ETF Countdowns, Screaming Buys, Happy New Years and 20 Crypto Jokes

cryptonews.com:

This is your weekly digest of top crypto news from Cryptonews.com, followed by a collection of 20 hand-picked crypto jokes.

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This week in crypto: the Bitcoin ETF countdown has begun, representatives from at least seven companies seeking to launch ETFs met with the US SEC officials, Market Haven said spot BTC ETF is expected to generate a staggering demand, potentially reaching up to $3 billion in the initial days, and VanEck named bitcoin one of the firm’s “screaming buys” for 2024.

As this was happening, Solana and Avalanche took the 2023 throne with 620% and 290% price growth, a Taproot Wizards contributor launched a script to reject Ordinals inscriptions, and while Robinhood’s crypto revenue hit its lowest in three years, it nonetheless expanded its crypto operations.

Vitalik Buterin blamed rising transaction fees for Web3’s drift from decentralization, and he proposed three alternative methods aimed at simplifying Ethereum’s PoS design.

Then, China launched its first automated digital yuan wallet-opening machine for overseas passport holders, and Hong Kong prepared to authorize funds with direct exposure to digital assets, including spot crypto ETFs.

In the tax realm, while Japan’s government abolished the crypto tax on unrealized corporate gains, Argentina’s newly elected government introduced a novel bill to regulate crypto holdings for taxpayers.

Meanwhile, Surfshark found that nine of the fifteen most popular crypto apps collected data to track their users, and a privacy advocate alleged that the Ledger Live wallet software monitored its users. Speaking of privacy, OKX will delist eight privacy-focused coins in January.

Crime continued and will continue. South Korean police shut down gangsters’ $32m crypto