New York, NY: This past week was quite eventful for Bitcoin and the cryptocurrency market as a whole, culminating in the highly-anticipated Bitcoin halving early on a Saturday morning. The week started off with a positive rebound in Bitcoin’s price following a weekend dip, accompanied by the approval of Bitcoin and Ethereum spot ETFs in Hong Kong.
Venture capital and investment firm Andreessen Horowitz made headlines on Tuesday with the launch of its second gaming fund, focusing on Web3 and AI-forward games. Alongside this, a new accelerator program named Speedrun was announced, with each member receiving $750,000. This move is part of a significant $7.2 billion raise across multiple sectors by the firm.
On a lighter note, a famous meme known as the “guy explains” meme was set to go up for auction, starting at 15 ETH (approximately $47,100). Additionally, the Worldcoin Foundation introduced World Chain, an Ethereum layer-2 based on Optimism utilizing ETH as its native token and Worldcoin (WLD) for gas fees, prioritizing verified humans for transactions.
Towards the middle of the week, Craig Wright, a discredited claimant to the creation of Bitcoin, dropped his lawsuit against a group of Bitcoin developers after losing in the UK high court. In crypto hardware news, a new smartphone resembling a Google Pixel 7a running ethOS with an included NFT was announced.
The latter part of the week was dominated by excitement surrounding the Bitcoin halving, particularly with the launch of Runes. Mining fees for Bitcoin surged as the network activity from Runes could potentially balance the reduction in mining rewards. Ultimately, the Bitcoin halving occurred, bringing about celebration within the crypto community.
As the week concluded, attention turned to minting the first batch of Bitcoin Runes, with winners being revealed shortly after the race began. Looking ahead, Bitcoin developer Casey Rodamor set up a Rune to activate at the next halving in four years, ensuring continued engagement in the crypto space.