Cointastic Moments of 2023: Highlights that Were in the Limelight!

Hello Token Troupers, HODL Hipsters & Coin Collectors!

2023 aged up like a fine wine!

Though it started with the monopoly of bears, we soon witnessed a plot twist when the bulls gracefully seized control. As a result, the market transformed many times into a lush green landscape, lifting both investors' spirits and their portfolio values.

Now that the year that proved that "Crypto is NOT dead" is ending, it calls for a quick recap;)

So, let's relive all the standout moments that made this year exceptional.

Jaw-Dropping Price Hikes

• Bitcoin (BTC) became the year's best-performing asset, surging 153% from $16,490 to $44,080.

• Blue chip cryptos like Ethereum (ETH), Cardano (ADA), Tron (TRX) and Polkadot (DOT) also followed the lead by making significant price recoveries of 83%, 134%, 90% and 102% respectively.

• Ripple (XRP) made a historic win in a lawsuit against the U.S. SEC on July 13, 2023, followed by an unforgettable rally of 96% in just a few hours.

• Solana (SOL) made one of the strongest comebacks in crypto history by boosting 1086% in a year. From a shocking low of $9.96, SOL rose to $114 by the year-end.

• Avalanche (AVAX) surprised everyone when its price jumped from $8.9 to $48, registering over 400% gains in less than 60 days.

• Many new meme coins also rallied, making their early investors overnight millionaires. The top ones of the year in terms of price surges have been- TOKEN (78906%), BONK (16560%), PEPE (2309%) and FLOKI (302%).

Revolutionary Evolution

• The year started with a groundbreaking upgrade in the Bitcoin ecosystem that made it possible to store digital data in the Bitcoin blockchain securely. Casey Rodarmor, a Bitcoin developer, introduced an Ordinal protocol in the Bitcoin blockchain on January 21, 2023. Under this protocol, each Satoshi (the smallest unit of Bitcoin) gets a unique ordinal number linkable with any form of digital art of up to 4 MB in size.

• Polygon network also levelled up its game by rolling out its new hard fork upgrade on January 17, 2023. This upgrade aimed to reduce the sudden gas fee spikes in the Polygon blockchain and improve its efficiency. Polygon also introduced another upgrade on March 27 2023, that introduced zkEVM (Zero Knowledge Ethereum Virtual Machine) in the Polygon blockchain. This integration eliminated the need to design different ZK rollups in EVM for different cases.

• Another big upgrade in the year was Ethereum's Shapella upgrade (a combination of Shanghai and Capella upgrades) in April. It has allowed the withdrawal of staked ETHs locked in the Ethereum Smart contract since the testnet for the Merge upgrade was launched in 2021.

• After almost a year of waiting, Solana's Web 3-centric Saga smartphones finally became available for public sale on May 8, 2023. This new Saga smartphone has 16 dApps related to NFTs, DAOs and Staking. Its commission-free app store also offers a wide array of Web3 applications. The users of this phone can claim a unique Saga Genesis token NFT integrated with each phone. The price of this Solana Saga Smartphone is nearly $1000.

• The much-awaited meme coin upgrade, Shibarium, also launched this year on August 16, 2023. It is a layer-2 blockchain solution that will lower the cost and time involved in processing transactions related to Shiba Inu and its tokens (SHIB, LEASE and BONE). Before its launch, Shiba Inu transactions were processed on the Ethereum blockchain, which is already a busy network due to thousands of associated DApps. It used to cause delays and high price hikes in processing transactions for Shiba Inu users. Thus, the Shiba Inu community launched its layered blockchain solution to speed up the trades at a feasible price.

But wait, there's even more to celebrate!

Along with the price hikes and evolution, 2023 has also proved game-changing for crypto adoption.

Let's review how.

Rising Adoption Trends

• The crowning moment of 2023 regarding Crypto adoption was when the most significant financial company on the planet, BlackRock, applied for Bitcoin Spot ETF. This watershed event occurred on June 15, 2023, when BlackRock officially applied for SEC approval to launch the Spot Bitcoin ETF in the American stock market. Nearly a dozen big financial firms also followed the lead of BlackRock and applied for similar ETFs to the U.S. SEC. Notably, the first Bitcoin Spot ETF application deadline for the SEC is January 10, 2024. If the SEC approves one or more Bitcoin ETF applications by then, mainstream adoption of Bitcoin by big institutions will become inevitable.

• El Salvador, the first country to accept Bitcoin as a legal tender, received regulatory approval from the Digital Assets Commission(CNAD) to launch first-of-their-kind Bitcoin bonds. The idea of these bonds, popular as Volcano Bonds, was first announced in 2021 by the country's president, Nayib Bukele. He set the target to raise $1 billion via the Bitcoin bonds backed by the Bitcoin mining industry that rely solely on renewable energy, including the power generated by active volcanoes. According to the country's national Bitcoin office, the government will start issuing these bonds by the first quarter of 2024. This step will move El Salvador closer to becoming the first "Bitcoin City" in the upcoming years.

