5 Minute Crypto ⏳ - new EU regs; Tornado's Alex @ home; $PEPE pamp 🐸; speed or decentralization?

Two Degens (resources, interviews, on all things crypto and some AI)

Gmmmm happy Friday — this is the 5 minute crypto daily update for April 21st
We’ve got a lot to cover in today’s update, I’m gonna try something a little different: more items, but shorter briefs. We’ve got EU regs, Tornado cash Alex, PEPE pump, decentralization, Bitcoin core, and even more.
Let’s go!
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As of this recording
Bitcoin has fallen 2% to $28,200
ETH has fallen less than 1% to $1940
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What’s going on in crypto land…
https://blockworks.co/news/european-union-crypto-mica
EU just passed expansive crypto regs
-It’s called MICA (Markets in Crypto Assets)
-Key is that transfers exceeding EUR 1,000 ($1,097) from an unregulated or self-hosted platform are expected to be restricted
https://twitter.com/functi0nzer0/status/1649000689262051328?s=46
According to news sources and crypto twitter, Tornado dev Alex Pertsev will be released on bail
-spent 9 months in detention
-will be electronically monitored at home - like SBF
From https://thebitcoinlayer.substack.com/p/dollar-challengers-euro-yuan-gold
Great macro and bitcoin and bonds newsletter, also have a podcast
If the euro is a strong currency but regional at best, Chinese capital restrictions prevent the free flow of yuan, and gold isn’t realistically used in international settlement, that leaves us with bitcoin as the last contender to the dollar

https://blockworks.co/news/rollups-speed-or-decentralization
To quote Flashbot’s Robert Miller:
“If you have an ordering protocol on your rollup that incentivizes latency gains,” he says, “the structure of the market you’re incentivizing is all actors to eventually co-locate in one place."
https://www.coindesk.com/tech/2023/04/19/bitcoin-core-developer-dhruvkaran-mehta-steps-away-teases-new-startup-idea/
Bitcoin core dev Dhruvkaran Mehta has chosen to step away from bitcoin development to focus on a bitcoin-related startup
He was funded through grants from Jack Dorsey’s Block and started contributing 2.5 years ago
https://twitter.com/dhruv/status/1648443886858309635
And in a tweet thread, Dhruv says:
The refactor culture in Bitcoin Core is on the uptick in my rookie opinion. …It got to be somewhat tedious. That said, Bitcoin Core is a community project. The community clearly values these refactors
https://www.coindesk.com/markets/2023/04/18/the-biggest-crypto-bull-cycle-is-upon-us-bernstein/
Brokerage Bernstein bullish bitcoin
…the new crypto cycle is still not fully appreciated, with a number of positive factors lining up. These include macro catalysts, a new bitcoin mining cycle, the continued successful upgrades of the Ethereum blockchain and the success of Ethereum scaling products such as Arbitrum.

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Crypto twitter…
https://twitter.com/apes_prologue/status/1648654431322349568?s=46
-fascinating thread on the recent pump of $PEPE coin
-a group of wallets controlling 10% of supply started buying PEPE token minutes after it started trading
This behavior raises questions about whether these wallets belong to insiders or the dev team, as not only did they have impeccable timing, but they are also holding a considerable amount after a significant run of 1000x.

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Recommended reads…
A bit late to this news, but defi dashboard DefiLlama has shared a new tool for analyzing project governance
https://twitter.com/DefiLlama/status/1646588501389918208?s=20
https://defillama.com/governance
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That’s it for today! That was 6 minutes long. All the links are in the show notes. You can follow @twodegenspod on Twitter and subscribe for more!
Outro clip
Bell Curve on crypto companies leaving the US
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yUcoM74VXDE