This Week in Crypto Twitter: Bitcoin Runemania and More Ethereum Legal Drama

This week's Crypto Twitter is buzzing with the industry's hottest new topic, Bitcoin Loon, as well as hot legal news in the form of a pre-emptive lawsuit filed by the Ethereum software giant against the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). There was a lot of drama.

Since the latest Bitcoin cut in halfrune—new Bitcoin based protocol Those that can support fungible tokens, such as meme coins, are rapidly gaining popularity. DOG, a new rune meme token, airdropped Wednesday to owners of the Runestones Ordinal project. With distribution to tens of thousands of wallets, DOG quickly became the most popular rune token ever created.

Loon fever has spread significantly across the cryptosphere this week, with activity surrounding the protocol rapidly surging. dominate The entire Bitcoin network.

Some cryptocurrency users lament spike Bitcoin network fees caused by Rune frenzy. However, other protocol proponents remained steadfast in their belief that the hype around the new class of tokens was just beginning.

As for Ethereum, bullish news was found this week with yet another eye-popping multi-million dollar sale of CryptoPunk NFTs. Punk #635, an ultra-rare Alien Punk, was sold to an anonymous collector on Thursday for a staggering $12.38 million.

The sale marks the third time in a matter of weeks that Alien Punk has been traded for more than $11 million.

However, it wasn't all smiles for everyone in the Ethereum NFT ecosystem.On Friday, Yuga Labs, the multibillion-dollar company behind the once-dominant NFT collection, boring ape yacht club, laid off an undisclosed number of employees. In a message to his employees, Greg Solano, the company's CEO and co-founder, acknowledged that the company had “lost its way.”

But the biggest bombshell of the week happened on Thursday. This was revealed in an article published by ConsenSys, a major Ethereum software company. aggressive litigation The federal regulator is reportedly suing the company before the SEC and is exploring the possibility of declaring Ethereum a security in the process.

Industry leaders immediately took to Twitter to complain: Raise your voice and support The lawsuit accuses the SEC of potentially trying to effectively outlaw Ethereum after several other U.S. government agencies have suggested that ETH is outside the SEC's jurisdiction. .

Hayden Adams, Founder of Decentralized Exchange (dex) Uniswap likened the lawsuit to a battle cry for the crypto industry to finally take an aggressive, collective stance against the SEC. Lord of the Ring――It seems like a battle. Uniswap revealed earlier this month that it was also being sued by the SEC for alleged securities violations.

Disclosure: ConsenSys Mesh is one of 22 investors in Decrypt. Edited by Ryan Ozawa.