Hyperbitcoinization is underway, RFK seeks Bitcoin donations and other news: Hodler’s Digest, May 14-20

Top Stories This Week

Hyperbitcoinization coming, says Bitcoin OG arsenic ‘wholecoiners’ deed 1 million

Bitcoin has crossed a important threshold this month — determination are implicit 1 cardinal addresses that clasp astatine slightest 1 BTC. Data from Glassnode shows an escalating signifier with respect to the magnitude of alleged Bitcoin “wholecoiners.” If the inclination continues, Bitcoin terms escalation could soon marque buying it not lone a luxury but thing perchance unattainable altogether, according to Adam Back, co-founder and CEO of Bitcoin steadfast Blockstream. This hyperbitcoinization refers to the infinitesimal erstwhile the benefits of Bitcoin for fiscal transactions volition yet pb to the replacement of established fiscal institutions by a public-driven system, with Bitcoin becoming the world’s default worth system.

FTX pursues $244M clawback from ‘wildly inflated’ Embed acquisition deal

FTX’s enactment is looking to claw backmost much than $240 million from insiders and executives that benefited from FTX’s “wildly inflated” acquisition of stock-clearing level Embed successful September. According to tribunal filings, Embed’s ain main exertion officer, Laurence Beal, was stunned that FTX paid truthful overmuch for the institution aft 1 abbreviated gathering with its then-CEO, Michael Giles. Beal described FTX’s owed diligence process with a cowboy emoji. Lawyers accused FTX insiders of disproportionate payouts to Embed shareholders, including $55 cardinal paid to its CEO.

Robert F. Kennedy Jr. to judge run donations successful Bitcoin

Robert F. Kennedy Jr. will beryllium the archetypal statesmanlike campaigner successful United States history to judge run donations successful Bitcoin, helium announced during his archetypal quality arsenic a statesmanlike campaigner astatine the Bitcoin 2023 conference. He praised the cryptocurrency arsenic a “symbol of ideology and freedom” during the event. By having attended the Bitcoin event, RFK Jr. is not lone targeting voters but besides a imaginable root of millions of dollars successful donations. The antiauthoritarian campaigner is incumbent President Joe Biden.

Voyager bankruptcy program approved, customers whitethorn retrieve 35.7% of claims initially

Voyager’s bankruptcy program was approved connected May 17 and its customers could present expect to person 35.72% of their claims initially, either successful crypto via the Voyager app oregon successful cash, aft 30 days. According to Voyager, it had $1.33 cardinal of assets for betterment arsenic of May 8, of which $629.8 cardinal was disposable for archetypal recovery, connected claims of $1.8 billion. If FTX/Alameda Research’s assertion for preferential betterment is unsuccessful, creditors’ archetypal betterment could increase. For that claim, Voyager is holding backmost $445 million. Voyager whitethorn besides beryllium capable to retrieve funds from bankrupt crypto hedge money Three Arrows Capital.

Coin Cafe ordered to repay $4.3M successful fees that ‘wiped out’ investors’ Bitcoin accounts

Cryptocurrency trading level Coin Cafe has been ordered to repay $4.3 million to its users aft allegedly charging “exorbitant and undisclosed fees” for storing Bitcoin connected the level — starring to immoderate accounts being drained wholly of their funds. One New York capitalist incurred fees exceeding $10,000 successful a azygous month, portion different capitalist was deed with fees amounting to $51,000 implicit a span of 13 months, said the bureau of the New York State Attorney General.

Winners and Losers

At the extremity of the week, Bitcoin (BTC) is astatine $26,889, Ether (ETH) astatine $1,813 and XRP astatine $0.46. The full marketplace headdress is astatine $1.13 trillion, according to CoinMarketCap.

Among the biggest 100 cryptocurrencies, the apical 3 altcoin gainers of the week are Render Token (RNDR) astatine 29%, Conflux (CFX) astatine 20.52% and SingularityNET (AGIX) astatine 19.94%. 

Most Memorable Quotations

“What makes ordinals absorbing connected Bitcoin, arsenic opposed to immoderate different platform, is that they’re gathering connected the astir unafraid blockchain successful the world.”

David Tse, prof astatine Stanford University

“We’re seeing different question of Bitcoin interest, mostly driven by concern and organization adoption.”

Alex Leishman, CEO of River

“You make a [virtual] satellite wherever you spot caller experiences, caller content, caller ideas, and the sum of that is ever much affirmative than negative.”

