TLDR CRYPTO 2024-02-19

STABLECOIN WARS HEAT UP AS CIRCLE ASKS CONGRESS TO REIN IN TETHER

Circle and Coinbase are asking Congress to give the Treasury more authority to scrutinize the issuers of Tether, the leading stablecoin issuer, and its banking partner. The executives are accusing Tether of enabling illicit activities and promoting its own USD-backed cryptocurrencies as more compliant alternatives. Tether leads the stablecoin industry by a wide margin, but the competition between Circle and Tether has been intense over the past couple of years.

CRYPTO VENTURE FUNDING CLIMBS FOR FIRST TIME IN NEARLY 2 YEARS AFTER BITCOIN’S STELLAR RUN

Crypto venture funding totaled $1.9 billion in Q4, a 2.5% increase from the previous quarter. This uptick comes as the prices of tokens in the crypto market and prices of crypto equities appreciated significantly starting in Q4. The quarter also included several large funding rounds for established companies like Swan Bitcoin, Blockchain.com, and Wormhole.

APECOIN DAO CHOOSES ARBITRUM TO HOST APECHAIN

The DAO behind ApeCoin has voted to build its gaming-focused ApeChain on Arbitrum, a popular Ethereum scaling solution. The decision has led to a modest rally in APE's price, a slight reversal from the fairly consistent decline it has had since its launch two years ago. However, the decision sparked controversy as the top voter was Horizen Labs, the team that developed the staking mechanism for APE coin that disappointed many in the community. Horizen was also the author of the proposal and would be working on ApeChain, so some community members are accusing them of self-dealing.

WORMHOLE FOUNDATION COLLABORATES WITH SUCCINCT ON 'ZK LIGHT CLIENT'

Wormhole is partnering with Succinct to build an Ethereum ZK Light Client to support message verification on the Wormhole platform. This will minimize reliance on Wormhole Guardians for multi-chain message verification. Succinct's unified ZKP protocol will simplify the development process and enable easy integration for the latest proof systems.

GUIDE TO EARLY ORDINALS COLLECTIONS

This thread discusses the debate over the first-ever Ordinals Collection - BitcoinShrooms, OrdinalPunks, or OrdRocks. The debate hinges on how you would define a collection - whether the collection needs to be grouped together by inscription numbers and whether it needs to be a profile picture collection or not. BitcoinShrooms was staggered in its inscriptions, with a group of them starting at inscription #19. OrdinalPunks is credited as the first PFP collection. OrdRocks has the lowest overall inscription numbers.

HOW TO BRIBE

This thread articulates a strategy to effectively use sniping bots by ‘bribing’ to get your trades to be executed first. Key elements of this method include selecting the right sniping bot, correctly setting up features, and determining the optimal incentive to increase the chances of getting the first trade. It isn’t just enough to know how much to bribe - traders also need to try to get a good idea of what the demand for the token will be to see if it is even worth paying the bribe.

THE TRUE BELIEVER THESIS: WHY MILLIONS WILL BE MADE AND LOST THIS CYCLE

This post discusses opportunities that the crypto space has given participants in the past and anticipates that there will be opportunities on a similar scale for another couple of cycles. While returns on BTC and ETH have likely diminished, other coins can still provide significant returns. The coming bubble is likely to burst around 2025-2026 - participants need to remember to take profits.

MOONBIRDS IS JOINING BORED APE’S NFT EMPIRE, BUT CAN YUGA LABS CONQUER ITS GROWING PAINS?

Yuga Labs, the team behind the Bored Ape Yacht Club, has announced the acquisition of Proof, the NFT company behind the Proof Collective and Moonbirds. Proof has faced significant challenges over the past year and a half after a booming start. The Moonbirds assets will be integrated into Yuga's gaming universe, with potential for IP rights transfers to holders. The deal was met with polarized opinions. Many in the BAYC community have been disappointed with the team throughout the bear market.

BEST READS ON CRYPTO X AI

Crypto x AI has been one of the most popular narratives as of late. This post provides a list of the best reads on the topic from a variety of sources.

PUDGY PENGUINS BRIEFLY FLIPS BORED APE YACHT CLUB IN FLOOR PRICE

Pudgy Penguins briefly surpassed Bored Ape Yacht Club in floor price over the weekend, another milestone for one of the most storied NFT collections in the space.

Y COMBINATOR INCLUDES STABLECOINS IN ITS REQUESTS FOR STARTUPS PAGE

YC added stablecoins to its requests for startups list, highlighting that they offer low-fee, fast transactions, and are becoming integral to the future of finance.

WORLDCOIN PRICE SETS ALL-TIME HIGH ON BACK OF SORA AI LAUNCH, UP 100% IN A WEEK

The announcement of Sora and Sam Altman’s claim that he wanted to raise $8 trillion for OpenAI led to AI tokens across the board receiving strong bids - Worldcoin notably hit an all-time high and was up 100% on the week.

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