• After electing a crypto-friendly President, Javier Milei, Argentina has confirmed that it will now allow its official contracts in Bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies. Argentina's foreign minister, Diana Modino, posted the news on the X platform on December 21, 2023. This step emphasizes the broader acceptance and adoption of cryptocurrencies in Argentina to combat hyperinflation and currency devaluation problems.

• Dubai City is about to get the world's first Bitcoin Tower soon. This tower will be a 40-storey hotel incorporating various blockchain-based technologies in its day-to-day operations. From gifting exclusive NFTs to guests and accepting their hotel rentals as investments, this Bitcoin Tower hotel will focus on innovatively educating the general public about digital assets. It will be located near Sheikh Zayed Road in Dubai.

• Mastercard, the second largest payment processing corporation, collaborated with multiple blockchain platforms like Polygon, Aptos Labs, Solana Foundation and Ava Labs to launch crypto credential services. This significant alliance aims to enhance the trust score of the finance industry by using a new set of crypto standards and fundamentals. Industry experts believe it will help flourish the real-world use cases of blockchain-backed cryptocurrencies.

• Avalanche and AWS (Amazon Web Services) formed a business partnership in January to implement the idea that AWS customers can create their Avalanche-based blockchains via AWS services. This collaboration can cement Avalanche's position as the go-to choice for enterprises and governments to incorporate blockchain technology into their work.

• Luxury car brand Ferrari announced in October 2023 that it will now accept crypto payments in the United States. Customers can now pay in Bitcoin (BTC), Ethereum (ETH) and USDC to buy their luxury sports cars without paying any additional fees.

• The G20 Summit of 2023, hosted in India this year, promptly discussed the topic of crypto regulations in its various sessions. One of the key highlights of these discussions is the call for the swift implementation of the Crypto-Asset Reporting Framework (CARF) and changes in the 'Common Reporting Standards' (CRS). These implementations mean a step towards setting up global standardization of crypto taxation and bringing higher transparency in the entire process. After the amendments in the CRS, it would become almost impossible for traders not to disclose their crypto transactions and holdings in foreign crypto exchanges.

• Japan ends taxation on unrealised cryptocurrency gains for its corporations from the next financial year in its new tax regime. The country's cabinet decided to boost the development of Web3 by forming favourable industry policies.

• The Crypto market cap witnessed an astonishing surge of 70% in just two months. The market cap soared from 86 trillion in September 2023 to an impressive 126 trillion by December 2023, showing the rapid evolution of the crypto space.

Okay!

Enough of the serious talk.

Let's dial down the seriousness by diving into the lighter side of the year for a while!

Some "Ledger-endary" Moments!

• On February 15, 2023, Elon Musk posted a picture of his pet Shiba breed puppy, Floki, declaring him as the new CEO of Twitter. He wrote in the tweet that the new CEO of Twitter is fantastic. As a result of this "paw-some" tweet, the price of Floki Inu's (FLOKI) meme coin surged over 40% in less than a day.

• On one fine day in October, a fake rumour went viral on X, stating that BlackRock's much anticipated Bitcoin Spot ETF application got the green light from the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). It made BTC soar over 10% within minutes despite no confirmation from the SEC and BlackRock. The rumour finally ended when BlackRock cleared that it had not yet received approval.

When Crypto broke so many resistance levels this year, how could we stay on the sidelines?

Flitpay made the year memorable by introducing some of the most awaited developments for our users to enhance their investing experience.

Here is a quick glimpse of them!

Flitpay Spotlight

2023 made us:

• Expand our coin and token offerings by introducing 80+ new popular cryptocurrencies this year, propelling our total coin count to an impressive hundred and fifty and counting.

• Launch a wholly redesigned Flitpay app and web to give you a premium crypto trading experience. With a simplified interface, stylish colour palette, dozens of bug fixes and faster load time, we have transformed the crypto investing game for our users.

• Register a remarkable 58% increase in our user base over the past year by providing top-notch customer service, high-end trading experience and a suite of enticing features.

• Complete a strategic partnership with NiyoFin, a robust online Income Tax e-filing platform to simplify crypto tax filing for all our users with comprehensive tax filing plans with 50% off. This partnership aims to be the panacea for all income tax filing woes while complying with Indian crypto taxation guidelines.

• We once again lived up to the expectations of our users by becoming the ONLY Indian Crypto exchange that provided uninterrupted INR and crypto deposits and withdrawals throughout the adverse market conditions.

• Fulfil our commitment to engage people about Crypto investing with the super-hit FLITPAY WORLD CUP CONTEST. Held during the Cricket World Cup season, this contest received an enormous response. Hundreds of winners celebrated as they received 48 Lakhs worth of Bitcoin for accurately predicting the match scores of the first innings.

With that, our year-end review for 2023 wraps up.

Overall, 2023 was a correction year that brought the crypto industry back on track.

Let's hope that the new block of 2024 will be an entire of bullish breakouts and HOLDsome moments!

Happy New Year to Flitpay Peers!!❤️