Ben Strack

Users of Robinhood’s self-custody Web3 wallet can now use the Bitcoin and Dogecoin networks to custody, send and receive crypto, the investing platform revealed Wednesday.



The company <a href="https://blockworks.co/news/robinhood-beta-tests-new-web3-wallet-with-polygon-as-first-blockchain">first rolled out the wallet</a> for select iOS customers in September 2022 — noting at the time that Robinhood Wallet would use Polygon as its first blockchain. The offering went live on iOS devices across 130 companies in March.&nbsp;



In those six months since, Robinhood has “heard loud and clear that people want access to more coins on more chains,” the company said in a Wednesday <a href="https://newsroom.aboutrobinhood.com/robinhood-wallet-adds-support-for-bitcoin-and-dogecoin-and-enables-ethereum-swaps/">blog</a> post.&nbsp;



After launching Robinhood Wallet with custody, send and receive support for Polygon and Ethereum, it added support on layer-2s Arbitrum and Optimism, before the Wednesday unveiling of Bitcoin and Dogecoin.



In addition to adding bitcoin and dogecoin network support for all users, <a href="https://blockworks.co/tag/robinhood">Robinhood</a> is enabling in-app swaps on the <a href="https://blockworks.co/tag/ethereum">Ethereum</a> network. These are available to select users for more than 200 tokens starting Wednesday. The platform said it will make them available to everyone in the coming weeks.



Previously, users of Robinhood’s wallet could only swap crypto on the <a href="https://blockworks.co/tag/polygon">Polygon</a> network via decentralized exchange aggregator 0x API.&nbsp;&nbsp;



Robinhood Wallet users are able to swap without holding ether (<a href="https://blockworks.co/price/eth">ETH</a>), as network fees are automatically deducted from the tokens they already hold, the company said.



“With Robinhood Wallet we stripped away many of the complexities of DeFi and the broader Web3 ecosystem, and reduced some of the challenges and barriers to entry for everyday people,” Johann Kerbrat, general manager of Robinhood Crypto, said in a statement.&nbsp;



The product expansion comes after the company launched Robinhood Connect in April — a way for certain US users to buy and transfer crypto to and from their Web3 wallet.&nbsp;



The company said in the Wednesday blog post it is “actively working to broaden access to other low-cost, fast and secure [layer-2] chains that users have asked for.”



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Robinhood extends Web3 wallet support to bitcoin, dogecoin

Katherine Ross

BlockFi submitted a request to swap its trade-only assets to the Gemini Dollar stablecoin.



The move, the bankrupt crypto lender said, would allow the assets to be withdrawn.&nbsp;



Currently, the assets aren’t available for withdrawal due to “practical reasons associated with the attributes of the digital coins.” The assets include Algorand (<a href="https://blockworks.co/price/algo">ALGO</a>), Bitcoin Cash (<a href="https://blockworks.co/price/bch">BCH</a>) and Dogecoin (<a href="https://blockworks.co/price/doge">DOGE</a>). While the filing specifically names the Gemini Dollar stablecoin, it does note that the assets could be transferred to another stablecoin of the debtors’ choosing.&nbsp;



These cryptos comprise a small amount of BlockFi’s overall wallet assets, roughly half a percent.



Custodial partner <a href="https://blockworks.co/tag/bitgo">BitGo</a> is unable to handle the process that would be necessary to “transmit blockchain transactions” for the assets as they are.



<a href="https://blockworks.co/tag/blockfi">BlockFi</a>’s committee of unsecured creditors is in support of the request.&nbsp;



The <a href="https://blockfi.com/wallet-withdrawal-faqs">move</a> comes after BlockFi initiated certain withdrawals earlier this month, after <a href="https://blockworks.co/news/blockfi-customer-withdrawals-summer">building a new product functionality</a> in order to process the withdrawals on the platform.&nbsp;



Prior to the opening of certain withdrawals, the <a href="https://blockworks.co/news/sec-foregoes-blockfi-penalty">SEC said that it would “forego” the $30 million</a> BlockFi penalty until investors are repaid. The <a href="https://blockworks.co/tag/sec">SEC</a> charged BlockFi a $50 million penalty in February of last year, penalizing the lender for allegedly selling BlockFi Interest Accounts (BIAs) to the public.



The crypto lender <a href="https://blockworks.co/news/blockfi-eyes-bankruptcy-as-ftx-fallout-continues-report">declared bankruptcy in November</a> of last year following the collapse of <a href="https://blockworks.co/tag/ftx">FTX</a>, it instituted a “Platform Pause” back on Nov. 10, 2022, freezing assets on its site.



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BlockFi wants to convert some of its crypto assets to stablecoins

Tesla’s digital asset holdings did not change in the second quarter as the electric car manufacturer maintained $184 million on its balance sheet.



