By Tim Hakki
5 min read
Illustration by Mitchell Preffer for Decrypt
This week, markets were at the mercy of macroeconomic factors as some at the Fed have indicated another rate hike is due next month. Crypto was also subjected to intense scrutiny by regulators in both the U.S. and EU. Bitcoin and Ethereum led the downturn, with similar seven-day losses of over 10% impacting many leading cryptocurrencies.
The U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission’s (SEC) crackdown on crypto made headlines on Monday when the regulator sued yet another big crypto business for alleged failure to comply with securities laws, Seattle-based exchange Bittrex. Delphi Labs’ Gabriel Shapiro was outraged by the agency’s description of the Dash (DASH) token as a security.
On Thursday, The European Parliament passed the Markets in Crypto Assets (MiCA) bill with 517 votes in favor, 38 against, and 18 abstentions. The legislation now gives the bloc’s 27 constituent states a unified approach to crypto. Rebecca Retig, Chief Policy Officer at Polygon Labs, wrote a thread on Monday arguing that the bloc still needed to tweak its data act, which she described as “overbroad” and “likely unenforceable in decentralized systems.”
Institutional Bitcoin whale Michael Saylor complained about all the sats he was receiving on Tuesday.
Crypto lawyer Rodrigo, who tweets under the handle @RSSH273, tweeted a lengthy legal objection to the sanctioning of crypto privacy mixer Tornado Cash by U.S. authorities.
Coinbase CEO Brian Amstrong flexed his diplomatic muscle in London on Tuesday. Later in the week the exchange announced extensive expansion plans, a maneuver to counteract the increasing assertiveness and aggressiveness of U.S. regulators towards the exchange and industry in recent months.
Twitter user @Tayvano_ flagged a multimillion dollar wallet draining operation that has been active since December.
Republican Tom Emmer’s appearance at a hearing in Washington on the oversight of the SEC made the rounds on Twitter with an eminently quotable soundbite. At the hearing, Emmer grilled SEC chair Gensler and said, “You’ve been an incompetent cop on the beat,” before claiming the SEC chair was pushing American firms into the “hands of the CCP (Chinese Communist Party).”
Blockchain sleuth @ZachXBT on Wednesday compiled a long list of scams that rapper Soulja Boy has shilled since he got involved in crypto.
Do the “hiccups” referred to in writer and lawyer @NYCSouthpaw’s tweet refer to blanket refusals from mama and papa Bankman-Fried to have their phones compromised in such an intrusive manner? Likely!
On Thursday, news hit Twitter that Tornado Cash developer Alex Pertsev, who was arrested by Dutch authorities in August for allegedly facilitating money laundering, is getting released next Wednesday so he can prepare for his trial at home.
Gabriel Shapiro that day pitched his idea of a BORG. An abbreviation for “cybernetic organization,” the BORG is a “new middle” between the decentralized and autonomous principles of DAOs and the legal entitlements and compliant structures of traditional business entities.
Finally, Dogecoin creator turned-nocoiner Billy Markus still thinks crypto is a lunatic’s game.
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