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"[INST] Hashing It Out: Are RWAs the future of crypto? [/INST] In this episode of Cointelegraph’s Hashing It Out podcast, host Elisha Owusu Akyaw interviews Micah Yeackley, co-founder of Kula DAO — a project tokenizing a diverse collection of real-world assets (RWA) on the blockchain — about the prospects of the sector in the Web3 space and what it means for developing markets.

The episode also touches on other significant topics, such as regulation and what RWAs on the blockchain mean for retail and institutional investors.

Yeackley explains that tokenizing real-world assets can span across multiple asset types beyond what most people expect. He highlights that even though Kula started out by focusing on natural resources, the project quickly realized that anything with real-world value could be tokenized, including water resources, agricultural projects and real estate developments.

Based on the wide variety of RWAs that can be tokenized, Yeackley suggests that projects are more likely to benefit from having a diverse pool of assets, which is Kula’s approach. He explains:

“Well, when you talk to any savvy investor, anybody that’s investing money for a long time, they’re experienced at it. They’re always going to say diversification is key.""

Yeackley breaks down the “DoubleDAO,” a component of the Kula DAO governance structure, which aims to collate the best of Web2 and Web3 governance, ensuring checks and balances during the decentralized autonomous organization’s (DAO) decision-making process. The Double-DAO provides asset-layered protection so that the voices and participation of key stakeholders are protected.

The Double-DAO includes a “RegionalDAO,” where local communities affected by the assets can actively participate in decision-making.

He also highlights how the project’s rollout in Zambia has led to changes at a partner mine in areas such as equal pay for women and the construction of social amenities through the voting process.

Moving to regulation, Yeackley says it’s difficult for projects in the sector to be regulated. Kula has received pre-approval from the Virtual Assets Regulatory Authority in Dubai and is set to become the first regulated RWA DAO to tokenize natural resources and commodities.

Yeackley believes that regulation should be the first step and not the last in a sector with extensive regulation in the traditional financial landscape.

Listen to the latest episode of Hashing It Out on Spotify, Apple Podcasts or TuneIn. You can also explore Cointelegraph’s complete catalog of informative podcasts on the Cointelegraph Podcasts page.

This article is for general information purposes and is not intended to be and should not be taken as legal or investment advice. The views, thoughts, and opinions expressed here are the author’s alone and do not necessarily reflect or represent the views and opinions of Cointelegraph."
"[INST] Bitcoin’s ‘normal drop’ leads to $256M longs liquidated — Analysts [/INST] Bitcoin’s price decline of over 7% in the last 24 hours has resulted in $256 million in losses for traders with long positions.

However, analysts believe it’s nothing out of the ordinary despite escalating geopolitical tensions in the Middle East.

“So far, this is a normal drop. In fact, we’ve had several 20-22% drops this cycle,” Benjamin Cowan stated in an April 13 post on X.

“Chaos is good for Bitcoin,” MicroStrategy CEO Michael Saylor declared in an April 13 post on X.

Meanwhile, pseudonymous crypto trader Rekt Capital believes the price of Bitcoin (BTC) will resume its “uptrend,” although not before experiencing short-term pain first:

“Bitcoin will retrace deep enough to convince you that the Bull Market is over,” Rekt explained.

On April 13, Bitcoin’s price plummeted right down to $60,919, before finding support at $62,060.

At the time of publication, its current price is $63,858, according to CoinMarketCap data.

Bitcoin’s price has gone right down to $60,919 in the past 24 hours. Source: CoinMarketCap

The sudden price plunge led to a total of $319.15 million in liquidations from leveraged positions in Bitcoin over the past 24 hours.

According to CoinGlass data, this included $256.58 million from long positions and $62.58 million from short positions.

Traders seem to be bracing for further downside. If Bitcoin’s price were to revert to its price level of $67,000 just 24 hours ago, short positions totaling $1.05 billion would face liquidation.

A total of $319.15 million was liquidated in Bitcoin positions over the past 24 hours. Source: CoinGlass

Although the entire cryptocurrency market experienced widespread pain as $945.9 million was liquidated from 253,554 traders over the last 24 hours.

The Crypto Fear and Greed Index — a tool that tracks crypto market sentiment — currently stands at a greed level of 72, a slight decrease from last week’s extreme greed score of 78.

Related: Why XRP price might jump 70% vs. BTC after the Bitcoin halving

The global crypto market cap has also taken an 8% hit, dropping down to $2.23 trillion.

Meanwhile, Cointelegraph recently reported that the growth in demand from Bitcoin whales has never been stronger.

Demand from “permanent holders” has exceeded the market supply of new Bitcoin for the first time, according to data shared by crypto analytic firm CryptoQuant.

This indicates that the amount of new Bitcoin produced by mining is insufficient to meet crypto investors’ demand, and the scarcity will only grow further after the halving of the Bitcoin.

Magazine: 1 in 6 new Base meme coins are scams, 91% have vulnerabilities"
"[INST] Tether vows to freeze assets after Venezuela looks to crypto to bypass oil sanctions [/INST] USDT-issuer Tether says it will freeze addresses linked to sanctioned entities following a report that Venezuela’s state-run oil company was using the stablecoin to bypass sanctions.

A spokesperson from Tether told Cointelegraph that the company remains committed to stopping payments linked to Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC) sanctioned entities:

""Tether respects the OFAC SDN list and is committed to working to ensure sanction addresses are frozen promptly.""

This comes after an exclusive report from Reuters claimed that Venezuela’s state-run oil company, PDVSA, has been using cryptocurrencies to facilitate its crude oil and fuel exports. The country is facing new oil sanctions reimposed by the United States.

According to the report, the U.S. Treasury Department requires PDVSA customers and providers to wind down transactions by May 31 due to Venezuela’s failure to implement electoral reforms.

Related: Tether’s USDT stablecoin goes live on TON blockchain

The report, which cited anonymous sources, says the reimposed sanctions will make it harder for Venezuela to increase its oil product and export because companies will require U.S. authorizations to do business with the South American nation.

The sources claim that PDVSA has been moving its oil sales to Tether (USDT) as a mitigating move to avoid funds being frozen in foreign bank accounts as new sanctions take effect.

Reports in 2023 linked cryptocurrency payments to a corruption scandal at PDVSA involving the discovery of $21 billion of unaccounted receivables for oil exports.

Related: Stablecoin competition crucial for regulatory engagement — Tether CEO

Reuters’ sources also claim that PDVSA has reworked its spot oil deals in 2024 to a contract model that requires prepayment for exported cargo in USDT. The report also suggests that the Venezuelan state-run oil firm requires new customers looking to conduct oil transactions to hold cryptocurrency in a digital wallet.

It’s understood that companies that looked to resume business with PDVSA following a six-month licensing approval from the U.S. in October 2023 had to resort to intermediaries to carry out the cryptocurrency payment requirements.

Magazine: Lazarus Group’s favorite exploit revealed — Crypto hacks analysis"
"[INST] Cyprus keeps FTX Europe license suspended until September [/INST] The saga of the collapsed cryptocurrency exchange FTX has been inching toward a conclusion but some former parts of the FTX empire are still struggling to continue operations.

The Cyprus Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) has extended the suspension of FTX Europe’s license, prohibiting the firm from offering services until September 2024.

Cyprus' securities regulator officially announced the news on April 16, declaring that FTX Europe must proceed with necessary actions to comply with the relevant provisions of The Investment Services and Activities and Regulated Markets Law.

Excerpt from CySEC’s decision regarding FTX Europe. Source: CySEC

As part of the regulatory decision, FTX Europe is banned from providing investment services as well as entering into any business transaction with any person or accepting any new clients. The firm is also prohibited from advertising investment services, the announcement notes.

On the other hand, the regulator required FTX Europe to complete all its transactions and those of its clients upon their request. The Cyprus SEC ordered that the company will also have to return all funds and financial instruments attributable to its clients.

The news comes just a few weeks after a federal U.S. judge sentenced former FTX CEO Sam “SBF” Bankman-Fried to 25 years in prison on March 28 after being found guilty on seven counts of fraud and conspiracy to launder money.

After FTX collapsed in November 2022, its then-affiliated firm FTX Europe was named one of the firms included in FTX’s Chapter 11 filing in the United States.

Related: Sam Bankman-Fried asks to stay in Brooklyn prison for appeal

Before getting involved in the FTX empire, FTX Europe was known as Digital Assets AG, a Swiss crypto startup founded by Patrick Gruhn and Robin Matzke. Gruhn and Matzke sold the company to FTX in 2021 for $323 million, which subsequently rebranded to FTX Europe.

Following long-running bankruptcy disputes, FTX sold its subsidiary FTX Europe back to its founders Gruhn and Matzke in February 2024 for $32.7 million.

Following the settlement, Matzke reportedly claimed that FTX’s European expansion was going well until FTX failed internationally in November 2022, adding that the settlement was a good result.

“We are happy to support speedy payouts to EU clients,” Matzke said in February.

Magazine: SBF gets 25 years in prison, Fidelity eyes ETH staking, and Coinbase’s court loss: Hodler’s Digest, March 24-30"
"[INST] Terraform Labs and Do Kwon found liable for fraud in SEC case [/INST] A jury found Terraform Labs and co-founder Do Kwon liable for defrauding investors in its civil case with the United States Securities and Exchange Commission.

In an April 5 announcement, SEC Enforcement Director Gurbir Grewal said jurors in U.S. District Court for the Southern District of New York found Kwon and Terraform liable in the civil enforcement case after a short deliberation. The SEC trial started on March 25 without the attendance of Kwon, who remains in Montenegro as courts determine whether to grant an extradition request from the U.S. or South Korea.

“We are pleased with today’s jury verdict holding Terraform Labs and Do Kwon liable for a massive crypto fraud,” said Grewal. “Terraform Labs and Kwon, its former CEO, deceived investors about the stability of the crypto asset security and so-called algorithmic stablecoin Terra USD, and they further misled investors about whether a popular payment application used Terraform’s blockchain to process and settle payments.”

Grewal cited Terraform’s lack of registration with the regulator as having “very real consequences” for investors, reiterating calls for compliance. During the trial, SEC attorneys likened the platform to a “house of cards” and alleged the company and Kwon lied to investors.

“We are very disappointed with the verdict, which we do not believe is supported by the evidence,” a Terraform Labs spokesperson told Cointelegraph. “We continue to maintain that the SEC does not have the legal authority to bring this case at all, and we are carefully weighing our options and next steps.”

According to the verdict filed in the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of New York on April 5, jurors found Kwon and Terraform liable for six charges. They also determined that the platform acted “recklessly” in making false or misleading statements regarding the offer or sale of TerraUSD (UST), Luna (LUNA) or wLUNA.

Terraform Labs collapsed in May 2022 following the instability of its algorithmic stablecoin, UST, and other claims about the blockchain’s use cases. The platform’s failure likely contributed to a major crypto market downturn, leading to bankruptcy filings from firms including FTX, BlockFi and Celsius.

Related: Terra crash anniversary: Community reflects on the lessons learned

The SEC filed its lawsuit against Terra and Kwon in February 2023, alleging the two “orchestrat[ed] a multi-billion dollar crypto asset securities fraud.” The civil case could have far-reaching implications for crypto firms operating in the U.S. — in December, Judge Jed Rakoff granted a partial summary judgment in favor of Terraform regarding the unregistered offer and sale of security-based swaps.

It’s unclear what the verdict could mean for the extradition of Kwon from Montenegro. As of April 5, following a decision from the country’s Supreme Court, his case has been returned to a lower court to determine whether to grant extradition to the U.S. or South Korea. He faces criminal charges in both countries.

Magazine: Lawmakers’ fear and doubt drives proposed crypto regulations in US"
"[INST] Philippines SEC orders Apple and Google to remove Binance from app stores [/INST] The Philippines Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) ordered both Google and Apple to remove the Binance app from their respective app stores for users in the Philippines.

According to a press release from the SEC on April 23, it is working with the Big Tech companies on the removal of “applications operated by cryptocurrency giant Binance.” It said the companies received separate letters on April 19 regarding removing the apps in the local marketplaces.

“The SEC has identified [Binance] and concluded that the public’s continued access to these websites/apps poses a threat to the security of the funds of investing Filipinos.”

Emilio B. Aquino, chair of the SEC, said that selling or offering unregistered securities to locals and operating as an “unregistered broker” is in violation of the country’s securities regulations.

He said that by removing Binance applications from digital app marketplaces, these companies would help “prevent the further proliferation of its illegal activities in the country,” saying that otherwise, this could have “detrimental” effects on the local economy.

This move comes shortly after the SEC and the National Telecommunications Commission (NTC) blocked access to Binance websites on March 25.

Related: Binance’s $1B emergency ‘SAFU’ fund now makes up 3% of UDSC supply

The SEC has been actively warning the public against using Binance for investing since November 2023. It says the crypto exchange, which is one of the world’s largest, has yet to secure a license to solicit investments from the public nor to operate an exchange to buy and sell securities.

On April 8, following the enforcement of its official ban on Binance, an SEC official reiterated that they had already provided users with a three-month period, along with an extension, to facilitate the withdrawal of their funds from the exchange. After this period, the SEC said they “cannot endorse” any methods for retrieving funds.

The move to block Binance follows a crackdown from the SEC and the NTC on Feb. 21, through which they moved to block and ban unlicensed crypto trading platforms in the country. At that time Binance was unaffected.

Binance has been involved in other regulatory-related debacles around the world, most recently in a new class-action lawsuit in Canada on April 23, following allegations that it violated local securities laws.

However, on the flip side, the cryptocurrency exchange announced on April 18 that it would return to India after paying a $2 million fine for previous non-compliance with local regulations.

On the same day, it was reported that Binance received its crypto licence in Dubai, also known as the coveted Virtual Asset Service Provider (VASP), after its co-founder Changpeng Zhao gave up his voting power in the exchange’s local entity.

Magazine: Lazarus Group’s favorite exploit revealed — Crypto hacks analysis"
"[INST] Finland's households turn to Bitcoin mining to heat homes [/INST] A new project in Finland is turning energy from mining Bitcoin (BTC) cryptocurrency into energy to heat homes during the cold Finnish winter.

Bitcoin mining infrastructure firm Hashlabs Mining has introduced a pioneering project enabling heat generation using specially designed Bitcoin mining devices.

The project combines heat production from the hydro-cooled ASIC mining device — a WhatsMiner M63S — with the Finnish district heating system, where the heat is transferred from a centralized source through a network of insulated pipes to multiple buildings. The new project is designed to allow households to benefit from industrial BTC mining.

“With the help of industrial consumers like Bitcoin miners, Finland can increasingly use its massive nuclear power plant to produce heat,” Hashlabs Mining co-founder Jaran Mellerud said in a post on X on April 23.

A local partner of Hashlabs has already integrated two Bitcoin mines with district heating facilities and is currently integrating a third one, Mellerud said.

In the project, Hashlabs specifically utilizes the hot water generated from WhatsMiner M63S mining, which reaches a temperature of 70 degrees Celsius. “The best provider of reliable, high-temperature water for district heating is Bitcoin mining,” the Hashlabs founder stated.

WhatsMiner-generated hot water is set to replace the heat generated in plants utilizing fuels like biomass and other carbon-neutral heat sources, as well as peat, hard coal and others.

As of 2019, most of Finland’s district heat was produced with wood fuels, accounting for 35%, and hard coal with 18%, according to data from Statistics Finland.

Peat ranked the third most important energy source in district heat production in 2019, with 15% produced with peat.

Related: Bitcoin halving will lead to more sustainable BTC mining: Report

The concept of using the energy coming from Bitcoin mining for heating has been gaining momentum in the past few years, with savvy Bitcoin miners finding many ways to make Bitcoin more environmentally-friendly and sustainable.

As previously mentioned by Cointelegraph, some miners found ways to use Bitcoin mining-created heat to warm swimming pools, dehydrate meat to make beef jerky or even dry out timber. In June 2023, a bathhouse in New York told its customers that it was using the byproduct heat from Bitcoin mining rigs as the energy to run its facilities.

Magazine: Lazarus Group’s favorite exploit revealed — Crypto hacks analysis"
"[INST] Bitcoin ransomware Akira drains $42M from more than 250 companies: FBI [/INST] Akira, a year-old ransomware group, breached more than 250 organizations and extracted approximately $42 million in ransomware proceeds, top global cybersecurity agencies alerted.

Investigations conducted by the United States Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) found that Akira ransomware has been targeting businesses and critical infrastructure entities in North America, Europe and Australia since March 2023. While the ransomware initially targeted Windows systems, the FBI recently found Akira’s Linux variant as well.

The FBI, along with Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency (CISA), Europol’s European Cybercrime Centre (EC3) and the Netherlands’ National Cyber Security Centre (NCSC-NL), released a joint cybersecurity advisory (CSA) to “disseminate” the threat to masses.

According to the advisory, Akira gains initial access through pre-installed virtual private networks (VPNs) that lack multifactor authentication (MFA). The ransomware then proceeds to extract credentials and other sensitive information before locking up the system and displaying a ransom note.

“Akira threat actors do not leave an initial ransom demand or payment instructions on compromised networks, and do not relay this information until contacted by the victim.”

The ransomware group demands payments in Bitcoin (BTC) from the victim organizations to restore access. Such malware often disables security software after initial access to avoid detection.

Cybersecurity best practices against ransomware attacks. Source: cisa.gov

Some of the threat mitigation techniques recommended in the advisory are implementing a recovery plan and MFA, filtering network traffic, disabling unused ports and hyperlinks and system-wide encryption.

“The FBI, CISA, EC3, and NCSC-NL recommend continually testing your security program, at scale, in a production environment to ensure optimal performance against the MITRE ATT&CK techniques identified in this advisory,” the agencies concluded.

Related: Mystery malware targets Call of Duty cheaters, stealing their Bitcoin

The FBI, CISA, NCSC and the U.S. National Security Agency (NSA) previously issued alerts about malware that was being used to target crypto wallets and exchanges.

Directories where information were extracted by the malware. Source: National Cyber Security Centre

The report noted that some of the data extracted by the malware included data within the directories of the Binance and Coinbase exchange applications and the Trust Wallet application. According to the report, every file in the directories listed is being exfiltrated regardless of type.

Magazine: Get Bitcoin or die tryin’: Why hip hop stars love crypto"
"[INST] SEC breaks from past policy guidelines in Uniswap crackdown [/INST] The United States Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) is contradicting years of its own policy guidelines with its latest action against decentralized crypto exchange Uniswap, according to Cinneamhain Ventures’ Adam Cochran.

In a legal analysis on X, Cochran referred to several previous decisions by the U.S. regulator over the definition of an exchange and what it means for Uniswap’s potential legal battle.

The SEC has previously issued “No-Action Letters” in 1986, 1991 and 1997 for entities seeking guidance on routing and matching trades electronically. According to Cochran, the entities were “looking to establish their first system for routing and matching trades electronically. They were concerned that would make them an “exchange.”

“But the SEC concluded that because the execution was on a separate system that matching, routing, communicating and ordering as a “computer service system” did not meet the holistic definition of “an exchange.”

Another precedent contradicting the SEC relates to classifying front ends as an exchange. The regulator’s guidance in letters from 1989 and 1990 was that an interface that displays and communicates with an exchange is not in itself an exchange.

“The SEC guidance found that because these interfaces, even though they profited from bringing together buyers and sellers to exchange explicit securities the fact that the settlement and payment happened elsewhere meant these interfaces were not exchanges,” explained the venture capitalist.

Cochran also noted that in 1998, on the SEC No-Act. LEXIS 18, the Commission declared the matter settled and would no longer respond to No-Action Letter requests.

In addition, connecting buyers and sellers does not constitute an exchange. The SEC provided this guidance to companies in 1979, 1996 and 1999, according to Cochran’s analysis.

“The exchange needed to involve the legal transfer of the assets and/or finances. So even though a buyer on Uniswap may commit to a purchase, by signing a transaction with their private key the Uniswap Labs frontend, isn’t what’s settling it.”

Another relevant point in the analysis concerns asset listing. In 1998, the commission found that having an electronic system for common stocks that are not listed on an existing exchange does not constitute an exchange, regardless of whether fees are charged.

“In this case, the commission found that once again, so long as their informational interface was no clearing and settling these transactions, then just because it was the primary listing location of an asset, it was not somehow more of an exchange.”

SEC’s Wells notice

Uniswap enables automated token exchanges on the Ethereum blockchain, allowing users to swap multiple crypto tokens without using traditional intermediaries.

Uniswap Labs, Uniswap’s main developer, has been under regulatory scrutiny since 2021. On April 10, however, the platform was served a Wells notice — a formal notification that the regulator’s staff intends to recommend enforcement action.

Uniswap Labs previously claimed it was only responsible for developing the app’s front-end portal. According to the team, the front end is separate from the Uniswap protocol, which is autonomous code released for public use.

Cochran’s analysis backs up these claims. According to him, the front end and the smart contract are separate elements in a crypto trade.

“In fact, we know these elements are distinct, because you can execute trades on the smart contract through other interfaces (like Etherscan or swap aggregators), or even directly through a node.”

Magazine: Bitcoin ETFs make Coinbase a ‘honeypot’ for hackers and governments — Trezor CEO"
"[INST] Telegram-linked Toncoin flips Cardano to become 9th-largest cryptocurrency [/INST] Toncoin (TON) flipped Cardano’s ADA (ADA) token to become the ninth-largest cryptocurrency by market capitalization on April 9. Can Toncoin continue its parabolic rise?

TON becomes the ninth-largest cryptocurrency

Following a 13% daily price increase, TON rose to $6.65 as of 1:45 pm UTC to reach a $23 billion market capitalization, overtaking the ADA’s $22 billion market cap, according to CoinMarketCap data.

TON/USD, 1-day chart. Source: CoinMarketCap

The rally comes a day after TON Society developers set aside $5 million in Toncoin to incentivize users to verify their identity using palm-scanning technology. The project aims to enable digital identity verification for Telegram users over the next five years and will distribute 1 million TON to users participating in the proof-of-personhood program.

The increased interest in TON helped it outperform ADA. TON’s price has surged over 135% during the past month, while ADA’s price has fallen 15%.

TON vs. ADA, 1-month chart. Source: TradingView

Zooming out further, TON’s price increased 183% year-to-date, while ADA price fell 1.30%.

TON launched a $115 million community incentive program on March 20, with $38 million for token mining and user incentives, $22 million for airdrops, $15 million for The League developer ecosystem, and $40 million for liquidity pool boosts. The program aims to drive more user adoption.

In contrast with Toncoin, ADA saw little interest this year, as investor attention was focused on the United States Bitcoin exchange-traded funds (ETFs) and other major blockchain upgrades, such as Ethereum’s Dencun upgrade.

Related: With 10 days to the halving, analysts predict $150K Bitcoin top

Can TON maintain its momentum?

Toncoin’s price action has been drastically outperforming Dogecoin (DOGE). TON rose 130% during the past month, while DOGE only gained 14.8%. Year-to-date, TON is up 177%, while DOGE is up 108%, according to TradingView.

TON vs. DOGE, 1-month chart. Source: TradingView

While Dogecoin’s price action is purely based on speculation-driven demand, Toncoin’s utility within the Telegram messaging app can lead directly to its price appreciation with increasing user uptake.

On the downside, Toncoin’s token distribution could raise concerns among retail investors. According to CoinCarp data, over 60% of Toncoin is held by the 10 largest holders, while 93% of the supply is held by the 100 richest holders.

TON token distribution chart. Source: CoinCarp

Related: Telegram Mini Apps are ‘Trojan horse’ for mass blockchain adoption — TON investments director

This article does not contain investment advice or recommendations. Every investment and trading move involves risk, and readers should conduct their own research when making a decision."
"[INST] 0G Labs raises $35M pre-seed funding from over 40 crypto investors for on-chain AI [/INST] Web3 modular infrastructure firm 0G Labs announced the successful completion of a $35 million pre-seed funding round on March 25.

According to a press release from 0G Labs, the round received participation from more than 40 crypto-native institutions, including Hack VC and Blockchain Builders Fund.

The funding will be used to build out 0G Labs’ vision of creating a full-stack blockchain-based solution for training, deploying, and running artificial intelligence models. Per the press release, one of the major advantages of its platform is speed over current state-of-the-art solutions such as Ethereum’s smart contract network.

Ed Roman, Managing Partner at Hack V, lauded 0G Labs a pioneer in the area of on-chain generative AI infrastructure:

“0G is positioned as the premier modular data availability solution for web3, including the next frontier of crypto-powered AI networks. Their data availability technology has shown to achieve speeds 1000x+ faster and cheaper than ETH L1, which is simply phenomenal. We’re proud to be their partners in this journey, and can’t wait to see their ecosystem thrive as the team pushes forward towards main-net.""

Pre-seeding is typically the first funding round a startup receives. This $35 million dollar emergence round represents one of the largest initial startup funds for a company operating at the intersection of Web3 and artificial intelligence (AI).

For comparison, OpenAI, the company behind ChatGPT and Dall-E, raised $120,000 in its pre-seed round on Aug. 22, 2016. In the time since, OpenAI has ridden the success of its generative AI technology to a current valuation of around $80 billion as of Feb. 2024.

Related: FTX to offload $1B Anthropic stake to pay off bankruptcy debts within weeks — report

0G Labs’ website states that one of the products it’s developing is called “Uni-Chain.” Accoridng to the site, this is an architecture for Web3 that seamlessly connects networks into a unified metaverse where users can transact with users and services on any chain through through single wallet access.

“Our modular technology will enable frictionless interoperability between chains,” reads the site, “while ensuring security, eliminating fragmentation, and maximizing connectivity for a weightless and open meta-uni-verse.”"
"[INST] ZachXBT claims he is being ‘borderline harassed’ by US law enforcement [/INST] Blockchain investigator ZachXBT has alleged that he’s been the target of what he deems as borderline harassment by the Criminal Investigation Unit (CIU) of the United States Internal Revenue Service (IRS) as they seek his assistance in blockchain investigations.

According to a March 6 post on X, ZachXBT explained that although he has been willing to help victims and support law enforcement with necessary information, he believes that the U.S. law enforcement agency has crossed his “personal boundaries” in their effort to get his assistance solving blockchain crime.

“They have shown up irl to old addresses, contacted personal emails using private data, and have sent mail when I have public contact methods readily available,” he claimed.

One of the several images shared by ZachXBT depicted an email from an IRS special agent requesting ZachXBT’s assistance while praising him for his “really impressive work.”

“I ran across your profile on social media and I’ve seen some really impressive work, esp. Your use of blockchain tracing tools,” the email from the special agent said while admitting that his skills are limited in the blockchain industry:

“I’ve been an IRS-CI special agent for a while, but I’m pretty new to the crypto/cyber arena and I was hoping you could give me a sense of what I should be looking at if I wanted to make the biggest impact.”

ZachXBT alleges that the multiple means of contact was a “blatant disregard for any professionalism.”

This comes after ZachXBT refused to assist holders of the Complex (SIMPLE) memecoin, minted on the Base blockchain after its developers abruptly shut down the project on April 4.

He explained that he dislikes “spending long periods helping people who willingly choose to gamble on vaporware meme coins vs actual victims.”

Meanwhile, the IRS has been expanding its collaborations with well-known people and companies within the blockchain tracing area for quite some time now.

Related: Wormhole’s huge airdrop attracts scammers, spoof tokens and a $3B valuation

In May 2023, Cointelegraph reported that IRS-CI Chief Jim Lee stated that its partnership with blockchain analytics firm Chainalysis has become invaluable.

Lee explained that the unit’s efforts to investigate crypto-related crimes would be near “impossible” without the infrastructure and tools it now has access to.

At the time, the IRS-CI estimated it had seized $10 billion worth of cryptocurrency since it began investigating a broad body of crimes involving digital assets.

Magazine: NFTs are like nightclubs, crypto is a volatile religion: NFTStats, NFT Collector"
"[INST] Wallets linked to Coinbase and Vitalik Buterin have millions ‘stuck’ in bridge contracts [/INST] Dozens of crypto whale wallets with assets ranging from six to seven figures are stuck on multiple decentralized finance (DeFi) bridge contracts.

One of these whale wallets is linked to Ethereum co-founder Vitalik Buterin, who has over $1 million worth of assets stuck for over seven months, with other wallets having assets unclaimed for over two years.

According to a report published by crypto analytics firm Arkham Intelligence, several notable whale addresses linked to prominent crypto individuals and entities have their funds stuck in the bridge contracts for as long as two years.

DeFi bridge contracts are software protocols that allow the movement of assets and data between different blockchain networks, enabling interoperability within the DeFi ecosystem.

However, not all DeFi bridges function the same. On the one hand, cross-chain bridges enable users to automatically obtain their assets on the other chain.

On the other hand, traders using native bridges must retrieve their funds manually as there is no way for the smart contract to remind users to do so, which could result in situations where users forget their money.

One wallet linked to “thomasg.eth” has had $800,000 stuck in Arbitrum Bridge for one year and 10 months. Another wallet, linked to Bofur Capital, with 27 wrapped Bitcoin worth $1.8 million, has been stuck for two years and three months.

Similarly, another wallet linked to nonfungible token (NFT) user Mike Macdonald has about $117,000 in assets linked to CryptoPunks sales stuck on a bridge contract.

Arkham suggested the account owner take a look, reminding them that if they “own the account that sent 5 CryptoPunks to, then you might also own the account that received the proceeds after they were sold.”

Another wallet that received 50 Ether (ETH) from Vitalik.eth seems to have been forgotten for seven months despite holding nearly $1 million worth of ETH on the Optimism bridge.

Another linked to Coinbase crypto exchange was also identified and contains $75,000 worth of assets stuck for nearly six months.

Arkham suspects Coinbase tried bridging $75,000 worth of USD Coin (USDC) to ETH and forgot about it. The assets are stuck in the Optimism bridge contract and waiting to be claimed.

Arkham notified whales linked to the stuck and forgotten funds to retrieve them in case they had forgotten about them. It also reminded the community that these instances can occur due to the nature of cross-chain bridges."
"[INST] Memes are creating a ‘Cambrian explosion’ of crypto onboarding: Base creator [/INST] Base creator Jesse Pollak believes memes will be key to onboarding millions of users to his Coinbase-adjacent layer-2 network, which has already tripled in total value locked (TVL) since March.

During a memecoin hackathon in New York on April 20, Pollak said memes are an important part of the on-chain economy, adding that he is “excited to see more based memes proliferate to help bring the world on-chain.”

“There’s been a ton of energy on Base,” said Pollak, adding:

“One thing that has really stood out to us is that we’re seeing these memes today onboard thousands and thousands of people into this new economy.”

The growth in memecoins and transactions on Base surged following the Ethereum Dencun upgrade in mid-March, which reduced fees on layer-2 networks.

As a result, Base’s TVL has surged almost 250% since the beginning of March, hitting an all-time high of $1.61 billion on April 21, according to DefiLlama.

Base TVL 2024. Source: DeFiLlama

Pollak said that aside from speculation, memecoin creators on Base have also bred countless new ways to onboard people to their communities.

“And what that’s creating is this kind of Cambrian explosion of onboarding experiments where people are taking tons and tons of shots on goal to say ‘how do we get our culture into the hands of more people.’”

“The thing we’ve built more conviction on is that in the years ahead we’re actually going to see these memes bring in millions more people [to Base] — they’re going to be one of the biggest drivers because they’re doing that work constantly to onboard more and more folks through that in a really creative way,” he added.

He added that there were “hundreds of teams and hundreds of sub-cultures” that are evolving, building, and creating, “bringing their culture and energy into this economy” and capital market.

Related: 12 Solana presale memecoins abandoned after just a month

The most popular memecoin on Base at the moment is BRETT, which has a market capitalization of $567 million and has seen a price explosion of 7,780% since the beginning of March.

Other large-cap memecoins on the Coinbase blockchain include DEGEN, with a market cap of $435 million, and TOSHI, with $185 million, according to CoinGecko.

Blockchains such as Solana and Base have become a magnet for memecoin degens in recent months due to their high throughput and low fees.

However, an in-depth investigation by Cointelegraph revealed that 16.7% of new Base memecoins were scams, and more than 90% of them have vulnerabilities.

Magazine: 1 in 6 new Base meme coins are scams, 91% have vulnerabilities"
"[INST] TON’s $5M incentive program aims to drive digital ID verification [/INST] The Open Network (TON) ecosystem developers have set aside $5 million of Toncoin tokens to incentivize users to verify their identity using state-of-the-art palm scanning technology.

