The latest crypto sensation to make waves in the market is Chia, marketing itself as a green alternative to bitcoin due to the way it relies on digital storage space rather than electricity-guzzling processors to mine new units.

However this innovative “proofs-of-time-and-space” system has been accused of burning through hard drives at an astonishing rate, leading to device shortages and a threat of mounting e-waste.

According to some estimates, farming Chia on a 512GB hard drive can reduce its lifespan from 5-10 years, to just 40 days.

The cryptocurrency has received extra scrutiny this week after a new funding round doubled its valuation to $500 million, with a potential IPO around the corner. You can read Joe Sommerlad’s full story here:

After the dip down to $37,000 overnight, bitcoin is now back above $40,000 thanks to a succession of positive news stories in the space.

Market analysts have also made hugely positive predictions about bitcoin and other rival digital currencies, while MicroStrategy CEO has once again been cheerleading crypto by labelling bitcoin “the apex property of the human race”.

Perhaps most significantly, the governor of the Central Bank of Nigeria has said that Nigerians will be allowed to trade cryptocurrency - huge in a country that is one of the global leaders in terms of trading volume.

The price of ethereum is now up more more than $1,000 since the start of the week, erasing some of the heavy losses it incurred after hitting a new all-time high earlier this month.

Currently hovering just above $2,800, it is still a long way off the $4,300 price peak, but some analysts are predicting this uptick will form part of a bullish trend going forward.

The rebound comes amid market reports describing ethereum’s price outlook as “highly positive” (see below), and massive trading volumes suggesting investors’ interest in the crypto has overtaken that of bitcoin.

A four month ban on bitcoin mining in Iran will come into effect soon, after Tehran and other cities suffered rolling blackouts due to its creaking energy infrastructure.

Iran accounts for roughly 4 per cent of global bitcoin mining, according to recent figures, though there is disagreement within the Iranian parliament over whether it is actually to blame for the blackouts in the country.

The head of its digital economy commission, Mojtaba Tavangar, said: “The reason behind the power outages is not cryptocurrency mining, it’s stopping funding and the old distribution and generation network.”

Ethereum trading volumes have surpassed bitcoin for the first time, according to Messari research analyst Ryan Watkins.

Daily transaction volumes of ether have been ahead of bitcoin’s since July 2020, but Watkins’ data reveals that trading volumes of the altcoin have been “exploding recently”, suggesting investors’ interest is higher than that of its more famous rival.

The price of ethereum experienced a massive plunge after hitting a new all-time high earlier this month above $4,000, but has seen a slight recovery over the last week.

Traders’ outlook on ethereum switched to “highly positive” earlier this week, according to Trade the Chain analyst Nick Mancini, while Fairlead Strategies technical analyst Katie Stockton wrote in her weekly investor note that the recent price crash “has not damaged the long-term uptrend or positive monthly momentum” for ether.

Seven months after revealing that it would be adding crypto support for its 350 million users, PayPal has once again announced some much-needed positive news for the space.

Customers will now be able to transfer bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies to third-party wallets, on top of buying, selling and holding.

The last time PayPal made a major cryptocurrency announcement, the price of bitcoin immediately surged to a yearly high. It also pre-empted a major market rally that took the crypto market to new record heights earlier this year.

You can read the full story here.

As bitcoin continues to hover around $40,000, we’ve reached out to market analysts and crypto experts to hear their price predictions for 2021 and beyond.

They are mostly positive, though Pankaj Balani, CEO of Delta Exchange, says he doesn’t believe we are “completely out of the woods yet” and that more losses could be on their way before a proper rebound kicks in.

“The selling pattern last week was more serious than that of a typical bull market pullback,” he tells The Independent.

Others remain firmly bullish, with price predictions well north of $100,000.

You can read the full story here.

With bitcoin back above $40,000, renowned market analyst PlanB has once again stood by his theory that we are still in a bull market.

The Dutch crypto advocate is best known for his stock-to-flow model, which is based on the relationship between the existing supply of bitcoin and the cyclical production rate of new bitcoins.

One version of the model puts the peak of this current cycle at $288,000. The price of bitcoin has a long way to go before it gets anywhere near that level, but the recent bump makes his latest proclamation that “$60k was not the top” seem a lot less far off.

Janice McAfee, the wife of imprisoned cyber security pioneer John McAfee, has likened Elon Musk’s market-moving tweets to those of her husband - claiming that Musk does it “with impunity”, while her husband “faces the real possibility of dying in prison for allegedly engaging in similar activities”.

I spoke to John McAfee’s lawyer Andrew Gordon back in March, who is representing him for his case in New York, relating to crypto securities, and his case in Tennessee, relating to tax charges.

“This is certainly a very different case,” he told me. “While it’s not the first crypto criminal tax indictment, it’s definitely one of the first, and the most high profile.”

Whatever the outcome, it could set a benchmark for future cases.

Dogecoin co-founder Billy Markus has thanked Elon Musk for clarifying his stance relating to the meme-based cryptocurrency.

The Tesla CEO has been dogecoin’s most prominent cheerleader during this latest market rally, with his tweets and comments often pushing it to new record highs.

Despite briefly changing his Twitter bio to “CEO of Dogecoin” back in 2018, Musk tweeted that “no one reports” to him due to the decentralised nature of the technology and the community surrounding it. In a separate Twitter post yesterday, Musk explained why he favours dogecoin over other, more technically advanced, cryptocurrencies like Ethereum or Cardano.

“Doge has dogs and memes,” he said. “The others do not.”