Hyperbitcoinization is underway, RFK seeks Bitcoin donations…

Top Stories This Week

Hyperbitcoinization coming, says Bitcoin OG as ‘wholecoiners’ hit 1 million

Bitcoin has crossed a major threshold this month — there are over 1 million addresses that maintain not less than 1 BTC. Data from Glassnode exhibits an escalating sample with regard to the quantity of so-called Bitcoin “wholecoiners.” If the pattern continues, Bitcoin value escalation might quickly make shopping for it not solely a luxurious however one thing probably unattainable altogether, in keeping with Adam Back, co-founder and CEO of Bitcoin agency Blockstream. This hyperbitcoinization refers back to the second when the advantages of Bitcoin for monetary transactions will finally result in the alternative of established monetary establishments by a public-driven system, with Bitcoin turning into the world’s default worth system.

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

FTX’s management is trying to claw again greater than $240 million from insiders and executives that benefited from FTX’s “wildly inflated” acquisition of stock-clearing platform Embed in September. According to court docket filings, Embed’s personal chief know-how officer, Laurence Beal, was surprised that FTX paid a lot for the corporate after one quick assembly with its then-CEO, Michael Giles. Beal described FTX’s due diligence course of with a cowboy emoji. Lawyers accused FTX insiders of disproportionate payouts to Embed shareholders, together with $55 million paid to its CEO.

Robert F. Kennedy Jr. to just accept marketing campaign donations in Bitcoin

Robert F. Kennedy Jr. would be the first presidential candidate in United States historical past to just accept marketing campaign donations in Bitcoin, he introduced throughout his first look as a presidential candidate on the Bitcoin 2023 convention. He praised the cryptocurrency as a “symbol of democracy and freedom” through the occasion. By having attended the Bitcoin occasion, RFK Jr. is not solely focusing on voters but additionally a possible supply of hundreds of thousands of {dollars} in donations. The democratic candidate is incumbent President Joe Biden.

Voyager chapter plan accredited, clients could get better 35.7% of claims initially

Voyager’s chapter plan was accredited on May 17 and its clients might now anticipate to obtain 35.72% of their claims initially, both in crypto by way of the Voyager app or in money, after 30 days. According to Voyager, it had $1.33 billion of belongings for restoration as of May 8, of which $629.8 million was obtainable for preliminary restoration, on claims of $1.8 billion. If FTX/Alameda Research’s declare for preferential restoration is unsuccessful, collectors’ preliminary restoration might enhance. For that declare, Voyager is holding again $445 million. Voyager may additionally be capable to get better funds from bankrupt crypto hedge fund Three Arrows Capital.

Coin Cafe ordered to repay $4.3M in charges that ‘wiped out’ traders’ Bitcoin accounts

Cryptocurrency buying and selling platform Coin Cafe has been ordered to repay $4.3 million to its customers after allegedly charging “exorbitant and undisclosed fees” for storing Bitcoin on the platform — resulting in some accounts being drained completely of their funds. One New York investor incurred charges exceeding $10,000 in a single month, whereas one other investor was hit with charges amounting to $51,000 over a span of 13 months, stated the workplace of the New York State Attorney General.

Winners and Losers

At the tip of the week, Bitcoin (BTC) is at $26,889, Ether (ETH) at $1,813 and XRP at $0.46. The whole market cap is at $1.13 trillion, in keeping with CoinMarketCap.

Among the largest 100 cryptocurrencies, the highest three altcoin gainers of the week are Render Token (RNDR) at 29%, Conflux (CFX) at 20.52% and SingularityNET (AGIX) at 19.94%. 

The high three altcoin losers of the week are Pepe (PEPE) at -11.58%, Klaytn (KLAY) at -5.75% and Bitcoin SV (BSV) at 5.38%.

For extra data on crypto costs, make certain to learn Cointelegraph’s market evaluation.

Most Memorable Quotations

“What makes ordinals interesting on Bitcoin, as opposed to any other platform, is that they’re building on the most secure blockchain in the world.”

