Bitcoin (BITCOMP) faced a difficult week last week as declines from its all-time high continued, exacerbated by Omicron variant fears late on in the week, with India's decision to ban cryptoassets also causing price contraction. The price has however recovered much of its losses from Friday’s price collapse.

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Bitcoin started the week trading around $58,000 and oscillated across the week. On Thursday the cryptoasset came within touching distance of $59,000, before being knocked hard by investor fears over the omicron variant. BTC fell as low as $53,404 but rallied over the weekend and is now trading back above $57,000.

Ether likewise faced a volatile week of trading, falling below $4,000 as omicron fears saw its price collapse more than 10%. The cryptoasset started the week just below $4,400 trading down near to $4,000 before reaching a high of $4,481 on Thursday. The price collapse on Friday saw its value sink to $3,944, but it has recovered its position somewhat over the weekend, now trading back above $4,300. 

El Salvador buys the dip, again

With cryptoasset prices sinking last week, El Salvador’s President Nayib Bukele announced via Twitter that the Central American country had bought more bitcoin.

Taking to Twitter, Bukele announced: “El Salvador just bought the dip.” The country purchased some 100 BTC to complement the 1,000 tokens it had already acquired before November.

The Central American leader seems never far from the news at the moment, having fired back on the Bank of England over criticism of his bitcoin plans. 

Bukele, again on Twitter, responded to comments from Bank of England governor Andrew Bailey, saying: “Bank of England is “worried about El Salvador’s adoption of Bitcoin? Really? I guess Bank of England’s interest in the well-being of our people is genuine. Right? I mean, they have always cared about our people. Always. Gotta love [sic] Bank of England.”

The country was also in the news last week as it announced it intends to sell $1 billion tokenised 10-year dollar-denominated bonds, despite having some of the worst performing government bonds in emerging markets. 

Tanzania clears the way for CBDC

Tanzania is making plans to introduce its own Central Bank Digital Currency (CBDC) as it says it does not wish to get left behind by the emerging innovations in cryptoassets.

Speaking at a financial conference on Thursday, Tanzania’s central bank governor Florens Luoga announced: “To ensure that our country is not left behind the adoption of central bank digital currencies, the Bank of Tanzania has already begun preparations to have its own CBDC.”

There is little further information on the East African nation’s plans for its CBDC but Luoga added officials are expanding their research and ‘strengthening capacity’ for its own digital currency, per Bloomberg.

The autonomous Tanzanian region of Zanzibar has already expressed interest in CBDCs with the government canvassing stakeholders for their views on cryptoassets.

AMC and Sony launch Spider-Man NFTs

Cinema chain AMC (AMC) and its partner Sony Pictures (SONY) is making 86,000 NFTs available to cinemagoers with the release of new film Spider-Man: No Way Home.

Anyone who purchases a ticket for showings from 16 December will be able to redeem a code through a purpose-built website and obtain one of 100 NFT designs via the Wax blockchain. 

AMC had previously announced it would begin to accept cryptoassets for payment of tickets but the move into NFT technology is a first for the firm.