The value of the holdings, as of June 30, stayed flat — despite bitcoin’s price rise during the quarter — due to accounting rules that don’t allow for unrealized gains on crypto to be recorded.



The price of bitcoin rose roughly 7% during the second quarter, contributing to year-to-date gains of about 80%.



Tesla reported <a href="https://www.cnbc.com/2021/02/08/tesla-buys-1point5-billion-in-bitcoin.html">buying $1.5 billion worth of bitcoin</a> in February 2021. The company said at the time it would start accepting the asset as a form of payment, but CEO Elon Musk later backtracked on those statements, citing environmental concerns.



Musk’s company <a href="https://blockworks.co/news/elon-musk-teslas-bitcoin-sale-not-a-verdict-on-the-asset">sold roughly 75% of its bitcoin stack</a> during the second quarter of 2022 lowering the total to $218 million worth of digital assets on its balance sheet.



“We are certainly open to increasing our bitcoin holdings in the future, so this should not be taken as some verdict on bitcoin,” Musk said during the company’s July 2022 earnings call.



The company reduced its digital asset holdings from $218 million to $184 million during the fourth quarter of that year. Tesla has since <a href="https://blockworks.co/news/tesla-holds-bitcoin">maintained</a> that level for the final quarter of 2022 and the first three months of 2023.



Those holdings remained unchanged in the second quarter, according to financial <a href="https://digitalassets.tesla.com/tesla-contents/image/upload/TSLA-Q2-2023-Update.pdf">statements</a> published Wednesday.&nbsp;



Musk has acknowledged his fondness for dogecoin (DOGE), even changing Twitter’s logo to that of dogecoin’s in April.



Investor Keith Johnson filed a <a href="https://blockworks.co/news/musk-dogecoin-lawsuit-memes">$258 billion lawsuit against Musk</a> in June 2022, alleging his involvement in a pyramid scheme designed to manipulate the price of DOGE. Musk’s lawyers have said there is nothing illegal about tweeting support for a crypto asset that, as of Wednesday, had a market capitalization of nearly $10 billion.&nbsp;



<a href="https://blockworks.co/news/elon-musk-crypto-dogecoin">Musk broke his silence on crypto</a> during the Wall Street Journal’s CEO Council Summit in May.&nbsp;&nbsp;



“I’m not advising anyone to buy crypto or bet the farm on dogecoin,” Musk said.



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Tesla keeps holding $184M worth of digital assets on its balance sheet

David Canellis

XRP lit up after a US district court <a href="https://blockworks.co/news/judge-rules-ripple-xrp-not-security">threw Ripple Labs a bone</a> by ruling sales of the token on crypto exchanges were not securities.



Markets pumped <a href="https://blockworks.co/price/xrp">XRP</a> up to 96% on the news, jumping from $0.47387 to $0.927 in under three hours. It has since retraced around 25% from local highs.



Still, Thursday’s pump was XRP’s second-biggest intraday rally in its 10-year history. It clocked in second only to a 216% surge in April 2017 and ahead of a 92% jump in December of that year at the height of that bull market.&nbsp;



XRP’s all-time rally record coincided with word spreading that Japan’s largest bank, MUFG, had <a href="https://www.bk.mufg.jp/global/newsroom/news2017/pdf/newse0331.pdf">joined</a> an interbank working group meant to propel adoption of <a href="https://blockworks.co/tag/ripple">Ripple</a> payment rails.



<ul>
<li>XRP was worth a cumulative $500 million then (bitcoin was $16.6 billion).</li>



<li>Crypto’s overall capitalization sat below $30 billion.&nbsp;</li>



<li>Total market is now $1.25 trillion, after more than 4,000% growth in six years.</li>
</ul>



<figure class="wp-block-embed is-type-wp-embed is-provider-flourish wp-block-embed-flourish"><div class="wp-block-embed__wrapper">
<iframe class="wp-embedded-content" sandbox="allow-scripts" security="restricted" title="Interactive or visual content" src="https://flo.uri.sh/visualisation/14442890/embed#?secret=TvvmWR5Ii1" data-secret="TvvmWR5Ii1" frameborder="0" scrolling="no" height="575" width="700"></iframe>
</div><figcaption class="wp-element-caption">A big purple column means a big price rally</figcaption></figure>



XRP is still down 75% since its all-time high. But markets are far larger with deeper liquidity today than they were back in 2017, which makes significant one-day rallies much more elusive.



<h2 class="wp-block-heading">Exactly how special was the XRP pump?</h2>



Blockworks analyzed daily data for XRP, bitcoin (<a href="https://blockworks.co/price/btc">BTC</a>), ether (<a href="https://blockworks.co/price/eth">ETH</a>), binance coin (<a href="https://blockworks.co/price/bnb">BNB</a>) and dogecoin (<a href="https://blockworks.co/price/doge">DOGE</a>) to see how Ripple’s recent pump really stacked up.



