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  • 5/17/24: Counter-Terrorists Win 🇺🇸🪙💊

5/17/24: Counter-Terrorists Win 🇺🇸🪙💊

Top News

  1. Senate overturns SAB 121, the SEC’s anti-crypto policy

  2. Notcoin goes live on TON, airdrops over 80 billion tokens

  3. Pump.Fun suffers $1.9M flash loan exploit by former employee

Today marks the 200th issue of Specs!!! 🎉

To celebrate, we're running a special giveaway and survey.

Thank you all for your dedicated readership — your time, attention, and support mean the world to me. I promise to never waste a second of it!

Specs’ Breakdown

1. Senate overturns SAB 121, the SEC’s anti-crypto policy

⌐◪-◪ → The US Senate voted 60 to 38 to overturn Staff Accounting Bulletin No. 121 (SAB 121).

SAB 121 was the SEC’s anti-crypto rule that wanted to prevent certain regulated firms from providing custody for digital assets.

Even majority leader Schumer voted to overturn SAB 121, which can not be overstated. Sadly, there’s still a chance President Biden will veto it.

If he does, his chances of reelection grow slimmer — 50M voters hold crypto, and Trump just declared himself a pro-crypto candidate.

2. Notcoin goes live on TON, airdrops over 80 billion tokens

⌐◪-◪ → Telegram’s viral web3 clicker game “Notcoin” just launched on the TON blockchain, airdropping over 80 billion tokens to participants.

The token has a fully diluted value of $1B and already surpassed $1B in trading volume, making it 2024’s biggest gaming token drop.

The game itself has real traction too, with over 35M players — beautifully showcasing the power of Telegram’s new mini apps.

If you haven’t checked out Telegram’s mini apps yet, I highly encourage you to do so — they are part of a growing trend that I’m calling “bringing dApps to the edge” — just like Farcaster Frames.

3. Pump.Fun suffers $1.9M flash loan exploit by former employee

⌐◪-◪ → Popular Solana-based memecoin launcher Pump.Fun just experienced a $2M flash loan exploit — the company since identified a former employee @STACCoverflow as the attacker.

Here’s a brief overview of the attack:

  • @STACCoverflow gets upset with the platform and started attacking them publically on Twitter

  • Attacker buys up all the tokens of new projects, filling the bonding curve to 100%

  • Attacker used flash loans from Margin.fi to get SOL and buy tokens w/o actually using their SOL

Trading has been paused on the site and the team says it has upgraded the smart contracts so that additional assets cannot be stolen.

With that said, if you’re still paranoid about the situation, here’s how to disconnect your wallet from the site.

Everything Else

⛓️ Crypto & DeFi

  • PancakeSwap offers to pay off interface fees for Uniswap users

  • Solana DEX Drift opens airdrop claims for 120M tokens with bonus

  • FLock.io to merge Decentralized AI with Morpheus 'smart agents'

  • Ether-Bitcoin ratio slides to its lowest since April 2021

  • Developers of notorious wallet drainer Pink Drainer shut down

🏦 Wallstreet & VC

  • Bitcoin ETFs see 4th straight day of inflows, totaling $257M

  • Morgan Stanley discloses $270M in spot BTF ETF holdings

  • JPMorgan revises Bitcoin production cost estimate to $45,000

  • DTCC completes pilot with Chainlink, JPMorgan, Templeton, BNY

  • Param Labs raises $7M for gaming platform

  • Peaq Network raises $35M for DePIN infra

🏛️ Legal & Regulatory

  • US Congressman introduces legislation to abolish the Federal Reserve

  • FTX’s defunct token volume surges following positive creditor news

  • Former Alameda CEO calls for 'fair' consequences for Ryan Salame

  • U.S. Treasury wants better money laundering regulations for crypto

  • Georgetown law professor to open crypto disclosure firm, Bluprynt

🌎 Rest of the World

  • French regulators warn against crypto exchange Bybit

  • Fordefi gets cover from Insurance giant Munich Re

  • India's market regulator suggests shared crypto oversight

  • Hong Kong launches personal e-CNY wallets for local users

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