Crypto Weekly Recap: Elon Musk Drama, Bitcoin Movement, Rising Celebrity Coin Scams, and More

Key Insights

• Last week, Elon Musk opposed Apple’s planned integration with OpenAI’s GPT due to what he claims are “security concerns.”

• A Bitcoin whale transferred 8,000 Bitcoins from Coinbase to Binance, sparking speculation of a possible dump—Bitcoin has been down by 8% since.

• According to Crystal Intelligence, crypto hackers have stolen around $19 billion in the past 13 years.

• Andrew Tate and Iggy Azalea launched memecoins, but BubbleMaps thinks these two are rug pulls waiting to happen.

• MicroStrategy increased its planned stock sale from $500,000 to $700 million to buy more Bitcoin.

Last week in crypto was basically the same as most others, considering the wave of activity, hacks, and the usual battle between this and that entity.

Last week, we reported on a possible merger between Open AI and Apple, and a wave of drama followed, with Elon Musk threatening to ban Apple devices in all his companies.

We had reports of MicroStrategy planning another double-down on Bitcoin with another $700 million.

We also had a Crystal Intelligence report showing that crypto hackers have stolen around $19 billion in the last 13 years.

Here are some of the most interesting stories from all over crypto in the previous week.

Elon Musk Swore to Ban Apple Devices

Apple announced last week during the Worldwide Developers Conference (WWDC) that it was planning to merge ChatGPT with Apple’s iPhone, iPad, and Mac operating systems.

This merger was set up to allow Apple’s voice assistant, Siri, to directly access ChatGPT when necessary to answer user questions.

However, Musk didn’t take this bit of news too kindly.

The billionaire CEO took to Twitter to label the merger as an “unacceptable security violation,”.

Musk further stated that it is “patently absurd” that Apple “isn’t smart enough” to make their own AI, but is instead relying on OpenAI while compromising on privacy and security.

“They’re selling you down the river.” Musk said in another post “Apple using the words ‘protect your privacy’ while handing your data over to a third-party AI that they don’t understand and can’t themselves create is *not* protecting privacy at all.”

Bitcoin Whale Transferred 8,000 Bitcoin From Coinbase After Five and a Half Years of Dormancy

On 11 June, LookOnChain reported that a staggering 8,000 BTC (worth around  $535.64 million) simply woke up inside a whale wallet for the first time in five and a half years. It was transferred from a Coinbase cold storage wallet into Binance, where it is likely to be sold.

LookOnChain flagged this transaction when the anonymous address, “1ABww1…mCSKq” received all 8,000 BTC from the Coinbase wallet at around 1:26 PM UTC.

However, less than 11 minutes after this, “1ABww1…mCSKq” transferred it all into Binance, sparking waves of speculation across the crypto industry.

In more interesting detail, all 8,000 Bitcoins were first purchased in 2018, when Bitcoin’s price traded at around $3,750.

Also, Bitcoin has crashed about 8% since then and now hovers around $66,000 at the time of writing.

Crypto Hackers Have Stolen $19 Billion in 13 Years, Crystal Intelligence Says

Although the crypto industry has only existed for a little more than 15 years, it is now likely one of the most attacked financial institutions of all time.

On-chain analytics firm Crystal Intelligence drew attention to this trend last week in a report, stating that hackers have drained around $19 billion from the industry over the past 13 years.

In particular, Crystal Intelligence says that since 19 June 2011, when the first known crypto hack was reported, there have been a total of 785 reported hacks and exploits.

Interestingly, the most brutal year was 2022—which is also the same year when a whopping $624 million was stolen from the Ronin Bridge exploit.

Crystal Intelligence says that a total of $4.2 billion was stolen in 199 incidents, making 2022 the OG of crypto theft years.

The largest single theft was also from 2019 when a staggering  $2.9 billion was siphoned off in the Plus Token fraud.

Andrew Tate Launched a Memecoin Alongside Iggy Azalea’s, but Bubblemaps Warns of Rug Pulls Waiting to Happen

Last week saw strong celebrity memecoin trading activity, especially with the launch of Andrew Tate’s memecoin, $DADDY.

The launch of $DADDY came only a few weeks after Australian Rapper, Iggy Azalea’s $MOTHER—However, according to insights from blockchain security company, BubbleMaps, there might be worrying similarities between both.

For example, according to Bubblemaps, on-chain data shows that 11 wallets—funded with the same amount—through Binance at the same time—bought around 20% of the $DADDY supply, right before the project’s official announcement.

BubbleMaps also alleges that Tate himself holds around 40% of the token’s supply, raising several red flags for late 9 and early) investors.

The same thing also happened with Azalea’s $MOTHER, where insiders allegedly bought 20% of the supply at launch, and have since sold tokens worth $2 million.

Microstrategy to Buy More Bitcoin

MicroStrategy announced plans to double down on Bitcoin last week, with another planned $500 million stock sale to further its aggressive Bitcoin investment strategy. Before the end of the week, however, the company raised the figures again from $500 million to a whopping $700 million.

The company plans to sell convertible senior notes to investors, which will be due in 2032 and will be sold in a private offering to qualified institutional buyers under Rule 144A of the Securities Act of 193312.

Overall, data from Saylor Tracker shows that MicroStrategy holds around $14.25 billion worth of Bitcoin and will be closer to $15 billion at the end of this sale.

Disclaimer: Voice of Crypto aims to deliver accurate and up-to-date information, but it will not be responsible for any missing facts or inaccurate information. Cryptocurrencies are highly volatile financial assets, so research and make your own financial decisions.