This Week on Crypto Twitter: Gitcoin Admits Shell Deal Was a Mistake, Trump’s Crypto Wallet Gets Outed

There was a flash crash towards the end of the working week that sent the prices of all major cryptocurrencies tumbling down. 

The major sell-off was no doubt linked to news that Chinese property giant Evergrande filed for Chapter 15 bankruptcy protection in a Manhattan court, causing big asset holders to dump riskier investments like stocks and Bitcoin.

A great many tweets were going 'round alleging that Tether had vast exposure to Evergrande, although that is almost certainly misinformation. Tether itself denied any exposure to the beleaguered developer back in 2021 and the dollar stablecoin issuer completely eliminated commercial paper (unsecured short-term promises of debt repayment by corporations) from its USDT reserves last year. 

In spite of the dubious alleged factoids going viral on Twitter this week, crypto’s favorite social media platform remained a source of invaluable information for a plethora of other concerns. 

On Monday, entrepreneur and NFT trader Jeffrey “Machi Big Brother” Huang announced he was dropping his defamation suit against crypto’s most popular sleuth ZachXBT. 

ZachXBT accused Huang of embezzling 22,000 ETH—a whopping $36.9 million at today’s price—but following the lawsuit, the pair appear to have negotiated through the dispute and ZachXBT has softened the accusatory language. The blockchain gumshoe tweeted his own statement on the matter. 

That same day, open-source blockchain funding platform Gitcoin announced a controversial new partnership with fossil fuel giant Shell. Critics—including Ethereum developers and advocates—accused Shell of using the Ethereum-based Gitcoin as a “greenwashing” prop to deceive the public into thinking it’s more environmentally conscious than it is. 

Gitcoin’s executive director Kyle Weiss wrote a Twitter statement too lengthy to produce, alerting critics that the deal was made after he personally asked for significant alterations to (or “redlined the fuck out of”) Shell’s proposal, and the process involved heavy internal wrangling within Gitcoin itself. He appeared to concede that "we (me and the team) fucked up."

On Wednesday, blockchain intelligence platform Arkham shared details of 45’s $2.8 million crypto holdings. Trump, who has long been publicly skeptical of crypto, holds at least half a million dollars worth of Ether.

On Thursday, there were rumors of a potentially colossal mistake on Shibarium, Shiba Enu’s Layer 2 Ethereum blockchain. 

It was a $1.7 million mistake, according to sleuthing done by Crypto Twitter news outlet Degen News.

That day, crypto asset manager Grayscale announced it needed fresh talent in its ETF department. 

Barely 24 hours later, Bloomberg ETF expert James Seyffart announced that those hoping to see the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) converting Grayscale’s Bitcoin fund into an ETF will have to wait a bit longer. 

Entrepreneur, Dallas Mavericks owner, and Shark Tank star Mark Cuban criticized OpenSea, one of his own portfolio companies, for rolling back royalties.

That same day, OpenSea announced it was ending support for BNB. 

FOX journalist Eleanor Terett broke news that the SEC is lodging an appeal in its ongoing case against Ripple for allegedly breaking securities laws by offering XRP, which the SEC called an unregistered security. Judge Analisa Torres ruled that XRP "is not necessarily a security on its face” and that sales to retail customers via exchanges did not break securities laws.