October 2022

Dogecoin was struggling in the market right up until the Twitter deal was finalized. However, once the Elon Musk takeover was announced, the meme coin rallied enormously and was up more than 100% in just a matter of days. This has no doubt given renewed momentum to the digital asset which was previously down more than 85% from its all-time high.

Dogecoin Reclaims 8th Position

Dogecoin had fallen to the 10th position on the list of largest cryptocurrencies by market cap after spending a good portion of the bull market in higher positions. Nonetheless, the meme coin had mostly held this spot save for a few times when it had been dethroned. This is until Friday after Musk had officially taken ownership of the social media platform Twitter.

The rally that followed for Dogecoin was one for the books, taking the digital asset from around $0.07 to peak at $0.15. This saw the market cap of Dogecoin more than double, pushing it higher on the list. At the time of this writing, DOGE had been able to claim the 8th spot on the list.

Naturally, there has been a downward correction following this but the meme coin still remains the 8th largest cryptocurrency by market cap. And given the recent decline in the general market, DOGE has been able to hold its value much better than others.

DOGE holds weekend gains | Source: DOGEUSD on TradingView.com

Waiting On Elon Musk

Now that the Twitter deal is finalized, the Dogecoin community is waiting on Elon Musk to present any plans to integrate Dogecoin into the social media platform. Musk has always been vocal in his support for the meme coin and how it would be a great addition to the supported cryptocurrencies on Twitter. However, Musk is yet to say anything about Dogecoin in connection with Twitter.

This has not stopped the widespread bullishness among DOGE supporters though. Matt Wallace is another vocal supporter of the meme coin that has been continuously tweeting about DOGE and his most recent tweet calls for DOGE support on Twitter Blue.

Dogecoin’s Fear & Greed Index also shows this bullishness as it is currently sitting at a score of 60. This market sentiment analysis shows that investors are more willing to put money into DOGE now, hence its ability to continuously hold up its value.

Dogecoin Fear and Greed Index is 60 — Greed pic.twitter.com/IZ6t5H8IaU

— Doge Fear and Greed Index (@DogecoinFear) October 31, 2022

Meme coins in general are responding quite well to the news. DOGE’s trading volume had grown 300% month-over-month and others such as Shiba Inu had seen similar growth. 

Dogecoin is currently trading at $0.122 at the time of this writing. It is down 9% in the last 24 hours but remains in the green on a 7-day moving average of 97%.

Featured image from Bloomberg, chart from TradingView.com

Follow Best Owie on Twitter for market insights, updates, and the occasional funny tweet…

The Bitcoin Whitepaper, the document that presented the first cryptocurrency to the world, is turning 14 years old today. Investors, community members, developers, and others celebrate this event across social media platforms. 

The project that began as an experiment, as an alternative to the fiat monetary system, is still in its teenage years. However, its economic, social, political, and cultural impact is massive. The document’s introduction says: 

(…) an electronic payment system based on cryptographic proof instead of trust, allowing any two willing parties to transact directly with each other without the need for a trusted third party.

From zero to over $1 trillion in market capitalization in a decade, Bitcoin has often been called a scam, a miracle, a bubble. Conversely, mainstream media outlets have pronounced it dead many times, but the network carries on inserting new blocks into the blockchain. 

Published by Satoshi Nakamoto, the anonymous inventor of Bitcoin and the author behind the Bitcoin Whitepaper, proposed a solution for people to transact over the internet with a native currency. Nakamoto was the first to solve the Byzantine General’s Problem, forever changing the world. 

Running bitcoin

— halfin (@halfin) January 11, 2009 

The Bitcoin Whitepaper A Work Of Art? 

The document opened the door for internet users to send and receive money worldwide on an open, decentralized, censorship resistance, and permissionless network. The implications of this technology continued to ripple across the nascent crypto industry and other sectors of the world. 

In 14 years, Bitcoin’s impact has spurred an industry that crossed the $3 trillion market cap and unleashed a demand for new mediums of exchange, new ways to interact with money, and open solutions accessible to everyone. The Bitcoin Whitepaper showed that there was an alternative; it sent a message across the internet: central banks are expendable.  

