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What Bitcoin Did podcaster Peter McCormack admits that he has a “weird relationship with Twitter,” as he believes it “brings out the worst in people.”

He’s worked hard to build up more than half a million followers to promote his show but still isn’t sure that Twitter is a “net positive” because it “elevates a lot of stupidity” out of people. And he includes himself in that assessment.

“I can feel myself being a dick to other people [on Twitter]. Like, I criticize it and then realize I’m a hypocrite for doing it myself,” he says.

He’s more of a fan of podcasting, though, and his insightful interviews with A-list guests, such as MicroStrategy’s Michael Saylor, ARK Invest’s Cathie Wood and analyst Lyn Alden, have seen him amass 1 million listeners a month.

Also read: ‘The wealthiest time of my life was the most miserable’: Peter McCormack

Gaming on Macs to suck less

Is Apple’s reign as the worst platform for gaming coming to an end?

Amidst all the hype about their long-rumored VR/AR headset, slated for release in early 2024 (queueing outside the Apple Store starts in October), it’s not the only signal that Apple might finally be sorting out its subpar gaming offering. It’s also releasing software that will make it easier to play Windows games on Mac.

Gaming on a Mac really sucks. Lots of games – particularly indie and early release ones – are not compatible. Keyboard mapping can be funky. To this day I have been unable to attach special tackles to my fishing rod (no, that is not innuendo) on the Mac edition of Stardew Valley.

With VR games, it’s even worse. If you want to spend hours watching YouTube videos, you can get most VR headsets to somewhat work with a Mac. But right now the only one that is really officially compatible seems to be the HTC Vive.

The downside of an Apple-native product is it comes with an Apple price tag: a hefty $3,499. It’s hard to justify that much money for exploring the empty, laggy metaverse when you could spend a few months travelling and seeing some of the coolest places in the actual world for the same price.

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US lawmakers file ‘SEC Stabilization Act’ to fire Gary Gensler

United States Representative Warren Davidson has introduced the “SEC Stabilization Act” into the House of Representatives. One of the bill’s main provisions is to fire Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) Chair Gary Gensler. The bill would remove Gensler from office and redistribute power between the SEC chair and commissioners. It would also add a sixth commissioner to the agency, disallow any party from holding a majority on the commission and create an executive director position. The SEC declined to comment on the matter.

BlackRock applies for spot Bitcoin ETF — a US first if approved

BlackRock, the world’s largest investment company, has filed an application for a Bitcoin spot exchange traded fund (ETF). It would be the first crypto spot ETF in the United States, if it receives approval. According to the filing, Coinbase Custody Trust Company would be the custodian of the fund and Bank of New York Mellon would custody its fiat. The SEC has not approved a spot Bitcoin ETF so far despite numerous applicants. The world’s first spot traded Bitcoin ETF was Canada’s Purpose Bitcoin ETF, set up in early 2021.

Binance CEO Changpeng Zhao denies rumors of selling Bitcoin to bolster BNB

Binance CEO Changpeng “CZ” Zhao has refuted accusations that Binance has been secretly selling Bitcoin (BTC) to artificially stabilize the price of its BNB token. The rumors have come from several market commentators in the past days, accusing the exchange of intentionally manipulating the market to artificially inflate the value of BNB. CZ said that Binance had not sold any of its BTC or BNB, adding that the crypto exchange still held “a bag” of FTX Token — the native token of the now-defunct crypto exchange FTX.

SEC’s Gensler says BTC, ETH ‘not securities’ in a newly surfaced video

A newly surfaced video from 2018 featuring Gary Gensler has made the rounds on social media, showing the now-chair of the U.S. securities regulator again stating that multiple cryptocurrencies are not securities. “Over 70% of the crypto market is Bitcoin, Ether, Litecoin, Bitcoin Cash. Why did I name those four? They’re not securities,” Gensler says in the video, which is understood to come from a 2018 event hosted by Bloomberg for institutional investors. At the time, Gensler was a professor at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. The video contrasts with his more recent actions as the chair of the SEC.

