Here’s what happened in crypto today

Today in crypto, Eric Trump predicted governments and institutions will adopt Bitcoin, and BTC will hit $1 million, Google hit a new advancement with its quantum computing chip, and Ripple CEO Brad Garlinghouse criticized 60 Minutes for omitting crucial information about his company’s lawsuit with the United States Securities and Exchange Commission.Eric Trump predicts Bitcoin will hit $1 million, praises scarcityTrump, an American businessman, executive vice president of the Trump Organization and son of United States President-elect Donald Trump, predicted that Bitcoin will someday hit $1 million.Trump took the stage with a keynote speech at the Bitcoin MENA event in Abu Dhabi on Dec. 10 to praise Bitcoin as a “financial paradigm” and a global asset.He expressed confidence that Bitcoin will hit $1 million per coin one day, highlighting the cryptocurrency’s potential to “transform the global economy in beautiful ways.”The businessman also predicted that more governments will embrace Bitcoin in the coming years, stressing that early adopters will be among those who win.In his speech, Trump emphasized that Bitcoin is “not just another asset” and “not just an investment,” describing it instead as a “global asset.”“It’s a store of value. It’s a hedge against inflation. It’s a hedge against political turmoil, political instability, acts of God, hurricanes, fires, floods, tornadoes, guys. That’s what makes it so powerful,” he said.Google unveils new quantum computing chip: Clock ticking for crypto encryption?Google’s Quantum AI team has revealed its new quantum computing chip, capable of solving a computational problem in less than five minutes — the same problem that would take one of the best supercomputers around 10 septillion years to solve.The chip, known as Willow, can exponentially correct errors and process certain computations at a mind-boggling pace, Hartmut Neven, Google’s Quantum AI lead, said in a Dec. 9 blog.“This mind-boggling number exceeds known timescales in physics and vastly exceeds the age of the universe,” he said.Advances in quantum computing have long been feared as an inflection point for the crypto industry. Computers capable of breaking encryption could expose user funds to thieves in large volumes and at rapid rates.Tech entrepreneur and former senior product manager for Google, Kevin Rose, said in a Dec. 9 statement to X that Willow was still far short of being a threat to crypto.According to Rose, estimates for compromising Bitcoin’s encryption would require a quantum computer with approximately 13 million qubits to achieve decryption within 24 hours.“In contrast, Google’s Willow chip, while a significant advancement, comprises 105 qubits,” he said.Brad Garlinghouse criticizes 60 MinutesRipple Labs CEO Brad Garlinghouse has criticized a recent 60 Minutes segment for failing to include critical information about his company’s lawsuit with the US Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC).The 60 Minutes segment with journalist Margaret Brennan and Garlinghouse covered Ripple’s role in funding the Fairshare political action committee ahead of the US presidential election. The report included Garlinghouse’s commentary on the SEC lawsuit. “Their allegation was that Ripple and our sales of XRP represented the sale of an unregistered security,” Garlinghouse said of the SEC in the 60 Minutes segment, which aired on Dec. 8.However, Garlinghouse was shocked to learn that the segment didn’t clarify that the lawsuit deemed XRP not to be a security in certain cases.The SEC sued Ripple in December 2020. In August, a judge ordered the company to pay $125 million as part of a civil penalty, one month after it was determined that XRP sales on exchanges did not violate securities laws.