In a recent interview with WSJ, Munger compared the cryptocurrency industry to a dirty prank.
In his latest comments deriding the asset class, the Berkshire don called the blockchain industry a “stinkball” in finance.
Charlie Munger Blasts Crypto ‘Stinkball’
Charlie Munger’s extended remarks on cryptocurrency for the interview with WSJ’s Karen Langley did give crypto credit for being disruptive:
“The only way to get from hunter-gathering to civilization that we know of that’s ever worked is to have a strong currency[…] It can be gold coins, it can be promises in banking systems[…] When you start creating an artificial currency… you’re throwing your stink ball into a recipe that’s been around for a long time, that’s worked very well for a lot of people.”
That’s a bit

It’s official. Nayib Bukele will be running for another term as El Salvador’s President next year.
The popular reformer, anti-violence crusader, and Bitcoin advocate needed an election tribunal’s go-ahead to run again.
Tribunal Greenlights Bukele Reelection Bid
Under El Salvador’s constitution, a President is limited to a 5-year term. Moreover, consecutive terms are also banned under the nation’s constitution.
A go-ahead from a special Supreme Electoral Tribunal, however, has put Bukele back in the 2024 presidential election. The decision follows a 2021 ruling by El Salvador’s Supreme Court of Justice allowing Bukele to seek a second term.
Bukele announced as far back as 2022 that he would be seeking reelection to another 5-year term as President. In September last year,

In September, a Seattle startup lab of white hat hackers sent proof to a senior writer at WIRED Magazine that they could crack the IronKey S200 thumb drive containing 7002 Bitcoins.
But former Ripple CTO Stefan Thomas incredibly refused an offer by the Seattle startup, named Unciphered, to access the USB drive for him.
Fmr. Ripple CTO Getting Closer to His 7002 Bitcoins
Thomas told WIRED that he had already hired another team to work on the problem for him.
The former Ripple Labs chief wants to give them a fair shake at retrieving the 7002 Bitcoins before hiring another company. He mentioned they might subcontract the Seattle firm if they can’t get a workable solution together.
The cybersecurity firm that cracked IronKey S200 is not revealing its method. They did, however,

TL;DR
Central Bank Adoption: The Central Bank of Nigeria referenced a 2020 Ripple Labs study, indicating 85% of payment leaders from 22 nations anticipate a CBDC launch in their countries within the next four years.
National Digital Currency Update: By 2022, 100 CBDCs were in progress, with Nigeria’s eNaira and the Bahamian sand dollar as notable launches. However, Nigerians have been slower to embrace the eNaira compared to global cryptocurrencies.
Crypto Popularity in Nigeria: Amidst inflation challenges, Nigeria’s young, tech-savvy population is driving rapid cryptocurrency adoption, propelling the nation to the second spot on Chainalysis’ 2023 Global Crypto Adoption Index.

In a recent study on central bank digital currencies, the Central Bank of Nigeria cites Ripple

Bitcoin price surged in a breakout rally to briefly touch $35,000 this month. But Euro Pacific Capital’s founder and chief global strategist doesn’t think it will last.
This month saw the ever-widening buzz surrounding a hotly anticipated approval by the SEC of a spot Bitcoin ETF. The excitement has pushed blowout Bitcoin sales on crypto exchanges.
But leave it to “Dr. Doom” (as Peter Schiff was nicknamed by the CNBC crowd during the housing bubble) to balk at Bitcoin’s sudden change of fortunes.
Peter Schiff Isn’t Impressed with Bitcoin’s Rally
Schiff recently remarked that a final SEC approval will end Bitcoin’s spot ETF rally. The EuroPac chief says once BTC is actually approved for a spot ETF product, the rally will lose steam.
He also noted the possibility that

TL’DR
BlackRock CEO Larry Fink praises the Bitcoin network, citing pent-up interest in crypto and a flight to quality as drivers of the recent rally.
Confidence in SEC approval of a Bitcoin ETF is growing, reinforcing Bitcoin’s quality and mainstream adoption, as evidenced by increased stablecoin flows into Bitcoin.
The ongoing trial of Sam Bankman-Fried highlights the narrative that decentralized cryptocurrencies like Bitcoin are more reliable and of higher quality, leading to a “flight to safety” amid market turmoil and inflation concerns, as noted by analysts.

