2/23/24: Trump Turns Pro-BTC 🇺🇸❄️🏦

Author

Valko
February 23, 2024

Top News

  1. Trump changes stance on Bitcoin, says “many people are doing it”

  2. Avalanche experiences major outage, no blocks for over 2 hours

  3. Reddit invests cash reserves in Bitcoin and Ethereum

Specs’ Breakdown

1. Trump changes stance on Bitcoin, says “many people are doing it”

⌐◪-◪ → Looks like Trump is changing his tune on Bitcoin after calling it a scam in 2021.

I reckon Vivek Ramaswamy, the Republican candidate who dropped out of the race, had something to do with Trump’s change of heart. After all, Trump did credit Vivek for his anti-CBDC stance.

This is a smart move by Trump, as it would be pretty hypocritical for him to dismiss crypto after launching his NFT trading card collection in December 2022.

Love or hate him, I think Trump knows that being anti-crypto is political suicide. This small maneuver helps him win favor with the crypto community and prepare for (potentially) naming Vivek as his Vice President.

I’m just happy to see the list of pro-crypto politicians grow, and I bet this move by Trump will inspire more to join the crypto revolution.

Blockchain = freedom.

2. Avalanche experiences major outage, no blocks for over 2 hours

⌐◪-◪ → Just when I was starting to come around to Avalanche, it goes down. Or should I say → it froze, lol.

The root cause is unknown, but there is speculation that it’s related to a new wave of inscriptions launched earlier today.

Seriously though, this is starting to get out of hand. All the major chains (besides Bitcoin and Ethereum) are repeatedly failing.

Last month it was Solana, the month before was Arbitrum, and now it’s Avalanche.

This is why I only use Bitcoin and Ethereum.

3. Reddit invests cash reserves in Bitcoin and Ethereum

⌐◪-◪ → Reddit just filed its S-1 with the SEC in preparation for their highly anticipated IPO.

The form disclosed that Reddit holds some excess cash reserves in Bitcoin and Ethereum. Additionally, the filing says Reddit acquired some MATIC for virtual good sales.

While the company hasn’t disclosed the value of the crypto it holds, the financial statements indicate the amount is “immaterial”.

I believe we’ll see a wave of companies add Bitcoin to their balance sheet as an anti-inflationary hedge, following in the footsteps of Reddit, Tesla, and MicroStrategy.

The real question is — what price did they get in at?

Everything Else

⛓️ Crypto & DeFi

  • Vitalik wary of pushing too much complexity to ETH L2s

  • ‘Axie Infinity’ founder’s Ronin wallet hacked for $9.5M

  • Farcaster ships support for Solana addresses

  • PancakeSwap plans ‘affiliates’ for expansion

  • Uniswap rolls out 'uni.eth' subdomains using ENS

  • Starknet's developers agree to delay token unlocks, STRK surges

  • Ondo Finance integrates tokenized treasuries on Aptos network

🏦 Wallstreet & VC

  • Jack Dorsey’s Block is sitting on $207M in Bitcoin gains

  • Valkyrie launches 2x leverages Bitcoin futures ETFs

  • Marathon starts 'slipstream' to make complex BTX transactions faster

  • Bitwise CIO says spot BTC ETF potential has yet to be unlocked

  • Superfluid raises $5.1M round led by Fabric Ventures

  • Binance Labs invests in ETH liquid restaking protocol Renzo

  • A16z invests $100M in EigenLayer’s restaking protocol

🏛️ Legal & Regulatory

  • Valkyrie CIO anticipates 1-2 years for Ether ETF approval

  • Kraken decries ‘expansive new theory’ behind SEC lawsuit

  • FTX gets approval to sell $1B stake in Antrhopic

  • Satoshi Nakamoto emails from 2008-2009 were revealed in court

🌎 Rest of the World

  • Coinbase says its still accessible in Nigeria despite the rumored ban

🖼️ NFTs & Metaverse

  • Injective introduces 'ERC-404' port amid new token standard hype

  • PancakeSwap launching 'Nemesis Downfall' shooter game

  • Seratonin CEO says luxury brands can make the metaverse “beautiful”

  • Magic Eden teases airdrop for Ethereum “OGs”

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