Confident Bitcoin Whales, Surging Ethereum Validators, Capturing Bitzlato and 20 Crypto Jokes
This week in crypto: bitcoin whales showed confidence in the latest rally as they refused to sell, the number of Ethereum network validators surged to 500,000 as Shanghai fever grew, and the number of Ethereum addresses holding a non-zero balance hit a new record high of 92.5 million. We looked to see if bitcoin entered its next bull market cycle, if a US debt default would derail a crypto price rally or embolden it, if magical thinking born of a financial crisis fueled the rise of crypto, and if a clear-out of crypto moguls and their centralized companies would be good for the digital asset class. Meanwhile, brokerage firm Bernstein advised institutions to dabble into crypto and give up their "zero crypto allocation" strategy. US authorities arrested Russian co-founder of the Bitzlato exchange on suspicion of laundering illegal gambling and drug money, Binance was identified as a counterparty to Bitzlato, authorities claimed that Sam Bankman-Fried siphone...