From disastrous meme coin launches to El Salvador's sudden change, not every year is all green candles and rising prices. When it comes to this industry — scandals and crooks still thrive in a bull market.
So: pour yourself a stiff drink and let’s take a brief tour of the worst things that happened to digital assets this year.
1. El Salvador Abandons Bitcoin as a Legal Currency
Bitcoin's record price surge has vindicated President Nayib Bukele, who made international headlines when he announced that El Salvador would adopt cryptocurrencies as legal tender.
But while the country is quietly amassing 1 BTC per day — and raking in over $300 million in unrealized profits in the process — one uncomfortable truth remains: the economy is in dire straits.
Growth is slowing compared to other Central American countries. Extreme poverty is rampant. Some Salvadorans live on less than $200 a month. Bukele’s Bitcoin dividends barely cover the country’s needs.
And so, in one of the most important stories of 2024, the FT revealed that El Salvador would reverse its decision to consider BTC as legal tender in exchange for much-needed loans from the International Monetary Fund.
This is a major setback for Bitcoin users, who once dreamed that the tiny nation would be a pioneer for other countries to consider abandoning fiat currencies and moving to cryptocurrencies.
But it could be worse. For one thing, very few consumers in El Salvador have ever used BTC as a payment method — in fact, many businesses hate it. Bukele’s other pro-crypto policies may not be affected either.
2. FTX Compensation Disaster
In some ways, FTX’s recovery from its collapse has been nothing short of a miracle. After billions of dollars in customer funds were stolen—with victims locked out of their accounts—a bankruptcy group has recovered a large chunk of the money, with prosecutors bringing its executives to justice.
But unfortunately, the debt repayment plan scheduled to start in the new year has left many creditors feeling bitter.
On one hand, they will receive 119% of their account balances — more than they lost — which is practically unheard of for a bankruptcy of this size.
But on the other hand, these payments are in US dollars and based on the value of Bitcoin as of November 2022. Creditors will not benefit from this price increase in any way.
Worse still, some victims have sold their claims on the private market at rock-bottom prices, meaning they have no chance of being fully compensated (at least at statutory value).
3. Government sell-off is strong
Earlier this year, the Bitcoin market was rocked when Germany decided to dump a large amount of cryptocurrency seized from criminals — creating massive selling pressure.
Nearly 50,000 BTC seized from a security website called Movie2k.to has been auctioned off, earning authorities around $2.8 billion.
But the average price for each coin is $53,000, meaning the country could double its holdings in a few months.
Former finance minister Christian Lindner recently responded with frustration — warning lawmakers that Europe’s economic powerhouse is missing out on the opportunities that cryptocurrencies could bring.
There were fears that the US would follow suit by holding its own BTC auctions, which has been going on for over 10 years, but this threat seems to have subsided now that Donald Trump is on his way back to the White House.
The president-elect has pledged to convert 200,000 BTC confiscated from criminals into a strategic Bitcoin reserve.
4. A devastating hack
Indian crypto investors were thrown into turmoil when local exchange WazirX was hacked and lost $230 million in July.
A Bengali man has been arrested in connection with the daring theft, and analytics firm Elliptic initially linked the incident to North Korean hackers.
The incident has dealt a blow to confidence in the crypto industry, but WazirX's parent company says it can guarantee customer benefits. However, like FTX, this will be in dollars.
5. Hawk Tuah Disaster
Haliey Welch became an internet sensation after uttering the phrase "Hawk Tuah" into a microphone during a night out in Tennessee.
And with meme money exploding in 2024, it seems inevitable that she will launch her own coin.
It was also entirely predictable that this project would end in tears.
HAWK's market cap soared to $490 million after its launch — but then fell 91% within hours.
Welch and her team held a closed-door meeting on X to try to limit the damage, but the recording was deleted after a violent intervention by on-chain detective Coffeezilla.
The affair came to an abrupt halt when Welch announced she was going to bed on December 4. Silence followed for weeks.
6. Craig Wright's Never-ending Disaster
For years, Craig Wright has claimed he is Satoshi Nakamoto — and sued anyone who tried to doubt it.
But in March, a London judge officially declared: Wright did not invent Bitcoin.
A group called the Crypto Open Patent Alliance, or COPA for short, claims the Australian businessman's actions have hindered the development of Bitcoin.
“Based on his false claims that he is Satoshi, he has pursued claims that he has made amounting to hundreds of billions of dollars, including claims against numerous private individuals,” coalition attorney Jonathan Hough said at the five-week trial.
In July, a brief statement on Wright's website said the court had found him "untruthful in his statements."
The legal saga doesn't end there. Wright then sued COPA for a whopping £911 billion (yes, $1.14 trillion) in damages — and was ordered to attend a contempt of court hearing in London for it.
But Wright, believed to be in Asia, declined to attend… despite being offered travel expenses.
7. Bitcoin Dumpster Guy Keeps Fighting
Imagine mining 8,000 BTC in 2013, when it was worth less than $100, and then throwing away the hard drive.
That's exactly what happened to James Howells, who never gave up fighting to get permission to clean up a landfill in Wales.
After being repeatedly turned down by local authorities in Newport (despite offering to split the money if the disc could be found and used), he has now decided to file a lawsuit.
Lawyers representing Howells in court argued they had a "detailed plan" to follow up on the case, with the help of excavation experts.
However, lawyers representing Newport Council have hit back – saying that, even if he had been allowed to hunt, the hard drive would no longer be his property.
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