Fink’s recently gave high praise for the Bitcoin (BTC) network.
Furthermore, the CEO of the world’s largest hedge fund, with over $9.4 trillion in AUM (assets under management), said this October’s stunning

Ripple (XRP) is the 5th largest crypto by market cap behind BTC, ETH, USDT, and BNB. In mid-October 2023, Ripple had a market capitalization of $26.6 billion.
XRP price began to rally again in mid-October after six months of hardly moving (other than a July spike that lasted about a few weeks).
Here are six major XRP price factors moving forward:
1. Tailwind: SEC Drops Charges Against Ripple Executives
Ripple tokens jumped to 6% gains on the 7-day window Thursday after markets welcomed news of an SEC retreat on two key parts of its Ripple lawsuit.
The Securities and Exchange Commission said in court papers it is dropping all claims against two key Ripple executives.
That will spare both executives a jury trial. The dropped charges leave the case down to negotiating over

While giving a recent keynote address for Zoom’s 2023 Zoomtopia Conference, the Berkshire vice president said Bitcoin is the “stupidest investment I ever saw.”
He didn’t stop there, though. Charlie Munger went on to say that most cryptocurrencies aren’t just unprofitable, but he thinks bagholders will eventually lose all their money:
“Don’t get me started on Bitcoins. Most of those investments are going to zero.”
Now, he’s not entirely wrong on that second count.
Charlie Munger: Most Cryptos Are ‘Going to Zero’
Referring to all cryptos as “Bitcoins,” Munger is correct that most cryptocurrencies will likely go to zero. At least so far, that has historically been true of cryptocurrency projects.
There have been thousands of new crypto projects created since the genesis of

Orange prices have been on the rise since 2020, but this August, the commodities futures markets expect them to surge.
At the same time, orange juice futures are hitting record highs:
“In recent weeks, prices in the OJ futures market have topped $3 per pound. Around this time last year, prices were hovering at around $1.81 per pound.
The price increase has been fueled primarily by short citrus supply around the globe.”
Imagine how pricey oranges could get if the supply was limited to 21 million.
Oranges and Bitcoin Prices on a 3-Year Peel
Whether bitcoin’s price surges in August is an open question for the market. However, IMF data from the Fed shows orange prices have been spiraling out of control since January 2020, like BTCUSD.
Global Prices of Oranges. Source: ImgurThe

Bitcoin is down for the week, but it’s still up about 50% YTD. Meanwhile, Bitcoin mining stocks have jumped by over 200% year-to-date. One miner stock, Cipher Mining (CIFR), is up by a whopping 389% for the year so far.
Bitcoin price fell 10% against USD Thursday amid speculations that SpaceX might have sold its remaining holdings. That brings the most work-based cryptocurrency down to what may be a bargain price at this time in its halving cycle, at under $26,000.
While markets are watching crypto prices after this week’s turbulence, crypto stocks are another class of blockchain assets in the bargain bin this week, especially with their soaring YTD trendline.
Bitcoin Miners Are Popping on Wall Street
Crypto stocks are up by quite a bit more this far into 2023 than the

Bitcoin’s price has basically been on pause since mid-June, as the asset trades range-bound since then. The exchange rate of BTC to USD remained above $29,000, with resistance at $30,000. It’s as if markets are waiting on the SEC’s spot Bitcoin ETF approvals.
In fact, one metric of bitcoin’s price stability touched five-year historic lows at the beginning of August. Weirdly, BTC was even less volatile than U.S. stocks briefly this month.
But with each new application for a spot Bitcoin ETF, there’s more bullish pressure on BTC’s chart. Institutional investors are wetting their whistle for blockchain exposure via an ETF product they can understand, with a Tradfi partner they can trust.
The list of spot ETF applications for Bitcoin is long and growing. When the first

The U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission is leaving securities enforcement up to the CFTC when it comes to cryptocurrency. While the commission rushes ahead of Congress to write the entire federal crypto policy by lawsuit, the CFTC is going for more clear-cut violations.
The Commodity Futures Trading Commission took the lead late last week and filed charges of securities fraud against a cryptocurrency business in Florida. It filed the charges in the U.S. District Court for the Middle District of Florida.
CFTC Charges Florida Residents for Crypto Scam
The CFTC charged four individuals in three states and their unregistered entity “Fundsz” with allegations of securities fraud Friday:
“The complaint charges them with fraudulent solicitation from clients to purportedly

Michael Burry, one of the Tradfi banking industry’s most notorious bears, just put a $1.6 billion hit out on the U.S. stock market. What happens to bitcoin while the grownups are fighting?
The Scion Capital founder, who famously shorted mortgage-backed securities before the 2007 housing crisis, just gave the stock market a $1.6 billion shove of puts in SPY and QQQ!
Michael Burry Bets $1.6B on Stock Market Crash
Steve Anderson writes at TipRanks:
“Michael Burry made a name for himself by shorting the market to the point where they made a movie about him called ‘The Big Short.’ But is he preparing for a time when lightning will strike twice?”
During the U.S. subprime mortgage crisis, big bets against Wall Street’s housing market earned Burry $100 million in personal profit.

