The Block
Quick Take Sam Bankman-Fried, the former CEO of the collapsed crypto exchange FTX, now uses mackerel fish as currency in prison for services like haircuts, according to the Wall Street Journal. Mackerel, colloquially referred to as “macks,” has become the go-to currency in federal prisons since a ban on cigarettes in 2004.
Quick Take South Korea’s central bank is set to launch a pilot program to test a digital currency with 100,000 citizens in 2024. In collaboration with the country’s financial authorities, the initiative aims to address challenges in the existing financial system and explore new digital transaction methods.
Quick Take The price of Bitcoin has broken $39,000 for the first time since April 2022. Excitement around potential spot Bitcoin ETFs has led Bitcoin to rally in recent months.
Quick Take Decentralized exchanges Velodrome and Aerodome, which operate on Optimism and Base, respectively, had their frontend domains compromised for the second time in just days. The domains have again been restored, according to both teams.
Quick Take An NFT project aiming to mint 2,015 Vitalik Buterin-themed NFTs caused a brief spike in Ethereum gas fees and became the top gas guzzler for a moment. The project aims to add 10 MB of data onto Ethereum when completed via JPEG mining, a type of NFT creation that uploads actual image data to the blockchain.
Quick Take Tensions heat up as top lawmakers try to get crypto provisions into end-of-year bills and top Republican House Financial Services Committee Chair Patrick McHenry threatens to upend the National Defense Authorization Act.
Quick Take Jupiter, a DEX aggregator on Solana, has opened its token airdrop.
Quick Take KyberSwap said it will offer hack victims grants from the project’s treasury. Users who lost funds from its liquidity pools will receive grants equivalent in USD.
Quick Take Aave Companies rebranded to Avara and acquired the Los Angeles-based web3 startup Los Feliz Engineering. The move marks Avara’s second acquisition, following the purchase of the web3 social gaming app Sonar on Dec. 5, 2022.
Quick Take Ukraine authorities have seized $1.5 million worth of crypto assets from Yury Shchigol, a former chief of Ukraine’s Special Communications Service.
