Illustration By: Mitchell Preffer
The most important tweet on Crypto Twitter this week was the announcement that Twitter’s owner and CEO Elon Musk had named Linda Yaccarino as the platform’s new chief executive. Musk will continue serving Twitter as CTO and executive chairman. Yaccarino’s job as Head of Advertising at NBCUniversal was terminated on Friday morning.
Musk is a big proponent of crypto. His electric car company Tesla bought three quarters of its original holdings of Bitcoin, even after it had reached its peak of power. He is also a fan of Dogecoin and his frequent tweets on it often push the price up. He even replaced Twitter’s blue bird logo with the Doge theme for a few days. A potential integration of crypto is possible, particularly as a payment option.
Elsewhere on Crypto Twitter this week, Coinbase’s CEO Brian Armstrong praised the UAE for its “clear rule book” when it comes to crypto regulation. Coinbase is currently looking to move offshore due to the hostile regulatory environment in the US. The company has obtained a license for operation in Bermuda and is looking to open a regulated exchange in the Abu Dhabi Global Market (ADGM) – a crypto-friendly free economic zone in the UAE.
The European Union’s Markets in Crypto Assets (MiCA) bill was approved last month, meaning the bloc now has a unified approach to regulation throughout its 27 member states. Licenses granted to crypto-companies in one country can also be “passported” to another member state. The rule on stablecoins comes into force in July, with some requirements not implemented until January 2025.
On Tuesday, US President Joe Biden positioned himself against the “MAGA House Republicans” alignment with “wealthy crypto investors” looking for loopholes in order to avoid paying taxes. His tweet was subsequently flagged by fact checkers who added that all crypto-profits are subject to capital gain tax.
A video was shared that day by MicroStrategy Chair and Institutional Bitcoin Whale Michael Saylor, a clever and predictable Bitcoin acolyte. Saylor said that Bitcoin’s price “will chop its way up – with volatility – forever.”
A chart shared by Will Clemente, the co-founder of independent digital assets research firm Reflexivity Research, showed that Tether’s issuer revenue is well over a billion, according to its Q1 2023 attestation. This is a comfortable distance ahead of Blackrock, the world’s largest asset manager, which was expected to have $8.59 trillion in assets by Q4 2022, however, this figure has dropped to $8.59 Q4 2023.
ZachXBT exposed another crypto fraudster on Wednesday. Independent Ethereum educator Anthony Sassano wrote a thread explaining how Ethereum staking “up only” works.
Retired ExxonMobil exec Tom Glass is the current Republican Nomination for State House District 17 in Texas. On Wednesday, the overwhelming majority of lawmakers voted in favor of an update to the state’s Bill of Rights, which includes the right to use, own and possess digital currency.
Finally, on Thursday, MetaLawMan, a Web3 law expert, wrote a thread explaining how important it is to hear that the US Chamber of Commerce has filed an amicus brief in support of Coinbase’s ongoing court petition to clarify the rules with the securities regulator.
