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Coming every Saturday, Hodler’s Digest will help you track every single important news story that happened this week. The best (and worst) quotes, adoption and regulation highlights, leading coins, predictions and much more — a week on Cointelegraph in one link.Top Stories This WeekFed money printer goes into reverse: What does it mean for crypto?Over the last two years or so, the United States Federal Reserve has flooded the financial system with excess liquidity — benefiting stocks, crypto and other markets as well. Now, the Fed is going in the opposite direction in order to combat inflation. In addition to raising interest rates, the central bank has begun the process of quantitative tightening (QT). It’s not entirely clear how the crypto markets will respond to the Fed’s QT efforts, but the short-term outlook probably isn’t good for risk assets.CFTC sues Gemini claiming crypto exchange lied in futures contract evaluationUnited States crypto exchange Gemini faces action from the U.S. Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC) for certain alleged activity dating back to 2017. The CFTC essentially asserts that Gemini acted dishonestly in 2017 during its push to add Bitcoin futures trading contracts to its offerings. The commission claims Gemini was not honest during its evaluation process. “Gemini has been a pioneer and proponent of thoughtful regulation since day one,” Gemini told Cointelegraph in response to the lawsuit. “We have an eight year track record of asking for permission, not forgiveness, and always doing the right thing. We look forward to definitively proving this in court.”City of Shenzhen airdrops 30M in free digital yuan to stimulate consumer spendingResidents of the city of Shenzhen could receive some of China’s central bank digital currency, the e-CNY, as part of an airdrop. Shenzhen is working with one of China’s top food delivery apps to airdrop a total of 30 million e-CNY in a lottery-style giveaway for certain app users. At least 15,000 in-app merchant portals allow the e-CNY as a form of payment. China has stuck to a strict COVID restriction playbook, leading to economic difficulties. The airdrop is intended to spur consumer spending and reinvigorate the economy.South Korean government becomes an early investor in the MetaverseSouth Korea has made several crypto-centric headlines in recent weeks, ranging from its interest in crypto regulation to it now investing in the Metaverse. The country plans on putting roughly $177 million toward the Metaverse as part of its “Digital New Deal” program. The money will go into developing a Metaverse platform touting government services for citizens, as well as toward different Metaverse projects. This investment tags South Korea as a global pioneer in terms of government Metaverse interest.Japan passes bill to limit stablecoin issuance to banks and trust companiesA new bill from Japan, reportedly going into play in 2023, will only allow licensed banks and registered money transfer agents to issue stablecoins. The regulation aims to provide more protection around stablecoins, given their growing popularity. Japan’s intent to regulate stablecoins comes amid a crypto bear market that has seen declining asset prices and the downfall of a major stablecoin, TerraUSD Classic (USTC).Winners and LosersAt the end of the week, Bitcoin (BTC) is at $29,540, Ether (ETH) at $1,750 and XRP at $0.38. The total market cap is at $1.21 trillion, according to CoinMarketCap.Among the biggest 100 cryptocurrencies, the top three altcoin gainers of the week are Waves (WAVES) at 114.63%, Cardano (ADA) at 24.19% and Helium (HNT) at 22.49%.  The top three altcoin losers of the week are Convex Finance (CVX) at -7.51%, Solana (SOL) at -6.93% and 1inch Network (1INCH) at -3.40%.For more info on crypto prices, make sure to read Cointelegraph’s market analysis.Most Memorable Quotations“We could actually imagine the entire global economy running on the blockchain like 30 or 50 years from now.”Marc Andreessen, co-founder of Andreessen Horowitz (a16z)“If properly managed, if well managed, I think algorithmic stablecoins in theory should work.”Changpeng “CZ” Zhao, CEO of Binance“How will we ever reduce wealth inequality when our regulatory system has financial discrimination at its core? It’s time to remove the ‘Sophisticated Investor’ discrimination rules that advisors use to hide behind and allow everyone access to financial advice and services.”Ian Love, CEO and founder of Blockchain Assets“We have changed our position on mining, and also permit the use of cryptocurrency in foreign trade and outside the country.”Ksenia Yudaeva, first deputy governor for the Central Bank of Russia“I don’t think we’re living in a single-chain world.”Brad Garlinghouse, CEO of Ripple Labs“There are too many general-purpose blockchains that are effectively competing with Ethereum (and one another) in a race to the bottom on fees. Only so many of them can survive.”Andrew Levine, CEO of Koinos GroupPrediction of the Week Bitcoin may hit $14K in 2022 but buying BTC now ‘as good as it gets:’ AnalystAlthough Bitcoin charts saw some positive moves during the first part of this week to close out May, June brought back sub-$30,000 price action, based on Cointelegraph’s BTC price index.  