DONUT HOLES

Hole lot of news…

• Ark: U.S. risks ceding crypto lead to UAE, Korea, Australia, Switzerland

• Meta fined $1.3 billion by EU regulators

• Solana releases ChatGPT plugin that reads on-chain data

• A company called Fahrenheit is buying Celsius.

• Watch this Coinbase ad targeted at Washington

WEB2

North Korea hacked billions in crypto to build nukes ☢️

It seems like Kim Jong Un decided to take the phrase "wealth redistribution" quite literally, with his hacker squads redistributing $1 billion+ worth of crypto to themselves.

North Korea is going full ninja on crypto.

According to the Japan External Trade Organization, they've swiped up to $721 million worth of crypto from Japan alone. To put it into perspective, that's 8.8 times what North Korea exported in 2021. They also nabbed an extra $497M from the U.S. and $281M from Hong Kong, from 2017 to 2022.

Why is North Korea all over crypto?

North Korea's been put in a financial timeout by the international community due to sanctions. Crypto is like a backdoor in this financial playground. It's an international financial network that doesn't check your ID at the entrance. It’s also still a relatively young ecosystem, making it the perfect target for North Korean hackers.

North Korea's mischief is shaping global crypto regulations

The UN Security Council raised a brow when North Korea hacked more than $1 billion worth of assets in 2022, likely fueling their development of weapons of mass destruction. In response, the Council is nudging member states to play by the anti-money-laundering Financial Action Task Force guidelines.

Uncle Sam also has his own plan

The U.S. Treasury Department isn't sitting idly by. It's frozen the U.S. assets of Tornado Cash (crypto often used for money laundering) and laid down sanctions against any transactions with Americans. They even sent a former crypto developer to 5+ years in prison for giving a talk at a crypto conference held in North Korea.

North Korea's hacking spree isn't slowing down

As the crypto market continues to blossom, North Korea's hacking escapades are expected to ramp up, potentially fast-tracking global efforts to regulate cryptocurrencies. These regulations aren't just messing with crypto prices—they're also making things a bit more inconvenient for all of us (hello, KYC).

WEB2

You can now buy an NFT with 🍎 Pay

Apple seems to be warming up to the world of crypto, after a long period of keeping it at arm's length. Why? Well, Apple's been banking a comfy 30% cut from App Store In-App Purchases, and blockchain's decentralized approach could completely mess with that cash flow.

But now, Apple's stance seems to be changing.

Case in point: Axie Infinity and STEPN, two popular blockchain apps, are making big moves. Axie Infinity finally landed on the App Store, while STEPN became the first blockchain app to support Apple Pay. This news got their tokens, $AXS and $GMT, respectively, jumping up more than 20%.

Is Apple all-in on blockchain now? Not quite.

While STEPN's Apple Pay support seems promising for web3 adoption, buying items within STEPN using Apple Pay actually costs you about 40% more than using regular tokens. Feels just like when I have to pay $5 for delivery fee and taxes when ordering a cup of $4 coffee on Uber Eats.

Did you know that if you subscribe to YouTube Premium from your computer, it's way cheaper than doing so on your iPhone? 

That's because Apple doesn't get a cut when you bypass their app for payment. The same logic applies to these NFT projects.

The mobile market dominates the gaming world, and with Apple and Google at the helm, it's been tricky for crypto to gain traction. To truly drive web3 into the mainstream, we need Apple and Google to rethink their fee models. But for now, that seems a tall order.

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