Quick Fun Crypto Quiz: 10 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.

On Friday, Sept. 24, 2021, the Chinese government vowed to root out "illegal" cryptocurrency activities. Beijing's new blanket ban on all cryptocurrency trading and mining is the broadest yet by a major economy. China is, however, developing an official digital currency of its own.

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.

South Korean broadcaster MBC has apologized for its choice of “inappropriate” images that appeared next to the names of several countries during its coverage of the Friday, July 23, 2021, Tokyo 2020 Olympic opening ceremony.  El Salvador was introduced with a picture representing Bitcoin. When Italy took the stage, they showed a pizza. For Romania, they aired a depiction of Count Dracula. Norway was represented by a Salmon steak, and Ukraine by the Chernobyl nuclear disaster.

El Salvador Bitcoin News Fact

El Salvador became the first country in the world to adopt bitcoin as a legal tender on Sep. 7, 2021.

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. Changpeng Zhao, the founder of Binance, FTX's biggest competitor, contributed to its rival's downfall by announcing Binance would sell its holdings in FTX's FTT.