Turns out, yesterday’s XRP pump came in the 15th spot. Dogecoin holds the top two spots: a 358% surge in December 2013 and a 344% showing in January 2021, when billionaires Elon Musk and Mark Cuban regularly tweeted about DOGE.



Dogecoin represents almost half of the top 20 intraday pumps to bitcoin’s seven. BTC exploded 241% in July 2010 — slightly ahead of XRP’s number-one rally. BNB only features once.



That’s still more than ether. ETH’s biggest intraday pump on record was only 49%, in August 2015, when it swam from $1.26 to $1.88. 



Ether’s all-time rally finds itself in 39th place overall.



<figure class="wp-block-embed is-type-wp-embed is-provider-flourish wp-block-embed-flourish"><div class="wp-block-embed__wrapper">
<iframe class="wp-embedded-content" sandbox="allow-scripts" security="restricted" title="Interactive or visual content" src="https://flo.uri.sh/visualisation/14444090/embed#?secret=h6hlZZdTLd" data-secret="h6hlZZdTLd" frameborder="0" scrolling="no" height="575" width="700"></iframe>
</div><figcaption class="wp-element-caption">Almost the whole board is bitcoin and dogecoin</figcaption></figure>



Of course, these figures suffer from a certain amount of time bias. Crypto markets are always online, unlike the stock market which has defined trading hours.&nbsp;



Defined hours render intraday analysis more relevant. For this analysis, midnight UTC signaled the end and beginning of trading periods.&nbsp;



There also may be larger pumps on certain exchanges not reflected in these results.



Same-day pumps are fun, but what really matters is returns over the long haul. Bitcoin has trumped them all with up to 80 million percent gains since 2009.



XRP and dogecoin, as it turns out, have returned practically the same across their entire history — with XRP eclipsing DOGE with more than 12,600% returns after this week’s rally.



<figure class="wp-block-embed is-type-wp-embed is-provider-flourish wp-block-embed-flourish"><div class="wp-block-embed__wrapper">
<iframe class="wp-embedded-content" sandbox="allow-scripts" security="restricted" title="Interactive or visual content" src="https://flo.uri.sh/visualisation/14446238/embed#?secret=Agy14udLab" data-secret="Agy14udLab" frameborder="0" scrolling="no" height="575" width="700"></iframe>
</div><figcaption class="wp-element-caption">Switch to log view to see XRP eclipsing dogecoin’s all-time returns</figcaption></figure>



Updated Jul. 15, 2023 at 3:06 am ET: Year of ETH&#8217;s biggest pump.



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XRP tops dogecoin all-time returns after its second-biggest pump ever

Dogecoin is undergoing a surge in network spam so dramatic that it’s now processing more transactions than the Ethereum blockchain.



Over the past week, the memecoin network handled more than 7.9 million transactions, up nearly 11% on Ethereum’s 7.2 million and more than double Bitcoin’s count.



Not bad for a chain that has handled only 30,000 daily transactions on average since 2015 — less than 5% of Ethereum’s.



The culprit is <a href="https://blockworks.co/news/who-broke-bitcoin-ordinals">Bitcoin Ordinals</a>. Or more precisely, opportunistic crypto fans eager to capitalize on the inscriptions hype.&nbsp;



Bitcoin Ordinals aren’t exactly the same as the NFTs you might find on Ethereum or Solana. Those non-fungible tokens are minted via smart contract and adhere to their own token standards enforced by wallets, marketplaces and other key infrastructure across Web3.&nbsp;



Ordinals are instead defined by data “inscribed” into individual satoshis (sats for short). Sats are BTC’s smallest denomination: 0.00000001 <a href="https://blockworks.co/price/btc">BTC</a> currently worth $0.00027. A craft developer recently figured out how to forever imbue sats with special properties, such as enough data to render a JPEG or <a href="https://blockworks.co/news/play-doom-bitcoin">DOOM clone</a>.&nbsp;



BRC-20 tokens — a play on Ethereum’s ERC-20 standard for run-of-the-mill tokens — quickly followed Ordinals. Hype for Bitcoin-powered altcoins and collectible sats triggered a renaissance for blockspace demand, driving up fees while pushing <a href="https://blockworks.co/news/bitcoin-transactions-record-ordinals">transaction counts and mempool backlogs to record highs</a>.



If we consider Ordinals in the same genre of digital asset as Bored Apes, Bitcoin is now the <a href="https://protos.com/bitcoin-suddenly-becomes-second-biggest-nft-blockchain/">number-two</a> blockchain for NFTs behind Ethereum.