Fidelity recently asked its X followers to choose a new bill denomination. Two hours later, more than half the answers were cryptocurrencies. It’s another sign of crypto’s ascendance in the global economy.
The trillion-dollar multinational finance company wanted to know what new bill denomination their social media followers would come up with:

You get to choose a new bill denomination (don’t ask, just roll with it). What are you choosing, and why?
— Fidelity Investments (@Fidelity) August 11, 2023

It must have been such Kens replying. Within two hours, more than half the answers were about crypto.
‘$BTC, and #DOGECOIN, and $Sats…’ oh my!
BTC and SATS were among the top replies in the resulting tweet thread. Moreover, someone was relegated to the “offensive content” link

As BTC’s USD exchange rate settled Thursday from a Tuesday high above $30,000 to the mid-$29Ks, a Family Guy crypto meme started making the rounds on X.com:

JUST IN – If You Had Invested $100 In #Bitcoin When Peter From ‘Family Guy’ Said “#Bitcoin” For The First Time, You’d Have $6,637.08 today a profit of 6,537.08% 👀 pic.twitter.com/p75UlynUVM
— Simply Bitcoin (@SimplyBitcoinTV) August 10, 2023

A $100 investment in Bitcoin the day Peter Griffin said, “Bitcoin” on Family Guy would be worth $6,637.08 at today’s exchange rate. Apparently, the hit television cartoon mentioned Bitcoin very early on (Feb 2016.)
Here’s BTC’s ROI Since Simpsons did it in 2020
Asking Google Bard if “Simpsons did it first,” the large language model chatbot said:
“In the Season 31 episode

But it’s also understandable that FTX creditors are looking for a less stinky exit. The FTX 2.0 reboot proposal is in the reorganization plan filed Monday, July 31.
FTX 2.0 Exchange Plans Have High Hopes
News of the filing caused FTT tokens to spike from $1.34 to 1.55. But soon after, they settled even lower than before. Anyone holding FTT tokens and scanning like a hawk for the opportunity had a brief window to sell with some cushion.
As it turns out, the idea has several downsides. To begin with, it would be like bringing back Enron, or the Exxon Valdez, or Lehman Brothers.
What is the point of that instead of starting from scratch like the Kraken CEO suggested?
“FTX 2.0 would be worse than starting from scratch. No team, no tech, no licenses, no banking, tarnished

Lawyers for Coinbase Global asked a U.S. judge Friday to dismiss a suit by the Securities and Exchange Commission. They brought the arguments to back up their request.
Coinbase lawyers ask judge to dismiss SEC lawsuit
The SEC lawsuit filed June 6, alleges the crypto exchange is an unregistered securities broker and exchange. In the motion to dismiss the suit, Coinbase says:
“The SEC misreads Howey in asserting that a ‘scheme’ without a contractual undertaking will suffice.”
Moreover:
“Recent crypto cases do not support the SEC’s efforts to use ‘scheme’ as an escape hatch from statutory text.”
And furthermore:
“The SEC’s effort to portray a simple asset sale as a security is an unprecedented stretch.”
Then, the motion goes on to absolutely pulverize the SEC’s allegations

Bitcoin price has cautiously ratcheted upward since Jan. A rising trend channel from $16,600 to $30,000 almost doubled the spot price of BTC in H1.
The price changed in three phases, with blistering rallies that happened in January, March, and June.
Here’s what large language model chatbot Google Bard has to say about the best day of the week to buy cryptocurrencies like Bitcoin, Ethereum, and Ripple.
Cheapest Day of the Week to Buy Crypto?
There’s no telling for sure if markets will cool down for now or soar higher in the short term.
Investors looking to accumulate crypto in regular small increments for the long term, however, might consider making Saturdays their go-to weekday for stacking sats.
Buying a set amount of crypto or stocks on a weekly schedule is a classic

Ken’s job in the Barbie movie might literally be Bitcoin.
Influencers across the crypto sphere went wild for Robbie’s remarks last week. During a recent interview, the Australian actress (Wolf of Wall Street, Suicide Squad) said Bitcoin talk is “Big Ken Energy.”
Ken, of course, is Barbie’s boyfriend. The Ken doll first debuted in 1961, and Ken accompanies Barbie on her adventures in this year’s high-grossing comedic fantasy movie.
He’s had many jobs over the years, but some context from the 2023 Barbie film may shed light on Margot Robbie mentioning cryptocurrency in connection with Ken.
Here’s what Robbie told an interviewer in a celebrity panel discussion with America Ferrera next to her.

