GM, frens! ☕️ 

Some weeks the market sprints. Others, it naps with one eye open.

This one, it’s been pacing the room like it forgot why it walked in - restless, distracted, maybe plotting something… 🤔 

On the menu this week:

• 🤦‍♂️ North Korea becomes 3rd LARGEST BTC HOLDER

• 🔥 Ambire ups the game with Transaction Batching and Smart EOAs

• 🤯 Documentary on Vitalik to premiere on April 15, tracing Ethereum’s origins

• 🥶 OKX freezes DEX aggregator amid EU’s Bybit hack investigation

• 🥷 From the shadows of the Rug Cabal: same team, different rugpull

As for our W3oF Degen Portfolio… let’s just say it’s been practicing the ancient art of doing absolutely nothing.

Flat as a stablecoin and just as emotionally unavailable 😥 

If you’ve got better instincts, jump into our Discord and drop your picks - we’re always looking for the next beautiful disaster 🔥 

North Korea becomes 3rd LARGEST BTC HOLDER

For years, North Korea has been accused of using cyber warfare to finance its economy, dodging sanctions, and funding state-backed operations through illicit means 🥷 

Now, the latest data confirms something interesting: North Korea has amassed enough Bitcoin to become the third largest BTC holder in the world, surpassing El Salvador and trailing only behind the United States and the United Kingdom 🤯 

• Pyongyang didn’t acquire its crypto fortune by mining or trading. Instead, its notorious hacking unit, the Lazarus Group, has been pulling off some of the most devastating crypto hacks in history.

• The most recent were a series of attacks netting them nearly $2 billion, including the $1.4 billion Bybit hack earlier this year.

According to blockchain intelligence firm Arkham, North Korea’s crypto war chest now exceeds 13,580 BTC, valued at over $1.1 billion. This puts it ahead of El Salvador, the first country to embrace Bitcoin as legal tender, which holds just 6,118 BTC 🪙 

Crypto: a sanctions evasion lifeline

Pyongyang uses crypto to sidestep sanctions, funds state-backed programs, and launders stolen assets through decentralized platforms 👇️ 

The Lazarus Group has been known to swap stolen assets through DeFi protocols like THORChain, Tornado Cash, and various offshore OTC desks, making it incredibly difficult for authorities to track and seize funds.

With access to billions in crypto, North Korea gains an unprecedented level of financial autonomy, all while international sanctions try - and fail - to choke off its economic resources 💰️ 💰️ 

The implications of this are massive. North Korea’s control over such a large Bitcoin reserve could:

• Fuel more cyber attacks: With funds in hand, the Lazarus Group is unlikely to stop targeting crypto firms. More exchange breaches and ransomware operations are inevitable 🤷‍♂️ 

• Trigger more government crackdowns: Governments may double down on KYC/AML rules, tighten exchange oversight, and impose more sanctions on crypto mixers and privacy tools.

• Shift market dynamics: A state actor holding this much coins introduces new risks of strategic selling, particularly if North Korea needs liquidity for illicit activities.

Will North Korea cash out or HODL?

Despite its massive BTC holdings, North Korea has little incentive to liquidate all at once. Moving large amounts of Bitcoin could raise red flags 🔴 leading to increased monitoring. Instead, the regime will likely continue washing its funds through DeFi protocols and slowly offloading BTC via underground networks.

Meanwhile, the U.S. and its allies are scrambling to contain the situation. Sanctions, asset seizures, and intelligence operations are all being ramped up - but if history has shown anything, North Korea isn’t giving up its crypto lifeline anytime soon.

Ambire ups the game with Transaction Batching and Smart EOA

Ambire Wallet has unveiled a new extension update that ditches the usual clunky routine of individual token approvals for all accounts. Instead, users can batch multiple actions 🤯 like swaps, approvals, and transfers - into a single, streamlined transaction.

This change aims to reduce the friction (and frustration) that often comes with interacting across multiple DeFi protocols 👀 

Alongside that, Ambire introduced support for EIP-7702 on the Sepolia testnet. This “smart EOA” concept merges the simplicity of a standard externally owned account with extra features you’d expect from contract-based wallets.

You can also check the example of the “double swaps” in a single transaction on platforms like PancakeSwap, an even smoother path for chain-hopping or multi-step trades 👇️ 

By slashing the usual popups and letting users combine multiple tasks into one, the new approach delivers a cleaner UI/UX and a friendlier path to DeFi 🤝 

It’s a small but meaningful step toward the day when DeFi isn’t just powerful, but actually feels effortless to use 🫡 

Documentary on Vitalik to premiere on April 15, tracing Ethereum’s origins

Ever wonder how a math obsessed nerd turned a bunch of half baked crypto ideas into a global phenomenon? 🤔 

The upcoming documentary Vitalik: An Ethereum Story aims to answer that question when it drops on April 15 across Apple TV and Prime Video 📺️ 

This film promises a deep dive into the improbable journey of Vitalik Buterin, the soft-spoken co-founder of Ethereum.

• Early segments apparently explore the ragtag funding that jumpstarted Ethereum back in 2014, where crowdfunding campaigns were equal parts ambition and chaos.

• Footage also delves into the near-mythical status Ethereum acquired by 2017, fueled by a tidal wave of new projects and investors convinced this blockchain tech could change the world 👨‍💻 

According to sources, film acknowledges the hype but doesn’t shy away from the bruises: the DAO hack, internal power struggles, and forks that tested Ethereum’s limits.

The documentary supposedly highlights how Vitalik, despite everything that was happening, remained laser-focused on the platform’s core vision - pushing for a trustless network governed by math proofs instead of corporate overlords or big banks 🧠 

To be fair, something like this can be truly entertaining if done right, as this was one of the most unpredictable chapters in the crypto space, where overnight millionaires rubbed elbows with code geeks and meme lords.