<figure class="wp-block-embed is-type-wp-embed is-provider-flourish wp-block-embed-flourish"><div class="wp-block-embed__wrapper">
<iframe class="wp-embedded-content" sandbox="allow-scripts" security="restricted" title="Interactive or visual content" src="https://flo.uri.sh/visualisation/13912334/embed#?secret=V02Rifa9oh" data-secret="V02Rifa9oh" frameborder="0" scrolling="no" height="575" width="700"></iframe>
</div><figcaption class="wp-element-caption">Dogecoin’s transaction count exploded past other prominent blockchains over the past few weeks</figcaption></figure>



<h2 class="wp-block-heading">Doge see, Doge do</h2>



Due to similarities between Bitcoin and Dogecoin (a code fork of a code fork of Bitcoin), it didn’t take long for developers to <a href="https://github.com/dogecoinw/cardinals/blob/main/bip.mediawiki">code</a> methods for minting Dogecoin tokens in much the same way as Ordinals and BRC-20s — except with a “D” instead of a “B.”



But Bitcoiners have multiple platforms on which traders can swap Ordinals and BRC-20s, including <a href="https://blockworks.co/news/okx-offers-ordinals-trading">crypto exchange wallets</a>. Dogecoin doesn’t.



Bitcoin’s BRC-20s in particular have been helped by an experimental token <a href="https://domo-2.gitbook.io/brc-20-experiment/">standard</a>, something akin to Ethereum’s ERC-20s.&nbsp;



The standard set enough technical parameters so that infrastructure (wallets, marketplaces and the like) can facilitate trading and whatnot without running into headaches, like duplicate listings and overtly broken code.



BRC-20 and Ordinals individually have recently made up more than half of all Bitcoin transactions, and it’s unclear just how many DRC-20-related transactions are flowing through Dogecoin right now. No tools have been built to sort DRC-20 outputs from others, which makes it difficult to quantify exactly how many Dogecoin tokens are being minted every minute.



In any case, it’s surely an impressive chunk. Multiple DRC-20 token transactions are found in practically every single block right now (which occur every one minute on average). They are easy to spot, as they usually come with a 0.001 <a href="https://blockworks.co/price/doge">DOGE</a> fee attached ($0.000071).&nbsp;



Pseudonymous Dogecoin developer inevitable360 told Blockworks that they classify DRC-20 transactions like these as spam because anyone can clone or replicate the exact same token.&nbsp;



Unlike Bitcoin and Ethereum, there is no DRC-20 token standard for Dogecoin. So, many tokens are being minted under the same name, making it practically impossible to form a legitimate market around them.&nbsp;



There’s still legitimate Dogecoin activity alongside speculators minting Dogecoin tokens via the one or two wallets that support them in their current form (which have been <a href="https://twitter.com/inevitable360/status/1659532081762844678">caught</a> boosting fees to apparently profit from the hype).



The median transaction <a href="https://bitinfocharts.com/dogecoin/">value</a> is nearly 77 DOGE ($5.46). If DRC-20s were truly the overwhelming majority, then that figure would be far lower.&nbsp;


<div class="wp-block-image">
<figure class="aligncenter size-large"><img decoding="async" loading="lazy" width="1600" height="752" src="https://blockworks-co.imgix.net/wp-content/uploads/2023/05/image-21.png?w=1024&amp;h=1024" alt="" class="wp-image-57140" srcset="https://blockworks-co.imgix.net/wp-content/uploads/2023/05/image-21.png?w=1600 1600w, https://blockworks-co.imgix.net/wp-content/uploads/2023/05/image-21.png?w=300 300w, https://blockworks-co.imgix.net/wp-content/uploads/2023/05/image-21.png?w=1024 1024w, https://blockworks-co.imgix.net/wp-content/uploads/2023/05/image-21.png?w=768 768w, https://blockworks-co.imgix.net/wp-content/uploads/2023/05/image-21.png?w=1536 1536w, https://blockworks-co.imgix.net/wp-content/uploads/2023/05/image-21.png?w=428 428w, https://blockworks-co.imgix.net/wp-content/uploads/2023/05/image-21.png?w=470 470w, https://blockworks-co.imgix.net/wp-content/uploads/2023/05/image-21.png?w=389 389w, https://blockworks-co.imgix.net/wp-content/uploads/2023/05/image-21.png?w=80 80w" sizes="(max-width: 1600px) 100vw, 1600px" /><figcaption class="wp-element-caption">Bitcoin Ordinals already have their own marketplaces</figcaption></figure></div>


<h2 class="wp-block-heading">It might be spam, but it’s honest work</h2>



For what it’s worth, much of the recent Bitcoin activity has also been labeled <a href="https://twitter.com/ercwl/status/1660030765017473026">spam</a>: effectively worthless transactions with no reason to exist but to exist; abundant purely because creation is cheap and the potential payoff is large.