TON Society, a community of developers and contributors building out the TON ecosystem, will distribute one million Toncoin to users participating in the voluntary proof-of-personhood program. The project aims to enable digital identity verification for Telegram users over the next five years.

The project uses HumanCode’s technology to allow users to verify their human identity on the blockchain. The application, available on Google Play and Apple Store, lets users scan their palms on a smartphone.

According to information shared with Cointelegraph, the technology provides privacy protection and is hardware-agnostic, allowing the scanner to be used on various mobile devices.

TON Foundation growth director Ekin Tuna said that supporting proof-of-personhood protocols like HumanCode is a step toward a practical reputation system with real-life use cases for TON’s ecosystem:

“A scalable, private, and decentralized identity will help to onboard the first one billion users to the Web3 ecosystem in Telegram.”

HumanCode founder Tim Zhang told Cointelegraph that the technology securely scans a human palm by extracting the pattern directly onto a user's smartphone device.

“This local extraction ensures the pattern is non-reversible, meaning that even if someone were to gain unauthorized access to our server, reconstructing the palm images from the patterns would be impossible,” Zhang explains.

The founder added that the system maintains U.S. SOC2 data security and privacy certifications and implements a triple-layer privacy protection mechanism. The first step involves local extraction of the user’s unique palm pattern, preventing personal information from being transferred off the device.

The extracted feature is encrypted before being sent to HumanCode servers to secure the data during transmission. The verification process is conducted locally on a user’s device, removing the need to transfer sensitive data to external servers.

HumanCode incentives will be given to TON Society members who complete a palm scan and prove their personhood. A ‘soulbound' token is then minted to represent their verified digital identity before users are rewarded for participating.

Cointelegraph also highlighted the reality of increased skepticism for proof-of-personhood technology in conversation with Zhang, given that Worldcoin has received pushback for its iris-scanning technology.

The company’s iris-scanning devices and data collection methods have been subject to investigations and regulatory scrutiny in Hong Kong, Spain and France over the past six months.

A Worldcoin iris-scanning orb on display at ETHGlobal in London in March 2024. Source: Gareth Jenkinson

Zhang said HumanCode’s use of robust security protocols and encryption is an important trust-bridging factor, while suggesting that users might feel less intimidated about scanning their hands instead of their eyes:

“From our experience, palm recognition technology is inherently more acceptable. For most people, scanning your palm with a smartphone camera just feels less intrusive than eye-scanning.”

Zhang also said the technology can potentially combat bots and fraudulent accounts on any social media platform by verifying the authenticity of users through unique palm patterns. This allows a platform to effectively distinguish between real users and automated bots.

In March, the TON Foundation allocated 30 million Toncoin, worth around $115 million, for various community rewards to drive adoption.

The incentives are allocated to four different areas: $38 million worth of TON will go to token mining and user incentives, $22 million for airdrops, $15 million for the League developer ecosystem, and $40 million for liquidity pool boosts.

The Telegram Ad Platform, built on the TON blockchain, officially went live in March 2024. The platform allows Telegram channel owners worldwide to receive financial rewards, exclusively selling advertising and sharing revenue with channel owners in TON.

Magazine: AI didn’t kill the metaverse, it will build it — Alien Worlds, Bittensor vs. Eric Wall: AI Eye"
"[INST] Worldcoin reaches 10M users, 70M transactions and at least 13 goats bought [/INST] Worldcoin’s World App has reached 10 million total users signed up, with an average of 2 million users a day and more than 5 million a month.

These milestones come less than a year after the service’s launch in June 2023, and according to Tiago Sada, head of product for Worldcoin’s parent company, Tools for Humanity, the project now has more daily users than its total monthly user count in January 2024.

Universal basic income

Worldcoin is a cryptocurrency project aimed at creating a universal basic income. Users register their identity with the company’s “World App” by having their eyes scanned in-person by machines referred to by the company as “Orbs.”

Remco Bloemen, head of blockchain at the Worldcoin Foundation, said in a statement that World App wasn’t intended to be the only solution on the Worldcoin protocol:

“Our hope is that this will encourage other contributors to develop additional wallets for the protocol, as different users have different needs and preferences for their wallet apps. In other words, down the road the Worldcoin community has expressed interest in alternatives to World App, so that a wider range of people can engage with Worldcoin as they choose.”

Goats

One of the more noteworthy use cases for World App, as of late, has been the viral story of a user in Kenya who expressed their gratitude over being able to purchase a goat with the funds they received from a Worldcoin airdrop.

The crypto community rallied to the person, sending an undisclosed amount of cryptocurrency which they reportedly used to purchase even more goats bringing their total to “13 and counting.”

The goat pictured above was even given a proper name: “Sam.” When asked on X why the owner chose to name it that, they responded that it was named after Sam Altman, the co-founder of Worldcoin.

Altman is also the co-founder and current CEO of unicorn artificial intelligence (AI) startup and former not-for-profit company OpenAI. The company’s ChatGPT product is currently viewed as the state-of-the-art for generative AI technology.

Related: Worldcoin tightens privacy checks, allows users to unverify World ID"
"[INST] Hong Kong officials recommend city’s crypto industry self-regulate [/INST] The Hong Kong Securities & Futures Professionals Association (HKSFPA) has recommended the city's crypto firms set up a self-regulatory committee and monitor one another for compliance.

“The Hong Kong financial market industry is too focused on supervision,” said the HKSFPA in an April 22 recommendation letter, “but there is no organization to maintain the overall development of the industry.""

The administrative body then noted the need for Hong Kong to stay competitive in the global securities market and “consolidate its status as an international financial center.” In outlining the next steps, the HKSFPA recommended the city’s regulator, the Securities & Futures Commission (SFC), establish ""statutory self-regulating” and autonomous bodies that would instead delegate licensing powers to industry players:

""In the case of Hong Kong, the Commission recommends that the Securities and Futures Commission still retains the power to supervise market conduct, but splits the licensing power to solely the securities industry, A self-regulatory institution composed of the futures industry, asset management industry and virtual asset industry.""

As per a similar recommendation letter last August, the HKSFPA spoke of a “balanced supervision and development"" that prevents the Hong Kong virtual assets industry ""from going to the extreme direction of supervision.""

Hong Kong Monetary Authority, one of the city's financial regulators (Wikipedia Commons)

That said, self-regulation doesn't always come with a balanced risk-reward dynamic.

For one, Lithuania is tightening its crypto regulations starting in 2025 after reports of compliance failures and embezzlement. The Baltic nation has issued licenses to more than 580 crypto firms and currently maintains little oversight from its licensees.

However, Hong Kong regulators have been much more tolerant of virtual asset firms than their counterparts in other parts of the world.

On April 15, the SFC approved spot Bitcoin and Ether exchange-traded funds for issuers, including Harvest Fund Management, Bosera Asset Management, and China Asset Management (ChinaAMC). Last year, the regulator issued official virtual asset licenses to crypto exchanges Hashkey and OSL.

Meanwhile, the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission has not yet approved a spot Ether ETF or offered specific licenses for crypto exchanges to register. In addition, the outlook for their approvals currently remains grim.

Related: Hong Kong investment firm Victory Securities reveals Bitcoin and Ether ETF fees"
"[INST] MicroStrategy is trading at an ‘unjustifiable premium’ to Bitcoin: Analyst [/INST] There may be little reason left for investors to trade MicroStrategy stocks to gain exposure to Bitcoin (BTC) after the approval of several spot Bitcoin exchange-traded funds (ETF) this year, argues investment firm Kerrisdale Capital.

MicroStrategy’s executive chairman Michael Saylor, would likely beg to differ.

“The days when MicroStrategy shares represented a rare, unique way to gain access to Bitcoin are long over,” Kerrisdale Capital explained in a March 28 analyst note, adding it believes MSTR price is overvalued.

The firm noted it had short positions on the MicroStrategy stock.

“We are long bitcoin and short shares of MicroStrategy, a proxy for bitcoin which trades at an unjustifiable premium to the digital asset that drives its value.”

MSTR is currently trading at $1,704. Over the last month, it saw a growth of 66.65%, and over the past six months, it has experienced an increase of approximately 419%.

On the other hand, Bitcoin’s price currently stands at $70,849. It has had a one month increase of 15.8%, and soared 163.31% over the past six months.

“Shares of MicroStrategy have soared amid a recent rise in the price of bitcoin but, as is often the case with crypto, things have gotten carried away,” it stated.

​​MSTR stock price has risen 419% over the past six months. Source: Google Finance

It also pointed out MicroStrategy's increasing debt-to-asset ratio and limited cash flow, which amounted to just $10 million in 2023 from its “sleepy” software analytics business. This made up only 3% of the company's overall enterprise value.

MicroStrategy’s Saylor confident in firm's offering

However, Saylor has said on several occasions that he remains confident his company would continue to be an attractive offer for investors.

In December, Saylor told Bloomberg TV that his company would still offer a high-performance vehicle for people who are Bitcoin-long investors.

“The ETFs are unlevered and they charge a fee,” Saylor told Bloomberg. “We provide you leverage, but we don’t charge a fee.”

Saylor also recently announced that MicroStrategy is undergoing a rebrand as a “Bitcoin development company.”

In a Feb. 12 interview with CNBC, Saylor explained that “it is a natural decision for us given the success of our Bitcoin strategy, and our unique status as the world’s largest public company holder.”

MicroStrategy holds 214,246 Bitcoin, as per data from Bitcoin Treasuries. This is approximately a 54% increase from its holdings of 138,955 Bitcoin this time last year.

Saylor added that MicroStrategy, as an operating company, has more flexibility in managing its capital and operations than an investment trust.

“We’re going to develop software, we’re going to generate cash flow, we’re going to leverage the capital markets, all in order to accumulate more Bitcoin for our shareholders, and also to promote the growth of the Bitcoin network,"" he stated.

On March 19, Cointelegraph reported that MicroStrategy sold another $604 million in convertible notes to buy an additional 9,245 BTC.

Related: Bitcoin is more of a ‘billion-dollar building in cyberspace,’ argues Saylor

Kerrisdale Capital says it remains bullish on Bitcoin, claiming it provides much better direct value for investors. The firm indicated that MSTR's current price implies Bitcoin’s price is $177,000, approximately two and a half times the price of Bitcoin.

The firm also revealed it has long positions in two newly approved spot Bitcoin ETFs, the iShares Bitcoin Trust (IBIT) and Fidelity Wise Origin Bitcoin Fund (FBTC).

It claimed that shareholders would find equivalent value in owning Bitcoin directly rather than holding MSTR stock at this stage.

“Shareholder value creation has been overwhelmingly driven by simple bitcoin price appreciation – much as it would from owning bitcoin outright.""

Despite MicroStrategy seeing significant growth in its stock over the past 12 months, it declined approximately 11.18% on the day.

Cointelegraph reached out to MicroStrategy for comment but did not receive a response at the time of publication.

Magazine: China will intensify Bitcoin bull run, $1M by 2028: Bitcoin Man, X Hall of Flame"
"[INST] BIS envisions global ‘Finternet’ running on unified ledger technology [/INST] The Bank for International Settlements has presented its fullest and strongest argument so far for unified ledger technology in a paper coauthored by BIS chief Agustin Carstens. The paper describes a “financial system for the future,” which it calls the Finternet, that would use unified ledgers as a vehicle.

Unified ledgers could remove a host of the pain points in the current financial system by improving speed, compliance and privacy in the financial system, the BIS paper claimed. Unified ledgers “bring together multiple financial asset markets […] as executable objects on common programmable platforms.” This flexibility offers advantages over digital transactions on other platforms:

“Even when individuals use sophisticated front-end interfaces to make supposedly ‘digital’ transactions, behind the scenes, movements of money and other financial assets often rely on the owners of siloed proprietary databases to initiate and process transfers.”

Unified ledgers “combine all the components needed to complete financial transactions—financial assets, ownership records, rules governing their use and other relevant information—in a single venue.” This gives them the potential to overcome issues related to technical standards and governance and eliminate third-party messaging systems.

Related: SWIFT proposes a role for itself in a tokenized future on a unified ledger

However, the BIS does not envision a single unified ledger. Rather, multiple unified ledgers would interact among themselves and with the financial system beyond the Finternet through apps. Unified ledgers require tokenization of assets, especially money, for transfers using smart contracts. The proposal creates a tokenization manager role that would monitor regulatory requirements.

Source: Bank for International Settlements

Carstens introduced the concept of unified ledger in February 2023. The topic was taken up again in the 2023 BIS annual report. The recently announced Project Agora also crucially uses unified ledger. The BIS and seven central banks are participating in that project, which involves central bank digital currency and tokenized money transfers.

The idea has also been considered by global financial messaging service SWIFT. The international Monetary Fund’s proposed XC platform is also highly similar in many details.

Magazine: Bitcoin in Senegal: Why is this African country using BTC?"
"[INST] Crypto-like communication devices could break gov’t surveillance — Telegram founder Durov [/INST] Pavel Durov, founder of the encrypted instant messaging app Telegram Messenger, predicts that rising government surveillance will force the birth of secure communication devices inspired by cryptocurrency hardware wallets.

In a Tucker Carlson interview on April 17, Durov recalled past experiences while expressing how government entities continue to suppress the private exchange of information:

“The world is becoming less amenable. Governments are becoming less tolerant of privacy. And that’s clearly the trend because they have more technological power.”

However, Durov believes that growing oversight will force innovations around hardware devices dedicated to secure communications “in a similar way that we have hardware wallets to store your cryptocurrency.”

He claimed that the United States law enforcement agency, Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI), attempted to persuade people affiliated with Telegram to install backdoors for surveillance purposes.

Durov said that the geopolitical neutrality of the United Arab Emirates (UAE) is ideal for entrepreneurs fighting for privacy and anti-surveillance:

“It’s a small country that wants to be friends with everybody. It’s not aligned geopolitically with any of the big superpowers. And I think it’s the best place for a neutral platform like ours to be in if we want to make sure we can defend our users’ privacy and freedom of speech.”

Speaking about company ownership, Durov said he avoids venture capital (VC) investments to prevent external influence on the way Telegram operates. He revealed that he holds a “few hundred million dollars” in fiat and Bitcoin (BTC), which allows him to bootstrap his projects and companies with 100% ownership.

However, he did raise funds for a few projects in the past, one of which was a cryptocurrency project.

Related: Telegram channels eligible for 50% ad revenue, but there’s a catch

Echoing Durov’s concerns about rising government surveillance, on April 16, American whistleblower Edward Snowden warned that the United States National Security Agency (NSA) is only days away from “taking over the internet” with a massive expansion of its surveillance powers.

Snowden’s alert comes after Elizabeth Goitein, co-director of the Liberty and National Security Program at the Brennan Center for Justice, pointed out that through an “innocuous change” to the definition of “electronic communications surveillance provider” in the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act (FISA) 702 bill, the U.S. government could go far beyond its current scope and force nearly every company and individual that provides any internet-related service to assist with NSA surveillance.

Magazine: The real risks to Ethena’s stablecoin model (are not the ones you think)"
"[INST] US consumer agency flags risks in virtual crypto economies [/INST] The United States Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB) has targeted crypto-centric gaming in a recent report, cautioning against scams and low consumer safeguards in video games and virtual realms.

In its “Banking in video games and virtual worlds” report released on Thursday, April 4, the consumer protection agency highlights the rising interest among gaming creators in bridging virtual items to reality.

Despite still trailing mainstream gaming platforms like Roblox or Fortnite, the agency highlighted the growth of crypto assets in virtual worlds. Third-party trading platforms enable users to convert digital assets into fiat currency. The report states:

“Notably, some of the largest virtual gaming world publishers have expressed growing interest in positioning their virtual items as crypto-assets that have the ability to be traded outside of the game’s economy.”

The report said that crypto assets in virtual environments like Decentraland and The Sandbox could be exchanged for fiat currency on other cryptocurrency platforms.

Alexander Grieve, government affairs lead at Paradigm, said that reports like the one published by the CFPB could signal upcoming regulatory actions. He suggested that the CFPB, like many federal agencies, is seeking its regulatory role in the cryptosphere, with this report potentially serving as one avenue.

The CFPB report states that online video games and virtual worlds are becoming akin to traditional banking but lack federal protections. The agency received complaints regarding hacking attempts, account theft and assets lost within games, with consumers expressing dissatisfaction over the lack of support from gaming companies.

Related: Crypto-focused lawmaker wants to lead House Financial Services Committee in 2025

CFPB Director Rohit Chopra highlighted the increasing trend of Americans converting billions of dollars into digital currencies for gaming. With banking and payments shifting to virtual realms, the CFPB said it aims to safeguard consumers from fraud and scams.

The CFPB has shifted its focus toward cryptocurrencies, introducing a proposed rule titled “Defining Larger Participants of a Market for General-Use Digital Consumer Payment Applications.” This rule grants the agency oversight over “larger nonbank firms” providing digital wallet and payment app services.

It mandates nonbank financial entities processing over five million transactions annually to adhere to regulations akin to those imposed on major banks and credit unions. Although the 62-page rule references cryptocurrency sparingly, critics contend it “asserts authority over cryptocurrency” inappropriately.

Magazine: Lawmakers’ fear and doubt drives proposed crypto regulations in US"
"[INST] Queensland law enforcement agency calls for more powers to seize crypto [/INST] The Crime and Corruption Commission (CCC), a law enforcement agency in Queensland, Australia, has identified certain gaps in state laws that encourage criminal use of digital assets.

To overcome these legal shortcomings, the agency has proposed modernizing Queensland’s asset confiscation regime.

The CCC questioned the efficacy of Queensland’s Criminal Proceeds Confiscation Act 2002 (CPCA) when it comes to confiscating cryptocurrencies tied to organized crimes, such as money laundering.

The commission has called for a significant reform of the Act that seeks to achieve seven priority outcomes, three of which directly relate to the effective seizure of digital assets. It said:

“Digital assets are expected to continue to proliferate as the criminal environment increasingly becomes less physical, and the CPCA less effective for dealing with digital assets.”

The lack of crypto-related language in the CPCA, such as cryptocurrency, crypto asset or digital asset, is the root cause of the gaps within Queensland’s legislative regime, according to the CCC.

Citing the importance of CPCA to remain fit for purpose within a changing criminal environment, the commission added:

“While digital assets can be restrained and forfeited under the CPCA, there are currently no specific provisions for investigative agencies in Queensland to facilitate effective seizure of digital assets.”

The CCC sees this inability to seize digital assets as hindering Queensland’s ability to gather evidence, attribute ownership of a digital asset, or facilitate the storage or transfers of digital assets, among others.

The commission recommended reforms such as defining “digital assets” and introducing them to money laundering laws, converting seized assets into stable currencies amid legal proceedings and automatic forfeitures.

Related: Australia poised for ‘inflection point’ of crypto demand — Kraken Aus MD

In March, Alan Kirkland, commissioner of the Australian Securities and Investments Commission (ASIC), unveiled a strategy to foster responsible financial innovation development.

Kirkland pointed out the need to solve the “regulatory trilemma” when it comes to financial innovations, which includes consumer protection, market integrity and encouraging financial innovation.

Kirkland believes that ASIC’s approach to innovation and effective regulation can reduce the associated risks and help promote digital assets to the masses.

Magazine: 1 in 6 new Base meme coins are scams, 91% have vulnerabilities"
"[INST] Coca‑Cola pours $1.1B into generative AI experiment with Microsoft [/INST] The Coca-Cola Company has signed a five-year deal with Microsoft to develop and integrate artificial intelligence (AI) use cases across various business functions.

Coca‑Cola committed $1.1 billion to the Microsoft Cloud for its generative AI and cloud capabilities. According to the announcement made on April 23, the duo will jointly experiment with Azure OpenAI Service and other technologies “to develop innovative generative AI use cases across various business functions.”

In addition, the companies will experiment with the Microsoft Copilot Microsoft 365 AI assistant to test its efficacy in improving workplace productivity.

As part of the drive, Coca-Cola migrated all its applications to Microsoft Azure. Judson Althoff, the executive vice president and chief commercial officer at Microsoft, said:

“Through our long-term partnership, we have made significant progress to accelerate system-wide AI Transformation across The Coca‑Cola Company and its network of independent bottlers worldwide.”

Using Azure OpenAI Service, Coca-Cola is currently exploring the use of generative AI-powered digital assistants to improve performance metrics related to customer experiences, streamline operations, and improve efficiency, among other things.

Coca-Cola’s AI partnership with Microsoft dates back to 2020, which started off as a $250 million agreement. “Microsoft’s capabilities help accelerate our adoption of AI to create incremental enterprise value,” said Neeraj Tolmare, senior vice president and global chief information officer for The Coca-Cola Company.

Related: Microsoft pours $1.5B into UAE AI company, sets sights on global expansion

On April 9, Microsoft AI executive vice president and CEO Mustafa Suleyman revealed the firm’s plans to make a “significant, long-term investment” in the United Kingdom as they start scouting potential candidates in the region.

In a blog post, Suleyman said:

“There is an enormous pool of AI talent and expertise in the U.K., and Microsoft AI plans to make a significant, long-term investment in the region as we begin hiring the best AI scientists and engineers into this new AI hub.”

Suleyman’s statements came as he announced the creation of an AI hub in the United Kingdom. The hub’s goal is to advance AI language models and their infrastructure.

In addition, it would also create tooling for foundation models and collaborate with its AI teams across the globe and its partners like OpenAI.

Magazine: Lazarus Group’s favorite exploit revealed — Crypto hacks analysis"
"[INST] Nilam Resources flagged ‘buyer beware’ as shares pump over Bitcoin plans [/INST] Nilam Resources, a micro-cap company that touted plans this week to acquire $1.7 billion worth of Bitcoin (BTC), has been flagged as a “public interest concern” amid a meteoric 1,500% share price surge on Tuesday, March 26.

OTC Markets Group, the firm that runs OTC Pink, a platform for over-the-counter stock trading, currently labels Nilam Resources (NILA) as “Caveat Emptor” — a designation it hands down to companies it deems worthy of “buyer beware.”

In a glossary page explaining the labels, OTC Markets explained that this “public interest concern” may stem from a spam campaign, questionable stock promotion, any known investigation of the company, regulatory suspensions, or any other disruptive corporate actions.

The OTC listing for NILA also shows it has been deemed a “Shell Risk” — a label given to companies it thinks is likely a shell company based on its annual financial data and other income-related metrics.

Listing for Nila Resources showing the various warning labels Source: OTC Markets

On March 25, Nilam Resources, an investment holding company, announced it had entered into a Letter of Intent to acquire a company that plans to hold 24,800 Bitcoin.

Nilam Resources claimed the deal had been months in the making. It plans to issue a newly authorized “preferred stock” in exchange for the Bitcoin, which will be at a “discounted rate relative to current market prices.”

A day later, its share prices soared, reaching a new all-time high of 33 cents, up 1,700% from 1.8 cents last week. The company’s current market cap currently stands at $280 million, according to OTCMarkets.

However, many crypto-natives aren’t convinced the firm will be able to follow through with its ambitious plan, with some suggesting the announcement is some kind of “marketing stunt.”

“Stunt of a dying penny stock”

Bitcoin analyst and Adamant Research editor Tuur Demeester said he removed his initial tweet sharing Nilam’s announcement on X after “a commenter pointed out that it’s indeed a stunt from a dying penny stock.”

Quinten Francois, a crypto YouTuber and co-founder of Web3 company WhereAt Social also accused the filing of being a “marketing stunt” — common among failing small-cap stocks.

Dylan LeClair, director of market intelligence at digital asset fund UTXO Management also shared doubts, noting the plan would only work if there were legitimate demand for the equity sale.

“A letter of intent is one thing, actually executing is another.”

“Likely flops and is for PR purposes,” he added.

If Nilam is successful, the company will hold more Bitcoin than any other publicly listed company in the United States, except for MicroStrategy.

Related: MicroStrategy sells another $604M of notes to buy 9K Bitcoin

That would include beating Elon Musk’s Tesla and major Bitcoin miners such as Riot Blockchain, Hut 8 Corp, and Marathon Digital Holdings, according to data from BitcoinTreasuries.

Former CEO calls it a “pump and dump”

Former Nilam Resources CEO Ron McIntyre has also reportedly cried foul over the announcement, telling Protos that the press release was issued without his review and that he didn’t have detailed knowledge of the deal.

Asked why he resigned from his position, McIntyre reportedly replied:

“Just look at the chart — it’s a classic pump and dump.”

“There will be a FINRA investigation into Nilam Resources,” he added.

Nila Resources describes itself as an investment holding company. In November last year, it announced it would be pivoting from health and wellness investments to “frontier tech” including medtech, fintech, and climate tech.

It followed up just a day later with an announcement it had acquired TechyTrade, a fintech technology provider.

Nilam Resources did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

Magazine: Asia Express ‘Am I sorry? No’ — 3AC founder. $6B BTC laundered for fast food worker: Asia Express"
"[INST] Philippines SEC accuses eToro of offering unregistered securities [/INST] The Securities and Exchange Commission in the Philippines has issued an advisory against online trading platform eToro, saying it is not authorized to sell or offer securities in the country.

The financial regulator issued the advisory in March, which was posted publicly on April 4, informing the public that the online investment trading platform eToro is “not authorized to sell or offer securities to the public in the Philippines.”

“ETORO’s operations allow Filipinos to create user accounts on their platform for the purpose of investing and trading unregistered investment products,” the SEC wrote in its advisory.

Screenshot from SEC advisory. Source: Philippines SEC

It said the firm is not registered as a corporation in the Philippines and does not have the necessary licenses or authority required under the Securities Regulation Code to sell securities, operate as a broker-dealer, or run an exchange for trading securities in the country.

EToro is a multinational trading company founded in 2007 that is popular with Millennials. The multiasset investment firm has over 33 million registered users worldwide, according to Statista. The platform is available in 140 countries and was valued at $3.5 billion in 2023.

Despite being a multinational company, the Philippine finance regulator advised the public “to exercise caution before investing in these kinds of unregistered online investment platforms and their representatives.”

The bulletin added that anyone acting as salespeople, promoters, influencers, endorsers or agents for eToro in the Philippines could face penalties of up to $88,300 (5 million Philippines pesos) in fines or 21 years imprisonment for violating securities laws.

The eToro company website currently lists the Philippines as a supported country.

Cointelegraph reached out to eToro for clarification but did not receive an immediate response.

Related: Philippine gov’t blocks unlicensed crypto exchange sites

In November 2023, the SEC issued a similar advisory stating that crypto exchange Binance was not authorized to sell or offer securities to the public.

In March, the Philippines National Telecommunications Commission (NTC) began blocking crypto company websites without the necessary licenses.

Later that month, Cointelegraph reported that the SEC instructed the national internet provider to block access to Binance’s website.

“The SEC has identified the aforementioned platform and concluded that the public’s continued access to these websites/apps poses a threat to the security of the funds of investing Filipinos,” stated SEC Chairperson Emilio B. Aquino at the time.

Magazine: Bitcoin ETF guru Eric Balchunas has the last laugh at doubters: X Hall of Flame"
"[INST] GBTC fees will drop when Bitcoin ETFs ‘start to mature’ — Grayscale CEO [/INST] Grayscale’s flagship Bitcoin (BTC) exchange-traded fund (ETF) will drop its fees, the highest of all United States spot Bitcoin ETFs, but only once the products “start to mature,” according to CEO Michael Sonnenshein.

Sonnenshein said in an April 10 on-stage interview at Canaccord Genuity’s Digital Assets Symposium that “markets have tended to be very excitable” when commodity or specific thematic exposure products — such its own Grayscale Bitcoin Trust (GBTC) — debut and give investors access to assets for the first time.

“We’re still kind of very much in that phase for Bitcoin,” he said.

Over time Sonnenshein said the products “start to mature,” and the market consolidates as investors allocate funds heavily toward only a few products.

“That means fees also come down over time. We’ll reduce fees on GBTC, and that also means that we’re kind of at the end of that first inning of that first wave of adoption.”

Typically, new products — such as the recently launched Bitcoin ETFs — make their way to wealth management platforms, Sonnenshein said.

“Those things really haven’t started happening yet,” he added. “We’re not quite yet at that next phase of adoption and growth here in the U.S.”

GBTC launched in 2015 and converted to an ETF in January, alongside the launch of nine other Bitcoin ETFs after Grayscale won a lawsuit against the Securities and Exchange Commission — forcing it to review a GBTC conversion bid it denied.

GBTC has the highest management fees out of all U.S. Bitcoin ETFs — pinned at 1.5% a year compared to the 0.30% average of its competitors.

It’s also seen the highest outflows of all its competitors since it converted in mid-January, having $16.1 billion in net outflows to April 11, per Farside Investors data.

Cumulative U.S. spot Bitcoin ETF flows since launching on Jan. 11 with GBTC outflows in gray. Source: Farside Investors

Sonnenshein claimed after GBTC’s conversion it emerged as a “capital markets and risk transference tool” for those wanting Bitcoin exposure.

Related: Bitcoin ETF activity to remain robust until the halving: Santiment

“GBTC has a very large outstanding share supply, a lot of daily liquidity, very tight spread,” he added. “We have seen a lot of engagement from those types of investors.”

Despite Grayscale’s early “100% market share” for Bitcoin ETFs in the U.S., Sonnenshein knew that other issuers coming into the market “would be a net positive for the ecosystem.”

“We really do believe a rising tide does lift all boats when it comes to the adoption, the maturation, the accessibility of the asset class.”

“We’ve seen some of the world’s largest asset managers getting involved in the space, Sonnenshein noted. “I think that just underscores, again, the staying power of the asset class and investor demand for it.”

Magazine: Bitcoin ETFs make Coinbase a ‘honeypot’ for hackers and governments — Trezor CEO"
"[INST] Cryptojacker conned $3.5M from cloud firms to mine crypto, feds allege [/INST] United States prosecutors have charged a man with wire fraud and money laundering charges after he allegedly defrauded two cloud computing providers to run a “large-scale illegal ‘cryptojacking’ operation” — with the perpetrator facing up to 50 years in prison.

The Brooklyn U.S. Attorney’s Office on April 15 claimed Charles O. Parks III, also known as “CP3O,” defrauded the two companies of $3.5 million to mine $970,000 in cryptocurrencies, including Ether (ETH), Litecoin (LTC) and Monero (XMR) using the two firm’s resources without paying.

Cryptojacking is when an entity uses resources such as computing power or electricity without permission to mine crypto. Types of malware can inject software to mine crypto that drains a small amount of resources from a network of computers.

Parks was arrested in Nebraska on April 13 and charged with wire fraud, money laundering and engaging in unlawful monetary transactions.

He faces a combined maximum sentence of 50 years in prison and is slated to appear before an Omaha federal court on April 16.

The indictment alleged Parkes created multiple accounts with a subsidiary of “Company 1,” a “cloud computing and consumer electronic device headquartered in Seattle, Washington,” and “Company 2,” a firm that makes “personal computers and related services headquartered in Redmond, Washington.”

From around January to August 2021, Parks allegedly used multiple fake “names, corporate affiliations and email addresses,” including from companies he registered — MultiMillionaire LLC and CP3O LLC — to make accounts at the companies.

He then “tricked and defrauded” the services into “approving heightened privileges and benefits, including elevated levels of cloud computing services and deferred billing accommodations,” the indictment alleges.

Parkes deflected when the providers started inquiring about “questionable data usage and mounting unpaid subscription balances,” prosecutors claimed.

Highlighted excerpt of the indictment against Parkes. Source: U.S. Attorney’s Office

The indictment claims Parkes laundered some of his mined crypto through “Cryptocurrency Exchange 1,” which “bills itself as a ‘decentralized company, with no headquarters.’”

Related: IRS investigation chief expects uptick in crypto tax evasion this year

Other funds were allegedly laundered through a payments provider, bank accounts and a New York City-headquartered nonfungible token (NFT) marketplace.

He structured the payments in a bid to avoid the $10,000 minimum transaction reporting requirements under federal law, the indictment said. Prosecutors claimed to have found multiple instances of Parkes moving $9,999 and smaller amounts from the crypto exchange to a bank account.

Prosecutors alleged Parks used the proceeds for “extravagant purchases,” including a luxury Mercedes Benz, jewelry and “first-class hotel and travel expenses.”

Brooklyn U.S. Attorney Breon Peace said in a statement: “This Office will continue to prioritize prosecuting criminal actors who use new, sophisticated technology to engage in the old scheme of fraud and deceit.”

Magazine: ‘SEAL 911’ team of white hats formed to fight crypto hacks in real time"
"[INST] Upbit suspends crypto transactions exceeding 1 million won [/INST] Upbit — one of South Korea’s largest crypto exchanges — will suspend deposits and withdrawals of digital assets of more than 1 million Korean won ($721).

