Tech Digest daily roundup: Bitcoin value drops 50% since November peak

The value of Bitcoin continued to fall over the weekend as it dropped below $34,000 (£27,630), according to the Coinbase cryptocurrency exchange. The world’s largest cryptocurrency by market value has now fallen by 50% since its peak in November last year. The slide in the value of digital assets comes as stock markets around the world also dropped in recent days. On Monday, some Asian markets headed lower again with Japan’s benchmark Nikkei index down by around 2.5%. BBC

Herbert Diess, the CEO of Volkswagen Group, says his company is “basically sold out on electric vehicles in Europe and in the United States” for all of this year, according to The Verge. That means that anyone hoping to buy an EV from VW, Audi, Porsche, or any of the other brands within the Volkswagen Group may have to wait until 2023 as the company tries to navigate the chip shortage, production issues from pandemic-related shutdowns in China, or disruptions caused by Vladimir Putin’s desire to project an image of himself as the quintessential Alpha male…Clean Technica

Microsoft is reportedly set to launch an Xbox cloud gaming streaming device in the next 12 months. According to VentureBeat, this may be a stick or puck similar to Amazon and Roku devices, although there are also reports that an app for Samsung smart TVs is on the way, too, which is also expected to launch in the next year or so. If true, it means players will not only be able to stream games to their PC and mobile devices but also play them on TVs, all without the added expense of buying consoles or their expensive accessories. Venture Beat

Spoiler alert: This story contains the answer to today’s edition of Wordle. Wordle players across the globe were left baffled after a “major recent news event” prompted the people behind the game to change today’s word. A number of people expressed a mixture of confusion and annoyance after sharing their result with friends on Monday, only to learn there appeared to be two different answers. Sky News 

Hundreds of profiles belonging to the “very worst” Twitter trolls reared up within days of Elon Musk’s multibillion-pound buyout bid, according to an international network of volunteers. For the past three years, the volunteers have monitored 120 of the most persistent banned users who repeatedly “respawn” profiles on the social media site. They are currently focusing on four hate groups – which are known for advocating violence, racism and antisemitism – and reporting them to Twitter for swift removal. Yahoo!

Social media investors can be as faddish as teenagers. When Snapchat was released a decade or so ago it was dismissed as little more than a sexting app. Popularity with users then prompted the biggest tech market listing since Facebook. Within months it was written off as a Wall Street flop. Now it is back in demand. Its return has lessons for Elon Musk’s impending ownership of Twitter. FT.com