Last week, Beeple's non-fungible token (NFT) "Everydays" sold for a record $69.3 million equating to 42,329.453 ETH in an auction by Christie's on Thursday. Beeple noted he will likely keep a percentage of his earnings in ETH.

Christie's auction house said its website hosted around 22 million visitors to witness bidding on the most expensive NFT ever sold. MetaKovan, the pseudonymous founder of NFT fund Metapurse, was revealed as the historic owner of the Beeple artwork, beating out Tron founder Justin Sun's last-minute bid. He said: "When you think of high-valued NFTs, this one is going to be pretty hard to beat." MetaKovan is a relatively unknown figure except for the act that their Metapurse fund owns a number of Beeple pieces, which it has offered for sale to the public in fractionalized form.

Here is the rest of the week in review:

Binance is being investigated by the U.S. Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC) to determine if U.S. residents traded derivatives on the top cryptocurrency exchange in violation of U.S. regulations, Bloomberg reported Friday. The Asia-based exchange has not been accused of any wrongdoing and the CFTC may not bring an enforcement action. Binance founder and CEO Changpeng Zhao said: "We'll continue to improve our compliance" and work with global regulators. The news of the probe came a day after Binance announced it hired Max Baucus, a former U.S. senator and ambassador to China, as a policy adviser to help the exchange navigate its relationship with U.S. regulators. Baucus said that Binance is considering whether to register with the CFTC. The Binance investigation is another sign that the U.S. is trying to ensure American derivatives traders only participate through regulated channels.

Valkyrie Digital Assets, which has already filed a Bitcoin (BTC) exchange-traded fund (ETF) application, filed a Form N1-A for Valkyrie Innovative Balance Sheet ETF with the US Securities and Exchange Commission on Friday in partnership with investment advisor KKM Financial and institutional asset manager SEI. Valkyrie's proposed ETF would invest the majority of its capital into companies that own Bitcoin on their balance sheets or are connected to the crypto. Valkyrie defines the Bitcoin ecosystem as the Bitcoin network, trading platforms, miners, custodians, digital wallet providers, firms that facilitate payments, and firms that provide other technology, equipment or services to companies operating in the Bitcoin ecosystem. Jeff Kilburg, CEO of KKM Financial, argued that investment vehicles that give exposure to companies buying Bitcoin may attract companies that cannot add Bitcoin to their own balance sheets but want some exposure.

Crypto prices soared to $1.79 trillion this week as Bitcoin blasted through a record price of $61,684. For the majors, Bitcoin and Litecoin (LTC) posted outsized gains, while Cardano (ADA) and XRP slipped. In the top 100, the biggest losers were NEM, down 52%, Voyager Token (VGX), down 20%, and Ocean Protocol (OCEAN), down 13%. The biggest gainers were Chiliz (CHZ), up a whopping 430%, Decentraland (MANA), up 189%, and Theta Fuel (TFUEL), up 173%. Next week traders will watch for a potential correction from all-time highs.

The author owns a small amount of BTC.