Bitcoin Schools, Paxos Oopsies, US Lawsuits and 20 Crypto Jokes

This week in crypto: El Salvador’s education ministry introduced Bitcoin learning in schools, while a user accidentally paid $500,000 in fees for a $200 bitcoin transfer, soon revealed to be Paxos. Certik found that more than 40% of Telegram Bot tokens could be exit scams, and Vitalik Buterin said that his Twitter account hack was a result of a “SIM swap” attack. Huobi rebranded to HTX as it celebrated its 10th anniversary, MobileCoin appointed a new CEO, Coinbase clarified the reports of terminating all exchange services for Indian users and said it would integrate the Bitcoin Lightning Network, and a new agreement between DCG and Genesis could allow Gemini Earn users to recover almost all their holdings.

Then, Ben Armstrong filed a lawsuit against two Hit Network employees for ousting him from the company he founded, Alex Mashinsky wanted the FTC to drop its case against him, a hearing date was set for Binance vs. SEC lawsuit motions in the ongoing legal battle, and Binance.US called the SEC’s ‘compel and reply’ motion unreasonable and “unduly burdensome”, while the exchange experienced a series of high-profile departures. FTX modified its proposed guidelines for liquidating its substantial crypto holdings, a judge rejected a plea from Sam Bankman-Fried’s legal team to release the FTX founder to better prepare for the legal proceedings, Bankman-Fried submitted a list of proposed jury questions as he prepared for his trial, and Tron’s Justin Sun considered buying FTX’s holdings tokens to ease the selling impact on the markets.

Meanwhile, the former FTX legal chief formed a new law firm focused on crypto regulation. The US SEC Chair said that the crypto industry is plagued with misconduct and legal challenges, and Stoner Cats had to pay a $1 million fine and destroy all its NFTs per a settlement with the SEC. While Brad Garlinghouse advised crypto startups to avoid the US, Joseph Lubin argued that despite the crypto market rout in the US, “clear heads will prevail”. Lawmakers in the European Parliament expressed support for the measure that introduces tax reporting requirements for crypto transactions, while in the UK, Bybit mulled an exit from the country with the new rules from the FCA arriving, and Luno planned to stop certain UK clients from trading crypto due to these regulatory changes. Institutional adoption of digital assets in Asia was gaining momentum as regulatory clarity improved. Singapore barred Three Arrows Capital founders from participating in its financial markets for nine years, Hong Kong’s regulator warned the unregistered crypto exchange JPEX of potential criminal liability, Hong Kong lawmakers addressed Vitalik Buterin’s concerns on the city’s crypto-friendliness, and Chinese experts were talking about BRI/“new Silk Road” CBDC integration.

As this was happening, Sony said it would develop a blockchain network, PayPal expanded its crypto offering with the introduction of a USD conversion service, Animoca Brands raised $20 million to expand its Web3 identity project Mocaverse, Opera Mini announced its plan to launch a new non-custodial wallet in partnership with Celo, Circle partnered with Grab to test Web3-related services in Singapore, Bull Bitcoin exchange partnered with the payment system SINPE Movil and wallet provider Bitcoin Jungle, GameOn partnered with LALIGA to develop Web3 games for players in the US and Canada, Casio entered the NFT arena, and Panerai revealed plans to include an NFT-based “digital passport” with every watch sold.

Let’s laugh at some jokes now.

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GM, CT!

Let’s turn that frown upside down.

Well, obviously. Also, maybe NSFW.

Source: bavarianbot / Instagram

Looks good.

It’s been a rough few lifetimes, but no worries, it gets better.