Well, well, well. Look who’s making waves in the land of halo-halo and karaoke! Coins.ph has officially outdone itself this week by becoming the first e-wallet in the Philippines to let users pay with stablecoins using the national QRPh standard. Yes, you read that right. Your crypto is now as useful as your suki card at the local sari-sari store.
The accumulation chart allows the journey to be savoured in a manner the headline numbers merely pretend not to notice. From 2021 through mid-2024 Strategy’s staircase rose with stoic regularity-gradual, disciplined purchases, moderate steps. From mid-2024 onward the composition of the buying changed: the steps swelled into more generous strides, more frequent appearances, and a charming independence from mere price direction.
The drama kicked off on April 18, when the Kelp DAO rsETH bridge was exploited to the tune of $292 million. The attacker, clearly a fan of high-stakes financial thrillers, used forged messages to mint unbacked rsETH, which was then deposited into Aave as collateral. This allowed them to borrow nearly $200 million in WETH, because why stop at one bad decision when you can make several?
Mid-week, XRP fancied itself a sprinter, darting toward the $1.50 mark before remembering it’s not exactly Usain Bolt and promptly slowing to a stroll. Sellers, ever the party poopers, tried to rain on the parade, but XRP stabilized around $1.43-because, let’s face it, even crypto needs a breather.
On the fair day of April 20, Judge Nusrat Choudhury, donned in her judicial robes, delivered this fate in a Long Island court, much to the delight of onlookers and perhaps the chagrin of Agnello, who had hoped for a more lenient embrace of liberty. The prosecutors, those diligent guardians of justice, had initially sought a more robust sentence of 33 to 41 months, but alas, the scales of justice tipped in a rather whimsical manner!
The question now is not why TAO has fallen-for gravity is a cruel mistress-but whether this lull is the womb from which the next great surge will be born. The signs, though subtle, are there for those with eyes to see.
With Bitcoin staying above $75,527, Strategy CEO Phong Le surprisingly stated that the current price of BTC isn’t as important to his company’s success as it used to be.
Now, I’m no crypto analyst-I still think NFTs are just expensive JPEGs-but even I can see that this is a big deal. According to some charts that look like they were drawn by a caffeine-addled mathematician, Dogecoin’s on-chain activity has surged by a whopping 241%. That’s like going from a leisurely Sunday stroll to sprinting through a marathon while juggling flaming torches. Impressive? Sure. Sustainable? Well, that’s another question entirely.
Reports indicate that messages are being sent demanding bitcoin or USDT to allow ships to pass through the waterway, falsely claiming to be from Iranian authorities.
After a rather dramatic plunge earlier in the year, Bitcoin now finds itself in a curious recovery phase. It resembles a shy suitor, forming a tight symmetrical triangle as it nervously recovers from the mid-$60,000s and flirts with the mid-$70,000s. This indecisiveness is as clear as a Sunday morning hangover; sellers are lurking about, while buyers make valiant attempts to lessen the volatility, perhaps hoping for a breakout that might never come.