Binance​.US hires former SEC enforcement official amid lawsuit

Former SEC enforcement official George Canellos has reportedly been hired by Binance.US as part of the legal team defending the company against allegations of operating as an unregistered securities exchange. In response to the SEC’s action on June 5, Binance.US announced the suspension of U.S. dollar deposits and the potential pausing of fiat withdrawals, citing “extremely aggressive and intimidating tactics” from regulators. On Twitter, a former SEC chief said the exchange is “clearly preparing for a criminal prosecution and continuing to hire the best defense attorneys in the world.”

While some jurisdictions (cough: America) have adopted a regulation-by-enforcement approach toward crypto, others are doing the opposite. According to a June 15 report from The Financial Times, the Hong Kong Monetary Authority is pressuring major financial institutions to accept crypto clients. But it’s not just regulators laying down a red carpet to boost the special administrative region’s (SAR’s) Web3 industry. In one instance, Johnny Ng Kit-Chong, Member of the Legislative Council of Hong Kong, wrote on June 10:

“There have been a lot of news about international virtual asset exchanges in the past two days. I send forth an invitation to welcome global virtual asset exchanges, including @coinbase, to come to Hong Kong, apply for a compliant exchange, and negotiate a listing plan. I am willing to provide assistance!”

Similarly, Joseph Chan Ho Lim, Hong Kong’s Under Secretary for Financial Services and the Treasury, revealed in an interview that The Hong Kong Monetary Authority has conducted public consultations on the launch of stablecoins and is in the process of establishing a regulatory framework by the end of the year.  “Hong Kong will continue to support the development of the industry in the future and welcomes the industry and talents to come to the SAR,” the politician said.

On Jun. 1, Hong Kong Securities Regulatory Commission issued regulations stipulating the requirements for cryptocurrency exchanges to apply for a license to operate in Hong Kong. For regulated trading platforms, a license application must be submitted to the Securities Regulatory Commission within nine months, or before Feb. 29, 2024. If not, their business in Hong Kong must be terminated before May 31, 2024.

Bank of China mints debt notes on Ethereum

On Jun. 12, BOCI, the investment banking subsidiary of Bank of China, revealed the tokenization of 200 million Chinese Yuan ($28 million) in digitally structured notes on the Ethereum blockchain. The move is reportedly the first act of a Chinese financial institution tokenizing a security in Hong Kong. The notes are governed by both Hong Kong and Swiss law as per their origination by the Swiss investment bank UBS. Ying Wang, deputy CEO at BOCI, commented: 

After nearly a decade of gridlock, the United States may finally be on the cusp of crafting a cohesive policy framework for digital assets. In Congress, lawmakers are mulling a variety of proposed bills governing everything from stablecoins and securities rules to sanctions. The 2024 presidential race, meanwhile, may be the first to see crypto as a focal point.  

While both sides of the aisle are playing valuable roles, Republicans — especially influential congresspeople like Tom Emmer and Patrick McHenry — have emerged as the industry’s most important allies. However, the GOP’s pro-crypto bias may also be its downfall. From uncritical crypto “maximalism” to Orwellian surveillance paranoia, Web3’s industry bromides have crept into the party’s campaign rhetoric and, worse, its policy proposals. In seminal upcoming legislative opportunities, such as the House’s draft crypto regulatory bill, Republican policymakers must focus on putting “America first.”

Memeified campaign rhetoric

During his presidential campaign announcement in May, Florida Governor Ron DeSantis insisted that “the current regime, clearly, has it out for Bitcoin.” The candidate’s populist red meat has been the Republican “party line” on crypto in this election cycle. So far, it has been difficult to differentiate the rhetoric of GOP presidential hopefuls from that of “freedom-maximalist” influencers on Crypto Twitter.

For candidates like DeSantis, protecting Americans from “a federally controlled central bank digital currency surveillance state” ranks high among blockchain’s potential use cases. Even GOP longshot Vivek Ramaswamy, a biotech entrepreneur who claims to “understand this stuff in a much more deep and rich way” than DeSantis, says he views Bitcoin as a “decentralized alternative” to the U.S. dollar and wants to “make the 2024 election a referendum on fiat currency.”

Meanwhile, at the other extreme, progressive Senator Elizabeth Warren and her “anti-crypto army” depict crypto as an omnipresent threat, simultaneously eroding investor protections, abetting money launderers and worsening America’s “tax gap.” What is lacking in this partisan hothouse is any informed appreciation of blockchain’s potential or its importance to America’s long-term economic interests.

