Crypto News, Feb. 8: Industry's Toxicity Exposed

An Ethereum Name Service user who criticized the project's director of operations for his past offensive tweets has been sent transphobic messages on the blockchain. Dame.eth, who received the abuse, told CoinMarketCap they felt "shocked someone would take the time to manually encode a hateful message permanently on the blockchain and pay the fee to send it to me." Speaking to those responsible, they said: "Stop. You are giving crypto and Web3 a horrible reputation with your toxicity."

Digital art marketplace SuperRare has parted ways with its senior community manager after her historical tweets resurfaced. Screenshots shared on the social network initially showed @ashnichrist had used the N-word when quoting Kanye West lyrics. But during a Twitter Spaces, other tweets from her past emerged, including one that said: "I do hate Mexicans." Some of those who spoke during the Spaces said they were "enraged," adding: "You've disrespected my whole community."

New research might form disappointing reading to the companies betting big on virtual worlds. Gartner estimates that 25% of people will spend at least one hour a day in the metaverse by 2026 — whether this is for work, to shop, to learn, or for entertainment. By comparison, an estimated 35.6% of the global population used Facebook as of March 2021 — spending an average of two hours and 24 minutes a day on the site. A number of rival metaverse platforms are vying for dominance.

A group of Canadian truckers have turned to Bitcoin after their GoFundMe campaign was halted. Freedom Convoy had managed to raise $9 million before the crowdfunding site announced that donations were suspended. The group have been protesting a vaccine mandate that is being imposed on truckers crossing the U.S.-Canada border. A new campaign has been established on the crypto-friendly platform Tallycoin, with 4,300 people contributing a total of 12.4 BTC.

A decentralized autonomous organization "fighting for the liberation of Julian Assange" has raised more than 15,000 ETH. Funds are being collected through the decentralized platform JuiceBox — and in the space of five days, the campaign has broken records for the site's largest DAO raise in history. That crown was previously held by ConstitutionDAO, which ultimately was an ill-fated attempt to buy a rare copy of the U.S. Constitution.

Tesla made a healthy profit on its Bitcoin in 2021, but still suffered an impairment loss of $101 million during the year. In a filing to the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission, the electric vehicle manufacturer revealed that the value of its BTC had surged to $1.99 billion by Dec. 31. That's not bad considering Tesla had initially bought Bitcoin worth $1.5 billion at the start of the year — later selling 10% in order to test the market's liquidity.

Institutional adoption in cryptocurrencies appears to be picking up again, with KPMG in Canada announcing that it has added Bitcoin and Ether to its corporate treasury. The audit, tax and advisory firm says the opportunity presented by digital assets "needs to be considered" by institutional investors. In an email to Bloomberg, the company added that the experience means it can "guide clients and prospective clients through the process of cryptoasset treasury allocation."