This Week on Crypto Twitter: Wikipedia Accused of Playing Politics, Coinbase-Bored Ape Collab Widely Jeered

Leading cryptocurrencies gained in value this week despite the U.S. Federal Reserve’s announcement on Wednesday that interest rates will be raised by an additional 75 basis points to combat inflation. 

Typically, announcements like this are detrimental to crypto markets. Last month, the Fed raised rates by 75 basis points in the steepest hike since 1994. Crypto prices crashed heavily as the cost of borrowing rose, causing investors to dump riskier assets. No such response came this time, with all leading cryptocurrencies posting notable seven-day price gains.

A fierce debate now rages as to whether the United States, after two consecutive quarters of negative GDP growth, is in a recession. The White House thinks not.

The debate has been so intense that Wikipedia has set permissions to edit its “Recession” page to “semi-protection,” meaning that new or infrequent users have to wait four days and make 10 edits on other pages before they can edit the article. 

Wikipedia’s protection policy says: “Semi-protection is useful when there is a significant amount of disruption or vandalism from new or unregistered users.”

The news struck a nerve with Binance CEO Changpeng “CZ” Zhao, but at least he offered a helping hand.

And he confirmed meeting with Turkey’s finance minister, Nureddin Nebati.

In April 2021, Turkey’s central bank banned crypto payments despite the country having some of the world’s highest per-capita crypto usage. However, a report by Bloomberg in May confirmed the country is drafting regulations to control the market. One tentative proposal requires crypto companies to have a minimum of 100 million liras ($5.6 million), while global exchanges and lenders wanting to expand in Turkish territory may have to open branch offices that can be taxed by the government.

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In other CEO news, Bitcoin maximalist and MicroStrategy boss Michael Saylor, who’s spent an eye-watering $3.98 billion on Bitcoin and likely remains underwater on the investment, is standing firm.

Saylor threw shade at Ethereum in a video interview earlier this month, implying that the world’s second-favorite cryptocurrency is a centralized security. Replying to a tweet about it this week, Ethereum creator Vitalik Buterin was not happy.

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Buterin also offered his opinion on corporate attempts at building the metaverse. Hint: He doesn’t think Mark Zuckerberg will corner the market.

Answering a reply to his original tweet, Buterin elaborated that he believes Meta’s metaverse pivot will fail simply because it’s too early.

‘Web3 bingo cringe festival’

Coinbase teamed up with Bored Ape Yacht Club to produce a three-part metaverse-themed movie called “The Degen Trilogy.” The first part was released Tuesday.

The film meanders along with little sense of plot or suspense or drama. It’s really a five-minute crypto shill. Crypto Twitter widely panned the project. And someone had better check if crypto podcaster Cobie is still answering his phone.

On second thought, he’s fine.

A tweeter known as Coin Bureau suggested reporting the movie to the Securities and Exchange Commission.

Coin Corner CEO Danny Scott wants his five minutes back.

And finally, in a related note, multi-platinum hip hop producer Illa Da Producer announced he’s joined the BAYC team at Yuga Labs.

Illa is well known for his frequent collaborations with crypto-loving rap legend Eminem.