Top Stories of The Week
YouTube enables PYUSD stablecoin payouts for US creators: Report
Video-sharing giant YouTube has reportedly enabled US-based creators to accept payouts in PayPal’s stablecoin, PYUSD.
Fortune reported on Thursday that PayPal’s head of crypto, May Zabaneh, said the feature is live, but only for users in the US. The firm integrated the ability for recipients to accept payments in PYUSD earlier this year, with YouTube ultimately opting to open that choice up to its creators.
“The beauty of what we’ve built is that YouTube doesn’t have to touch crypto and so we can help take away that complexity,” she said.
PayPal has had a long-standing relationship with YouTube, allowing users to pay via its services for many years and utilizing it for creators’ AdSense payouts.
CFTC pulls ‘actual delivery’ crypto guidance, giving flexibility to exchanges
US Commodity Futures Trading Commission Acting Chairman Caroline Pham has scrapped “outdated guidance” on the delivery of crypto, which has been applauded for offering exchanges more flexibility.
“Eliminating outdated and overly complex guidance that penalizes the crypto industry and stifles innovation is exactly what the Administration has set out to do this year,” Pham said on Thursday.
The guidance, originally finalized in March 2020, related to when the “actual delivery” of crypto happened in a commodity transaction, but the CFTC said in a notice that it had to “reevaluate such guidance in light of further developments during the past 5 years.”
The CFTC under Pham has worked on a more crypto-friendly approach, and Pham said the guidance was withdrawn on recommendations from the president’s crypto working group, which suggested the CFTC release guidance on how crypto may be considered commodities and expand on prior guidance regarding the actual delivery of virtual assets.
US SEC’s Crenshaw takes aim at crypto in final weeks at agency
US Securities and Exchange Commissioner Caroline Crenshaw, who is expected to leave the agency in less than a month, used one of her final public speaking engagements to address the regulator’s response to digital assets.
Speaking at a Brookings Institution event on Thursday, Crenshaw said standards at the SEC had “eroded” in the last year, with “markets [starting] to look like casinos,” and “chaos” as the agency dismissed many years-long enforcement cases, reduced civil penalties and filed fewer actions overall.
The commissioner, expected to depart in January after her term officially ended in June 2024, also criticized many crypto users and the agency’s response to the markets.
Satoshi Nakamoto statue lands on NYSE in sign of changing times
The New York Stock Exchange (NYSE) has become the sixth host of Valentina Picozzi’s “disappearing” Satoshi Nakamoto statue — a striking shift from just a few years ago when crypto was still taboo on Wall Street.
Long seen as a bastion of traditional finance, the NYSE called the installation “shared ground between emerging systems and established institutions” in an X post on Wednesday.
The statue was installed by Bitcoin firm Twenty One Capital, which began trading this week. The design itself is the work of Picozzi, who wrote on X under her Satoshigallery handle that seeing her latest piece in such a high-profile setting is “mind-blowing.”
State Street, Galaxy and Ondo join tokenized cash race with 24/7 sweep fund
State Street Investment Management and Galaxy Asset Management are joining forces with Ondo Finance on a tokenized liquidity fund that will push cash “sweep” balances directly onto public blockchains, creating a potential source of 24/7 onchain liquidity.
The planned State Street Galaxy Onchain Liquidity Sweep Fund, or SWEEP, is designed to take in and pay out PayPal’s stablecoin for accredited investors, the companies said on Tuesday.
Ondo is expected to seed the fund with $200 million, tying a major tokenized real-world asset issuer directly into State Street’s tokenization stack. The fund will be powered by Galaxy Digital infrastructure, while State Street Bank and Trust Company, an affiliate of State Street Investment Management, will act as custodian.
Winners and Losers
At the end of the week, Bitcoin (BTC) is at $90,092, Ether (ETH) at $3,104 and XRP at $2.02. The total market cap is at $3.06 trillion, according to CoinMarketCap.
