Coinbase revives UpOnly, Dorsey stirs BTC debate

Today in crypto, Coinbase paid $25 million to revive the UpOnly crypto podcast from 2022. Ripple-tied Evernorth plans a $1 billion listing to build XRP treasury, and Jack Dorsey stirred new debate over Bitcoin’s status in the crypto world.

Coinbase splashes $25M to revive a podcast from the last bull run

Crypto exchange Coinbase has spent $25 million to acquire and burn a non-fungible token designed to revive the once popular crypto podcast called UpOnly.

Coinbase CEO Brian Armstrong confirmed that the “rumors are true” on Tuesday, adding that the firm bought the NFT to bring back the UpOnly podcast for another season. 

The original podcast was popular during the 2021 bull market and featured interviews with prominent crypto figures. It was notably sponsored by FTX before the exchange collapsed.

The NFT now ranks as the fifth most expensive NFTs sold in crypto’s history.

Ripple-linked Evernorth to go public in $1B SPAC to build massive XRP treasury

Evernorth Holdings, a digital asset company with ties to Ripple Labs, announced plans to go public through a merger with Armada Acquisition Corp. II, a Nasdaq-listed special purpose acquisition company (SPAC), in a move aimed at tapping growing institutional demand for publicly traded digital asset treasury firms.

The transaction is expected to generate more than $1 billion in gross proceeds, including a $200 million investment from Japan’s SBI Holdings, a company with historical ties to SoftBank. Additional backing is expected from Ripple, Pantera Capital, Kraken and GSR, the company said. 

Evernorth said the funds will be used to build one of the world’s largest XRP (XRP) treasuries through open-market purchases of the digital asset.

Upon completion of the merger, the combined company is expected to trade on the Nasdaq under the ticker symbol XRPN.

Evernorth CEO Asheesh Birla said the new investment vehicle is designed to “accelerate XRP adoption” amid growing interest in decentralized finance (DeFi), offering investors a public-market avenue to gain exposure to XRP and related digital-asset strategies.

What is Bitcoin if not crypto? Rumored Satoshi Nakamoto weighs in

Jack Dorsey, the creator of Twitter and a strong supporter of Bitcoin, has reignited debate in the crypto community with his latest comments on what BTC truly is.

Dorsey took to X on Sunday to post a brief message stating “Bitcoin is not crypto,” prompting a massive response with more than 4,000 comments.

While some argued that the anonymous BTC creator Satoshi Nakamoto described Bitcoin (BTC) as a “peer-to-peer cryptocurrency” on the Bitcointalk forum back in 2010, Dorsey highlighted the word “currency,” underscoring its monetary roots.

An early Bitcoin adopter himself, Dorsey has long been rumored to have played a role in Bitcoin’s creation. Earlier this year, Seán Murray of deBanked published a list of circumstantial evidence suggesting as much, though it remains unverified.

Dorsey denied being Nakamoto in a 2020 interview with Lex Fridman, stating: “No, and if I were, would I tell you?”

Looking at Bitcoin’s origins, Dorsey said the Bitcoin white paper — the foundational document introducing BTC in 2008 — makes no reference to “crypto,” backing his argument that BTC stands apart from the broader industry.

Instead, the white paper describes Bitcoin as a “purely peer-to-peer version of electronic cash” and an “electronic payment system based on cryptographic proof instead of trust.”

In a Bitcointalk post in July 2010, Satoshi Nakamoto also referred to Bitcoin as a “digital currency using cryptography and a distributed network to replace the need for a trusted central server.”