• As result, Ethereum emerged not just as another digital ledger, but as a battleground for ideals about open finance and decentralized governance, and in the end, Ethereum’s story isn’t about code or hype cycles.

• It’s about how another run of the mill proposal of a blockchain protocol ended up at the epicenter of a worldwide experiment, shaking up finance, art, and entire digital communities in ways no one saw coming 🤯 

  Maybe the documentary will capture all that - or maybe it won’t. We’ll find out soon enough.

OKX freezes DEX aggregator amid EU’s Bybit hack investigation

OKX, a major centralized exchange, has suspended its DEX aggregator service following an EU investigation that links the platform to suspicious transactions from the recent Bybit hack.

A report circulated on March 11 indicating that European regulators were taking a hard look at OKX’s Web3 offerings, and now there’s confirmation from OKX themselves.

EU suspects that the exchange’s aggregator might have been used to launder stolen funds from Bybit, a competitor that recently fell victim to a massive breach.

OKX’s leadership, understandably, isn’t thrilled.

• In an official statement, OKX hammered home that this was all “misinformation” aimed at generating needless FUD 🙃 

• They highlighted that the aggregator does little more than fetch the best prices across decentralized venues before executing trades. But apparently, one small oversight in “tagging” certain transactions was enough to get regulators all hot and bothered - so hot, in fact, that OKX decided to pull the plug for now 🔌 

Why everyone in the space is rolling their eyes

• Centralized exchanges often tout their commitment to compliance and user protection - until external pressure forces them to flip a switch and block a service they’d touted as a “DeFi solution”

The irony, of course, is that a truly decentralized protocol doesn’t have an “off” button. If your aggregator can just vanish overnight because some agency raises an eyebrow, it’s about as decentralized as a corporate file dump server 👎️ 

Regulatory overreach vs just doing their job

The EU claims it’s simply ensuring that crypto doesn’t become a playground for money launderers 👇️ 

• Critics argue that heavy handed enforcement might push legitimate projects away from regulatory hotspots.

Both could be true - but either way, the aggregator’s gone for now.

Hong Fang, OKX’s President, called the accusations “misleading” and reasserted the exchange’s focus on transparency 🤔 

Meanwhile, Haider Rafique, their Global Head of Derivatives, stressed that OKX had cooperated with Bybit, presumably to show good faith. But none of that changed the final outcome 🤷‍♂️ 

An official spokesperson claimed that a mislabeling issue pegged OKX’s aggregator as the final stop for certain transactions when, in reality, it’s just a routing service.

For fans of frictionless trading, this suspension might be a temporary annoyance. For the rest of us, it’s a timely reminder that a centralized entity can yank your pseudo-DeFi tool at the drop of a subpoena 🔨 

If you want true decentralization - where no one flips your off switch - there’s that old mantra: hold your own keys and interact directly with truly permissionless protocols.

From the shadows of the Rug Cabal: same team, different rugpull

Hayden Davis, who first turned heads with the controversial LIBRA meme coin, is back in the spotlight - this time because investigators found a link between him and a rugged shitcoin that goes by the ticker WOLF.

Inspired by Jordan Belfort’s infamous “Wolf of Wall Street” persona, the token saw a quick pump and an even quicker dump, in a pattern that’s become all too familiar with Davis’s ventures.

Not long ago, Davis found himself on the most wanted list over his LIBRA coin association, which kicked off with big promises, pumped to a ridiculous market cap, then quickly dumped.

Now, on-chain analysis from BubbleMaps points to Davis behind the WOLF token as well - triggering renewed scrutiny over his funding sources and the pattern of how these coins pump and dump 👇️ 

• Belfort connection: Rumors swirled that Jordan Belfort (a.k.a. the actual “Wolf of Wall Street”) was planning to introduce his own token, which may have given WOLF a quick hype boost. But just like some of Davis’s previous tokens, the interest was short lived.

• Onchain red flags: BubbleMaps discovered that a tiny cluster of wallets allegedly controlled 82% of WOLF’s supply, sparking insider control suspicions. The token’s price chart looks like a rocket that ran out of fuel minutes after launch 🚀 

Right when the WOLF token caught a wave of publicity - riding the coattails of the high profile WallStreetBets (WSB) community - its market cap spiked to around $40 million. But that number quickly went poof, as Davis suddenly realized he had better stuff to do and quickly rugged it 🫠 

It’s a tired textbook pattern: hype the new meme coin, watch new investors pile in, then see the rug get pulled, do it again many times. It’s basically an endless scam farm that makes these people millions 💰️ 

The LIBRA story isn’t over

Davis’s recent track record includes LIBRA, a meme coin that pumped after Argentina’s President Milei endorsed it - until it cratered and lost over 99% of its value shortly after 📉 

Investigations in Argentina have since turned an eye toward Davis’s involvement, and the trouble is definitely on the horizon for this guy.

For now, Davis’s go to scheme seems to revolve around capitalizing on memecoin hype whether it’s hooking onto political figures or referencing pop culture icons, and if his past rugs are any indication, the only real question may be: who’s the next unsuspecting buyer feeding the beast? 💀 

Other worthy reads

Thoughts on DeSci meta, from Juan:

Ethereum community seems to be still divided on the PoW vs PoS issue:

“The Great Crypto VC Bubble: Why Every New Token Trends to Zero (Part 1)” by 0xLouisT:

MEMES

That's all for now, frens.

We'll meet in a week! And remember, the market conditions are temporary, but our commitment to building a better DeFi is here to stay. Thanks for joining us, and we look forward to seeing you back next week. Cheers!

Yours, The 🔥 Team

Brought to you by Ambire: The Only Web3 Wallet That You’ll Need!