Granted: Ethereum layer-2 networks such as Arbitrum and Optimism are each processing tons of transactions. More than a million per day for the former, in fact. If we add those in with Ethereum, then the blockchain dominates Dogecoin by far.



Ethereum fees are also high right now. High enough to apparently dissuade a portion of useless trade, particularly NFTs. But there’s something to be said for Dogecoin in this instance.&nbsp;



Many deride Dogecoin as a joke carefully crafted to trap crypto newbies into gambling on memecoins during bull runs.&nbsp;



There may be some element of truth to that. But historically, Dogecoin has served as a lucrative alternative for bitcoin miners at times when mining BTC was simply not profitable. An unsung hero, in those cases.



Dogecoin is also merge-minable with Litecoin, allowing miners to share hash rate between the two to provide some element of flexibility in support of a multichain future. It just so happens that right now, there appears to be more activity tied to DRC-20 speculation today than that tied to the use of Ethereum mainnet overall.



And Dogecoin still has lower median fees: $0.00096 compared to Ethereum’s $3.13 — no doubt an uncomfortable fact for many ETH fans.



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Dogecoin Proves It’s a Serious Blockchain, Flips Ethereum Transaction Count

Shalini Nagarajan

Tech billionaire Elon Musk has maintained an air of intrigue with his prolonged silence regarding his position on crypto assets for months now.



Musk&#8217;s silence on crypto led some investors to interpret it as either a signal of waning interest or a strategic pause, waiting for the opportune moment to take action.



He briefly touched upon the topic of cryptocurrencies during the Wall Street Journal&#8217;s <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PDy7s1SDDn4" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">CEO Council Summit</a> in London this week, with a specific emphasis on dogecoin.



&#8220;I&#8217;m not advising anyone to buy crypto or bet the farm on dogecoin,&#8221; he said in a virtual conference, and cautioned against investing one&#8217;s life savings into the meme-inspired digital currency.



However, he did reiterate his fondness for dogecoin (<a href="https://blockworks.co/price/doge" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">DOGE</a>) as his favorite cryptocurrency, citing its inherent humor and inclusion of dogs. He didn’t share any further insights or opinions on any other digital assets.



Musk&#8217;s engagement with dogecoin enthusiasts was earlier something of a spectacle, with a noticeable connection observed between the price of DOGE and the Tesla founder&#8217;s tweets.



Between 2019 and 2022, Musk tweeted about the memecoin multiple times, often resulting in temporary price increases.



In June 2022, investor Keith Johnson took legal action by filing a substantial <a href="https://blockworks.co/news/musk-dogecoin-lawsuit-memes">$258 billion lawsuit against Musk</a>, alleging his involvement in a pyramid scheme designed to manipulate the price of DOGE.



But Musk’s lawyers hit back, saying “there is nothing unlawful about tweeting words of support for, or funny pictures about, a legitimate cryptocurrency that continues to hold a market cap of nearly $10 billion.”



Crypto enthusiasts were keen to know <a href="https://blockworks.co/news/crypto-faithfuls-await-elon-musks-blockchain-plans-for-twitter">whether Musk would integrate crypto</a> into Twitter after he assumed the role of CEO. While he hasn’t been open about any crypto-related plans, he made a temporary alteration to the micro-blogging site&#8217;s logo in April by <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/technology/2023/apr/04/twitter-changes-logo-to-dogecoin-cryptocurrency-image-in-apparent-late-april-fools-day-gag" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">replacing</a> it with the iconic Shiba Inu image associated with the dogecoin meme.&nbsp;



This unexpected move too resulted in a surge in the price of DOGE.



DOGE last traded around 7 cents on Wednesday, and is down more than 9% in the last month, according to data from Blockworks Research.



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Elon Musk Breaks Silence on Crypto, Warns Against Dogecoin Speculation

Robinhood is pushing anew to dismiss a lawsuit claiming the company failed to properly disclose information ahead of its IPO — purportedly extending to its crypto trading activities.&nbsp;



Lawyers for Robinhood on May 12 filed a motion to dismiss the long-running class action lawsuit.&nbsp;



The US publicly traded company’s motion follows a February court ruling that found there was no proof that Robinhood supplied investors with false or misleading IPO materials in 2021.



The plaintiffs in the case, filed in federal court San Francisco, were given the opportunity to file an amended complaint, according to US District Judge Edward Chen.&nbsp;



Robinhood’s latest motion appears to be aiming to close the case for good, which would bookend a rocky period for the company. Its stock through Tuesday’s close in New York was down 21.5% over the last 12 months, though it has stabilized and was up about 1% on the year.



