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Barry and Winklevoss Twins Face Off, Square Lightning Integration & More

Barry and Winklevoss Twins Face Off, Square Lightning Integration & More

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News

Digital Currency Group and Gemini “Fraud” Accusations

Lots of news this week floating around Gemini, Digital Currency Group and Genesis.

Barry Silbert, the CEO of Digital Currency Group (DCG), released a statement on Twitter reflecting on 2022.

I’ve been reflecting quite a bit about the past year, the state of the industry and where things go from here.
Here is an update to address those reflections, other developments and some speculation about @DCGco (1/10)
— Barry Silbert (@BarrySilbert)
Jan 10, 2023

Genesis, a crypto-lending firm run by DCG, apparently owes Gemini $900 million USD.

In response to all the news, Gemini's co-founder Cameron Winklevoss accused Barry of fraud. Read more about the story here.

GBTC Premium

The GBTC premium has been negative since March 2021. The CEO of BTC Media, which runs Bitcoin Magazine, has been running a campaign called RedeemGBTC.com.

The goal of RedeemGBTC is to gather the owners of GBTC together and file legal action against GBTC to get DCG to dissolve the GBTC fund. This would give GBTC shareholders actual bitcoin.

Regardless of the result, the pressure being put on by RedeemGBTC has helped close the GBTC premium, which now sits at around 37% percent.GBTC has since seen a significant spike in NAV this past week in correlation with the news.

Monday saw largest 1-day positive change in GBTC discount since July 2021.
Likely interest to bid GBTC and short #BTC futures to capture potential spread/possibility of GBTC discount closing.
— Sam Rule (@samjrule)
Jan 11, 2023

Square Working On Lighting Integration At All Terminals

Jack Dorsey posted on Nostr that he is working on Lightning integration at every Square terminal. This would mean you would have the ability to pay in Bitcoin through Lightning at any merchant that uses Square (around 2 million merchants).

Pay In Lightning To Book Meetings With LNcal

A new platform has been released called LNcal, allowing anyone to book calendar meetings while using Bitcoin on Lightning to pay.

It is a public calendar that allows users to share and book with other Bitcoiners, including Der Gigi and Kevin Rooke.

Price

The Bitcoin price has been on a small run over the past week. Bitcoin has run from the $16,800 USD area to $18,100, with a high of $18,389. This marks a solid weekly increase of around 7.3%.

Bitcoin obituaries have been a meme since the inception of Bitcoin. News sources would pronounce bitcoin “dead”, and soon, websites started to track the number of times Bitcoin “died”.

The number of deaths peaked in 2017, indicating that Bitcoin is finally starting to break through to mainstream understanding.

Tweets

Automobile vs Bitcoin Adoption

In the year 1900, when the automobile was 14 years old, horse and carriage dominated the streets. That changed soon after. Today, bitcoin is 14 years old.
— Tuur Demeester (@TuurDemeester)
Jan 5, 2023

Presidential Candidate of Argentina

#Bitcoin represents the return of money to the private sector. - @JMilei (candidate for President of Argentina)
— Michael Saylor⚡️ (@saylor)
Jan 6, 2023

Bitcoin on Mobile Phones in Africa

My experience bartering #Bitcoin with my local street food vendor in Area 25, Lilongwe, Malawi 🇲🇼
Tikupitiriza pang’ono pang’ono.
— Nick Twyman ⚡️ 🇲🇼 (@TwymanNicholas)
Jan 11, 2023