David Tse, professor at Stanford University

“We’re seeing another wave of Bitcoin interest, largely driven by business and institutional adoption.”

Alex Leishman, CEO of River

“You create a [virtual] world where you see new experiences, new content, new ideas, and the sum of that is always more positive than negative.”

Sebastien Borget, co-founder of The Sandbox

“If the public is investing money and anticipating profit based upon the efforts of others, in a common enterprise, that’s a security.”

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

“For it [BRC-20] to really have the level of integrity that is offered by Bitcoin, there must be a hard fork that allows these things to be verified and validated and have the integrity of Bitcoin.”

Eli Ben-Sasson, co-founder of StarkWare

“Whether it’s Bitcoin or digital currency, nobody has been able to articulate what problem it is actually solving. […] I can send anybody in this room $5 right now using Venmo. […] So what is it that a central bank digital currency can do that Venmo can’t do?”

Neel Kashkari, president of the Minneapolis Federal Reserve Bank

Prediction of the Week 

Bitcoin value threat? US debt deal to set off $1T liquidity crunch, analyst warns

Bitcoin stares down potential losses heading into the third-quarter of 2023 as U.S. lawmakers will probably attain an settlement on elevating the debt ceiling.

Raising the debt ceiling means the U.S. Treasury might challenge new bonds to boost money to fulfill its earlier obligations, draining liquidity from riskier belongings like Bitcoin. Such macroeconomic hurdles might stop Bitcoin from reclaiming its yearly highs of over $30,000 within the coming months, stated pseudonymous impartial market analyst Income Sharks.

“We most likely range between 20k to 30k and even get an altseason,” the analyst famous, including that “new money isn’t coming in; it’s all just rotating. […] Unless we get a new narrative or Stocks to find a way to rally, it’s looking more likely that the U.S. elections in 2024 will be the next big catalyst.”

FUD of the Week 

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

The U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) has requested Grayscale Investments to drag its utility for a Filecoin Trust, warning that its underlying asset, Filecoin (FIL), might be seen as a safety. Grayscale initially lodged a Form 10 utility with the regulator to launch an up to date Filecoin Trust product in April. This week, it acquired a letter from the SEC warning that FIL “meets the definition of a security” beneath federal regulation and requested the agency to withdraw their utility.

‘Trusted’ market offered faux Trezor wallets stealing crypto — Kaspersky

Cybersecurity agency Kaspersky has reported a difficulty with faux {hardware} wallets impersonating main pockets agency Trezor. According to the Kaspersky staff, attackers managed to entry customers’ crypto belongings by changing the interior firmware. The faux Trezor pockets allowed fraudsters to steal Bitcoin by way of a changed microcontroller, which enabled attackers to take management of the person’s non-public keys. A regular set of pockets capabilities have been supplied by the faux pockets, which resembled a real Trezor Model T pockets.

‘Inferno Drainer’ rip-off as a service has stolen $5.9M since March

A brand new rip-off as a service referred to as “Inferno Drainer” has reportedly stolen almost $6 million from unsuspecting crypto customers, in keeping with Web3 scam-detecting agency Scam Sniffer. Inferno Drainer advertises that it gives ready-to-go code to scammers, permitting them to steal crypto in trade for a 20% lower of the scammer’s crypto “loot.” The recognized tackle was related to over 689 phishing web sites created since March 27 and had drained hundreds of thousands from victims on numerous networks, together with Ethereum, Arbitrum, Polygon and BNB Chain.

Best Cointelegraph Features

Ordinals turned Bitcoin right into a worse model of Ethereum: Can we repair it?

Deluged by NFTs and memecoins, Bitcoin has abruptly turn out to be a worse model of Ethereum. There are conflicting concepts about the best way to repair it.

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

The man who used ChatGPT to create a $100 million meme coin, AI inventory market suggestions return 500%, and why AIs lean left.

‘Moral responsibility’: Can blockchain actually enhance belief in AI?

Decentralized ledger know-how is arguably all the pieces that AI is not: clear, traceable, reliable and tamper-free. Could it offset the opaqueness of AI’s black-box options?