In this week’s edition:

• ⚖️ Tornado Cash sanctions overturned

• 🎥 Pump.fun pauses livestreams after stunts

• 💼 Ex-Binance exec alleges bribery in UK tribunal

• 🎨 Kraken exits NFT marketplace

• 💰 Celsius begins $127M creditor payouts

• 📈 MicroStrategy buys $5.4B in Bitcoin

• 🤖 AI memecoins drive record Base activity

• 🇪🇺 Tether ends EURT ahead of EU rules

Vitalik Buterin Aped Into the Social Media App Anoncast. What’s It About?

For a week and a half, Anoncast has been all the rage for its anonymous posts enabled by zero-knowledge technology. Here’s why it’s taken off.

Farcaster-based social media app Anoncast has quickly grabbed the crypto community’s attention—especially after Ethereum creator Vitalik Buterin jumped in.

The platform allows users to speak freely while ensuring no one—not even the platform itself—can trace their identity. And in its short week-and-a-half life span, it’s already generated thousands of posts.

In this lighter, Black Friday edition of Unchained, developer Kartik Patel joins to discuss how Anoncast works and why the platform has taken off so quickly. He shares insights on the challenges of maintaining anonymity in a connected world, how AI intersects with these developments, and what it was like to “nerd-snipe” Buterin.

Listen to the episode on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Pods, Fountain, Podcast Addict, Pocket Casts, Amazon Music, or on your favorite podcast platform.

Weekly News Recap

Court Overturns Sanctions on Tornado Cash

In a pivotal ruling for the crypto industry, the Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals has declared U.S. Treasury sanctions on Tornado Cash unlawful. The sanctions, imposed in 2022 by the Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC), accused the cryptocurrency mixer of laundering over $7 billion in digital assets, including $455 million linked to the North Korean hacking group Lazarus.

Judge Don Willett, writing for the three-judge panel, determined that Tornado Cash’s self-executing smart contracts could not be classified as “property” and therefore fall outside OFAC’s regulatory authority under the International Emergency Economic Powers Act. Willett acknowledged the “real-world downsides” of unregulated technology but noted that updating the law is Congress’s responsibility, not the judiciary’s.

The challenge against the sanctions was spearheaded by six Tornado Cash users, with backing from Coinbase. Paul Grewal, Coinbase’s chief legal officer, hailed the decision on X as a "historic win for crypto and liberty.” Similarly, crypto lawyer Jake Chervinsky described it as a "stunning victory" for decentralization.

Hours after the court overturned Tornado Cash sanctions, Ethereum co-founder Vitalik Buterin donated $1 million in ether to Coin Center, the think tank that has helped lead the industry’s fight against the Tornado Cash sanctions.

Pump.fun Suspends Livestreaming After Series of Controversial Incidents

Pump.fun, the Solana-based platform that enables users to create and promote memecoins, has indefinitely suspended its livestreaming feature following a slew of troubling broadcasts. The feature, introduced in August, allowed creators to engage audiences by live streaming their reactions to token price movements. However, recent events exposed its misuse, leading to the platform's decision to disable it temporarily.

Those events included numerous livestreams that included threats of violence and other extreme acts. In one case, a user threatened to harm his pet if his token did not reach a specific market cap. Another broadcast featured a staged suicide attempt that was later revealed to be a hoax intended to promote the creator’s memecoin. Despite no actual harm actually occurring, these incidents triggered widespread condemnation.

Pump.fun’s team addressed the issue in a statement, saying that “to ensure the absolute safety of our users, we will be pausing the live streaming functionality until the moderation infrastructure is ready to handle heightened activity.” The platform also plans to increase transparency in its moderation processes.

The platform has grown rapidly, with over 3.8 million tokens created since its January launch. However, the livestreaming controversies highlight the challenges of managing user-generated content.

Ex-Binance Executive Alleges Bribery and Retaliation in Whistleblower Case

A former Binance executive has filed a whistleblower claim in the U.K., alleging that a colleague solicited a bribe to fast-track a customer’s onboarding process, Bloomberg reported. Amrita Srivastava, who joined Binance in April 2022 after working at Mastercard, claims she was unfairly dismissed after reporting the bribery incident in April 2023.

