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Molly White (molly0xfff@hachyderm.io)'s status on Saturday, 18-Jan-2025 09:47:38 JST Molly White

Newsletter: Regulators and lawmakers eagerly prepare to abdicate any last traces of interest in the wellbeing of everyday Americans as they suck up to the powerful billionaires who will soon be publicly calling the shots.
https://www.citationneeded.news/issue-74/
#crypto #cryptocurrency #USpolitics #USpol

In conversation about 7 hours ago from hachyderm.io permalink
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  Molly White (molly0xfff@hachyderm.io)'s status on Saturday, 18-Jan-2025 09:48:56 JST Molly White
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  There’s a class action lawsuit against the pump.fun memecoin platform, and it looks... messy. The lead plaintiff, down $50,000 across the board but only suing over a $230 loss of the “PNUT” token, has continued trading on the platform he’s suing even after the lawsuit was filed.
  #crypto #cryptocurrency
  In conversation about 7 hours ago permalink
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  1. The New York law firm Burwick Law filed a class action lawsuit against the pump.fun memecoin platform.2 I expected they would have a large pool of potential plaintiffs to pull from, given analysis last year suggesting that most people who traded pump.fun tokens had lost money.3 However, the lead plaintiff in the suit seems to be some guy who lost $231 gambling on a $PNUT memecoin, themed after a squirrel-turned-very-brief MAGA cause célèbre. A loss is a loss, I suppose. That said, I’m not sure it helps their case that said lead plaintiff — who is down almost $50,000 across all of his pump.fun trading — is still trading memecoins on the platform even after filing the lawsuit accusing it of being an unlicensed securities exchange that relies on shock value to pump token prices. The whole thing strikes me, not a lawyer, as a bit of a slapdash lawsuit. However, pump.fun is also an absolute shitshow, so perhaps slapdash will do.
    https://media.hachyderm.io/media_attachments/files/113/846/603/354/467/835/original/6238434ba461cf72.png
  2. Prior to its filing, some crypto enthusiasts scoffed at the prospect of any lawsuit against pump.fun, including blockchain sleuth ZachXBT: Tweet by zachxbt: “degenerate gamblers willingly choosing to gamble on micro-cap meme coins are not actual victims or investors”, with the clapping emoji between each word One of Burwick’s founding partners, however, argued (as I have in the past) that the type of crypto activity dismissed as “gambling” is often actually far riskier than gambling, at least when it comes to the regulated variety, and that crypto activity like this is more akin to gambling in a rigged game.4 Burwick, a relatively new firm, focuses on crypto class actions. Late last year, they filed suit against the creators of the failed “Hawk Tuah” crypto token [W3IGG] and against Caitlyn Jenner over her apparently abandonedb $JENNER token [W3IGG]. It remains to be seen how their lawsuits fare when it comes to grabbing legal victories in addition to just headlines.
    https://media.hachyderm.io/media_attachments/files/113/846/603/373/020/445/original/190303e97ea296e4.png
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  Molly White (molly0xfff@hachyderm.io)'s status on Saturday, 18-Jan-2025 09:49:47 JST Molly White
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  Coinbase notched a win in the Third Circuit, though their substantial efforts to install a crypto-friendly administration (and, therefore, SEC) would likely have resulted in a similar outcome regardless.
  #crypto #cryptocurrency
  In conversation about 7 hours ago permalink
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  1. In governments and regulators Coinbase has notched another win in litigation with the SEC as the Third Circuit has remanded the agency’s decision to deny Coinbase’s petition for rulemaking [I47, 58]. According to the Third Circuit, “the SEC’s order was conclusory and insufficiently reasoned, and thus arbitrary and capricious”, and so they have sent it back to the SEC for a “more complete explanation”, adding the smackdown that the agency “should not give yet another poor explanation in an already-long line of them”. However, the court declined to go so far as ordering the SEC to begin the rulemaking Coinbase had demanded.5 While the appeals court decision is meaningful, the practical outcome for Coinbase and the rest of the cryptocurrency industry is likely not going to be very different from what we’re already expecting with the new crypto-loving Trump administration’s SEC, as I outline later in this issue.
    https://media.hachyderm.io/media_attachments/files/113/846/607/200/407/310/original/5142aa5f96ab9043.png
  GreenSkyOverMe (Monika) repeated this.
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  Molly White (molly0xfff@hachyderm.io)'s status on Saturday, 18-Jan-2025 09:50:57 JST Molly White
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  Rumors are flying about Trump’s early crypto-related actions in office, including a potential day-one executive order establishing crypto as a national priority. Other guesswork is on Polymarket — where 6% of bettors wagered the new admin will confirm aliens exist. We can hope.
  #crypto #cryptocurrency #USpolitics #USpol
  In conversation about 7 hours ago permalink
