This Week on Crypto Twitter: Lawyers Reunite with SEC, Elon Musk Cools Down on Crypto

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Illustration by Mitchell Preffer for Decrypt

Even though it was the first two consecutive weeks of losses this year, Crypto Twitter was largely unfazed. Instead, a host of other topics have taken center stage this week.

On Monday, a crypto-savvy lawyer who tweets under the handle @MetaLawMan took aim at Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) Chairman Gary Gensler for his opaque approach to crypto and for the SEC’s belligerent regulation-by-enforcement strategy. Three tweets into his thread, he summed up the highlights of his criticism of Gensler.

4/ Given the pattern we observed under the Gensler administration,

Gary will let us know when the SEC has made a decision about Ether – prosecuting someone for issuing or trading Ether.

MetaLawMan (@MetaLawMan) February 27

The SEC made the rounds again later in the day on Legal Twitter when attorney Lisa Rubin commented on the agencies lawsuit against Terraform Labs, the company that created the collapsed algorithmic stablecoin UST. Later in the thread, Rubin tweeted: The weirdest argument is that UST is a security because it can be traded for other securities. Remember, these are only allegations, a court has not ruled on these allegations.

Here’s why the SEC says the UST stablecoin is a security. This month, the SEC accused Terraform and Do Kwon of defrauding investors in the algorithmic stablecoin Terras. pic.twitter.com/tS0VmYlCjs

Lisa Rubin (@lisaerubin) February 27, 2023

The next day, crypto sleuth @ZachXBT tweeted news of a multi-million dollar heist on Algorand.

On the same day, @ZachXBT responded to a multi-tweeted thread from blockchain researcher Ivor Igamberdiev that accused trading firm Jane Street Group of playing a significant role in the collapse of UST. The blockchain sleuth agreed and shared a screenshot in which he appears to have sent a message to Terra CEO Do Kwon at the time of the UST collapse claiming that Jane Street Groups exchanges contributed to the spectacular depeg.

Popular crypto exchange Coinbase today announced a new crypto policy lobbying initiative called Crypto 453 that aims to guide policymakers towards pro-crypto policymaking if and when they start formulating comprehensive legislation. on crypto.

1/ It’s time to advance pro-crypto policy in all 435 congressional districts across the United States

Introducing #Crypto435, our campaign to grow the crypto advocacy community and share tools and resources to make your voice heard.

Become a lawyer today https://t.co/TPJhtoP9eC

Coinbase (@coinbase) February 28, 2023

The NFT Bitcoin Punks Collection released gigantic volumes on Tuesday, according to NFTstatistics.eth.

Dogecoin creator Billy Markson, who is an avid non-coinmaker, jumped on a thread started by MicroStrategy President/Bitcoin bull Michael Saylor to claim that if Bitcoin isn’t a security, then Dogecoin isn’t. neither.

the funny thing about this cal statement based on dogecoin (the OG shitcoin) was made for lulz with no premining, no selling and no one checking it

so if bitcoin isn’t a security then dogecoin shouldn’t be either

Shibetoshi Nakamoto (@BillyM2k) February 27, 2023

Also that day, Visas head of crypto Cuy Sheffield took umbrage with a Reuters article saying the payments giant was shutting down its crypto reader. Sheffield argued that no matter how the industry evolves, blockchain will definitely have a place in the next generation of commercial fintech.

3/ Despite the challenges and uncertainty in the crypto ecosystem, our view has not changed that fiat digital currencies running on public blockchains have the potential to play an important role in the payments ecosystem

Cuy Sheffield (@cuysheffield) February 28, 2023

On Thursday, John Rising, co-founder of user-friendly and open-source blockchain development toolkit Stackup, raved about how user-friendly Ethereum’s latest improvement proposal was.

Part of its genius is that it doesn’t require the blockchain itself to do anything.

Instead, it uses higher-level infrastructure, so it works on any EVM chain TODAY.

John Rising (@johnrising_) March 2, 2023

Finally, Elon Musk, CEO of Tesla/SpaceX/Twitter and Bitcoin/Dogecoin investor, seems to have cooled off towards crypto.

I was in crypto, but now I’m interested in AI”

Elon Musk (@elonmusk) March 3, 2023

Pssh! Musk was in AI long before he was in crypto.

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