Elon Musk Records $140 Billion in Losses, SHIB Accepted as Payment for Netflix and Spotify, Former SEC Exec Suggests BTC Is Unregistered Security: Crypto News Digest by U.Today

U.Today presents the top four new stories over the past day.

Dogecoin fan Elon Musk takes $140 billion plummet, Jeff Bezos and CZ not far behind

Bloomberg Billionaires Index reports Elon Musk to be the person who lost the most wealth this year: after the tech mogul’s riches shed $140 billion since January, he is currently ranked second on the list of the richest people in the world. First place now belongs to Bernard Arnault, co-founder and CEO of LVMH, who is $20 billion richer than Musk. Back in 2021, Musk's net worth was approximately $300 billion, but a sharp decrease in the price of Tesla shares has caused him to lose the majority of his wealth. The second place finisher in terms of losses is Jeff Bezos, with his wealth decreasing by $86 billion. Binance CEO Changpeng Zhao comes in third place with an astonishing $84 billion loss.

SHIB accepted as payment for Netflix, Spotify subscriptions via this integration

NOWPayments crypto payment gateway had a New Year's surprise for SHIB holders: from now on, holders will be able to pay for Netflix and Spotify monthly subscriptions with their favorite meme coin. Businesses that also run subscription services can now allow their clients to pay for subscriptions in SHIB with the tool. Meanwhile, SHIB use cases for payments continue to grow: as previously reported by U.Today, thanks to EAG's partnership with BitPay, SHIB holders can now purchase luxury cars, including the popular car brands Aston Martin, Bentley, Koenigsegg hypercars and Karma Automotive.

Former SEC enforcement attorney suggests Bitcoin is unregistered security

Former chief of the SEC’s Office of Internet Enforcement John Reed Stark has taken to Twitter to question Bitcoin’s security status. He commented on a thread by Ethereum advocate Evan Van Ness about Bitcoin mining centralization, in which the latter noted that 850 of the last 1,000 blocks produced on the Bitcoin blockchain have been mined by just five entities: Antpool, FoundryUSA, f2pool, ViaBTC and Binance. Stark then wrote: “And how is it again that bitcoin is not a security which requires SEC registration?” As previously reported by U.Today, the SEC chair Gary Gensler has repeatedly called Bitcoin a commodity, which means that the largest cryptocurrency is not under the regulating agency’s purview.

Lead SHIB dev Shytoshi will no longer "remain invisible"; plans to reveal himself?

Shytoshi Kusama, a lead developer of the Shiba Inu project, may reveal himself by the end of the year, according to a tweet by a leading SHIB-related Twitter account. The tweet contains a screenshot of a social media post that Shytoshi published back on Jan. 21: he wrote that after talking to his mentor, they both agreed that by the end of the year it will become impossible to "remain invisible" any longer. The message also says that after Shytoshi uncovers his identity, “the real fun” will begin. SHIB’s lead dev is not the first person in the crypto industry to hide behind a pseudonym; the trend was started by the person(s) who invented Bitcoin and left it in the hands of the BTC community: "Satoshi Nakamoto."