Coldie is a real one. Best described as a mixed media artist, the Californian resident is a true OG of the NFT scene, with his work dating back to 2018, including the iconic themed “Decentral Eyes,” “Sellout” and, more recently, a collaboration with Snoop Dogg. 

His distinct 3D stereoscopic work jumps off the screen, and, similar to the likes of Josie Bellini and Trevor Jones, Coldie leans into crypto culture — the good, the bad and everything else in between. 

“Art is history. It’s visual history. As I got deeper into the crypto culture on my journey, I was trying to be somewhat of a historian of the time, creating pieces that were contextual to what was going on, whether it was Vitalik [Buterin] or John McAfee. Or later on, [Edward] Snowden and [Warren] Buffett. To me, it was like a time capsule I was trying to create in real-time.” 

“When I look back to 2018, I remember Andreas Antonopoulos doing speaking tours and McAfee talking about eating his junk. That was amusing to me, so it made it easy to make art about. It was a lot of fun.” 

Coldie says it didn’t take long to understand the basic fundamentals of NFTs and blockchain technology. Then he discovered you could put art on it.

Buying a small-town soccer club with the aim to propel it into the Premier League — the world’s most popular football league — is a script suitable for a Netflix series.

In fact, actor Ryan Reynold’s bid to revitalize lower-league Welsh soccer team Wrexham FC has already caught the attention of Disney+ writers. 

It’s a quaint, quintessentially British underdog story of how an ultra-rich Hollywood actor can do something different with his wealth. However, Reynolds has no connection to Wrexham; he flies in for most games, and he’s unlikely to live out the rest of his days building out the deprived historic mining town.

The story has netted mainstream media attention from the likes of the BBC, the Guardian and Sky News.

In the Bitcoin world, a similar story is unraveling. However, it’s spearheaded by a local boy who’s using Bitcoin not only to boost the Real Bedford Football Club but his hometown as well.

Just as we don’t allow just anyone to build a plane and fly passengers around, or design and release medicines, why should we allow AI models to be released into the wild without proper testing and licensing? 

That’s been the argument from an increasing number of experts and politicians in recent weeks. 

With the United Kingdom holding a global summit on AI safety in autumn, and surveys suggesting around 60% of the public is in favor of regulations, it seems new guardrails are becoming more likely than not. 

One particular meme taking hold is the comparison of AI tech to an existential threat like nuclear weaponry, as in a recent 23-word warning sent by the Center of AI Safety, which was signed by hundreds of scientists:

“Mitigating the risk of extinction from AI should be a global priority alongside other societal-scale risks such as pandemics and nuclear war.”

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U.S. SEC sues Binance and Coinbase amidst crypto crackdown

Binance and Coinbase have been targeted in a new round of lawsuits by the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) against crypto businesses. The regulator pressed 13 charges against Binance on June 5, including those involving unregistered offerings and sales of tokens, and failing to register as an exchange or broker-dealer. The commission also went after Coinbase on similar grounds, alleging that popular cryptocurrencies offered by the exchange are securities. Trading volume across the major decentralized exchanges jumped 444% in the hours following the legal actions. In the six months after FTX’s bankruptcy, SEC crypto-related enforcement actions rose 183%.

SEC lawsuits: 67 cryptocurrencies are now seen as securities by the SEC

The total number of cryptocurrencies the United States securities regulator has labeled as a “security” has now reached an estimated 67, after adding a few more to the list in its lawsuit against crypto exchanges Binance and Coinbase. In its case against Binance, the SEC introduced 10 cryptocurrencies into the securities classification, while it named 13 cryptocurrencies in its Coinbase suit. The “security” label now applies to over $100 billion worth of the market, or around 10% of the $1.09 trillion total crypto market capitalization.

Coinbase CEO Brian Armstrong sold company shares the day before the SEC lawsuit against the exchange. The transaction caused a minor stir in the Twitter cryptoverse, as Armstrong avoided a sharp loss by doing so. SEC records show that Armstrong sold 29,730 shares of the company on June 5, the day before the SEC suit. Armstrong has been selling Coinbase stock regularly since November under a 10b5-1 plan adopted in August, which determines the timing and size of transactions in advance. The net worths of Armstrong and Binance CEO Changpeng Zhao have suffered heavy blows due to the suits. Within 30 hours, Armstrong’s net worth plummeted by $289 million and Zhao’s by $1.33 billion. 

