Crypto is 'Dead in America', Binance.US Says ‘Bye Voyager’, Countries Say ‘Hi CBDC’ and 20 Crypto Jokes

This week in crypto: crypto-backed investment 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 spiked to the near-record highs, Ethereum staking saw record weekly inflows worth over $1 billion, and a Cambridge study found that the Ethereum network during its lifespan used as much energy as Switzerland. Arthur Hayes claimed the average crypto user prioritizes ease of use over decentralization, and Chamath Palihapitiya declared that ‘crypto is dead in America’ amid regulatory pressure.

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

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

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

We learned that Hong Kong would release guidelines on the licensing regime for crypto exchanges by next month, the Bahamas securities regulator unveiled a draft regulation developed as a response to the FTX collapse, French taxpayers declared some $442 million worth of crypto trading profits in the most recent tax year, and El Salvador started Bitcoin and Lightning dev courses. Meanwhile, Cosmose AI entered into a strategic partnership with the Near Foundation and hit a $500M valuation, and top Bridgewater executive Diana Zhang joined crypto investment management firm BlockTower Capital.

Let’s laugh at some jokes now.

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Source: web3.0_memes / Instagram

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