Among the biggest 100 cryptocurrencies, the top three altcoin gainers of the week are Zcash (ZEC) at 30.92%, MemeCore (M) at 25.84% and Merlin Chain (MERL) at 20.69%.
The top three altcoin losers of the week are Story (IP) at 13.47%, Quant (QNT) at 12.04% and Aerodrome Finance (AERO) at 11.90%. For more info on crypto prices, make sure to read Cointelegraph’s market analysis.
Top Prediction of The Week
Bitcoin wobbles at $92K as trader eyes end to ‘manipulative’ BTC price dip
Data from Cointelegraph Markets Pro and TradingView showed wavering BTC price action after a trip to $95,500 the day prior.
Up against several resistance features on the daily chart, BTC/USD coiled for what some said should be a breakout move.
“Bitcoin is doing the choppy dance. Illiquid books, and therefore fast moves up and down for the position on $BTC,” crypto trader, analyst and entrepreneur Michaël van de Poppe wrote in his latest analysis on X. “Nonetheless, I think that we’re still in for a new upwards breakout in the coming days/weeks.”
Top FUD of The Week
Senior Vanguard analyst says Bitcoin is no better than a plush toy
Bitcoin is a purely speculative asset and is akin to a collectible toy, according to John Ameriks, the global head of quantitative equity at asset management company Vanguard.
“It’s difficult for me to think about Bitcoin as anything more than a digital Labubu,” Ameriks said at Bloomberg’s ETFs in Depth conference in New York City.
Labubus are collectible dolls in the form of rabbit-like creatures with anthropomorphic features. Despite Ameriks’ criticism, he said that Bitcoin may have value beyond financial speculation in the future under certain circumstances.
The cryptocurrency could find real-world use cases beyond market speculation in scenarios of high fiat currency inflation or political instability, Ameriks said. These forces drive the adoption of alternative currencies.
Upbit hack puts Binance’s emergency freeze policy under scrutiny
According to South Korean broadcaster KBS, Binance froze only a portion of funds that police said were linked to a Nov. 27 hack of crypto exchange Upbit, one of South Korea’s largest exchanges.
KBS reported Friday that investigators requested Binance freeze about 470 million Korean won ($370,000) in Solana tokens believed to be associated with the incident. The exchange ultimately blocked about $55,000 (roughly 17% of the requested amount) after a 15-hour delay.
According to the report, Binance cited a need for additional verification when responding to the police request.
Terraform co-founder sentenced to 15 years in prison after guilty plea
Do Kwon, the co-founder of Terraform Labs, was sentenced to 15 years in prison after pleading guilty to wire fraud and conspiracy to defraud.
In a Thursday hearing in the US District Court for the Southern District of New York, Judge Paul Engelmayer ordered that Kwon serve 15 years in prison for his role in the collapse of Terraform, which wiped out about $40 billion from the crypto market in 2022. He will receive credit for time served in the US and 17 months of pre-extradition custody.
Prior to making his decision on sentencing, Engelmayer heard from some of Terraform’s victims and questioned what kind of justice Kwon might face in his native South Korea, where authorities are also building a case against him.
Top Magazine Stories of The Week
Big questions: Would Bitcoin survive a 10-year power outage?
Assuming humans actually survive a decade without computers and microwave brownies — what would happen to Bitcoin?
Sei wallets in Xiaomi, Bhutan’s gold on Solana: Asia Express
Sei to preload crypto wallets in Xiaomi smartphones, Bhutan launches gold tokens on Solana and more.
Meet the onchain crypto detectives fighting crime better than the cops
Pseudonymity protects them, credibility defines them, and their work determines whether stolen crypto is recovered or lost forever.
Editorial Staff
The adventures of the inventive Alex Mashinsky
“My wife claims that I live in the future all by myself. And once in a while, society ends up coming to where I have been sitting on the road and waiting for them for a long time.”
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NFT special! Beeple’s millions, Banksy profits, problems for Kings of Leon: Hodler’s Digest, March 7–13
The best (and worst) quotes, adoption and regulation highlights, leading coins, predictions and much more — one week on Cointelegraph in one link!
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