Hi, I’m Nate Martin from 99Bitcoins.com and here’s what happened this week in crypto in 60 seconds. Deep-level vulnerabilities in the majority of CPUs in use today were announced. The vulnerabilities, termed Meltdown and Specter, don’t affect Bitcoin directly, but they represent a serious security risk to the majority of systems running crypto wallets and services.
Visa announced that they will freeze certain crypto debit cards that are dependent on the firm WaveCrest. Visa ended their partnership with WaveCrest, due to non-compliance with Visa’s rules, rather than any problem with cryptocurrency.
The Bank of International Settlement (the central bank of central banks) reported that Bitcoin is now the world’s sixth most valuable currency in terms of value circulated as cash. Bitcoin’s was rated sixth after the Dollar, Euro, Chinese Yuan, Japanese Yen and India Rupee.
A vulnerability was found in the Electrum wallet which potentially allows websites to steal your Bitcoins via JavaScript. If you’re using Electrum, upgrade to the latest version ASAP.
Finally Ethereum closed out the week at all time highs above $1000. Litecoin also performed very strongly, reaching above $320 for the first time.
That’s what happened this week in crypto. See you next week.
