Qrafty brings the weekend with $PEPE coin news, Uniswap & Coinbase competition, Tornado Cash founder and... Ronaldinho back to jail?

***Qrafty smiling the biggest smile*** Welcome, digital wanderer!  I'm Qrafty, your friendly crypto badger, here to introduce you to Coinqraft - the crypto newsletter designed for savvy individuals seeking insightful updates on crypto and Bitcoin, without getting caught in the chaotic world of crypto fanatics and Twitter daredevils 🌟

🦡 The weekend is upon us and chill is in the air! 🦡 Let’s see what news 📰 and scoops 🔍 we have from the crypto jungle:

1. Part of PEPE team sold and left

2. BlackRock is big in crypto, but undercover

3. Tucker Carlson interview bumps price of Trump NFTs

Bonus: Today is National Dog Day! Yaaay to our four legged friends!

Here is the main news of the day 👇️ 

1. PEPE Sad Froggy…

Qrafty mentioned in yesterday’s edition that there are problems with the $PEPE memecoin and there are rumors of the team rugging (aka selling and disappearing with the coins). It’s now confirmed that 16T tokens were stolen by former team members, who then deleted their accounts.

The remaining 10 Trillion tokens are now under the control of a dedicated team member and the welfare of the project.

Somehow, in spite of this, the coin has appreciated in price. Unknown and mysterious are the ways of crypto… and memecoins!

2. OnlyFans Owner Is Hot On Crypto

It seems that it’s not just the OnlyFans adult content creators who are jumping in crypto via the Friend dot tech platform, as Qrafty mentioned yesterday.

His name is Leonid Radvinsky, a US based Ukrainian owner who purchased the company in 2018 and turned it into a money-making rodeo. Just last year, he pocketed a mind-boggling $485 million in dividends, making Monopoly money seem legit.

And the company hit a jackpot in 2022, bulldozing through a cool $1 billion in revenue. They even tossed some dough into the crypto cauldron, stirring up Ethereum investments like a financial witch's brew.

Their user party was off the charts too – over 50 million newbies crashed in like it was the hottest virtual hangout. Plus, more than a million creative souls joined the circus. Talk about a wild ride! All this while users splurged $5.5 billion on the digital fiesta. It’s like a cash-infused comedy show! 💸🎪

3. DYDX Founder Says Stay Away From US

Antonio Juliano, the crypto trailblazer behind the dYdX decentralized exchange, is basically urging crypto businesses to broaden their horizons beyond the American crypto fence for the next five to ten years.

In a world where crypto rules are as clear as mud and U.S. regulators sometimes react to crypto like it's a UFO sighting trying to shoot it down and arrest the ET’s (sorry, EBE’s), Juliano's saying, "Why not set sail to friendlier global shores?"

Sure, his advice sounds like he's telling startups to take a worldwide vacation, but it's really a question of whether the U.S. is playing hide-and-seek with crypto's potential, especially considering recent developments.

Juliano's message is as straightforward as ordering a pizza: "Head to international markets, where the regulatory restrictions are easier and maybe even friendlier."

He believes startups, in particular, can grow faster in crypto-friendly global markets, like they've found the turbo boost in a video game.

Why? Because, let's face it, most of the crypto party is happening outside the U.S. So, why not join the global crypto fiesta, where regulators don't glare at you like you're raiding their cookie jar? 🌍🚀💰

4. Of Course BlackRock Is In The Crypto Game

BlackRock CEO Larry Fink sees crypto as a digital alternative to gold.

Qrafty mentioned a while ago that BlackRock, along with VanGuard and StateStreet own 88% of the top 500 US companies. Yeah, that’s true and it’s a lot!

But BlackRock also has exposure to Bitcoin through the ~ 8% stake they have in MicroStrategy, the company led by Michael Saylor who is a massive fan of Bitcoin and gobbles it up faster than PacMan on power cookies!

But wait… there’s more! Aside from MicroStrategy, BlackRock has a stake in a lot of Bitcoin mining companies too. Check this out and replace “majority“ with “largest“.

So in a recent interview, Larry Fink, the man who controls the 3 companies mentioned above, presented his view on the golden digital coin: "Specifically on bitcoin, as I've said in the past, we're a believer in digitization of products," he stated. "Bitcoin is an international asset...It can represent an asset that people can play as an alternative." Also, Mr. Fink believes that we are heading towards a world where RWA’s and ETF’s are part of our everyday financial experience.

