Quick Fun Crypto Quiz: 12 Essential Questions and Answers

Bitcoin and Ethereum hit record peaks on Tuesday, Nov. 9, 2021. Ethereum, the second-biggest cryptocurrency by market value, hit $4,842, while Bitcoin rose as high as $68,564. Since June, both have more than doubled and added nearly 70% against the dollar since the start of Oct. 2021. By Nov. 2022, Bitcoin dropped to $16,548, and Ethereum dropped to $1,214.

Dogecoin is not acceptable on PayPal’s Checkout with Crypto, Bitcoin, Litecoin, Ethereum, and Bitcoin Cash are.

Paypal’s Checkout with Crypto UK News Fact

PayPal announced Monday, Aug. 23, 2021, that it will extend its Checkout with Crypto service to allow users in the UK to buy, hold and sell cryptocurrencies through the payment platform. The company launched a similar service in the US on Mar. 30, 2021.

In essence, NFT art is a digital art piece with a unique sellable identity. NFT stands for non-fungible tokens. These tokens are crypto keys, much like crypto coins (such as Bitcoin), only not mutually interchangeable, thus enabling digital artists to auction "original" pieces, as these individual digital copies are now NFT unique.

What is the world's first virtual NFT artwork sold at a significant auction?

On Thursday, Mar 11, 2021, Christie's saw the world's first virtual Non-Fungible Token (NFT) artwork sold at a major auction house, closing at a whopping $69,346,250 during an online auction. The record-breaking artwork by creator Mike Winkelmann (AKA Beeple) is named "Everydays: The First 5000 Days" and includes 5,000 images that took 13 years to make.

In a video posted Thursday, Mar. 4, 2021, on the Twitter account, BurntBanksy, a member of an art group, burns a 2006 print titled Morons, reportedly purchased for $33,000 at Christie’s in December. The BurntBanksy member explains to the camera: “By removing the physical piece from existence and only having the NFT, we will ensure that no one can alter the piece and it is the true piece that exists in the world. By doing this, the value of the physical piece will then be moved onto the NFT.” The video piece is on auction at the Opensea website.

What’s NFT again?

A non-fungible token (NFT) is a particular type of cryptographic token which represents something unique. NFTs create digital ownership for several specific purposes that require individual digital identities like crypto art, digital collectibles, and online gaming.

Hirst's first NFT collection, called The Currency, contained 10,000 NFTs, equivalent to 10,000 original artworks. Buyers were given the option to choose the physical artwork or the NFT representing it. If they chose the NFT, Hirst promised to destroy their physical pieces. Hirst burned the pieces between Oct. 12-30 at London's Newport Street Gallery.

El Salvador President Nayib Bukele announced Nov. 20, 2021, that his government would build an oceanside "Bitcoin City" at the base of the Conchagua volcano - with no property, income, or municipal taxes and zero carbon dioxide emissions.

Which taxes will Bitcoin City have?

The only tax collected in El Salvador's Bitcoin City will be the value-added tax, half of which will be used to pay the city bonds and the rest for municipal infrastructure and maintenance. Bitcoin has been legal tender in El Salvador alongside the U.S. dollar since Sept. 7, 2021.

Why build a city at the base of a volcano?

The new "Bitcoin city" will be built near the Conchagua volcano to use geothermal energy to power both the city and Bitcoin mining. The El Salvadoran government is already running a pilot Bitcoin mining venture besides the Tecapa volcano.

OpenSea is an eBay-like site where people can browse millions of NFTs (non-fungible tokens), buy the images, and put their own up for sale. Since 2021 OpenSea has become the largest NFT marketplace worldwide. The company has raised more than $400 million from investors, at a value of $13.3 billion.

Troubled waters at OpenSea

NFT sales have dropped about 90 percent since September 2022. According to a June 6 New York Times report, OpenSea has seen a surge of NFTs seized by hackers and plagiarized NFTs, as sellers convert traditional artwork into NFTs and then list the images for sale without compensating the original creator.

Before its collapse in Nov. 2022, FTX was valued at $32 billion and the third-largest exchange in volume. CoinDesk reported that FTX was lending its token FTT to Alameda Research, which FTX founder Sam Bankman-Fried owns. FTX experienced a bank run after the story sparked mass withdrawals. On Dec. 12, 2022, Sam Bankman-Fried was arrested in the Bahamas at the request of the US government. Bankman-Fried's arrest came just a day before he was due to testify in front of the House Financial Services Committee.

In 2021, Sam Bankman-Fried instructed those working for him to pay a bribe of $40 million to one or more Chinese officials to help unfreeze trading accounts maintained by FTX’s sister company, Alameda Research, that held up to $1 billion in cryptocurrencies. Bankman-Fried was charged with 13 criminal counts, including foreign bribery, on March 28, 2023.

Ordinals are the latest type of NFTs that are based on Bitcoin and stored directly on the blockchain. They were introduced in January 2023 after an upgrade enabled more data storage capacity for each satoshi (the smallest unit of bitcoin). Unlike other NFTs that rely on external platforms, Ordinals cannot be altered or deleted once created. In just a few months, Ordinals have become a lucrative market, with TwelveFold, a set of 300 images of 3D objects rendered in a square grid created by Yuga Labs, selling for $16.5 million on March 14, 2023.

Changpeng Zhao is the co-founder and CEO of Binance, which he launched in 2017 after raising $15 million through an initial coin offering. Binance offers various services to crypto enthusiasts, such as trading, stakes, lending, mining, and launching new tokens. In March 2023, the Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC) filed a lawsuit against Binance and Zhao in Illinois, claiming they breached derivatives rules and operated a "web of deception." On June 5, 2023, the SEC joined the legal attack with 13 charges against Binance and Zhao. The SEC said Binance had mixed "billions of dollars" in customer funds and secretly sent them to a separate company controlled by Zhao. Zhao has vowed to defend his platform vigorously and said Binance is not a US exchange.

The Binance Trial's Result

By Nov. 21, Zhao pleaded guilty to Violating Money Laundering Rules. He will pay a $50 million fine and step down as CEO. Binance had agreed to pay $4.3 billion in fines as part of a guilty plea.

Stablecoins are a type of digital currency gaining prominence in recent years, with companies like PayPal diving into the mix as of August 7, 2023. Stablecoins are designed to minimize volatility associated with cryptocurrencies like Bitcoin. They achieve this stability by anchoring themselves to a "stable" reserve asset, such as the US dollar or gold. US PayPal customers can now transfer Paypal's stablecoin, PYUSD, which equals $1 (US). They can also convert other supported cryptocurrencies to and from PYUSD.