Bitcoin worth US$15 quintillion is just another day in crypto

Over in crypto, money gets drained from projects all the time. Hackers stole about US$130mil (RM543mil) from BadgerDAO earlier this month, while customers of crypto exchange BitMart lost about US$150mil (RM627mil). — AP

Cryptocurrencies made a giant leap in 2021, expanding well beyond their niche among geeks and Redditors. Wall Street strengthened its embrace, with Morgan Stanley chief executive officer James Gorman declaring it no fad. New York Mayor-elect Eric Adams said he’ll initially get paid in Bitcoin. And tokenmania invaded pop culture, from sports, entertainment and gaming to high-end auctions. Even Major League Baseball umpires wore the FTX exchange’s logo on their chests.

Yet the industry often failed to get the basics right, still plagued by the same problems that have dogged it from the start: trading glitches, infrastructure snafus, hacks and other crypto weirdness.