Vitalik Buterin’s Plans, Changpeng Zhao’s Hooks, Michael Saylor’s Shoppings and 20 Crypto Jokes

This week in crypto: Vitalik Buterin said he plans to redesign Ethereum staking and praised the UTXO payment model, MicroStrategy CEO Michael Saylor bought an additional $593 million worth of BTC, Reddit renounced Moons’ contract completing the decentralization of the token, and Bitfinex’s tokenized bond raised only $1.5 million of its initial target of $10 million. Trust Wallet alerted users about an ongoing issue with the Bitcoin node that could result in transaction delays.

In the gaming and NFT world, WAX Chief Gaming Officer Michael Rubinelli said we may be witnessing an overcorrection in the gaming investment landscape, Japanese gaming giant Square Enix began the character NFT auction for its game Symbiogenesis, Illuvium joined a blockchain gaming partnership with the esports powerhouse Team Liquid, and Magic Eden rolled out its Magic Eden Wallet in Beta, with the desktop browser extension to follow.

There was a lot of tax talk this week. Brazilian senators voted in favor of a bill that proposed taxing crypto profits earned on overseas platforms at a fixed rate of 15%, the UK taxing authority asked crypto users to disclose any unpaid taxes or risk fines, and Ukrainian lawmakers were set to debate two crypto tax bills.

Plenty was happening on the legal front, too. Binance founder Changpeng Zhao may not be off the hook yet as the US SEC continued to investigate Binance US, and a judge said Zhao can’t leave the US until his sentencing in February.

Then, FTX received court approval to liquidate the $744 million Grayscale Trust assets, while crypto lender Genesis and its parent company DCG reached a settlement in the $620M lawsuit. Bankrupt crypto lender Celsius opened withdrawals for eligible custody customers on November 29, but its Bitcoin mining plans faced obstacles as a US judge hinted at a possible new vote to clear deviations.

Meanwhile, Apple terminated its credit-card partnership with Goldman Sachs as the tech giant pushed deeper into consumer lending, and Upbit crypto exchange’s operator Dunamu suffered an 82% drop in profits in Q3. Robinhood said it has plans to launch in the UK as early as the start of 2024, crypto-friendly SEBA Bank rebranded to AMINA Bank, and digital asset brokerage Fasset received a VASP license from Duba’s VARA.

While neobank Canza Finance‘s CEO said their DeFi tech provides decentralized FX for African currencies, the United Nations Development Program partnered with the Algorand Foundation to launch a blockchain academy,

Lastly crime. Plenty of it. Immunefi found that $343,038,810 was lost to hacks and fraud in November alone. The US DOJ seized nearly $9 million in USDT from a pig butchering scam organization with Tether’s help, Hong Kong authorities confirmed 145 victims and $19 million lost in the crypto scam involving the unlicensed Hounax exchange, and Turkish crypto exchange associated with a Hull City sponsorship, Tumya, was at the center of a fraud scandal.

Also, Indian authorities intensified efforts to bring the mastermind behind a $240 million scam back to the country, while In South Korea, the police raided a drug trafficking organization that used crypto as a payment tool and arrested a group of people suspected of duping 170 people by posing as crypto-issuing robot developers.

Now, their majesties the jokes.

__________

GM, all!

GM cryptoclowns pic.twitter.com/2MiOgQWHDX

— Lord Catoshi (@LordCatoshi) November 18, 2023

Have a colamilk day!

gm pic.twitter.com/w41jr6tjT0

— Nebraskangooner (@Nebraskangooner) November 25, 2023

We’re not done with SBF just yet.

GM pic.twitter.com/8Xj88v0KSE

— Charlie (@btc_charlie) November 24, 2023

Look at that waste. (I intend my puns.)

A ton of floor to sleep on and eat on…

men will make 7 figures in a bull market and live like this pic.twitter.com/7H6qMKLxZ6

— LilMoonLambo (@LilMoonLambo) November 28, 2023

Priorities.

Memes good.

The most ‘what am I doing here’ look ever.

Having more luck than brains.

When you close your $BTC short right before price pumps pic.twitter.com/11BdT42GWP

— Altcoin Sherpa (@AltcoinSherpa) November 17, 2023

Must do d due diligence.

“Always do your own due dilligence, folks”

The due diligence: pic.twitter.com/omYyf2J87X

— The Crypto Monk (@thecryptomonk) November 21, 2023

Sooo, hard?

How’s trading going? pic.twitter.com/QmBzc16X2c

— SalsaTekila (@SalsaTekila) November 18, 2023

Why would anybody be so cruel?

Let’s check what the resident analysts are forecating.

Oopsie.

When you're in too many leveraged Altcoin positions and $BTC looks sketchy pic.twitter.com/jRzCq6LPZd

— Altcoin Sherpa (@AltcoinSherpa) November 18, 2023

And discuss.