Using former BTC price data as a backdrop in line with Bitcoin’s halving cycle (roughly four years), pseudonymous Twitter user and CryptoQuant contributor Venturefounder suggested the asset could see a macro price bottom in the next half-year. As part of a tweet thread, the analyst said Bitcoin could reach a depth between $14,000 and $21,000. The analysis included parallels to 2018, the focal year of the last crypto bear market. Price action currently lines up with historical Bitcoin cycles.FUD of the Week Investors dumping on Terra as LUNA 2 tanks 70% in two daysIn the aftermath of the Terra ecosystem collapse, Terra 2.0 and its related LUNA 2.0 asset launched on May 28, with the price of token falling sharply after the unveiling. Terraform Labs CEO Do Kwon’s revival plan included distributing LUNA 2.0 to certain participants of the old Terra ecosystem. Roughly a day later, Binance announced that it had completed its first airdrop of the new LUNA tokens to certain users. Between the time of Cointelegraph’s Monday article (linked above), and the writing of the Binance airdrop article on Tuesday, LUNA 2.0 rose in price from $5.71 to $9.25.New York State Senate passes Bitcoin mining moratoriumAdditional proof-of-work (PoW) mining operations in New York could be put on hold for a two-year period, pending approval from the state’s governor. A bill temporarily banning new PoW mining outfits, as well as license renewal of current players, was passed by the New York State Senate. One exception to the bill, however, is the allowance of fresh PoW mining players that only use renewable energy for their work.Former product manager at OpenSea charged with insider tradingFormer OpenSea employee Nathaniel Chastain has been charged with insider trading, wire fraud and money laundering. During his time as product manager for the NFT exchange, Chastain allegedly traded numerous NFTs based on non-public knowledge. Claims include that his job allowed him to influence which NFTs the platform’s main page featured, which he then used to his personal advantage. Chastain quit his post at OpenSea after the entity requested his exit as a result of discovering the foul play, according to OpenSea. The development raises questions as to NFTs possibly being tagged as securities.Best Cointelegraph FeaturesYou can now clone NFTs as ‘Mimics’: Here’s what that means“I think I just broke the NFT market.”Fail better: Scott Melker on defying the odds with crypto trading“It’s a math game of taking small losses and big wins.”Anonymous culture in crypto may be losing its relevanceAlthough anonymous teams have built some of the leading infrastructure in crypto, many new participants in the ecosystem are using their real identities.

Coming every Saturday, Hodler’s Digest will help you track every single important news story that happened this week. The best (and worst) quotes, adoption and regulation highlights, leading coins, predictions and much more — a week on Cointelegraph in one link.Top Stories This WeekAndreessen Horowitz closes $4.5 billion crypto fund amid market turmoilVenture capital player Andreessen Horowitz, or a16z, has unveiled a new $4.5 billion cryptocurrency fund. The a16z fund is the fourth of its kind and more than double the amount of its third crypto investment fund. With $3 billion earmarked for venture investments and $1.5 billion for early-seed projects, the fund will look to invest in companies at various stages in their life cycle. Andreessen’s new fund provides a strong indicator that venture capital interest in the crypto market remains high despite evidence of a brutal bear market.JPMorgan places BTC fair price at $38K, declares crypto a preferred alternative assetA client-focused note from JPMorgan this week detailed the banking giant’s thoughts on Bitcoin, claiming $38,000 as the asset’s fair value. The seemingly bullish outlook came on the heels of depressed price action for Bitcoin, which has been rangebound below $30,000. But even in February, when BTC was valued at $43,000, JPMorgan strategists said that $38,000 was fair market value. This week’s client note from