The Weekly Spin. First Edition. Welcome all Coinwebbers to the first edition of the Weekly Spin, a curation of blockchain and industry news that will be published on 3 Mondays every month (giving the first week to The Coinweb Monthly Spin newsletter, which is available at the first link below for those who aren’t yet subscribed to receive it by email). The format change from The Daily Spin will take some time to hone in, but the idea is the same: just this time, covering all of the major headlines from the previous week to jumpstart your workweek. It might also be mentioned that the weekly format will be much harder to select which headlines are stay-worthy, as our industry moves so fast that even a Daily Update is filled with movements that affect our market and extremely high-paced industry. That being said, I will try to stick to the stories that matter or have evolved into general conversation or narrative.
Last week, we saw the FED report on PCE data, jobless claims, and also the FOMC shipping their expected 25bps rate hike – which was swiftly echoed by the BoE and the ECB. But surprisingly none of the headlines seemed to care about this and nor did the market really, which showed “business as usual.” There is however, greater concern placed on the collapse of yet another major regional bank, and some focus placed on the US debt ceiling. These macro events did set the stage for the headlines that did come up inside the crypto-native outlets, so without further ado…
Memecoins. The current hot topic for the space at this moment, as PEPE continues to grab media attention in order to provide the exit liquidity needed for early investors to cash out. Binance lists $PEPE and $FLOKI, and following the price action that occurred with both DOGE and SHIB – marked the local top for both coins as they hit ATH (PEPE surpassing $1B MCAP) and then proceeded to dump 80% down from those levels. Gas fees on Ethereum remain rampantly high, largely due to the active MeV bots guzzling gas in order to frontrun DEX memecoin transactions. Although it is also interesting to note that the Bitcoin network has also seen a spike in congestion, leading to Binance temporarily halting BTC withdrawals twice in the past 24 hours. It has caused the leading exchange to slide out of the top ten for Bitcoin spot transactions. Bitcoin, has seen its sixth largest outflow from CEXs on Friday, as reported by on-chain data.
On exchanges: Coinbase has launched an international exchange for institutional traders outside the US, and Gemini has also launched a crypto derivatives exchange serving over 30 countries worldwide. Cosmos-based DeFi protocol Nolus raised $2.5m to build the first cross-chain DeFi lease. Aptos has teamed up with Mastercard to create infrastructure for on-chain identity and payments, and the only other Move-based blockchain, SUI released its mainnet last week on the 4th of May. A company called Quadency has released an AI-assistant for trading, named “Cody.” And a document leaked from Google seems to imply that they may be behind and “may lose” the AI race among fierce competition and compounding technological progress. LBank debuted at Consensus 2023, and will collaborate with zkSync Era to power the next generation of dApps.
In the legal arena, Ripple claims its advantage over the SEC in their landmark lawsuit, Sen. Elizabeth Warren moves her mouth about crypto hampering efforts to impose sanctions, CBDCs are in the spotlight as “TBTF” banks such as JPMorgan gobble up smaller competitors with the financial help of the FDIC (yes, that’s fucked up). Lawmakers take a closer look at New York’s CRPTO act, and UK lawmakers go after all Bitcoin ATM’s in their jurisdiction as they are all deemed to be “unregistered” and hence, non-compliant. Meanwhile, the BRICS nations gain more traction against the Dollar as the shift in