Nobody Cares: the Non-Fungible Thread

[Argent Stonecutter]

I still can't get over how quickly this has all happened.

 

[Free]

Happy 2023!

From CZ to SBF, 2023 was the year of the fallen crypto bro

Going from zero to billionaire to zero is no crypto bro's dream.

arstechnica.com

 

[Free]

Weird.

Crypto hedge fund CEO may not exist; probe finds no record of identity

HyperVerse's collapse caused an estimated $1.3 billion in customer losses.

arstechnica.com

For years, rumors spread on social media that Steven Reece Lewis, the chief executive officer of a now-shuttered cryptocurrency hedge fund called HyperVerse, was a "fake person" who "doesn't exist." After its investigation, The Guardian has confirmed that no organization cited on his resume "can find any record of him."

According to The Guardian, Reece Lewis's qualifications all appear to be falsified in an effort to woo investors to sink money into HyperVerse. After HyperVerse collapsed, accused of operating as a pyramid scheme, the company suspended withdrawals. According to blockchain analysts, Chainalysis consumer losses in 2022 were estimated to exceed $1.3 billion. Thousands of consumers lost millions, The Guardian reported.

 

[Essence Lumin]

SEC says it did not yet approve bitcoin ETF, X account was compromised

The U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission said Tuesday afternoon that an announcement about bitcoin ETFs on social media was incorrect.

www.cnbc.com

 

[Free]

 

[Free]

Child abusers are covering their tracks with better use of crypto

“Mixers” and “privacy coins” like Monero enable them to launder profits, stay online.

arstechnica.com

For those who trade in child sexual exploitation images and videos in the darkest recesses of the Internet, cryptocurrency has been both a powerful tool and a treacherous one. Bitcoin, for instance, has allowed denizens of that criminal underground to buy and sell their wares with no involvement from a bank or payment processor that might reveal their activities to law enforcement. But the public and surprisingly traceable transactions recorded in Bitcoin's blockchain have sometimes led financial investigators directly to pedophiles’ doorsteps.

Now, after years of evolution in that grim cat-and-mouse game, new evidence suggests that online vendors of what was once commonly called “child porn” are learning to use cryptocurrency with significantly more skill and stealth—and that it's helping them survive longer in the Internet's most abusive industry.

 

[Noodles]

of what once was called "child porn"

Is there some other name for this that is used now? That seems like such a weird phrasing.

 

[Free]

Is there some other name for this that is used now? That seems like such a weird phrasing.

I still call it that. I've no idea what the writer thinks we call it.

EDIT: I guess the point is that it's sexual abuse, period. And naturally, it's got to have an acronym: What is Child Sexual Abuse Material (CSAM) | RAINN

 

[Noodles]

Oh right, they call it CSAM now. I guess that makes sense as to why it was phrased that way but it's still kind of weird.

 

[Dakota Tebaldi]

I still can't get over how quickly this has all happened.

Gamestop shutters its NFT marketplace

GameStop joined a wave of companies and individual celebrities to try and cash in on the height of 2021 and '22's NFT craze, which now feels like it happened in a different century. The company continued to lose revenue, however, and in June of last year CEO Matthew Furlong was terminated. While GameStop has cited regulatory uncertainty in pulling out of the space, it's not even clear anyone even cares enough to regulate crypto anymore⁠.

The failure of numerous so-called stablecoins, the bankruptcy of FTX and the highly publicized prosecution of its founder, Sam Bankman-Fried, as well as the general crash in value of cryptocurrencies and NFTs have led to potentially irreversible reputational damage for the technology. Besides, we're betting our future and the entire economy on AI now, grandpa.

 

[Dakota Tebaldi]

Venezuela ends its national cryptocurrency

Venezuela is ending its Petro cryptocurrency on Monday, more than five years after it was first launched, according to multiple reports citing a message displayed on the Patria Platform, the only website where the Petro was tradeable.

The Petro never really caught on; most of the lower classes in Venezuela didn't understand exactly how to use it, and even some attempts by the government to force its use - like requiring the cryptocoin as payment for certain government services like passports, or mandating that commercial airlines serving Venezuela use it to pay for fuel - couldn't help keep it afloat in the end.

 

[CronoCloud Creeggan]

Gamestop shutters its NFT marketplace

Grumpy Cat says: "Good."

 

[Noodles]

Gamestop shutters its NFT marketplace

While GameStop has cited regulatory uncertainty in pulling out of the space, it's not even clear anyone even cares enough to regulate crypto anymore⁠.

Schrodinger's Crypto.

Or some appropriate metaphor.

It will be an unregulated monster and survive, or lawmakers (rightly) regulate it and it does.

 

[Free]

Isn't it time again for shorting Gamestop?

 

[Innula Zenovka]

God knows what went wrong.

Colorado pastor accused of multimillion dollar crypto scheme

Prosecutors allege he created and sold a "practically worthless" cryptocurrency to fund his lifestyle.

www.bbc.com

Prosecutors accuse pastor Eli Regalado and his wife, Kaitlyn, of fraudulently raising over $3m (£2.4m) by selling "practically worthless" crypto.

The Regalados pocketed at least $1.3m in the alleged scheme between June 2022 and April 2023, prosecutors say.

Mr Regalado said his plan was inspired by God, according to court filings.

The pastor said that "God told him directly that investors would become wealthy" by investing into INDXcoin, a cryptocurrency created, marketed, and sold by the Regalados, according to the complaint.

 

[Beebo Brink]

Colorado pastor accused of multimillion dollar crypto scheme

Prosecutors allege he created and sold a "practically worthless" cryptocurrency to fund his lifestyle.

www.bbc.com

Many viewers left words of encouragement in the comments on the video, including "prayers going up" and "hang in there, stay strong".

At some point I just can't... No one deserves to be exploited, and I don't rejoice in their loss of money, but people who just walk into a buzzsaw... you can't help them.

 

[Free]

Costs too much.

 

[Noodles]

Did this get posted in this thread yet?

 

[Essence Lumin]

Bitcoin hit $50K today. Color me surprised. It was down to $17K at one point.

 

[Free]

Last gasping breaths, or last gasping breaths?

Bitcoin price hits record $69K after SEC approvals fueled $7B in investments

SEC chair warns bitcoin is still "volatile" and linked to "illicit activity."

arstechnica.com