Last week in crypto, the market was moving. With Bitcoin up 8% in a few days and surpassing the $30k mark. We’ve seen this continue into this week, with 2023 all time highs, and hoovering around the $35k point. Other assets followed, with Ethereum up 7% and Dogecoin up 8%, and Chainlink up a staggering 30%. As bitcoin trends up, it’s dominating the crypto news landscape this week, but there’s still plenty of other things going on.

Uniswap Labs, owner of the Uniswap platform has introduced a new fee structure on specific token pairs. This has caused unease within UNI token holders, who govern the protocol and had not voted to implement the fees. Those against the new fees argue that Uniswap Labs are capitalizing on the token’s value, and not sharing the profits with the token holders. But some in the community support the change, arguing that allowing companies like Uniswap Labs to monetise their front-end interfaces can create sustainable business models and promote continued development. 

Tether’s newly appointed CEO, Paolo Ardonio, has made a game changing commitment to the Tether ecosystem as he vows to release real-time reports on Tether’s reserves next year. 

Tether already provides daily reserves reports on its website, but Ardonio wants to share even more data as he recently shared his goals for increasing tech investments, talking to regulators, and expanding into renewable energy. Tether’s USDT does more in trading volume than any other crypto asset, including Bitcoin, and last week data from Santiment showed high amounts of Tether being sent to crypto exchanges, which some say is a bullish signal. 

A report from Le Figaro, France’s biggest newspaper, has highlighted a rise in the number of French stores accepting Bitcoin. In 2021, Bouchon-comptoir Brunet, a Lyon-based bouchon, which is a type of eatery specific to the Lyon area, were the first in the area to accept bitcoin as a form of payment. They have a dedicated Bitcoin page on their website, where they share their reasoning and that they do not convert the bitcoin they receive into euros or fiat currency, but instead hold the cryptocurrency. The eatery also offers some items only available to purchase in Bitcoin, such as a rare bottle of chartreuse herbal liqueur, which is priced at 0.001 Bitcoin.