🤓 Bitcoin ETFs Get an A+ for Exceeding Expectations
In today’s edition: 📈 Bitcoin's $1T market cap, 😬 Starknet airdrop controversy, 🔍 Limited terrorist crypto use, 📉 Financial reporting scrutiny, and more!
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Welcome to The Chopping Block – where crypto insiders Haseeb Qureshi, Tom Schmidt, Tarun Chitra, and special guest Dan Romero, co-founder of Farcaster, engage in a discussion on the forefront of decentralized social media and the burgeoning meme coin trend within the cryptocurrency ecosystem.
This episode offers an analysis of Farcaster’s mechanisms for user engagement and its role in shaping the future of social interactions in the crypto domain. The group delves into the mechanics behind meme coins, examining their influence on community dynamics, market behavior, and the broader implications for digital asset valuation. Moreover, the conversation navigates through the intricacies of decentralized platforms, such as Farcaster, probing into their potential to disrupt conventional social media models and foster a new era of user-centric, blockchain-enabled online communities.
Listen to the episode on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Overcast, Podcast Addict, Pocket Casts, Pandora, Castbox, Google Podcasts, TuneIn, Amazon Music, or on your favorite podcast platform. Or watch it on YouTube.
What’s Poppin’?
by Jeanhee Kim, Sam Sriram, Nelson Wang, Benjamin Powers, and Sage Young
5 Ways That Spot Bitcoin ETFs Have Smashed All Expectations
Believe the hype. The initial 30-plus days of trading for US spot bitcoin exchange-traded funds have produced jaw-dropping results.
How ETF Inflows Could Shape Bitcoin’s Price Trajectory
Bitcoin ETF issuers are buying more than twelve times the amount of bitcoin than the network can produce in a day. A study of the post-ETF bitcoin charts from one analyst shows that inflows into these funds lead to a 2% increase in price per day, while the options market suggests traders are betting on a new all-time high this year.
Crypto Not a Popular Tool for Terror Financing, Says US Treasury
The U.S. Treasury’s Undersecretary for Terrorism and Financial Intelligence Brian Nelson confirmed that terrorist groups such as Hamas and PIJ are using crypto in relatively small amounts compared to what is being widely reported.
Bitcoin Passes the $1 Trillion Market Cap Mark; All Cryptos Combined Reach $2 Trillion
The last time bitcoin hit the $1 trillion market cap level was December 2021.
Starknet’s Airdrop Plan Sparks Some Praise but Also Outrage
Some users were upset to find that they were ineligible for Starknet’s token distribution, despite being active on the layer 2 blockchain network.
Lawmakers Take Aim at Financial Reporting Requirements in Hearing on Illicit Finance
The House Financial Services Committee hearing settled along partisan lines as lawmakers continued their efforts to crack down on crypto as a tool of criminals.
Daily Bits…✍️✍️✍️
📱 US cybersecurity authorities are investigating vulnerabilities in the Binance Trust Wallet iOS app, following multiple cyber attacks in 2023.
🐄 CoW DAO will launch a new MEV-capturing automated market maker (AMM), CoW AMM, designed to address the “loss versus rebalancing” issue faced by liquidity providers within decentralized finance.
🔍 Japan's Financial Services Agency urged financial institutions to enhance monitoring of suspicious transfers to crypto exchanges, following National Police Agency findings on fraud-related crypto transfers.
💻 Paradigm's white hat hacker Samczsun is leading a new crypto security initiative, Security Alliance, which will provide 24/7 emergency assistance, legal protection for white hat hackers, and red team exercises for Web3 developers.
🏛️ Genesis received court approval to sell over $1.3 billion worth of GBTC shares, with permission to convert them into bitcoin or cash, as part of its bankruptcy proceedings.
👨⚖️ DEBT Box asked the judge to deny the SEC's request to dismiss the agency's case against them, following the SEC's admission of making inaccurate statements in court.
📉 Investment firm Tiger Global Management sold its entire stake in Coinbase late last year, revealed a recent regulatory filing, following a significant rally in Coinbase shares. Also, ARK Invest sold $34.3 million in Coinbase shares.
🗳️ Indonesia's presidential election saw a pro-crypto candidate, Gibran Rakabuming Raka, and his running mate Prabowo Subianto, claiming victory, potentially continuing the country's adoption of crypto-friendly policies.
Today in Crypto Adoption...
🤝📡 Spanish telecom giant Telefonica partnered with Chainlink Labs to enhance security using Web3 technology for fraud prevention in SIM cards.
The $$$ Corner…
💼 Former FTX US executive Brett Harrison's startup Architect secured $12 million in seed funding for developing crypto trading infrastructure and plans to launch a derivatives brokerage.
🌐 Layer 1 blockchains Klaytn and Finschia, which are backed by major Asian internet companies, merged to form Asia's “largest Web3 ecosystem”, with plans for a new native token and a unified foundation based in Abu Dhabi.
What Do You Meme?
Recommended Reads
Unchained: Homomorphic Encryptions And Their Role in Crypto: A Beginner’s Guide
DL News: How Solana went from FTX casualty to DeFi’s brightest star with a 450% surge
📈 Your Market Update 📉
BTC is up 1.9%, trading at $52,330
ETH is up 1.6%, trading at $2,790
BTC dominance: 49.93%
Crypto market cap: $2.06T
*All data as of today, 06:32 am ET. Source: CoinGecko
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