This Week on Crypto Twitter: Elon Musk Evasive on Deal Status, Do Kwon Denies New Allegations

It’s been a tough week for the crypto community as major coins fell Again. As usual on Crypto Twitter, prices were the least concern for everyone. Instead, the drama centered around the seemingly endless saga of Tesla CEO Elon Musk’s bid to buy Twitter. Other foul play charges have also been leveled against Terraform Labs CEO Do Kwon following the collapse of UST.

On Monday, Musk made it clear in a letter to twitter general counsel it is his $44 billion takeover bid is “temporarily pending” pending confirmation that less than 5% of microblogging platform users are spambots. In the amended document, which was filed with the United States Securities and Exchange Commission, Musk accused Twitter of “actively resisting and frustrating its rights to information.”

Alex Weprin, journalist for The Hollywood Reporterargued that Musk’s latest move was either tactical or a sign of coldness. Decryptof the IEC think Musk’s gripe about the bots is his attempt to back out of the deal. Musk’s apparent tremor was the talk of Crypto Twitter, as many in the community have high hopes for the crypto features Musk would implement if he bought Twitter.

Musk remained tight-lipped about the deal on his account, although he later shared a YouTube content surveillance meme tweeted to him by a follower. Perhaps he then has YouTube in his M&A sights?

Musk also shared a laugh with Twitter’s bitcoin-maxi co-founder Jack Dorsey about creating a Dogecoin-powered “Web69.”

Grayscale continues ETF push

On Tuesday, crypto asset manager Grayscale, which manages $43.6 billion late last year, tweeted a short thread about his decision to hire Donald Virilli Jr., former US Solicitor General under President Obama, to the firm current campaign to convert its world-leading Bitcoin fund into an SEC-approved ETF.

Grayscale launched the official app in October last year and expects a response from the SEC by July 6. Grayscale also recently launched a advertising campaign ask consumers to help by defending the ETF directly to the SEC in writing. If successful, it would be the first regulated spot crypto ETF product in the United States.

Solana vs. Defi Safety

Also on Tuesday, decentralized finance watchdog DeFi Safety ranked Solana as the second-worst blockchain out of the fifteen it has ranked so far, placing the chain only above Axie Infinity in terms of technical risk. The ranking came a week after Solana’s third major accident of the year. DeFi Safety unpacked its findings in a massive 28-tweet thread, some of which were refuted by Solana at Decrypt.

On Wednesday, Bitcoin maximalist MicroStrategy CEO Michael Saylor tweeted an excerpt from an interview with CNBC with the words: “If #bitcoin doesn’t go to zero, then it goes to a million.”

MicroStrategy currently holds $3.5 billion in Bitcoin at today’s prices. In the clip, Saylor pointed to the bipartisan Responsible Financial Innovation Act proposed by pro-crypto senators Cynthia Lummis and Kirsten Gillibrand as a sign that attitudes toward crypto are changing rapidly and fostering cross-party cooperation in Washington.

Frustrations with Gensler inside the SEC?

Also Wednesday, FinancialTimes writer Sujeet Indap shared screenshots of a subscription-only law publication Law360 which alleges that SEC attorneys are leaving the federal agency because of SEC Chairman Gary Gensler’s alleged propensity for dragging out cases indefinitely, rather than settling them.

In light of the gossip, one can only wonder where SEC case against Ripple falls into this.

More trouble for Do Kwon

In the fallout from The Collapse of Terrathis week it was the turn of the SEC to turn up the heat on Terraform Labs CEO Do Kwon. Some agency attorneys believe Terra may have violated federal investor protection regulations.

Meanwhile, in a separate legal case from Do Kwon, his appeal of a September 2021 SEC Subpoena was overturned on Wednesday when a US court determined that it must comply with investigations in the mirror protocol.

On top of all this, Kwon has been accused by the South Korean press of have committed several financial crimesincluding tax evasion, fraud and insider trading.

The local press was back this week, this time accusing Kwon of allegedly taking $80 million a month from Terra and sending it to secret wallets for a mind-blowing total of $2.7 billion. A number of top Crypto Twitter influencer accounts amplified the claim on Saturday.

Kwon took to Twitter on Sunday to insist on his innocence in a pointed thread.

Kwon says he only received a “nominal cash salary” from Terraform Labs. “I also lost most of what I had in the crash,” he added. “I’ve said it many times, but I really don’t care much about money.”

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