JPMorgan also pointed to the possibility of positive price action for the entire crypto space — provided venture capital investment doesn’t waver. WEF 2022: PayPal looks to embrace all possible crypto and blockchain servicesPer comments from vice president Richard Nash, PayPal has its sights set on giving its platform more blockchain and crypto influence. “Just walking slowly in the crypto shield with buy/sell/hold in certain jurisdictions,” Nash told Cointelegraph at the World Economic Forum (WEF) in Davos, Switzerland. “And then looking to work with others to embrace everything we can, whether it’d be the coins that we have today in PayPal digital wallets, private digital currencies or CBDCs in the future.”GameStop unveils beta cryptocurrency wallet and upcoming NFT platformWith time ticking down until GameStop’s NFT marketplace launch, the company has unveiled the beta version of an Ethereum-based wallet. The self-custody crypto and NFT storage solution is called the GameStop Wallet. The browser-based wallet will go hand-in-hand with the company’s future NFT marketplace. GameStop is also developing a mobile app version of the wallet.Korean watchdog begins risk assessment of crypto as Terra 2.0 passes voteKorea’s Financial Supervisory Service (FSS) is working to standardize its evaluation of digital asset risks in the wake of the Terra ecosystem collapse. While the FSS’s standardization efforts have only just begun, they are expected to lead to a legal framework for evaluating digital assets. Meanwhile, Terraform Labs CEO Do Kwon is moving ahead with an ecosystem recovery plan, having gained majority support from his community. The Terra 2.0 ecosystem went live on Friday with a new blockchain and crypto asset. Winners and LosersAt the end of the week, Bitcoin (BTC) is at $28,449, Ether (ETH) at $1,729 and XRP at $0.37. The total market cap is at $1.17 trillion, according to CoinMarketCap.Among the biggest 100 cryptocurrencies, the top three altcoin gainers of the week are BORA (BORA) at 18.15%, Bitcoin Gold (BTG) at 17.79% and Ethereum Classic (ETC) at 11.09%. The top three altcoin losers of the week are TerraClassicUSD (USTC) at -46.13%, STEPN (GMT) at -27.38% and Elrond (EGLD) at -25.70%.For more info on crypto prices, make sure to read Cointelegraph’s market analysis.Most Memorable Quotations“Decentralization truly puts more control and power back into the people’s hands where it belongs.”Sonali Giovino, head of communications for Defiyield“Projects must watch the interests of their community and users because, in the end, that’s the most valuable thing you have.”Nicky Chalabi, ecosystem success and enablement professional at Near Foundation“A lot of the policy and regulatory issues that limit the power of moving money have to do with stripping people of their economic freedoms.”Jeremy Allaire, CEO of Circle“In TradiFi people are thinking, ‘I don’t want to lose money — how can you help me keep my wealth regardless of markets?’ So, it’s very risk-management orientated. While in DeFi, the degens are like, ‘Gimme those triple-digit yields, woo!’”Alexander Fazel, chief partnership officer for SwissBorg“The rise of the term ‘Web3’ is encouraging because it means that people are seeing this underlying technology feed into different applications — the ones they didn’t necessarily expect.”Gavin Wood, co-founder of Polkadot and Ethereum“There’s absolutely no reason that a deed to a house couldn’t be a unique digital asset as long as that asset is created and stored in the correct way.”Alex Altman, chief operating officer of Seal Storage TechnologyPrediction of the Week Bitcoin price may bottom at $15.5K if it retests this lifetime historical support levelBitcoin’s price has continued to struggle in recent days, often trading below $30,000, according to Cointelegraph’s BTC price index. However, the asset could still fall considerably further, according to Rekt Capital. Over the course of Bitcoin’s history, the asset’s price has respected the 200-week moving average (200WMA). “#BTC tends to wick -14% to -28% below the 200-MA,” Rekt Capital detailed as part of a thread on Twitter. “And since the $BTC 200-MA now represents the price point of ~$22000… A -14% downside wick below the 200-MA would result in a ~$19000 Bitcoin,” they added. “And if #BTC were to repeat the March 2020 downside wicking depth below the 200-MA $BTC would revisit the ~$15500 price point.”FUD of the Week ‘Yikes!’ Elon Musk warns users against latest deepfake crypto scamDid you watch a video of Tesla CEO Elon Musk advertising 30% gains via deposits on a crypto platform? Be warned that the video is a scam. Classified as a deepfake, the video was doctored to look real but is not, as verified by a Twitter comment from Musk himself. The video harnesses real footage of Musk doing a TED Talk earlier in 2022, altered to deceive viewers into a scam. Deepfakes are nothing new, however. This recent effort utilizes Musk’s fame in tandem with his known crypto involvement.Crypto spam increases 4,000% in two years — LunarCrushThe last two years have resulted in a 3,894% uptick in crypto-related spam, according to recent data from LunarCrush, a crypto intelligence outfit. One aspect making detection difficult: The undesirable action is not all bot related, with a surprising amount coming from humans. Twitter is a hotbed for spam, based on the LunarCrush data.Targeted phishing scam nets $438K in crypto and NFTs from hacked Beeple accountA hacker or group of hackers recently took over the Twitter account of Mike Winkelmann, a.k.a. Beeple. The hacker(s) that commandeered the well-known NFT artist’s account posted phishing scam tweets, angling the scam around Beeple’s recent collaboration with Louis Vuitton. Although Beeple managed to take back control of his Twitter account, the phishing effort pilfered roughly $438,000 worth of Ether and NFTs from victims.Best Cointelegraph FeaturesThe Moon ‘created’ his lavish reality… and says you can, too“Three years and BOOM, you can be anything you want — a famous musician, a billionaire. It doesn’t matter what you want to do, anything can be done with the right mindset.”Crypto is changing how humanitarian agencies deliver aid and services“It’s almost like the whole idea of a decentralized, distributed model is exactly what worked in terms of how we operated and deployed the system.”How Terra’s collapse will impact future stablecoin regulationsThe collapse of algorithmic stablecoin UST created a ripple effect for the broader crypto market and put regulators on extremely high alert. 

Coming every Saturday, Hodler’s Digest will help you track every single important news story that happened this week. The best (and worst) quotes, adoption and regulation highlights, leading coins, predictions and much more — a week on Cointelegraph in one link.Top Stories This WeekCourt documents reveal Do Kwon dissolved Terraform Labs Korea days before LUNA crashTerraform Labs co-founder dissolved two of the entity’s locations in South Korea, as well as Terraform Labs Korea, just prior to the LUNA and UST collapse, according to legal documents. Although the decision to dissolve the offices was made during an April 30 shareholder meeting, the timing raised eyebrows within the cryptocurrency community. As one might expect, the aftermath of Terra’s implosion continued to reverberate across the market this week. South Korea’s government is looking into the situation and Do Kwon himself could be summoned to a parliamentary hearing. ‘Huge testing milestone‘ for Ethereum: Ropsten testnet Merge set for June 8In the first half of June, Ethereum’s Ropsten testnet merge is scheduled to commence. Put simply, the event will simulate the Ethereum proof-of-work (PoW) mainnet and Ethereum proof-of-stake (PoS) Beacon Chain merge.“Ropsten testnet is getting merged on June 8!” said Prysmatic Labs Ethereum core developer Preston Van Loon. “Merging Ropsten is a huge testing milestone towards Ethereum’s mainnet merge later this year.”Further reporting indicates an August target for the actual merge.China returns as 2nd top Bitcoin mining hub despite the crypto banAlthough China banned crypto in 2021, the country still accounts for about 21% of Bitcoin’s mining power as of January 2022, according to data from the Cambridge Bitcoin Electricity Consumption Index (CBECI). Back in 2019, China held over 75% of the world’s Bitcoin hash rate. Although 21% is a step down from its former glory, the number puts China in second place in terms of BTC’s global hash rate, with the United States in first. The CBECI also included data on other countries, revealing that the states of Kentucky, Georgia and Texas currently lead BTC hash rate production in the U.S.Crypto giants co-launch Chainabuse platform to water down rising scamsThe crypto community now has a free platform for raising awareness about scams and other nefarious activity, thanks to combined efforts from Circle, Aave, TRM Labs, Civic, Hedera, The Solana Foundation and Binance.US. The online platform, called Chainabuse, offers both individuals and businesses a place to provide awareness about fraud in crypto and finance. Additionally, the platform includes a database of hacks and scams.Goldman Sachs and Barclays invest in UK crypto trading platform ElwoodElwood Technologies, an institutional crypto trading platform, has secured investment from two mainstream giants: Barclays and Goldman Sachs. Part of a Series A funding