6/19/24: Gary, Are You Upset? 🤣🇺🇸✝️

Author

Valko
June 19, 2024

Top News

  1. SEC drops Ethereum investigation, says Consensys

  2. Martin Shkreli claims he co-created $DJT with Barron Trump

  3. Vatican Library starts issuing Soulbound NFTs to donors

Specs’ Breakdown

1. SEC drops Ethereum investigation, says Consensys

⌐◪-◪ → Consensys said the U.S. SEC has officially dropped its year-long investigation into Ethereum 2.0, another win for the crypto industry. Read the full statement here.

This means the SEC will not bring charges alleging the sales of ETH were securities transactions.

The decision comes after Consensys sent a letter to the SEC requesting clarification on ETH’s status as a security amid the recent ETF approvals.

Despite this legal win, Consensys is still seeking legal clarity on MetaMask swaps and staking, asserting that they too do not violate securities laws.

Take that, Gary.

2. Martin Shkreli claims he co-created $DJT with Barron Trump

⌐◪-◪ → The $DJT plot has thickened BIG TIME. Before digging into the details, some key events from the last 24 hours (all times UTC).

Those are the main hits, but there’s a lot more to unpack here.

  1. Martin is on parole and prohibited from finance-related things

  2. DJT insider caught dumping $832k $DJT for $USDC

  3. ZachXBT identifies another insider from Telegram, CWR

  4. CWR claims his dad was the pilot for Epstein, wtf

  5. Barron Trump allegedly told Andrew Tate to ape in

Meanwhile, top Polymarket bettors GCR and Axe want to bet $200M against Martin Shkreli that $DJT is not “real”.

Remember Martin, “Jail’s not that bad” (the reference).

3. Vatican Library starts issuing Soulbound NFTs to donors

⌐◪-◪ → The Vatican Library just announced plans to issue soulbound NFTs to supporters of its manuscript collection.

The NFTs will be issued in partnership with NTT DATA Italia, a multinational information technology service provider.

For context: the Vatican Library was established in the 15th century and preserves 180,000 manuscripts and over 1.5M books.

I don’t think there’s an organization on planet earth that understands and appreciates provenance more than the Vatican Library.

Welcome to the Metaverse mfers.

Everything Else

⛓️ Crypto & DeFi

  • Bitcoin whales sold over $1B in past two weeks

  • Bitcoin hashrate may slow due to summer heatwave

  • LayerZero opens eligibility checker for token airdrop

  • Ethena tokenomics change sparks community outrage

  • Fox News launching its own L2 chain using Polygon CDK

  • Fox onboards TIME as first publishing partner on Verify Protocol

  • Transak adds fiat-to-crypto onramp for PayPal USD

  • 41% of top ZKsync token airdrop recipients sold full allocation

  • Infineo tokenizes $9M in life insurance policies on Provenance

  • Commercial Real Estate coming on-chain, says KPMG exec

  • Eigen Layer goes live on Coinbase for pre-market trading

🏦 Wall Street

  • Bitcoin ETFs see $152M in net outflows

  • Crypto hedge funds lower Bitcoin exposure, says ETC Group

  • Bitcoin ETFs near approval at major warehouses, says Bernstein

  • Ethereum ETPs outperform Bitcoin counterparts ahead of ETF launch

  • CleanSpark buys Bitcoin mining facilities in $25.6M deal

  • Hashdex proposes new ETF owning both Ethereum and Bitcoin

  • MicroStrategy pioneering Bitcoin capital markets, says Bernstein

  • Bitwise discloses $2.5M seed investment for spot Ethereum ETF

🚀 Venture Capital

🏛️ Legal & Regulatory

🌎 Rest of the World

  • IMF says CBDCs could boost Middle East's financial inclusion

🖼️ NFTs & Metaverse

  • TapSwap tap-to-earn game reveals airdrop details

  • Ronin to launch Layer-2 chains for gaming network

  • Notcoin founder outlines how Telegram games will evolve

  • Top NFTs continue to fall as Blur liquidity drops

  • PAC teases v3 announcement for tomorrow

🤑 Meme Coins

  • $TRUMP struggles with exchange listings amid DJT rumors

  • $DADDY memecoin, by Andrew Tate, falls 60%

  • Dogecoin posts double-digit drop amid long liquidations surge

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