Stuff In Crypto KEEPS HAPPENING, So We Do This Again! | Crypto Tavern #3

NO TIME TO WASTE: Bitcoin went up while shorts got rekt. Logan Paul pledges $1.3M ETH to reimburse victims of his own scam. Texas A&M University to offer Bitcoin courses for 74,000+ students, and more.

Just as we suspected, some things happened again–we’re about to check them out in this week’s edition of the Crypto Tavern.

Give us a Follow and stay tuned!

Logan Paul Talks Recovery Plan For CryptoZoo Scam Victims

CryptoZoo, a web3 game about breeding animals, was once a promising play-to-earn title that burned to the ground after a dispute between Logan Paul and project developers over money (amongst other shady things), leading to investors losing all of their investments.?

The story caught on fire after a Youtuber named Coffeezilla did an extensive investigation on it, followed the money trail, and gathered enough evidence to start pointing fingers and making accusations.?

So now, instead of suing Coffeezilla for revealing the truth, Logan Paul is ready to make it up for everyone in his three-step plan revealed in a Twitter video.?

Part of his plan involves pledging $1.3M in Ethereum from his own wallet to reimburse investors their initial NFT mint price.

Logan also promised that the game would be finished and delivered according to its roadmap. Will it happen? Probably not, but it’s nice to know that, at least this time, victims have some hope of getting their money back.

Also news, but shorter:

$492M Shorts Liquidated In Recent Bitcoin Rally

Coinglass data suggests that, on a single day of January 14th, a staggering $492M in BTC short positions were liquidated, reminding everyone that using leverage to bet during peak inflation against a network designed to counter it is probably a silly idea.

Bitcoin Market Capitalization Surpasses Meta, Tesla, Mastercard

With the recent price rally of +20% in a week, Bitcoin’s market capitalization is now valued at ~$410B and passes Mastercard, Meta Platforms (Facebook) and Tesla. Currently, Bitcoin is competing with JP Morgan Chase that’s presently at the bottom of TOP 15 largest companies in the world by market capitalization.?

Biggest Texas College Offers Bitcoin Courses

Texas A&M will start offering Bitcoin courses for its 74,000+ students teaching how to “build a Bitcoin library from scratch”, which should bring even more smart people into this space. Other universities that currently offer such courses are Harvard University, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Oxford University, National University of Singapore, Cornell University and the University of California Berkeley.?

Last time, we asked you: What feature is essential to have when accepting cryptocurrency payments?

Last week we got curious about what people appreciate regarding accepting crypto payments. Here are the results:

The vast majority, or 64%, believe that the ability to exchange the collected coins for fiat is the most crucial feature when accepting crypto payments. It suggests that merchants are not ready to keep the cryptocurrencies that they collect and rather keep fiat currencies in the end.

The good news is, with today's payment processors, getting fiat is not even an issue. In fact, merchants have a lot of flexibility in their settlements if they choose the right payment processor to work with.

For example, CoinGate allows collecting 70+ cryptocurrencies and converting them into EUR, GBP, or USD before sending them over to a bank account. Learn more.

!!! HOT PIECE OF CONTENT OF THE WEEK !!!

Just recently, the e-commerce giant Wix partnered with CoinGate to bring crypto payments to Wix online stores.?

Now, customers of Wix merchants can pay for goods or services using Bitcoin (+ Lightning?) and +70 other cryptocurrencies - all that the merchants have to do is enable the CoinGate payment solution that adds a new payment option to an online store’s checkout page.?

You can learn more about this partnership by reading this week’s HOT PIECE OF CONTENT.

What crypto Twitter’s tweeting?

Twitter user MMCrypto @MMCrypto points out that Bitcoin closes green candles three years in a row, goes red in the fourth year, and then the cycle appears to repeat itself. In 2022, on a yearly chart Bitcoin went red. Does it mean that Bitcoin is bound to go up in 2023, or will the cycle break?

In another insightful tweet, PeterMcCormack @PeterMcCormack gives another perspective on Bitcoin, portraying it as a “special new box” that can be plugged into energy grids, subsidize green energy builds, lower energy bills, etc., all while paying for itself. While it sounds like one of the most significant inventions ever, slap a “Bitcoin” name on it and people start fighting. Why so?

Twitter user Crypto Rover @rovercrc points out Glassnode data that shows a skyrocketing number of Bitcoin wallets that hold more than 1 BTC, saying that Bitcoin is being spread out between more people than ever before. Obviously, that’s a strong sign of continuing adoption of Bitcoin despite its relatively low price.?

So there's a Miss Universe pageant going on in New Orleans. For some reason, the participants were showcasing national currencies with their outfits. Because Bitcoin has been a legal tender in El Salvador since 2021, this Bitcoin costume has manifested itself into reality and is now canon.?

The tweet you’re seeing here was tweeted by the first recipient of Bitcoin, Hal Finney @halfin, in 2009, mentioning Bitcoin for the first time. This week marks 14 years since it happened. Interestingly, this tweet is surrounded by mystery, as many people claim that their likes and retweets on this particular post disappear after some time, and they always come back to do it again. Is there a conspiracy theory here somewhere?

In this tweet that was posted on January 12th, the often-wrong Peter Schiff @PeterSchiff encouraged people to “drop bitcoin” when it was trading at $18,000 because “it has already broken down”. Bitcoin then went up to $21,000 in a few days, and Peter hasn't tweeted anything else about Bitcoin since. No doubt we’ll see him return to his rants as soon as Bitcoin prints a weekly red candle again.

Did you know?

• The number of BTC on exchanges peaked at the beginning of 2020 when there were over 3M coins deposited. At this moment, this number sits around 1.9M, with 400k taken off exchanges every year. At this rate, there would be 0 BTC on exchanges by 2027.
• In 2023, Bitcoin's price climbed up 12 days in a row, which is the second-longest streak in Bitcoin history. The only longer streak of 15 days happened back in 2013.
• According to Block, Inc. report, Nigerians are most optimistic about the future of Bitcoin in terms of an equitable economy, cheaper payments, and protection from inflation.
• In the current bear market, Bitcoin is trading at a higher price than at the peak of the 2017 bull market.
• 47% of all BTC supply hasn't moved in more than two years, which is a new all-time high, according to ARK Invest.

Let’s take a look at: Refunds in cryptocurrency payments

A lot of businesses stay away from adopting cryptocurrency payments for one single reason - there's no easy way to return the money to customers if the occasion arises… until now.

There's a myth going around that refunds in cryptocurrencies don't exist. Still, we here at CoinGate made it happen by creating a system allowing merchants to issue refunds without hassle. All they need to do is fill out a refund request form and lay back while we do the rest.

Curious about how it works? You can learn all about it in this blog post.

Thank you for reading. Follow Crypto Tavern for more crisp content and dank memes!

OUT THE AUTHOR

Vilius Barbaravi?ius is a seasoned copywriter and bitcoin enthusiast. He's been with CoinGate since 2018, writing blogs, social media content, sales materials, newsletters, FAQs, and more. Relentless in his pursuit of knowledge and a better understanding of the crypto industry, he strives to create meaningful and engaging content daily, which requires tremendous amounts of coffee.