Srivastava alleged that a fellow Binance employee accepted money under the guise of providing consultancy services, all while concealing his affiliation with the company. The colleague has since left Binance. According to Srivastava, her dismissal came a month after she raised the issue, but Binance contends her termination was performance-related and unrelated to her report.

The hearing offers a rare glimpse into Binance’s internal workings as it faces broader legal challenges, including a $4.3 billion penalty in 2023 for violating U.S. anti-money laundering laws. Srivastava described Binance’s work environment as increasingly "chaotic," claiming pressure to close deals compromised ethical practices.

Kraken Closes NFT Marketplace

Crypto exchange Kraken is shuttering its NFT marketplace nearly two years after its launch, signaling a shift in focus toward new products and services. According to a spokesperson, the company will assist users in transferring their NFTs to Kraken Wallets or self-custodial wallets of their choice.

The decision reflects ongoing challenges in the NFT market, which has struggled to recover from the 2022 crypto downturn. While blue-chip NFTs have gained traction recently—rising 90% since Donald Trump’s pro-crypto election win—the Bitwise Blue-Chip NFT Collections Index remains 81% below its April 2022 peak.

Kraken’s closure aligns with broader organizational changes, including a workforce reduction and plans to launch a new blockchain in 2025 called Ink that’s designed for decentralized trading and lending.

Celsius Moves Forward With Second Major Creditor Payout

Celsius, the bankrupt crypto lending platform, is preparing to distribute $127 million in its second payout to creditors, according to a court filing on Wednesday. The funds will come from its Litigation Recovery Account and will be allocated to creditors in categories including retail depositors, earn accounts, withhold claims, and general unsecured claims.

Each eligible creditor will receive approximately 60.4% of their claims as of the bankruptcy petition date, with payments issued in either bitcoin or U.S. dollars. A weighted average price of $95,836.23 per bitcoin will be used for crypto distributions, while cash payments will be provided to those unable to receive crypto.

This marks the second significant distribution after an earlier payout of $2 billion to over 170,000 creditors in January. Celsius declared bankruptcy in 2022 after revealing a $1.2 billion deficit. Its former CEO, Alex Mashinsky, remains under legal scrutiny, facing fraud charges and a potential lengthy prison sentence.

AI-Powered Memecoin Creator Clanker Drives Record Activity on Base

The Coinbase-incubated layer 2 network Base achieved an all-time high of 11.4 million daily transactions on Wednesday, fueled by an AI agent named @Clanker. This milestone also marked a new record across all Ethereum layer 2 networks, according to GrowThePie.

Created by @ProxyStudio.ETH and developer Jack Dishman, @Clanker is a large language model designed to help users deploy memecoins. Since its launch, @Clanker has facilitated the creation of over 4,700 tokens, including $CLANKER, which boasts a market cap of $113.8 million.

However, Base struggled with the surge in activity, as many transactions on the network were reverted. Addressing the issue, Base creator Jesse Pollak explained on X that “A significant portion of those were reverted as a result of folks trying to capture [maximum extractable value]. Is that the most efficient use of blockspace? Absolutely not. Is it still a significant demonstration of Base scaling? Absolutely.”

MicroStrategy Acquires 55,000 Bitcoin for $5.4 Billion

This week, MicroStrategy purchased an additional 55,000 BTC for $5.4 billion, reflecting an average price of $97,862 per bitcoin, according to a company filing on Nov. 25.

The acquisition was the largest single purchase of bitcoin in MicroStrategy’s history, and boosted the company’s total holdings to approximately 386,700 BTC. These holdings represent a cumulative investment of $21.9 billion at an average cost of $56,761 per bitcoin.

The latest purchase was funded by proceeds from convertible notes and sales of company stock.

Tether Ends Support for Euro Stablecoin EURT

Tether has announced it will discontinue its Euro-backed stablecoin, EURT, citing strategic realignment and evolving European regulatory frameworks. The company has stopped minting EURT and will no longer process new issuance requests, and is encouraging current holders to redeem their tokens by Nov. 27, 2025.

The decision comes ahead of the European Union’s Markets in Crypto-Assets (MiCA) regulations, set to take effect in December. MiCA introduces stricter rules for stablecoins within the EU market, influencing Tether's decision to focus on other projects.

Meanwhile, crypto firm Schuman Financial launched EURØP, a MiCa-compliant Euro-backed stablecoin audited by KPMG and stored in regulated European banks.

Watch the Recap!