🤝 FTX to help with Reddit's crypto integration

🌪️ Government cracks down on Tornado Cash 🎐 China shutdowns 105 crypto-related websites and blocks 13000 social media accounts promoting crypto 🤝 FTX to help with Reddit's crypto integration

GM. vEmpions! Our motto for today is: "Good things come in small packages". And that means that even if you're a small-time investor, you can still pack a punch! Here's what we have for you today:

🌪️ Government cracks down on Tornado Cash🎐 China shutdowns 105 crypto-related websites and blocks 13000 social media accounts promoting crypto🤝 FTX to help with Reddit's crypto integration

But again before we continue with the news, don’t forget that this week's guest on The Bald CEO Show we've got the one and only, Kyle Chassé! We'll take a deep dive into degen calls and tokenomics 🤔Wed, 10 Aug, 4 pm UTC , to see the different time zones check the image.🔗 YouTube (TBC) | Subscribe and turn on the 🔔 to not miss out on the weekly alpha

Government cracks down on Tornado Cash

It's official: the US government is now going after cryptocurrency mixing services that allow users to obscure the details of their transactions. In an announcement from the Treasury's Office of Foreign Asset Control, Tornado Cash and 44 associated Ethereum and USDC wallets have been added to its Specially Designated Nationals list.

The US Treasury's Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC) has added Tornado Cash, a decentralized protocol for Anonymous Ethereum (ETH) transactions, to its Specially Designated Nationals and Blocked Persons List (SDN).

Tornado Cash is the first decentralized finance (DeFi) protocol to be designated by OFAC. This highlights the US government's growing concern about the use of crypto assets for illicit purposes.

This is the first time that a decentralized finance protocol has been targeted by US sanctions, and it represents a major escalation in the government's crackdown on cryptocurrency mixing services. Tornado Cash allows users to mix their Ethereum and USDC tokens using a smart contract, making it impossible to trace the transactions back to their original source.

This move by the government is sure to send a message to the crypto community that they are not going to tolerate any attempts to obscure transactions. So if you're looking to mix your coins, you might want to do it somewhere else. After all, you wouldn't want to end up on the wrong side of the law.

In the meanwhile, following the US Treasury's action against Tornado Cash, Circle (the organization that created the USDC stablecoin) has banned wallet addresses controlled by the currency mixer. Circle has blocked the transfer of at least 75,000 USDC by black listing Tornado Cash wallets on the sanctions list, according to Ethereum blockchain explorers data. The address for the USDC pool belonging to Tornado Cash is one of them, implying that people who deposited USDC with Tornado Cash may not be able to withdraw their funds.

But is this good for the industry in general? On the one hand, it's good that the government is taking action against those who are using crypto for illicit purposes. On the other hand, we're getting closer to the point where the government is going to start cracking down on crypto itself. So for now, it's a mixed bag.

China shutdowns 105 crypto-related websites and blocks 13000 social media accounts promoting crypto

China's crackdown on cryptocurrency is in full swing. The country has deleted over 51,000 posts related to crypto and shut down 105 websites as well as 13,000 social media accounts offering information on the subject.

The CAC (Cyberspace Administration of China) said on Tuesday that the account-deletion campaign is to enforce the decisions of China’s Communist Party, adding that it identified many accounts based on tips from users on social media.

This is a huge blow to the crypto community in China, which was already struggling to keep up with the government's strict regulations.

It's not clear what will happen to those who have lost their accounts or had their posts deleted. But one thing is for sure: China is not messing around when it comes to crypto.

FTX to help with Reddit's crypto ingeration

Not that long ago, Reddit made headlines by integrating blockchain technology into its platform. This move marked the latest instance of a large Web2 project dipping its toes in Web3, and while many in the crypto community were excited by this news, some were quick to point out that Ethereum’s high transaction fees would make it impractical for Reddit to use as a payment system.

Now, however, FTX has announced that it is partnering with Reddit to allow users to pay gas fees on Reddit's "Community Points" tokens using fiat.

With this partnership, FTX will be able to provide users with an easy way to pay for their gas fees, which will in turn help to make the "points" more accessible to everyone.

How does it work? So, Reddit's new Community Points feature is Reddit's blockchain solution used to reward active users or make governance decisions, but there's a catch: you need Ethereum for gas fees in order to transact with your Community Points on-chain.

That's when FTX comes in, offering a way to pay Ethereum's transaction fees using fiat. So now you can use your hard-earned cash to make sure your Community Points are well taken care of.

Of course, right now Community Points are only available in the r/cryptocurrency and r/fortnite subreddits. But if you're really eager to get your hands on some, there's always the waitlist. In the meantime, we'll just have to keep an eye on Reddit to see how this whole thing plays out. Who knows, maybe we'll even see some more integrations in the future.