Cambrian Explosions, Smear Campaigns, Wrongdoing Denials and 20 Crypto Jokes

This week in crypto, Bitcoin daily transactions surged to record highs, an expert argued meme coins were the best cryptos to invest in for 50x gains next altcoin season, a Blockstream engineer said she sees a “Cambrian explosion” coming for the development of layer 2 on Bitcoin, and a Greenfield report said Lisbon leads the way as the world’s premier crypto hub. Sotheby’s launched a secondary marketplace that allows users to buy curated NFTs on Ethereum and Polygon, and CoinMarketCap revealed the launch of the “Killer Whales” Web3-focused TV show,

Then, Coinbase announced plans to shutter its loan services, and it debuted its international exchange following a feud with the US SEC. Binance was set to launch “Binance Japan” next month by rebranding a Japanese exchange it had bought last year, while the major exchange became a target of a smear campaign by an AI-powered chatbot that spread false info about its founder CZ. Speaking of which, Tron’s Justin Sun issued a public apology to CZ after an incident involving a $56.1 million deposit.

As this was happening, French senators proposed a law allowing social media influencers to promote crypto, an Argentinian lawmaker suggested that citizens should save their money in crypto rather than USD, the commercial arm of Bhutan’s Royal Government entered Bitcoin mining by purchasing BTC at $5,000, Nigeria was considering a new approach to digital asset trading by allowing asset-backed tokens, Chinese Hebei province was attempting to spur digital yuan adoption by issuing residents CBDC discount coupons, Dubai regulators were scrutinizing the 3AC co-founders over their new unregulated exchange OPNX, and a legal twist let South Korean treasury make $3.7m from seized crypto.

In the US, the North Carolina House of Representatives passed a bill that would ban state agencies from accepting CBDC payments, the SEC decided to leave digital assets out of a new rule requiring more information from hedge fund and private equity advisers, several state regulators started a crackdown on AI-focused crypto projects touted as investments, the White House pushed for 30% tax on crypto miners to “pay their fair share”, Republican US congressmen demanded answers on the Joe Biden administration’s crypto stance, Democratic presidential candidate Robert F. Kennedy Jr. said it is a “mistake” to hinder crypto, and Bloomberg argued that the SEC crackdown might benefit the crypto sector in the long run.

Meanwhile, Celsius co-founder Alex Mashinsky denied any wrongdoing in the collapse of the crypto lender, and the FTX collapse pushed many users away from exchanges and into storing their own crypto. A Coinbase shareholder filed a lawsuit against the exchange’s nine executives for allegedly profiting from inside information during the public listing, a French crypto “fraudster” had his jail sentence upheld in Morocco after a court found him guilty of using BTC to buy luxury goods, and former OpenSea product manager Nathaniel Chastain was found guilty of wire fraud and money laundering in the first NFT-related insider-trading trial.

And now: the jokes!

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Let’s first check on the markets.

Is it flipping me off?

Source: Rager / Twitter

So close.

Preetyyyy….