Binance.US suspends USD deposits, warns of fiat withdrawal pause

Binance.US has suspended U.S. dollar deposits and announced an upcoming pause for fiat withdrawals as early as June 13. According to the exchange, it was forced to take action amid “extremely aggressive and intimidating tactics” from American regulators. Trading, staking, deposits and withdrawals in crypto remain fully operational. Binance.US also delisted eight Bitcoin pairs and two BUSD pairs while noting that OTC Trading Portal services were paused.

June 2023 has proven to be a tumultuous month for cryptocurrency exchanges in America. Crypto.com will no longer serve institutional clients in the United States after announcing the suspension of the service starting June 21. The Singapore-based cryptocurrency exchange cited limited demand from institutional customers as a primary reason for the move, which has been exacerbated by testing prevailing market conditions. American retail users still have access to cryptocurrency derivatives trading and the UpDown Options offering.

Alibaba NFTs… censored?

On June 8, AliExpress, the online retail subsidiary of Chinese tech conglomerate Alibaba, announced that it had joined forces with Web3 developer The Moment3! to create a series of NFTs based on shopping themes.

The upcoming collection will feature 5,555 NFTs and is scheduled to debut on June 25, 2023. Less than one day after the announcement was made, AliExpress’ tweet was deleted. Nevertheless, AliExpress’ dev partner, posted a statement confirming the drop.

While no reason has been provided for why AliExpress deleted its original announcement, Chinese authorities have been cracking down on anything crypto-related and forcing firms to remove keywords related to “nonfungible tokens” from their products.

In April, Bitcoin price quotes were added to Douyin, which is the Chinese version of TikTok with over 1 billion users, for less than 48 hours before it was removed by authorities. Cryptocurrencies-fiat transactions, mining, and exchanges (but not outright ownership) are currently banned in China.

Binance humiliated on Chinese TV

If there is anything that the U.S. and China, the world’s two largest competing superpowers, have in common, it is their mutual hatred for cryptocurrency exchanges. On June 6, one day after the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission sued Binance over allegations of operating an unlicensed exchange and selling unregistered securities in the U.S., Chinese Central Television (CCTV) reported on the lawsuit for its one billion viewers. Curiously, the CCTV broadcast also acknowledged for the first time that Binance is the world’s “largest cryptocurrency exchange.”

Thiago Cesar is the 34-year-old co-founder of Transfero, a company helping to make crypto more accessible for Brazilians with BRZ, the first stablecoin pegged to the Brazilian real.

Cesar grew up in southern Brazil’s Pindamonhangaba municipality, before making the 90-mile trek to Sao Paulo for college. He graduated from Fundação Armando Alvares Penteado, and it wasn’t long, Cesar says, before he became infatuated with Bitcoin as a graduate student at the University of London.

“By 2014, I’d been convinced that Bitcoin and cryptocurrencies in general were going to be a big thing,” Cesar says, leading him to author his graduate thesis on the “competitive and comparative advantages that Bitcoin could bring to a business.”

In 2015, Transfero was born.

What inspired you to start Transfero?

Transfero was a joint dream between me and my four Brazilian co-founders. We met in Rio de Janeiro just after I returned from the University of London in 2015, where coincidentally, I wrote my master’s thesis about Bitcoin.

Author of Undressing Bitcoin: A Revealing Guide to the World’s Most Revolutionary Asset and host of The Layah Heilpern Show.

Author, podcaster and crypto influencer Layah Heilpern’s unapologetic and sometimes controversial tweets have amassed her an impressive 606,900 Twitter followers.

She tells Hall of Flame she fearlessly “speaks the truth about things” and admires others who do likewise. 

Unlike many influencers represented by fancy talent agencies, Heilpern decided to keep it all in the family by hiring her brother Gideon as her manager.

“There’s no one I trust more in this world than my brother. I can rely on him 100%,” Heilpern says.

When the U.S. government sanctioned coin mixer Tornado Cash, many thought it might spell the end for illicit crypto mixing services. But they’re back — and with a glossy new institutional sheen and legit use cases to help traders and funds keep their market moves a “trade” secret.

