Author: Jesse Coghlan, CoinTelegraph; Translated by: Deng Tong, Golden Finance.
Crypto culture was born on the internet—Crypto X (formerly known as Crypto Twitter) brought unforgettable moments again this year.
Here are the 7 most memorable X posts of 2024, some of which had huge impacts on the market, influenced policies—or simply brought laughter.
Fake news about the SEC approving a Bitcoin ETF.
The background is January 9—just a day before Bloomberg ETF analysts predicted the SEC would approve the first spot Bitcoin exchange-traded fund (ETF) in the U.S.
The official X account of the SEC suddenly published a statement allegedly made by Chairman Gary Gensler: 'Today the SEC approved a Bitcoin ETF.'
The SEC has now deleted the post. Source: X.
The news media quickly reported this historic event, and Bitcoin surged over $1,000.
Fifteen minutes later, when Gensler posted that the SEC's 'Twitter account was hacked and unauthorized tweets were posted' and that the agency had not approved any Bitcoin ETF listings, everything collapsed.
Gensler later had to respond to lawmakers regarding the hacking incident, stating it was a SIM swap attack on employees authorized to access the account, while X indicated that the account did not have 2FA enabled.
It wasn't until October that the FBI arrested a 25-year-old named Eric Council Jr. in Alabama and claimed he hacked the account and posted false approvals. Later that month, he pleaded not guilty to the charges.
On January 10, the day after the SEC posted the false tweet, the agency approved the spot trading of Bitcoin ETF—this time it's real.
Donald Trump supports Bitcoin.
During Donald Trump's successful campaign for the presidency in the U.S., he made a comprehensive commitment to the cryptocurrency industry, which he first shared on social media in typical Trump fashion.
'I am very positive and open about cryptocurrency companies and everything related to this emerging industry,' Trump wrote on his Truth Social platform in May.
Subsequently, he posted another pro-crypto message in June, claiming he wanted 'all remaining Bitcoin to be made in America!!!'—a huge issue considering that blockchain is decentralized, and anyone can mine it from anywhere.
Although the content posted by Trump is not on X, it caused a huge stir on the platform and remains among the most memorable moments on X this year.
The guy wearing goggles asked Trump questions about cryptocurrency.
Malcolm, the chief of the non-fungible token (NFT) project DeGods, released a video in which he asked Trump about cryptocurrency issues, which many believe marked a turning point for the elected president's shift towards cryptocurrency.
Trump is hosting an event for his NFT holders at Mar-a-Lago, during which he pointed at the person 'wearing goggles' and asked a question. Malcolm was wearing a huge pair of reflective Pit Viper sunglasses and then asked Trump what actions he would take to prevent cryptocurrency companies from moving overseas.
'Well, we will stop it because I don't want that, I don't want that,' Trump responded. 'If we are going to accept it, we must let them do it here.'
Gemini co-founder Tyler Winklevoss posted on X later that month, stating, 'The guy wearing goggles completely turned the fate of cryptocurrency in Washington.'
Malcolm stated in a magazine interview in late May that he was 'very aware that my questions were not just helpful in turning the tide of favorable regulation in the U.S.'.
After spending four months in prison, CZ said 'gm'.
On September 27, convicted Binance founder Zhao Changpeng (CZ) jumped back on X the same day he ended his four-month imprisonment, casually posting a 'gm'.
He then posted a longer message, saying the food outside of prison was much better, and he would 'cool down'. Then think about what to do next.
In November 2023, he admitted to violating U.S. anti-money laundering laws at Binance and resigned as CEO of the exchange. In April of this year, he was sentenced to four months in prison.
Bubblemaps' celebrity token bubble.
The crypto data analytics platform Bubblemaps suddenly emerged this year and quickly became popular as its X posts and charts stirred up a hype around celebrity tokens.
It seems that after every celebrity's token issuance, photos show the so-called insider wallets dumping tokens at the time of issuance, which typically makes millions of dollars in profit.
The impact of Bubblemap on tokens is hard to know, but it is certain that many celebrity-based tokens are now far below their peaks, with at least some celebrities appearing in court.
The Meme coin craze of the Truth Terminal AI robot.
Last October, after the AI robot 'Truth Terminal', funded by the Andreessen Horowitz fund, released a Meme coin called 'GOAT', its value skyrocketed to $150 million within four days.
People initially widely believed that this robot created the token because it had previously posted that it wanted to create a token, but its creator Andy Ayrey clarified that it was simply endorsing an already created Meme coin.
The entire scene involved artificial intelligence, cryptocurrency, and Meme. By mid-November, the market cap of GOAT even peaked at over $1.3 billion, before falling to $442 million.
Goatseus Maximus is a version of 'Goatse', which is a notorious internet shock image.
The quiet return of Roaring Kitty had a huge impact.
Keith Gill—known as 'Roaring Kitty'—made his first post on X since June 2021 in mid-May, sharing a mysterious photo of a man curiously leaning on a chair without any caption.
Gill was a key figure in the Meme craze of 2021, known for analyzing GameStop and AMC, which ultimately led to the former being short-sold, causing him to testify before the House Financial Services Committee later that year.
Gill's suddenly posted X posts had an immediate effect—GameStop surged 44% in pre-market trading, and soared 110% when the opening bell rang on May 13. AMC also rose 12% in pre-market and increased 25% after Wall Street opened.
Meme coins unrelated to these two companies also surged, with GameStop's Meme coin rising over 550% and AMC-themed tokens rising 1200%.
Gill continued to post many mysterious X posts and was even sued by a GameStop investor, accusing him of securities fraud for posting X posts on Reddit—though the charges were dropped three days later.