macroeconomic trends begins to take serious effect. In TL for this week, some interesting ideas put forth during the Consensus 2023 conference, blockchains for ESG, and an opinion on how consensus algorithms can be adjusted to unlock blockchain technology for enterprise usage… here is our round-up of curated news and opinions (surely biased) from the world of Blockchain, keeping you informed into the market news with the most trending, in-the-know, and controversial topics. In the name of transparent, dissemination of information to keep you curious, inspired, and clinically sane…
Ongoings at Coinweb
The Coinweb Monthly Spin - Seventh Edition: Coinweb Project's Monthly Round-Up and Curated News & Events From The Bleeding Edge of All Things Web3
https://coinweb.beehiiv.com/
Implementing Gas Fee Abstraction on Coinweb
https://medium.com/@Coinweb.io/implementing-gas-fee-abstraction-on-coinweb-c6843ec6613b
Coinweb’s Monthly Event Marks 1 Year Anniversary of Organising “The Best Events in the Crypto Space” feat. KuCoin Labs, Elevate Ventures, and Gangster All-stars
https://coinweb.io/events/an-evening-with-the-bangkok-community/?utm_source=coinweb.beehiiv.com&utm_medium=newsletter&utm_campaign=the-coinweb-monthly-spin-seventh-edition
Coinweb Completes Integration of 4 New Blockchains Delivering Along its Roadmap for Cross-Chain Interoperability
https://finance.yahoo.com/news/coinweb-completes-integration-4-blockchains-154031366.html?guccounter=1
Coinweb Prioritises Community Trust with Transparent Reserve Allocation
https://medium.com/@Coinweb.io/coinweb-prioritises-community-trust-with-transparent-reserve-allocation-ce14063b6fa9
CWEB Token Usage and Utility
https://medium.com/@Coinweb.io/cweb-token-usage-913307f8f441
Coinweb has Closed $2 Million Fundraising Round from SAVA Investment Management
https://www.benzinga.com/pressreleases/23/04/a31637718/coinweb-has-closed-2-million-fundraising-round-from-sava-investment-management
Coinweb Labs is proud to unveil LinkMint 📷📷, our groundbreaking Cross-Chain Tokenisation Platform and DeconX, our integrated native DEX! Live Walkthrough Demonstration for the Community by Toby, Knut, and Alexander.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CSKA3cAB15U
Toby’s full presentation at Token2049-London
https://youtu.be/pdtKx3vAs9c
On the Radar
Web3 Weekend, May 8-13 (Jakarta)**
Consumer CPI Index Print, May 10 (Washington DC)
Bitcoin Miami Conference, May 18-20 (Miami)**
Non Fungible Conference, Jun 7-9 (Lisbon)
AIBC Asia, Jul 19-22 (Manila)
TOKEN2049, Sep 13-14 (Singapore)
**Blockchain Events curated by CryptoNomad
**https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1KtyFTb_W282bQ1xoVA5rlTwTDz3QfhswWIVpXhpbQIc/edit
On the Block(chain)
Bitcoin rises amidst string of bank failures: is this the start of a new financial era?
https://cryptoslate.com/you-can-bend-the-banking-system-but-you-cant-bend-bitcoin/
Balaji Srinivasan doubles down on his $1M Bitcoin bet as an answer to the banking crisis
https://cryptoslate.com/balaji-srinivasan-doubles-down-on-his-1m-bitcoin-bet-as-an-answer-to-the-banking-crisis/
Binance Pauses Bitcoin Withdrawals for the Second Time in 24 Hours
https://www.coindesk.com/business/2023/05/08/binance-pauses-bitcoin-withdrawals-for-the-second-time-in-24-hours/
Growing Bitcoin transactions highlight Lightning Network’s importance
https://cryptoslate.com/growing-bitcoin-transactions-highlight-importance-of-lightning-network/
Caught in the crossfire: how long and short liquidations shape the crypto market’s future
https://cryptoslate.com/insights/caught-in-the-crossfire-how-long-and-short-liquidations-shape-the-crypto-markets-future/
Friday saw the sixth biggest outflow of Bitcoin from exchanges YTD
https://cryptoslate.com/insights/friday-saw-the-sixth-biggest-outflow-of-bitcoin-from-exchanges-ytd/
Binance listing pushes Floki, Pepe up more than 50%
