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  • 2/18/25: Milei Shrugs Off LIBRA Scandal šŸ¤”ā›µļøšŸŒŽ

2/18/25: Milei Shrugs Off LIBRA Scandal šŸ¤”ā›µļøšŸŒŽ

Top News

  1. Milei downplays the LIBRA rug, says he didnā€™t promote it

  2. OpenSea pauses XP system amid user backlash

  3. Google explores simplifying Bitcoin access

Specsā€™ Insights

1. Milei downplays the LIBRA rug, says he didnā€™t promote it

Milei finally speaks on LIBRAā€”downplays everything.

Javier Milei finally went on the record about the $LIBRA disaster, and, unsurprisingly, heā€™s doing everything he can to downplay it. According to him:

  • ā€œI didnā€™t promote it, I shared itā€

  • ā€œI did it because Iā€™m a die-hard technoptimist.ā€

  • ā€œDid the State lose money? No.

  • ā€œDid Argentinians lose money? Maybe four or five at most.ā€

  • ā€œThe vast majority of investors are Chinese and American.ā€

  • ā€œItā€™s false that 44,000 people were affectedā€”at most, itā€™s 5,000.ā€

  • ā€œI made no mistakes because I acted in good faith.ā€

But then he also admitted that he needs to ā€œraise his filtersā€ and ā€œnot make himself so accessible.ā€ Meanwhile, there are tons of other headlines, it was half of my newsfeed this morning:

The list goes on. I almost had to make a separate "LIBRA NEWS" section today.

Zooming out, Iā€™m 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

OpenSea is fumbling the bag.

Devin Finzer just announced OpenSea is putting a ā€œpauseā€ on XP rewards for listing and biddingā€”aka 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 Blurā€™s worst mechanics while also nuking creator royalties.

Devin says theyā€™re pausing incentives ā€œfor nowā€ but made it clear they arenā€™t going away. His exact words, "We donā€™t think liquidity rewards are inherently bad... liquidity is fundamental to any marketplace.ā€ So expect them to return in some form soon.

For now, theyā€™re shifting XP rewards to ā€œshipments,ā€ which focus on buying and holding NFTs instead of farming transactions. While thatā€™s a step in the right direction, OpenSea still seems to be facing massive reputation problem ā€š with users accusing them of simply copy/pasting Blurā€™s 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

āŒā—Ŗ-ā—Ŗ 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 loginā€”eliminating the need for complex onboarding and lowering the barrier to entry significantly.

Honestly, this feels like a perfect fit for Safe. Weā€™ve 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, ā€œLog in with Googleā€ is your crypto wallet.

This is the kind of shift that happens graduallyā€”until one day, you wake up and your Gmail doubles as a private key manager.

Imagine a world where Googleā€™s atomic unit of account isnā€™t a database entryā€”itā€™s a blockchain wallet. Bullish.

Everything Else

ā›“ļø Crypto & DeFi

  • CZ says Binance could sell a minority stake over time

  • Monad rolling out a public testnet on Feb. 19

  • Ethereum client Geth urges validators to update to prevent financial loss

  • Hyperliquid stealth launches HyperEVM on mainnet

  • Grok-3 launch ignites AI arms race as OpenAI readies GPT-4.5

  • Crypto user burns $7M ETH to warn of ā€˜mind controlā€™ through brain chips

  • BTC staking platform Core joins Maple, BitGo, Copper, and Hex Trust

  • 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

šŸ¦ 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

šŸ›ļø Legal & Regulatory

šŸŒŽ Rest Of The World

šŸ–¼ļø NFTs & Metaverse

  • NFT market reignites as collector buys digital artwork for $3M

  • TRUMP memecoin to airdrop $50 in tokens to Trump-branded product buyers

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