This Week on Crypto Twitter: Pussy Riot vs. UkraineDAO and SBF Bails Out BlockFi

While market leaders Bitcoin and Ethereum recaptured lost ground after prices tumbled more than 30% the week before, the reaction on Crypto Twitter was fairly muted. There was very little high-profile crypto shilling, except from spambots and Michael Saylor. No, if anything, the atmosphere was reflective.

Ethereum co-creator Vitalik Buterin once again hit out at the much-discussed stock-to-flow (S2F) price model for Bitcoin, calling it "harmful." The S2F model was developed by a Bitcoin-maxi crypto analyst who goes by the Twitter handle @PlanB, and it predicts the future price of Bitcoin could rise to $288,000 by the end of 2024.

While PlanB touts his methodology as an exact science, the S2F model also predicted Bitcoin would reach $100,000 by the end of last year.

$250 million

On Tuesday, FTX CEO Sam Bankman-Fried announced he was providing a $250 million credit injection to crypto lender BlockFi. Just last week, BlockFi announced it was slashing its workforce by "roughly 20%," citing a "dramatic shift in macroeconomic conditions worldwide." In an interview with NPR, Bankman-Fried said his exchange has a responsibility to bail out ailing crypto companies in times of crisis.

BlockFi CEO Zac Prince said the fresh funds are "contractually subordinate to all client balances," meaning BlockFi will satisfy all obligations on client accounts before paying back FTX.

Bitcoin spot ETF?

On Monday, ProShares, an exchange-traded fund (ETF) provider, announced a product that allows investors to bet against Bitcoin—a U.S. first. The ProShares Short Bitcoin Strategy ETF (ticker BITI) lets investors profit from Bitcoin price drops.

Michael Sonnenshein, CEO of digital asset management giant Grayscale, took the news as a positive sign of greater Bitcoin adoption. He also saw the short ETF as a precursor to a potential Securities and Exchange Commission-approved spot ETF, a product long desired by U.S. investors.

'I'd be very careful'

Russian political activist and fervent Vladimir Putin critic, Nadya Tolokonnikova, a founding member of "conceptual protest art group" Pussy Riot, took to Twitter on Saturday to accuse fellow activist and UkraineDAO founder Alona Shevchenko, a Ukrainian, of turning "rogue."

Shevchenko parried with an extremely long defense, saying she had full support and zero complaints from the Ukrainian government about how the crisis-fundraising DAO was being managed. She also said she used $5,000 to pay her rent and remain free from the influence of sponsors. At several points, things also got a little personal.

Elsewhere

NBC reporter Kevin Collier was at this year's ApeFest, an annual event in New York City for Bored Ape Yacht Club (BAYC) and Mutant Ape Yacht Club (MAYC) holders. At one point on Tuesday, he thought he saw Snoop Dogg, who debuted his BAYC-inspired collaboration with Eminem at the event later in the week. Turns out, he actually saw Doop Snogg. No, that's not a typo.

And finally, Lebanese American essayist/statistician Nassim Nicholas Taleb explained why he doesn't like the phrase "crypto winter."