round, the investments from the mega banks came alongside other players, such as Galaxy Digital. Goldman sees increasing institutional crypto interest, according to global head of digital assets Matthew McDermott. “As institutional demand for cryptocurrency rises, we have been actively broadening our market presence and capabilities to cater for client demand,” he said.Winners and LosersAt the end of the week, Bitcoin (BTC) is at $29,037, Ether (ETH) at $1,943 and XRP at $0.40. The total market cap is at $1.24 trillion, according to CoinMarketCap.Among the biggest 100 cryptocurrencies, the top three altcoin gainers of the week are Kyber Network Crystal v2 (KNC) at 46.16%, KuCoin Token (KCS) at 19.99% and Kadena (KDA) at 17.37%. The top three altcoin losers of the week are TerraUSD (UST) at -62.18%, Convex Finance (CVX) at -23.47% and Helium (HNT) at -21.56%. For more info on crypto prices, make sure to read Cointelegraph’s market analysis.Most Memorable Quotations“When the market is hot, it’s hard to focus because there is so much noise.”Aleksandra Artamonovskaja, partnerships lead at Joyn“Focusing on and investing in user experience is the road to mass adoption and to the new world of Web3.”Dominik Schiener, co-founder and chairman of the Iota Foundation“Ethereum’s overwhelming mindshare helps explain why its users have been willing to pay more than $15 million in fees per day on average just to use the blockchain.”Andreessen Horowitz (a16z)“If you create an algorithmic stablecoin and you don’t expect speculative attacks, welcome to the real world.”Mike McGlone, senior commodity strategist for Bloomberg“ESG is a scam. It has been weaponized by phony social justice warriors.”Elon Musk, CEO of Tesla“Crypto as a technology and asset class introduces value and innovation that are unique and irreplaceable, and we believe that one bad apple in the short run will not affect long-term demand for crypto assets and the industry as a whole.”Jun Du, co-founder of Huobi GlobalPrediction of the Week Bitcoin price predictions abound as traders focus on the next BTC halving cycleBitcoin remained in the doldrums this week, reflecting uncertainty and subdued demand across the digital asset space. Speculation on where BTC might head next revolves around the timing of the asset’s four-year halving cycle, as well as Bitcoin’s previous price action. One possible outcome, based on the halving cycle, sees BTC’s price potentially bottoming in the final two months of 2022. Some speculators, however, remain hopeful for an upcoming $100,000 blow-off top for BTC. FUD of the Week Deus Finance’s dollar-pegged stablecoin DEI falls below 60 centsDEI, an algorithmic stablecoin of the Deus Finance project, declined to $0.52 earlier this week. The asset was meant to hold value on par with $1. However, DEUS, the project’s governance token, increased significantly in price, reaching $327.28 at one point, up from $163.40. The DEI price collapse came after the protocol experienced two flash loan attacks in recent months. Fears of a UST-style bank run on the asset also compelled Deus Finance developers to pause DEI redemptions.South Korean watchdog reportedly fines Terraform Labs $78M for tax evasionTerraform Labs and Do Kwon reportedly must pay $78 million due to tax evasion, according to news outlet Naver. The tax evasion charges come from South Korea’s tax authority. This is not the first time Terraform Labs has raised red flags on tax evasion. The company first appeared on tax authorities’ radar in June 2021 on suspicions of corporate and income tax evasion.Axie Infinity’s Discord bot compromised, hackers issue fake minting messageThe Discord channel for GameFi NFT project Axie Infinity saw its MEE6 bot (a commonly-used tool on Discord for channel management) compromised this week. Among its wrongful actions, the apprehended bot put out an untrue minting announcement. MEE6 bot takeovers are reportedly nothing new. The situation was fixed, although users may have to restart Discord for the changes to take effect. The MEE6 Discord support channel did not acknowledge the suspicious activity.Best Cointelegraph FeaturesWhat really goes on at a crypto OTC desk?“Odds are that a single seller in the order book is not able to transact such a large amount as 100 BTC. Hence, you will need to buy from multiple sellers at higher prices.”Life-changing money: The 10 most expensive NFTs sold to dateWith nonfungible tokens raking in incredible prices, have a look at the 10 most expensive NFTs sold to date.Indian government’s ‘blockchain not crypto’ stance highlights lack of understandingIndia’s “blockchain, not crypto” stance has led to disastrous crypto policies, forcing several thriving crypto firms to relocate.