Crypto Is ‘Death in America’, Binance.US Says ‘Bye Voyager’, Countries Say ‘Hello CBDC’ and 20 Crypto Jokes

by Arthur · April 29, 2023

This week in crypto: crypto-backed mutual funds saw outflows for the first time in 6 weeks, Bloomberg analysts said the next Bitcoin halving could send BTC past $50,000, the Bitcoin volatility index hit a 6-week low despite macro risk events, the daily Bitcoin network transactions increased to near-record levels, Ethereum staking saw a record weekly supply worth over $1 billion, and a Cambridge study found that over its lifetime the Ethereum network used as much energy as Switzerland. Arthur Hayes argued that the average crypto user prioritizes ease of use over decentralization, and Chamath Palihapitiya declared that “crypto is dead in America” under regulatory pressure.

Then Coinbase sued the US SEC, asking the court to compel the agency to respond to the petition asking for clearer guidelines for crypto regulation, Binance.US pulled out of the $1.3 billion deal to buy Voyager citing a “hostile” regulatory climate in the United States, a court in Gibraltar ordered several crypto exchanges to assist in the investigation into the collapsed Globix, and the crypto community was rife with speculation as rumors circulated about the US government’s potential involvement with Bitcoin wallets.

As all that happened, South Korean prosecutors indicted Terraform co-founder Daniel Shin and nine others on multiple charges, Do Kwon’s lawyers argued that the US SEC has no jurisdiction over Terraform, Sam Bankman-Fried’s lawyers struggled to meet the conditions of their client’s bail, and FTX- the bankruptcy claimed another casualty when the Web3 video game Storybook Brawl was shut down. KuCoin’s Twitter account was attacked, but the exchange promised to refund the affected users, and the US OFAC sanctioned three individuals who supported North Korea through illegal financing and malicious online activity.

Meanwhile, Zimbabwe’s central bank planned gold-backed digital currency to stabilize the local economy, China’s Changshu wanted to become the first city to pay its employees entirely in the CBDC, Tencent said WeChat would allow users to make digital yuan payments on applets and video channels, South Korea approached a CBDC launch with a new draft law set to create legal terminology, the ECB said European CBDCs would be designed with privacy in mind but would never be as private as cash, and the government said Russia’s CBDC could be released sooner 2023 is out.

We learned that Hong Kong would issue guidelines for its crypto exchange licensing regime by next month, the Bahamas’ securities regulator unveiled a draft regulation developed in response to the FTX collapse, French taxpayers declared $442 million in crypto trading profits at most. last fiscal year, and El Salvador started Bitcoin and Lightning developer courses. Meanwhile, Cosmose AI entered into a strategic partnership with the Near Foundation and achieved a valuation of $500 million, and Bridgewater senior executive Diana Zhang joined crypto investment management firm BlockTower Capital.

Let’s laugh at some jokes now.

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