Animal Abuse, Suicide, Porn - Pump.fun Desperately Needs Regulation

Crypto folk and regulators go together as well as water and oil, just ask Ripple CEO Brad Garlinghouse and SEC Chair Gary Gensler, but even the wild west of Web3 should have its limits.

Blockhead shines a light on the seedier aspects of crypto, even those that are best left unseen. But on our quest to uncover the mysterious and downright bizarre, sometimes even we're shocked at what we discover.

This week saw the downfall of Pump.fun's livestream service following backlash over its deeply concerning content.

Users clicking around on Pump.fun's livestreams earlier this week, would before long, land on pornography, with streamers offering various sex acts in exchange for memecoin market cap targets.

"$65K for Topless, $100K for Fully Naked, $250K for Surprise" one cam girl wrote on her live stream that Blockhead innocently stumbled upon.

Worse still, as highlighted by X user AlwaysBeenChoze, Pump.fun's live stream was far darker than we'd first thought. Streamers acts go far beyond stripping. Suicide threats, rape, child abuse, and animal abuse were all present on the memecoin platform.

Is @pumpdotfun going to be banned soon?Calls to ban PumpDotFun have been growing over the past few days.It all started cuz there’s been a bunch of crazy live streams popping up on the platform. Some of the stuff is seriously messed up, like:> Criminal acts> Suicide threats… pic.twitter.com/RTSFjOhoqN

Thankfully the memecoin platform shortly after deactivated its live stream function after acknowledging the growing concerns about harmful and disturbing content on its platform.

The platform emphasized its commitment to ensuring user safety and stated that livestreams will remain paused until a more robust moderation infrastructure is in place.

We're not fans of cancel culture but cancelling livestream animal abuse is probably a good thing.

Speaking of cancelling good things, sanctions against Tornado Cash have officially been dropped. This week, a federal appeals court ruled that US sanctions imposed on Tornado Cash must be lifted.

The ruling challenges the Treasury Department's use of sanctions to target technology that anonymizes crypto transactions and reverses an August district court ruling that labelled Tornado Cash a “notorious” crypto-mixing tool and upheld the government's stance against its service.

Tornado Cash was accused the treasury for facilitating illicit activities, such as money laundering by groups like North Korea's Lazarus Group. However, the Court of Appeals found that its smart contracts are not property of any foreign national.

The decision has since been celebrated by the crypto community with Paul Grewal, Coinbase's chief legal officer, hailing it as a “historic win for crypto” on X.

Privacy wins. Today the Fifth Circuit held that @USTreasury’s sanctions against Tornado Cash smart contracts are unlawful. This is a historic win for crypto and all who cares about defending liberty. @coinbase is proud to have helped lead this important challenge. 1/6

Over in the markets, Ethereum has had a better week than Bitcoin for a change. ETH, which hit its five-month high, is up almost 6% while BTC is down just 2%.

Risk appetites have cooled from last week's 94, "Extreme Greed" to 78, also "Extreme Greed."

The Fear & Greed Index uses 5-6 measurements to assess the current sentiment of the market and then rates that level of emotion on a scale of 1-100 – 1 is extreme fear and 100 is extreme greed.

But before ETH maxis start rejoicing, BRN lead analyst Valentin Fournier believes that despite the momentum being relatively bullish, no positive news is currently affecting Ethereum and he expects it to underperform Bitcoin in the short term.

Top Stories (In No Particular Order)

Animal Abuse, Suicide, Porn - Pump.fun Desperately Needs Regulation

Crypto folk and regulators go together as well as water and oil, just ask Ripple CEO Brad Garlinghouse and SEC Chair Gary Gensler, but even the wild west of Web3 should have its limits.

If FTX wasn't enough to convince you that crypto platforms need regulation, memecoin website Pump.fun just might.

Pump.fun Suspends Livestreams Indefinitely Amid Escalating Content Concerns

In a Community Notice published, Pump.fun acknowledged the growing concerns about harmful and disturbing content on its platform and outlined steps to address the issue. The platform emphasized its commitment to ensuring user safety and stated that livestreams will remain paused until a more robust moderation infrastructure is in place.

Tornado Cash Upturns 500% as US Court Overturns Sanctions

A federal appeals court has ruled that US sanctions imposed on Tornado Cash must be lifted.

The ruling challenges the Treasury Department's use of sanctions to target technology that anonymizes crypto transactions and reverses an August district court ruling that labelled Tornado Cash a “notorious” crypto-mixing tool and upheld the government's stance against its service.

Ethereum Hits 5-Month High Amid Mixed Signals from Founders’ Token Movements

Ethereum (