6/5/24: New Sheriff In Town 🤠👎🔥

Author

Valko
June 05, 2024

Top News

  1. BlackRock & Citadel back new stock exchange to rival NYSE

  2. Vitalik is 'unhappy' with the celebrity memecoin trend

  3. First CryptoPunk sale under 30 ETH in nearly 3 years

Specs’ Breakdown

1. BlackRock & Citadel back new stock exchange to rival NYSE

⌐◪-◪ → BlackRock and Citadel are backing a new national stock exchange in Texas (TYSE) to challenge the New York Stock Exchange (NYSE).

This is bullish for crypto because BlackRock’s CEO, Larry Fink, loves blockchain technology. Here’s a video of him saying, “Every stock, every bond, will be tokenized”.

It’s seriously starting to feel like we’re on the verge of mass adoption by global financial markets.

I’m eager to learn more about their tech stack.

2. Vitalik is 'unhappy' with the celebrity memecoin trend

⌐◪-◪ → Vitalik Buterin is “quite unhappy” with the celebrity memecoin trend. While he is all for “financialization as a means to an end” the end has to be “worthy” — not just financialization itself.

In typical Vitalik style, he didn’t just complain, he suggested improvements. In summary, those are:

  1. have a public good/goal besides enriching celebrities

  2. have fun mechanics/utility beyond simply trading the token

  3. build something sustainable (10+ years), not a bubble

These suggestions echo a blog post Vitalik wrote in March called “What else could memecoins be?”.

While I despise the greed and foolishness that underpins memecoin trading, the mere fact that we can do it is a testament to the freedom-enabling nature of blockchain technology.

The government’s monopoly on gambling is over.

3. First CryptoPunk sale under 30 ETH in nearly 3 years

⌐◪-◪ → PUNKS ARE DEAD AND THEY’RE NEVER COMING BACK!

Just kidding — this is just a friendly reminder that today might be your last chance to get CryptoPunks before they surge to a $1M floor.

From a purely financial perspective, the question to ask is → how will Punks perform vs. Bitcoin over various time frames?

While I don’t know the answer to this question, I can tell you this.

  • CryptoPunks are the most revered asset on the digital frontier

  • Crypto will create hundreds of thousands of new millionaires

  • They are all going to want CryptoPunks

Money aside, Punks are the backbone of my web3 network and have helped me make so many incredible friends/memories over the last 6.5 years.

Cheers to my fellow punks and future punks.

Everything Else

⛓️ Crypto & DeFi

  • Tether CEO warns email vendor may be compromised

  • Notcoin giving $1M to Telegram pre-market traders

  • Ark Labs launches Bitcoin Layer 2 payments network

  • StarkWare plans to bring ZK scaling to Bitcoin

  • Ethereum Layer-2 networks rake in millions

  • Xai launches boot camp for Web2 devs

  • Nibiru to overcome Ethereum's limitations with parallel EVM

  • BitMEX offers 200x leverage for ether perpetual

  • BNB Chain heats up as price hits $710

  • GnosisDAO approves Karpatkey's spin-off

  • Ark Protocol team forms new firm

  • X bans alleged memecoin scammer Sahil Arora

🏦 Wall Street & VC

  • BTC ETFs see $888M inflows yesterday, 2nd highest day so far

  • Ethereum ETFs could draw $4B in 5 months, says K33 Research

  • Polygon Labs acquires zero-knowledge research firm Toposware

  • Tether invests $18.75M in XREX for cross-border payments

  • StarkWare raising $1M for Bitcoin scaling

  • Avail raises $43M Series A for modular blockchain

  • M^0 Protocol raises $35M for stablecoin minting protocol

  • El Dorado raises $3M for stablecoin payment super app

  • GoPlus raises $10M for security layer

  • Stashh Labs raises $3.3M for NFT platform upgrade

  • Fhenix raises $15M in Series A for ETH L2

🏛️ Legal & Regulatory

🌎 Rest of the World

🖼️ NFTs & Metaverse

  • Transak enables the first-ever zk-based racing game, zkRace

  • $DOG surges toward $1B market cap, up 3x this month

  • Cat-themed memecoins rally after Roaring Kitty's return to Reddit

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