https://cryptoslate.com/binance-listing-pushes-floki-pepe-up-more-than-50/
WSB rallies over 200% after suspect offers refund option
https://cryptoslate.com/wsb-rallies-over-200-after-suspect-offers-refund-option/
**
Competitive Landscape**
Coinbase launch international exchange for institutional traders outside US
https://cryptoslate.com/coinbase-launch-international-exchange-for-institutional-traders-outside-us/
Gemini launches derivative platform in 30 countries
https://cryptoslate.com/gemini-launches-derivative-platform-in-30-countries/
Cosmos-Based Defi Protocol Nolus Raises 2.5M to Build the First Cross-Chain Defi Lease
https://cryptoslate.com/press-releases/cosmos-based-defi-protocol-nolus-raises-2-5m-to-build-the-first-cross-chain-defi-lease/
Binance Announces Support for New Highly Anticipated Aptos Rival – Here’s When It Launches
https://dailyhodl.com/2023/05/01/binance-announces-support-for-new-highly-anticipated-aptos-rival-heres-when-it-launches/
Ethereum Rival Aptos Teams Up With Mastercard To Create Infrastructure for On-Chain Identity and Payments
https://dailyhodl.com/2023/05/01/ethereum-rival-aptos-teams-up-with-mastercard-to-create-infrastructure-for-on-chain-identity-and-payments/
Quadency Unveils Cody, the AI Assistant Revolutionizing Trading
https://cryptoslate.com/press-releases/quadency-unveils-cody-the-ai-assistant-revolutionizing-trading/
Google could lose the AI race, leaked doc says
https://cryptoslate.com/google-could-lose-the-ai-race-leaked-doc-says/
LBank joins forces with zkSync to foster Layer-2 Ethereum scaling solutions and empower a new generation of decentralized applications
https://cryptoslate.com/press-releases/lbank-joins-forces-with-zksync-to-foster-layer-2-ethereum-scaling-solutions-and-empower-a-new-generation-of-decentralized-applications/
US. Coordinated Regulation Failures
Ripple lawyer claims SEC is ‘exploiting legal uncertainty’ to redefine securities laws
https://cryptoslate.com/ripple-lawyer-claims-sec-is-exploiting-legal-uncertainty-to-redefine-securities-laws/
Binance to take action against Justin Sun if he farms SUI token
[https://cryptoslate.com/binance-to-take-action-against-justin-sun-if-he-farms-sui-token/
](https://cryptoslate.com/binance-to-take-action-against-justin-sun-if-he-farms-sui-token/)The Reactionary Political Theater of CBDC Bans
https://www.coindesk.com/consensus-magazine/2023/05/04/the-reactionary-political-theater-of-cbdc-bans/
Binance probed by DOJ over potential Russian sanctions violations
https://cryptoslate.com/binance-probed-by-doj-over-potential-russian-sanctions-violations/
Elizabeth Warren calls crypto ‘method of choice’ for sanction evasion
https://cryptoslate.com/elizabeth-warren-calls-crypto-method-of-choice-for-sanction-evasion/
Lawmakers throw weight behind New York’s CRPTO act
https://cryptoslate.com/lawmakers-throw-weight-behind-new-yorks-crpto-act/
World
Negotiations on New BRICS Currency Underway As Nations Push to Abandon US Dollar
https://dailyhodl.com/2023/05/01/negotiations-on-new-brics-currency-underway-as-nations-push-to-abandon-us-dollar/
Inside the macro chaos that’s shaping Bitcoin
https://cryptoslate.com/market-reports/inside-the-macro-chaos-thats-shaping-bitcoin/
UK’s FCA takes action against illegal crypto ATM operators
https://cryptoslate.com/uks-fca-takes-action-against-illegal-crypto-atm-operators/
Thought Leadership
The Next Big Web3 Trend Wasn't on Stage at Consensus
https://www.coindesk.com/consensus-magazine/2023/05/05/the-next-big-web3-trend-wasnt-on-stage-at-consensus/
Op-ed: Is blockchain quickly becoming the solution for ESG?
https://cryptoslate.com/op-ed-is-blockchain-quickly-becoming-the-solution-for-esg/
Op-ed: Consensus algorithms can be engineered to unlock blockchain for business
https://cryptoslate.com/op-ed-consensus-algorithms-can-be-engineered-to-unlock-blockchain-for-business/
