Last week in review: Has Apple bought billions in bitcoin?

by Team Luno
· 2 minute read

It was another quiet week in the crypto markets, but adoption shows no sign of slowing. There was a new crypto bill proposed in Paraguay, Fidelity has started preparing for more institutional adoption, and Apple’s bitcoin rumours swirled. There was a lot of excitement in crypto last week. Here are our picks of the biggest stories to come from it.

Fidelity Digital Assets to boost headcount by 70%

  • In response to a wave of institutional demand, Fidelity Digital Assets last week announced plans to grow their staff by 70% to support upcoming crypto projects.
  • According to Tom Jessop, president of Fidelity Digital Assets, the firm has seen rising interest in ether, which is why they now plan to broaden their crypto offering outside of bitcoin.
  • “Bitcoin has been the entry for a lot of institutions. “It’s now really opening up a window on what else is going on in space,” said Jessop, who believes big shifts in “the diversity of interest” from new and existing users have contributed to the rise in demand.

Paraguay next in line to carry the crypto torch?

  • A new bitcoin bill was introduced into Paraguay’s legislature which will require cryptocurrencies to be registered with the country’s Undersecretariat of State Taxation.
  • The bill, proposed by Congressman Carlos Rejala and Senator Fernando Silva Facetti, didn’t quite make bitcoin legal tender as many hoped after El Salvador’s recent decision. Instead it said: “The purpose of this draft law is to establish legal certainty, financial and fiscal in the businesses derived from the production and commercialization of virtual assets.”
  • The new law will also require miners to have a Virtual Asset Mining License, which will be enforced by setting up “monitoring and control mechanisms for transactions involving cryptocurrency virtual assets.”

Apple rumoured to have bought billions in bitcoin

  • Rumours were rampant this week that global tech giant Apple will soon announce that it’s bought $2.5 billion in bitcoin. But many were skeptical.
  • Rumours first started in May, when Apple made a job posting indicating applicants should have experience in alternative payments and digital wallets.
  • Adding to the cauldron of speculation, Apple cofounder Steve Wozniak recently praised Bitcoin as a “mathematical miracle” leading to some members of the community believing the hype is real. Only time, or an official statement from Apple, will tell. Be careful who you believe on social media, though.

Sotheby’s sell most expensive jewel ever auctioned for crypto

  • Auction house Sotheby’s has sold the second largest pear-shaped diamond to ever appear on the public market in exchange for cryptocurrency. The 101-carat diamond was bought for $12.3 million in an undisclosed cryptocurrency by an anonymous Hong Kong buyer.
  • Sotheby’s has previously sold NFTs to the tune of millions of dollars, but this is the first time they have auctioned off a physical item for crypto.

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