Crypto News, Feb. 7: Brantly Millegan Ousted from ENS

Bitcoin is trading at its highest level in more than two weeks, but may face challenges as bulls tackle stubborn resistance at $43,000. The world's biggest cryptocurrency performed strongly on Friday — surging from $37,500 to $40,000 in under three hours. BTC's price later peaked at $41,500 and remained in a tight range throughout the weekend. The cryptocurrency's fate may rest on how Wall Street tech stocks perform when markets in the U.S. open later today.

Ethereum Name Service has been plunged into controversy after a 2016 tweet by the project's director of operations resurfaced. Back in 2016, Brantly Millegan — known as brantly.eth on Twitter — had posted: "Homosexual acts are evil. Transgenderism doesn't exist. Abortion is murder. Contraception is a perversion. So is masturbation and porn." His remarks have been described as "unacceptable," and the non-profit responsible for the project has now terminated his employment.

The founder of India's biggest crypto exchange has said that the digital rupee is going to be "amazing" — and will play a crucial role in raising awareness about cryptocurrencies. Speaking to the CoinMarketRecap podcast, Nischal Shetty predicted that the central bank digital currency "will actually grow the public crypto markets." He added: "We can't be sitting on the sidelines while others build their CBDC. Kudos to the government for wanting to do this."

A high-profile account dedicated to non-fungible tokens has been banned by Instagram. The permanent suspension of @NFT follows allegations the page had repeatedly posted sponsored content — without clearly disclosing it was advertising. Boasting 1.7 million followers, and counting Mark Cuban among its investors, @NFT was undoubtedly responsible for introducing countless Instagrammers to the world of digital art. Accusations of shady practices were made in a detailed Twitter thread.

A Grammy-winning artist has passionately defended NFTs after a week of negative headlines for the industry. RAC argued that "a lot of people seem to miss that the entire point of NFTs is to make content FREE while making ownership scarce." He also described the business models used by the likes of Amazon, Apple and Spotify as "exploitative," adding: "I have 3.5 million unique listeners per month on Spotify, yet I made more income from five collectors."

The WWF has abruptly pulled the plug on its sale of "non-fungible animals" after a backlash. It was hoped that the collection of 10 endangered species would help raise funds for the charity's conservation work — but critics said the sale was at odds with its eco-friendly credentials. One naysayer said the WWF's move was "astonishingly stupid." In a statement, the charity announced that the "trial" was coming to a close, adding: "We all have lots to learn about this new market."

Our friends at Decrypt have curated a list of 13 people who are set to help write crypto's future — fresh faces who might go on to become as famous as the industry's early legends.