Coinbase Screws Up, Florida Bans CBDCs and Bitcoin Ordinals…

Top stories this week

Coinbase calls Pepe a “hate symbol”, calling for a boycott of the exchange

An email sent out to Coinbase customers describing the Pepe the Frog meme as a “hate symbol” co-opted by alt-right groups has sparked considerable fervor from the PEPE memecoin community this week. Two hours after the email was sent, the hashtag “#deletecoinbase” hit the trending sideline on Twitter, with over 14,000 comments urging users to boycott the exchange. Paul Grewal, Coinbase’s general counsel, took to Twitter to respond to the outrage, apologizing: “We screwed up and we’re sorry.”

Florida’s governor signs CBDC bill into law, restricting some uses of US and foreign CBDCs

US Florida Governor Ron DeSantis signed a bill restricting the use of central bank digital currencies (CBDCs) in the state. The new law prohibits the use of a US federal CBDC “as money within Florida’s Uniform Commercial Code (UCC).” It also prohibits the use of CBDCs issued by foreign governments and encourages other states to use their commercial codes to impose similar bans. DeSantis said he was spurred into action by White House studies of the new financial technology. The law enters into force on 1 July.

Milady memecoin surges 5,250% after Musk tweet, exchange listings

Milady (LADYS), the self-organized memecoin based on the anime avatar NFT collection of the same name, surged over 5,250% on May 11 after Elon Musk tweeted a meme using images of a Milady NFT. The tweet also increased the collection’s average selling price. “LADYS is a meme coin without any intrinsic value or expectation of financial return. There is no formal team or roadmap,” said the token developers. “The coin is completely useless and for entertainment purposes only.”

Are Ordinals Good or Bad for Bitcoin? Supporters and opponents raise their voices

Bitcoin Ordinals continue to inspire debate among the Bitcoin community. Soon after its introduction in January 2023, opponents of the technology began raising concerns about its supposed flaws, citing slow speeds and rising transaction costs. Meanwhile, its supporters claim that the ordinal provides more opportunities, improves decentralization and ensures freedom of expression. The technology makes it possible to add text, images and code on a satoshi – the smallest unit of Bitcoin.

To catch a fraudster: Kraken builds fake crypto accounts to “lure” fraudsters

Crypto exchange Kraken has provided a new method for flagging malicious wallets – building a fake crypto environment to “scam bait” bad actors. Kraken created the “custom environment” for popular streamer Kitboga to frustrate a scammer impersonating US President Joe Biden. The punchline comes when Kitboga, who portrays an elderly person with a $450,000 balance in Bitcoin, annoys the scammer after entering his wallet address incorrectly before transferring all the funds.

Winners and losers

At the end of the week, Bitcoin (BTC) is at $26,707Ether (ETH) on $1803 and XRP on $0.43. The total market value is at $1.12 trillion, according to CoinMarketCap.

Among the top 100 cryptocurrencies, the top three altcoin winners of the week are Kava (CAVA) of 15.28%, Bitcoin SV (BSV) of 5.19% and PAX Gold (PAXG) of 0.20%.

The top three altcoin losers of the week are Pepe (PEPE) at -54.43%, PancakeSwap (CAKE) of -27.15% and WOO Network (WOO) -24.48%.

For more info on crypto prices, be sure to read Cointelegraph’s market analysis.

Most memorable quotes

“A general pause in AI’s training, along with existing trends that appear to de-prioritize investment in the industry’s AI ethical efforts, will only lead to further damage and backlash.”

Christina Montgomeryhead of privacy and trust at IBM

“The tokenization of real-world assets can offer an unprecedented opportunity to create new market infrastructure and drive efficiencies in the trade of products worldwide.”

Cathy Clayexecutive vice president, global digital and data solutions at Cboe Global Markets

“The metaverse is dead! Let’s organize an online vigil so that we 600,000,000 monthly active users in Fortnite, Minecraft, Roblox, PUBG Mobile, Sandbox and VRChat can mourn its demise together in real-time 3D.

Tim SweeneyCEO of Epic Games

“We screwed up and we’re sorry [about comments regarding Pepe the Frog].”

Paul GrewalHead of Legal at Coinbase

“People are actually adopting [crypto] inside their portfolios. Whether you’re talking about the retail side, high net worth or institutional investors, everybody’s looking at their portfolios and trying to get that kind of exposure.”

Neil Tanhead of the FinTech Association of Hong Kong

“The key lesson from the Terra LUNA crash includes due diligence. Doing due diligence on every project will save potential investors future heartache.”

Obinna Uche UzoijeTwitter analyst

Prediction of the week

Bitcoin Enters $26K ‘bearadise’ As BTC Price Nears 2-Month Low

Bitcoin neared two-month lows on May 12 on fears that a “head-and-shoulders” pattern would put the bears ahead.

Data from Cointelegraph Markets Pro and TradingView showed BTC/USD hitting $26,100 on Bitstamp – the lowest since March 17. Despite encouraging macroeconomic conditions for risk assets, Bitcoin failed to capitalize on the potential for gains as bid liquidity declined.

This “head-and-shoulders” pattern would set a negative precedent if confirmed. “We simply cannot let the #Bitcoin head and shoulders crowd win,” said pseudonymous financial commentator Tedtalksmacro, before adding that if Bitcoin climbs back above $27k things could get “very interesting.”

FUD of the week

Pepe memecoin frenzy is getting unwanted attention from scammers

Bad actors have noticed the hype around Pepe memecoin, resulting in scams that are now plaguing the crypto community. According to blockchain security firm PeckShield, at least 10 memecoin scams have been created in the past few days. The firm reported scam tokens that recently had their liquidity removed, which attracted investors. Fake Pepe claim pages are also becoming increasingly common on Twitter.

“Bitcoin is not under attack:” BTC maxis allays fears of a DoS offensive

A sudden increase in Bitcoin transaction fees and unverified transactions sparked concerns on Crypto Twitter during the week about a potential denial-of-service attack on the network. Bitcoin average transaction fees were $19.20 on May 8, according to BitInfoCharts, while the backlog of transactions was 459,341 on the same day. The increased demand on the network has even caused total fees per block to temporarily exceed the block support reward of 6.25 BTC. Bitcoin analysts and commentators have rushed to allay the community’s fears.

ParaSpace team clashes with CEO over alleged whereabouts of protocol funds

NFT protocol ParaSpace published several alleged irregularities linking CEO Yubo Ruan to the mismanagement of funds equivalent to 2,909 Ether. The funds had previously been stolen during a hack, but were later recovered thanks to white hats. However, Ruan only returned a portion of the funds to the protocol fund. ParaSpace staff have now taken full control of the protocol and are asking Ruan to resign. The CEO denied any wrongdoing.

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Cointelegraph Magazine writers and reporters contributed to this article.