The move comes in response to changes to the virtual asset service provider (VASP) Ten&Ten, one of the local facilitators of deposits and withdrawals.

In an April 17 announcement, Upbit said the suspension of use and termination of Ten&Ten’s Travel Rule Solution service is the reason behind its decision to halt deposits and withdrawals.

The Ten&Ten exchange services stopped transaction support on April 15, and the last date to withdraw crypto assets is April 22 at 10:00 am Korea Standard Time.

Ten&Ten helped the crypto exchange offer crypto deposits and withdrawals of over 1 million won. Other VASPs that allow deposits and withdrawals over 1 million won include Bblock, Gopax, FlatExchange, Aprobit, Prabang, Borabit, BTX, Flybit, Foblegate, Bithumb, Coinone, Korbit, Coredocs, GDAC, Hanbitco, Qbit, Korea Digital Asset Trust and Oasis Exchange.

In a report released on April 10, the European Union named Upbit second in market share after Binance, with approximately 528.57 billion in trading volume.

In the first quarter of 2024, the South Korean won surpassed the United States dollar in crypto trading volume. According to Kaiko data, transactions in Korean won on centralized exchanges totaled over $456 billion, slightly exceeding the U.S. dollar's cumulative volume of around $455 billion.

Related: South Korean police catch $4.1M crypto scam duo

Currently, South Korean financial authorities plan to release new guidelines imposing tighter regulations for token listings on centralized crypto exchanges by the end of April or, at the latest, early May.

Authorities will also prohibit listing digital assets with hacking incidents on domestic exchanges unless the root cause is thoroughly determined.

The 24-hour trading volume at Upbit fell to $3.8 billion at the start of April after reaching a high earlier in March. On March 5, Upbit recorded a daily trading volume of almost $15 billion, the exchange’s highest trading volume of 2024 so far.

The crypto exchange’s surge in daily trading volume may be attributed to Bitcoin reaching a new all-time high of $69,200 on the same day.

Hong Kong’s financial regulator has reportedly approved three spot Bitcoin (BTC) exchange-traded funds, which are expected to list on the Hong Kong Stock Exchange in approximately two weeks.

Magazine: ETH price nears 3-year lows vs. Bitcoin — Will an Ethereum ETF stem the tide?"
"[INST] Bitcoin mining stocks saw spikes across the board ahead of halving event [/INST] Several Bitcoin (BTC) mining firms listed on the Nasdaq stock exchange closed the trading week with a noticeable 24-hour increase in share prices in the lead-up to the Bitcoin halving event.

On April 20, Bitcoin celebrated its fourth-ever halving event, and the date was likely firmly marked in the calendars of Bitcoin mining firms as it can significantly disrupt business operations.

The halving event slashes miner rewards in half for every block they mine. The most recent halving cut down miners' rewards from 6 BTC to 3.125 BTC per block mined.

However, stock investors were speculating about which firm might take the lead in the industry, with certain mining firms surging as much as 10% in the 24 hours prior to the halving event.

Riot Platforms (RIOT) saw the most significant growth among publicly listed Bitcoin mining firms on the April 19 trading day, with its stock price increasing by 10.13% to $9.13.

On the same day, Riot announced the launch of a new 250-acre mining facility in Corsicana, Texas.

The announcement granted Jason Les, CEO of Riot Platforms, the opportunity to ring the closing bell at the Nasdaq headquarters.

Meanwhile, Marathon Digital (MARA) closely followed with a 9.78% increase to $16.50, while Clean Spark (CLSK) saw a rise of 5.98% to $17.20.

The halving event triggers Bitcoin miners to change up their operational strategies if they want to maintain the same profit margins.

Bitcoin miners who stick with using the same energy and resources to mine Bitcoin will potentially see diminished profits.

This leaves miners with two options, either expand operations to produce the same level of top-line revenue or cease operations altogether.

Hut 8 CEO Asher Gennot recently explained that several Bitcoin mining firms went bankrupt in 2022 due to being overleveraged and unprepared for rising energy costs.

Although major Bitcoin miners have recently been acquiring significant amounts of new equipment in preparation for the event.

Related: Marathon Digital Holdings launches direct Bitcoin transaction submission service

Marathon Digital recently announced its plans to acquire a 200-megawatt (MW) Bitcoin mining facility in Texas for $87.3 million.

Meanwhile, in December 2023, competitor Bitcoin mining firm Riot Platforms purchased 66,560 mining rigs from manufacturer MicroBT in one of the largest expansions of hash rate in the firm's history.

Overall, the S&P 500 — the index that tracks the 500-largest public companies in the United States — experienced another 0.88% 24-hour decrease before the close of the trading week, marking a 3.54% decline over the past five trading days, as per Google Finance data.

Magazine: Get Bitcoin or die tryin’: Why hip hop stars love crypto"
"[INST] History of Crypto: The future of crypto exchanges, regulatory battles, and governance [/INST] Welcome to the History of Crypto, a Cointelegraph series that brings readers back to the most significant events in the crypto space. Powered by Phemex, the timeline allows crypto community members to explore and look back at the important events that shaped the industry into what it is today.

This article explores the period following November 2022, when the FTX exchange collapsed, giving rise to one of the most notorious crypto winters in the history of digital assets.

The period after the collapse of the FTX exchange is known as one of the darkest times in crypto history.

The downfall of FTX and its over 130 subsidiaries catalyzed a chain reaction of bankruptcies and layoffs among Web3 firms, giving rise to one of the longest crypto winters, that saw Bitcoin's (BTC) price bottom out at $16,000.

EXPLORE THE HISTORY OF CRYPTO

Following the bankruptcy that caused a $8.9 billion loss of investor funds, regulators were forced to take action and develop more investor safety-oriented frameworks emphasizing transparency for crypto exchanges and service providers.

United States regulators issued some of the most significant criminal fines in history to Binance despite no evidence of user fund misappropriation. They also fined smaller exchanges in a hawkish effort to prevent potential FTX-like meltdowns.

Explore the History of Crypto. Source: History of Crypto

How did FTX collapse?

The now-infamous FTX exchange collapsed nearly on and a half years ago, sending shockwaves across global crypto markets and wiping out tens of billions of value within a few days.

In essence, FTX collapsed due to user fund misappropriation, which resulted in billions worth of trading losses for its sister company, Alameda Research. The quantitative trading firm used FTX customer funds that Bankman-Fried transferred without consent to fund Alameda’s trading losses, now referred to as the Alameda gap.

Before getting its quantitative trading protocol from Gary Wang, Alameda lost over $500,000 every day throughout an awful month, claimed Michael Lewis in his biography about Bankman-Fried.

The user fund misappropriation started to unravel in November 2022 when it was revealed that a large portion of Alameda’s balance sheet was made up of FTX’s FTT token.

The revelation led to a large sell-off, which caused the FTT token price to plummet, raising widespread concerns about the financial health of FTX and Alameda Research. This led to mass customer withdrawals of up to $6 billion within three days. FTX could not meet the withdrawals as it was forced to suspend them.

FTX filed for bankruptcy on Nov. 11, 2022. Bankman-Fried was arrested in the Bahamas on Dec. 12, 2022, after United States prosecutors filed criminal charges against him. He was extradited to the U.S. in January 2023. Bankman-Fried was sentenced to 25 years in federal prison on March 28, 2024.

100 Years in Jail?! SBF Trial Verdict Explained. Source: Cointelegraph

Related: Alameda Research FTT token transfer from September fuels wild speculations

The regulatory crackdown after the FTX collapse

The collapse of the FTX exchange triggered a hawkish response from the United States Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC), which started a broader crackdown on crypto exchanges to avoid another potential FTX-like meltdown.

In June 2023, the SEC sued Coinbase and Binance Exchange for alleged securities violations. In the lawsuit against Binance, the SEC alleged that the company and its founder, Changpeng Zhao, had misappropriated billions of user funds.

EXPLORE THE HISTORY OF CRYPTO

Despite no evidence of user fund misappropriation, Binance was charged with violating Anti-Money Laundering laws and settled to pay one of the most significant criminal fines in history worth $4.3 billion.

As for the Coinbase lawsuit, the SEC claimed that the exchange operates as an unregistered exchange, broker, and clearing agency and violated securities laws by listing 13 tokens it alleged were securities, according to the lawsuit filed in June 2023.

Coinbase sought an order to drop the case, questioning the SEC’s authority over crypto exchanges. The exchange’s motion to drop the legal case was dismissed on March 27, allowing the SEC to proceed with its lawsuit against Coinbase.

How the U.S. SEC is waging an undeclared war on crypto. Source: Cointelegraph

The immediate regulatory response focused on prosecutions and enforcement rather than implementing blockchain-specific regulations, according to Ashar Burney, the legal head of TDeFi, who told Cointelegraph:

“This approach reflects a broader trend where regulators address fraudulent activities within the crypto space through existing legal frameworks, emphasizing enforcement against criminal behavior rather than introducing new regulations specific to blockchain technologies.”

Burney added that the FTX collapse was primarily a “case of criminal fraud,” not a lack of regulatory frameworks.

Related: Paradigm leads $225M funding round for new ‘Solana killer’ L1

How the regulatory landscape evolved post-FTX

Following the FTX collapse, crypto exchanges have started striving for more transparency, spearheaded by Binance, the world’s largest exchange.

By the end of November 2022, Binance launched its Proof-of-Reserves (PoR) system, which shows the amount of underlying assets the exchange holds on behalf of users. This third-party audit aims to show users that the exchange can meet any potential withdrawal requests. Binance’s main assets were overcollateralized by at least 102% as of April 12, according to its PoR page.

Following Binance’s push for transparency, other top exchanges have followed suit, including Coinbase, OKX, Crypto.com, Kraken, and Bybit.

How CZ built Binance and became the richest person in crypto | Crypto Stories Ep. 16. Source: Cointelegraph

Despite the new PoR audit systems, investors still need to conduct due diligence as FTX had also performed numerous financial audits that didn’t uncover the fraud, according to TDeFi’s legal head, Burney, who told Cointelegraph:

“SBF's firm underwent multiple audits by reputable auditing firms, demonstrating the complexity of identifying fraudulent behavior even with established compliance measures. Overall, investors' safety is not significantly different, especially considering that the crypto industry experiences lower fraud rates compared to traditional fintech and investment sectors.”

Beyond the transparency efforts of crypto exchanges, governments worldwide have also taken a more collaborative approach to regulating the nascent crypto industry, according to James Wo, the founder and CEO of DFG, who told Cointelegraph:

“Although countries have different stances with some being more crypto-friendly than others, they all work towards the same goal of providing a framework that prevents Anti Money Laundering (AML) with ample Know Your Client (KYC) processes in countries that do not outright ban it.”

In May 2023, the European Council adopted the first comprehensive legal framework for the crypto industry. The Markets in Crypto Assets (MiCA) framework aims to protect investors through more rigorous transparency standards and AML rules.

EXPLORE THE HISTORY OF CRYPTO

Thanks to the new MiCA bill, crypto exchanges will become fully regulated entities from the end of 2024, Vyara Savova, senior policy lead at the European Crypto Initiative, told Cointelegraph:

“2024 is the year of MiCA, and the whole EU will now have a comprehensive legal framework for crypto-assets, crypto-asset services, and crypto-asset service providers (also known as CASPs). Crypto exchanges are a type of CASP under MiCA and will become fully regulated in December 2024. “

While MiCA is a significant step for the global regulatory landscape and investor safety, its efficiency will depend on the member state implementations for each country, explained Savova:

“An important aspect that is often overlooked is the role of member state laws in applying this regulation, as these laws will create the supervisory framework in the respective country.”

Hong Kong and Dubai have also introduced crypto regulations that favor innovation in an effort to become known as global crypto hubs. Yet, the most regulatory sign came in January 2024, with the approval of the spot Bitcoin exchange-traded funds (ETFs).

Related: TradFi Wall Street firms pushing for Ether ETF approval, says former Binance Labs head

Bitcoin ETFs signal an innovation-friendly approach, but investors are not necessarily safer

After months of regulatory battles, the ten spot Bitcoin ETFs were approved by the United States SEC on Jan. 10, enabling traditional investors to gain exposure to BTC through publicly-traded funds.

The approval of the ETFs is a positive development signaling that signals an innovation-friendly approach from U.S. regulators for the future, according to DFG’s Wo, who told Cointelegraph:

“Despite the lawsuits to multiple crypto exchanges, the SEC previously approved the Bitcoin ETF with the Ethereum ETF being filed. This is a signal that governments are more in favor of regulation than outright banning, as seen in many other countries regulators which provide tight regulations for the approval of licenses to operate crypto-related businesses.“

The U.S. ETF approval has also inspired other jurisdictions to follow suit. The Securities Regulatory Commission (SFC) of Hong Kong could approve the first four spot Bitcoin ETF applications by April 15, after the financial regulator has reportedly accelerated the approval process for the first ETFs.

Spot Bitcoin ETF Approved: Impact on Investments with Mark Yusko. Source: Cointelegraph

Related: Hong Kong regulator fast-tracks Bitcoin spot ETF approvals

Despite significant global regulatory developments like ETFs and more regulations around crypto exchanges, investors aren’t necessarily shielded from another FTX-like meltdown, according to DFG’s Wo:

“Although regulation and compliance have stepped up in regulated entities, it does not mean it will not happen again even if we can expect better risk management from these entities. Overall, self-custody will still be the safest as you are in control of your own funds as long as you take sufficient risk mitigations of not clicking on phishing or scam links that may drain your wallet.”

Related: FTX moves to offload 8% stake in Anthropic

Looking ahead to 2024 and beyond

The FTX collapse inspired widespread collaboration between global regulators to prevent another high-profile meltdown. Some of the world’s leading economies have developed new regulations for crypto exchanges, while Europe passed the first comprehensive framework for the crypto industry, setting the benchmark for other regulators.

The European MiCA framework is still a work in progress. The next major part of the bill will set a marketing communication standard for crypto exchanges, which could impact crypto service providers in Europe, according to the European Crypto Initiative’s senior policy lead, Savova, who told Cointelegraph:

“What will develop throughout 2024 is the CASP and, therefore, exchanges’ marketing communications and what will be allowed. It’s a very impactful topic that emerged in France and is now being discussed at the EU level through the Retail Investment Strategy.”

The second consultation package for reverse solicitation guidelines under MiCA is set to end on April 29. The outcome of the consultation will be influential for MiCA’s final implementation in December, according to Savova:

“[This will determine] how exchanges and other CASPs from countries outside of the EU might provide services to EU citizens without a license and how these services should be marketed in Europe. The outcomes of this consultation will be critical for MiCA’s implementation in December.”

According to TDeFi’s Burney, crypto service providers could still see more regulatory scrutiny, including more stringent disclosure and compliance requirements, leading to a more mature industry. Burney said:

“These developments reflect a shift towards a more mature regulatory framework aimed at balancing innovation with regulatory oversight. However, obtaining a license in the US may not entirely prevent exchanges from operating globally and serving US customers, highlighting the challenges of regulating a decentralized and global industry.”

Crypto Bull Market Phase 2: What to Expect. Source: Cointelegraph

Related: Binance Labs shifts investment focus to Bitcoin DeFi"
"[INST] Trudeau announces $1.8B package to boost Canada’s AI sector [/INST] Canada is committing $1.76 billion (2.4 billion Canadian dollars) of its federal budget to boost its artificial intelligence (AI) sector and maintain the country’s “competitive edge” in AI.

The government unveiled a new package of measures, including investing in AI-related startups, medium-sized businesses and research firms to “secure Canada’s AI advantage.”

“The rapid advance of generative AI today will unlock immense economic potential for Canada, significantly improving productivity and reducing the time workers have to spend on repetitive tasks,” Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau said in an April 7 statement.

In Montreal, PM Justin Trudeau announces a $2.4-billion package from the upcoming federal budget to build capacity in artificial intelligence.#cdnpoli pic.twitter.com/AbNlOrX2kd — CPAC (@CPAC_TV) April 7, 2024

The package will see $1.47 billion invested into building computing capabilities and other AI-related infrastructure through the country’s new AI Compute Access Fund, supporting the country’s leading AI researchers and startups.

Another $147 million will be dedicated to AI startups in the agriculture, clean technology, healthcare and manufacturing industries, while $73.5 million will be handed to small and medium-sized AI scale-up companies to boost productivity.

“This will create good-paying opportunities for every generation, boost innovation across the economy, raise productivity, and accelerate economic growth.”

Trudeau noted that many developments in drug discovery, energy efficiency, and housing innovation have already been leveraged by AI in the country.

The fund will also address workers who may be impacted by the AI boom, which will receive up to $36.8 million under Canada’s Sectoral Workforce Solutions Program to re-train and re-skill across various industries.

Employees in the film and animation industries are most at risk of losing their jobs to generative AI, according to a recent report from consultancy firm CVL Economics.

The remaining $36.8 million will be used to create a Canadian AI Safety Institute to further the safe development and deployment of AI.

Canada claims it was the first country in the world to introduce a national AI strategy when it introduced the Pan-Canadian Artificial Intelligence Strategy in 2017, aimed at driving the adoption of AI through research and commercialization.

Related: AI token prices soar: Is it all hype, or is there real potential?

According to data from Statistica, Canada’s AI market is currently worth around $7.4 billion, while the United States market sits at about $106 billion.

Part of Canada’s AI strategy has also reportedly involved attempts to recruit several emerging AI firms from the European Union.

One of Canada’s leading AI startups is Tenstorrent, which partnered with South Korean manufacturing conglomerate Samsung last October to help “bring the next generation of AI chiplets to market.”

Tenstorrent had closed a $100-million funding round led by Samsung and the automotive manufacturer Hyundai two months earlier.

Magazine: Bittensor vs. Eric Wall, AI didn’t kill the metaverse, it will build it says Alien Worlds: AI Eye"
"[INST] Move-to-earn protocol StepN announces $30M airdrop for users [/INST] Move-to-earn lifestyle app StepN, built on the Solana blockchain, is airdropping 100 million FSL points, worth approximately $30 million, to its users.

According to the April 10 announcement, the FSL points are redeemable at a 1:1 ratio for StepN’s GMT (GMT) token and can also be used in upcoming StepN nonfungible token (NFT) mints alongside obtaining exclusive prizes. “We have decided to launch this huge airdrop campaign as a token of gratitude to our most loyal community members,” said Shiti Manghani, CEO of StepN.

“The first airdrop of this week, for our Badge Holders, was dedicated to our core players,” StepN wrote, continuing: “Those who are truly playing the hard way. For them, we airdropped an FSL Points allocation based on the complexity of their in-app achievements.”

To claim the points, users must sign up for an FSL ID, which is created by the namesake developer that also manages the StepN ecosystem. From there, users can also spend the FSL points in the ecosystem’s NFT marketplace Mooar and strategy game Gas Hero. The $30 million airdrop will be ongoing until the end of April.

Created by FSL in 2021, StepN allows users to earn rewards for walking, jogging or running. Rewards are available after users purchase a virtual Sneaker NFT and link their smartphones. Rewards are issued in the form of GMT tokens, which have an inflationary mechanism, supply cap of 6 billion and current diluted market capitalization of $1.57 billion.

GMT tokens earned by players can then be used to mint new sneakers or level up in the game. On the in-app marketplace, players can lease or sell their NFT sneakers, and their GMT revenues are saved in the in-app wallet, which features a built-in swap function. The lifestyle app currently has more than five million users.

Related: Solana's STEPN hits record high as GMT price skyrockets 34,000% in over a month"
"[INST] Solana memecoin frenzy raises questions about crypto utility, reputation [/INST] The Solana blockchain is currently outperforming rivals Ethereum, Avalanche and BNB Chain in terms of network activity, growth and adoption — all thanks to the memecoin frenzy that has taken crypto markets by storm.

Over the past month, the Solana blockchain has seen the launch of thousands of new memecoins with billions of dollars in trading volume. Several new memecoins made headlines and rose to new market highs within days, while others grabbed headlines for rugging users and even racism.

Memecoins are digital currencies that derive their name from internet memes and have no practical application outside of being a pop culture reference. These cryptocurrencies are often backed by a strong online community.

Memecoins are not a new concept — during the last bull cycle, memecoins like Dogecoin (DOGE) and Shiba Inu (SHIB) grabbed mainstream attention as their prices soared.

But that was nothing compared to the current memecoin frenzy, which started on Solana and has now spread to several other chains, including Coinbase’s layer-2 platform Base, Binance’s BNB Smart Chain and more.

During the last bull cycle, memecoins grew to new highs over an extended period of time and were primarily fueled by a strong online community.

Dogecoin saw a major push from Tesla CEO Elon Musk, who added DOGE payments to Tesla’s merch store to show his support.

But during the current cycle, memecoins are appearing at unprecedented rates, and tokens barely hours old have amassed millions in trading volume and billions in market capitalization.

The rise of Solana memecoins

According to an April report from CoinGecko, memecoins were the most profitable crypto sector in Q1 2024, recording average returns of 1,312.6% across multiple top tokens by market cap.

Notable gains include BRETT, with a 7,727.6% surge. Dogwifhat (WIF) rose by 2,721.2% over the quarter, while Book of Meme (BOME) briefly surged over 40,000% within days of launching.

BOME was launched on March 14 by pseudonymous artist Darkfarms1 with a market cap of around $4 million.

Within a couple of days of launching, it had reached a market cap of $1.45 billion. Within a week, it was supported by multiple major exchanges, including Binance, Bybit and KuCoin.

Dogwifhat, which launched in November 2023, was among the top 50 cryptocurrencies by market cap by the first quarter of 2024 at nearly $50 billion.

Memecoins distorting crypto’s image

While the Solana memecoin frenzy has made many new crypto millionaires, even more people have lost fortunes chasing the one memecoin that could make them rich.

Furthermore, many new memecoin projects are rug pulls — exit scams in which developers shut down the project and steal the funds they have raised from investors.

Many crypto veterans have warned against investing in memecoins due to their lack of utility and the casino-like atmosphere permeating memecoin markets.

A spokesperson from the research team at crypto exchange Bitrue told Cointelegraph that the market frenzy can “distort the image of cryptocurrencies, potentially undermining their credibility and the broader adoption of blockchain technology.”

“While the influx of new participants and trading volume may initially seem positive, the speculative nature of memecoins raises concerns about the maturity and integrity of the crypto market.”

Proponents believe the memecoin frenzy has attracted a significant number of newcomers to the crypto space and generated substantial profits for some investors.

However, it’s essential to recognize the risks associated with speculative assets like memecoins, as they lack intrinsic value and are highly volatile. While some may profit, many others may incur losses, highlighting the importance of responsible investment practices and education for all participants.

Bitget chief research analyst Ryan Lee believes the rapid rise in the prices of Ether (ETH) and SOL (SOL) — the native assets of two major blockchains on which memecoins are launching, Ethereum and Solana, respectively — is one component propelling the memecoin sector upward.

“One significant factor contributing to the surge in these memecoins is their deployment on the ETH and Solana chains, typically priced in ETH and SOL on decentralized exchange platforms. The upward trend in ETH and SOL prices consequently drives the price appreciation of memecoins,” Lee told Cointelegraph.

The Ethereum ICO era-like frenzy

The memecoin frenzy on Solana has seen a trend similar to other crypto market success stories, wherein the blockchain was flooded with dog- and cat-themed memecoins that raked in millions in trading volume, which was followed by popular memecoins based on world leaders such as former United States President Donald Trump and current President Joe Biden.

At the same time, many developers and users are raising money to launch new memecoins via social media. At a time when major crypto firms are struggling to raise funding from venture capitalists, users on X have raised hundreds of millions of dollars within hours in pre-seed funds. However, not all pre-seed projects were launched, as several were rugged.

Observers have compared the memecoin funding frenzy with thousands of new tokens, characterized by scams and no real-world use cases, to the 2017 initial coin offering (ICO) bubble on the Ethereum network.

During the ICO rush, projects raised millions of dollars, only to deliver tokens with little to no use. But even then, there was at least a pretense of offering a genuine product.

During the 2017 ICO boom, Ethereum network’s capacity was tested thoroughly as daily transactions increased 24x within a year.

Similarly, Solana has seen a 2.5x increase in daily active addresses, from around 600,000 on Jan. 1, 2024 to over 1.5 million by the second week of April.

The ugly side of memecoins

While dog- and cat-themed memecoins ruled the Solana blockchain during the peak of memecoin frenzy, a load of tokens containing racist and homophobic epithets was also unleashed.

Some of these tokens were able to garner market capitalizations into the billions of dollars.

The proliferation of these coins saw many from the crypto community call for intervention from Solana developers.

During the Buidl Asia 2024 event, Austin Federa of the Solana Foundation argued that wallet developers should have the right to institute block lists. He added that practically every wallet in every ecosystem filters out “spam NFTs” and “spam tokens.” He said that “users always have the ability to reveal something if they want to, [...] but the core network needs to remain permissionless.”

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Conversely, Nansen chief data journalist Martin Lee told Cointelegraph that memecoin trends are a function of the crypto market, which is “the most open and free market there is in the world. The ability to create a token and traders being able to actively trade those tokens are all enabled by the benefits of crypto. They’re not inherently good or bad.”

The memecoin frenzy has divided the crypto community. On the one hand, many crypto veterans who have seen these meme cycles believe it paints crypto in a bad light, as most memecoins offer no utility and are effectively gambling.

On the other hand, proponents claim that memecoins are bringing new traders to the crypto world and showcase the values of a free market where anyone can create a token to trade."
"[INST] Restaking protocol EigenLayer partially launches on Ethereum mainnet [/INST] Ethereum restaking protocol EigenLayer, which touts over $13 billion in assets, has launched onto the blockchain’s mainnet, but some key features are still to come and will go live sometime in 2024.

EigenLayer announced the launch in an April 9 blog post but added in-protocol payments to operators from actively validated services (AVS), such as apps and cross-chain bridges, are yet to come.

A mechanism called slashing — when validators get their staked crypto taken from them if they don’t do their job correctly — is also still on the way.

Both will come “later this year” after the EigenLayer marketplace has time to “develop and stabilize,” the protocol said without disclosing a timeline.

As of today, restakers can now delegate their restaked ETH balance to Eigenlayer operators, who in turn operate AVS.

“So there’s still no restaking rewards?” Galaxy Digital vice president of research Christine Kim rhetorically asked in a responding X post.

The promise of restaking protocols such as EigenLayer is to allow users to earn rewards for restaking their already-staked Ether (ETH) tokens — which are 1:1 representative tokens tied to ETH staked in a protocol such as Lido or Rocket Pool.

Coinbase analysts said on April 2 that restaking could increase earnings but “can also compound risks” as the same funds could be shipped around to multiple protocols, which could create complex security and financial issues.

Alongside its mainnet launch, EigenLayer also released a data availability service EigenDA, the first AVS to launch on the protocol aiming to help other blockchain apps store transaction data.

Related: Aave contemplates fee distribution in DeFi shake-up

Other AVS, however, will have to register with EigenLayer and cannot fully deploy right now.

In a separate X post, Galaxy’s Kim said she didn’t understand “why everyone’s hyped about this [EigenDA] news, 99% of getting restaking right depends on the economics, balancing risk with reward.”

“There’s still no risk (ie, slashing) or reward (ie, AVS payouts) live on [EigenLayer] SO there’s no restaking really happening yet [in my opinion],” she added.

EigenLayer has a total value locked of $13.33 billion, according to DefiLlama.

EigenLayer’s total value locked in U.S. dollar terms since its launch. Source: DefiLlama

It overtook Aave in early March to become the second-largest decentralized finance protocol behind Lido, with $33 billion in locked value.

Magazine: Ethereum restaking — Blockchain innovation or dangerous house of cards?"
"[INST] Crypto VC funding surged 53% in March, Optimism wins largest share [/INST] Venture capital funding into crypto jumped by 52.5% month-on-month in March, with crypto projects getting $1.16 billion, mostly in infrastructure and decentralized finance projects.

RootData figures show 180 publicly-announced investments managed to secure investments in the last month — the highest monthly figure since April 2022.

One-fifth of deals saw fundraises of between $1 million to $3 million, while just over 15% raised between $5 million to $10 million. The majority of the funded projects were based in the United States, but they still only made up less than 10% of the total deal count.

Ethereum layer-2 blockchain Optimism got the month’s largest raise when it sold $89 million worth of its tokens in a private deal. Cryptography startup Zama was runner-up with its $73 million Series A.

March’s top 10 largest deals by amount raised. Source: RootData

The monthly deal number was up 25% from February and over 70% from the prior year period, while the total amount raised was also up 28% compared to March 2023.

VC firms recently hinted at their crypto-focused interests for the year ahead. Andreessen Horowitz (a16z) on April 1 earmarked $30 million for a fund focused on Web3 gaming.

Crypto-related VC funding by month since March 2022 with USD amount raised (orange) and number of deals (gray line). Source: RootData

Last week, a16z co-founder Marc Andreessen and Galaxy Digital were top contributors to VC firm 1kx’s $75 million fund targeting crypto-based consumer apps and Hack VC in February raised $150 million to fund early-stage crypto and artificial intelligence startups.

Infrastructure projects were the most well-funded firms in March, making up for nearly $283 million — around a quarter of the total $1.16 billion VC funding.

Decentralized finance (DeFi) projects followed with $228.1 million in funding, making up nearly 20% of the total, with centralized finance (CeFi) projects — such as exchanges — seeing the third-most funding at $85.5 million.

No funding was raised in the DAO category.

Fundraising amount per sector for March 2024. Source: RootData

Last month’s funding is the first time since November that VC funding has broken over $1 billion for the month.

Related: Web3 startups flock to accelerators as crypto enthusiasm surges

It comes after a dampened 2023 for crypto raises after FTX collapsed in late 2022 and took the crypto markets with it.

VC funding has made monthly gains year-to-date as enthusiasm for crypto has made a comeback in tandem with the markets, which PitchBook attributed to the launch of spot Bitcoin (BTC) exchange-traded funds (ETFs) in the U.S.

Magazine: The secret of pitching to male VCs: Helping female crypto founders blast off"
"[INST] Web3 ad service Everyworld reaches 225K users within a month of launching beta [/INST] Web 3 advertising service platform Everyworld has reached a total user base of 225,000 as of March 28.

According to a press release from Everyworld, this milestone for the service occurred within a month of its initial beta.

Everyworld describes its platform as having “elements of a media platform, a game show, an online marketplace and even TikTok,” but also notes that it’s “entirely different.”

As an ad service platform, it serves advertisements from more than 20 games from both the blockchain and traditional gaming sectors. These include Shrapnel, Big Time, Star Atlas, Planet Mojo, The Sandbox, and High Street, and others according to the press release.

Users are incentivized to interact with the content on Everyworld’s platform through a rewards system wherein users earn points towards prize drawings.

CEO Janine Yorio, in a statement given to the press, said:

“The goal is to onboard web3 natives and then to expand to a mainstream audience, and in doing so to demonstrate the transformative power of cryptocurrency to bring people together, rallying communities to collaborate toward common goals. To demonstrate the applicability of this blockchain technology to non-crypto uses, Everyworld displays ad content for both blockchain (web3) and also traditional video games.”

Related: Web3 game Wilder World gets Epic Game Store listing during alpha testing

The company says its ad services protocol is a “win-win” for gamers and developers. According to its website it also conducts conservation efforts with support for various conservation organizations.

“This is an enormous opportunity,” the company’s chief crypto officer, TJ Kawamura, said in a press release, adding that “the users of today’s platforms, games, and other consumer applications demand—and deserve—to be rewarded for engaging with a product. After all, we are in the midst of the most competitive attention economy the world has ever seen, and products, now more than ever, depend on user participation. “

The Everyworld platform is currently available in select markets excluding the U.S. and Afghanistan, Australia, Belgium, Belize, Bolivia, Canada (province of Quebec), Cambodia, Chad, China, Columbia, Cuba, Iran, Iraq, Lebanon, Libya, Myanmar, North Korea, Russia, Singapore, Somalia, Sudan, Syria, Tanzania, Thailand, Turkey."
"[INST] Osmosis, dYdX and Synthetix most actively developed DeFi projects: Santiment [/INST] Osmosis, a decentralized exchange (DEX) built on Cosmos, has surged to become the most actively developed decentralized finance (DeFi) project in the last month, according to data shared by crypto intelligence platform Santiment.

In a March 25 post to X, Santiment wrote that Osmosis had seen over 169 commits on GitHub in the last 30 days. The decentralized perpetuals exchange dYdX stood in second place with 145 commits, while derivatives liquidity protocol Synthetix came in third with 116.

