Illustration by Mitchell Preffer for Decrypt
Leading cryptocurrencies gained in value this week despite the U.S. Federal Reserve’s announcement on Wednesday that interest rates will be raised by an additional 75 basis points to combat inflation.
Typically, announcements like this are detrimental to crypto markets. Last month, the Fed raised rates by 75 basis points in the steepest hike since 1994. Crypto prices crashed heavily as the cost of borrowing rose, causing investors to dump riskier assets. No such response came this time, with all leading cryptocurrencies posting notable seven-day price gains.
A fierce debate now rages as to whether the United States, after two consecutive quarters of negative GDP growth, is in a recession. The White House thinks not.
🇺🇸 WH Press Secretary Jean-Pierre denies claims that White House officials are “redefining recession” following two consecutive quarters of negative GDP growth. pic.twitter.com/SkUWSHXnRy
— Watcher.Guru (@WatcherGuru) July 27, 2022
The debate has been so intense that Wikipedia has set permissions to edit its “Recession” page to “semi-protection,” meaning that new or infrequent users have to wait four days and make 10 edits on other pages before they can edit the article.
Wikipedia’s protection policy says: “Semi-protection is useful when there is a significant amount of disruption or vandalism from new or unregistered users.”
The news struck a nerve with Binance CEO Changpeng “CZ” Zhao, but at least he offered a helping hand.
Learn about recession, learn about inflation, then learn about #bitcoin, and #BNB.
— CZ 🔶 Binance (@cz_binance) July 27, 2022
And he confirmed meeting with Turkey’s finance minister, Nureddin Nebati.
In April 2021, Turkey’s central bank banned crypto payments despite the country having some of the world’s highest per-capita crypto usage. However, a report by Bloomberg in May confirmed the country is drafting regulations to control the market. One tentative proposal requires crypto companies to have a minimum of 100 million liras ($5.6 million), while global exchanges and lenders wanting to expand in Turkish territory may have to open branch offices that can be taxed by the government.
In other CEO news, Bitcoin maximalist and MicroStrategy boss Michael Saylor, who’s spent an eye-watering $3.98 billion on Bitcoin and likely remains underwater on the investment, is standing firm.
Following today’s meeting of the Federal Reserve, #Bitcoin‘s monetary policy remains unchanged.
— Michael Saylor⚡️ (@saylor) July 27, 2022
Saylor threw shade at Ethereum in a video interview earlier this month, implying that the world’s second-favorite cryptocurrency is a centralized security. Replying to a tweet about it this week, Ethereum creator Vitalik Buterin was not happy.
Buterin also offered his opinion on corporate attempts at building the metaverse. Hint: He doesn’t think Mark Zuckerberg will corner the market.
The “metaverse” is going to happen but I don’t think any of the existing corporate attempts to intentionally create the metaverse are going anywhere. https://t.co/tVUfq4CWmP
— vitalik.eth (@VitalikButerin) July 30, 2022
Answering a reply to his original tweet, Buterin elaborated that he believes Meta’s metaverse pivot will fail simply because it’s too early.
My critique is deeper than “Metaverse Wikipedia will beat Metaverse Encyclopedia Britannica”. It’s that we don’t really know the definition of “the metaverse” yet, it’s far too early to know what people actually want. So anything Facebook creates now will misfire.
— vitalik.eth (@VitalikButerin) July 31, 2022
‘Web3 bingo cringe festival’
Coinbase teamed up with Bored Ape Yacht Club to produce a three-part metaverse-themed movie called “The Degen Trilogy.” The first part was released Tuesday.
THE DEGEN TRILOGY: PART ONE
⛓️RUN THE CHAIN⛓️
Here’s a first look at what we’ve been building with the community 👀📽️ pic.twitter.com/RSV6McnMlw
— Coinbase (@coinbase) July 26, 2022
The film meanders along with little sense of plot or suspense or drama. It’s really a five-minute crypto shill. Crypto Twitter widely panned the project. And someone had better check if crypto podcaster Cobie is still answering his phone.
hahahahahhahahahahahhahahahahhahahahahahahahahahahahaha im going to shoot myself in the head
— Cobie (@cobie) July 26, 2022
On second thought, he’s fine.
needed a cameo from the Zuckerberg sister to finish the web3 bingo cringe festival
— Cobie (@cobie) July 26, 2022
A tweeter known as Coin Bureau suggested reporting the movie to the Securities and Exchange Commission.
The SEC should rather be investigating this for illegally inducing cringe.
— Coin Bureau (guy.eth) (@coinbureau) July 27, 2022
Coin Corner CEO Danny Scott wants his five minutes back.
Can’t believe I wasted 5 minutes of my life watching this.
I’m more confused at the end than when it started.
What’s the point in this video?
— Danny Scott ⚡ (@CoinCornerDanny) July 27, 2022
And finally, in a related note, multi-platinum hip hop producer Illa Da Producer announced he’s joined the BAYC team at Yuga Labs.
GM! Life/career update! I’ve joined @yugalabs – a company with a passionate web3 community that I’ve long admired AND have been a part of – as the Community and Partnership Lead.🥴
— illaDaProducer (@illaDaProducer) July 26, 2022
Illa is well known for his frequent collaborations with crypto-loving rap legend Eminem.
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Source: https://decrypt.co/106310/this-week-on-crypto-twitter-wikipedia-accused-of-playing-politics-coinbase-bored-ape-collab-widely-jeered
