GM Builders. 🚧 

Welcome back to the BW3 newsletter…Tornadoes, turkeys, and tokens—oh my! Today’s read has more twists than your aunt’s conspiracy theories at Thanksgiving dinner 🍽️ 

Here’s the feast today:

• Whale Watch 🐳 

• What to tell your family at Thanksgiving 🦃 

• Tornado Cash Ruling 🌪️ 

• Meme City 🌇 

WHALE WATCH 🐳 

Here’s some recent snipes from the whale watch feed 👀 

SOL, BTC, ETH, ADA, and KRP… Little bit of whale action across the board, gobbling up coins like they’re krill 🦐 

7 THINGS TO TELL YOUR FAMILY ABOUT CRYPTO AT THANKSGIVING 🦃 

Thanksgiving is here—time to pass the stuffing and the Bitcoin updates! When Uncle Bob wants to know if you're still into "that internet money," you need easy talking points to impress the table without starting a food fight.

Decrypt wrote a gem of an.article giving us some ammo heading into the holidays with the non-web3 native fam, let’s break them down:

1. Bitcoin Is Smashing Records

• The News: Bitcoin is flirting with $98,000 and just shy of the big $100K milestone.

• Why It Matters: Institutional investors, ETFs, and a pro-crypto political shift are fueling the surge. Even Wall Street is saying, "Pass the crypto pie."

2. ETFs Are the Gateway to Crypto for Boomers

• The News: BlackRock and Fidelity are making it easy to buy Bitcoin and Ethereum through ETFs.

• Why It Matters: Grandma’s pension fund might soon hold crypto. Even the most skeptical relatives can buy in without touching a wallet or seed phrase.

3. Trump Wants a Bitcoin Reserve

• The News: President-elect Trump is talking about building a Bitcoin federal reserve.

• Why It Matters: If Uncle Mike says Bitcoin has no real value, remind him the U.S. government might soon disagree. Big moves are coming, and crypto’s legitimacy is soaring.

4. Elon Musk's D.O.G.E. Isn’t Just a Meme (Kind of)

• The News: Musk is leading the Department of Government Efficiency (D.O.G.E.) under Trump’s administration.

• Why It Matters: While it might sound like a joke, the department’s goal is serious—streamlining bureaucracy. Also, it’s Musk, so Dogecoin fans are hyped.

5. Solana Is Stealing the Spotlight

• The News: Solana’s price is up over $240, making it one of the year’s top performers.

• Why It Matters: If anyone asks what’s next after Bitcoin, drop some Solana stats. Its speed and low fees are winning over developers and traders.

6. Scams Are Still Everywhere

• The News: Crypto scams are alive and well, from phishing attacks to shady altcoins.

• Why It Matters: Warn your curious relatives to avoid clicking random links or diving into obscure tokens. Stick to trusted platforms like Coinbase or ETFs.

7. Pump.fun: Anyone Can Make a Coin

• The News: Solana’s Pump.fun platform has enabled millions of token launches this year. (albeit some craziness as of late that resulted in no more live streams)

• Why It Matters: Even your cousin who still owes you $20 could launch a coin. But remind them most of these tokens go nowhere—crypto isn’t always easy money.

Final Tip: Keep the conversation light—avoid pitching meme coins to Grandma or arguing over Cobie’s latest tweet. You’ll keep your plate full and your family intrigued. 🦃

NEW TORNADO CASH RULING 🌪️ 

In a groundbreaking decision this week, the U.S. Appeals Court for the Fifth Circuit overturned sanctions imposed by the U.S. Treasury's Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC) on Tornado Cash, setting a new precedent for the crypto industry.

Let’s breakdown what happened recently and why it matters… but first What Is Tornado Cash?

Tornado Cash is the Ethereum-based privacy protocol designed to anonymize transactions. Using zero-knowledge proofs (zk-SNARKs), it severs the link between deposit and withdrawal addresses, making crypto transactions private and untraceable. It's non-custodial, community-governed, and runs purely on decentralized smart contracts.

While it's hailed as a privacy champion, Tornado Cash became a lightning rod for controversy when OFAC accused it of enabling money laundering for cybercriminals, including North Korea's Lazarus Group. This led to sanctions in 2022, sparking global debates on privacy vs. compliance.

The Legal Victory

On November 26, 2024, the court ruled in favor of Tornado Cash, declaring that its smart contracts cannot be sanctioned as "property" under U.S. law. The court's reasoning? Code is not property, and the immutable smart contracts of Tornado Cash operate independently of any central authority. This means:

• OFAC overstepped its legal authority by sanctioning open-source, autonomous protocols.

• Tornado Cash’s smart contracts are to be removed from the sanctions list, reopening access for U.S. users.

The ruling is being celebrated as a win for decentralized technology and privacy rights in the crypto world.

Why This Ruling Is a Big Deal

1. For Privacy Advocates: It affirms the legitimacy of privacy tools in the crypto space, even as regulators struggle to balance privacy with financial crime concerns.

2. For Smart Contracts: The court recognized the independence of decentralized smart contracts, a key argument in favor of DeFi protocols and open-source projects.

3. For Crypto Regulation: This decision could reshape how regulators approach decentralized platforms, potentially marking a shift towards more nuanced policies.

What’s Next?

While the crypto community celebrates this win, the ruling doesn’t absolve Tornado Cash of its challenges. The tension between privacy and regulatory oversight remains, but the victory establishes an important legal boundary for how decentralized protocols are treated under the law.

For now, Tornado Cash's triumph is a symbolic moment in the fight for a more privacy-focused blockchain future.

MEME CITY 🏙️ 

Until Next Time Builders! 🏗️ 

Keep your turkey fried and stuffing stuffed 🦃 

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