Plaintiffs in court documents have alleged that <a href="https://blockworks.co/tag/robinhood">Robinhood</a> failed to disclose the rise of “meme stocks” and memecoins, including dogecoin (<a href="https://blockworks.co/price/doge">DOGE</a>) and GameStop.&nbsp;



“This new theory — materializing for the first time in Plaintiffs’ third try at this case — fails,” Robinhood’s lawyers wrote in their motion. “As an initial matter, Plaintiffs ignore the fact that the so-called ‘meme stock’ trading frenzy of early 2021, along with its impact on Robinhood’s business, was one of the most widely reported news events of the year.”



Robinhood filed for an initial public offering (IPO) in the summer of 2021 on the heels of the meme stock frenzy in early 2021.



The lawsuit against Robinhood claims that the increase in crypto trading and the following decline were not properly disclosed by Robinhood.



Lawyers for Robinhood say that the “significant increase in cryptocurrency trading volume in early 2021 — along with its subsequent decline — was extensively covered in the news and on social media and thus known to all reasonable investors.”



In April, Robinhood settled with multiple <a href="https://dfpi.ca.gov/2023/04/06/california-joins-multiple-states-in-10-million-settlement-with-robinhood-for-failing-investors/">states</a> — including California— for $10 million in penalties related to technical and operational failures that hurt retail investors.



Robinhood is not alone in its battle to dismiss a lawsuit centered around meme coins or stocks. In April, <a href="https://blockworks.co/news/musk-dogecoin-lawsuit-memes">Elon Musk pushed to dismiss</a> a lawsuit that claimed he pumped dogecoin as part of a pyramid scheme.



Robinhood did not immediately respond to a request for comment.



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Robinhood Asks Court to Toss Class Action Deriding Memecoins

Elon Musk has asked a US court to drop a $258 billion (yes, billion) dogecoin lawsuit filed against the billionaire and his companies last year.



Musk’s lawyers argued the plaintiffs had cherry-picked his statements about the premiere dog-themed cryptocurrency, labeling the suit a “fanciful work of fiction.”



Musk was sued by investor Keith Johnson in Manhattan federal court last June. Johnson accused Musk, Tesla and SpaceX of running a pyramid scheme focused on inflating the price of <a href="https://blockworks.co/price/doge" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">DOGE</a>. 



“There is nothing unlawful about tweeting words of support for, or funny pictures about, a legitimate cryptocurrency that continues to hold a market cap of nearly $10 billion,” Musk&#8217;s lawyers said in the <a href="https://www.reuters.com/legal/elon-musk-seeks-end-258-billion-dogecoin-lawsuit-2023-04-01/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">filing</a>. “This court should put a stop to plaintiffs’ fantasy and dismiss the complaint.”



In September, the lawsuit added seven more investor plaintiffs and six defendants, including the UK-registered non profit Dogecoin Foundation.&nbsp;



The monumental damages sought are triple the estimated decline in dogecoin’s market capitalization from its all-time high, which preceded the lawsuit.



&#8220;Defendants were aware since 2019 that dogecoin had no value yet [promoted it] to profit from its trading,&#8221; Johnson argued in the original complaint. &#8220;Musk used his pedestal as world’s richest man to operate and manipulate the Dogecoin Pyramid Scheme for profit, exposure and amusement.&#8221;



In Musk’s defense, lawyers said he’d publicly supported dogecoin because it was more accessible than other cryptocurrencies, and that many employees on the production lines at Tesla and SpaceX owned dogecoin, among other reasons.&nbsp;



Musk had warned the public about potential fluctuations in the price of dogecoin, saying in his <a href="https://twitter.com/elonmusk/status/1113178951403180032" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">first tweet</a> about the coin that its “value may vary.”



The lawsuit further claimed that some of Musk’s dogecoin-related tweets — including ones that said “<a href="https://twitter.com/elonmusk/status/1113173498384441344" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">Dogecoin rulz</a>” and “<a href="https://twitter.com/elonmusk/status/1357244295091208193?lang=en" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">No highs, no lows, only Doge</a>” — were fraudulent.&nbsp;



But lawyers argued that the plaintiffs’ didn’t explain how these statements were misleading, “as they are so vague and subjective as to constitute quintessential puffery.” Blockworks has reached out to SpaceX for comment. Tesla <a href="https://electrek.co/2020/10/06/tesla-dissolves-pr-department/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">disintegrated</a> its media relations department in Oct. 2020.



Musk’s joke during a Saturday Night Live (SNL) show in May 2021, in which he described dogecoin as a “hustle,” didn’t add any new revelation to public knowledge about dogecoin’s risks, Musk’s lawyers said. 



Dogecoin surged to record highs in the days leading up to Musk&#8217;s SNL appearance and <a href="https://www.theverge.com/2021/5/9/22427006/dogecoin-crashing-elon-musk-snl-host" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">crashed</a> directly after.



