Illustration by Mitchell Preffer for Decrypt
The Bitcoin spot ETF hangover has dissipated, and the tall, frothy mug of Ethereum spot ETF buzz is still being poured, leaving a lot of space at the crypto bar for talking, arguing, and the occasional brawl.
We were probably overdue for an Elon Musk-related pump, and the eccentric tech mogul indirectly delivered on Monday when a new gold checkmark-toting Twitter account popped up with the username @XPayments. It was discovered shortly after Musk again teased that he was building “the everything app.”
Crypto Twitter was whipped into a frenzy over the possibility that the X app would support transactions in Dogecoin (DOGE) and Shiba Inu (SHIB)—a possibility conjured out of whole cloth, mind you—sending the two meme tokens skyrocketing. Dogecoin’s spike was the highest daily price since April 3, 2023, but still falls short of the $0.1 mark it achieved on its 10th anniversary last year.
Meanwhile, there were airdrops a plenty as projects jumped on the “free money” bandwagon, most offering incentives to both long-term true believers and crypto curious newbies. So prevalent were such token giveaways, however, that alarm bells over potential scams were nearly as plentiful.
So let me get this straight….
A project called RSIC airdropped 80% of a 21,000 supply to Bitcoin Puppets, Bitcoin Frogs, NodeMonkes, and OMB holders. Then kept 20% of the supply.
The promise is “this is the first ever rune of Bitcoin”.
If you listened to the most recent… pic.twitter.com/Eu0PZbRI7D
— jake.sats (@jakegallen_) January 22, 2024
The nature of blockchain allows anyone to send a token—legitimate or not—directly to your wallet. At best, this means a bit of a mess for digital neat freaks. At worst, a scam could be easily added to your collection and carry various tricks and hacks to get users to interact with it.
** WARNING **
If you ever get random airdrops in your wallets — 100% of THE TIME THEY ARE SCAMS… NEVER CLICK ANYTHING YOU DIDN’T PERSONALLY PUT IN YOUR WALLET YOURSELF
Always double / triple check before clicking random links & connecting your wallet to sites
— Johnny (@CryptoGodJohn) January 26, 2024
The irresistible pitch of Palworld—better known as “Pokemon with guns”—also got the tweets flowing this week, and even Pokemon faithful were finding traction with the wacky crypto knockoff.
The viewership for the Palworld streams has been incredible. Genuinely expected to have 200 people max so this is mind-blowing.
This is a great break from Pokémon but I’m excited to get back into it in a while before Pokémon Day! pic.twitter.com/TuVWSSrkGv
— REVERSAL (@REVERSALx7) January 28, 2024
The more common conclusion, however, was that legal action over the obvious derivative was inevitable.
If imitation is the sincerest form of flattery, however, 1990s-era game Dragon Warrior—now Dragon Quest—is hopefully feeling very flattered.
The resurgence of NFTs of both the conventional and Bitcoin Ordinals variety, meanwhile, isn’t child’s play. New projects have drawn wealthy backers, landed high-end partners, and are exploring more of the five senses.
Finally, despite his legal woes, Donald Trump continues to Donald Trump, recently fueling debate in the crypto space with an apparently newfound disdain for central bank digital currencies (CBDCs).
Trump is now anti-CBDC.
At a rally, Trump said he would never allow the creation of CBDCs.
We can all thank Vivek Ramaswamy for persuading Trump about CBDCs.
Let’s see if he can persuade Trump on Bitcoin and crypto in general. pic.twitter.com/37ULMYwyRw
— Lark Davis (@TheCryptoLark) January 27, 2024
And despite the former president’s inability to sustain NFT collections, degens are all over Trump-inspired meme tokens: $DONALD, $TRUMP, $MAGA… And many of them are at war with each other.
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