Tornado Cash is what is known as a “mixer,” a “coin anonymizer” that breaks the identifying links in blockchain transactions, providing a certain degree of anonymity for users.

The reasons people use coin anonymizers vary from criminality to ideology. Bad actors can use Tornado Cash to hide their naughty deeds, effectively laundering the proceeds of crime and preventing stolen crypto from being traced to them on the blockchain. That’s why the United States Department of the Treasury’s Office of Foreign Assets Control sanctioned the protocol last year. 

But there are legitimate reasons for not wanting your every transaction tracked, and supporters argue that Tornado Cash provides important privacy infrastructure. But is it possible to build a privacy-preserving protocol that provides regulators with just enough information to know users are staying on the right side of the law? 

Various developers are experimenting with redesigned mixers using ZK-proofs and believe there’s a way to make it happen.

Grand Theft Auto VI crypto rumors

Rumors that the upcoming Grand Theft Auto VI will incorporate cryptocurrency and nonfungible tokens (NFTs) have once again surfaced, sparking speculation among fans.

Posts shared on Twitter suggest that GTA 6 will be a play-to-earn game and that in-game items such as cars and weapons will be NFTs.

GTA creator Rockstar Games are yet to weigh in on whether there’s any truth to these claims, but there seems to be little solid evidence backing the rumors.

The company cracked down on the use of crypto in GTA in November last year and sent cease and desist letters to companies running public servers with blockchain integrations — a blow to several game makers that had built their games on the platform.

Given that GTA 5, released in 2015, has sold over 180 million copies and generated a staggering $8 billion in revenue, it seems unlikely that Rockstar would drastically alter the successful formula of the franchise, the latest installment of which is expected next year or in 2025.

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Dogecoin investors accuse Elon Musk of insider trading in amended class-action lawsuit

A group of Dogecoin investors has requested leave to amend a class-action lawsuit against tech entrepreneur Elon Musk, alleging he is responsible for insider trading of DOGE and asserting the token is a security under U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission regulations. According to the complaint, Musk profited off DOGE trading at the expense of other investors by causing the price of the token to spike through actions including changing Twitter’s logo to the Dogecoin logo. As one of the world’s richest people, the Twitter CEO has made frequent statements about Dogecoin to his millions of followers since 2019, often causing the price of the token to surge.

Satoshi Nak-AI-moto: Bitcoin’s creator has become an AI chatbot

Satoshi Nakamoto may have effectively disappeared over 12 years ago, but two artificial intelligence dabblers are seeking to revive the ability to chat with the famed Bitcoin creator. The model, essentially, is OpenAI’s ChatGPT trained on a limited data set, including Nakamoto’s public emails and forum posts, as well as other Bitcoin sources. In testing, the chatbot generates responses that are typically uncertain of the future of fiat currencies and hopeful about Bitcoin. Its goal is to show that AI tools could potentially be used in education, one of the creators said.

Buying a bank won’t solve crypto’s debanking issue — Binance CEO

Binance CEO Changpeng “CZ” Zhao has considered acquiring a bank amid the ongoing debanking of crypto firms across the globe. However, according to CZ, regulatory complexity and capital requirements make it unwise for Binance. “The reality is much more complex than the concept,” said the crypto executive. Binance has recently lost its fiat on-ramp and off-ramp partner in Australia — after difficulties finding a bank partner in the United States earlier this year. The company has been seeking a new payment provider in the country. 

Crypto.com has been granted a major payment institution license for digital payment token (DPT) services in Singapore. With the license, the crypto exchange is now authorized to offer its DPT services to customers in the country. The latest announcement adds to Crypto.com’s track record of securing regulatory licenses. The exchange has also been granted registration and/or licenses in France, the United Kingdom, Dubai, South Korea, Australia, Italy, Greece and Cyprus..

Web3 developer Magic raises $52M in funding led by PayPal Ventures

Wallet-as-a-service provider Magic raised $52 million in a strategic funding round led by PayPal Ventures. The funding round also saw participation from venture firms Cherubic, Synchrony, KX, Northzone and Volt Capital, bringing Magic’s total funds raised to over $80 million. Magic’s software is currently used by brands in retail, music, fashion and gaming, including Mattel, Macy’s, Xsolla and Immutable. Founded in 2020, Magic has generated over 20 million unique wallets to date. 

