GM citronauts. Chunky crypto events, meet our high-speed blender. We're pureeing complex blockchain happenings into smooth, digestible news bites.
🇸🇬 Token2049: Vitalik Buterin sings, BitGo announces a stablecoin, and the crypto influencer who won the "Best Content Creator" award is accused of using bots.
🍊 News drops: California Governor is taking steps to fight political deepfakes, Samourai Wallet founder may have been plotting an escape, CFTC Chair confirms that they're monitoring crypto betting platforms + more
🍍 Market flavour today
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| Crypto Market Cap $2.14 Trillion -1.4% (24H) | |||
| Name | Price | 24H % | 7D % |
|---|---|---|---|
 Bitcoin BTC |
$59,441.63 | 0.44% | 6.25% |
 Ethereum ETH |
$2,292.99 | 0.18% | -0.01% |
 BNB BNB |
$540.46 | -0.60% | 5.28% |
 Solana SOL |
$128.54 | -2.24% | -0.99% |
| Prices as of 10:00 AM EST. Click here to see live data. |
Looks like the crypto market is perking up a bit! The Fear and Greed Index has climbed to 45. Why the change? Well, the regular stock market is on fire, with S&P 500 hitting new all-time highs, and crypto seems to be catching some of that good vibe. Everyone's waiting on pins and needles for the Fed to make their big announcement later today. There's a lot of chatter about them possibly cutting interest rates - and if rates drop, people might be more willing to take risks, which is good news for crypto.
Bitcoin's still the star of the show, with those new spot Bitcoin ETFs continuing to attract investor interest. But remember, crypto doesn't dance alone – it's often following the broader economy's tune, as we saw today. What happens in the stock market can send ripples through the crypto world in a heartbeat. Things are looking up, but in the crypto world, change is the only constant. Stay alert – tomorrow could bring a whole new twist to this wild ride 💸
🇸🇬 Token2049
The annual Token2049 event is popping off in Singapore rn, and although there are 4 days left, we've already been served with some big moments that we can't help but talk about.
*cue the 2014-YouTube-era type ukulele music* Without further ado, let's just jump right into it!
1/ Emerging Artist of the Year: Vitalik Buterin
Ethereum co-founder Vitalik Buterin took the stage to remind us of some major milestones in Ethereum's evolution:
- Transaction fees have dropped to "basically zero";
- Ethereum Layer-2s have become safer;
- The Ethereum Merge upgrade halved confirmation times.
He also took the opportunity to stress the importance of meeting the demands of mainstream users while sticking to open-source values and decentralization.
All that—a mic-drop moment… except Buterin also decided to pay tribute to some "cringe" songs from old crypto projects. By performing them himself. Live. On stage. With absolutely all due respect, a very questionable decision.
Now, here are some reactions to his performance that made me exhale audibly through my nose:
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2/ USDS incoming
BitGo, a crypto custodian backed by the banking giant Goldman Sachs, announced that they’d be dropping a new US dollar-pegged stablecoin, USDS, next year.
Like other stablecoins on the market, it'll be backed by short-term Treasury bills, overnight repos, and cash.
But here's the spice: USDS will be the first "open-participation" stablecoin, with a rewards system that gives up to 98% of earnings to institutions providing liquidity to the network.
Participants in the ecosystem will get a cut of the total revenue generated by USDS minus BitGo’s monthly administration fee. Their earnings will depend on how much USDS they hold.
BitGo is aiming to have USDS listed on all major exchanges and hit $10B in assets by this time next year.
3/ Influencing bots
And the "Best Content Creator" award goes to… Professor Crypto!
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MSV out here askin' the real questions.
So, Professor Crypto is an influencer with over 1.34M subs on YouTube and 131K followers on X. Doesn't sound like he's super underground… but how come so many people haven't heard of this guy?
Well, crypto detective ZachXBT (ofc) clocked that he used "thousands of bots" to inflate his social media stats.
Other users also noticed that his comment section is loaded with stuff that no sane person would say, like "Full of information and your energetic insight."
After the bot accusations hit, Professor Crypto deleted the posts where he flexed his award. Not exactly something an innocent person would do, huh?
Needless to say—Token2049 kicked off with a bang. Although we doubt anything will top Vitalik Buterin's singing, we're excited for what's coming next. And if you're just as pumped, you know where to find us for some more fun insights.😉
📰 News drops
🤖 California Governor Gavin Newsom just signed some new laws to tackle AI-generated deepfakes ahead of the elections. This follows a viral AI-altered video of Vice President Kamala Harris that blew up on X in July, where she was shown saying she was a bad candidate.
📝 Keonne Rodriguez, the founder of Samourai Wallet, was denied a bail change after handwritten notes with a potential escape plan were found in his house. He and co-founder William Hill face charges of enabling over $2B in illegal transactions and $100M in dark web money laundering.
🎰 Crypto betting platforms like Polymarket have become popular with the election coming up, catching the attention of regulators. "If anyone—Polymarket or otherwise—conducts themselves in a way that breaks the law, we will use our civil enforcement authority to make sure that conduct stops," said CFTC Chair Rostin Behnam.
💵 USDC is now available in Brazil and Mexico through local real-time payment systems. This means businesses can now access the stablecoin without needing to transfer funds to a bank overseas.
🦘 The Reserve Bank of Australia (RBA) isn't planning a retail CBDC anytime soon, focusing instead on a wholesale CBDC. Assistant Governor Brad Jones said the benefits of a retail version seem "modest or uncertain."
☁️ Google Cloud launched their new Blockchain RPC service. It makes interacting with blockchain data easier, offering a cheaper, scalable, and reliable option for Web3 developers.
🦾 Industry leaders have started a non-profit called the Decentralized AI Society (DAIS) to address the risk of AI becoming monopolized. The organization will focus on four areas: engineering, capital, policy, and outreach.
🔄 Ledger, a blockchain hardware company, announced that XO Swap by Exodus is now part of Ledger Live. This gives users more swap providers to choose from.
🍌 Juicy memes
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