Bitcoin still knows how to make headlines. Around a year after being declared dead by just about everyone outside of crypto, yesterday’s $1,000 explosion brought reactions from as far afield as Sydney, London, Jakarta, and New York.
The price increase was described variously as a “mysterious move”, a “sudden surge”, and a “burst” and, in their usual way, the media rushed to find a reason. A New York Times source claimed it was down to a “mystery buyer”, a source for the Independent claimed it was in advance of the 2020 halving, and Bloomberg, who were giddy with excitement and had printed five separate pieces about the event within eight hours, put it down, at least partially, to the joke news report about the SEC approving a Bitcoin ETF – which dropped a whole day before the push. Really Bloomberg? Really?
Gizmodo Spoils the Party
The tone of most reports was one of bemused acceptance that this is what Bitcoin does (it took them long enough), but there was still room for some negativity. Gizmodo published a piece that bemoaned the losses endured by the “average folks” in 2018 and opined that “speculators might ride the rollercoaster again”. Yes, apparently it’s a bad thing to speculate on unstable assets and average people just mustn’t do it – only the rich should try to increase their wealth.
Mike Novak is clearly no Bitcoin fan, stating that “Bitcoin is absolutely worthless by any real measure. It’s fake money that’s about as practical to use in the real world as Monopoly bills.” Sigh. It gets even better when he calls Bitcoin a “speculator’s death cult” but by that point you’ve realized what you’re reading and clicked away.
Egg-citing Use for Crypto
The Financial Times came across an interesting use for Bitcoin after a reader spotted an advert on Reddit for certain egg-based services, with payment requested in the cryptocurrency, presumably for reasons of anonymity. The task required consisted of the following:
You’ll be recording a video of yourself cooking eggs, but you have an egg fetish and after you begin cracking the eggs into a bowl, you begin cracking eggs on your body and rubbing all over. (Your [sic] supposed to have an egg fetish and you enjoy the feeling of eggs on your body). After you finish cooking the eggs you will then begin to eat the eggs you cooked.
According to the FT’s researchers, this isn’t this particular user’s first rodeo when it comes to odd requests, although we might be a bit clearer on the real reason for the post when we read down a bit:
It would be most helpful if you could include a photo of yourself shirtless and I will reply back if you are given permission to do the task, as well as additional information.
That’s one way to ask for them. Mind you, he hasn’t stipulated gender so he could be in for any number of nasty surprises.
