This Week on Crypto Twitter: CryptoPhunks vs Bored Apes, Bukele Defends Bitcoin City

The crypto markets have had an extraordinarily lackluster begin to the brand new yr. And but, NFT gross sales are booming, and Crypto Twitter is as juicy as ever.

Phunks vs Apes

The week received off to a combative begin when Ryder Ripps, artistic director of the NFT undertaking CryptoPhunks (a CryptoPunks parody), leveled a broadside towards the mega-popular Bored Ape Yacht Club for allegedly being racist. He tweeted out a Bored Ape with a spiked Prussian model helmet and wrote, “Imagine defending this passionately.”

Ripps continued to assault BAYC all week from a number of angles, together with accusing the BAYC cranium emblem of being modeled after a Nazi SS emblem, even all the way down to the variety of tooth. 

Ripps’ criticisms had been dismissed by many—and never simply BAYC holders. Critics seen it as an opportunistic try and drum up PR for his lagging Phunks NFT undertaking.

Crypto dealer @MoonOverlord concurred, and concluded,  “I’m dumping all my Phunks, it’s cringe.”

But essentially the most damning and pithy critique of Ripps’ broadside got here from NFT investor @Loopifyyy, who tweeted Ripps with the phrases, “this you?” together with 4 screenshots together with a message from pop star Azealia Banks accusing Ripps of trying to blackmail her with a intercourse tape. Other photos present Ripps casually utilizing racist language.

Yuga Labs, creator of BAYC, didn’t formally reply to Ripps’ assaults. But coincidentally (or not?), simply 20 minutes earlier than Ripps launched his first assault on Monday, Yuga Labs tweeted a seven-point primer explaining the undertaking’s background and why the creators made sure aesthetic decisions. The thread touches on the emblem, and introduces the 4 pseudonymous founders as having Jewish, Cuban, Turkish and Pakistani origins. 

Hanke vs Bukele

BAYC wasn’t the one heated dialog on Crypto Twitter this week. El Salvador’s Bitcoin-maxi president Nayib Bukele, who seems on this roundup continuously, reminded everybody that he doesn’t take criticism kindly, not even from one of many world’s most revered economists. 

On Friday, Johns Hopkins University economics professor Steve Hanke tweeted that Bukele’s ​​proposed volcano-powered Bitcoin City is “as prepared as Florida is for snow. The advertised power source for the City is an inactive volcano. This is just more attention-grabbing antics from a narcissistic president who is full of hot air.”

Less than ten minutes later, Bukele parried by calling Hanke an “idi0t” and asking him “Why would you build a city below an ACTIVE VOLCANO?”

The debate then turned technical, with Hanke replying that El Salvador already has “an enormous energy deficit.” The economist requested Bukele simply how a lot power he expects to get from an inactive volcano. Bukele kicked off his retort with two advert hominems at Hanke (“ID-10t” and “fraud”) earlier than addressing the technicals. 

Bukele completed his thread by telling Hanke: “We’ve a 90% chance of finding at least a +42 MW well. Enough to power all of #Bitcoin City.”

This isn’t the primary time Hanke and Bukele have scrapped on Twitter. Last October, Hanke tweeted that with Bitcoin-obsessed Bukele on the helm, El Salvador faces monetary spoil. After a significant Bitcoin value spike, Bukele responded, “You were saying?”

Shill Eva Longoria your NFTs

On Saturday, “Desperate Housewives” star Eva Longoria tweeted that she’s “jumping into the NFT space” and requested for steerage from Twitter. She received nearly 14,000 replies. Surprise: a big quantity of them had been individuals making an attempt to hawk their very own NFT tasks to her. 

Longoria is way from the primary A-list Hollywood actress to ask Twitter to assist her get into crypto. 

In December, Legally Blonde star Reese Witherspoon purchased her first NFT, and has since been fairly lively on Crypto Twitter. 

Later that month, Gwyneth Paltrow informed her Twitter and Instagram followers that she had partnered with Cash App, the peer-to-peer funds app of Block (previously Square), to provide away a complete of $500,000 price of crypto in payouts of as much as $100. 

Between Longoria, Witherspoon, Paltrow, Matt Damon (at present getting roasted for his Crypto.com advert), Tom Brady, Kim Kardashian, and extra, which superstar will go crypto subsequent?