In a week where the Federal Reserve announced the tenth consecutive interest rate hike since March 2022, limiting crypto’s growth, one of the highlights from Crypto Twitter was Binance CEO Changpeng “CZ” Zhao calling out Tron CEO Justin Sun. Zhao flagged Sun’s $56 million token transfer to the exchange, which raised suspicions of the Tron founder’s possible intention to farm a soon-to-be-launched token called SUI.
Zhao tweeted a warning to Sun, “Our team told Justin, if he uses any of these to grab the LaunchPool Sui token, we will ‘take action against it’. SMH. Binance LaunchPool are meant as air drops for our retail users, not just for a few whales. On the bright side, blockchains are transparent…”
Sun quickly responded with an apology, calling the transfer a mistake. Tron representatives later confirmed that the refund had been executed.
Zhao’s claim that Binance’s launchpool airdrops are “for our retail users” has broader implications when considering the not-so-retail-friendly token distribution of SUI, as highlighted by crypto analyst Tom Dunleavy (@Dunleavy89).
Crypto researcher and critic Molly White (@Molly0xFFF) also pointed out the “super weird reporting” surrounding Binance’s claims that someone with links in Congress is using ChatGPT to launch a smear campaign against the exchange.
Adding to the conspiracy theories floating around Crypto Twitter, Democrat 2024 Presidential hopeful Robert F. Kennedy Jr. speculated on a top-down “war on crypto” that could be connected to recent collapses at Silicon Valley Bank, Silvergate, and Signature. Kennedy seems to be positioning himself as a crypto-friendly candidate.
Web3 enthusiast and NFT collector Moritz (@Moritz_Web3) kicked off a rumor that Amazon will launch an NFT marketplace on May 15, synthesizing details from fifteen different media reports in a fourteen-tweet thread.
Seb Krier, the International Policy Manager at Google’s Deepmind, mentioned the White House’s recent collaboration with tech giants to ensure responsible AI innovation in a tweet, a development that Elon Musk approved of.
El Salvador’s President Nayib Bukele, who made Bitcoin legal tender in the country, announced that he had signed into law an act that aims to help develop the country’s tech sector: “the INNOVATION AND TECHNOLOGY MANUFACTURING INCENTIVES ACT eliminates all taxes on technology innovations, software and app programming, AI, computer, and communications hardware manufacturing.”
New York Attorney General Letitia James revealed her “nation-leading legislation” to tighten regulations on the cryptocurrency industry.
Electro-pop star Grimes, who recently offered to share royalties with anyone who created a pop hit using her AI-generated voice, seemed to be facing some challenges related to her AI venture, including issues with streaming platforms.
Lastly, NFT enthusiast @CirrusNFT followed the trail of hype as one investor sold a top 500 BAYC below floor price and immediately invested all the proceeds into $PEPE tokens.