Osmosis was the most-developed DeFi project in the last month. Source Santiment

Santiment explained the list of “developer activity” was collected by compiling all non-redundant GitHub activity listed on each project’s respective records and providing an average number of those values.

The total value locked (TVL) and overall trading volumes on Osmosis significantly increased between early October and March 15.

Osmosis TVL and volumes surged between October and March. Source: DefiLlama

Much of the uptick in activity can be traced back to a surge of interest in airdrop farming on Cosmos-related infrastructure throughout the wider crypto sector, with Osmosis being the primary DEX on Cosmos.

Several projects, such as data availability blockchain network Celestia and multilayer RollApp deployer Dymension, use core elements of the Cosmos ecosystem for their networks and have now yielded hundreds of millions of dollars in airdrops for farmers.

Related: Cosmos-based networks Umee and Osmosis to merge, creating ‘DeFi Hub’

For dYdX, much of the development activity could be linked to its early-January v4 upgrade, a network shift that saw the decentralized derivatives exchange transition from an Ethereum layer-2 network to a standalone blockchain in the Cosmos ecosystem.

The dYdX v4 network has generated over $60 billion worth of trading volume since going live on Jan. 25, per DefiLlama data.

dYdX v4 has generated over $60 billion in trading volume since its launch. Source: DeiLlama

Meanwhile, the TVL on the Synthetix protocol has also been steadily increasing since mid-February and currently stands at $994 million across the Ethereum and Optimism networks.

In July 2023, Synthetix founder Kain Warwick announced the upcoming launch of a new derivatives front-end called Infinex. The alpha version of the platform is live on mainnet, and the full-release version is currently slated for the coming months.

Magazine: 5 dangers to beware when apeing into Solana memecoins"
"[INST] Memecoin madness is breaking the Bitcoin halving cycle [/INST] Crypto industry analysts are calling the current Bitcoin halving cycle the “weirdest” bull market on record, following a premature Bitcoin (BTC) all-time high and a massive rush into memecoins.

On April 1, Chainlink community liaison Zach Rynes — aka “ChainLinkGod” — said, “This bull market has been weird” in a post to his 171,000 followers on X.

Historically, bull runs would see liquidity flow into Bitcoin before moving into Ether (ETH) and other high-capitalization coins and finally moving down the chain.

However, the market “skipped a couple of steps that we have seen with previous cycles,” with flows going from BTC straight to memecoins, which is “a bit unusual,” commented Rynes.

Memecoin total capitalization surged to $70 billion on April 1, primarily driven by pumps in newly launched tokens, such as Solana-based Dogwifhat (WIF), Book of Meme (BOME) and older memecoins such as Pepe (PEPE) and Bonk (BONK).

Coinbase layer-2 network Base has also become a hotbed of memecoin speculation.

The recently launched Base-native token DEGEN is one example, which has skyrocketed an eye-watering 2,800% over the past month. The memecoin is an unofficial token that was distributed to the community on the decentralized social network Farcaster.

Rynes added that market fundamentals are not playing much of a role at the moment:

“There’s some retail money that’s entered, but nowhere near the levels we’ve seen before; we’re in an attention economy based on specific narratives, not real fundamentals.”

The sentiment was echoed by Ethereum educator Anthony Sassano on April 1, who said that after around a decade in crypto, “I can say with full confidence that this is, by far, the weirdest bull market crypto has ever had.”

He added that retail is not here “in any meaningful way” until the entire market goes up together:

“Not these isolated sector-specific pumps that are very obviously pushed by crypto natives and just involve a hot ball of money rotating around.”

Related: Memecoin presales hit ‘peak degeneracy’ with over $100M raised in 3 days

Another factor adding to the weirdness of this market cycle is that Bitcoin has reached an all-time high before the halving. In previous cycles, the Bitcoin all-time high arrived the year after the halving.

The asset hit $73,734 on March 14, and the Bitcoin halving is just 18 days away now, due on April 20. Analysts have already predicted that the pre-halving retrace is over.

On April 1, technical analyst Moustache highlighted that BTC had reclaimed a key Fibonacci ratio level seen in previous cycles, but this time it was before the halving.

Magazine: 5 dangers to beware when apeing into Solana memecoins"
"[INST] Chinese gov’t launches public blockchain infrastructure platform with Conflux Network [/INST] The Chinese government has launched a new public blockchain infrastructure platform led by Conflux Network.

The new platform, dubbed “Ultra-Large Scale Blockchain Infrastructure Platform for the Belt and Road Initiative,” aims to offer an underlying public blockchain for cross-border applications, according to an April 1 X post by Conflux Network:

“The main focus of the project is to create a public blockchain infrastructure platform. This platform will be able to support the implementation of cross-border cooperation projects along the Belt and Road Initiative. It will provide the base for developing applications that showcase collaboration across borders.”

Conflux Network is a multichain blockchain ecosystem operated by the Conflux Foundation, also known as the Shanghai Tree-Graph Blockchain Research Institute.

Related: Hong Kong’s in-kind ETF creation could be a significant market opportunity: Analysts

Crypto is thriving in China, despite the trading ban

The governmental blockchain initiative comes despite mainland China’s hostile attitude toward cryptocurrencies. China had started tightening its grip on the crypto industry since at least 2017 when the government ordered Chinese Bitcoin exchanges to shut down.

Despite the ban on crypto trading, 33.3% of Chinese investors hold a large amount of stablecoins, placing them in second place to Vietnam, with 58.6%, according to a December 2023 report by Vietnamese venture capital firm Kyros Ventures.

Traders in mainland China have found ways to circumvent the ban on trading. The majority of investors in the country choose to trade on centralized crypto exchanges, according to the report by Kyros Ventures.

Beijing banned crypto trading and mining in 2021 and prohibited offshore exchanges from offering their services in the country. Before the crypto crackdown intensified in 2021, China controlled two-thirds of the total Bitcoin mining hashing power.

Amid calls for greater industry scrutiny, China is set to make a major amendment to its Anti-Money Laundering (AML) regulations to include cryptocurrency-related transactions.

As the first major revision to China’s AML regulations since 2007, the amendment aims to impose stricter guidelines to curb crypto-related money laundering.

So-called “virtual currency trading platforms” reportedly helped facilitate a $2.2 billion underground banking operation to bypass the country’s forex restrictions, according to a Dec. 24, 2023 report.

Related: Bitcoin network’s carbon emission jumped 17% after China ban: Report"
"[INST] Ripple to launch US dollar stablecoin, aims to compete with USDT and USDC [/INST] XRP issuer Ripple has announced plans to launch a United States dollar-backed stablecoin and hopes to compete with Circle and Tether for a slice of the market share over the next five years.

Cointelegraph spoke to Ripple chief technology officer David Schwartz ahead of the announcement, which outlines plans for the stablecoin that will initially be issued on the XRP Ledger and the Ethereum blockchain.

“It’s funny that the question you ask, we don’t have an answer to yet. What’s the ticker going to be, and what we’re going to call it? You’re just going to have to call it the Ripple stablecoin for now,” Schwartz said during a video call.

Related: Ripple ‘would certainly welcome’ an XRP ETF: Brad Garlinghouse

Ripple has been toying with the idea of launching a stablecoin for over a year, and Schwartz believes the existing stablecoin ecosystem is not as diverse and robust as it could be. Pinning the stablecoin market’s current value at $150 billion, Schwartz said there’s room for another big player:

“We think it will be over $2 trillion by 2028, and there’s only two market leaders. We don’t think it’s a winner-take-all-all ecosystem, particularly on the DeFi side.”

Ripple’s stablecoin will be pegged at a 1:1 ratio with the U.S. dollar, and the company plans to back the tokens with U.S. dollar deposits, short-term U.S. government Treasurys and “other cash equivalents.” Schwartz said that Ripple would look to emulate Circle’s focus on compliance and likely aim to compete against the USD Coin (USDC) issuer:

“Our angle is going to be very ‘compliance-first.’ We’re very transparent about how the assets are backed, so we’re kind of going to be directly competing against USDC.”

“We’re looking to grab market share. We’re not looking to finesse a couple of extra decimal points by taking risks with other people’s money,” Schwartz added when queried over Ripple’s plans to back the stablecoin with dollar deposits, U.S. Treasurys and cash equivalents.

Circle’s transparency page outlining a slight surplus in reserve assets backing USDC tokens in circulation. Source: Circle

The reserve assets are set to be audited by a third-party accounting firm, and Ripple will publish monthly attestations. Schwartz drew comparisons to the early days of Tether’s (USDT) stablecoin, where critics often sounded the alarm over the potential of the issuer to steal funds and the credibility of its reserve attestations.

“Initially when Tether first launched, a big concern was whether these guys would run off with all the money because they’re very incentivized to do that. Then, after a while, ‘you’re like, wait a minute, these guys have a long-term business,’” Schwartz said.

The top 10 stablecoins by market capitalization. Tether’s USDT is valued at $106 billion. Source: CoinMarketCap

The Ripple chief technology officer added that the reality of launching a new stablecoin that could attract hundreds of millions, billions, or tens of billions of dollars would lead to these types of concerns. The company is leaning on its credibility, track record in the space and strong balance sheet to squeeze its way into the stablecoin market.

“I think we have a credible claim to be in the conversation near the top. If at the end of two years, we’re number three, but the market has grown to 10 times what it is today, that’s still pretty good,” Schwartz said.

Tether’s USDT is issued across 15 different blockchains. Ripple will issue its stablecoin on the XRP Ledger and the Ethereum blockchain. Source: Tether

Cointelegraph also queried why Ripple was interested in a stablecoin offering while XRP (XRP) continues to be positioned as the token for its real-time gross settlement system, currency exchange and remittance network primarily catering to financial institutions.

Schwartz says that Ripplenet serves non-bank payment companies using XRP for transparent payments. However, there are some markets that these firms cannot get into using XRP or supplement liquidity.

Related: XRPL blockchain plugs into cross-chain DeFi

“Having multiple paths to give customers a better experience means you have more customers. If we only did things with XRP, then where XRP wasn’t available, we would just have to tell a customer no,” Schwartz explained.

The introduction of a Ripple stablecoin is also set to complement the ecosystem’s recently launched automated market maker. Schwartz says the stablecoin will provide liquidity and capture volatility and arbitrage opportunities between multiple assets.

Magazine: Ethereum’s ERC-20 design flaws are a crypto scammer’s best friend"
"[INST] BingX exchange openly supports Iranian users, defying sanctions [/INST] The BingX crypto exchange is allowing sanctioned Iranian users to evade restrictions.

The exchange openly displays an Iranian version of its website, and its officials have made statements in Persian in the exchange’s official Telegram group.

According to a translation of one of the statements, “The Bing X exchange has no problem with Iranian users, and it is even possible to authenticate with a national card.”

The exchange also allows Iranian rial to Tether (USDT) swaps in its interface, which are prohibited under United States Treasury Department’s Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC) rules.

Statement by BingX admin. Source: BingX official Telegram channel.

In another post within the official BingX Discord, one user asked if ""there are any restrictions for registering from Iran"" regarding the platform's verification. ""It should be fine.."" a BingX representative replied, ""Just follow the instruction on your registration.""

BingX's policy on user registration from Iran. Source: BingX Discord

Iran has been under a variety of sanctions since 1979. The U.S. and the United Nations have accused the country of a wide variety of violations of international law, including seizing property belonging to U.S. companies, funding terrorism and enriching uranium to make nuclear weapons. Iran has denied these claims.

The sanctions generally prevent Iranian residents from using centralized cryptocurrency exchanges, and these exchanges risk being blocked from U.S. and global markets if they do business with Iranians.

According to OFAC, Foreign Financial Institutions (FFIs) risk “correspondent and payable-through account sanctions and blocking sanctions” if they knowingly conduct or facilitate transactions involving the purchase or sale of Iranian rials.

However, it appears that on the BingX exchange, the Iranian rial — an OFAC-sanctioned currency — is directly swappable for other crypto assets.

BingX supporting transactions in the Iranian rial. Source: BingX

BingX facilitates over $974 million in trading volume per day, according to CoinMarketCap data. This makes it one of the top 20 crypto exchanges in the world.

Per data from its official website, the exchange is a registered financial services company in the Republic of Lithuania, giving it a license to do business in the European Union. It is also licensed in Australia as a digital currency exchange and operates from Singapore.

Like all global financial institutions, entities in Australia and Lithuania must comply with the U.S. OFAC sanctions and any sanctions imposed on Iran by their home countries or the European Union.

BingXPersian, where services are offered to Iranian residents, is listed as an official channel of the BingX exchange. Source: BingX

Yet, despite such requirements, the exchange publicly solicits Iran-based users on its social channels and official website. Before November 2021, the exchange was known as Bingbon.

BingX was founded by Josh Lu in 2018 and claims to serve over 10 million users. The nationality of its current founder is unknown.

Statement by BingX customer support representative J. Jalali. Source: BingX official Telegram channel

According to another BingX representative, “Iran is in the list of countries with restrictions.” However, “this does not mean a ban on providing services.” In addition, the exchange is also advertising its Iranian rial services and states, “Did you know that you can buy and sell Tether with Rials on Bing X?""

BingX touts the buying and selling of sanctioned Iranian rial and toman (1 toman = 10 rial) via peer-to-peer transactions. Source: BingX on Telegram

Response from BingX

On April 13, post publication, a BingX representative told Cointelegraph that Mirzadeh, the Telegram user featured in the above screenshots ""is not an authorized representative of BingX, and his statements do not mirror the official policies or positions of our company."" In addition, they claimed that the Rial to USDT swaps shown above are on an unauthorized subpage of the Paycat website. ""We want to clarify that the official BingX website is bingx.com. Bingx.paycat.com is not authorized to represent the positions or views of BingX.""

The BingX representative also claimed that Iranian users are not allowed on the exchange. However, after publication, a BingX customer service representative stated that ""there is no requirement for authentication and Persian language users can use the exchange.""

BingX's explanation of rules surrounding Iranian users. Source: BingX on Telegram

Not a first occurrence

BingX is not the only licensed cryptocurrency exchange that has been caught circumventing sanctions for Iranian users.

In July 2022, Reuters reported that the largest cryptocurrency exchange in the world, Binance, was serving Iranian citizens. At the time, Binance denied the claim, stating that it “strictly” adheres to sanctions requirements.

In November 2023, the exchange agreed to a $4.5 billion plea deal with the U.S. Justice Department and the U.S. Treasury, admitting that it failed to maintain an effective policy against money laundering. Its former CEO, Changpeng Zhao, also pled guilty to Bank Secrecy Act violations.

The BingX official website onboarding Iranian residents. Source: BingX

In May 2023, the crypto exchange Poloniex also paid a $7.6 million settlement to the OFAC for failing to retroactively screen users from Crimea, Cuba, Iran, Sudan, and Syria who had registered before the exchange implemented Know Your Customer controls.

Update April 13 2024 7:20pm UTC: Added a screenshot from BingX Telegram

Update April 13 2024 7:15pm UTC: Added a statement from BingX

Update April 12 2024 9:40pm UTC: Added a screenshot from BingX Discord

Related: US Treasury sanctions crypto mixer Sinbad, alleging North Korea ties"
"[INST] Bitcoin halving puts focus on crypto education initiatives [/INST] Over the last couple of months, the crypto world has been abuzz with anticipation for the upcoming Bitcoin halving event.

This pivotal moment, expected to occur on April 20 (based on the UTC time standard), will once again cut the reward for mining new Bitcoin blocks in half, further reducing the supply of the world’s first and largest cryptocurrency, Bitcoin (BTC).

While many investors and traders are speculating on the potential price implications, a growing movement within the industry is shifting this focus toward education and adoption.

Whether through online courses, podcasts, workshops or good old-fashioned books, the push for increased Bitcoin education seems to be fueled by a shared belief that understanding begets trust.

There are a number of initiatives spearheaded by businesses, individuals and educational institutions that promote a deeper understanding of Bitcoin and the digital asset ecosystem as a whole.

Binance Academy

Binance Academy is the official education platform offered by cryptocurrency exchange Binance. It provides a suite of resources to promote the understanding of Bitcoin and its associated technologies. For instance, those new to the world’s pioneering cryptocurrency can sign up for the free “Bitcoin Basics” course, which offers a structured introduction covering the asset’s history, underlying blockchain technology, mining processes, wallets and more.

Binance Academy has prepared several in-depth explanatory articles to help the community grasp the significance of this supply-altering phenomenon. The pieces delve into the mechanics of halvings, their impact on Bitcoin’s issuance rate, and historical price effects surrounding past events.

For traders seeking to analyze Bitcoin’s market movements, the platform provides targeted technical analysis content. A dedicated series explores charting techniques, indicators and other strategies specifically applied to Bitcoin trading and price forecasting. Complementing this is a wide array of video tutorials and articles that unpack various concepts like wallets, forks, mining and more.

Lastly, Binance Academy also maintains a living glossary of Bitcoin-related terminology to ensure key concepts are readily accessible. Through this multiformat approach spanning courses, articles, videos and reference tools, the platform strives to elevate Bitcoin knowledge across skill levels.

Jameson Lopp — Lopp.net

Celebrated cypherpunk, software engineer, columnist and Bitcoin advocate Jameson Lopp has created a comprehensive repository of Bitcoin-related resources on his personal website, Lopp.net, aimed at furthering education and understanding of the pioneering cryptocurrency.

One of the standout offerings on Lopp’s site is his curated “Bitcoin Resources” page, which compiles a vast collection of links and materials covering everything from Bitcoin’s fundamentals (including the halving) and its codebase to developer tools, research papers and educational courses.

Source: Jameson Lopp

Complementing this is Lopp’s article chest, where he regularly publishes pieces unpacking complex Bitcoin concepts and analyzing industry developments while also sharing his expertise as a seasoned cypherpunk. The posts tackle intricate topics like Bitcoin privacy, self-custody best practices and the philosophy behind the technology’s decentralized ethos.

For those seeking a more structured learning experience, Lopp’s website also hosts comprehensive video recordings, allowing viewers to gain insights into Bitcoin’s technical operations from many of the industry’s foremost educators.

Coinbase Learn

Like Binance, crypto exchange Coinbase has recognized the importance of education in driving mainstream adoption. To this end, the company has dedicated the “Learn” section on its website to hosting a wealth of resources that cater to audiences across the crypto knowledge spectrum.

For those just beginning their journey, the “crypto basics” category provides foundational knowledge through beginner-friendly articles explaining concepts pertaining to Bitcoin, cryptocurrencies and blockchain technology. There are also practical guides on setting up wallets and securely sending and receiving digital assets.

As users progress on their learning paths, more advanced topics are covered, including in-depth explainers on major events like Bitcoin’s recurring halving events. The “explore” subsection allows curious learners to dive deeper into emerging trends, use cases, and innovative crypto applications.

Recognizing the importance of staying updated, there is a market updates section where users can find the latest news, analyses and expert insights into market movements.

MIT Bitcoin Club

Launched by one of the most prestigious institutions in the world, MIT’s BTC education program is designed to be holistic in its outlook. It covers a host of topics, ranging from the foundations of the Bitcoin network to more advanced concepts like the creation of decentralized applications atop the Bitcoin ecosystem and the design of hardware wallets.

Starting page for MIT Bitcoin Club's educational resources. Source: MIT

Additionally, there is also a free archive of some of MIT’s own cryptocurrency research and academic papers, providing readers with a technical understanding of experimental ideas permeating the Bitcoin and blockchain ecosystem.

In addition to these free offerings, there is also the option to take online classes, whose topics include cryptocurrency engineering and design, shared public ledgers, and blockchain entrepreneurship, among others.

BitDegree

BitDegree is an online education platform that aims to simplify and democratize access to the Web3 sector.

One of BitDegree’s flagship offerings is its Web3 Missions program. The initiative allows learners to earn valuable crypto rewards and nonfungible token (NFT) certificates by successfully completing various comprehensive examinations.

They cover a wide range of topics, from blockchain fundamentals to emerging trends (such as the aforementioned Bitcoin halving) and upcoming innovative applications within the decentralized web ecosystem. By incentivizing knowledge acquisition, BitDegree aims to foster a more educated, empowered crypto community.

Additionally, the platform hosts various campaigns in collaboration with established Web3 projects called LearnDrops. These typically involve interactive courses that introduce users to specific crypto platforms, protocols or services. Upon their completion, learners are rewarded with the project’s native tokens, NFTs or other incentives. Notable past collaborations include projects like the FIO Protocol, Ledger and PrimeXBT.

Furthermore, BitDegree offers resources spanning cryptocurrency basics, market news, practical tutorials and analyses.

Cointelegraph Learn

Cointelegraph’s own Learn section contains a variety of educational resources for newcomers and veterans of the cryptocurrency industry.

These include “how-to” guides for things like setting up a wallet, staking, getting into decentralized finance and trading Bitcoin options, to name a few.

Cointelegraph Learn also has an “Explained” section detailing complex concepts in the blockchain and cryptocurrency industry to make them more accessible and understandable to a wider audience.

The crypto glossary also explains the myriad of unique terms that are used every day in the cryptocurrency industry.

Cointelegraph's Crypto Glossary. Source: Cointelegraph

In short, there have never been more resources for crypto enthusiasts, traders or even the crypto-curious to learn more about digital currency. As events like the Bitcoin halving gain increasing public attention, demand for knowledge about the world's seminal cryptocurrency will also increase."
"[INST] Jack Dorsey’s Block announces development of ‘full Bitcoin mining system’ [/INST] Payments firm Block, formerly known as Square, has announced plans to develop a Bitcoin (BTC) mining system in response to challenges faced by mining operators.

In an April 23 blog post, Block said it had completed development of a three-nanometer chip used for BTC mining, which led to the firm announcing a “full Bitcoin mining system.” Block — then Square — CEO Jack Dorsey suggested a collaborative approach to decentralize Bitcoin mining in October 2021.

“We’ve spent a significant amount of time talking to a wide variety of bitcoin miners to identify the challenges faced by mining operators,” said Block. “Building on these insights and pursuant to our goal of supporting mining decentralization, we plan to offer both a standalone mining chip as well as a full mining system of our own design.”

Block completed a prototype design of a five-nanometre BTC mining chip in May 2023, claiming at the time the centralization of chip development in the hands of a few companies was harmful to the ecosystem. The firm called on the mining community to provide additional feedback for the system, asking for comments on challenges it faced in purchasing miners, maintenance, transparency and software issues.

Related: Jack Dorsey wants to decentralize Bitcoin mining with new investment

Intel announced in 2023 that it planned to end shipping for its Blockscale 1000 Series ASIC (application-specific integrated circuit) mining chips in April as part of cost-cutting measures. Such chips are often used for mining proof-of-work cryptocurrencies, including Bitcoin.

The Bitcoin halving on April 19 cut the block reward for miners from 6.25 BTC to 3.125 BTC. The event will likely shake up the market as miners compete for fewer rewards for the same work until the next halving, expected in another four years.

Magazine: Bitcoin is on a collision course with ‘Net Zero’ promises"
"[INST] South Korean police catch $4.1M crypto scam duo [/INST] South Korean police have caught a pair of fraudsters who stole 5.5 billion won ($4.1 million) from a senior citizen with the promise of profitable crypto investments.

The Haeundae Police Station in Busan, South Korea, detained two individuals in their 20s and 30s for deceiving a senior citizen and stealing 5.5 billion South Korean won spread across multiple transactions.

According to a local report, the victim was promised high returns on cryptocurrency investments between September 2022 and December 2022.

The scammers guaranteed 70% profits in a monthly investment of 1 billion won. The police quoted the fraudsters saying:

“It’s a boom period for coin (cryptocurrency). If you invest 1 billion won, I will call it 1.7 billion won a month later.”

The victim sent 5.5 billion won in total over six different transactions to the scammers, who then forged balance certificates to show as proof of investments.

During the scam, the victim was shown fake balance sheets of crypto investments and real estate contracts.

South Korean police said the fake balance sheet showed 20 billion won worth of cryptocurrencies, even though none of the victim’s 5.5 billion won funds made it to the crypto trading account.

While the police have detained the fraudsters in a timely manner, information about the recovery of funds has yet to be made public.

Related: South Korean crypto criminals face life imprisonment

Meanwhile, South Korea’s most infamous crypto entrepreneur, Terraform Labs co-founder Do Kwon, was reportedly released from prison in Montenegro on March 23 amid extradition requests from the United States and South Korea.

Kwon is currently facing legal charges for the collapse of the Terra ecosystem in 2022. Prison director Darko Vukcevic reportedly said by phone:

“We released Do Kwon from prison as his regular prison term for traveling with fake papers ended. Since he is a foreign citizen and his documents were withheld, he was taken for an interview to the police directorate for foreigners, and they will deal with him further.”

The decision to release Kwon reportedly came from the Council of the Supreme Court, which is set to review a decision that could grant or deny extradition to his native South Korea.

Magazine: 5 dangers to beware when apeing into Solana memecoins"
"[INST] 1inch unveils crypto debit card in partnership with Mastercard and Baanx [/INST] Decentralized finance (DeFi) firm 1inch Network has debuted a new debit card with cryptocurrency-to-fiat bridge functionality. The new card was developed in partnership with Mastercard and Baanx.

According to a blog post from 1inch, the new debit cards will feature full functionality, including a physical card featuring an account number, expiration date and the “CVC” security code required to conduct some transactions. It will also have a virtual card feature allowing users to conduct transactions digitally where supported.

Christian Rau, senior vice president of crypto and fintech enablement at Mastercard, said in a statement that the new card serves as a necessary bridge between the Web3 and Web2 worlds:

“We’ve long championed solutions that not only meet customers where they are, but also deliver ubiquity, peace of mind and the highest levels of security. Leveraging Mastercard’s leading technology and standards, the 1inch Card is connecting Web2 and Web3 worlds in an innovative way.”

While most popular crypto and Web3 exchanges have robust features for converting fiat to crypto, and vice versa, such conversion adds extra steps to the payment process. This can slow transactions down, increase security risks and add extra fees to the process.

The advent of crypto-to-fiat debit purchases allows users to retain custody of their crypto and Web3 funds with a single conversion rate to consider at the point of purchase.

Related: Mastercard sees partnerships as key to blockchain remittances in Latam

For now, the cards are only available in the United Kingdom and European economic areas. However, according to 1inch, the company is seeking to expand the program.

Orest Gavryliak, chief legal officer at 1inch Network, told Cointelegraph that “the expansion of the service area depends on our partners. We are indeed working on geographical expansion for the 1inch card. Stay tuned!”

In a post on the X social media app, 1inch Network co-founder Segej Kunz showed off the virtual payment aspect of the new card by completing a one-touch transaction with his smartphone."
"[INST] DeFi whales have millions ‘forgotten’ in bridge contracts: Arkham [/INST] Several identified crypto addresses have millions of dollars either “stuck” or “forgotten” about in at least two large bridge contracts, according to blockchain intelligence firm Arkham.

“There are dozens of accounts with 6-7 figures stuck in bridge contracts, forgotten about,” said Arkham in an April 22 X post., including wallets connected to Ethereum co-founder Vitalik Buterin, crypto exchange Coinbase, and several DeFi whales.

The firm attached two screenshots of fund transfers to and from the Arbitrum and Optimism bridges to support their case.

Arkham noted a wallet that received 50 Ether (ETH) from Buterin has had $1.05 million stuck in the Optimism bridge for seven months now. If the address is owned by Buterin, it would represent a small fraction of his $789 million cryptocurrency portfolio, according to Arkham’s data.

Another wallet linked to Bofur Capital, which shares the same name as a Celsius creditor, has $1.8 million in wrapped-Bitcoin (WBTC) stuck in the Arbitrum bridge, which hasn’t moved in 27 months, while Thomasg.eth — the pseudonymous founder behind decentralized air transportation solution Arrow — has $800,000 in Ether stuck in the Arbitrum bridge.

Furthermore, Coinbase tried to bridge $75,000 in USD Coin (USDC) to Ethereum six months ago via the Optimism bridge, but it hasn’t been claimed on Ethereum’s base layer yet, Arkham said.

Related: Wormhole bridge hacker from 2022 was briefly eligible for the recent airdrop

There is, however, also a possibility that the owners behind these wallets still have complete control of the funds and have voluntarily chosen to park the funds there for the time being.

Cross-chain bridges play an important part in modular blockchain networks like Ethereum, which prioritizes data availability and security on the base layer and offloads transaction responsibilities to layer 2s.

However, bridges have become a honeypot site for hackers, as they are often automated by potentially vulnerable smart contracts or a highly centralized validator set.

For example, the $650 million Ronin bridge hack orchestrated by North Korea’s state-backed Lazarus Group came after it obtained access to five of the nine private keys held by transaction validators in March 2022.

Magazine: ‘SEAL 911’ team of white hats formed to fight crypto hacks in real time"
"[INST] Binance’s US settlement was a ‘turning page,’ says exec [/INST] Binance’s record-breaking $4.3-billion settlement with the United States last year was a “turning page” for the exchange, which is welcoming the “coming wave of regulation,” said its head of institutional and VIPs Catherine Chen.

Part of Binance’s settlement saw it employ an independent compliance monitor for three years and agree to a five-year U.S. Treasury monitor, which Chen said was “frankly, a great thing from my perspective” on an April 10 Paris Blockchain Week panel moderated by Cointelegraph editor-at-large Kristina Cornèr.

Chen also brushed off concerns that Binance’s performance would suffer under the monitoring agreement, claiming it had “been preparing for it.”

“It is a challenge, but it’s a welcome challenge, and we fully embrace it because we know that that would be great for the market.”

In November 2023, Binance, Binance.US and co-founder Changpang “CZ” Zhao paid the U.S. government $4.3 billion to settle charges of violating Anti-Money Laundering (AML) and sanctions laws.

Zhao agreed to step down as CEO and pleaded guilty to failing to maintain an AML program. He faces up to 18 months in jail, with his sentencing set for April 30.

On the panel, Chen said having regulation in place “gives a lot more clarity” to Binance’s users and “will help them be a lot more comfortable with the industry, with the asset class [and] with the key players.”

Chen on stage at Paris Blockchain Week discussing Binance’s settlement. Source: Paris Blockchain Week

“Although people see challenges for us, it’s actually great. It’s the best thing that can and should happen to the industry,” she added.

Related: Philippines SEC ‘can’t endorse’ ways to retrieve funds after Binance ban

Binance’s new CEO, Richard Teng, told CNBC on April 9 that it “was operating in a certain fashion,” but it had “moved past that as the company moves into greater maturity.”

In an on-stage interview at Paris Blockchain Week the same day, Teng said the exchange — famous for never having formal headquarters under Zhao — was looking for a global HQ and was “speaking to a few jurisdictions.”

The Securities and Exchange Commission is still pursuing charges against Binance, Binance.US and Zhao, claiming they sold unregistered securities and commingled customer assets — allegations that Binance denies.

Magazine: ‘SEAL 911’ team of white hats formed to fight crypto hacks in real time"
"[INST] Web3 startups flock to accelerators as crypto enthusiasm surges [/INST] Some Web3 startups are turning to accelerator programs as crypto enters a new bull market and investors look to get involved in the

Accelerator programs offer mentorship and guidance in return for early equity. For example, United States-based Y Combinator counts several crypto firms, such as Coinbase and OpenSea, among its alumni.

On March 26, Andreessen Horowitz (a16z) revealed the lineup for its spring 2024 crypto startup accelerator. The 25 startups will undergo a 10-week mentorship program in London led by the a16z crypto team.

Operating partner Jason Rosenthal shared a list featuring projects including Farcaster infrastructure, decentralized food delivery and zero-knowledge passport authentication. Startups in a16z’s accelerator get $500,000 from the firm in exchange for 7% equity. Alumni include Flashbots and Phantom.

On Nov. 9, 2023, the Avalanche Foundation and Ava Labs introduced the first group of startups in its accelerator, Codebase. The program will see investments ranging from $500,000 to $1 million for startups.

Helika, a Web3 gaming infrastructure company, revealed its collaboration with Pantera Capital, Spartan Capital, Sfermion and other venture capital firms to allocate up to $50 million to startups participating in its new Web3 gaming accelerator, Helika Accelerate.

Related: Paradigm’s funding takes Farcaster’s dev to unicorn status

The cryptosphere has seen a resurgence in venture capital activity as the bull market ramps up. Crypto-native venture firm 1kx recently disclosed an oversubscribed $75 million fundraising round, while Hack VC finalized a $150 million round in February.