Margot Robbie: Bitcoin = ‘Big Ken Energy’
Robbie said when she would overhear her

The demand for Pepe Coin ROI is insatiable. 2.0 knockoffs have already racked up enormous gains in July. As Pepe 2.0 rallied through the roof on Ethereum during the last week in June, one trader made $175,000 in just a day of riveting profit-taking.
Due to the relative anonymity of Web 3.0 users, we don’t know who the mystery trader is. But they left their tracks all over the blockchain. The on-chain transaction data tells the entire story.
Using the popular decentralized exchange, Uniswap, the crypto trader locked in 8.3T Pepe 2.0 tokens on June 28 at 8 am for $900.
They got into Pepe 2.0 at the right time.
Pepe 2.0 Melt-up Earns Trader $175,000 in a Day
Just ten hours later, from June 28, 6 pm until 3 am the following morning, this hero began selling. The project heated

Proof of work (POW) cryptocurrencies absolutely dominated gains last week. The SEC’s actions and plunging energy prices might be why. Plus, there’s Litecoin’s halving event happening next month.
But there’s no denying the market’s recent moves. In fact, proof of work’s dominance during the last week in June was so absolute that four out of the five top gainers on the 7-day pane were such assets:
Bitcoin Cash (BCH) 7-day gains: 53%
eCash (XEC) 7-day gains: 44%
Bitcoin Satoshi’s Vision (BSV) 7-day gains: 38%
Litecoin (LTC) 7-day gains: 25%
The only cryptocurrency to rally higher than these the week ending July 2 was Compound (COMP). That all four of these surging rallies were for POW coins is definitely a conspicuous pattern. Two other top gainers for the week are also POW

The U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission went ham on crypto exchanges last week by filing toothy lawsuits against Binance and Coinbase. While crypto exchanges and altcoins are in the hot seat, the regulator is leaving BTC and ETH alone, at least for now.
When news of the SEC’s lawsuit against Binance and Coinbase hit markets, the prices of all assets plunged across the board. BNB crashed 10% in 24 hours. It lost another 5% on Sunday and kept dumping on Monday to a multi-month low at $223.
Bitcoin prices plummeted from the $27,100 handle Sunday to $25,750 Monday. But the world’s oldest and most well-capitalized cryptocurrency blockchain recovered quickly.
BTC and ETH Rally with SEC’s New Suits Priced in
BTC bounced back to above the $27,000 level on Tuesday, even as news

Watch that little blue line on Google Trends for “bitcoin” hit the ceiling if the U.S. defaults on its debt. BTC might suffer at first as markets go risk-off, but could easily shine in another global financial crisis.
House Republicans reached a tentative deal with President Joe Biden’s White House over the Memorial Day Weekend. The deal would help raise the debt limit imposed by Congress on federal borrowing.
But it isn’t yet assured. House Democrats are unhappy with some of the last-minute concessions made by the Biden Administration. Meanwhile, Republicans may not back the bill born of the recent debt limit deal. U.S. Senator Rand Paul (R-KY) says he will not be voting for it in the Senate.
U.S. Debt Deal Reached, but not Final
The Treasury could begin running short to

The Ripple lawsuit is now rounding out its 29th month. Ripple Labs (XRP) has spent over $200M defending itself in court. Cardano and Ethereum founder Charles Hoskinson said it will probably be resolved in June.
During a recent “Surprise AMA” interview on YouTube, a viewer asked Hoskinson:
“Charles, do you think the Ripple case gets resolved soon?”
To which Mr. Hoskinson answered:
“Yes, I do. I think it’s probably next month.”
The co-founder of Ethereum and founder and driving force behind Cardano (ADA) had no further comment in response to the question. He went on to the next after predicting the Ripple lawsuit will be resolved next month.
AMA is an acronym for “Ask Me Anything,” a social community-oriented live interview with a special guest. The format originated on