BTC’s price moving sideways on the 4-hour chart. Source: BTCUSDT Tradingview

In emergent nations, countries in Latin America and Africa, Bitcoin has provided users with a safe haven. They can break free from their national financial institutions, access an immutable asset to protect their wealth, and often circumvent financial limitations. This change began with the Bitcoin Whitepaper. 

Since 2020, Bitcoin has been acknowledged as a macro asset with the potential to replace gold as the new store of value of the internet. The cryptocurrency is part of the financial strategy for major companies, and it was made legal tender for the first time. 

2022 predictions on #Bitcoin:

•Will reach $100k
•2 more countries will adopt it as legal tender
•Will become a major electoral issue in US elections this year
•Bitcoin City will commence construction
•Volcano bonds will be oversubscribed
•Huge surprise at @TheBitcoinConf

— Nayib Bukele (@nayibbukele) January 2, 2022 

Defending The Bitcoin Whitepaper

The crypto community rallied behind the Bitcoin Whitepaper once again in 2021. At that time, Craig Wright, an individual claiming that he is Satoshi Nakamoto, forced several websites to take down the document. Wright claims to hold copyright ownership over the paper. 

Individuals, companies, and nations responded by hosting the Bitcoin whitepaper on their websites, proving that the ideals behind Bitcoin remain strong. In addition, the Square-led Cryptocurrency Open Patent Alliance (COPA) filed a lawsuit against Craig Wright. 

Jack Dorsey, a founder of Twitter, and Square, and a Bitcoin supporter, shared the Bitcoin Whitepaper link. Today, while the crypto community celebrates, one of his interviews about the document resurfaced. Therein, Dorsey calls the whitepaper a work of poetry. 

“The #bitcoin whitepaper is poetry. #Bitcoin is moving the world forward in a noble and honorable way that enables everyone to be part of the story”

— @jackpic.twitter.com/xvUuDyvpxX

— Documenting Bitcoin (@DocumentingBTC) October 31, 2022 

Disclaimer: The following op-ed represents the views of the author, and may not necessarily reflect the views of Bitcoinist. Bitcoinist is an advocate of creative and financial freedom alike.

The Nigerian central bank was, on Oct. 29, forced to defend its controversial currency redesign plans, just a few days after they were publicly questioned by Nigerian Finance Minister Zainab Ahmad. The central bank insists the move is long overdue and urged Nigerians “to support the currency redesign project which is in the overall interest of every citizen of the country.”

President Muhammadu Buhari’s Written Approval

The Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) has insisted its recently announced plan to issue newly designed naira banknotes is above board and “12 years overdue.” In an apparent rebuke of Nigerian Finance Minister Zainab Ahmad, who has publicly questioned the plan, the central bank said it had “obtained the approval of President Muhammadu Buhari in writing to redesign.”

Addressing lawmakers a day after the CBN’s surprise announcement, Ahmad reportedly said she had not been consulted and therefore could not comment “on it as regards merits or otherwise.” As recently reported by Bitcoin.com News, the CBN’s plan to introduce newly designed naira banknotes is thought to have sparked the local currency’s parallel market exchange rate plunge, where it tapped a new all-time low versus the dollar of N781:$1.

Opponents of the CBN’s controversial plan insist that going ahead with the move could see the naira-to-dollar exchange rate fall to as low as 1000 naira per dollar by the end of January 31, 2023. However, in a defiant statement issued on Oct. 29, 2022, the CBN asked Nigerians to support the currency redesign policy.

“The CBN urges Nigerians to support the currency redesign project which is in the overall interest of every citizen of the country. The hoarding of significant sums of banknotes outside the vaults of commercial banks should be discouraged by anyone who means well for the country,” the central bank said.

Currency Redesign a Global Standard

The CBN added that it had “tarried for too long considering that it had to wait 20 years to carry out a redesign.” The statement also repeats the bank’s earlier claims that the circulation of the redesigned naira is a standard practice globally that must be carried out every five to eight years.

The planned injection of new 100, 200, 500, and 1,000-naira banknotes into circulation is set to commence on December 15. Nigerians are expected to return the old notes by the end of January 2023. While critics of the currency redesign plan have called on the CBN to extend the deadline or drop the plan altogether, the latest local reports quote President Buhari expressing his support for the move.

Register your email here to get a weekly update on African news sent to your inbox:

What are your thoughts on this story? Let us know what you think in the comments section below.