This Week on Crypto Twitter: Elon Musk's Diamond Hands, Tom Brady Responds to Vitalik

As spring arrives in the northern hemisphere and temperatures warm, so too did crypto markets, with most leading cryptocurrencies up from last Sunday after a stagnant winter. But garnering even more attention? Elon being Elon.

On Monday, Tesla and SpaceX CEO asked his followers for “thoughts about probable inflation rate over next few years” and was inundated with replies—some serious, some just shilling Musk’s favorite memecoin, DOGE—including a tweet from MicroStrategy CEO and Bitcoin HODLing maxi Michael Saylor.

Saylor tweeted, in part: “USD consumer inflation will continue near all time highs, and asset inflation will run at double the rate of consumer inflation.”

Musk replied 12 minutes later: “It is not entirely unpredictable that you would reach that conclusion,” adding shortly thereafter: “As a general principle, for those looking for advice from this thread, it is generally better to own physical things like a home or stock in companies you think make good products, than dollars when inflation is high. I still own & won’t sell my Bitcoin, Ethereum or Doge fwiw.”

So, there you have it: Nearly a year has passed, and Musk still has diamond hands.

In politics

Bitcoin HODLing Senator Cynthia Lummis of Wyoming announced that her new Bitcoin bill includes a tax exclusion for purchases made with crypto of up to $600. She tweeted: “Can you imagine tracking every cup of coffee or hamburger purchase for currency gains or loses [sic] at time of transaction? (Nightmare).”

Lummis, currently working to incorporate crypto into the U.S. tax code, has been drafting the Responsible Financial Innovation Act since last year, tweeting previously that she’s “putting the final touches on it.”

Elsewhere in politics, STEM and Privacy advocate Bryan Solstin announced that he’s running for U.S. Senate, and that establishing BTC as legal tender in the U.S. "will be my primary objective on the Senate floor."

On Wednesday, Tom Emmer, the Minnesota Republican and chair of the Blockchain Caucus, shared "numerous tips" that the United States Securities and Exchange Commission was making "overburdensome" requests of "the crypto community," saying such measures could be "stifling innovation."

Emmer then sent a letter to the SEC, co-signed by seven colleagues, asking the federal agency to clarify how it gathers information from cryptocurrency-linked companies, while also requesting that the SEC’s practices conform to the “standards established in the Paperwork Reduction Act, which limits the burden the govt. imposes on private businesses & citizens.”

On Thursday, Senator Elizabeth Warren of Massachusetts rolled out a bill to close potential loopholes that could have enable Russian oligarchs to use crypto to evade sanctions. 

Warren tweeted, in part: “We can't allow Putin & his cronies to hide their wealth & evade economic sanctions using cryptocurrency.”

The bill is not without its critics. The day of the announcement, Washington, D.C.-based think tank Coin Center said that the legislation's vague language "would place sweeping restrictions on the cryptocurrency ecosystem under the guise of bolstering sanctions against Russia for its unjustified invasion of Ukraine." Coin Center further called the bill “unnecessary, overbroad, and unconstitutional."

Buterin on Brady

Last week, one unfortunate football-loving soul paid $518,628 for a football that—at least for a little while—was used for the final touchdown pass of Tom Brady’s career. Little did the bidder know, the next day the Tampa quarterback announced his unretirement, thus rendering the ball nearly worthless.

Bitcoin-maxi Brady (who rocks red laser eyes on his Twitter profile pic) heard about the unfortunate purchase and tweeted to crypto exchange FTX: “... could we donate a Bitcoin to the charity of this person’s choice?!” (Brady has a stake in FTX.)

That same day, Ethereum creator Vitalik Buterin tweeted four funny responses to his appearance on the cover of Time. The tweets shared a theme: all compared his appearance to Tom Brady’s.

Buterin wrote: "I didn't even know who Tom Brady is, had to ask people around me. My best guess was that he was the actor from Mission Impossible."

Brady replied to Buterin with: “What’s up Vitalik! You may not know me but just wanted to say I’m a big fan of yours. thank you for everything you’ve built in the world of crypto, otherwise @Autograph wouldn’t have been possible. Hope I get to meet you some day ..."

Brady included the goat emoji, with GOAT meaning Greatest Of All Time, perhaps a wink to Vitalik from another who reached the peak of his field.

Finally, Crypto: The Musical is a thing and it’s coming soon.

Twitter user @amandacassatt announced the news on Thursday: “Alpha leak - @serotonin_hq is producing Crypto: The Musical, the first Broadway musical funded by DAO, telling one woman's story entering web3.” In her tweet, she also mentions that the “DAO launches in June” and the project “will reward investors with profits.”