The ordinals are coming in dank this week. Bitcoin Frogs was the #1 selling NFT collection for the 24-hour period on Wednesday. Frogs sales outpaced Bored Apes Yacht Club, CryptoPunks, and other popular collections for the day.
The BRC-20 memecoin project describes itself as “10,000 unique frog collectibles minted directly on the Bitcoin Blockchain.” As of publication time, 3,700 frogs had owners. Meanwhile, hundreds were listed for sale on NFT marketplaces.
That gecko that sells insurance might be worrying these days about losing his job to Pepe the Frog. Cryptocurrency NFTs inspired by PEPE Coin on Ethereum are all the rage in the ecosystem this year.
Bitcoin Frogs Hops to #1 in NFT Trading Volume
According to data from CryptoSlam, a leading aggregator of on-chain NFT

Synthetix (SNX) is trading 10% up over the 24-hour period. The recent spike in price comes amid a new proposal.
SNX bulls likely have PEPE madness to thank for the market bump. The classic meme frog cryptocurrency is adding value to every market it touches. Volumes surged 150% in the wake of Synthetix Improvement Proposal (SIP) 2014. That would add PEPE coin markets to the L2 blockchain.
Synthetix is a decentralized exchange for trading “synthetic” crypto assets. It operates in the blockchain ecosystem as both a Layer-2 scaling solution and DEX.
The project was launched in Sept 2017 by Kain Warwick. Synthetix lives on the Ethereum and Optimism mainnets.
SNX skyrocketed last year when the network introduced atomic swaps.
This week, the crypto got a big price bump out of a

It’s been a big week for Worldcoin, the blockchain brainchild of OpenAI CEO Sam Altman. The blockchain biometrics project is closing a $100 million funding deal. The investors in this round include new backers in addition to previous ones.
Worldcoin’s $100 Million Seed Round
Past seed round investors in Worldcoin include a16z (Andreessen Horowitz), Coinbase’s venture capital division, Khosla Ventures, and even Sam Bankman-Fried.
(The disgraced FTX founder is currently defending against multiple U.S. criminal charges and enforcement actions.)
Fortune reports:
“The funding news is a bright spot in a bleak year for crypto investments. Venture funding for Web3 startups plummeted from $9.1 billion in the first quarter of 2022 to $1.7 billion in 2023, an 82% year-over-year

The dramatically popular debut of Pepe coin this year has put frog meme cryptos in the spotlight. While the new Ethereum ERC-20 token launched on April 15th, Pepe coin went parabolic starting May 1st, and that would soon blow out sales of Pepe (SOL) as well.
The price madness was a bullish portent for Ethereum and DeFi crypto blockchains.
Moreover, it was so popular on crypto exchanges that supporters compared it to DOGE and SHIB. That was during the beginning of May amidst the flash rally.
Pepe Coin Surge Shifts Attention Elsewhere
After the Pepe coin price settled from its all-time high, it got legs and rallied again Friday, May 12th. As a result, markets have more evidence that PEPE is a project with long-term horizons, not a rug pull. That might be giving confidence

Pepe (PEPE) price correlated with Bitcoin (BTC) over the seven-day chart. While the froggy new ERC-20 token powered by the Ethereum blockchain fell in price on the days BTC did, it rallied along with BTC on Friday into the weekend.
Bitcoin’s price dive over the last week was a two-month low. Moreover, it was the leading cryptocurrency’s worst week of the year.
Feels good, man
As CoinMarketCap notes, the Pepe coin launched in 2023 is distinct from Pepe Cash (PEPECASH):
“Pepe is not to be confused with Pepe Cash, another meme coin that was launched in 2016 and is used to buy and sell rare Pepe artworks on the Counterparty platform.”
Pepe coin (PEPE) did not exist before April 16, 2023. Its anonymous creators launched the deflationary supply, fungible token meme coin without

While Bitcoin had whittled down waitlisted transaction orders by Wednesday, network congestion remains high. Median confirmation time hovered markedly above ten minutes. The on-chain metric for Bitcoin network fulfillment sits at a high unseen since Feb 2023 and Dec 2022.
Meanwhile, hundreds of thousands of transactions at a time sit waiting to be confirmed. That’s far above normal levels in the tens of thousands. The extent of network lag is so high that at least one longtime Bitcoin proponent says it’s a DDoS attack by BTC senders attaching BRC-20 ordinals scripts.
Binance Turns to Lightning Network
Processing time started looking better during the week, but the network hasn’t nearly recovered to normal speeds. To handle long wait times and high fees, Binance had to