Today in Crypto: US Inflation Falls, Apple Threatens Damus Removal, Ripple Hinman Documents Unsealed + More News

Get your daily, bite-sized digest of cryptoasset and blockchain-related news – investigating the stories flying under the radar of today’s crypto news.
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Economic news

• The US Bureau of Labor Statistics reported that US inflation has eased to just 0.1% in May, down from 0.4% in April. On an annual basis, US inflation has now fallen to 4%, down from 4.9% a month ago. The figures came in slightly lower than expected.

Bitcoin news

• Apple has warned that it might remove Damus from its app store due to a built-in tipping feature based on Bitcoin’s Lightning Network. Damus is a Twitter-like social media app based on the decentralized Nostr protocol that has become popular among Bitcoiners.
• Bitcoin failed to trade higher on Tuesday, despite the lower-than-expected US inflation report that could indicate that the Fed will soon pause its rate hikes. Many crypto community members on Twitter appeared disappointed, with some pointing to the stark contrast between BTC and the strong action in the stock market after the numbers were released.

Legal news

• The so-called Hinman documents in Ripple’s ongoing legal battle against the US Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) have today been unsealed by the court. The documents are believed to boost Ripple’s chances in the case, and Ripple CEO Brad Garlinghouse indicated on Twitter ahead of the release that it would be “well worth the wait.” XRP immediately jumped as the documents were released.

Regulation news

• Coinbase CEO Brian Armstrong has said on Bloomberg that even though the chair of the SEC “may have a certain point of view,” that does not mean the rest of the US government shares the same view. “In fact, quite the opposite. I would say the SEC chair is a bit of an outlier here,” Armstrong said when asked about the SEC’s lawsuit against his exchange.

DeFi news

• The DeFi protocol Sturdy Finance has announced that a $100,000 bounty will be paid to the hacker(s) behind an attack on Monday if funds are returned. If the attacker(s) accept the offer, the case will not be pursued further, the Sturdy Finance team said.
• Uniswap Labs has released its plan for the 4^th version of the popular decentralized exchange (DEX). The firm is now opening its development process to the public for the first time as regulators in the US are increasingly targeting crypto projects it deems as centralized.

Altcoin news

• The leaders behind the Decentralized Autonomous Organization (DAO) that governs the ApeCoin (APE) project have been accused of community members for having salaries that are described as “insane” and “disconnected from reality.” In a public response, ApeCoin DAO board member Yat Siu defended the high salaries, saying they are “commensurate to the responsibility and liability of the role.”

Industry news

• London-based crypto venture capital firm Eden Block has brought in former Goldman Sachs partner Orit Freedman Weissman as a new general partner, The Block has reported. Weissman has 20 years of experience from Goldman Sachs in Israel, where he served as the bank’s regional CEO.