 and XRP at $ 1.10. The total market capitalization is $ 2.59 Trillion, according to to CoinMarketCap.

Among the top 100 cryptocurrencies, the week’s three biggest altcoin winners are WAX (WAXP) at 64.82%, the sandbox (SAND) at 64.59% and Crypto.com Coin (CRO) at 55.28%.

The three biggest altcoin losers of the week are OMG Network (OMG) at -20.43%, Algorand (SOME) at -18.24% and Zcash (ZEC) at -17.73%.

For more information on crypto pricing, be sure to read Market analysis by Cointelegraph.

The most memorable quotes

“[Cryptocurrencies] are growing very quickly, and they are becoming more and more integrated into what I might call the traditional financial system. […] So the point at which they pose a risk is getting closer. I think that regulators and legislators have to think about it very carefully. “

Sir Jon Cunliffe, Deputy Governor for Financial Stability, Bank of England

“There are a lot of people in Congress right now trying to pass laws on things they don’t necessarily understand. And that’s why you see regulations that don’t really make sense. […] Cryptocurrency shouldn’t be a partisan issue. It’s too big for that. “

Matt West, Democratic US Congress candidate

“The development of an effective political framework for cryptocurrencies will only be possible if there is clear communication and cooperation between private and public actors.”

Susan Friedman, public policy director at Ripple

“We believe that more users can use us if we are compliant.”

Changpeng Zhao, CEO of Binance

“It will always be known as the Staples Center, no matter how many hundreds of millions of dollars Crypto.com paid for the naming rights.”

Bryan Kalbrosky, USA Today reporter

“There are certainly stablecoin issuers who break the law. […] There are also regulated stablecoin issuers and there is also the option of creating a more federal home for the regulation of stablecoins. We don’t have a legal loophole, I think – we only have an enforcement loophole. “

Peter Van Valkenburgh, Research Director at the Coin Center

“As it is written today, however, the BIF would increase uncertainty in the cryptocurrency industry, select winners and losers, and thwart the Internal Revenue Service (IRS) efforts to accurately tax cryptocurrencies while maintaining our country’s competitive advantage over other countries on the Marketplace for digital assets. “

Letter with the signatures of several US representatives on the Bipartisan Infrastructure Framework (BIF)

“We maintain an extremely negative stance on cryptocurrencies as private currencies that claim to be money. But since people need alternatives, we should work on them with our projects. We should develop the digital ruble, as I said earlier. “

Elvira Nabiullina, Governor of the Central Bank of Russia

Forecast of the week

Bitcoin has stalled, but because of this, professional traders are still expecting $ 80,000 through January

Bitcoin has seen significant downward moves lately, falling from around $ 66,300 to around $ 55,700 based on Cointelegraph’s BTC price index.

Marcel Pechman from Cointelegraph looked at various data to see how market participants are behaving. Pechman noted that Bitcoin futures data on Tuesday showed only moderate confidence in the digital currency.

In his view, option data for BTC indicates a neutral outlook on the digital asset. Additionally, Pechman added a chart showing the price of Bitcoin moving within an ascending channel – a kind of upward sloping range.

FUD of the week

President Biden signs Infrastructure Act, which stipulates the reporting obligations of brokers

The controversial $ 1 trillion Infrastructure Bill was signed Monday by President Joe Biden, with the bill aimed at funding major infrastructure projects in the United States, along with several other spending initiatives.

Crypto advocates have had the pitchforks ready since the bill was announced months ago as it imposes stricter rules on crypto companies and broker reporting requirements. The bill also requires that crypto transactions over $ 10,000 must be reported to the Internal Revenue Service.

“We’ve talked for far too long about having the best economy in the world. […] Today we can finally do it, “said the US President, adding that this bill will somehow” change the lives of citizens “for the better.

Miramax is suing Tarantino for “Money Grab” Pulp Fiction NFTs

Miramax filed a complaint against legendary film director Quentin Tarantino on Tuesday after the 58-year-old went rogue and announced his own NFT drop with content from Pulp Fiction, his 1994 blockbuster film.

Tarantino said NFT sales would go live next month, but it appears Miramax took offense because it wasn’t offered the opportunity to siphon off some additional royalties from the film it produced. Miramax accused the Tarantino team of pursuing a “short-term money heist,” even though the company plans to do the same itself.

“This group chose to ruthlessly, greedily, and deliberately disregard the agreement Quentin signed, instead of following a clear legal and ethical approach of simply communicating with Miramax about its proposed ideas,” said Miramax.

CZ reveals how many users left Binance after mandatory KYC

Changpeng Zhao, CEO of Binance, announced that the company had lost 3% of its user base after making Know Your Customer processes “for global users and for every role” in an effort to attract new merchants as a compliant company.

Zhao made the comments during an interview with Bloomberg News on Tuesday, noting that his company’s shift toward compliance is starting to woo regulators rather than forcing them to release the dogs, suggesting he doesn’t use the FUD at all feels.

“When people see me in person, they say, ‘Look, CZ is very sensible, very calm, not a crazy guy.’ It helps build their trust a lot faster, ”he said.

Best Cointelegraph features

Adapt or die: Venture Capital vs. Crypto, Blockchain, DAOs and Web 3.0

Venture capital cannot simply stick to its existing structures and processes if it wants to remain relevant in the new Web 3.0 age.

What can Eric Adams do? The limits of turning New York City into a crypto hub

Despite the limitations of his office, the elected mayor of New York could use his agenda-setting power to the benefit of both crypto and city dwellers.

Meet Dmitry: Co-Founder of Ethereum Creator Vitalik Buterin

“There are a few things that I was really interested in and I learned a lot of things like human psychology and spirituality, AI and psychedelics and blockchain.”