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  1. In elections and political influence After his inauguration, Trump is likely to quickly release an executive order designating crypto as a national priority.11 This would not be the first crypto-related executive order — Biden had his own — but the focus on consumer protection and financial risks in Biden’s order is likely to be completely absent in Trump’s. Instead, Trump’s will most likely formalize the signal — already being received loud and clear in Washington, as I outline in a moment — that the crypto industry is a friend to Trump and needs to be treated accordingly. The order will also likely establish a crypto advisory council, though this is not any big surprise given that Trump has already announced that such a council will exist when he announced it would be led by Bo Hines (for some mystifying reason that I would still quite like to learn more about) [I72]. A “top transition source” told Axios that Trump “is going to be very focused on the price of Bitcoin”, and wants to see it hit $150,000 early into his presidency. This does not give me a ton of hope as far as him not pursuing blatant efforts to juice the price of bitcoin to benefit a minute few at the expense of the vast majority of Americans.12 The New York Post, such as it is, published rumors that Trump has been considering an “America First” strategic reserve that would prioritize tokens founded in the United States, such as Solana, USDC, and Ripple’s XRP token.13 Putting aside Trump’s enchantment with
    https://media.hachyderm.io/media_attachments/files/113/846/610/489/592/271/original/888303c4708dfc69.png
  2. Other predictions of Trump’s early actions in office can be found, of course, on Polymarket, and they paint a grim picture. At the moment, Polymarket bettors are asking whether Trump will issue an executive order relating to transgender rights on day 1 (55% yes), reinstate the global gag rule on day 1 (39% yes), say the words “crypto” or “bitcoin” during his inauguration speech (35% yes), create a Bitcoin reserve within his first 100 days in office (41% yes), ban birthright citizenship within 100 days (66% yes), and so forth. Further down the list, Polymarket has a 6% chance the Trump administration confirms aliens exist within 100 days. There’s something to look forward to, perhaps. Beam me up.
    https://media.hachyderm.io/media_attachments/files/113/846/612/435/502/933/original/8e0316ead2c113a2.png
  GreenSkyOverMe (Monika) and Adrianna Tan repeated this.
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  Molly White (molly0xfff@hachyderm.io)'s status on Saturday, 18-Jan-2025 09:52:52 JST Molly White
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  Justin Sun is hoping that people will kindly stop asking him stupid questions about his new 20% APY offering, like “where does the yield come from?”
  #crypto #cryptocurrency #USpolitics #USpol
  In conversation about 7 hours ago permalink
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  1. Speaking of Justin Sun, remember last issue when I wrote about the Terra fraud: “Side note: If someone promises you a risk-free 20% annual yield if you just let them hold on to your dollars for you, the risk that you never see those dollars again is in fact very high”? Well, an hour after retweeting with the 👀 emoji a Reuters bulletin about the SEC enforcement “freeze” (a headline which did not make mention of the carve-out for cases, like Sun’s, alleging fraud), Sun fired off one of the most spectacular tweets I’ve seen out of the industry in a while: H.E. Justin Sun @justinsuntron USDD 2.0 is about to launch with a 20% APY, fully subsidized by @trondao. All interest will be sent in advance to a transparent address. There’s no other reason—it’s simply because we have plenty of money. So, stop asking me questions like “where does the yield come from.” Stop asking questions! Why can’t you understand that we just have so much money that we want you to send us your money so that we can give you our money! This fellow is the newest adviser to Trump’s crypto project, a role he bought for $30 million ($18 million of which goes directly into Trump’s pockets) [I71]. More likely he was interested in buying the proximity to Trump and his family members and trusted advisers.
    https://media.hachyderm.io/media_attachments/files/113/846/619/469/293/132/original/c6f994778967110b.png
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  Molly White (molly0xfff@hachyderm.io)'s status on Saturday, 18-Jan-2025 09:53:13 JST Molly White
  in reply to
  
  That and more in today's issue of Citation Needed. If you enjoyed it, please consider signing up for a free or pay-what-you-want subscription. Citation Needed is an independent publication, entirely supported by readers like you.
  https://www.citationneeded.news/signup
  
  In conversation about 7 hours ago permalink
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  Molly White (molly0xfff@hachyderm.io)'s status on Saturday, 18-Jan-2025 09:53:27 JST Molly White
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  And don’t forget there are audio versions of the newsletter (lovingly narrated myself, no robot voice) available on the page and wherever you get your podcasts: https://pod.link/1719025552
  In conversation about 7 hours ago permalink
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  1. Domain not in remote thumbnail source whitelist: podlink.imgix.net
    
    Molly White's Citation Needed
    
    Keep up with the happenings in the tech world without all the boosterism. Cryptocurrency critic, technology researcher, and software engineer Molly White publishes Citation Needed, a newsletter that features weekly explainers of developments in the cryptocurrency industry, with summaries of the latest disasters featured on her well-known project Web3 is Going Just Great. She also does deep dives into important events in the broader technology industry, with added critical context that is too often missing.

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