The first week of May will be remembered by cryptans for the pullback, the recovery of bitcoin and another pullback, the consequences of the regulatory fight against cryptocurrency companies and the impressive growth of the PEPE meme token. CryptoTwitter has been joking and posting memes all week, and we have collected the funniest and most relevant in the weekly digest.
bitcoin
The first cryptocurrency ended April optimistically at $29,230. However, after the closing of the monthly candle, a rollback began, during which the asset found a bottom at $27,666.
While bitcoin was unnerving its fans, its largest institutional investor – Microstrategy – reported for the second quarter. From January to March, the firm recorded a net profit of $461 million. The company’s bitcoin position is still in a small (about $2 billion) minus, but Microstrategy co-founder Michael Saylor is optimistic about the future.
In an interview with CNBC, Sailor explained that two reasons are driving the widespread adoption of bitcoin – people’s anxiety about inflation and the unfolding banking crisis. These two nasty things may encourage investors to seek shelter for their bitcoin holdings.
By Wednesday, the US Federal Reserve raised the rate by 0.25% to 5.25% for the tenth consecutive time.
Jerome Powell said the decision to pause the rate hike has not yet been made. Bitcoin initially did not react in any way to this news. The volatility of the asset within an hour after the publication of the Fed decision barely exceeded 2%, despite the nervous state of all cryptocurrencies.
At the end of the week, the bulls attempted to storm the key $30,000 level, but failed, and bitcoin rolled back to $28,300. Now it has rebounded slightly and is at $29,000.
Another piece of positive news was the release of a quarterly report by former Twitter CEO Jack Dorsey at Block (formerly known as Square). It made a $2.16 billion profit from selling bitcoin through the Cash App, which means that customers actively used the application and willingly traded bitcoins in it. Good sign!
Shitcoins start and win
The popular PEPE meme-token has been stirring the hearts of cryptans for a couple of weeks now – either growing as if in itself, then falling sharply. This week, the asset was able to please its fans — PEPE capitalization reached $1 billion, as a result of which Shitcoin got into the top 50 largest cryptocurrencies. Listing on the largest cryptocurrency exchange Binance helped PEPE reach such heights.
However, the creators of the token do not deceive fans. They explain that the coin has no intrinsic value and is completely worthless. Its purpose is to entertain kryptans, nothing more. It is useful to remember this if you suddenly have an itch in your wallet and want to spend a thousand or two dollars on a token.
Regulators against cryptans
The American authorities and regulators continued this week to pinch the crypto industry. The leading American exchange Coinbase has decided to stop issuing new loans secured by bitcoin through the Borrow service. The reasons were not announced to clients, but it’s clear to everyone: when the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) is breathing down your back, it’s better not to raise questions about your activities once again.
Trading platform Poloniex has agreed to pay a $7.6 million fine to settle U.S. sanctions violation charges from the Office of Foreign Assets Control of the U.S. Department of the Treasury. The company put a bolt on US sanctions on Crimea, Cuba, Iran, Sudan and Syria, allowing users from these regions to trade on the site from January 2014 to November 2019. And she got off easy!
By the end of the week, Bloomberg published an article in which unnamed sources said that the US Department of Justice Department of Homeland Security is investigating Binance, the largest cryptocurrency exchange. The trading platform is suspected of helping Russian citizens circumvent sanctions. Confirmations have not yet been delivered, but the situation around the exchange is already nervous, American regulators have been digging under it for a long time.
FTX news
FTX, dealing with the process of bankruptcy and return of funds to users, this week again managed to surprise the crypto community. And again bills from lawyers. For the first quarter of 2023, FTX lawyers and consultants asked for a total of $103 million for their services. If it goes on like this, there will simply be nothing left for clients and investors – the new management can simply spend all saved assets on legal assistance.
And to cultural news
Binance Complains That OpenAI’s Fashionable Poetry Chatbot Looks For Code Bugs dancing and singing – misinforms its users. Someone is using ChatGPT to vilify the CEO of the marketplace, Changpeng Zhao.
ChatGPT claims that Zhao developed the platform for the China National Petroleum Corporation and is a functionary of the Chinese Communist Party. He just doesn’t eat children, we won’t lie. And does everything else. And everything would be fine, but the administration of the exchange received a large number of letters and inquiries about whether the founder of Binance was an official of the Communist Party. Interested in this information and in government agencies, including the US Congress. Of course, this is all untrue, and Changpeng Zhao just became a victim of artificial intelligence.
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