Ryan Ozawa

Ron DeSantis Twitter Spaces Event Experiences 'Rapid Unscheduled Disassembly'

Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis officially entered the 2024 race for U.S. President today, and was expected to join outgoing Twitter CEO Elon Musk in a live Twitter Spaces conversation to celebrate. It did not go as planned—but perhaps it unfolded as expected for critics of the pair and the chaotic changes unfolding on the social network. More than 560,000 users reportedly tuned into to the Twitter Spaces event, but many reported that their Twitter app was stalling and crashing. It took several minute

No, MetaMask Will Not Withhold Your Crypto for Taxes

ConsenSys, the makers of the popular MetaMask browser-based crypto wallet, called out "tweets circulating with inaccurate information about ConsenSys' terms of service," asserting for the record that "MetaMask does not collect taxes on crypto transactions and we have not made any changes to our terms to do so." "The tax section in our terms of service falls under the 'fees and payment' section, and it exclusively pertains to products and paid plans offered by ConsenSys," the company explained. "

U.S. President Joe Biden at the 2023 Group of Seven (G7) conference in Japan. Image: Sky News

Biden Slams Wealthy Crypto Traders as U.S. Budget Talks Resume

Wrapping up his participation in the Group of Seven (G7) forum in Japan, U.S. President Joe Biden took a swipe at "wealthy tax cheats and crypto traders" as undeserving beneficiaries of Republican lawmakers with whom his administration is negotiating a new budget—without which the American government could potentially default on its debt payments on June 1. The G7 is an intergovernmental political forum in which Canada, France, Germany, Italy, Japan, the United Kingdom, and the United States eng

President Biden Decries Tax Loopholes for 'Wealthy Crypto Investors'

U.S. President Joe Biden set forth an unexpected dichotomy on Tuesday, saying "MAGA House Republicans" support "tax loopholes that help wealthy crypto investors," and oppose food safety inspections. Biden's Twitter post was in support of his proposed fiscal year 2024 budget, which has so far failed to meaningfully advance given united Republican opposition in the U.S. House. Biden notes that reducing the budget is a universal priority—but that Republicans prefer to cut "programs critical to seni

Ron Desantis Renews Attack on CBDCs as Part of 'Woke Politics'

Florida Governor Ron DeSantis took another swing at a U.S. digital dollar today even as he defended crypto as a whole, unveiling a series of state legislative proposals that would combat "woke politics." "They don't like crypto because they can't control crypto," he said in answer to a question posed at a Tuesday press conference. "They want to get rid of crypto, which my view is, if you want to invest in crypto, it's up to you, you can do it, you can make those decisions." "They," presumably, r

Bitcoin Whitepaper Removed from Apple Computers Following Belated Discovery

A digital copy of the original Bitcoin whitepaper that had been hidden on Macintosh computers for more than five years is not part of an upcoming operating system update from Apple, AppleInsider reported Tuesday. The late discovery of the PDF document went viral three weeks ago, and it represented only the latest in a long line of easter eggs that Apple (or its employees, more likely) have planted over the last several decades. It seems to have gone unnoticed by Apple's millions of users until 2

Bluesky is a new social media founded by former Twitter founder and CEO Jack Dorsey. Image: Shutterstock

Decentralized Twitter Alternatives Bluesky and Nostr Are Growing, With Some Growing Pains

Bluesky and Nostr—two separate Twitter-like social platforms, both decentralized, and both backed by Twitter cofounder Jack Dorsey—are growing rapidly as Elon Musk continues to make controversial changes to Twitter itself. Bluesky released its long-awaited app for Android smartphones on Friday, almost two months after its iOS client went live on the Apple App Store. (The web client is still in pre-beta.) Bluesky access is still invite-only, but the growth of its user base is accelerating from ab

Bored Ape Creator Yuga Labs Claims 'Landmark Legal Victory' Over Copycat NFTs

Bored Ape Yacht Club creator Yuga Labs is entitled to an injunction and damages from Ryder Ripps and Jeremy Cahen over their copycat RR/BAYC NFT collection, a federal judge declared late Friday in a pre-trial summary judgement in a trademark infringement case filed by the startup last summer. Yuga Labs described the judgement as a "landmark legal victory for Web3." "This isn’t just a win for us, it’s a win for the entire Web3 industry to hold scammers and counterfeiters accountable," a Yuga Labs

U.S. Congress to Tackle SEC Oversight, Stablecoin Legislation

SEC Chair Gary Gensler will be in the hot seat on Tuesday, the star witness before the full U.S. House Committee on Financial Services on the topic of "Oversight of the Securities and Exchange Commission." The next day, the Subcommittee on Digital Assets, Financial Technology and Inclusion will take up draft legislation relating to stablecoins. On the regulatory front, Gensler has found himself again under fire from within his own agency, with SEC Commissioner Hester Peirce on Friday filing a ro

SushiSwap Smart Contract Bug Exploited in $3.3 Million Theft

A bug introduced into SushiSwap four days ago was exploited late Saturday to drain about $3.3 million worth of Ethereum from a single user's account. According to a Twitter post by blockchain security and data analytics company PeckShield, a wallet controlled by the victim—a prominent member of the Crypto Twitter community known as Sifu—was targeted by an "approve-related bug" in SushiSwap's RouterProcessor2 contract to steal about 1,800 ETH. It seems the @SushiSwap RouterProcessor2 contact ha