Sebastien Borget, co-founder of The Sandbox

“If the nationalist is investing wealth and anticipating nett based upon the efforts of others, successful a communal enterprise, that’s a security.”

Gary Gensler, seat of the United States Securities and Exchange Commission

“For it [BRC-20] to truly person the level of integrity that is offered by Bitcoin, determination indispensable beryllium a hard fork that allows these things to beryllium verified and validated and person the integrity of Bitcoin.”

Eli Ben-Sasson, co-founder of StarkWare

“Whether it’s Bitcoin oregon integer currency, cipher has been capable to articulate what occupation it is really solving. […] I tin nonstop anybody successful this country $5 close present utilizing Venmo. […] So what is it that a cardinal slope integer currency tin bash that Venmo can’t do?”

Neel Kashkari, president of the Minneapolis Federal Reserve Bank

Prediction of the Week 

Bitcoin terms risk? US indebtedness woody to trigger $1T liquidity crunch, expert warns

Bitcoin stares down imaginable losses heading into the third-quarter of 2023 arsenic U.S. lawmakers volition apt scope an statement connected raising the indebtedness ceiling.

Raising the indebtedness ceiling means the U.S. Treasury could contented caller bonds to rise currency to conscionable its erstwhile obligations, draining liquidity from riskier assets similar Bitcoin. Such macroeconomic hurdles could forestall Bitcoin from reclaiming its yearly highs of implicit $30,000 successful the coming months, said pseudonymous autarkic marketplace expert Income Sharks.

“We astir apt scope betwixt 20k to 30k and adjacent get an altseason,” the expert noted, adding that “new wealth isn’t coming in; it’s each conscionable rotating. […] Unless we get a caller communicative oregon Stocks to find a mode to rally, it’s looking much apt that the U.S. elections successful 2024 volition beryllium the adjacent large catalyst.”

FUD of the Week 

SEC warns that Filecoin ‘meets explanation of a security’ — Grayscale

The U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) has asked Grayscale Investments to propulsion its application for a Filecoin Trust, informing that its underlying asset, Filecoin (FIL), tin beryllium seen arsenic a security. Grayscale initially lodged a Form 10 exertion with the regulator to motorboat an updated Filecoin Trust merchandise successful April. This week, it received a missive from the SEC informing that FIL “meets the explanation of a security” nether national instrumentality and asked the steadfast to retreat their application.

‘Trusted’ marketplace sold fake Trezor wallets stealing crypto — Kaspersky

Cybersecurity steadfast Kaspersky has reported an contented with fake hardware wallets impersonating large wallet steadfast Trezor. According to the Kaspersky team, attackers managed to entree users’ crypto assets by replacing the interior firmware. The fake Trezor wallet allowed fraudsters to bargain Bitcoin via a replaced microcontroller, which enabled attackers to instrumentality power of the user’s backstage keys. A modular acceptable of wallet functions were provided by the fake wallet, which resembled a genuine Trezor Model T wallet.

‘Inferno Drainer’ scam arsenic a work has stolen $5.9M since March

A caller scam arsenic a work called “Inferno Drainer” has reportedly stolen astir $6 million from unsuspecting crypto users, according to Web3 scam-detecting steadfast Scam Sniffer. Inferno Drainer advertises that it provides ready-to-go codification to scammers, allowing them to bargain crypto successful speech for a 20% chopped of the scammer’s crypto “loot.” The identified code was associated with implicit 689 phishing websites created since March 27 and had drained millions from victims connected assorted networks, including Ethereum, Arbitrum, Polygon and BNB Chain.

Best Cointelegraph Features

Ordinals turned Bitcoin into a worse mentation of Ethereum: Can we hole it?

Deluged by NFTs and memecoins, Bitcoin has abruptly go a worse mentation of Ethereum. There are conflicting ideas astir however to hole it.

Make 500% from ChatGPT banal tips? Bard leans left, $100M AI memecoin: AI Eye

The antheral who utilized ChatGPT to create a $100 cardinal meme coin, AI banal marketplace tips instrumentality 500%, and wherefore AIs thin left.

‘Moral responsibility’: Can blockchain truly amended spot successful AI?

Decentralized ledger exertion is arguably everything that AI is not: transparent, traceable, trustworthy and tamper-free. Could it offset the opaqueness of AI’s black-box solutions?