Here’s what happened in crypto today

Today in crypto, Elon Musk faces backlash for announcing change to the X social media algorithm, at least 15 blockchain wallets suspected of insider trading have turned an initial $14,600 investment into over $20 million, and the Bitcoin network’s hashrate hit a new all-time high above 1,000 exahashes per second.Musk faces backlash for announcing X algorithm changeElon Musk is facing backlash after announcing that X would change the social media algorithm on the site to promote certain types of content over others."Our goal is to maximize un-regretted user-seconds. Too much negativity is being pushed that technically grows user time, but not un-regretted user time," the entrepreneur wrote in a Jan. 3 post.Users on the platform characterized the algorithm change as a form of censorship, arguing that the term 'negativity' was too subjective and asked Musk who would determine what content qualified as negative.The announced change to the social media algorithm followed a recent online feud between Musk and his supporters over immigrant visas. Suspected insider wallets net $20 million on Solana’s Focai memecoin launchAt least 15 insider wallets made over $20 million in profit on the Focai.fun (FOCAI), a memecoin recently launched on Solana’s memecoin launchpad Pump.fun.The suspected insiders have made an over 136,000-fold return on their initial $14,600 investment, which bought them over 60.5% of the total token supply, according to onchain analytics firm Lookonchain. “They then sold all their $Focai for 94,175 $SOL($20.5M), netting 94,108 $SOL($20.48M).”The concentration of such a large share of tokens in a small number of wallets has drawn criticism from blockchain analysts. The situation highlights potential risks to decentralization, which is a key principle in cryptocurrency.The FOCAI token peaked at over $46 million in market capitalization at 4:45 am UTC. The token’s market capitalization fell nearly 14% to $39.6 million as of 11:55 am UTC, Pump.fun data shows.Bitcoin hashrate briefly hits all-time highOn Jan. 3, the Bitcoin network’s hashrate briefly reached a new all-time high as miners continued to add capacity. According to data from CoinWarz, Bitcoin’s hashrate peaked at over 1,000 exahashes per second (EH/s). It was more than double the 510 EH/s in January 2024. Following the intraday peak, the hashrate dipped back below 780 EH/s. Bitcoin’s hashrate rises as miners increase the amount of computational resources devoted to the blockchain. Miners are adding capacity despite Bitcoin’s April 2024 halving event, which reduced mining rewards to 3.125 BTC from 6.25 BTC.In 2024, mining companies “acquired other miners with turn-key facilities to increase near-term hashrate and increase their power pipeline,” according to a December report by JPMorgan.JPMorgan also raised the price target of four Bitcoin mining stocks to reflect the growing value of their BTC holdings.