7 DeFi Hacks, 30B VC Dollars and 20 Crypto Jokes

This week in crypto: Another step has been taken towards ETH 2.0 as Ethereum devs asked the community to start testing on the Kintsugi testnet, Polkadot launched its first set of parachains, bullish options data gave some hope to ethereum and bitcoin investors, YFI rallied 80% in a week as the team behind it completed one and promised more ‘aggressive buybacks’, and BitMEX said it would launch its token BMEX in 2022 in two phases. It was also reported that 20% of total Bitcoin mining hashrate may still be in China, while significant selling pressure is said to be coming from Asian investors. We found that Bitcoin ETFs in Europe and Canada have remained popular even with the US ETFs now widely available. VCs fought back in an online discussion where Jack Dorsey and Elon Musk attacked the Web 3.0 narrative, while VC funds invested some USD 30bn into crypto this year, breaking all records.

MetaMask unveiled its upcoming in-app NFT extension, Instagram is exploring ways to integrate NFTs within its social media platform, an investor managed to purchase 330 Adidas NFTs by using smart contract when the limit was only two, South Korean Banking Giant KB said it created crypto, NFT and CBDC-compatible wallets, China’s tech giants are hopeful of launching metaverse and NFT businesses despite the regulatory scrutiny, and in a surprise move, Chinese communist party mouthpiece endorsed NFTs. While we’ve seen seven DeFi hacks this month alone, plus the Monkey Kingdom’ Discord server hack, Rari Capital and Fei Protocol union was approved, becoming one the largest DAO mergers in DeFi history.

El Salvador President has bet big on international crypto firms’ willingness to relocate to his country, Russia is still no closer to regulating crypto despite the central bank’s ‘concession’, and Arsenal FC drew the ire of the UK advertising watchdog for “taking advantage of consumers’ inexperience in cryptoassets”. Meanwhile, crypto advocates secured a remarkable victory in Paraguay, with a mining bill passing in the Senate, South Korean retail chains and their customers are embracing crypto- and blockchain-powered payment platforms, and a US credit regulator told credit unions that they can team up with crypto firms.

Now, let’s laugh at some Christmas-week crypto jokes.

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Heey, CT! You good?

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Let’s check on BTC, as is only proper.

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Let’s see now how ETH’s been holding up.

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A dilemma every BTC owner is faced with.

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Yes! Just do it!

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Does this count as a generational gap?

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And a weekend crypto song, with a historical flavor. Merry Christmas!