Sam Lehman, principal at Symbolic Capital, emphasized in a March 26 X post that robust crypto accelerators play a vital role in fostering community among founders within the network-centric Web3 sphere.

Lehman highlighted the rise of new crypto accelerators driven by funds aiming to boost their brand and deploy capital quickly. However, he warned of potential predatory practices among some accelerators:

“Some accelerators are using the early stage at which they invest plus their proposed ‘value-add’ to come in and take extremely big positions in companies immediately. Founders should definitely think twice about whether the terms they’d accept from an accelerator are worth what they’d receive in return.”

Investment activity in Web3 gaming has also steadily increased recently. 0G Labs closed a $35 million pre-seed funding round on March 25, with participation from over 40 crypto-native institutions, including Hack VC and the Blockchain Builders Fund.

Magazine: SEC can proceed with Coinbase lawsuit: Court ruling"
"[INST] Canadian authorities move to seize assets tied to QuadrigaCX CEO [/INST] The director of civil forfeiture in the Canadian province of British Columbia has made an unexplained wealth order to confiscate cash, 45 gold bars and luxury items found in a safe deposit box linked to a co-founder of the QuadrigaCX cryptocurrency exchange.

An unexplained wealth order is a type of court order that compels a person to explain how they acquired their assets. Mike Farnworth, the province’s minister of public safety and solicitor general, said in a statement:

“Through this action, we are demonstrating again that criminals will have to prove that their assets are the proceeds of lawful activity and not financial crime. The international, criminal actions of Quadriga Coin Exchange (Quadriga CX) led to thousands of people losing their life savings.”

QuadrigaCX, once the largest cryptocurrency exchange in Canada, became insolvent in February 2019, shortly after its co-founder, Gerald Cotten, died in India, taking the private keys to QuadrigaCX’s offline storage systems to the grave.

According to documents submitted to the British Columbia Supreme Court, the assets are allegedly the proceeds of criminal activities linked to Michael Patryn, co-founder of Quadriga Coin Exchange, and Gerald Cotten. The order facilitated the seizure of a safe deposit box at CIBC Bank along with an account.

Related: QuadrigaCX creditors set to receive 13% of their claims as an ‘interim dividend’

Civil forfeiture has existed in British Columbia since 2006, allowing the province to confiscate property without criminal charges.

Inside the safe deposit box were 250,200 Canadian dollars ($184,250) in cash, gold bars, two Rolex watches, a Chanel J12 Black Diamond watch and other jewelry items.

Additionally, the box contained a 45-caliber Ruger 1911 pistol with ammunition and identity documents bearing the names Omar Dhanani and Omar Patryn, according to the CBC.

The order contends that Patryn played a significant role in QuadrigaCX’s activities, including misappropriating customer funds and cryptocurrency, justifying the seizure of assets.

Following the seizure, the next course of action is to prompt a response from Patryn to account for his wealth.

After QuadrigaCX’s collapse, Patryn embarked on a new venture in decentralized finance, participating in various protocols like Wonderland and UwU Lend, using the alias “Sifu.”

Michael Patryn was previously known as Omar Dhanani before two name changes in 2003 and 2008. He has been convicted of various financial crimes in the United States.

Magazine: $3.4B of Bitcoin in a popcorn tin — The Silk Road hacker’s story"
"[INST] US crypto stocks rally on first trading day after Bitcoin halving [/INST] United States crypto-related stocks posted gains on Monday alongside a broader market upturn just days after the Bitcoin (BTC) halving — with some notching double-digit percentage gains.

The country’s five largest public-traded Bitcoin miners by market capitalization, Marathon Digital (MARA), CleanSpark (CLSK), Riot Platforms (RIOT) Cipher Mining (CIFR), and Hut 8 (HUT) all gained over the April 22 trading day and have continued to gain in after-hours trading, per Google Finance.

Stronghold Digital Mining (SDIG) was the day’s biggest crypto-related gainer with a 35.3% bump to $3.64, extending 4% after-hours to nearly $3.80.

Riot followed with an over 23% jump to $11.24 and a 3.2% after-the-bell rally to $11.60.

The top 10 U.S. crypto mining stocks in order of their April 22 gains. Source: CompaniesMarketCap

Overall, U.S. crypto miners saw price gains on the day extending their rallies from Friday, April 19.

The Valkyrie Bitcoin Miners ETF (WGMI) — which holds mining stocks and some chipmakers including Nvidia (NVDA) — posted an 11% gain and a 3% rise after hours to $16.69.

The crypto stock price jumps come despite their Bitcoin mining rewards being halved to 3.125 BTC per block after the halving on Saturday, April 20 just after midnight UTC — April 19 at 8:09 pm in New York.

It coincides with a broader U.S. market gain as the Nasdaq Composite and the S&P 500, respectively, saw a 1.1% and 0.8% jump on the day after last week’s stretch of losses — which has been attributed to diminished tensions in the Middle East and incoming earnings reports from major tech firms.

Related: Bitcoin ETF demand turns negative around BTC halving

CIBC Private Wealth investment chief David Donabedian however told Barron’s on April 22 that the market dampened on high inflation rates, hiking bond yields, and speculation on the Federal Reserve’s expected rate cuts.

He added nearly half of the country’s largest companies will share their first-quarter earnings this week which could also add to market volatility.

Bitcoin’s price has risen 4.5% to $66,810 since the halving, according to Cointelegraph Markets Pro. Ahead of the event, market commentators predicted mixed results for the cryptocurrency’s price after the halving had taken place.

Bitcoin’s price in the last week with the white vertical line denoting the time of its halving. Source: Cointelegraph Markets Pro

Meanwhile, crypto exchange Coinbase had a 7% gain to $225.86 with a slight 0.8% bump after-hours as did the Bitcoin-buying software firm MicroStrategy (MSTR) — seeing a 12.7% daily gain extending 2.5% after-hours to $1,357.

Web3 Gamer: Bitcoin Halving will pump games, Shrapnel’s ‘simple’ secret revealed"
"[INST] SEC enforcement director claims crypto industry makes ‘creative attempts’ to avoid guidelines [/INST] Gurbir Grewal, the director of the Division of Enforcement at the United States Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC), has pushed back against criticism that the regulator is making up rules on crypto as it goes.

In prepared remarks for an SEC Speaks event on April 3, Grewal claimed that companies in the crypto industry had made “many creative attempts” to avoid the commission’s jurisdiction by continuing to operate in the United States. He also addressed concerns that the SEC was “recklessly exceeding” its authority or “regulating by enforcement” in lawsuits brought against crypto firms.

Gurbir Grewal at SEC Speaks on April 3. Source: Practising Law Institute

Grewal pointed to Sam Bankman-Fried as an example of the need for enforcement cases. On March 28, the former FTX CEO was sentenced to 25 years in federal prison for defrauding investors of the crypto exchange, including “people who were forced to sell their home, their car, or take on a second job to make up for their losses.”

“It’s my hope that, after the latest in a long and growing string of courts affirming our authority to police the crypto markets, we can move past them and address the very real issues present in this industry that lead to elevated investor risk: fraud, lack of transparency, commingling of assets, conflicts of interest, and lack of oversight, to mention just a few,” said the enforcement director.

Related: Coinbase Wallet triumph over SEC allegations is a ‘giant win’ for DeFi

Grewal reiterated that the SEC’s standard for determining what a security is under the Howey test had been “clearly and consistently applied.” He did not specifically address reports that the SEC had been exploring whether to classify Ether (ETH) as a security rather than a commodity under the U.S. Commodity Future Trading Commission’s purview.

“These are not secret analyses; they are public documents for the whole world to see,” said Grewal. “Even parties that argue in court that their conduct does not implicate the federal securities laws have themselves used the Howey framework internally for years to evaluate crypto offerings.”

In March, a Utah judge imposed sanctions on the SEC for acting in “bad faith” in a lawsuit it brought against the firm Debt Box. Many industry participants have pointed to the commission’s seemingly inconsistent approach to enforcement on crypto firms and exchange-traded funds, hinting it could lead to an exodus from the United States.

The enforcement director’s comments followed those from SEC Commissioner Hester Peirce, who on April 2 criticized the regulator’s accounting guidelines for institutions looking to custody crypto assets. She and other staff and commissioners will speak at the SEC Speaks event ending on April 3.

Magazine: Lawmakers’ fear and doubt drives proposed crypto regulations in US"
"[INST] Solana’s Jupiter DEX kickstarts native DAO with $137M in initial capital [/INST] Solana decentralized exchange (DEX) Jupiter is allocating 10 million USD Coin (USDC) and 100 million of its native JUP token ($127 million), worth a combined $137 million at the time of publication, to kickstart its Jupiter DAO.

As announced on March 27, the budget “provides the DAO the capability to fund the ideas with USDC and have the JUP allocation for long term incentive alignment with J.U.P Catributors,” Jupiter wrote, continuing: “To ensure that the DAO will be able to execute on these crucial things over the long term, we will aim to top up the same budget on a yearly basis.”

For additional contributions, Jupiter raised the following example:

“If the DAO ends the year with 1.5M USDC and 50M JUP, the team will replenish 8.5M USDC from revenues and an additional 50M JUP will be transferred from the community cold wallets.”

At its inception, the ecosystem funds are stored in a decentralized autonomous organization multisignature wallet with three initial members, with plans to expand access to more custodians within the coming weeks. Parallel to the announcement, the Jupiter DAO wallet address was funded with two separate transactions of USDC and JUP.

We have officially funded 10M USDC and 100M JUP into a DAO wallet.



This operational budget provides the DAO the capability to fund the ideas with USDC and have the JUP allocation for long term incentive alignment with J.U.P Catributors.



Besides LFG selection, the DAO will also… — Jupiter (@JupiterExchange) March 27, 2024

Jupiter is currently one of the most popular decentralized applications on the Solana blockchain, with $381.49 million in total value locked (TVL), having grown 86% month over month. The DEX accounts for approximately 8% of the Solana ecosystem’s total TVL at the time of publication. The JUP token currently has a fully diluted market cap of $12.5 billion.

With a gain of 807% in the past year, Solana’s SOL (SOL) has become one of the largest cryptocurrencies by market cap. A huge part of that growth was driven by the recent memecoin craze. On March 25, Jeo Boden (BODEN), a Solana memecoin parody of United States President Joe Biden, surpassed $250 million in market cap, with a gain of 54% within the past 24 hours.

Related: Solana takes the lead in weekly stablecoin transfer volume"
"[INST] Bitcoin Bollinger Band signal suggests BTC could double by July [/INST] The price of Bitcoin (BTC) could double from its current value of $69,000 in as little as three months time, according to an analyst’s take on a widely used momentum indicator.

Pseudonymous analyst TechDev told their 440,000 followers on X that Bitcoin had closed two consecutive months above the upper Bollinger Band, adding that every time Bitcoin had done this in the past, its price had doubled within the next three months.

This would put Bitcoin at around $140,000 by July.

In technical analysis, Bollinger Bands are a tool that measures the momentum and volatility of an asset within a certain range. Typically, when prices touch the upper band, it can indicate an overbought signal, while touching the lower band indicates an asset being oversold.

However, Bollinger Bands are just one of many technical indicators available to analysts, and according to Investopedia, they are more reactive than predictive, given their use of past price action and volatility data. The metrics can also differ widely during peak bull and bear markets.

Bitcoin has “room to run”

Meanwhile, SkyBridge Capital CEO Anthony Scaramucci took to CNBC on April 6 to predict that Bitcoin could reach as high as $170,000 during the cycle and could eventually trade at around half the total value of the global gold market.

“I’m simply saying it could trade to half the valuation of gold, which is around six to eight to 10 times move from here.”

“It’s not going to happen overnight, and there will be a lot of volatility,” he added.

Bitcoin currently commands a market capitalization of $1.35 trillion, while gold boasts a total value of $15.8 trillion. If Bitcoin were to trade at half the value of gold, its market cap would need to grow roughly six times from here, which would result in a price of roughly $400,000 per BTC.

#Bitcoin is up over 140% over the last year, hitting all-time highs last month fueled by demand from spot ETFs. @Scaramucci discusses why he thinks Bitcoin is back: pic.twitter.com/HJxQEy6XY0 — CNBC's Closing Bell (@CNBCClosingBell) April 5, 2024

Describing the 10 recently approved spot Bitcoin exchange-traded funds (ETFs) as “selling machines,” Scaramucci argued these products would continue to spur increased retail and institutional demand for the crypto asset.

Nine of the 10 spot Bitcoin ETFs have now seen over $12 billion worth of net inflows, with Grayscale being the odd one out. In contrast, when the Gold ETF (GLD) was launched in November 2004, it took nearly one year to notch $10 billion in inflows.

Like many other market commentators, Scaramucci viewed the upcoming Bitcoin halving — currently scheduled for April 20 — as a major catalyst for Bitcoin price appreciation in the short term.

Crypto market cap to hit $5 trillion: Ripple CEO

The optimism also wasn’t lost on Ripple CEO Brad Garlinghouse, who predicts that the value of the entire crypto sector would double by the end of this year.

In an April 7 report from CNBC, Garlinghouse predicted that the entire crypto sector would be worth $5 trillion by the end of the year, looking to the upcoming halving, regulatory developments and the increasing popularity of Bitcoin ETFs as having a continued positive effect on wider crypto adoption.

Related: Bitcoin halving will have to battle with ‘weak time of year’ — Coinbase

“I’ve been around this industry for a long time, and I’ve seen these trends come and go,” Garlinghouse said.

“I’m very optimistic. I think the macro trends, the big picture things like the ETFs, they’re driving for the first time real institutional money.”

Magazine: Creating ‘good’ AGI that won’t kill us all — Crypto’s Artificial Superintelligence Alliance"
"[INST] Bitwise CIO ‘excited’ for a product that gives exposure to Ethereum DeFi [/INST] Cryptocurrency asset management firm Bitwise has hinted interest in offering an exchange-traded product (ETP) covering Ethereum’s ecosystem of layer-2 (L2) networks and applications, according to Bitwise’s chief investment officer, Matt Hougan.

“I’m somewhere between embarrassed and excited with the fact that Bitwise doesn’t have one, because I do think that would be a great product,” Hougan explained in an interview with Forbes, published on March 31.

Hougan said he has “extraordinary confidence” that the Ethereum ecosystem will evolve but said it’s still up in the air, which L2s and applications will come out on top.

“I have a hard time imagining what the future will be like three years from now when there are a hundred popular real-world decentralized applications that people are using and where the economics will flow,” he said, adding:

“So the best way to approach that would be to own them all, which would be a great product for what it’s worth.”

Hougan also reiterated that the market is underestimating the importance of the Dencun upgrade by a factor of 10 or 20.

“It is a complete game changer, and I think the market hasn’t recognized that.”

Hopes for Ether ETFs to launch in December

Meanwhile, Hougan said he was concerned the market may not be ready for a spot Ether (ETH) exchange-traded fund (ETF) by May and that he hopes the United States securities regulator pushes back approval until December.

“It’s hard to get financial advisers to think about Ethereum right now,” as TradFi is still digesting the recently approved spot Bitcoin (BTC) ETFs, Hougan said.

“If you shove it down their throat in May, I’m not sure they will be [ready],” Hougan stressed.

“Part of me hopes that it’s December or something like that because I think that would be better for the market.”

Bitwise filed its S-1 and 19-b4 forms with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission to list a spot Ether ETF on March 28.

BlackRock, VanEck, ARK 21Shares, Fidelity, Grayscale Hashdex, Franklin Templeton and Invesco Galaxy are among the other applicants vying for SEC approval for a spot Ether ETF, and many commentators expect May to be a key period for possible mass approvals.

Related: 3 theories why the SEC may be eyeing down Ethereum: Crypto lawyer

However, some analysts’ odds for spot Ether ETF approval have continued to fall, citing the SEC’s apparent lack of willingness to engage with applicants in recent months.

But not everyone agrees. Last week, Grayscale chief legal officer Craig Salm said issues common to spot Ether ETFs “were figured out” with the spot Bitcoin ETFs — such as details of creation and redemption procedures, cash and in-kind models, asset protection, loss prevention and custody.

Bitwise is one of 10 spot Bitcoin ETF issuers. Its Bitwise Bitcoin ETF (BITB) has amassed over $1.6 billion in flows — the fourth-most behind BlackRock’s IBIT, Fidelity’s FBTC and Ark 21Shares’ ARKB, according to BitMEX Research, citing March 28 data.

Magazine: Crypto regulation — Does SEC Chair Gary Gensler have the final say?"
"[INST] New Telegram mini-apps will be so convenient users won’t know it’s crypto [/INST] Telegram’s 900 million users will be able to make peer-to-peer interactions seamlessly as the messaging app incorporates mini-apps and the Tether (USDT) stablecoins. Many users will interface with crypto for the first time and not even notice it.

Developers will also benefit as they launch ecommerce, paywalled content, games and other business activities on top of The Open Network’s (TON’s) layer-1 blockchain more smoothly thanks to the stablecoin, TON Foundation director of investments Justin Hyun told Cointelegraph’s Ezra Reguerra at the Token2049 conference in Dubai. Telegram is also continuing the rollout of its TON-based wallet.

The launch of Tether on TON “really unlocks the creator economy that is already happening in TON and Telegram” as users “no longer need to jump through the barriers of having to acquire a different type of crypto or token,” Hyun said. He added:

“The most interesting use cases are the ones that engage in social viral mechanics. So there are games that are being created on a daily basis that are powered through Telegram mini-apps.”

Those products will be available without downloading outside apps. The advantages of that are clear. Hyun gave the Catizen game as an example. When the developers came to TON from a different blockchain, they gained 2 million users in two months, compared to 600,000 in a year and a half previously.

Related: Telegram commits to TON blockchain, plans to support tokenized emojis and stickers NFTs

Other social media are highly regionalized. “We have seen the rise of super apps which were not able to break through the barriers,” Hyun said, pointing to WeChat in China, Line in Japan and KakaoTalk in South Korea. TON’s global reach and native USDT remove the need for local payment gateways. Tether also makes it possible for Telegram to circumvent the payment restrictions imposed by Google and Apple.

Source: TON

TON is thus returning to the original vision that was scuttled by the inability of The Open Network to hold an initial coin offering in 2020 due to United States Securities and Exchange Commission’s opposition, Hyun said. The TON Foundation was created in 2021 by open-source developers who took over the project.

Magazine: Shanghai Man: Hack of little-known Poly Network highlights East-West crypto divide"
"[INST] Bankrupt Voyager platform secures $484M for creditor repayments [/INST] Bankrupt crypto firm Voyager Digital has made progress toward compensating its creditors by securing $484 million through settlements with FTX, Three Arrows Capital (3AC) and Directors and Officers (D&O) insurance claims. This marks a significant milestone in the company’s financial recovery and creditor reimbursement efforts.

In an April 9 filing in the United States Bankruptcy Court for the Southern District of New York, Voyager disclosed that the majority of the reclaimed funds, roughly $450 million, stem from a settlement with FTX.

Voyager filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy in July 2022 as the crypto market suffered several shocks, including the collapse of the Terra ecosystem in May.

In October 2023, the U.S. Commodity Futures Trading Commission and the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) filed parallel lawsuits against former Voyager CEO Stephen Ehrlich for fraudulent statements.

This settlement, including interest, accounts for about 25% of Voyager creditors’ aggregate claims and is anticipated to be disbursed shortly.

In addition to the FTX agreement, Voyager has obtained a claim of approximately $675 million from its ongoing litigation with Three Arrows Capital. Of this amount, $20.43 million represents Voyager’s proportionate share of the initial distribution from 3AC.

The administrator expects additional payments to be disbursed in the coming years as assets are sold off and further litigation settlements are secured. A settlement reached through D&O insurance mediation will also allocate at least $14.35 million to benefit Voyager’s creditors.

Related: Former SEC official compares Dallas Mavericks’ Voyager partnership to heroin

As Voyager progresses through its financial recovery journey, the company faces operational hurdles, including many uncashed checks. Around 270,000 checks totaling $17 million remain uncashed, with the majority valued at less than $25.

Voyager has set a deadline of April 20, after which these uncashed checks will be voided if not claimed.

Voyager is also still dealing with the repercussions of an FTX data breach. An investigation is being conducted to identify the origin and consequences of the breach, which resulted in the compromise of creditor data.

As of May 2023, a restructuring plan proposed having Voyager customers recover 35.7% of their claims in cryptocurrency or cash. The crypto exchange settled with the FTC for $1.65 billion in monetary relief in November 2023.

Magazine: Billions are spent marketing crypto to sports fans — Is it worth it?"
"[INST] BTCFi is an ‘enormous opportunity’ to make Bitcoin a productive asset — Stacks [/INST] Bitcoin decentralized finance (DeFi) will make Bitcoin (BTC) a more versatile asset with yield-generating capabilities, Andre Serrano, product and partnership manager at Stacks, told Cointelegraph in an exclusive interview:

“The vision is simple: Bitcoin is a $1.2 trillion asset class with very little on-chain activity. So there’s an enormous opportunity for protocols and layer-2s to make Bitcoin a productive asset.”

Bitcoin-native DeFi, or BTCFi, is a recent development seeking to bring DeFi capabilities to the world’s first blockchain network. With the current pace of adoption and development, the market for Bitcoin layer-2 networks could overtake the market for Ethereum layer-2s, according to Serrano:

“L2s just open up the design space for what’s possible with Bitcoin… Over the next few years, I fully expect the market for Bitcoin L2s to likely meet and exceed that of Ethereum L2s.”

Serrano’s predictions come days ahead of the anticipated Bitcoin halving, as Bitcoin was trading above the $63,500 mark as of 8:30 am UTC, following a 7.9% weekly decline, according to data from CoinMarketCap.

BTC/USD, 1-day chart. Source: CoinMarketCap

Showcasing investor demand for BTCFi, decentralized exchange (DEX) MerlinSwap raised 6,599 Bitcoin worth $480 million during its initial DEX offering (IDO) on April 5. The IDO attracted over 52,000 participants.

Related: Bitcoin supply to run out on exchanges in 9 months — Bybit

Bitcoin L2 networks are a significant element of BTCFi, enabling lower transaction costs and additional use cases for the world’s first blockchain network. For instance, L2 network Stacks enable the creation of smart contracts on the Bitcoin network.

Stacks’ Serrano argued that L2s for Bitcoin are more important than for Ethereum, which already comes with inherent smart contract capabilities. He added that L2s are necessary to scale the Bitcoin network beyond its current transaction limitations.

Andre Serrano interview with Cointelegraph. Source: Cointelegraph

He noted that some of the “low-hanging fruits” for making Bitcoin a more productive asset involved the creation of yield-generating capabilities and lending protocols around Bitcoin.

Other market participants are also optimistic about Bitcoin-native DeFi. With the current adoption rate, BTCFi could match the innovation of Ethereum DeFi, according to Nash Lee, co-founder of MerlinSwap. He told Cointelegraph:

“[Market appetite] is seeking expansive platforms capable of accommodating the surging volumes and expectations. DeFi stands out as the only sector with the potential to leverage this narrative, providing a sustainable ecosystem for Bitcoin’s evolving use cases. This dynamic sets the stage for Bitcoin DeFi to potentially match, if not exceed, the innovation and complexity seen in Ethereum’s DeFi ecosystem.”

Related: 'China is about to start bidding' — Will Hong Kong Bitcoin ETFs spark the halving rally?"
"[INST] Ore creator proposes rewards to tackle Solana congestion [/INST] Hardhat Chad, the pseudonymous creator of the Ore project, has suggested that the Solana Foundation offer a reward if it intends to incentivize testnet activity.

This suggestion comes after the Solana network faced congestion issues for nearly a week with a transaction failure rate as high as 75%.

In a post on the X social platform, Hardhat Chad said that if Solana blockchain platform wishes to encourage users to participate in testnet activities, such as testing new features or protocols, the Solana Foundation should provide an incentive in the form of SOL (SOL) tokens.

This incentive could motivate users to actively engage in testing, which can improve the platform’s performance and identify potential issues before deployment to the mainnet.

The community’s response to Hardhat Chad’s suggestion was divided. Some supported it, while others disagreed. One user, TheSoftwareJedi, disagreed, advising Chad to focus on building his project first and demonstrating goodwill to the foundation.

The user proposed that Hardhat Chad could apply for funding via a grant from the foundation but stressed the significance of preserving autonomy from foundation incentives.

However, Hardhat Chad clarified that he isn’t looking for funds from the foundation. His goal for Ore is to establish a currency, not develop testnet tools. He’s reassessing incentives to combat spam, questioning the need to prioritize building testnet spam bots.

This proposal comes after Hardhat Chad announced via social media that the immediate cessation of mining operations was essential for the well-being of the Solana network and Ore’s stakeholders. Hardhat Chad emphasized the need for an overhauled smart contract framework amid recent network difficulties.

Related: Withdrawals from real estate betting platform Parcl hit $74M after airdrop

This strategic move also aligns with the project’s roadmap for developing Ore’s second version (v2), emphasizing a commitment to long-term sustainability.

Ore, a blockchain-based project launched on Solana, is exploring the proper distribution method by using a proof-of-work (PoW) token distribution mechanism. The project is experimenting with combining PoW’s security with Solana’s fast transaction capabilities.

Since its introduction, Ore’s activity has contributed significantly to Solana’s network congestion, impacting transaction scheduling and leading to a high rate of failed transactions, especially from the memecoin frenzy on the network.

However, Solana developers have released a mainnet beta update, v1.17.31, to address the ongoing network congestion on the Solana blockchain.

This patch contains enhancements that will help with some of the ongoing network congestion, and further improvements will follow in v1.18.

Magazine: Bitcoin ETFs make Coinbase a ‘honeypot’ for hackers and governments — Trezor CEO"
"[INST] Stablecoin, retail CBDC sandboxes are on South African payments roadmap [/INST] The South African Reserve Bank has released a digital payments roadmap toward the goals of its Vision 2025, published six years ago.

Adoption of digital payment technologies in the country has been “sluggish,” the report said. It looked at ways to catch up to the vision, including plans for cryptocurrency and central bank digital currency (CBDC).

South Africa’s financial services sector, especially banking, is well-developed. Despite advances in digital payment technology, South Africans with lower and middle living standards remain disproportionately dependent on cash, the report found. User costs, low financial literacy, limited accessibility and lack of trust hinder progress, however.

The roadmap looked at high-level plans to increase accessibility of financial technology, modernize payment infrastructure and remove barriers to use. The scope of the plans is strictly domestic.

Related: South Africa adds new cryptocurrency standards to advertising code

In South Africa, crypto assets are not legal tender, but are not banned. Local online and brick-and-mortar retailer Pick n Pay accepts payment in Bitcoin at over 1,600 locations, for example. The SARB is looking to international best practices for regulation and open to greater use of distributed ledger technology:

“In the interim [before regulations are in place], the SARB is open to allowing eligible stablecoins used for domestic payments to be tested in the regulatory sandbox.”

The SARB said the sandbox would have a two-year timeline. Cryptocurrency is being integrated into the South African financial system through the licensing of exchanges as well.

CBDC will get similar treatment. The SARB launched a study of retail CBDC in 2021. CBDC has the potential for greater cost effectiveness and real-time online and offline peer-to-peer digital payments. The roadmap suggested continuing exploration of both retail and wholesale CBDC for two years.

Source: SA Reserve Bank

Tokenization faces regulatory barriers in South Africa. The SARB noted the benefits of tokenization, especially its enhanced security. However:

“Existing regulations may not be specific or enabling for tokenised use cases, which may result in unregulated or the underregulation of payment activities that introduce risks in the payment ecosystem.”

Meanwhile, the SARB is monitoring the growth of the technology, it said.

Magazine: South Africa’s digital-nomad crypto hub: Cape Town, Crypto City Guide"
"[INST] Sam Bankman-Fried files to appeal conviction and sentence [/INST] Lawyers representing Sam “SBF” Bankman-Fried have filed the paperwork to appeal the conviction and sentence of the former FTX CEO.

In an April 11 notice filed in the United States District Court for the Southern District of New York, attorney Alexandra Shapiro said Bankman-Fried intended to appeal his conviction on seven felony counts by a jury and Judge Lewis Kaplan’s sentence of 25 years in federal prison. SBF’s lawyers said they planned to appeal at the March 28 sentencing hearing, so the filing was expected.

The filing came two weeks after Bankman-Fried’s sentencing hearing, at which Judge Kaplan also ordered the forfeiture of $11 billion. On April 8, the former FTX CEO’s lawyers asked the judge to approve an order allowing SBF to remain at the Metropolitan Detention Center in Brooklyn for the appeal rather than a federal prison in the San Francisco Bay Area.

The case against Bankman-Fried and his associates began in November 2022, when cryptocurrency exchange FTX experienced liquidity issues and filed for bankruptcy. SBF was arrested in the Bahamas — where the firm’s offices were at the time — before being extradited to the U.S. and charged with fraud. A jury convicted Bankman-Fried of seven felony counts in November 2023.

Affected crypto users seem to have split opinions on Judge Kaplan’s sentencing. Many suggested that 25 years was insufficient given the amount of harm Bankman-Fried caused thousands of FTX customers, while others hinted that the time in prison could be an effective deterrent to figures in the space.

Related: FTX co-CEO Salame's sentencing moved to end of May

Bankman-Fried’s filing will now likely go to the Second Circuit Court of Appeals, where a panel of judges could decide whether to affirm the decision in the former FTX CEO’s conviction in federal court or reverse the decision and set the groundwork for a possible new trial. Shapiro’s filing did not suggest on what grounds SBF would seek an appeal.

Sentencing hearings against Bankman-Fried’s associates at FTX and Alameda Research — including Ryan Salame, Caroline Ellison, Gary Wang and Nishad Singh — are moving forward, with Salame’s sentencing scheduled for May 28. The four individuals all pleaded guilty and accepted deals before SBF’s trial.

Magazine: ‘Less flashy’ Mashinsky set for less jail time than SBF: Inner City Press, X Hall of Flame"
"[INST] AssangeDAO’s crypto activities suspicious, analysts urge caution [/INST] Analysts at SlowMist have raised concerns about a possible “soft rug pull” on March 10 when a 100 Ether (ETH) transaction from an AssangeDAO address went to a recipient seemingly associated with the decentralized autonomous organization.

The blockchain forensics firm emphasized that while the true intentions of AssangeDAO are unclear, investors should proceed with caution and conduct comprehensive due diligence before interacting with the organization.

AssangeDAO, which launched in 2022, rose to prominence with its stand for the freedom of Julian Assange, an Australian activist famous for creating WikiLeaks, a platform committed to disclosing classified data from unidentified origins.

The process of an AssangeDAO-related address transferring funds to another AssangeDAO-related address. Source: SlowMist

Following a 2021 high court ruling in the United Kingdom on Assange’s extradition, backers established AssangeDAO to advocate for his freedom.

The initiative amassed over $53 million in cryptocurrency contributions, including a donation from Ethereum co-founder Vitalik Buterin.

The AssangeDAO intends to use the funds to bid on a one-of-one nonfungible token (NFT) from a drop called “Censored” by digital artist Pak in collaboration with Assange.

The sale proceeds are supposed to go toward Assange’s defense fund and additional awareness campaigns as he fights extradition to the United States.

The AssangeDAO’s $53.7 million marked the largest amount raised by a decentralized autonomous organization (DAO) using the community funding hosting platform Juicebox, overtaking the widely popular ConstitutionDAO, which raised $49 million from the community in late 2021 to bid on a copy of the first edition print copy of the United States Constitution.

Related: Lido staked SOL holders fret as $24M remains stuck on ‘broken’ contract

However, collaborative analysis by SlowMist and RescuETH discovered that beginning in 2022, AssangeDAO moved most of its funds to multiple addresses, including several associated with cryptocurrency exchanges such as Kraken and Coinbase.

Furthermore, the group transferred more than 1,000 Ether to various unidentified smart contracts, dispersing the funds among numerous addresses. AssangeDAO had not issued any public statements regarding the matter at the time of publication.

SlowMist analysts stressed the importance of transparency in DAO operations, highlighting that the recent transfers have sparked questions, especially regarding where the funds ultimately ended up.

On Nov. 8, 2023, AssangeDAO announced that 16 members of the U.S. Congress signed a letter urging Attorney General Merrick Garland to drop the dangerous and unprecedented charges against Assange.

On March 26, Assange was granted permission by a U.K. court to appeal his extradition to the United States.

Magazine: Beyond crypto — Zero-knowledge proofs show potential from voting to finance"
"[INST] BlackRock’s Bitcoin ETF daily inflow hits $0 for the first time [/INST] BlackRock iShares Bitcoin Trust (IBIT) has notched its first day of $0 in inflows since Bitcoin (BTC) exchange-traded funds (ETFs) were introduced in the United States in January.

