Mostly markets recovered this week notwithstanding extremely volatile midweek price movements from the leading cryptocurrencies. On Twitter, pundits were absorbed in Ethereum Merge updates, more crypto winter stories and the latest saga in Gary Gensler’s unspoken war on Ethereum.
Terra CEO Do Kwon started the week with a bang when he lashed out at self-proclaimed blockchain gumshoe @FatManTerra. Back in May, at the height of Terra’s collapse, FatMan, who claims to be affiliated Terra’s Research Forumaccused Kwon of skimming the top by withdrawing hundreds of millions of dollars”direct out of LUNA’s market value” over several years “to pay Terra’s employee salaries and operating expenses.”
What was FatMan’s offensive tweet? Nothing to do with Do Kwon! FatMan tweeted that he was offering a “residual allocation” for a “carry trade” on Bitcoin to victims of UST’s collapse. This time it was Do Kwon who called FatMan a fraud.
Kwon stood his ground when a tweeter suggested he was a hypocrite.
I’m an optimist at heart, but even I can’t be open about a “reallocation” for a “carry trade on bitcoin”
On Tuesday, Ethereum co-creator Vitalik Buterin gave an update on the network’s long-awaited overhaul to a proof-of-stake consensus algorithm. The second iteration of Ethereum is expected to address several key issues, including energy consumption, scalability, gas fees and speed. There was little to update us on, but… Everything will be planned.
The merger is still expected to take place around 13-15. September. What’s happening today is the Bellatrix hard fork, which *prepares* the chain for the merge. Still important β be sure to update your customers!
On the same day, a solo Bitcoin miner won a six-figure block reward.
On Wednesday, a former member of parliament for the small Polynesian state of Tonga, MataΚ»iΚ»uluaΚ»i Fonuamotu (aka Lord Fusitu’a), tweeted that his country is slated to make Bitcoin legal tender next month. Lord Fusitu’a is a self-proclaimed Bitcoin bull and is known for keep the world informed on the progress of Bitcoin adoption in Tonga.
It’s actually scheduled for the end of next month bro, but always appreciate your support and encouragement Famππ½πͺπΎππ½πΈπ»πΉπ΄β€οΈ
Paolo Ardoino, CTO of crypto exchange Bitfinex, praised El Salvador on the anniversary of Bitcoin becoming legal tender there. In his thread, Ardoino compared the move to Italian Renaissance. Ardoino is a big hype man for El Salvador, but a recent report from an American NPO says that Bitcoin use in the country has been minimal since the law came into force.
El Salvador #bitcoin happy 1 year anniversary πΈπ»
1/ El Salvador has been extremely brave in adding Bitcoin as legal tender.
Peter Van Valkenburgh, director of research at the crypto-policy think tank Coin Center, said on Wednesday that the US government, the United Nations and various other organizations are free to use the crypto private mixer Tornado Cash, despite the service being blacklisted by the US Treasury Department. A rule for them, right?
NFT fan Cirrus tricked crypto-influencers with a chart from Dune Analytics showing daily ETH trading volumes on NFT marketplace OpenSea.
Finally, Vermont regulators dropped the bombshell this week that bankrupt crypto lender Celsius has been insolvent since 2019. Crypto podcaster Cas Piancey dug up a tweet from 2019 to show everyone he knew all along.
Gensler vs Ethereum
There was news that apparently didn’t seem that important: US Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) Chairman Gary Gensler the back provides Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC) Bitcoin oversight.
Gensler has previously said that Bitcoin is not a security, and thus does not fall under his jurisdiction. This week, Gensler reiterated his stance on both Bitcoin and the CFTC as the primary regulator of crypto β a proposal welcomed by many, both in Washington and the industry β while hinting that he hopes the SEC will have significant jurisdiction over crypto.
Crypto attorney Jake Chervinsky took to Twitter after the news broke to point out what Gensler is not says to argue that the SEC chief still has Ethereum lined up in his crosshairs.
For context, there have been rumors for a while that Chairman Gensler’s SEC would love to depart from its June 2018 guidance and say that ETH is not a security, but they haven’t found a credible way to do that yet. (There isn’t one.) I don’t read this article that he gives an inch.
Bitcoin-loving MicroStrategy CEO Michael Saylor read the news as bullish.
This morning, @GaryGenslerChairman of the SEC, noted that with the exception of #Bitcoinwhich he analogizes to “digital gold”, the vast majority of cryptotokens are securities.
The next day, an SEC filing revealed that MicroStrategy will sell up to 500 million dollars in the class A share. Guess what it can use the proceeds for? That’s right, adding to its 129,000 BTC war chest; the single largest corporate Bitcoin treasury in the world.
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