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- 2/18/25: Milei Shrugs Off LIBRA Scandal š¤”āµļøš
2/18/25: Milei Shrugs Off LIBRA Scandal š¤”āµļøš

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Specsā Insights
1. Milei downplays the LIBRA rug, says he didnāt promote it
BREAKING: Argentina President Javier Milei defends sharing the $LIBRA crypto token before it collapsed, saying he's a tech enthusiast:
āI didnāt promote it, I shared itā
ā Coinage (@coinage_media)
11:56 PM ā¢ Feb 17, 2025
Milei finally speaks on LIBRAādownplays everything.
Javier Milei finally went on the record about the $LIBRA disaster, and, unsurprisingly, heās doing everything he can to downplay it. According to him:
āI didnāt promote it, I shared itā
āI did it because Iām a die-hard technoptimist.ā
āDid the State lose money? No.
āDid Argentinians lose money? Maybe four or five at most.ā
āThe vast majority of investors are Chinese and American.ā
āItās false that 44,000 people were affectedāat most, itās 5,000.ā
āI made no mistakes because I acted in good faith.ā
But then he also admitted that he needs to āraise his filtersā and ānot make himself so accessible.ā Meanwhile, there are tons of other headlines, it was half of my newsfeed this morning:
Jupiter and Meteora deny insider trading in LIBRA launch
Meteora co-founder Ben Chow resigns amid Libra scandal
Jupiter says LIBRA launch was āan open secretā among KOLs
Portnoy buys $170K of wrong LIBRA token, pumps it 3,000%
Argentina's stock market tanks following LIBRA mess
Hayden Davis says heās sitting on $100M
LIBRA team talked with Nigerian government about a launch
Judge assigned to probe Milei over alleged crypto scam
The list goes on. I almost had to make a separate "LIBRA NEWS" section today.
Zooming out, Iām just tired of this circus. Memecoins can be fun, but when high-profile figures start treating them like political footballs, it makes crypto look like a degenerate casino instead of the revolutionary tech it actually is.
On days like today, I feel GREAT for never buying a memecoin. Stay focused, fam.
2. OpenSea pauses XP system amid user backlash
we've heard the feedback on the current XP system, and we're putting a pause on XP given directly for listing and bidding
while we donāt think liquidity rewards are inherently bad (see more below), we understand that there are a lot of strong emotions towards point systems, andā¦ x.com/i/web/status/1ā¦
ā dfinzer.eth | opensea (@dfinzer)
8:41 AM ā¢ Feb 18, 2025
OpenSea is fumbling the bag.
Devin Finzer just announced OpenSea is putting a āpauseā on XP rewards for listing and biddingāaka backpedaling hard after massive user backlash.
The issue? Their liquidity incentives are being gamed by wash traders, and people are pissed that OpenSea copy-pasted Blurās worst mechanics while also nuking creator royalties.
Devin says theyāre pausing incentives āfor nowā but made it clear they arenāt going away. His exact words, "We donāt think liquidity rewards are inherently bad... liquidity is fundamental to any marketplace.ā So expect them to return in some form soon.
For now, theyāre shifting XP rewards to āshipments,ā which focus on buying and holding NFTs instead of farming transactions. While thatās a step in the right direction, OpenSea still seems to be facing massive reputation problem ā with users accusing them of simply copy/pasting Blurās worst mechanics instead of actually innovating.
Will OpenSea have their redemption arc? Or is this just the beginning of the end?
3. Google explores simplifying Bitcoin access
JUST IN: Google's Web3 Specialist Kyle Song says, "We are exploring ways to lower entry barriers so Web2 users can easily use #Bitcoin."
ā Bitcoin Magazine (@BitcoinMagazine)
11:48 AM ā¢ Feb 18, 2025
āāŖ-āŖ ā Google is quietly building the future of wallets.
Kyle Song, a web3 specialist at Google APAC, just confirmed that Google is working on integrating Bitcoin wallets directly with Google accounts.
That means users could one day buy, sell, and hold BTC using their existing Google logināeliminating the need for complex onboarding and lowering the barrier to entry significantly.
Honestly, this feels like a perfect fit for Safe. Weāve already seen Google integrate ENS, making it easier to search Ethereum addresses. Now, if they go deeper into web3 wallets, it could onboard millions of users without them even realizing it. Think about it:
First, we get login-based wallets, where your Google account manages private keys behind the scenes.
Then, seamless integrations start popping up across the entire Google ecosystem.
Eventually, āLog in with Googleā is your crypto wallet.
This is the kind of shift that happens graduallyāuntil one day, you wake up and your Gmail doubles as a private key manager.
Imagine a world where Googleās atomic unit of account isnāt a database entryāitās a blockchain wallet. Bullish.

Everything Else
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Bitcoin dominance nears multi-year high amid Libra memecoin collapse
Hyperliquid rolls out HyperEVM, unveils bug bounty rewards
Abstract users see unauthorized withdrawals from their wallets
š¦ Wall Street & VC
Ether ETFs register $393M in inflows as investors shift from Bitcoin
Bitcoin bull run just getting started as institutions load up, says Bernstein
Brevan Howard deploys $20M on Ethereum-based Kinto
šļø Legal & Regulatory
Elon Muskās D.O.G.E sets eyes on SEC
Elon Musk eyes live audit of Fort Knox Gold
š Rest Of The World
Tether sign agreement with Guinea to explore blockchain adoption
Italy's Central Bank governor and ESMA propose MiCA guidelines
Australia cracks down on 13 crypto firms
Australian police bust gang targeting crypto ATMs, trading cards
Russian power company reports $14M in damages from illegal crypto mining
Standard Chartered to launch HKD-backed stablecoin with Animoca Brands
Hong Kong investment firm shares surge 93% after buying just 1 Bitcoin
OKX secures MiCA License in Europe
Robinhood plans to launch crypto services in Singapore
š¼ļø NFTs & Metaverse
NFT market reignites as collector buys digital artwork for $3M
TRUMP memecoin to airdrop $50 in tokens to Trump-branded product buyers