Ever since its launch on Jan. 11, IBIT has consistently attracted investments worth millions of dollars daily, racking up nearly $15.5 billion in just 71 days. The inflow streak ended for BlackRock on April 24 after it recorded $0 of inflows.

Bitcoin ETF inflow and outflow data. Source: Farside

Most of the other Bitcoin ETF participants witnessed a dry spell as well. Of the 11 United States-registered Bitcoin ETFs, Fidelity Wise Origin Bitcoin Fund (FBTC) and ARK 21Shares Bitcoin ETF (ARKB) were the only two to record inflows of $5.6 million and $4.2 million, respectively.

Additionally, Grayscale Bitcoin Trust ETF (GBTC) continued to bleed. On April 24, GBTC recorded $130.4 millio in outflows. As a result, the spot Bitcoin ETFs realized a net outflow of $120.6 million on the day.

While the lack of inflows is a first for IBIT, it’s not uncommon among other ETF participants. Fidelity’s FBTC, for example, has notched three days of $0 inflows in the last two weeks.

To date, the Bitcoin ETF market in the U.S. has accumulated a net $12.3 billion in Bitcoin. However, GBTC outflows have offset some of the inflows notched by the remaining nine Bitcoin ETFs. As of Jan. 11, outflows from GBTC exceed $17 billion.

Related: SEC pushes decision on Franklin Templeton spot Ether ETF

Some of the Bitcoin ETF market participants are also in the process of applying for Ether (ETH) ETFs in the United States. However, the Securities and Exchange Commission recently delayed the approval decisions for several of them.

“The Commission finds that it is appropriate to designate a longer period within which to issue an order approving or disapproving the proposed rule change so that it has sufficient time to consider the proposed rule change, as modified by Amendment No. 1,” the agency wrote in its notice on April 23.

The SEC’s decision on whether to allow the conversion of Grayscale’s ETH Trust to a spot ETH exchange-traded product on NYSE Arca has been extended by 60 days to June 23.

Magazine: 7 ICO alternatives for blockchain fundraising: Crypto airdrops, IDOs & more"
"[INST] NYSE gauges interest in 24/7 stock trading like crypto: Report [/INST] The New York Stock Exchange (NYSE) is reportedly getting a gauge on whether traders would embrace 24-hour stock trading, similar to how cryptocurrency markets operate.

To test market sentiment, NYSE’s data analytics team put out a survey asking market participants whether they would support 24/7 or 24-hour weekday trading and if so, what systems should be put in place to protect traders from overnight price swings, according to an April 22 report from the Financial Times.

NYSE — along with the Nasdaq and Chicago Board Options Exchange — currently trade Monday to Friday between 9:30 am to 4:00 pm Eastern Time.

In the United States, assets such as cryptocurrencies, United States Treasurys, foreign exchange and leading stock index futures can already be traded 24/7, while some brokerages offer

Robinhood and Interactive Brokers are such platforms, offering 24-hour weekday access to U.S. stocks by facilitating a “dark pool” trading venue allowing international retail investors to trade shares during their daytime hours.

However, last week, reports emerged that Robinhood halted its 24-hour trading services following increased tensions between Israel and Iran, raising investor concerns about the sustainability of around-the-clock trading.

Managing liquidity in a 24/7 trading arena has al proven a tough task for trading platforms in the cryptocurrency industry.

It often creates a “mismatch between the operating hours of traditional financial institutions and the needs of large crypto traders and market makers,” noted cryptocurrency research firm Kaiko. Sleepless nights are a common complaint for traders when the market becomes extremely volatile too.

While results of NYSE's poll haven’t been released, Skylands Capital senior trader Tom Hearden posted a poll of his own asking his 19,300 X followers whether they would support NYSE moving to 24/7 trading hours — with over 70% of the 1,459 respondents voting “No.”

NYSE’s poll comes as startup firm 24X National Exchange is seeking approval from the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) to launch the first round-the-clock exchange in the country.

Related: Stocks and crypto at the edge of ‘significant’ correction: 10x Research

The SEC still has “months” to review the requested rule change, while other stakeholders involved are already looking at pertinent issues, such as who should bear costs and the role of clearing houses, FT said, citing two sources familiar with the matter.

“I have no idea how much volume they’re going to be doing in the middle of the night. But it’s really not up to the SEC to decide whether it’s commercially viable or not,” said James Angel, a finance professor at Georgetown University to FT.

“I’m in favour of letting the market decide. If it succeeds, we’re all better off and if it doesn’t, well, the exchange’s investors lost.”

It marks the second attempt at SEC approval after the firm withdrew a proposal in March 2023, citing operations and technical issues.

Magazine: Jameson Lopp: Skeptical of spot Ether ETFs, BTC price prediction dilemma: X Hall of Flame"
"[INST] Former Ethereum adviser files $9.6B lawsuit against US gov't [/INST] Steven Nerayoff, an early adviser to the Ethereum network, has filed a lawsuit against the United States government for false charges and mistreatment by federal agents between 2019 and 2023.

Nerayoff — known for publicly accusing Ethereum co-founder Vitalik Buterin of fraud — filed a Federal Tort Claims Act (FTCA) lawsuit suing the U.S. for $9.6 billion in damages for the extortion case brought against him in 2019.

The legal battle lasted for about four years, with the U.S. government eventually dismissing the lawsuit in May 2023.

According to the new SF-95 filing posted by FOX Business journalist Eleanor Terrett, Nerayoff sued the federal government based on claims that its agents were aware of the baseless nature of the charges.

He also argued that some agents engaged in harassment and intimidation tactics, including fabrication of evidence, in order to prosecute him for extortion.

Nerayoffs’s legal team believes that damages caused to Nerayoff’s reputation and businesses are significant enough to file a lawsuit against the U.S. government. The filing reads:

“As a direct and proximate result of the wrongful conduct of federal agents and/or officers, Mr. Nerayoff’s well-being, personal life and career were irreparably harmed. [...] He incurred significant legal fees to defend himself while simultaneously losing income as a result of becoming a feared pariah in the crypto community.”

According to Terrett, Nerayoff hired prominent lawyer Alan Dershowitz as a consultant on the case, who believes that the case is “unusual.”

Nerayoff is a serial entrepreneur, attorney, inventor of multiple international patents and founder of the blockchain consulting firm Alchemist. He is also a blockchain pioneer, known for his early involvement in projects like Ethereum in 2015.

Nerayoff was arrested by the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) alongside his Alchemist associate Michael Hlady in September 2019. Both Nerayoff and Hlady were charged with extortion, with authorities arguing that they threatened to “destroy a cryptocurrency startup if they were not paid millions of dollars” in Ether (ETH).

Related: Coinbase cleared in lawsuit over crypto transactions

An early player in the cryptocurrency scene, Nerayoff has been at the center of diverse controversies and legal battles. The former Ethereum advisor repeatedly attacked Ethereum in the past, making serious allegations against founders Buterin, Joe Lubin, as well as the Ethereum Foundation.

Nerayoff’s allegations included various aspects of Ethereum’s development and operations, including fraudulent initial coin offerings, personal misconduct, and collusion with corrupt officials. One of Nerayoff’s claims is that Ethereum received preferential treatment from regulators, which is referred to as “ETHGate” in the community.

Magazine: NFTs are like nightclubs, crypto is a volatile religion: NFTStats, NFT Collector"
"[INST] NSA ’just days from taking over the internet’ warns Edward Snowden [/INST] The United States National Security Agency (NSA) is only days away from “taking over the internet” with a massive expansion of its surveillance powers, according to NSA whistleblower Edward Snowden.

In an April 16 post to X, Snowden drew attention to a thread originally posted by Elizabeth Goitein — the co-director of the Liberty and National Security Program at the Brennan Center for Justice — that warned of a new bill that could see the U.S. government surveillance powers amplified to new levels.

The bill in question reforms and extends a part of the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act (FISA) known as Section 702.

Currently, the NSA can force internet service providers such as Google and Verizon to hand over sensitive data concerning NSA targets.

However, Goitein claims that through an “innocuous change” to the definition of “electronic communications surveillance provider” in the FISA 702 bill, the U.S. government could go far beyond its current scope and force nearly every company and individual that provides any internet-related service to assist with NSA surveillance.

“That sweeps in an enormous range of U.S. businesses that provide wifi to their customers and therefore have access to equipment on which communications transit. Barber shops, laundromats, fitness centers, hardware stores, dentist’s offices.”

Additionally, the people forced to hand over data would be unable to discuss the information provided due to hefty gag order penalties and conditions outlined in the bill, added Goitein.

The bill initially received heavy pushback from privacy-conscious Republicans but passed through the U.S. House of Representatives on April 13.

Related: Norway passes data center legislation signaling more scrutiny for Bitcoin miners

Part of the pushback saw the bills’ proposed spying powers time-frame cut from five years to two years, as well as some minor amendments to the service providers included under the surveillance measures.

However, according to Goitein, the amendment did very little to reduce the scope of surveillance granted to the NSA.

In her view, the amendment could even see service providers such as cleaners, plumbers and IT service providers that have access to laptops and routers inside people’s homes be forced to provide information and serve as “surrogate spies,” claimed Goitein.

The bill has seen strong pushback from both sides of the political aisle, with several government representatives claiming the bill violates citizen’s constitutional rights.

Democratic Senator Ron Wyden described the bill as “terrifying” and said he would do everything in his power to prevent it from being passed through the Senate.

“This bill represents one of the most dramatic and terrifying expansions of government surveillance authority in history.”

Republican Congressperson Anna Paulina Luna, who voted against the bill in the House of Representatives, said Section 702 was an “irresponsible extension” of the NSA’s powers. Luna added that if government agencies wanted access to data, they must be forced to apply for a warrant.

The bill is slated for a vote on April 19 in the U.S. Senate.

Magazine: Creating ‘good’ AGI that won’t kill us all — Crypto’s Artificial Superintelligence Alliance"
"[INST] Man City and OKX release limited-edition jerseys tied to rare NFTs [/INST] Premier League football club Manchester City is launching a new nonfungible token (NFT) collection that will allow fans to win a limited number of unique jerseys and matchday experiences.

The “Unseen City Shirts” campaign is the latest move in a long-term partnership with cryptocurrency exchange OKX. Users can mint the digital collectibles on the OKX app, which offers a chance to win redesigned, commemorative football shirts depending on the rarity of the NFT.

Man City stars Sergio Gómez, Erling Haaland and Jérémy Doku model the limited edition “The Roses and the Bees” jerseys, which feature hand-painted elements by artist Christian Jeffery. Source: Manchester City

Cointelegraph spoke exclusively with OKX global chief marketing officer Haider Rafique and Man City chief marketing and fan experience officer Nuria Tarré to discuss the details of the new campaign.

The limited collection jerseys feature designs incorporating the Lancashire rose and the Manchester worker bee, hand-painted by artist Christian Jeffery.

Rafique explains that the rarity of the NFTs is determined algorithmically. Five ultra-rare NFTs will give access to a play-on-pitch experience, two tickets to a Manchester City match and a limited-edition City shirt.

“The Roses and the Bees” NFT jersey as seen on OKX Marketplace. Source: OKX

A further five rare NFTs include a stadium tour experience, a hospitality ticket and a “The Roses and the Bees” design jersey. OKX users can mint the NFTs at no cost on the OKX Marketplace.

Nuria said that the NFT launch is part of the Premier League club’s strategy to attract audiences that are “more tech-savvy, open to new innovations and technology.” Digital ownership is another dimension that Man City is interested in bringing to its fans. Tarré explained:

“We think it’s important that you can own this piece digitally. I think that’s one of the beauties of Web3 — it changes the ownership process.”

Man City’s chief marketing officer said the club will continue to explore the possibilities of Web3, both through its partnership with OKX and other avenues. Tarré said the club has actively experimented with new technology in Web2 and metaverse environments.

Man City ventured into the world of Roblox in late 2022, with Tarré describing Web3 environments as the most progressing and exciting:

“Technology keeps on evolving and applications keep on evolving. You can add layers of sophistication, creation and co-creation. We’re definitely willing to explore further.”

In recent years, Rafique has actively driven OKX’s high-profile sports partnerships with Manchester City and Formula 1 team McLaren. The exchange has been exploring different marketing initiatives to tap into the fan bases of these sporting brands.

The OKX CMO explained that the past three years have been spent laying foundational work to provide utility to sports fans and Web3 users. Starting with basic NFTs attached to physical goods aims to provide the platform to create more utility-based ecosystems. Rafique said:

“I don’t think it’s a lack of intention. I think it’s a lack of product and technology infrastructure, which will come as the industry progresses and as our partnership progresses.”

OKX first partnered with Man City in March 2022 before expanding its sponsorship by becoming the club’s official training kit partner for the 2022–2023 season. OKX then sealed a new deal to become City’s official sleeve partner in a new multiyear agreement in June 2023.

Magazine: Crypto scoring big with European football"
"[INST] Amazon takes minority share in ChatGPT rival Anthropic AI [/INST] Web services giant Amazon said it is fulfilling its $4-billion investment commitment to the artificial intelligence (AI) startup Anthropic.

In a post on March 27, Amazon said it now holds a minority ownership position in the company after investing an additional $2.75 billion. Last September, Amazon announced its investment intentions and made an initial investment of $1.25 billion.

Anthropic was founded in 2021 by former members of OpenAI. It has created its own AI chatbot, rivaling ChatGPT, called Claude.

In early March, Anthropic released its most powerful version, Claude 3, which can also analyze images.

Amazon also revealed that Anthropic would make Amazon Web Services (AWS) its main cloud provider for “mission-critical workloads.” This includes safety research and the development of future foundation models.

It also said that Anthropic would use AWS Trainium and Inferentia chips to build, train and deploy its future models.

Swami Sivasubramanian, vice president of data and AI at AWS, said they see the collaboration as something that will “further improve” their customers’ experience and called generative AI “the most transformational technology of our time.”

Related: Nvidia CEO’s simple solution to AI hallucination could upend crypto — but only if it works

Alongside its major AI investments, Amazon also launched its own AI-powered assistant built for businesses, which is called Amazon Q. Its chatbot is said to be able to chat, solve problems, create content and more.

Amazon is not the only Big Tech company eyeing a stake in Anthropic. Last October, Google announced a $500-million investment in the company with a commitment to increase to $2 billion.

Anthropic, like all the major AI chatbot developers, has found itself involved in legal battles over copyright and data infringement.

In January, the company fought a lawsuit filed by music label Universal Music Group (UMG), calling the claims invalid.

The AI startup was sued by the label for “unlawful” use and “unlawfully” copying and disseminating “vast amounts of copyrighted works” from UMG while training its AI models.

Around this same time, Anthropic updated its commercial terms of service, saying that no client data was used in AI training and that it would protect customers from copyright infringement claims arising from the authorized use of the company’s services or outputs.

Magazine: Why boomers ‘like’ AI pics on Facebook, mind-reading AI breakthrough: AI Eye"
"[INST] Bitcoin fees top Ethereum for 3 days in a row as halving approaches [/INST] Fees on Bitcoin have surpassed Ethereum for three consecutive days as miners and traders prepare for the upcoming Bitcoin halving and, to a lesser extent, the introduction of Runes on Bitcoin.

Bitcoin (BTC) miners cashed in $7.47 million in fees on April 17 — about $160,000 more than the $7.31 million paid to Ethereum stakers, according to Crypto Fees.

Bitcoin miners also raked in $9.98 million and $5.91 million across April 15 and 16 — beating out Ethereum stakers by $3.5 million and 1.1 million on those respective days.

Ethereum, however, maintains a narrow lead on a seven-day average fee basis at $8.55 million compared with Bitcoin’s $7.57 million.

Largest fees by blockchains and decentralized finance projects. Source: Crypto Fees

Bitcoin transaction fees are determined by the size or data volume of the transaction and blockspace demand at the time of the transaction request.

The uptick in Bitcoin fees comes at a crucial time for Bitcoin miners, as April 20’s Bitcoin halving event will result in the mining subsidy being sliced from 6.25 BTC ($398,000) to 3.125 BTC ($199,000).

Currently, about 900 BTC is mined per day, which equates to about $57.2 million at current prices.

Using April 17’s $7.47 million fee count, this means transaction fees accounted for 11.5% of the Bitcoin mining industry’s total block rewards.

However, the share of block rewards from transaction fees will increase considerably after the halving event, as approximately 450 BTC will be mined then.

Miners will, therefore, rely more on higher fees and a continued increase in Bitcoin’s price to make up for the revenue fall that it will experience — at least in the short term — from the halving.

Meanwhile, the introduction of NFT-like Ordinals inscriptions in January 2023 has helped Bitcoin miners chalk up more revenue from transaction fees — and a new revenue stream will become available when Runes, a new Bitcoin token standard, is released when the halving occurs at block 840,000.

Related: China has a Trojan Horse in US Bitcoin mining infrastructure

Runes will compete with Ordinals by aiming to make it easier to create fungible tokens on Bitcoin for memecoin enthusiasts and other community-driven audiences.

Its creator, Casey Rodarmor — who also invented Ordinals — said Runes are fully UTXO-based and, therefore, should not spam Bitcoin to the same extent that Ordinals has.

The recent uptick in Bitcoin fees may have been partially driven by a decline in BRC-20 token prices in recent days as some trader attention shifts to Runes.

Ordinals (ORDI) and Sats (SATS), the two largest BRC-20s by market capitalization, have seen falls of 38% and 43%, respectively, over the last week, according to CoinMarketCap.

Magazine: Get Bitcoin or die tryin’: Why hip hop stars love crypto"
"[INST] First VR developer integrates with OpenAI, setting stage for no-code VR development [/INST] Virtual reality (VR) developer Victoria VR has announced its integration with artificial intelligence giant OpenAI, the creator of the popular generative AI tool ChatGPT.

The new implementation will enable users to experience the first AI integration through Victoria VR’s AI builder platform, which allows the development of virtual reality experiences through AI algorithms, according to Adam Bém, CEO and co-founder of Victoria VR. He told Cointelegraph:

“For end-users, this means unprecedented access to AI-driven capabilities in virtual reality, enhancing their development process and creativity. Over time, this will lead to more sophisticated and immersive virtual experiences.”

Victoria VR’s AI builder enables users to design their own 3D virtual reality experiences, games and applications without requiring programming knowledge. The OpenAI integration will enable a variety of new content-building, from in-game items and virtual accessories to metaverse platforms.

Players will be able to create these experiences using ChatGPT’s AI prompts. User-created content on Victoria VR is minted as nonfungible tokens, making content tradable.

While AI and VR are currently some of the most trending technologies, they both have significant limitations. Despite VR experiences being in their infancy, hardware is very expensive, with Meta’s recent Quest 3 selling the basic 128 GB edition for $499 and the 512 GB edition for $649.

As for AI systems, “hallucinations” are the most pressing concern. AI hallucinations are unintended results of training large language models that occur when AI models output new, usually incorrect, information that isn’t contained in its data set.

Related: Nvidia CEO’s simple solution to AI hallucination could upend crypto — but only if it works

Victoria VR will also plan to integrate other AI technologies, such as DALL-E, Midjourney and Stable Diffusion. Victoria VR is currently available on the Apple Vision Pro and Oculus Quest 3.

The platform leverages Unreal Engine 5, one of the most popular gaming engines, with over 7.5 million active developers.

Related: Final Fantasy 15 director says AI, VR, Web3 important for devs ‘whether you like it or not’

AI set to drive VR development in the next five years

With the current pace of advancements, AI will be the primary driver of virtual reality development in the next five years, according to Bém, who told Cointelegraph:

“Currently, AI enables the creation of sophisticated texts, codes and images, and is on the verge of transforming video production and 3D object creation. With the pace at which AI technology is advancing, it’s anticipated that in the next five years, AI will primarily drive the development of virtual realities, relegating traditional roles like VR developers, 3D modelers and coders to the background.”

AI is already creating new possibilities for gaming, including AI-generated infinite narratives, and more interactive nonplayer characters (NPCs) with more realistic responses.

Related: Bitcoin clings to $65K — More losses ahead for BTC price?"
"[INST] SEC’s spot Ether ETF concerns unfounded, Consensys asserts [/INST] Consensys addressed the United States Securities and Exchange Commission’s inquiry about potential fraud and manipulation risks related to Ethereum’s proof-of-stake (PoS) system, particularly concerning spot Ether (ETH) exchange-traded funds (ETFs).

In a comment letter submitted to the regulatory agency, Consensys, the blockchain and Web3 software development company responsible for the popular MetaMask wallet, stated that concerns about fraud and manipulation are baseless.

Consensys explained in a blog post:

“In fact, Ethereum’s PoS implementation meets and even exceeds the security of Bitcoin’s proof-of-work (PoW), which underlies Bitcoin-based ETFs that have already been approved for trading by the SEC.”

The Ethereum infrastructure firm highlighted Ethereum’s advantages — quicker block finality than Bitcoin, a division of responsibilities between proposers and attesters to deter stakeholder dominance, higher attack costs, penalties for validator rule violations, and superior environmental sustainability compared to Bitcoin.

Consensys highlighted that Ethereum boasts a larger developer community than Bitcoin and operates on a fully transparent and public blockchain. Consensys urged the SEC to acknowledge Ethereum’s superior security features, surpassing those of Bitcoin-based ETFs previously approved by the SEC.

Although spot Bitcoin (BTC) ETFs have proven exceptionally popular, whether or not a spot Ether ETF will be approved in May of this year remains debatable.

Related: Bitwise files with SEC for spot Ether ETF listing

The final SEC deadline for approving or denying the next round of spot ETH ETF applications will come on May 23, starting with VanEck’s investment vehicle. Though many experts seemed to be optimistic about approval in 2023, some have suggested going into 2024 that the commission could deny applications.

Several firms have spot ETH ETF applications pending approval or denial, including Fidelity, Hashdex and ARK 21Shares. The SEC began approving investment vehicles tied to Ether futures in October 2023.

Crypto gamblers are placing bets on whether spot Ether ETFs will have been approved by the SEC before May 31. The overall bets on the ETF outcomes have reached at least $12 million on the predictions market. The SEC eventually approved the trading and listing of 10 spot Bitcoin ETFs on Jan. 10.

Investment management company Grayscale has expressed confidence in a favorable decision by the SEC for spot Ether ETFs by May. On March 25, Grayscale chief legal officer Craig Salm said that the SEC’s perceived “lack of engagement” with applicants does not indicate whether an ETF will be approved.

Magazine: Ether ETFs face Senate opposition, Wright is not Satoshi, and Dencun goes live: Hodler’s Digest, March 10–16"
"[INST] Tether expands AI operations with global recruitment drive for top-tier talent [/INST] Tether Operations Limited, the blockchain and cryptocurrency company behind the Tether stablecoin, has announced a strategic expansion of its artificial intelligence (AI) focus alongside a global recruitment drive for “top-tier” talent for its AI division.

The expanded strategic focus comes amid concerns “over the monopolization of AI technologies by Big Tech,” according to a press release from Tether. The company said its Tether Data division “is stepping forward to champion transparency and privacy in AI model development.”

Tether also said the company's strategic AI expansion would build on its previous operations, including its recent investment in Northern Data Group.

A company spokesperson told Cointelegraph:

“Tether plans to push the boundaries of AI technology, not only making high-performance and privacy-preserving AI technologies accessible for personal use but also setting new industry standards for innovation and utility. The investment in Northern Data Group will help Tether pursue AI projects by leveraging Northern Data’s highly advanced GPU and compute infrastructure, to address real-world challenges in a more objective and transparent way compared to what we have seen from the current leading companies. AI potential is so groundbreaking that its impact can become bigger than the internet itself.”

As part of the expansion, Tether laid out a three-pronged approach. The first part of the plan is to “pioneer the development of open-source, multimodal AI models to set new industry standards, driving innovation and accessibility within AI technology.”

The next phase of the expansion involves leading collaborations to bring products and services to market and “leveraging the technology to address real-world challenges.”

Finally, Tether intends to actively engage with “the broader ecosystem through community contributions” in order to showcase its products and “advance the field of open AI.”

The company also announced a global recruitment drive seeking “top-tier” talent for its AI division. Tether Data’s recruitment page shows two available positions, one for an AI engineer and the other for a head of AI. Both positions are in Europe.

Tether told Cointelegraph that “as of now, Tether is actively recruiting for this new division.”

Related: IMF recommends stablecoins and CBDCs to boost Pacific Islands’ economies"
"[INST] Base overtakes Arbitrum for most active addresses so far this month [/INST] The Coinbase-supported Base network has now surpassed Arbitrum as the leading Ethereum layer-2 network by active addresses this month.

Base has seen over 1.48 million new active addresses over the first nine days of April — narrowly beating out Arbitrum One with 1.43 million active addresses, according to data from growthepie.

Ethereum scaling solutions zkSync Era and the Optimism mainnet rounded out the top four with 1.21 million and 650,000 active addresses, respectively.

However, Arbitrum One still maintains a slight lead over Base in active addresses over the last 30 days, at 3.84 million, compared to Base’s 3.76 million.

Change in monthly active users on Arbitrum One, Base, zkSync Era and OP Mainnet over the last 30 days. Source: growthepie

Meanwhile, Starknet and Mantle have seen the largest falls in active addresses at 51% and 40% over the last 30 days.

It comes as Base recently surpassed the $4 billion mark in total value locked on the protocol earlier in the month. It now only trails Arbitrum One and OP Mainnet, according to L2BEAT.

Base also boasts the largest 30-day transaction count at 53.1 million, more than 10 million clear of Arbitrum’s 41.2 million and Ethereum’s 37.9 million over the same timeframe, according to L2BEAT.

Base’s increase in active addresses has partly been fueled by a recent memecoin mania on the Coinbase-supported network.

Brett (BRETT) and Degen (DEGEN) are among the largest memecoins on Base, with respective market caps of $720 million and $523 million, according to CoinGecko, while Toshi (TOSHI) and Normie (NORMIE) are also highly traded memecoins on the network.

Related: Coinbase partners with Lightspark for Bitcoin Lightning payments

However, Base’s popularity has also attracted scammers, as the network saw an 18-fold increase in successful phishing scams from January to March — with $3.35 million stolen last month.

A recent analysis shows one in six memecoins are Base are scams and that 91% of Base memecoins possess security vulnerabilities that could expose users to big losses.

Coinbase officially launched Base last August. The cryptocurrency exchange is the sole sequencer of Base, according to L2BEAT data — meaning the chain is fully controlled by the exchange.

However, the firm has iterated its intention to progressively decentralize Base over time.

Magazine: Is measuring blockchain transactions per second (TPS) stupid in 2024? Big Questions"
"[INST] SEC lawyers resign after ‘gross abuse’ of power in crypto case — Report [/INST] Two lawyers for the United States Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) have reportedly resigned after a district court sanctioned the agency for “gross abuse” of power and acting in “bad faith” in a crypto case.

According to an April 22 Bloomberg report, Michael Welsh and Joseph Watkins, lead attorneys in the case against crypto platform DEBT Box, resigned earlier this month. Sources familiar with the matter say the lawyers were warned they would be terminated if they stayed.

The lawyers were both relatively new to the agency, as indicated by their LinkedIn profiles. Welsh served as a trial attorney at the SEC from December 2022, while Watkins acted as an attorney at the Division of Enforcement beginning in January 2023.

The pair’s resignation follows a court decision from Chief Judge Robert J. Shelby, the federal judge hearing the case in Salt Lake City, Utah. In March, Judge Shelby sanctioned the SEC for false statements and misrepresentations in its case against Digital Licensing Inc., known as DEBT Box.

Judge Shelby said in the March 18 filing that “the Commission’s above-discussed conduct constitutes a gross abuse of the power entrusted to it by Congress and substantially undermined the integrity of these proceedings and the judicial process.”

In August 2023, the SEC obtained an emergency relief to halt the Utah-based company, temporarily freezing its assets and obtaining restraining orders against DEBT Box’s principals under claims of a $50-million crypto fraud scheme.

Judge Shelby further stated that the evidence put forward “lacked any basis” but was nonetheless presented in “deliberately false and misleading ways.”

“Welsh knew his statement from the TRO hearing was incorrect. Rather than correcting the misstatement, he and the Commission attempted to subtly shift the language to gloss over and perpetuate the misconduct.”

The crypto industry has been vocal in its criticisms of the SEC’s approach under Chair Gary Gensler, particularly concerning the agency’s “regulation by enforcement” strategy. Some critics argue that this approach has increased regulatory uncertainty in the industry, stifling innovation and undermining U.S. competitiveness in the digital asset space.

High-profile enforcement actions against crypto platforms include lawsuits against crypto exchanges Coinbase and Binance, and the agency’s forthcoming action over the decentralized finance platform Uniswap.

Magazine: Crypto regulation: Does SEC Chair Gary Gensler have the final say?"
"[INST] Bitcoin miners may ‘fear’ the halving, but they cherish it too [/INST] For over a decade, the quadrennial Bitcoin (BTC) halving event has delighted early Bitcoin hodlers while striking fear into inefficient crypto miners.

And while some may even be secretly hoping for an end to the profitability slashing (which has even bankrupted companies in the past), most miners agree — it’s what makes Bitcoin special, and it’s not going anywhere.

“We as miners embrace halvings and cherish them — but of course, we fear them a bit too,” said Kristian Csepcsar, chief of propaganda at the Bitcoin mining infrastructure firm Braiins.

There have been concerns that the Bitcoin halving event, set for April 20, could lead to some Bitcoin miners going under — particularly if the price of Bitcoin fails to exceed the cost of mining.

“Miners are true Bitcoiners at heart,” said Csepcsar. “So even though halvings put extreme pressure on the mining industry as a whole we all understand why halvings are an integral part of the Bitcoin design.”

Some Bitcoin mining firms like Hut 8 said they look at the halving as an opportunity to double down on growth and strengthen competitiveness, according to CEO Asher Genoot.

“We have prepared for the halving with a comprehensive restructuring of the business and focus on being a low-cost operator,” Genoot told Cointelegraph.

He added that Hut 8 mines “only when it is profitable” using its proprietary software and maintains a strong balance sheet with more than 9,100 BTC that enables it to maintain stability while investing in growth.

Hashlabs Mining co-founder Jaran Mellerud believes that Bitcoin miners would probably love the idea of scrapping the halving. However, the Bitcoin network is not controlled by miners, but by node operators, he stressed, adding:

“Bitcoin was not made for the miners, but for the hodlers.”

Would it be possible to scrap halving?

Like any change to Bitcoin, it is theoretically possible to do away with the halving if you have a hard fork.

However, most think it would be “next to impossible” to reach the consensus required to make the change, while others, such as argues that the resulting product, by design, won’t be Bitcoin anymore.

“It would break one of the key features that every Bitcoiner loves about Bitcoin: it will have less supply inflation than gold, and continue that deflationary trend,” Bitcoin ESG researcher Daniel Batten told Cointelegraph.

“One of the main reasons investors are attracted to Bitcoin is its limited supply of 21 million coins, and this is also what makes Bitcoin unique,” added Hashlabs Mining' Mellerud.

He suggested that the Bitcoin market cap would likely be much smaller if there were no halvings and limited supply, and miners would not benefit from the higher block subsidy.

Bitcoin inflation rate versus time. Source: BitcoinBlockHalf

Csepcsar from Braiins argues that removing the halving from Bitcoin’s code is virtually impossible.

“Change of this magnitude to the core architecture of bitcoin is next to impossible today,” Csepcsar said, adding:

“Putting everybody into consensus and changing such a core principle of bitcoin is impossible in any short time frame such as a few years. What will be the case in 10 years and more is another matter and nobody has an answer to that.”

Some miners may support the idea of eliminating halvings but full nodes may not, and nodes have significant control over the Bitcoin network, according to New Layer Capital’s general partner Nicholas Safford.

“If a group of miners wanted to implement such a proposal, they would need to hard fork the Bitcoin network, after which point, the new cryptocurrency would cease to be Bitcoin,” he stated.

Miners fear the halving, but they don’t hate it

Bitcoin halvings have been historically associated with bullish sentiment as BTC prices surged to new all-time highs after halvings. However, there’s also a fear that the halving would raise the operational costs of mining Bitcoin, hurting profitability.

On the halving date, for a miner whose cost of mining 1 BTC was $35,000 per BTC, the cost would suddenly increase overnight to $70,000 per BTC, New Layer Capital’s Safford explained.

