Musk hints at suing Microsoft, U.S. Republic wants Gensler fired and more: Hodler’s Digest, April 16-22

Top news this week

Elon Musk threatens Microsoft with lawsuit, says AI was trained on Twitter data

Microsoft has been threatened with a lawsuit by Twitter CEO Elon Musk, who alleged that the Big Tech company illegally trained its AI on Twitter data. The entrepreneur suggested that Microsoft extract user tweets to train its applications based on artificial intelligence. Musk tweeted that it was time for the lawsuit after Microsoft reportedly stopped supporting Twitter through its online social advertising tools. Musk and Microsoft are believed to disagree on artificial intelligence. The tech billionaire is developing a rival to ChatGPT known as TruthGPT. Microsoft owns a 49% stake in OpenAI, the company behind ChatGPT.

Rep. Davidson to introduce legislation to fire SEC chief Gensler over cryptocurrency glut

U.S. Representative Warren Davidson announced plans to introduce legislation to fire Securities and Exchange Commission Chairman Gary Gensler. According to the lawmaker, the upcoming bill is intended to “correct a long line of abuses.” Davidson revealed the plan after the SEC’s latest attempt to revise the definition of “exchange.” The week hasn’t been the best for Gensler. During an oversight hearing, Gensler was heavily criticized for his approach to cryptocurrencies.

Australia installs more Bitcoin ATMs than all of Asia

Australia has overtaken the Asian continent in terms of the total number of cryptocurrencies installed. Since the beginning of 2023, the country has been engaged in a series of ATM cryptocurrency installations, climbing from fifth to third position in the rankings only in January. Data from Coin ATM Radar confirms that Australia has maintained the effort to install avenues for fiat-to-crypto conversions, reaching 364 crypto ATMs across the country, behind the United States and Canada.

Société Générale subsidiary launches euro-pegged stablecoin on Ethereum

Societe Generale-Forge, a regulated subsidiary of the French banking firm Societe Generale, has launched a euro-pegged stablecoin for qualified institutional clients. Dubbed EUR CoinVertible, the stablecoin was designed in response to growing demand for a new settlement asset for on-chain transactions, Societe Generale-Forge said. The stablecoin will offer new solutions for corporate treasury; liquidity management and cash pooling; on-chain liquidity financing and refinancing solutions.

Intel will stop making chips for Bitcoin miners

Intel has reportedly announced plans to discontinue its line of Blockscale Bitcoin mining chips in an effort to cut costs. The decision comes nearly a year after the company announced the hardware lineup. The chipmaker will stop accepting orders for the Blockscale 1000-series ASICs by October and is estimated to finish shipping in April 2024. Mining companies Argo Blockchain, Block, Hive Blockchain Technologies and Griid Infrastructure were among the first to integrate the technology into their operations.

Winners and losers

At the end of the week, Bitcoin (bitcoins) it’s at $27,331Ether (ETH) TO $1,845 AND XRP TO $0.44. The total market capitalization is a $1.15 trillion, according to CoinMarketCap.

Among the 100 biggest cryptocurrencies, the top three altcoins gainers of the week are Casper (RSPR) at 3.51%, OKB (OK) at 3.33% and UNUS SED LEO (LEO) at 2.06%.

The top three altcoin losers of the week are SingularityNET (AGIX) at -23.73%, immutable (IMX) at -23.28% and stacks (STX) to -22.94%.

For more information on cryptocurrency prices, be sure to read Cointelegraphs’ market analysis.

The most memorable quotes

Cryptocurrencies are not a new financial product, but an evolution or fundamental change in the way individuals and organizations exchange value with each other.

Gabby KuzCEO of the Global Digital Asset & Cryptocurrency Association

When I am asked to consult or advise for [stablecoin] projects […], my first piece of advice now has become to avoid US operations and a US domicile. Work is going elsewhere.

Austin Campbelladjunct professor at Columbia Business School

I think we were at the end of the era where there’s going to be these, like, giant, giant models. Well, make them better in other ways.

Sam AltmanCEO of OpenAI

I’m going to start something I call TruthGPT, or a truth-seeking maximal artificial intelligence that seeks to understand the nature of the universe.

Elon Musktechnology entrepreneur

I think we really should end up going to court [against the SEC] to get the clarity we need and create case law.

Brian ArmstrongCEO of Coinbase

To correct a long line of abuses, I am introducing legislation that removes the chairman of the Securities and Exchange Commission and replaces the role with an executive director who reports to the board (where the authority lies).

Warren DavidsonUS representative

Prediction of the week

Bitcoin retreats from recent highs and loses support

Bitcoin and a number of altcoins have dropped below their respective support levels, a worrying sign that the bulls may be losing their grip. On April 21, Bitcoin and most major cryptocurrencies pulled back from their recent local highs, signaling traders booking profits.

The creator of the Bollinger Bands, John Bollinger, said in a recent tweet that Bitcoin had pulled down from the upper Bollinger Band and reached the central bank, near its breakout level. He said it was a logical place and advised traders to be careful.

The BTC/USDT pair could then drop to $26,500 and subsequently the neckline of the inverse head-and-shoulders pattern at $25,250. If the price rebounds from $25,250, it will indicate that the neckline serves as the higher floor, according to Cointelegraph price analysis.

FUD of the week

MetaMask Denies Claims of Wallet Exploit in Massive $10 Million Hack

MetaMask has denied claims that an exploit of its wallet is to blame for a massive wallet drain that has claimed over $10.5 million in NFTs and coins since December 2022, including 5,000 Ether. According to MetaMask, digital assets have been stolen from various addresses on 11 blockchains. It is unclear how the attack occurred. Experts speculate that there was some sort of private key or seed phrase leak.

Tornado Cash developer Alex Pertsev is about to be released from prison under surveillance

After nearly nine months in prison, Tornado Cash developer Alex Pertsev will be released from prison. Dutch authorities arrested Pertsev in August last year on suspicion of money laundering through the cryptocurrency mixing service Tornado Cash. Pertsev should be home by April 26, which is also his birthday. Its suspended release under surveillance means that the developer can wait out the process from home.

SafeMoon hacker agrees to return 80% of stolen funds, says development team

The attacker who stole $8.9 million of Binance Coin from SafeMoon agreed to return 80% of the funds. As per the agreement between the DeFi protocol and the hacker, the remaining 20% ​​will be withheld as bounty. SafeMoon has also agreed not to bring any legal action against them, arguing that the decision is in the best interests of SafeMoon and its community. According to some Web3 developers, increasing bug bounties and paying them more diligently could motivate hackers to report bugs instead of exploiting them.

Cointelegraph’s best features

Cryptocurrency Regulation: Does SEC Chairman Gary Gensler Have the Final Say?

The SEC chairman recently said that nearly all cryptocurrencies will be regulated as securities. Questions remain as to whether this is an accurate claim and whether the agency is regulating the tokens by enforcement.

This is how Ethereum ZK rollups can become interoperable

A single ZK-rollup cannot scale Ethereum. But by working together in an interoperable ecosystem, ZK-rollup and ETH can conquer the world.

From SNL and The Tonight Show to Sothebys: NFT creator Bryan Brinkman

Bryan Brinkman has embarked on a journey from working on SNL and The Tonight Show to becoming a full-time NFT animation artist.

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Cointelegraph Magazine writers and reporters contributed to this article.