This Week on Crypto Twitter: Fake ETF News Pumps Bitcoin

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Bitcoin holders profited this week amidst a flurry of industry announcements—both real and apocryphal—about the industry’s elusive hunt to get a spot Bitcoin ETF greenlit by the SEC.

Bitcoin’s price received an intraday boost of 10% on Monday, after crypto publication Cointelegraph falsely tweeted that TradFi asset management titan BlackRock had been approved to launch a U.S. Bitcoin spot ETF. Several journalists, including Fox’s Eleanor Terrett and Bloomberg’s James Seyffart dispelled the rumors.

Because the tweet has since been deleted. Putting this here for posterity purposes. Only regret is that i waited ~15 min to tweet what was my gut instinct. pic.twitter.com/8PeLTzkxfw
— James Seyffart (@JSeyff) October 16, 2023

Cointelegraph later owned up to the mistake in a tweeted announcement:

We apologize for a tweet that led to the dissemination of inaccurate information regarding the Blackrock Bitcoin ETF.
An internal investigation is currently underway. We are committed to transparency and will share the findings of the investigation with the public once it is…
— Cointelegraph (@Cointelegraph) October 16, 2023

Several crypto fans imagined the reactions of SEC Chair Gary Gensler to the whole debacle. Gensler is an avowed crypto skeptic whose “regulation by enforcement” style has been widely called out by the industry, as well as sympathetic lawmakers in Washington.

Gensler about to nuke all the bitcoin etf applications because of market manipulation
Thank you for your service
— Danny Nelson (@realDannyNelson) October 16, 2023

🚨🚨Statement from Gary G: Until we have the culprit in jail from Mondays $BTC news manipulation scheme, there are not sufficient surveillance measures to prevent manipulation.
🧸🎯
— Napgone (@napgener) October 16, 2023

In other news, the ongoing trial of disgraced FTX co-founder and former CEO Sam Bankman-Fried continued apace. Crypto analyst Adam Cochran called out SBF’s legal team for what he saw as its delaying tactics and prevarication.

PS – they don’t actually give a fuck about his meds.
They care about throwing out the trial.
Vegan meals, lacking meds, weird med hours.
They’ll probably try and claim some mental duress violating his right to compulsory process in self defence.
Does it work?
Unlikely.
But…
— Adam Cochran (adamscochran.eth) (@adamscochran) October 16, 2023

Chinese blockchain journalist Colin Wu that day flagged up some worrying money flows at British exchange Bitrace.

Bitrace: In the past 24 months, more than 3.439 billion risky TRC20 USDT has flowed into OTC addresses, including 14.7% of online gambling-related USDT, 20.1% of scam industry-related USDT, and 19.4% of money laundering-related USDT. https://t.co/pf06RhuSzb pic.twitter.com/L3pyiQ0Ulr
— Wu Blockchain (@WuBlockchain) October 16, 2023

Tech journalist Joseph Cox of 404 Media promoted his new exposé about ACG, a group of con artists and hackers that the FBI blames for a spate of SIM-swapping attacks. The technique sees scammers persuade mobile network companies to reassign the victim’s phone number to a SIM card held by the scammer, in order to gain access to their accounts. Looks like crime does pay, sometimes.

New: I got a cache of videos from inside the hacker group ACG. These people have stolen Bitcoin from people time and time again. You can see them here living it up.
But their story is much bigger: the convergence of cyber and physical crime. Read below: https://t.co/CvtIOMe6UX pic.twitter.com/U8Y9dKDG2t
— Joseph Cox (@josephfcox) October 16, 2023

Peter Johnson, the co-head of venture at Brevan Howard Digital, a crypto-focused arm of alternative investment firm Brevan Howard, shared 10 key takeaways from the company’s new stablecoin report.

2) Over 25mm blockchain addresses hold over $1 in stablecoins. Of these, ~80%, or close to 20mm addresses, hold between $1 and $100. For a sense of scale, a US bank with 25mm accounts would rank as the 5th largest bank in the US by number of accounts.
— Peter Johnson (@TheChicagoVC) August 22, 2023

Crypto Twitter’s favorite pseudonymous blockchain sleuth, ZachXBT, revealed a potential new gig on Thursday as he was nominated as a candidate for Polygon’s new protocol council.

I am honored to have been selected as a candidate for the Polygon Protocol Council (PC).
The PC’s main task will be to assist with regular and emergency changes to protocol components. https://t.co/NqWQb5OzaI
— ZachXBT (@zachxbt) October 19, 2023

Finally, the LBRY Protocol bid followers a final farewell that day. LBRY was a file-sharing project that received a verdict from a federal court back in July that it was liable for violating U.S. securities laws. The ruling states the protocol “is permanently restrained and enjoined from participating, directly or indirectly, in any unregistered crypto asset securities offering.”

LBRY Inc. is winding down.
The LBRY network is unaffected.
Odysee and other assets will undergo a legal process to satisfy debts, but Odysee has a bright future ahead.
Thank you to everyone who fought with us for online freedom.
A final goodbye post is in the first reply.
— LBRY 🚀 (@LBRYcom) October 19, 2023

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