The token has lost around 45% of its value in the last 12 months, and up about 10% year to date.



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Musk Lawyers Say ‘Nothing Wrong’ With Memes in $258B Dogecoin Lawsuit

Sebastian Sinclair

Last year was a rough one for crypto. To say the least.&nbsp;



This year, the long-term viability of the protocols that survived — if not unscathed — remains in doubt, according to a new report encompassing a decade of data.&nbsp;



Research compiled by educational outlet CoinKickoff shows more than 90% of digital assets spun up since a previous crash in 2014 have since been abandoned by investors and developers alike.



Hot on the heels of a bitcoin surge in 2013 — when the cryptocurrency leapt from $150 to a November peak of $1,000 — <a href="https://coinkickoff.com/wp-content/uploads/01_Volume-of-Dead-Crypto-Coins-by-Start-Year.png" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">roughly 793 new tokens</a> joined the fray by the end of the following year. 



According to CoinKickoff <a href="https://coinkickoff.com/dead-crypto-coins/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">research</a>, most newcomers met their eventual demise due to dipping trading volumes or even abject abandonment. There’s at least one notable surviving exception: meme asset dogecoin (<a href="https://blockworks.co/price/doge" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">DOGE</a>).



“Many opportunistic attempts to corner the early crypto market ended in failure,” the research platform said in its report, Along those same lines, data from “dead coin” follower <a href="https://www.coinopsy.com/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">Coinopsy</a> found digital assets tend to have remarkably short lifespans — averaging just 15 months. 



More than half of all coins introduced every year between 2013 and 2018 no longer exist, according to CoinKickoff.



Coinopsy defines dead coins as cryptocurrencies that have been used as scams, experienced prolonged downtime on an associated website or nodes, lack social updates or possess low trade volume.


<div class="wp-block-image">
<figure class="aligncenter is-resized"><img decoding="async" loading="lazy" src="https://lh6.googleusercontent.com/-Eq3ss4yuPA7D7g2KjOKfBUSQU3M_WCLXmDSLnPKJYp6TANS7ltQchhNQkVJXvCi47SYp5rXmxJzrPO75PCSno_HUpJMghc8JwiGXdmjNWO13kdDdbj8_Rpo_-tvS-XSyLd5vXBSz9apsZsVj8wOYr-U50Zdp9vmlAsvwD4Wa3e2M1jmTlFBPugXtQ5ABg" alt="" width="611" height="955"/><figcaption class="wp-element-caption">Source: CoinKickoff</figcaption></figure></div>


Then, of course, came the ICO era, which all but took over digital assets in 2017. That’s also when bitcoin reached new all-time highs around $20,000. And those 365 days marked the emergence of scammers from the digital woodwork.&nbsp;



Of all newly created coins that year, 17% turned out to be fake (typically created to “pump the bags” of their creator) — the highest figure ever recorded.



By comparison, roughly 10% of all coins created in 2015 were deemed fraudulent, while in 2018, 9.6% of newly created coins were designed to fleece investors, data shows.



The silver lining is that just 16 cryptos launched in 2020 have since gone under — perhaps one indicator that the industry is growing up.



Backing that sentiment, trademark attorney Mike Kondoudis <a href="https://twitter.com/Blockworks_/status/1611014635276091395" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">found</a> that recent US crypto trademark applications have ballooned to 5,383, a 50% year-over-year jump, from 2021 to 2022. The picture is far from total.



Over 12,000 individual cryptocurrencies are now on the market. History would suggest most are destined to fail or fade away. Bitcoin’s resiliency over the years has proved the asset class’ <a href="https://twitter.com/CryptoMo/status/1611129873820524544?s=20&amp;t=rPWqLvLEcuiLGBZJ86eeMg" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">staying power</a>, though significant investor pitfalls remain. 



In each subsequent bear market triggered by a significant event — as seen by FTX, Three Arrows Capital and crypto lenders in 2022 — regulation tends to stiffen.



Most projects now avoid launching an ICO and instead opt for other means to raise funds — courtesy of a <a href="https://medium.com/hackernoon/initial-coin-offering-ico-death-regulation-b615a7cb6b97" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">tightening regulatory regime</a> in the US and worldwide, as well as prosecutors and securities regulators doubling down on their scrutiny of those methods. 



<a href="https://blockworks.co/news/cftc-racked-up-crypto-enforcement-record-in-past-year">US prosecutors</a> have begun to increasingly target bad actors, scammers and hackers while exchanges have had to address hurdle after hurdle to prove their legitimacy and viability when it comes to listing tokens for the first time. 



