Need to know what happened in crypto today? Here is the latest news on daily trends and events impacting the Bitcoin price, blockchain, DeFi, NFTs, Web3 and crypto regulation.
Bitcoin Ordinal trading volume increased 2834% in Q2 to $210.7 million by the end of June. Ethereum co-founder Vitalik Buterin says “builder culture” has returned to Bitcoin with the advent of Bitcoin Ordinals and BRC-20. The U.S. government has begun to dispense funds retrieved from the massive 2016 Bitfinex hack. Here’s what happened in crypto today.
Bitcoin Ordinals volume hits $210M in Q2
The creation of Bitcoin (BTC) Ordinals inscriptions on the Bitcoin blockchain has led to over $210 million in trading volume, Cointelegraph independently verified the latest quarterly report from DappRadar.
Near the end of May 2023, Bitcoin surpassed Solana to become the second-most popular nonfungible token (NFT) blockchain, leaving the preeminent cryptocurrency blockchain only behind Ethereum in NFT trading volumes.
Bitcoin Ordinal trading volume increased from $7.18 million in the first quarter of the year to $210.7 million by the end of June. DappRadar pins the quarterly increase at 2834%.
Vitalik Buterin praises Bitcoin Ordinals for reviving ‘builder culture’
Ethereum co-founder Vitalik Buterin has given props to the advent of Bitcoin Ordinals for bringing back the “organic return of builder culture” to the Bitcoin ecosystem during a Twitter Space on July 7.
Buterin praised Ordinals and the BRC-20 token standard which he sees as a rejection of “stagnant” politics in the Bitcoin ecosystem.
“Ordinals are starting to bring back a culture of actually doing things. It feels like there’s real pushback to the laser-eye movement, which is good.”
Vitalik Buterin: I definitely see signs of hope now that we have Ordinals that are starting to kind of bring back the culture of actually doing things.
Sound on. pic.twitter.com/5rZCBk0v6D
— Paulo (@TycoonPal) July 6, 2023
U.S. government dispenses funds from 2016 Bitfinex hack
The United States Department of Homeland Security has distributed $312,219.71 in cash and 6.917 in Bitcoin Cash (BCH) to Bitfinex — representing a tiny portion of the funds siphoned in the 2016 cryptocurrency exchange hack. “This is part of Bitfinex’s ongoing efforts, working with law enforcement and other investigation agencies, to recover assets stolen from the exchange in August 2016,” Bitfinex said.
The August 2016 hack resulted in the loss of 119,576 Bitcoin, worth roughly $70 million at the time and a whopping $3.7 billion in today’s dollars. In February 2022, the U.S. Department of Justice arrested Ilya Lichtenstein and his wife, Heather Morgan, for allegedly conspiring to launder the stolen funds.
We've recovered over $312,000 in cash and nearly $2,000 worth of Bitcoin Cash from the 2016 hack.https://t.co/BWLLlLii8f
— Bitfinex (@bitfinex) July 6, 2023
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