Bitcoin price news live: BTC and Ethereum surge amid massive Taproot upgrade

Bitcoin has received a major upgrade to its network through the roll out of the long-awaited Taproot update.

It is the biggest improvement to bitcoin’s underlying network since 2017 and will serve to bolster the privacy and security of the cryptocurrency.

The upgrade will also unlock the possibility of smart contracts through bitcoin’s network, while also improving scalability – a crucial element for BTC to succeed as a mainstream form of currency, as it has become in El Salvador.

Here’s what Paolo Ardoino, CTO at the crypto exchange Bitfinex, told us about what the Taproot upgrade means for bitcoin:

Premier League club Southampton FC has launched a first-of-its-kind ‘Crypto Fan Fund’.

Considering the size of the club, it is a relatively modest 2 BTC ($130,000), which comes courtesy of the football club’s shirt sponsor Sportsbet.io.

“The donation of cryptocurrency in this way is a major first within elite sports partnerships,” a press release stated. “Unlike traditional fiat donations, the value of the fund can shift and increase in line with the market, allowing for the potential of greater investments in future seasons.”

Muslims in Indonesia have been told to stop using cryptocurrencies by the country’s authority on religious compliance.

It is not an official ban on bitcoin, and crypto trading is still officially legal, but religious leaders claim that cryptocurrencies contain elements of uncertainty, wagering and harm, and are therefore not halal.

Crypto trading is hugely popular in Indonesia, with data from regulators in the country revealing earlier this year that there are around 4.45 million cryptocurrency investors – more than double the number of stock investors.

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Leading crypto exchange Binance has just announced that it has been forced to temporarily suspend Doge network withdrawals from its platform.

“We discovered a minor issue with DOGE network withdrawals on Binance after carrying out a version update on 2021-11-10,” a note on the firm’s website states.

“As a result, we have temporarily suspended DOGE network withdrawals until this issue is resolved. Binance is actively working with the DOGE project team to resolve the issue.Please note that DOGE network withdrawals will remain closed until this is fixed. Users are still able to withdraw DOGE on other networks during this time.”

Twitter has announced a new cryptocurrency division in order to “push the boundaries of what’s possible with identity, community, ownership and more”.

Twitter Crypto will be used to develop digital currencies, blockchain technology and “other decentralised technologies” for the social media firm, which recently added cryptocurrencies to its Tips feature.

CEO Jack Dorsey, who’s Twitter bio simply states “Bitcoin”, recently launched BTC startup called TBD to “help [Twitter] build an open platform to create a decentralised exchange for bitcoin”.

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As has now become common throughout this record-breaking market rally, the latest flash crash has led to semi-ironic celebrations across social media and bitcoin forums to “buy the dip”.

One popular post on r/Bitcoin stated: “Time to stock up while it’s on sale!”

Even famed whistleblower Edward Snowden, who last tweeted bout buying bitcoin in March 2020 when it briefly crashed below $5,000.

With a new record high yesterday, every single flash crash so far in 2021 has proved to be a “flash sale”, as every time it has recovered to another al-time high.

Eventually, however, market momentum may run out, and the crash could take years, rather than days or months, to fully recover.

Bitcoin and Ethereum have mirrored each other’s price movements overnight, both suffering a flash crash before steadying.

Several other leading cryptocurrencies have copied this pattern, including Cardano (ada), Ripple (XRP), Solana (SOL) and Polkadot (DOT).

It’s pushed the overall crypto market back below $2.9 trillion, however by its own notoriously volatile standards it’s barely more than a blip. Whether it’s the start of something more serious will be determined within the next few hours, though BTC and ETH remain within 5 per cent of their all-time highs.

Bitcoin forums and social media platforms are filling with calls to pump the price to $69,420 in order to achieve the cryptocurrency’s “prophecy”.

One user on the popular sub-Reddit called on fellow investors to “Hodl Hodl” until the price is reached, with the post receiving hundreds of upvotes.

Another day, another all-time high. Bitcoin is on a roll this week, reaching above $68,500 on CoinMarketCap’s price index just now to break another record.

Ethereum has also followed suit, hitting its own record high just a few minutes later, while Binance Coin has surged more than 20 per cent over the last 24 hours to close in on its own record.

The overall crypto market is now tantalisingly close to $3 trillion, clocking in at $2.96 trillion.

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