Miner revenue after halvings. Source: Visual Capitalist

“This miner is no longer profitable as the market value of 1 BTC — currently around $65,000 — is no longer enough to cover the cost to mine 1 BTC,” he said, adding:

Related: Bitcoin needs to hold above $80,000 to keep mining profitable post-halving

“Halving inevitably leads to several unsustainably high-cost miners — due to high electricity rate, less efficient ASICs, high overheads and so on — dropping off the network.”

So, Bitcoin halvings are probably here to stay

Industry executives and advocates are confident that halvings are eventually beneficial and are here to stay.

“Halvings are the economic catalysts that ensure a smooth curve toward the 21 million Bitcoin supply cap and the need for continuously improving energy efficiency,” Bitfarms’ chief mining officer Ben Gagnon told Cointelegraph.

The total global mining activity in USD terms has grown exponentially each halving epoch despite the block reward halving every four years, Gagnon noted.

Cryptocurrency mining market size, 2022 to 2032. Source: Precedence Statistics

Gagnon also pointed out that there are many coins that don’t have halving events and opted for linear growth of coin supply. “They have not done well against Bitcoin,” the exec stated.

“The whole point of the Bitcoin Network is that the code is law, and it will not be changed,” said SunnySide Digital founder and CEO Taras Kulyk.

“What will happen in more than 10 years, really nobody can tell. But I would still not bet on any dramatic changes like changing the 21 million cap or removing halvings altogether,” Csepcsar told Cointelegraph. He added:

“Bitcoin either has to survive these harsh situations or is not the antifragile freedom tool that we all want it to be.”

Magazine: How to protect your crypto in a volatile market — Bitcoin OGs and experts weigh in"
"[INST] Mark Zuckerberg says Meta wearables that read brain signals are coming soon [/INST] Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg has hinted his firm is making progress on its first “consumer neural interfaces,” non-invasive wearable devices that can interpret brain signals to control computers.

“One of the things that I’m pretty excited about — I think we’ll start getting some consumer neural interfaces soon. I think that’s going to be pretty wild.”

However, unlike Elon Musk’s Neuralink brain chip, Zuckerberg explained that these devices wouldn’t be something that “jacks into your brain” but something wearable on the wrist that can “read neural signals that your brain sends through your nerves to your hand to basically move it in different subtle ways.”

Meta first began discussing the development of “wrist-based interaction” in March 2021 as part of Facebook Reality Labs Research.

Meta’s wristband works using electromyography (EMG) to interpret brain signals about desired hand gestures and translate them into commands to control devices.

“We’re basically able to read those signals and use them to control glasses or other computing devices,” he added.

The most recent comments came during an interview on April 18 between the Facebook co-founder and tech entrepreneur and YouTuber Roberto Nickson.

“We’re still at the beginning of the journey because we haven’t rolled out the first version of the product, but playing with it internally it’s … it’s really cool … really interesting to see.”

Earlier this year, the Meta CEO said that this neural wristband could become a consumer product in just a few years, using artificial intelligence to overcome the limitations of camera-based gesture tracking.

Mark Zuckerberg on consumer neural interfaces. Source: YouTube

He has also envisioned the neural interfaces to work with Meta’s Ray-Ban augmented reality smart glasses.

Commenting on the firm’s smart glasses, he said the “hero feature” was integrating AI into them. “We’re really close to having multi-modal AI [...] so you don’t just ask it a question with text or voice; you can ask it about things going on around you, and it can see what’s going on and answer questions [...] that’s pretty wild,” he added.

Related: Meta’s AI boss says LLMs not enough: ‘Human level AI is not just around the corner’

Meanwhile, lawmakers in the United States are already working on legislation aimed at protecting privacy in the nascent field of neurotech.

The Protect Privacy of Biological Data Act, which expands the definition of “sensitive data” to encompass biological and neural data, was passed in Colorado this week, according to reports.

In other news, Meta has just released a new version of Meta AI, the assistant that operates across the firm’s applications and glasses. “Our goal is to build the world’s leading AI,” Zuckerberg said.

Meta AI is being upgraded with the new “state-of-the-art Llama 3 AI model, which we’re open-sourcing,” he added.

Magazine: How to get better crypto predictions from ChatGPT, Humane AI pin slammed: AI Eye"
"[INST] Bithumb posts 57% annual loss soon after delayed IPO [/INST] Bithumb Korea, the operator of the South Korean cryptocurrency exchange Bithumb, posted a 57% loss in annual revenue for the fiscal year of 2023.

The Seoul-based exchange’s annual sales revenue fell 57.6% to 1.358 billion Korean won in 2023, down from 3.201 billion won in 2022, according to an April 2 report from Korean news outlet Newdaily.

Net profit fell 74.5% to 243 billion won in 2023, from 954 billion won a year prior, but remained in a surplus for the fourth consecutive year.

The main reason behind the financial losses was the decrease in the value of cryptocurrencies due to the crypto winter, according to Bithumb.

Bithumb also offered a fee-free trading policy during the fourth quarter of last year, which contributed to the exchange’s falling revenue.

The exchange focused on increasing its availability throughout South Korea last year during difficult market conditions. This year, it will continue focusing on strengthening its services to drive performance improvements, a Bithumb spokesperson told Newdaily.

The financial loss was reported on the same day Crypto.com announced it would launch a cryptocurrency trading app for South Korean retail investors on April 29, which could pose a threat to Bithumb’s market share in the country.

Related: Bitcoin clings to $65K — More losses ahead for BTC price?

Bithumb delays IPO

Bithumb was planning to become the first digital asset company to go public on the South Korean stock market, according to local media reports that first emerged at the beginning of November 2023.

The reports alleged that Bithumb was preparing for an initial public offering (IPO) in the second half of 2025 on the Kosdaq — South Korea’s version of the Nasdaq.

The IPO rumors were confirmed as Bithumb Korea started setting up a non-exchange business to accelerate its stock market debut, according to a March 24 report by the Korea Herald.

Yet Bithumb has reconsidered its IPO ambitions after former chairman Lee Jeong-hoon’s role in the company came under scrutiny, suggesting internal issues within the company, according to a March 29 report by Decenter.

All You Need To Know About Crypto In South Korea. Source: Cointelegraph

According to Bithumb officials, the IPO wasn’t delayed due to legal issues related to chairman Lee’s role in the company but due to a reassessment of internal strategy during an evolving institutional landscape.

The surprising development comes over a month after South Korea’s Financial Services Commission (FSC) proposed a new amendment that would mandate new crypto firm executives to obtain regulatory approval before assuming their roles.

If the amendment is accepted, new executives won’t be able to work until the FSC formally approves their applications.

Related: Largest Ethena airdrop recipient gets nearly $2M"
"[INST] Upbit’s trading volume falls below $4B after reaching yearly high in March [/INST] The 24-hour trading volume at Upbit, one of South Korea’s biggest crypto exchanges, fell to $3.8 billion at the start of April after reaching a high earlier in March.

On March 5, Upbit recorded a daily trading volume of almost $15 billion, the exchange’s highest trading volume this year.

The crypto exchange’s surge in daily trading volume may be attributed to Bitcoin reaching a new all-time high of $69,200 on the same day.

The rush was primarily driven by large inflows in the new spot Bitcoin (BTC) exchange-traded funds (ETFs) in the United States.

While Bitcoin was trading below $70,000 in the rest of the world, the digital asset reached a new all-time high of 96,734,000 South Korean won (about $72,504) on Upbit at around 3:00 pm UTC on March 5.

This may have played a role in boosting the daily trading volume at the exchange on March 5.

This price difference in South Korea versus the rest of the world is commonly called the “Kimchi Premium.” Named after the country’s famous fermented side dish, the Kimchi Premium refers to the disparity between BTC prices on Korean crypto trading platforms and international crypto exchanges.

Despite its uptick, the surge did not last, as the daily trading volume on the exchange dropped to as low as $2.6 billion on March 31.

Upbit’s daily exchange trading volume chart. Source: CoinGecko

According to coin information tracker CoinGecko, Upbit’s current 24-hour trading volume for April 1 is $3.8 billion.

Related: South Korean police catch $4.1M crypto scam duo

In 2023, Upbit’s parent company reported an 81% decline in net profits. On Nov. 28, Upbit owner Dunamu reported a profit of $23 million, which is much lower than the same period in 2022, when it earned about $123 million.

The company said the lower profits could be due to a “sluggish investment market” stemming from an economic downturn. It also pointed toward the lower prices of digital assets as one of the causes of the decline in profit.

Despite Dunamu’s profit drop in 2023, Upbit continued its business expansion efforts. On Jan. 9, the exchange obtained a Major Payment Institution license from Singapore’s central bank. This allows the company to offer crypto and fiat-related services in Singapore.

Magazine: ‘Am I sorry? No’ — 3AC founder. $6B BTC laundered for fast food worker: Asia Express"
"[INST] Bitcoin bounces back as Grayscale ETF outflows hit new record low [/INST] Outflows from the Grayscale Bitcoin Trust (GBTC) exchange-traded fund (ETF) have hit a new record low, down almost 90% from the previous day, coinciding with a rebound in Bitcoin after new United States inflation data triggered volatility.

On April 10, GBTC saw outflows of $17.5 million, a significant decrease compared to the $154.9 million outflows recorded on April 9, according to Farside data.

Alongside this, the price of Bitcoin (BTC) has increased 2.08% over the past 24 hours, currently standing at $70,474, per CoinMarketCap data.

Within the same time frame, it briefly hit local lows of $67,482 following the release of the U.S. Consumer Price Index (CPI) for March, which came in at a hotter-than-expected 3.5% year-on-year. This led to worries that the U.S. Federal Reserve might further delay interest rate cuts.

Bitcoin’s price has hovered between $65,600 and $72,668 over the past seven days. Source: CoinMarketCap

Some crypto commentators are again sharing hope it could be the start of the slowdown in GBTC outflows, which have amounted to $16 billion in outflows since GBTC was converted to a spot Bitcoin ETF in January.

“GBTC selling over?” the CEO of crypto-focused reviews portal Apollo, Thomas Fahrer, asked his 41,500 X followers in an April 11 post.

Fahrer further pointed out that the April 10 outflows are equivalent to roughly 250 Bitcoin, almost a 95% decrease in outflows from the start of the week.

Only days ago, on April 8, Grayscale witnessed outflows equivalent to 4,288 Bitcoin at a total of $303 million.

The previous low was on Feb. 26 when GBTC outflowed $22.4 million. The daily GBTC outflows average across the four months is $257.8 million.

The Fidelity Wise Origin Bitcoin Fund recorded $76.3 million in inflows, BlackRock’s iShares Bitcoin Trust saw $33.3 million, the Bitwise Bitcoin ETF saw $24.3 million, and the ARK 21Shares Bitcoin ETF had inflows of $7.3 million.

Recently, bankrupt crypto lending firm Genesis offloaded approximately 36 million GBTC shares to acquire 32,041 Bitcoin.

Magazine: China will intensify Bitcoin bull run, $1M by 2028: Bitcoin Man, X Hall of Flame"
"[INST] Bakkt declares $780M full-year revenue in 2023 earnings report [/INST] Crypto custody and trading company Bakkt has published its quarterly report, recording a full-year total revenue of $780.1 million for 2023.

Bakkt said that in the fourth quarter of 2023 alone, it had earned a total revenue of $214.5 million. This includes its gross crypto and net loyalty revenues.

The report highlighted that Bakkt’s acquisition of Bakkt Crypto (formerly Apex Crypto) drove the increase in its gross crypto services revenues.

With its balance sheet strengthened, the crypto custody firm aims to scale its business further in 2024. Bakkt’s incoming president and CEO, Andy Main, said the company will focus on several initiatives this year. The executive explained:

“Our focus for 2024 is on a set of strategic initiatives that will provide our business with efficient scale, including broadening our client network, expanding our product set and prudently managing expenses.”

Within the report, the company also published its expectations for its performance in 2024. According to the company, it is expecting full-year revenue of between $3.2 billion to $5.1 billion. This includes gross crypto revenues of $3.2 billion to $5 billion.

However, it also expects its crypto costs to be similar to its revenue in crypto, seemingly predicting to break even in its crypto business.

Related: Bakkt shifts focus to custody services, adds support for DOGE, SHIB, other coins

Main said in the report that its new balance sheet helped put the company in a position to alleviate conditions that placed doubt in the company’s ability to continue.

On Feb. 7, Bakkt filed an amendment to its quarterly report with the United States Securities and Exchange Commission, with a section containing a note that it may “not be able to continue as a going concern.”

This meant the company was running low on cash to fund its operations in the next year. However, with its latest report showing positive results, Main said that this alleviated the conditions that raised concerns about its capabilities to continue its business.

Furthermore, the company’s incoming president expressed excitement about the crypto space’s improving market conditions and said it would help them execute their key priorities and drive the company toward profitability.

Magazine: ETH a security? Celsius clawbacks, SBF says sentence too harsh: Hodler’s Digest, March 17-23"
"[INST] Arkham’s top 5 doxed crypto hodlers own $3.5B, but 35% is untouchable [/INST] The top five identified crypto whales with publicly known wallet addresses hold around $3.5 billion in crypto, according to a dashboard from blockchain intelligence firm Arkham.

However, due to lost passwords and private keys, a large chunk of it is inaccessible.

On April 15, the on-chain intelligence platform announced the updated dashboard revealing the holdings of some of the world’s on-chain-verified richest crypto holders and whales, including Tron’s Justin Sun and Ethereum’s Vitalik Buterin.

The top five crypto holders on its list currently own an aggregate of $3.47 billion in digital assets, according to the data. However, around 35% or $1.21 billion of that total has been flagged as ‘inaccessible.’

Arkham’s crypto top five

Justin Sun tops the list with a reported $1.06 billion in his crypto wallet. The Tron network founder’s wallet is heavy on his own stablecoin, Decentralized USD (USDD), with $275 million in holdings, followed by the network’s native token, Tron (TRX), of which he holds $237 million worth.

Rain Lõhmus, the founder of Estonia-based LHV Bank, is second on Arkham’s list with $769 million worth of Ether. However, it has been flagged as inaccessible, as it was reported in November that he lost access to his private key.

Ethereum co-founder Vitalik Buterin comes third with a wallet containing $757 million, primarily in ETH, of which he holds 245,425 tokens.

The Bitcoin wallet of the former chief technology officer at Ripple, Stefan Thomas, shows up as fourth on the list. However, his $442 million worth of Bitcoin (BTC) has also been flagged inaccessible.

Thomas lost access to more than 7,000 Bitcoin in 2011 after losing the password to the encrypted hard drive holding the details of his cryptocurrency.

In October, crypto recovery firm Unciphered offered to unlock the IronKey hard drive.

Related: Ethereum’s next hard fork could make lost private keys a thing of the past

Crypto venture capitalist James Fickel rounds out the top five with $436 million worth of digital assets in his wallet, according to Arkham.

Other notable crypto wallets in the top ten include early adopter Patricio Worthalter, who holds $219 million worth, primarily in ETH. General Partner at Cluster Capital, Winslow Strong, is listed as holding $27.5 million worth of digital assets.

For those included, the dashboard displays public wallets tagged by Arkham, their current token holdings and balance history, a breakdown of portfolios across chains and historical daily balances, and recent activity.

However, the list doesn’t contain whale wallets that are linked to unknown or pseudonymous owners, such as Bitcoin’s creator Satoshi Nakamoto whose BTC holdings are estimated to be worth tens of billions across multiple addresses, or other crypto titans that currently aren’t linked to a particular wallet address.

Magazine: 1 in 6 new Base meme coins are scams, 91% have vulnerabilities"
"[INST] Ethena will become highest revenue-generating crypto project — Delphi Labs CEO [/INST] Ethena Labs will become the highest revenue-generating cryptocurrency project on the market, according to José Maria Macedo, the CEO of Delphi Labs and the founding partner of crypto investment firm Delphi Ventures.

Ethena Labs is one of the highest conviction bets for Delphi Ventures during this bull cycle, according to an April 2 blog post by Delphi Labs’ Macedo, who wrote:

“sUSDe will offer the highest dollar yield in crypto at scale. USDe will become the largest stablecoin outside of USDC/USDT in 2024. Ethena will become the highest revenue-generating project in all of crypto.”

Ethena Labs became the highest-earning decentralized application (DApp) in crypto on March 8 when it offered a 67% annual percentage yield (APY) on USDe. Ethena launched its USDe synthetic dollar on the public mainnet on Feb. 19.

Ethena’s USDe synthetic dollar is currently offering a 35.4% APY to over 118,000 users, according to its homepage.

The CEO’s bullish predictions follow the launch of the Ethena Labs airdrop on April 2, which distributed $450 million worth of Ethena (ENA) tokens among eligible wallets.

The largest airdrop recipient received nearly $2 million worth of ENA tokens, as per Arkham Intelligence data.

Related: Ethena Labs founder clarifies USDe stability amid high yield worries

Can USDe synthetic dollar become the third-largest “stablecoin” in 2024?

The USDe synthetic dollar currently ranks as the seventh-largest asset among stablecoins, with a $1.9 billion market capitalization, according to CoinMarketCap data.

To flip the third-largest stablecoin, Dai (DAI), USDe’s market cap would need to increase by at least 178% to above $5.3 billion.

Top stablecoins by market capitalization. Source: CoinMarketCap

The market cap of USDe rose over 21% in the last 24 hours and 165% in the last month to $1.89 billion, according to DefiLlama data.

According to Delphi’s Macedo, the stablecoin market is a $100 billion industry to which Ethena introduced a competitive new tradeoff, which will pave its future growth:

“In my view, USDe is the most scalable fully collateralized stablecoin ever created. It’s not fully decentralized, nor can it ever be, but it nevertheless sits at a very interesting point on the tradeoff spectrum.”

Related: How high can Bitcoin go? New BTC price prediction sees cycle top at $180K"
"[INST] Blockchain and AI: Redefining authorship in publishing [/INST] Self-publishing has empowered authors worldwide to bypass traditional gatekeepers of the publishing industry and share their work with the world.

However, as the industry looks to keep up with modernization, the self-publishing platform Booksie has embraced blockchain and artificial intelligence (AI).

In an interview with Cointelegraph, Booksie founder and CEO Sol Nasisi shared his vision for the future of self-publishing built on the powerful combination of these emerging technologies.

Blockchain: Transparency and ownership for authors

The idea of blockchain in the publishing industry isn’t necessarily a new phenomenon. In 2018, the Alliance of Independent Authors launched Blockchain for Books, an awareness campaign about the potential of blockchain technology in publishing. It resulted in a guidebook called Authors and Blockchain.

The core principle of a blockchain network, that of a shared public ledger, can act as a mechanism allowing authors to regain control over their work and access valuable data.

Nasisi explained that as more of the traditional web is closed behind “walled gardens,” blockchain can offer authors an additional pathway to selling their books.

“The blockchain [creates] a new digital book publishing and purchasing experience complete with real ownership, rare books in limited editions, and opportunities for book collectors and resellers to participate in external markets.”

Beyond financial benefits, blockchain offers transparency and empowers authors to protect their work.

Related: OpenAI makes ChatGPT ‘less verbose,’ blurring writer-AI distinction

“The immutability and transparency creates a way for an author to prove they created the work,” says Nasisi. This is particularly relevant in a world increasingly concerned with AI-generated content.

AI: Empowering writers, not replacing them

Accessible AI has become more mainstream over the last year, and it has been integrated into companies’ business operations in almost every industry worldwide.

However, authors have already had their gripes with the technology making alleged illegal use of their work. In July, author Sarah Silverman sued Meta and OpenAI for using copyrighted work to train their AI systems without permission.

In September 2023, a similar lawsuit was filed by the Author’s Guild against OpenAI, alleging misuse of copyrighted material in training of its AI models.

However, Nasisi stressed that AI can be used as a tool for authors, not to replace or exploit them or their work.

“We never want to have an AI that is writing the story for a writer.”

He said that they designed Booksie’s AI bot integration to aid writers who provide feedback on fiction and non-fiction works.

The disruptive duo of blockchain and AI

When looking at the combined potential of blockchain and AI, Nasisi said the two will “fundamentally change” how the publishing industry functions over the next 10 years.

He said he envisions a future where “writers will combine their creativity with AI and blockchain to create entire worlds in multiple mediums and interact with fans in novel ways.”

This future could involve authors leveraging AI assistance to write a book, then utilizing blockchain to create a limited-edition version, a video series, a game based on the story’s world and accompanying merchandise — all while maintaining ownership and transparency throughout the process.

The impact of this technological convergence extends far beyond publishing. Nasisi highlights other industries ripe for disruption.

“AI is changing how higher education teaches while blockchain will provide the authenticity of learning via credentials.”

He likens the two technologies to yin and yang, feeding off each other and creating a new paradigm.

Booksie and its partner, Chainletter Labs, are actively working toward this vision. Nasisi concluded, “The publishing industry will never be the same.”

With blockchain and AI at the helm, self-publishing is poised to empower authors like never before, creating a future filled with exciting new possibilities for creators and readers alike.

Magazine: AI didn’t kill the metaverse, it will build it — Alien Worlds, Bittensor vs Eric Wall: AI Eye"
"[INST] MIT, German central bank will research CBDC privacy in new project [/INST] The Deutsche Bundesbank is the latest monetary authority to team up with the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) Digital Currency Initiative (DCI) to study central bank digital currency (CBDC). President of the German central bank Joachim Nagel spoke at the launch of the project about challenges ahead for the digital euro.

Nagel told MIT students that the joint research will focus on designing security and privacy measures in a CBDC. The problem is that private digital payment solutions often use third-party services that gain access to consumers’ payment data, which they can use for commercial purposes. In contrast:

“A digital euro would offer the highest possible level of privacy. The Eurosystem would not have access to digital euro users’ personal information. Consumers would gain more control over their personal data.”

Nagel went on the say the current payments system does not work well. “German bank cards, for example, don’t always work in other euro area countries, even if they contain a payment scheme operated by an international company,” he said.

Related: Federal Reserve lists CBDCs as one of 7 ‘key duties’ to Congress

As digitalization increases, the Eurosystem is considering “a digital product that complements our analogue product cash,” Nagel said. He was referring to the digital euro specifically, although other options have appeared, such as the United States Federal Reserve’s FedNow service that was launched in July.

FedNow has been the target of harsh criticism, but CBDCs have fared even worse. Privacy and potential effects on the banking industry are big talking points for CBDC opponents. European Central Bank (ECB) officials are increasingly going on the offensive against the criticism. ECB president Christine Lagarde said in September that the digital euro was the subject of conspiracy theories, and ECB officials have criticized the banking community for failing to give CBDC reasonable consideration.

Source: Digital Currency Initiative

Nagel conceded to MIT students that the digital euro, as a “riskless asset,” could contribute to economic instability in times of stress by undermining banks. Holding limits will be placed on the digital euro to counteract that threat, Nagel said. He added that the public has only a vague understanding of the digital euro project, which is now in its preparatory stage.

The DCI has also partnered with the U.S. Federal Reserve Bank of Boston in its Project Hamilton looking at a potential digital dollar, and with the central banks of Canada and the United Kingdom.

Magazine: How the digital yuan could change the world… for better or worse"
"[INST] Crypto Biz: Tokenization spikes, SEC delays Bitcoin ETF options, and more [/INST] United States Treasurys tokenized on public blockchains surpassed $1 billion as traditional financial firms continued to load securities on-chain amid a prolonged period of elevated interest rates.

Data compiled by 21.co and Dune Analytics shows that tokenized government securities reached the $1 billion mark in assets on March 28, distributed across 17 products. A majority of the assets are based on the Ethereum, Polygon and Stellar networks.

“The growth in tokenized treasuries on public blockchains like Stellar is a result of more asset issuers recognizing blockchain technology makes good business sense,” Paul Wong, director of product, CBDCs and institutions at the Stellar Foundation, told Cointelegraph.

Investment firm Franklin Templeton is among the companies tokenizing assets, with over $360.1 million in assets and 33.6% of the market share through its Franklin OnChain U.S. Government Money Fund. The fund, launched in 2021, is based on the Polygon and Stellar blockchains.

By volume, tokenized securities represent the largest asset class on the Stellar network, with a total tokenized market cap of over $430 million as of late March. “Blockchain is here to stay and is the future. We expect to see exponential growth in tokenization in the next few years,” said Wong.

Aside from the rise of tokenization markets, this week’s Crypto Biz explores PayPal’s stablecoin, SushiSwap’s move to a “Labs model,” and the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) delaying a decision on options trading on spot Bitcoin exchange-traded funds (ETFs).

SEC defers decision on Bitwise, Grayscale Bitcoin ETF options

The U.S. securities regulator has delayed its decision to allow the New York Stock Exchange to offer options trading on spot Bitcoin (BTC) ETFs. According to the April 8 filing, the SEC’s pushback will impact options trading on the Bitwise Bitcoin ETF, the Grayscale Bitcoin Trust and any other trust that holds Bitcoin on the NYSE. The securities regulator reached the same outcome for Nasdaq in March, which requested options trading on BlackRock’s iShares Bitcoin Trust. The next deadline for the SEC to either approve, deny or delay the proposed rule change on the NYSE is May 29.

PayPal stablecoin circulation dropped 38% in March — Paxos

The circulation of PayPal USD (PYUSD), a stablecoin issued by PayPal and Paxos, declined by 39% in March, totaling $188.5 million. Previous months saw higher circulation, with $304 million in February and $301 million in January. Despite experiencing rapid growth in early 2024, doubling its market value within one month by mid-January, PYUSD has since faced a decline in circulation and market capitalization. The PYUSD treasury held $14.9 million in United States Treasury bonds as of March 29. The market capitalization of PYUSD has been decreasing since late February, falling from an all-time high of $312 million on Feb. 26, according to CoinGecko data.

SushiSwap DAO backs transition to “Labs model” in preliminary vote

SushiSwap has received a positive sign to move forward with a plan to adopt a less decentralized “Labs model.” Over 62% of voters favored this transition in a signal vote concluded on April 10. The proposal, introduced on March 26, outlines the creation of Sushi Labs, an autonomous entity responsible for managing the Sushi ecosystem’s administrative, technical and operational aspects. Tokenholders would still decide on treasury allocations but wouldn’t participate in operational decisions. In addition, the new entity would receive 25 million SushiSwap (SUSHI) tokens — worth around $39 million at current prices — and future airdrops from its affiliated protocols and partners. The Sushi community has criticized the move.

Paradigm leads $225 million funding round for new “Solana killer” L1

Crypto-focused venture capital firm Paradigm has led a $225 million funding round into a new layer-1 blockchain network, which is set to compete for market share with Solana and other top networks. Monad Labs aims to build a new layer-1 smart contract network with faster speed and lower costs than Ethereum. According to a March 14 X post by Monad, the new L1 will be 100% compatible with the Ethereum Virtual Machine and capable of up to 10,000 transactions per second. Crypto VC funding turned positive in the first quarter of 2024, breaking a two-year slump.

Before you go: Smart contracts that can be turned on and off by a multisig mechanism or governance vote are potentially problematic, says Coin Center’s Peter Van Valkenburgh.

Crypto Biz is your weekly pulse on the business behind blockchain and crypto, delivered directly to your inbox every Thursday."
"[INST] Hong Kong Bitcoin and Ether ETFs officially approved to start trading on April 30 [/INST] The first wave of spot Bitcoin and Ether exchange-traded funds (ETFs) have been officially approved to start trading in Hong Kong on April 30.

Hong Kong’s financial regulator, the Securities and Futures Commission (SFC), announced the official approval of the first batch of spot Bitcoin (BTC) and Ether (ETH) ETFs on April 24, according to a press release shared with Cointelegraph.

The first batch of approved Hong Kong-based ETFs also include China Asset Management’s (ChinaAMC) Bitcoin and Ether-based ETFs, which will start trading on April 30.

The ETFs will offer retail and institutional investors a safer and more convenient way to invest in the underlying digital assets under a regulated framework, according to Thomas Zhu, head of digital assets and head of family office business at ChinaAMC. He wrote in the official announcement:

“The in-kind feature also attracts coin holders by offering the ease of converting coins to fully regulated ETFs managed by professional fund managers and regulated custodians. With the growing adoption of ETFs in institutional asset allocation and retail trading in Hong Kong, we expect robust demand for our offerings.”

Hong Kong will see the launch of three Bitcoin and three Ether-based spot Bitcoin ETFs on April 30, according to an April 2

List of ETFs launching in Hong Kong. Source: Bloomberg

Related: Hong Kong approves first Bitcoin and Ether ETFs

Unlike the cash-creation model of the United States spot Bitcoin ETFs, Hong Kong aims to offer in-kind creation models for ETFs that enable the creation of new ETF shares by using BTC and ETH.

Hong Kong’s in-kind ETF creation model could be a significant opportunity to considerably increase assets under management (AUM) and trading volume for these products, according to a research note by Bloomberg ETF analyst Rebecca Sin, shared in a March 26 X post by Eric Balchunas:

“Hong Kong is aiming for in-kind creation of the ETF, unlike the US, where the transaction is cash only — in the US, it’s cash in, Bitcoin ETF out, while Hong Kong aims for Bitcoin in, ETF out. This could be an opportunity for the market.”

Hong Kong ETFs could see a potential fee war

The launch of the first ETFs in Hong Kong could lead to issuers racing to offer the lowest fees to customers, according to an April 24 X post by Bloomberg ETF analyst James Seyffart. He wrote:

“A potential fee war could break out in Hong Kong over these Bitcoin and Ethereum ETFs. Harvest coming in hot with a full fee waiver and the lowest fee at 0.3% after waiver.”

The fees for the first ETFs are already lower than previously expected, which is a promising sign, according to Eric Balchunas, senior ETF analyst at Bloomberg, who wrote in an April 24 X post:

“Fees are 30bps, 60bps, and 99bps which is on average lower than we thought, good sign.”

Additional reporting by Helen Partz.

Related: 'China is about to start bidding' — Will Hong Kong Bitcoin ETFs spark the halving rally?"
"[INST] Google eyes paid AI search features, explores subscription model: Report [/INST] Google is considering introducing premium features powered by generative artificial intelligence (AI) in its search engine.

The move would mark the first time a core Google product is behind a paywall. However, the free search experience with advertisements will still be available.

According to a Financial Times report on April 3, the tech giant is looking at a variety of options, including incorporating AI-powered search features to its premium subscription services, which already provide access to its new Gemini AI assistant in Gmail and Docs.

Google mainly relies on advertising for monetization. The company already offers various plans, such as the Gemini AI assistant in Gmail and Docs.

However, these subscriptions currently do not enhance the search experience. The company’s main product, Google Search, has been free since its launch in the early 2000s. However, the tech giant might be exploring different means of monetization.

The report added that Google’s traditional search engine would remain free of charge and that ads would continue to appear alongside search results even for subscribers.

With the recent competition in AI, most tech companies have tried to bring more products to the market.

Google started trialing its AI-driven search tool, combining tailored narratives with web links and advertisements. Yet integration into the primary search engine lags due to delayed feature adoption from its experimental “search generative experience.”

Related: ChatGPT removes another barrier to human-AI interaction

However, AI queries demand more computing power, which ultimately is costly compared to general queries. Therefore, it may not be profitable if Google brings its “Search Generative Experience” for free.

A spokesperson from Google said that the company has no plans for an ad-free search experience:

“We’re not working on or considering an ad-free search experience. As we’ve done many times before, we’ll continue to build new premium capabilities and services to enhance our subscription offerings across Google.”

In February, Google added a new paid tier to its consumer subscription service that gives people access to its latest AI model, Gemini.

Users who pay for the subscription, called Google One AI Premium, can use the advanced Gemini chatbot and access the generative AI model in popular services such as Gmail and Google Docs.

Google, credited with pioneering the technology underlying the current AI surge, finds itself embroiled in competition with two prominent industry players: OpenAI, the developer of ChatGPT, and Microsoft, its supporter.

Magazine: Why boomers ‘like’ AI pics on Facebook, mind-reading AI breakthrough: AI Eye"
"[INST] Meet the Solana memecoin that suffered two rug pulls but still survived [/INST] While most exit scams or rug pulls result in the collapse of a project, Solana-based memecoin Catwifhat (CIF) managed to survive two of them, illustrating how crypto’s decentralized nature can sometimes allow a project to continue even when its developer disappears.

In a conversation with Cointelegraph, Catwifhat investor NFT_Sloth claimed that the project survived two rug pulls over 12 days, yet still has a dedicated community behind it today.

