Another wild week in the trillion-dollar industry so it seems my dear crypto bros and girls, as last week’s filled with shocking surprises, a bit of drama, and more. Buckle up, because we’re giving you the lowdown on what went down last week in the crypto realm.
Bitcoin’s Ups and Downs: Hold On Tight!
Bitcoin’s been sitting pretty tight and sweet in its $29k-$30k price point for a couple of months now, and experts weren’t expecting any form of dump in value, or even a pump anytime soon. After all, the crypto world has seemed to simmer down in the past few months, and with the halving not coming around until 2024, there’s no real reason for crypto to start moving around.
Unfortunately, that couldn’t be the case last week, as news surrounding SpaceX’s sale of their $370 million stake at the crypto giant surfaced and left people insecure about their investments, ushering a panic sale that quickly settled down, but has left bitcoin with an impressionable 10% drop from its cozy spot. It’s been recovering since and is expected to float around its $30k valuation soon enough, but this apparent sale—which SpaceX has refuted but has not provided any verifiable evidence until now, has left people feeling concerned about the future of bitcoin amidst massive blows from all corners since 2022.
Sam Bankman-Fried’s Courtroom Tango
Infamous Sam Bankman-Fried of FTX who has been arrested for multiple court cases filed against him after the downfall of FTX has been avoiding jail-time like crazy these days.
Last week alone, his legal posse pleaded for a “temporary release” with no apparent reason, ahead of his October Trial. And while the justice system is yet to approve this plea, we might want to keep an eye out for this one, partner.
Friend Tech: A Short-Lived Saga
Decentralized Social App “friend.tech” is “officially dead” according to experts and critics within and outside the crypto sphere. The once-promising social media platform that promises profits along with seamless connectivity for all of its users took a shameful plummet in user-base and activity only three weeks from its release.
Despite constant content churn out and features being released regularly, friend.tech suffered from the domination that centralized social media platforms like Facebook and Twitter asserted over the industry, and with monetization available to these platforms even before friend tech’s launch, there’s no real niche that’s being filled. It doesn’t help either that the friend.tech, despite being a decentralized application, is exclusively only to those who were given invite passes, which further damaged its hopes of ever getting as big as the social media giants we have today.
As of now, the crypto social app that was once churning out $1.2 million in transaction fees, is barrel active, with onlyfans models dominating the space due to the lack of content blocking features.
$PEPE’s Meme Magic Turns Sour
One of the most successful meme coins out there, $PEPE, has fallen victim to a damaging rugpull from its own team members, copping away $15.6 million worth of $PEPE, nowhere to be found.
It all started when devoted analysts and supporters of the memecoin saw questionable actions from the team’s side, namely the transfer of said funds into an EOA (Externally-Owned Accounts) Wallet, then the transfer of these funds into exchanges, and a suspicious alteration in the number of multi-sig approvals dropping from ⅝ addresses approving such transactions, to a shockingly low 2/8, meaning they could virtually just send transactions willy-nilly without ever needing a major approval.
Afterwards a bomb was dropped when $PEPE issued an official explainer and apology about what happened, stating that “bad actors” from the team were the cause of this run, and they are taking appropriate actions to punish said individuals.
Despite this concerning news, supporters of the $PEPE empire have remained positive, and were seemingly unshaken by the news. Good stuff indeed.
So, there you have it – last week’s crypto highlights, laid out like a picnic blanket. Bitcoin took us on a wild ride, Sam Bankman-Fried is doing the legal cha-cha, Friend Tech waved goodbye too soon, and $PEPE’s meme game got a little too real. Until next week, keep your wallets close and your crypto news closer. Happy hodling!