Trump NFT Sales Spike Again With Historic Indictment

March is on track to be the worst month yet for Trump NFT trading card sales volume, but a late-month surge tied to former United States president Donald Trump's indictment by a New York grand jury has boosted prices and trading activity around the collection. The floor price—or price of the cheapest-listed NFT in the collection—jumped 24% over the last 24 hours to a current price of $1,023, per data from NFT Price Floor. On Thursday night, soon after the news of Trump's indictment hit, the floo

Pussy Riot Protest Art NFT Triggers Russian Criminal Charges

The Russian government has cited an NFT as evidence for criminal charges against Pussy Riot relating to “hurting the religious feelings” of the people of Russia, according to a press release issued by the group on Wednesday. Artist and activist Nadya Tolokonnikova, better known as the face and voice of Russian feminist protest and performance art group Pussy Riot, has been added to a list of wanted individuals by the Russian Interior Ministry, the Associated Press reported. Citing Russian news o

President's Economic Report Blasts Crypto for 'Ignorance of Basic Economic Principles'

The White House today poured cold water on crypto, accentuating the negative aspects of digital assets throughout a massive, 513-page annual report. The first reference to digital assets in the 2023 Economic Report of the President—issued along with a yearly update issued by the Council of Economic Advisers—asserts that "blockchain technology has fueled the rise of financially innovative digital assets that have proven to be highly volatile and subject to fraud." And that was on page 43. "Althou

Feds Could Guarantee All Silicon Valley Bank Deposits: Report

With hours to go before the trading day begins in Asia, top U.S. regulators have mulled guaranteeing all deposits at Silicon Valley Bank to prevent broader panic in the global financial sector, the Washington Post reported late Sunday. Breaking news: Federal authorities are seriously considering safeguarding all uninsured deposits at Silicon Valley Bank, according to three people with knowledge of the matter, who spoke on the condition of anonymity to describe private deliberations. https://t.c

Binance CEO Changpeng "CZ" Zhao. Image: Decrypt

Binance Team Fretted Over Binance US Ties, Tried to Recruit Gary Gensler: WSJ

An errant Google Forms account and an early trading launch were among the missteps that concerned team members at Binance, based outside of the United States, who worried that U.S. regulators would flag undue influence over its American licensee, Binance.US. This according to a Sunday Wall Street Journal report. The revelations come less than a month after company officials reportedly discussed paying monetary settlements in pending regulatory cases in the U.S. In December, the Justice Departmen

John J Ray III, the newly appointed CEO of FTX, oversaw the liquidation of Enron. Image: House Financial Services Committee

Debtors Declare 'Massive Shortfall' in FTX Assets, FTX US Also In the Red

A concerted effort to identify and inventory the remaining assets of failed cryptocurrency exchange FTX has revealed "the magnitude of the shortfalls discovered in the fiat bank accounts and digital asset wallets associated with the FTX.com and FTX.US exchanges," according to a presentation filed by FTX Debtors in the firm's Chapter 11 bankruptcy cases Thursday. $2.2 billion of total assets have been located, according to the presentation, of which only $694 million are the most liquid currencie

Institutional Traders Shifting Attention from Blockchain to AI: JP Morgan

More than half of the institutional traders surveyed by global financial services giant JP Morgan said that artificial intelligence and machine learning will be the most influential technology in shaping the future of trading over the next three years—cited four times more often than blockchain and distributed ledger technology. JP Morgan's e-Trading Edit report is now in its seventh year, the latest report drawn from a January survey of 835 institutional traders in 60 global markets. The annual

Genesis Files for Bankruptcy, Has $150 Million In the Bank

Digital currency brokerage Genesis announced that it filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy late Thursday. "An in-court restructuring presents the most effective avenue through which to preserve assets and create the best possible outcome for all Genesis stakeholders,” said Genesis' interim CEO Derar Islim in a prepared statement. The company, which is a subsidiary of Digital Currency Group (DCG), says that it has more than $150 million in cash on hand, which it describes as "ample liquidity" to fund o

Rising Solana Tide Surges 58% In Second Strong Week

After collapsing more than 80 percent over the course of last year, Solana is having a stellar in 2023. The price of SOL has more than doubled this month, rising more than 58 percent to $23.70 in the last seven days, according to CoinGecko. Not only that, but the once-celebrated "Ethereum killer" saw its highest trading volume since the week of the spectacular collapse of crypto exchange FTX, which crashed Solana along with most of the crypto market in November. It's a remarkable rebound for Sol

Solana, Cardano Both Up 21% Late Sunday, Setting Monthly Highs

The value of both Solana and Cardano spiked by over 21 percent late Sunday, according to data from CoinGecko, both reentering territory not seen by either since November. Cardano, the eighth-largest cryptocurrency by market cap, saw its price spike to $0.33—a price not seen since November 19. Meanwhile, Solana, which kicked off a remarkable run with an 11% jump in value on Monday, spiked again Sunday to $16.04, territory it hasn't seen since Nov. 9, when it was partway through a collapse of more

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Stories by Ryan Ozawa