But the hacks didn’t stop. In 2016, the DAO–a blockchain organization that was based on Ethereum–lost what was worth $50 million at the time, due to a technical error someone seized upon. This, once again, sent shockwaves through the community–but also had the unfortunate impact of normalizing these types of hacks for some people.
In late 2012, WordPress became the first major merchant to accept payment in Bitcoin. Others, including online electronics retailer Newegg.com, Expedia, Microsoft, and Tesla followed. Countless merchants now view the world’s most popular cryptocurrency as a legitimate payment method.

Although few cryptocurrencies other than Bitcoin are widely accepted for merchant payments, increasingly active exchanges allow holders to exchange them for Bitcoin or fiat currencies — providing critical liquidity and flexibility. Since the late 2010s, big business and institutional investors have closely watched what they call the “crypto space” too.
Yet some crypto watchers have raised red flags over SafeMoon’s unusual structure. It charges a 10 per cent fee to buy tokens and another 10 per cent to sell — almost unheard of in the digital currency world. Half of these fees are paid to owners as an incentive to keep holding and the other half goes into a liquidity pool controlled by the developers. SafeMoon calls itself a DeFi token, or one that uses decentralized finance to govern functions through software, but it has a chief executive officer and chief operating officer. Critics also worry about the discretionary nature of the “manual” coin burns used to adjust its circulation. After 19,000% early gain, crypto SafeMoon’s rules to tamp down selling raise red flags Back to video