Though dead coins over time remain a threat to any investor’s portfolio, the crypto regulation is <a href="https://techcrunch.com/2022/11/27/lawyers-see-crypto-regulation-coming-in-2023-because-industry-needs-to-rebuild-trust/#:~:text=Lawyers%20see%20crypto%20regulation%20coming%20in%202023%20because%20industry%20needs%20to%20rebuild%20trust,-Jacquelyn%20Melinek%40jacqmelinek&amp;text=Despite%20an%20uneven%20year%20in,restore%20trust%20in%20the%20industry." target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">slowly changing</a>. Still, a growing chorus of digital asset proponents of late have been parsing the likelihood of those incremental shifts going from zero to 60.



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Crypto’s Dead Coins Are Portfolio Pitfalls, Though 2023 Proves Hopeful

Macauley Peterson

<div id="highlights-block_61b8868480cf9" class="highlights">
 <ul>
 <li>Musk was named TIME’s Person of the Year on Monday and said that Dogecoin is “better suited for transactions [than bitcoin]”</li>
 <li>An early Tuesday morning tweet sent DOGE prices rocketing higher within a few minutes</li>
 </ul>
 
</div>



Elon Musk is once again moving markets with a fresh round of pro-Dogecoin comments proliferating on Twitter.



TIME Magazine announced its 2021 Person of the Year award for Musk, on Monday. The consequent social media blitz included a Tweet featuring the celebrity CEO discussing cryptocurrency in the context of his expertise on money, stemming from his involvement in the early days of digital payments service PayPal. As <a href="https://cms.blockworks.co/?s=elon+musk" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">he has done before</a>, Musk used the opportunity to criticize bitcoin as a currency and promote his favorite crypto hobbyhorse, Dogecoin.



<figure class="wp-block-embed is-type-rich is-provider-twitter wp-block-embed-twitter"><div class="wp-block-embed__wrapper">
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" data-width="550" data-dnt="true">Watch: TIME&#39;s 2021 Person of the Year <a href="https://twitter.com/elonmusk?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">@elonmusk</a> discusses cryptocurrency <a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/TIMEPOY?src=hash&amp;ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">#TIMEPOY</a> <a href="https://t.co/FfwEGxW7LX">https://t.co/FfwEGxW7LX</a> <a href="https://t.co/5BXAZky0LS">pic.twitter.com/5BXAZky0LS</a>&mdash; TIME (@TIME) <a href="https://twitter.com/TIME/status/1470378129575325700?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">December 13, 2021</a></blockquote><script async src="https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script>
</div></figure>



“Even though it was created as a silly joke, Dogecoin is better suited for transactions,” Musk said, arguing that Dogecoin supports a higher number of transactions per day. And while it is inflationary in its issuance, he added, “that’s actually good because it encourages people to spend rather than sort of hoard it as a store of value.”



But what can folks buy with their DOGE? Well, Musk provided one answer for that in a Tuesday morning tweet to his 65 million followers:



<figure class="wp-block-embed is-type-rich is-provider-twitter wp-block-embed-twitter"><div class="wp-block-embed__wrapper">
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" data-width="550" data-dnt="true">Tesla will make some merch buyable with Doge &amp; see how it goes&mdash; Elon Musk (@elonmusk) <a href="https://twitter.com/elonmusk/status/1470703708677840896?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">December 14, 2021</a></blockquote><script async src="https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script>
</div></figure>



The market did not wait for details before buying up DOGE like a Model 3 sedan. In the six minutes following Musk’s tweet, the uber-memecoin rocketed 27%, a pace indicative of twitter-watching bots taking full advantage.



<figure class="wp-block-image"><img decoding="async" src="https://lh6.googleusercontent.com/695Yx4O78uX_MmxdqzvY0ZURJUNJG3B_Sd14sCvptmn8HMgvpd3wkBOmmqGBe74GfKLuVqt-eT0P7_XcjsNXII6UFAemJlc0ToYDew1Jb2fEc3Hn0EHl2qM7eArb3nzZuPQ41H-k" alt=""/><figcaption>DOGE/USD on the 1-minute timeframe. Musk&#8217;s tweet came at 10:34 UTC.</figcaption></figure>



The price of DOGE has remained elevated in the hour since, holding above 20 cents.




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Musk’s outlook on bitcoin follows the store-of-value narrative that has predominated of late, notwithstanding the <a href="https://cms.blockworks.co/btc-price-flat-after-taproot-lightning-network-continues-to-grow-markets-wrap/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">growth in Bitcoin’s Lightning network</a>.



“I could really sort of wax on about the nature of money for hours…there are very few people that understand it better than me. Bitcoin is an interesting example — obviously the prime mover on this — but the transaction volume on bitcoin is low and the cost per transaction is high. It is, at least at its base level, suitable for a store of value, but fundamentally bitcoin is not a good substitute for transactional currency,” Musk <a href="https://time.com/person-of-the-year-2021-elon-musk/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">told TIME</a>.



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