2/15/24: Warren Gonna Be Mad šŸ¤”šŸ› ļøšŸ©ø

Top News

  • šŸ¤” US Treasury admits Hamas doesnā€™t rely on crypto for terrorism

  • šŸ› ļø BIP developers want to bring OP_CAT functionality back to Bitcoin

  • šŸ©ø Gold ETFs bleed $2.4B so far in 2024 as investors flee to Bitcoin

Specsā€™ Breakdown

āŒā—Ŗ-ā—Ŗ ā†’ The US Treasury just undermined Elizabeth Warren who, despite the facts, insists that Hamas relies on cryptocurrencies for terrorist financing.

Brian Nelson, the top official on terrorist financing told the US House Financial Services Committee that, ā€œTerrorists still prefer to use traditional products and servicesā€.

He also corrected the Wall Street Journalā€™s previous figures of $41M - $93M in terrorist financing to a much smaller $12M.

Itā€™s incredible how much blind faith people put in Elizabeth Warren when she clearly has an agenda to defend big banks and government interests. So much for serving the people.

āŒā—Ŗ-ā—Ŗ ā†’ Bitcoin developers have fantasized about reviving OP_CAT for years, and now it might finally happen.

OP_CAT is an ancient ā€˜op codeā€™ in Bitcoin that was introduced by Satoshi in the first release, but later disabled. Itā€™s short for ā€˜concatenateā€™ in nerd-speak and enables ā€œcovenants,ā€ which allow smart contracts and bridges to be built on Bitcoin.

Basically, thereā€™s a chance that this obscure piece of code ā€” that hasnā€™t been used in 13 years ā€” could spark a Bitcoin renaissance, enabling greater functionality for building L2s, decentralized exchanges, and even file hosting.

With that said, itā€™s pretty contentious within the Bitcoin community. After all, Satoshi disabled OP_CAT due to concerns it could expose the network to DDoS attacks or exponential memory requirements.

Check this article for a detailed pro/con analysis.

Fun Fact: OP_CAT inspired the naming of Taproot Wizardā€™s Quantum Cats. If the upgrade gets pushed through because of Quantum Catsā€™ memeability it would be an internet culture legend.

āŒā—Ŗ-ā—Ŗ ā†’ Gold ETFs have already bled $2.4B this year, and weā€™re not even halfway through Q1.

Just look at this chart which outlines aggregate flows between Bitcoin and Gold since the spot BTC ETFs started trading.

Bitcoin is straight up driving a mass exodus from Gold, and it can only be sustained for so long.

For context: there are 35 Gold ETFs with total assets under management of ~$109B. The largest is SPDR Gold Trust GLD with $54.77B in assets. BlackRockā€™s new spot BTC ETF already holds $5.45B in just 3 weeks.

Itā€™s only a matter of time before Bitcoin flips Gold, itā€™s more verifiable, divisible, portable, durable, scarce, and unforgeable. On top of that, itā€™s openly programmable by anyone in the world with a computer and internet connection.

P.S. Somebody please check on Peter Schiff.

Everything Else

ā›“ļø Crypto & DeFi

  • EigenLayer becomes 5th largest DeFi protocol with $7B TVL

  • Moonwell enables USDC lending from multiple Ethereum networks

  • Starkware CEO dispels Starknet airdrop FUD

  • Starknet to unlock 1.3B tokens just 2 months after its tradeable

  • Futurebit partners with Rutgers on Bitcoin high education program

  • CoW DAO launches AMM to protect against arbitrage bots

  • MondeleĢ„z International partners with Hedera Council on blockchain

šŸ¦ Wallstreet & VC

  • ARK Invest sells Coinbase shares for the 1st time in 1 month

  • Gerber Kawasaki advisor says clients are interested in BTC ETFs

  • Tiger Global exited their position in Coinbase in Q4 2023

  • Citibank tests tokenization of private equity funds on Avalanche

  • Overworld raises $10M for cross-platform multiplayer RPG

šŸ›ļø Legal & Regulatory

  • DEBT Box asks judge to deny SEC move to dismiss case

  • Court rules Genesis can sell over $1.3M of GBTC shares

  • Craig Wright's cross-examination ends in Satoshi imposter trial

  • Bitcoin ATMs see tightening regulatory landscape in California

šŸŒŽ Rest of the World

šŸ–¼ļø NFTs & Metaverse

  • Apechain to be built by Arbitrum

  • Deadfellaz slashes price & supply for ā€˜Bitsā€™ ordinals mint

  • Superchief opening BTC Ordinals focused gallery in San Francisco

  • Battle.tech app launches ā€œKickstarter for esportsā€ on Avalanche

  • Arcade to airdrop 3% of ARCD supply to top NFT collections

  • Berachain partners with LayerZero and teases airdrop

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