Piloting into Digital Economy, Leading the Fraud Rings, Stealing Billions and 20 Crypto Jokes

This past week in crypto, we looked into whether crypto prices could pump as the US Fed interest rate decision approached, we learned that investment in crypto hit a new low, but an eco-friendly crypto presale raised $12 million. Vitalik Buterin said crypto is better than gold, and BNY Mellon said that 70% of institutional investors would increase their digital asset activity when more custody services are available. Deribit suffered a hacking attack estimated to be worth some $28 million, DEX Rubic lost $1m in an exploit involving the private keys, alleged Japanese scam operators paid up to 3,000 ‘investors’ in a ‘worthless’ cryptoassets, PeckShield said $3 billion worth of crypto has been stolen so far in 2022, and the UN officials said that terrorists are funding activities through crypto transactions. 

Then, MoneyGram said US users can use its platform to buy, sell, and hold some major cryptos, MicroStrategy third-quarter earnings report fell short of expectations, billionaire Mike Novogratz may cut 20% of the workforce at Galaxy Digital, investment firm CoinFund was looking to invest $250 million in crypto startups, Huobi Global denied mass layoff claims and allegations that two top executives resigned, while Zipmex was ‘on track to sign a majority buyout’. Sam Bankman-Fried’s Alameda Research holds $14.6 billion in assets, and Bankman-Fried decided to step back from crypto lobbying and let ‘crypto Twitter’ take charge. Changpeng Zhao said that Binance invested in the Twitter buyout to support the freedom of speech, and Vitalik Buterin was concerned about Elon Musk’s blue check Twitter plan.

Meanwhile, Union Bank of the Philippines launched a pilot program for BTC and ETH custody and trading services for select retail customers, Indian central bank started its digital rupee pilot, digital yuan architects said they would build privacy-protecting functions into the coin, another digital yuan giveaway will see $2.75m distributed in China’s Fuzhou. As this was happening, MPs were set to vote on a mining bill that would let Russians use crypto “as a means of payment” outside the country. In South Korea, prosecutors arrested an exec suspected of destroying evidence at a Bithumb ‘affiliate’, the police said they arrested the ringleaders of a $472,000 chat-based crypto fraud gang, and WeMade claimed there is “no chance” its wemix token will be delisted by exchanges. Crypto lawyers argued that the SEC will lose the lawsuit against Ripple, and the US DoJ revamped a probe into whether Tether’s executives had committed bank fraud.

Let’s laugh at some jokes now.

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Good morning, CT. A new month is here. How are you feeling?

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First week.

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Second week.

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Wen alt season?

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Wen bull market?

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Wen lambo?

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Fair enough.

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Weeee!

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Freefall.

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It was really famous what he said.

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That’s what happens when you remember stuff, it’s your damn fault.

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There was a time when we didn’t frighten little children and the elderly.

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Actual footage.

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Accurate enough.

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Well, there’s something to look forward to…

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‘You! Shall not! Criticiiiiize!’

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Agree to agree?

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🤭

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A sit of shame.

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Financial cheating is way worse!