What does that mean, Qrafty?

It means that everything that can be tokenized, will be tokenized. From real estate to humans to whatever can be called property and have a tokenizable equivalent.

This is for you to understand the mental and intellectual discrepancy between regulators/politicians and people who are actually in the market and know wtf they’re doing. That’s why you have cretins and impostors who only create problems on one side, and forward thinkers on the other. You’ll decide which one is which.

5. Uniswap performed better than Coinbase?

Uniswap performed better than Coinbase in terms of spot trading volumes in 2023. This is interesting because usually CEXes do a lot more volume than DEXes. It’s even more interesting because we are in a low liquidity market and the need for security and perceived safety usually turns users towards centralized exchanges.

But it seems that in this downturn, things changed. It’s also possible that Coinbase’s legal problems, paired with the crackdown on crypto by the SEC and US authorities along with trying to KYC everyone including their dog, have pushed people towards the decentralized exchange.

Whether this situation will be maintained in the future or the volumes will return to CEXs, time will tell. But it’s important to note that there won’t really be any difference between CEXs and DEXs since both entities will have to report the transactions their users are doing to the IRS.

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It’s the time of the bearcat!

Qrafty’s thought of the day

Other stories from today worth considering

Bitcoin could be worth less than $20K in 2023

The US consumer price index (CPI) rose 6.8% in November from a year ago, the highest annual increase since 1982. Bitcoin didn’t perform really well in this inflationary environment, sparking Bloomberg “Intelligence“ to not so intelligently conclude that it could be worth less than $20k in 2023.

Adjusted for inflation, Bitcoin is just above its 2017 high, this is true. It’s also important to remember that the OG digital coin has specific cycles and we are in the lower phase of one right now. So there’s not shortage of doomsayers, since there’s not a lot of action in the market right now.

Tornado Cash founder is persona non-grata in the US

Roman Semenov, the co-founder of Tornado Cash, along with his 8 Ethereum addresses, have been added to US OFAC's SDN list. This means that US citizens and entities are prohibited from engaging in any transactions involving him or his associated Ethereum addresses.

Ronaldinho could return to jail over cryptocurrency scam

Really? Yup! Ronaldinho might find himself facing imprisonment once more if he persists in not showing up before the Brazilian Chamber of Deputies as requested for an inquiry regarding one of his companies, suspected of involvement in a pyramid scheme potentially linked to cryptocurrencies, as EsEuro reports.

Tucker Carlson interview bumps price of Trump NFTs

Pretty much everything related to the 45th president of the US is bound to create hype and strong emotions on both sides. After the interview, the 45,000 Trump Digital Trading Cards were selling for around 0.13 ETH (about $212). That’s almost a 50% jump from last week's 0.1 ETH(~$150) price. Not bad, huh?

Bored Ape CEO & OpenAI CTO Among Victims of SIM Swap Scams

Think of ZachXBT as the crypto Sherlock Holmes without the snarkiness and overconfidence. He’s just a brilliant guy who genuinely helps people by making tough investigations and revealing the pretty nasty underworld of the crypto bubble.

This time, he’s telling us that “$13.3M+ has been stolen as a result of 54 SIM swaps targeting people in the crypto space.“ Among these there were OpenAI's CTO, Mira Murati and the CEO of Bored Ape, Daniel Alegre

Litecoin Sets New Record with 46 Million Transactions in 2023

Qrafty isn’t exactly sure who is using the copy paste version of the Bitcoin blockchain, but hey… they established a new record, right? The only true thing about this is that’s been running without uptime for a while now, but that’s not really thanks to anyone except the developers of Bitcoin. But it’s one of the OG coins so yeah…

Market Whispers

The BTC one hour chart looks like the flat line from a heartbeat monitor, having the amazing high at 26125 and fabulous low at 25985. That's a 140$ range! Hope you enjoyed the National Dog Day with your furry friends, cause BTC is out of this world boring right now.

Today is NATIONAL DOG DAY!

That’s all from Qrafty 🦡 for today! Qrafty thanks you and wishes you to live each moment as if you are listening to the music you love most!

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