Bitcoin layer-2 sparks uproar

A week-old coin has sparked a long-familiar beef in cryptoland – yet the asset still remains coveted.

SatoshiVM, touting itself as a Bitcoin layer-2 protocol that can settle transactions on the network in a streamlined fashion, introduced its native SAVM last Friday following months of hype. Almost instantaneously, SAVM had itself a market cap of $90 million after an insane pump of several thousand percent, per CoinDesk.

That's when the trouble began. An on-chain analysis by Bubblemaps revealed 15% of the token’s supply got routed to a handful of influencer wallets. Surprisingly, some of those investors who participated in SatoshiVM’s private sale confirmed they took profits, facing up to the backlash, predictably fierce.

More baffling, SAVM's performance, despite the turmoil, has been sturdy. Over the past six days, SAVM swayed between a low of $7 and a high of $14, CoinDesk said.

As of today, CoinGecko has confirmed at least $50 million worth of trading volume in the past day as SAVM hugs $8.

Bitcoin held $40K. For the most part. As of Thursday, at 8:25 a.m. (EST), the largest crypto was spotted crouching in some underbrush on a ridge just yonder of $39,900. The second-largest crypto, Ethereum, was seen hugging $2,200, slightly chastened (-1.3%), as opposed to BTC, basically flat (-0.5%).

Ballyhoo surrounding the coming era of spot ETH ETFs appears to be muted by bearish forces, which might well include negative-leaning options market sentiment and knee-jerk reactions to an announcement by the SEC that the agency is delaying its decision on BlackRock's bid to launch a spot ETH product.

Meanwhile, Avalanche, a Top 20 digital asset with a market cap of nearly $11 billion, leads big-coin losers over the past seven days. No. 11 AVAX has declined 15% to $30 (versus a 12% loss for ETH and a 6% loss for BTC).

Right around this past Christmas, AVAX shot to near $50 on the back of a push into memecoins spawned on Avalanche, an odd lot that included chicken-themed Coq Inu (COQ) which has lost nearly two-thirds of its value in the past month.

The Bank of England is designing a digital version of the pound but still hasn't decided whether it's really necessary.

Nevertheless, the UK's CBDC effort seemingly is now in a ramp-up phase. Around the bend is a tidal wave of worries, and a likely protracted campaign to quell them, and which could wind up sidetracking the entire enterprise; or, worse still, endless faffing about might well lead to an inferior result, not unlike a rancid batch of poorly casked ale.

The digital pound pursuit sprang afoot beginning last February, with a feedback-gathering effort lasting for four months. At the time, the BOE and Treasury each declared that a digital pound likely was needed. Some 50,000 public responses poured forth into the consultation exercise, which is now the purview of a cross-party select committee assigned the Herculean chore of exploring how to best mitigate public concerns, so as to reach a consensus ahead of any final decision.

Chief among the concerns: privacy. Britain's proposed digital pound seeks to be private but not anonymous, unlike cold hard cash, the use of which is waning across Europe.

The EU's legislation for a digital euro also has been slowed by privacy concerns. Mairead McGuinness, the EU's top financial services official, last year felt the need to clarify that it was not a "Big Brother project."

Even if the British digital pound project does get a green light, Reuters said, it is unlikely to be operational until near the end of the decade.