• Specs News
  • Posts
  • 11/17/23: Vivek Defends Crypto Mixers 🇺🇸🪪🧙🏻‍♂️

11/17/23: Vivek Defends Crypto Mixers 🇺🇸🪪🧙🏻‍♂️

Author

Valko
November 17, 2023

Top News

Vivek Ramaswamy unveils crypto policy platform criticizing mixer sanctions

Ramaswamy also claimed that he would provide a “safe harbor” exemption for new cryptocurrencies if elected president.

⌐◪-◪ → Vivek just made a bold move by saying crypto mixers are protected by the constitution. As somebody who is pro-privacy, I support this. Politics aside though - it’s really cool to see a US Presidential Candidate do an interview with an NFT-influencer, Alex (fka NFT God). Check out the full interview here!

ENS lead developer calls out Unstoppable Domain patents on social media

Ethereum Name Service lead developer Nick Johnson posted screenshots of conversations between Unstoppable and ENS on X.

⌐◪-◪ → Nick.eth’s Twitter thread is a must-read for anybody who cares about open-source innovation or public goods. In his thread, Nick calls out Unstoppable Domains’ recent patent grants, which he says are, "entirely based on innovations that ENS developed and contains no novel innovations of its own”. The fear here is that Unstoppable could in fact become unstoppable in the decentralized identity/name space.

Reddit meme-inspired Taproot Wizards raises $7.5M | TechCrunch

Taproot Wizards, a Bitcoin-focused Ordinals project, is trying to change the way the blockchain is perceived.

⌐◪-◪ → Okay, surely I’m not the only one who’s interested in ordinals, but hasn’t gone down the rabit hole yet out of intellectual laziness, right? It’s definitley on my list of upcoming deep dives (and should be on yours too). Why? Well, Ordinals continue to gain traction. Just this morning they hit a new all-time-high of $27M in daily trading volume. Even the VC’s are starting to take interest with various Bitcoin startup investments.

Peripheral Vision

⛓️ Crypto & DeFi

  • Aave rebrands to Avara and acquires LA-based web3 startup

  • Binance counter-terrorism official leaves exchange after two years

  • Coinbase promotes an on-chain payments protocol on Polygon & Base

  • Anchorage Digital launches separately managed crypto accounts

  • A physical Dogecoin could reach the Moon in December

  • Fhenix announces fully homomorphic rollups for privacy on Ethereum

  • Strike rolls out Bitcoin purchases to users globally

  • Tether plans $500M expansion into BTC mining

  • EigenLayer to let users delegate staked ETH to operators of EigenDA

🏦 Wallstreet & VC

  • Binance Labs joins Sleek’s seed round at a $50M valuation

  • Coinshares obtains right to purchase Valkyrie's ETF arm

  • BitGo CEO expects more Bitcoin ETF rejections

  • JP Morgan says JPM could do $10B in daily transactions next year

  • Mastercard says customers are too comfortable to adopt CBDCs

🏛️ Legal & Regulatory

  • Three arrested for alleged involvement in stealing $10M from banks

  • SBF's trial may be over, but The Bahamas is now in the hot seat

  • GS Partners accused of fraud by California, Texas, and other investors

  • Prosecutors file appeal in fraud case involving ex-Bithumb chair

  • Congressman says “Cash is king” when it comes to crime, not crypto

  • CFTC Commissioner says rules are needed to protect crypto assets

🌎 Rest of the World

🖼️ NFTs & Metaverse

  • Bitlord raises $3M ahead of token launch

  • Crypto-enabled games hit 1M daily unique active wallets

  • Collector purchases 7 grails from Sotheby’s Starry Night collection

  • Minting of Ordinals-like tokens causes a big surge in Polygon fees

  • Solana game 'Aurory' is now on the Epic Games store

  • Van Arman mint sells out for 128ETH