5/16/25: It's Called Two Brothers 👦🏻📈🦐

Author

Valko
May 16, 2024

Top News

  1. DOJ charges two brothers over $25M MEV attack

  2. CME Group plans to launch Bitcoin spot trading

  3. Bitcoin shrimps outpace monthly issuance

Specs’ Breakdown

1. DOJ charges two brothers over $25M MEV attack

⌐◪-◪ → The Department of Justice just arrested two brothers for “attacking” the Ethereum blockchain with a $25M MEV exploit.

U.S. attorney Damian Williams for the Southern District of New York said, “The defendant’s scheme calls the very integrity of the blockchain into question.”

They are making it seem like the Ethereum blockchain is vulnerable or suspect to exploits, but I have a feeling they just learned about MEV for the first time.

As it stands now, the charges against the two brothers include wire fraud, conspiracy to commit wire fraud, and conspiracy to commit money laundering.

Classic MIT kids up to no good *coughs Sam Bankman-Fried*

Seriously though, I feel bad for these kids. Is MEV really a crime now?

2. CME Group plans to launch Bitcoin spot trading

⌐◪-◪ → The Chicago Mercantile Exchange (CME) Group is considering launching Bitcoin spot trading in addition to its existing futures product.

This is kind of a big deal considering CME group is the world’s largest futures exchange.

The decision is primarily driven by the fact that certain traders prefer dealing with cryptocurrencies on a regulated platform, most likely out of convenience for their existing workflows.

Spot trading on CME would allow traders to profit from basis trades — where they arbitrage futures prices and the underlying asset’s spot price.

If launched, Wall Street will have one more channel to trade digital assets, in addition to the 11 spot BTC ETFs.

The institutionalization of crypto continues.

3. Bitcoin shrimps outpace monthly issuance

⌐◪-◪ → Bitcoin “shrimps” are accumulating Bitcoin faster than it’s being mined.

For those who don’t know “shrimps” are addresses that hold less than 1 BTC.

Over the past 30 days, shrimps accumulated 25,000 BTC, which is 1.65x the monthly issuance of 15,100 BTC. Shrimps now control 7% of the circulating Bitcoin supply.

These two statistics underscore retail investors’ growing role in the Bitcoin accumulation trend.

The average Joe’s hunger for Bitcoin grows.

Everything Else

⛓️ Crypto & DeFi

  • MakerDAO founder says 'PureDai' will launch in a few years

  • Blast reveals airdrop details, to launch on June 26th

  • FTX repayments might cause crypto buying pressure

  • Mastercard picks 5 startups for in-house digital assets program

  • Data indexer Subsquid plans to launch SQD token Friday

  • Worldcoin seeks to set 'new standard' in biometric data protection

  • Andrew Tate to buy $100M, says he will prove it too

  • Binance develops ‘antidote’ to address poisoning scams

  • SEI is up 30% after proposing v2 upgrade

  • Blast goes live on Wormhole bridge

🏦 Wallstreet & VC

🏛️ Legal & Regulatory

  • Tornado Cash developer Alexey Pertsev appeals guilty verdict

  • Rep. McHenry says Senate may be swayed if Democrats back bill

  • Lawmakers optimistic about overturning the SEC's accounting bulletin

  • FTX repayments could create ‘bullish overhang’ for crypto markets

🌎 Rest of the World

🖼️ NFTs & Metaverse

  • 'Nyan Heroes' reveals token launch amid play-to-airdrop campaign

  • Meme coins BODEN, TRUMP, TREMP soar after debates agreed

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