RMB stablecoin team allegedly arrested

On May 31, local news outlet PANewsLab reported that the developers for the offshore Chinese RMB and Hong Kong dollar stablecoin issuer CNHC had allegedly lost contact or had been taken away by law enforcement officials. A photo shows what appears to be an empty office building at CNHC’s Shanghai division with the following message posted:

“The building’s assets have been seized by law enforcement; vandalism is prohibited.”

In March, CNHC raised $10 million in its Series A, led by KuCoin Ventures, Circle, and IDG Capital. The team said back then that it planned to use the funds for “expansion in the Asia Pacific Region” and was in the process of moving its headquarters from the Cayman Islands to Hong Kong.

The reported move appears to be part of a wider crackdown on cryptocurrencies by Chinese authorities. On May 24, Asia Express reported that tokens of Singaporean inter-blockchain communications protocol Multichain had plunged 30% on a delayed backend upgrade and rumors of Chinese police arrest of its core developers.

Though Multichain says that it is still operational, it stated on June 1 that it is still “unable to contact CEO Zhaojun and obtain the necessary server access for maintenance,” and as a result, the protocol will need to suspend a number of affected cross-chain services.

BitCulture explores arts, culture, music and media in blockchain and Web3.

Fine art on the blockchain

Exchange.art head curator Haley Karren came to Web3 from some of the world’s leading art institutions and says that working with 14,000 artists on Solana’s fine art marketplace has broadened her tastes. 

“I have a new appreciation for pixel art, voxels and things that really are very much native to this space. It’s been fascinating to see the difference between what I was more interested in two years ago and what I’m interested in now.”

Formerly a curator at New York’s Museum of Modern Art and the Peggy Guggenheim Collection in Venice, Karren says her role has always been as a “conduit” between contemporary artists and the rest of the world. Even more so now that she’s connecting traditional artists to a space that utilizes blockchain, NFTs and artificial intelligence.

“Digital art and traditional art spaces are moving together more and more. That’s a big push for us at Exchange.art, but there is still a little bit of a divide,” she says. 

When NFTs first took off, it was Beeple’s digital art, CryptoPunks and Bored Ape Yacht Club PFPs that dominated the headlines and top sales — but one individual bucked the trend in a unique way, garnering attention with generative audiovisual art using just a C compiler. 

That individual was 0xDEAFBEEF, an artist and engineer based in Toronto, Canada who’s spent over 20 years experimenting with art, technology, music, generative art, computer animation, blacksmithing and sound recording. 

Using low-level computer code and a minimal toolset to craft raw information into audiovisual artworks has proven more popular than you might expect. A collection of six of 0xDEAFBEEF’s sold for $6.8 million in August 2021, and two weeks ago, “Series 1: Angular – Token 134” fetched $241,300 at Sotheby’s. It was auctioned during part 1 of “Grails,” a collection of highly desirable NFTs originally owned by the now-insolvent 3AC (Three Arrows Capital).

Trained on classic piano as a kid and somewhat of a mad scientist when it came to audio equipment, discovering a programmable blockchain in Ethereum was a revelation.

“I’d describe myself as a tinkerer, jumping around between many fields, overlapping art and technology. It just happened that the project that I commenced before I knew anything about NFTs, doing audiovisual work with code, happened to align with things that were happening within Ethereum,” 0xDEAFBEEF says. 

Each year at the annual UN Climate Change Conference (COP), individual countries are pressured to ramp up their emissions reductions promises and showcase evidence they are taking steps to meet them.

With Bitcoin mining blamed for using as much power as an entire country, and politicians searching for easy targets to strike, the industry appears to be on a collision course with these global commitments to achieve net-zero emissions.

While it’s not possible to ban Bitcoin completely, lawmakers and regulators can tank the price and make life very difficult in the years ahead for the number one cryptocurrency.

There are signs it’s already happening.

A report from the European Commission at the end of 2022 stated that EU countries “must be ready to block crypto mining,” and the trading block’s new MiCA rules were at one stage set to include a ban on Bitcoin mining. The recently adopted legislation still leaves this door ajar, however, aiming to “reduce the high carbon footprint of crypto-currencies” by making service providers “disclose their energy consumption.”