First, the project’s founder allegedly dumped their tokens into the open market only a few hours after launch on Dec. 12, 2023, cashing in 20% of WIF’s supply for 3.86 SOL (SOL) (worth approximately $265 at the time) and pulling most of its liquidity. Despite this setback, the remaining investors quickly took over the project, forming a new dev team to promote the token. As a result, CIF recovered to a market cap of more than $4 million by Dec. 23, just 11 days after it had been rugged.

But then, the token’s largest liquidity provider rugged the project again on Dec. 24, removing 92% of its liquidity and tanking the price by approximately 76%. Despite suffering further losses, the token’s dev team restructured yet again and continued to work on the project. As of April 3, its market cap sits at approximately $1.4 million. The 200 million tokens the founder sold on launch day would be worth over $250,000 today had they held.

Catwifhat (CIF) price chart. Source: Coingecko

Catwifhat precursor reached a $3 billion market cap

According to NFT_Sloth, Catwifhat was created to follow in the footsteps of Solana memecoin Dogwifhat (WIF), which launched in November 2023. This earlier token was created to take advantage of the “Dogwifhat” meme that had grown popular on the X platform since 2019.

According to meme history site Know Your Memes, the Dogwifhat meme got its start on Nov. 6, 2019, when professional Fortnite player Issa temporarily changed his profile picture on X to an image of a Shiba Inu dog wearing a beanie hat. Other Fortnite players also changed their profile pics to the image shortly afterward, claiming they were creating a Dogwifhat “movement” or “gang.”

Related: Solana memecoin craze causes Biden parody token to reach $250M market cap

Original Dogwifhat meme. Source: Know Your Meme

The following month, X users began to edit the photo in various ways and repost it to X, causing the meme to spread throughout the platform quickly.

In November 2023, a team of crypto developers attempted to capitalize on this phenomenon by creating a token associated with it. According to NFT_Sloth, members of the Dogwifhat community sent images to various memecoin influencers on X. They took the influencer’s profile picture and edited it, adding the beanie from the Dogwifhat meme.

One of these influencers was “Joji,” who used an Azuki nonfungible token as their profile picture. They were sent an image of this Azuki with the beanie on its head, allowing them to express support for the token through this altered profile picture. Joji began promoting Dogwifhat on their Telegram and X channels, and the token quickly gained popularity.

Catwifhat launches and developer dumps tokens

As told by NFT_Sloth, Catwifhat was one of the first memecoins attempting to follow in the footsteps of Dogwifhat. However, the developer of the project allegedly executed an exit scam mere hours after it launched.

According to the Solscan block explorer, the developer of Catwifhat minted 1 billion tokens at the moment of creation on Dec. 12, 2023, all of which were sent to the deployer account. From there, they sent 10% of the supply (100 million CIF) to an account beginning with Fm1w and another 10% to an account beginning with AUKt. The remaining 80% (800 million CIF) was deposited into a liquidity pool on the Raydium decentralized exchange. These 800 million tokens were paired with 1 SOL, setting an initial price of 0.00000000125 SOL ($0.000000085675) per CIF.

However, the token had no marketing on launch day. The developer deployed the token’s contract and listed CIF on DEX Screener but made no further attempt to attract buyers. Despite this lack of marketing, the token attracted some buyers who saw it on DEXScreener due to its similar name to Dogwifhat, NFT_Sloth claimed.

Blockchain data shows that at 9:41 am UTC on Dec. 12, the account beginning with Fm1w sold all 100 million of its tokens into the liquidity pool, receiving 1.24 SOL (approximately $85 at the time) in exchange. Two minutes later, the account beginning with AUKt also sold its coins, receiving 2.62 SOL ($180) in exchange.

At 9:56 am, the deployer account removed its share of the liquidity pool. By the time it did this, all of the CIF in the pool had been sold, causing the deployer to receive only SOL from its withdrawal. In addition, because the previous two transactions had crashed the price, the deployer received only 0.00203928 SOL ($0.14) from its withdrawal.

This alleged exit scam netted the developer approximately $265 worth of SOL in total.

Related: YouTuber Logan Paul claims CryptoZoo ‘isn’t a scam’ in new documentary

Catwifhat community takes over

After the first developer sold their tokens and removed liquidity, investors were left with essentially worthless tokens. However, NFT_Sloth says that several large investors decided to keep pursuing the project. They formed a team to take over its promotion. He claims that Joji also joined the team during this time and began promoting Catwifhat to his Telegram and X audiences. This led some “alpha callers,” speculators who make public bets on memecoins, to increasingly make calls in favor of Catwifhat, ultimately bringing even more investors into its community.

After the first developer exited, traders experienced high slippage from lack of liquidity. Yet during the first 10 days after launch, a single CIF investor managed to buy up over 55 million tokens and deposit them into the Raydium liquidity pool, providing enough supply for traders to keep trading. At the time, this investor’s share of the liquidity pool represented approximately 92% of its total value locked. They also became a social media manager for the new team and had access to its official X account. This centralization in liquidity eventually led to the second “rug pull,” NFT_Sloth claimed.

The project gets “rugged”... again

According to NFT_Sloth, this social media manager revoked his own access to the team’s X account on Dec. 24 and immediately afterward removed his liquidity. The result was a catastrophic slide in the token’s price. The current development team alleges that this action was a “liquidity rug pull,” he claimed, as the person who acted was a member of the team and controlled an excessive amount of the pool’s liquidity.

NFT_Sloth claimed that the team’s Telegram group and website admin also went silent after this event, providing further evidence of an exit scam.

Blockchain data shows that at 7:57 pm UTC on Dec. 24, two transactions from an account beginning with CWSy were confirmed. The first removed nearly 102 million CIF and 1,630 SOL from the Raydium liquidity pool. The second removed approximately 55 million CIF and 869 SOL.

Data from this time shows a massive slide in price for CIF. According to CoinGecko, the token peaked at $0.00431771 on Dec. 23, with the price being recorded as the day began at midnight. This implies that the token had a market cap of over $4.3 million at the beginning of that day. By the start of Dec. 24, the price had fallen to $0.00261692 and the market cap to $2.6 million, a decline of approximately 40%. At this point, the alleged rug pull had not yet occurred.

The next price point recorded is at the start of the following day, four hours after the alleged rug pull had occurred. At that moment, CoinGecko data shows a CIF price of $0.00098130, implying a market cap of $981,300 and a decline of 76%.

Related: Lena Network’s Candy token falls 87% after $2.9M rug pull

Catwifhat regroups yet again

Despite this second “rug pull,” the team reportedly regrouped again. NFT_Sloth said he built a new website for the project while another investor, whom he refers to as “Sam B,” launched a new Telegram group. The old website was eventually taken offline for unknown reasons.

Current Catwifhat website. Source: Catwifhat

NFT_Sloth also credited X user Cryptochristo with breathing new life into the CIF community. They reportedly spent “ten hours a day” promoting the coin after joining the group, which helped to provide the public with new awareness of the project.

He stated that some members of the community are working on an NFT marketplace that will use CIF as its native token, providing CIF with utility. However, NFT_Sloth also argued that memecoins shouldn’t be judged entirely on their utility. “In all honesty, the utility side of meme tokens is kind of like the unsexy side,” he stated. “People are in it for the LOLs for the most part.” He claimed that Catwifhat’s ultimate goal is to “transcend out of the memecoin little bubble” and gain “mainstream” adoption, similar to Dogecoin (DOGE).

As of April 2, CIF has a price of $0.001451 and a market cap of $1,451,116. The 200 million tokens that the developer reportedly sold for $265 on launch day are now worth roughly $290,000, according to CoinGecko data.

The story of Catwifhat offers some hope for victims of rug pulls, as investors were reportedly able to recover from the losses caused by these events. However, most victims of other projects have not been able to recover from these events. In May 2023, rug pulls drained over $45 million from victims, more than the amount drained from decentralized finance exploits. Since April 2023, more than $35 million has been stolen from over 42,000 victims in rug pulls, according to security platform Blockfence."
"[INST] UK trade association experiments with Regulated Liability Network [/INST] UK Finance, a banking and finance trade association based in the United Kingdom, has announced the beginning of an experimental phase focusing on the U.K. Regulated Liability Network (RLN). Eleven member organizations are taking part.

The experimentation will examine technical and legal issues and customer benefits in three use cases. First, it will consider payment-upon-delivery for physical products with an eye to reducing fraud online.

It will also look at the homebuying process to improve customer transparency to reduce conveyance fraud — the practice of selling an asset to avoid paying a claim by a creditor. The final case study will use digital money for digital bond settlement.

The experiments will align with Project Rosalind, a joint effort of the Bank for International Settlements and the Bank of England that concluded in June. It studied the use of application programming interfaces (API) in banks’ interactions with central bank digital currency (CBDC). The functionality of the U.K. RLN will be examined in a technical sandbox.

Related: City of London, British trade groups form new digital currency advocacy alliance

Results are expected to be published this summer. UK Finance released the results of its discovery-phase RLN experimentation in September.

Barclays, Citi, HSBC, Lloyds Banking Group, Mastercard, NatWest, Nationwide, Santander, Standard Chartered, Virgin Money and Visa are participants in the experimentation.

Source: Dagnum P.I.

The RLN was introduced in November 2022. It places assets and liabilities on the same ledger and focuses on interoperability between regulated forms of money using blockchain. Lloyds Banking Group head of digital and markets innovation Peter Left said in a statement:

“As a commercially led approach, RLN can unlock new features for customers’ money across a range of retail and wholesale use cases.”

In July, the Federal Reserve Bank of New York Innovation Center, the SWIFT global messaging service and nine large financial institutions completed a proof-of-concept to exchange and settle commercial bank deposit tokens and central bank liabilities using a simulated United States CBDC. Participants included Citi, HSBC and Mastercard, which are participating in the UK RLN experimentation as well.

Magazine: How the digital yuan could change the world… for better or worse"
"[INST] Terraform Labs was ‘built on lies’ — SEC at trial [/INST] As the trial between Terraform Labs and the United States Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) approaches the finish line, attorneys alleged the crypto firm made several false claims regarding the platform to investors.

According to an April 5 Reuters report, SEC lawyers said in U.S. District Court for the Southern District of New York that Terraform’s story was “built on lies,” which included the stability of algorithmic stablecoin TerraUSD (UST) and an integration with a South Korean payment app. Terraform attorney Louis Pellegrino reportedly claimed co-founder Do Kwon had been truthful in public statements, and the SEC’s case relied on information taken out of context.

The civil trial with the SEC came more than a year after the commission filed a lawsuit against Terraform in February 2023. The regulator alleged at the time that the platform and Kwon “orchestrat[ed] a multi-billion dollar crypto asset securities fraud.”

During the trial, SEC lawyers compared Terra to a “house of cards” that collapsed for investors in 2022. The failure of Terra contributed to a major crypto market downturn that engulfed FTX, BlockFi, Celsius and others forced to file for bankruptcy.

Related: Montenegro’s Supreme Court sends Do Kwon’s extradition case back to lower court

The trial has been moving forward without Kwon attending in person. The Terraform co-founder remains in Montenegro as the courts determine whether to grant an extradition request from the U.S. or South Korea. He was arrested in March 2023 for using falsified travel documents.

In January, Judge Jed Rakoff moved the start date of the SEC v. Terraform Labs trial to March 25 in an attempt to accommodate Kwon. Other major figures in the crypto space going to court in the U.S. include former Celsius CEO Alex Mashinsky for his criminal trial in January 2025 and former Binance CEO Changpeng Zhao for an April 30 sentencing hearing.

Magazine: Lawmakers’ fear and doubt drives proposed crypto regulations in US"
"[INST] Coinbase Wallet triumph over SEC allegations is a ‘giant win’ for DeFi [/INST] Crypto lawyers are hailing a recent decision by a United States judge to dismiss allegations against Coinbase Wallet as a win for self-custody wallets and decentralized finance (DeFi) apps.

U.S. District Judge Katherine Failla on March 27 denied Coinbase’s bid to dismiss a Securities and Exchange Commission’s lawsuit, finding the SEC “sufficiently pleaded” Coinbase was unlicensed and its crypto staking offering was unregistered securities.

The judge also determined the SEC failed to allege that Coinbase conducted brokerage activity through Coinbase Wallet, its self-custody crypto wallet app that gives users full control of their assets.

“[This] is a pretty giant win for browser-based wallet extensions, application front ends, and other similar applications,” said Ethena Labs general counsel Zach Rosenberg in a March 27 X post.

“[It’s] not just that Coinbase won, but the basis for it,” Rosenberg emphasized. He explained that Coinbase helping Wallet users find token prices doesn’t mean it’s acting as a broker by “routing or making recommendations.”

Coinbase winning on this issue at this stage means the Court did not think that, even accepting all well-pled SEC allegations as categorically true, there was a plausible basis to conclude that Coinbase acted as a broker by virtue of offering Coinbase Wallet. — Meat (,) (@MeatEsq) March 27, 2024

The court order could be used by DeFi app developers facing similar lawsuits to argue their way out of allegations that they acted as unregistered brokers.

Industry advocate body the Blockchain Association legal head Marisa Tashman Coppel posted she was “very pleased to see the court curb massive SEC overreach with regard to the Coinbase Wallet allegations.”

Law firm Willkie Farr & Gallagher partner Mike Selig said in an X post the Coinbase Wallet dismissal was a “significant setback” for the SEC.

“SEC aimed to discourage builders from developing peer-to-peer software. Didn’t work.”

Crypto venture firm Variant legal chief Jake Chervinsky said, however, that while there are “some positives” in the judge’s order, “overall, SEC wins.”

Related: US lawmakers demand SEC clarify position on Prometheum’s plans for Ether

“It’s great for DeFi that Wallet is not a broker, and there’s good language on other issues,” he said. “But the court sided with the SEC (incorrectly, [in my opinion]) on several key issues.”

Chervinsky explained Judge Failla said the Howey test — a legal framework to classify securities — applies to “purely secondary market transactions” and ignores the “‘contract’ in ‘investment contract.’”

He claimed the court also adopted the SEC’s theory that a token project using sale profits to reinvest into its ecosystem is a “common enterprise” where buyers would reasonably expect profits — making it a security.

“This is a disappointing outcome,” Chervinsky said. “But it’s only the beginning — not the end — of the SEC’s case against Coinbase specifically.”

The case will now continue into discovery — where Coinbase and the SEC collect evidence for their arguments.

The SEC first sued Coinbase in June last year, alleging it listed 13 tokens the regulator deemed securities and operated as an unlicenced exchange and broker-dealer, which Coinbase denies.

Magazine: Coinbase ‘is going to win’ says MetaLawMan: X Hall of Flame"
"[INST] Former NY Fed chief joins Binance.US board [/INST] United States-based cryptocurrency exchange Binance.US announced that a former chief compliance and ethics officer from the Federal Reserve Bank of New York has joined its board of directors.

In an April 16 blog post, Binance.US said former NY Fed chief Martin Grant would be bringing his “regulatory, legal, and compliance” experience to the crypto exchange as one of its newest board members. Grant was the chief compliance and ethics officer at the NY Fed from 2005 to 2022, having joined the bank in 1990.

According to Binance.US Interim CEO Norman Reed, adding Grant would help the exchange “continue to navigate the current regulatory environment “ in the U.S. The former NY Fed chief is also the Global Head of Regulatory Affairs and Integrity at financial services firm JST Digital, adding that the crypto industry in the U.S. was “at an inflection point.”

The change to Binance.US’ board of directors came roughly two weeks after global exchange Binance — a separate entity — announced it would be forming a board for the first time. The seven-person board is chaired by Gabriel Abed, the ambassador of Barbados to the United Arab Emirates, where the exchange has some personnel and ties to regulatory authorities.

Related: Binance.US says it’s ‘radioactive’ to banks, SEC dealt ‘near-mortal blow’

Former Binance CEO Changpeng Zhao chaired the Binance.US board before he resigned in November 2023 as part of an agreement with U.S. authorities — a settlement that did not include the U.S. exchange. Zhao stepped down as Binance CEO and pleaded guilty to one felony charge, for which he is scheduled to be sentenced on April 30.

Binance, Binance.US and Zhao still face a civil lawsuit initially filed by the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission in June 2023 for allegedly offering unregistered securities. The case is one of many enforcement actions the regulator is pursuing against crypto firms with operations in the country, including Coinbase and Ripple.

Magazine: ‘SEAL 911’ team of white hats formed to fight crypto hacks in real time"
"[INST] Father-son team says they’ve recovered $6M in lost crypto [/INST] When crypto users lose their private keys or get scammed out of their coins by a con artist, they usually cannot recover their funds. In most cases, their crypto is lost forever. But according to a father and son team that operates out of New Hampshire, all hope is not lost. They claim to have recovered more than $6 million worth of lost crypto throughout their careers.

Chris and Charles Brooks run Crypto Asset Recovery, a service that helps crypto users recover lost wallets. They also provide scam tracking for victims of crypto theft.

Charles and Chris Brooks. Source: Crypto Asset Recovery

In a conversation with Cointelegraph, Chris, the father of co-founder Charles, said that about 70% of the duo’s clients come to them after losing their Bitcoin (BTC) wallet password. These users sometimes have no seed word backups, so if they lose their password, their wallets are difficult to recover without the help of a specialist.

“The BIP39 recovery seed [generated by most modern wallets] was only proposed in 2013, and it didn’t start getting wide adoption until 2015. So, for folks who have older wallets, that’s not even an option for them,” he stated. Even if a wallet is fairly new, there is still a “handful of wallets where you have to go searching for your seed words if you want to back that up.”

In these cases, if a user forgets their password, they lose access to their wallet since they don’t have any seed word backups they can use to restore it. Even so, Chris claimed that most of these wallets can still be recovered using software that guesses the password through brute force.

Even if a user has a seed word backup, they may have made a mistake when copying it down. For example, they may have left one word out, or they may be getting an error when they attempt to enter the words. Chris said he could often recover these wallets as well by brute-forcing the missing word or the correct order of words.

Charles said he recently helped a “Casascius coin” collector recover his lost wallet key. A Casascius coin is a physical coin that carries a Bitcoin private key inside of a film on its back side. The private key is only 26 to 36 characters long instead of the usual 51 characters. On the front side of the coin is the first eight characters of the Bitcoin address that corresponds to its key.

According to Charles, the collector had accidentally ripped part of the coin’s film, causing “5 or 6 characters” to become illegible. Using the remaining characters and the snippet of the Bitcoin address from the front of the coin, Charles was able to use software to guess the missing characters to the private key.

Related: Crypto’s Indiana Jones? Coinbase exec helps recover $322K of once-lost crypto

The duo recently launched a scam tracking service for users who have their crypto stolen by con artists. In a case where a client was scammed, “we will take the transaction hashes of [the victim] sending funds to the scammer, [and] we will follow those funds into the scammer’s wallet,” Charles stated. After establishing the scammer’s address or “address cluster,” they will attempt to associate it “with a known entity, which is more often than not an exchange.” Once this entity is known, they will “compile a report and help the client report the case to law enforcement.”

In contrast to crypto lost from a forgotten password, Charles cautioned that scammed funds are usually gone forever. The only sliver of hope of recovering them is by involving police and the courts, he explained:

“We don’t see much likelihood in recovery of scam cases. Once the funds are in somebody else’s wallet, [...] you need to go hunt them down with police and gain access to their Ledger, or whatever is holding it, so we tell [clients] that there is a very low likelihood of recovery.”

Even so, some crypto users may benefit from being able to trace stolen funds and provide a report to the police, he claimed. Charles stated that law enforcement is working on a few cases that the team has reported, but so far, none have concluded.

The duo claimed they’ve recovered $6 million in crypto lost through forgotten passwords, missing seed words and other issues. “We’ve been pretty successful in recovering lost wallets,” Charlie stated. “We have right around a 45% or 46% success rate when somebody needs help with a cracked password, and so over time, that has built up.”

Crypto users have lost billions of dollars from forgetting passwords and losing seed words over the years. According to an estimate from Chainalysis, over 20% of the Bitcoin supply is in wallets no longer under the control of any person."
"[INST] Web3 investment up 55% in Q1 as crypto VC interest rebounds [/INST] The total investment in Web3 firms increased by 55% in the first quarter of 2024, signaling the return of venture capital (VC) interest to crypto.

In addition to an increase of over 55% in total investment, the number of Web3 VC investment deals rose 36% in the first quarter of 2024 compared to the previous quarter, according to a Q1 on-chain report by QuickNode and Artemis.

Artificial intelligence (AI) and gaming-related Web3 protocols took the lion’s share of the investment. According to the report:

“[This indicates] that investments are increasing for the first time in over a year, and suggesting a favorable shift in VC sentiment for web3. In particular, AI and Gaming have garnered the most resounding revival of venture capital enthusiasm among the categories.”

Quarterly number of Web3 investment deals. Source: QuickNode

Further showcasing VC interest in Web3, crypto-focused VC firm Paradigm led a $225 million funding round into Monad Labs, which is building a new layer-1 blockchain network set to compete with Solana. The round was announced on April 9.

Two of the quarter’s largest early-stage rounds included a $42 million Series B round by Berachain and a $35 million pre-seed round for 0G Labs, a data availability blockchain for AI protocols.

Seed round deals saw the most growth, up 53% quarter-on-quarter, suggesting increased interest in early-stage deals. Series A and seed funding rounds nearly doubled their capital inflows compared to the previous quarter, “reflecting VCs’ renewed willingness to invest in Web3,” according to the report.

Quarterly number of Web3 investment deals, by round. Source: QuickNode

Related: With 10 days to the halving, analysts predict $150K Bitcoin top

Crypto VC interest reignites ahead of the Bitcoin halving

Several notable investment deals were announced in the period leading up to the 2024 Bitcoin halving.

On April 9, Bitcoin layer-2 network Mezo announced the completion of a $21 million Series A funding round led by Pantera Capital. Mezo enables investors to earn yield based on the time they hold their tokens. They describe it as a “Bitcoin Economic Layer.”

On April 3, reports emerged about Paradigm negotiating to raise up to $850 million for a new fund, which would make it the largest raise in the crypto industry since May 2022, when Silicon Valley-based VC firm Andreessen Horowitz raised a record-setting $4.5 billion.

What Could Go Wrong with Bitcoin Halving? Source: Cointelegraph

Related: Binance Labs shifts investment focus to Bitcoin DeFi"
"[INST] Dubai crypto watchdog aims to ease burdens for small entities [/INST] Dubai's crypto landscape is undergoing a transformative phase, but amidst the buzz, smaller players are grappling with hefty regulatory burdens. Matthew White, CEO of Dubai's Virtual Asset Regulatory Authority (VARA), is on a mission to change that narrative.

In an exclusive revelation at the Paris Blockchain Week, White unveiled ambitious plans to alleviate the compliance costs plaguing small crypto entities.

At a regulatory panel discussion at the Paris Blockchain Week, White admitted that crypto regulations are not perfect, adding that he is looking for ways to improve them.

One of the plans under consideration is lessening the financial burdens for smaller crypto businesses. White said:

“It’s not perfect. There’s a number of things I’m looking at, at the moment, to try and make the regime fit for everybody. One of those is figuring out a way to deal with the costs of compliance for smaller entities.”

The VARA official said getting regulated is a “costly exercise” and that many people lack the resources. White said this was something the watchdog had experienced, leading them to look for solutions.

VARA CEO Matthew White discussing regulations at the Paris Blockchain Week stage. Source: Paris Blockchain Week

White explained a potential fix, where larger participants could “host” smaller ones. With this structure, costs would be carried by entities with more resources. He explained:

“The cost of compliance is borne by the larger systemic players, and this allows the smaller players to come into the ecosystem, be regulated, but also not have to suffer the same sort of level of costs of compliance that we’ve got.”

The VARA CEO also said that looking at things like this is part of the regulator’s journey of allowing innovation while creating regulations. The official said that they are continuing to engage with the industry to try to understand it.

“It moves so quickly. We don’t pretend to know everything as a regulator,” he added.

Related: Lawyer explains new federal virtual asset law in the United Arab Emirates

Last year, White replaced former CEO Henson Orser at VARA. On Nov. 16, VARA announced that White’s appointment was part of its preparations to ramp up to full-scale market operations.

The leadership switch came as the United Arab Emirates tightened its rules and imposed fines for unlicensed virtual asset service providers.

On Nov. 8, United Arab Emirates regulators collaborated in a joint guidance for VASPs, detailing fines and sanctions for non-compliance.

Magazine: Crypto City: Guide to Dubai"
"[INST] Sweden demands $90M in outstanding tax from crypto miners [/INST] Swedish crypto miners owe over $90 million in taxes after government investigations revealed four years of misappropriations.

The Swedish Tax Agency —Skatteverket — investigated the operations of 21 crypto-mining firms between 2020 and 2023. The investigation revealed that 18 crypto-mining firms filed “misleading or incomplete” information to benefit from tax incentives.

According to the agency, some crypto firms provided misleading business descriptions to avoid paying value-added tax (VAT) on taxable operations. Others found ways to avoid paying import taxes on mining equipment or income tax on mining revenue.

A rough translation of the Swedish Tax Agency’s statement read:

“The described approach leads to tax disappearing from the country in the form of incorrect payments of input VAT, unpaid output VAT and unreported crypto assets.”

The crypto mining firms are required to pay the tax authorities over 990 million Swedish krona ($90 million) in total. This includes unpaid total VAT of 932 million krona ($85.4 million) and tax surcharges of approximately 57.9 million krona ($5.3 million).

A breakdown of tax obligations for crypto mining firms between 2020 and 2023. Source: Swedish Tax Agency

While the crypto mining firms appealed against the $90 million demand from the Swedish Tax Agency, the administrative court upheld the appeals of two mining firms and rejected the rest. “The amounts above have been adjusted with regard to the verdicts.”

Related: Renewable energy Bitcoin mining company powers up in Sweden

In November 2023, crypto mining firm Hive Digital Technologies acquired a commercial property and a data center in Boden, Sweden. At the time, Johanna Thornblad, Hive’s country president for Sweden, said:

“The new data center will enable HIVE to grow its regional footprint while further demonstrating its commitment to its ESG focus, sustainable practices, environmental responsibility, and energy efficiency with its newest “green” energy powered data center.”

The company confirmed that the property will also house its incoming generation of ASIC servers and increase its Bitcoin (BTC) production.

Hive owns and operates data center facilities in Canada, Sweden, and Iceland, and it promotes the use of green energy to mine digital assets such as Bitcoin on the cloud.

Magazine: Bitcoin Halving will pump games, Shrapnel’s ‘simple’ secret revealed: Web3 Gamer"
"[INST] Bitcoin mining difficulty sets new high pre-halving [/INST] Update April 15, 10:40 am UTC: According to the Hash Rate Index, the Bitcoin hash rate only reached a high of 630 EH/s in March.

Bitcoin mining difficulty has experienced another adjustment before the Bitcoin halving, hitting a new all-time high of 86.4 trillion, according to data from BTC.com.

The latest adjustment, which occurred on April 10, increased the Bitcoin mining difficulty by 3.4% from the previous difficulty level of 83 trillion, which was set on March 28.

The difficulty of mining Bitcoin (BTC) continues to grow ahead of the historic halving event, which is poised to cut miner rewards by 50%.

The past five Bitcoin mining difficulty adjustments as of April 10. Source: BTC.com

The latest Bitcoin mining difficulty adjustment is likely the last one before the halving.

According to BTC.com, the next Bitcoin mining difficulty adjustment will occur in 13 days, or around April 24. In the meantime, the Bitcoin halving is expected to occur in eight days on April 19, according to data from M2.

Bitcoin mining difficulty measures how hard and time-consuming it is to mine a new block or solve mathematical puzzles under Bitcoin’s proof-of-work (PoW) consensus mechanism.

BTC mining difficulty adjustment occurs every 2,016 blocks, or approximately every two weeks, as Bitcoin is programmed to self-adjust the difficulty level to maintain a target block time of 10 minutes.

The mining difficulty directly depends on the Bitcoin blockchain hash rate, a unit measuring miners’ computational power to produce new BTC.

In line with the increasing Bitcoin mining difficulty, the BTC hash rate has seen a significant rise recently, surging from around 619 exahashes per second (EH/s) on March 28 to 696 EH/s on April 10, according to BTC.com.

Related: Bitcoin miners may ‘fear’ the halving, but they cherish it too

According to data from BitInfoCharts, the Bitcoin hash rate reached an all-time high of 727.9 EH/s on March 24. Other charts like Hashrate Index indicate that the Bitcoin hash rate didn't post such a high in March, only reaching a high of 630 EH/s in March.

Bitcoin hash rate three-month chart. Source: BitInfoCharts

Some analysts predict that the BTC hash rate will likely drop after the upcoming Bitcoin halving in 2024.

According to Galaxy’s mining analysts, as much as 20% of Bitcoin’s current hash rate could go offline after the Bitcoin halving, as many miners will likely turn off their mining rigs due to lowered efficiency.

The analysts said that more than 70% of the Bitcoin hash rate was churned out by eight ASIC miner models by the end of 2023.

Magazine: Synthetix founder: It’s DeFi that’s wrong, not the market"
"[INST] Hut 8 ‘self-mining plans’ make it competitive post-halving: Benchmark [/INST] United States Bitcoin (BTC) miner Hut 8’s plans to expand its self-mining operations and its scope of diversified revenue streams will make it more competitive in a post-halving world, according to investing banking firm Benchmark.

In an April 22 research note viewed by Cointelegraph, Benchmark senior analyst Mark Palmer explained that the “new HUT” — a firm borne out of a merger between the “old HUT” and US Bitcoin Corporation — boasted a “diversified business model” with multiple revenue streams.

Benchmark initiated coverage of Hut 8 stock and set a $12 price target — a near 30% increase from its current share price of $9.22, per TradingView data.

Hut 8 is currently trading for just above $9.Source: TradingView

Hut 8’s current self-mining hash rate of 5.4 exahash per second (EH/S) remains far below that of self-mining category leader Marathon Digital which has a deployed rate of 27.8 EH/s, but despite this, Palmer said he expects this gap to close over time.

“Hut trades at a discount to its Bitcoin mining peers that we expect to shrink as the company executes on its self-mining expansion plans.”

Palmer looked to Hut 8’s multiple revenue streams, which include self-mining, cloud computing, high-performance computing, and artificial intelligence services, as justification for his price target.

Related: Biden is asking Congress to kill the American Bitcoin mining industry

“We believe the diversity of Hut 8’s platform will benefit it over the long-term, as its revenue streams outside of self-mining position it to weather severe downturns in Bitcoin’s price better than most of its listed peers, in our view,” Palmer said.

Additionally, Palmer explained that Hut 8 touts an enterprise value-to-revenue multiple of 2.6 which is slightly below that of the 3.1 average of its publicly traded Bitcoin mining peers including, Marathon Digital, Riot Platforms, and several others.

Hut 8’s EV/Revenue multiple is slightly below that of its peers. Source: Benchmark

While Palmer conceded that Hut 8 still needs to upgrade its hash rate he said its 9,102 Bitcoin held on reserve provided it with a “sizable liquidity cushion” as well as an ability to capture upside moves if the price of BTC were to rally significantly in the coming months.

On Feb. 7, Hut 8 announced a leadership shakeup, with former CEO Jamie Leverton being replaced by Asher Genoot, the then-president and sitting member of the company’s board of directors.

The management re-structure came just weeks after short-selling firm JCapital published a report claiming that Hut 8 was in “legal trouble” and warned investors in the Florida-based Bitcoin miner of “upcoming pump and dump.”

Hut 8 slammed the share seller report as a “deliberate attempt to spread misinformation,” claiming it was filled with inaccurate information and misrepresented data.

Magazine: The real risks to Ethena’s stablecoin model (are not the ones you think)"
"[INST] BNB Chain will enable native liquid staking on BSC [/INST] BNB Chain said it will enable native liquid staking on its BNB Smart Chain (BSC) as part of its shift to migrate the BNB Beacon Chain’s functions to BSC as the former is wound down.

In an announcement sent to Cointelegraph, BNB Chain noted that the BNB Beacon Chain will be completely shut down by June 2024. However, the company said it will transfer its features to the BSC before it closes.

BNB Chain’s road map for transitioning from the Beacon Chain to the Smart Chain. Source: BNB Chain

BNB Chain said that enabling liquid staking on BSC will allow ecosystem participants to secure the network while keeping the liquidity of their assets.

While the organization did not give a specific date for the rollout of the liquid staking feature, BNB Chain said it will happen in April or May.

The BNB Chain core development team told Cointelegraph that the move to BSC is the organization’s attempt to streamline the network. They said:

“The implementation aligns with the sunset of the BNB Chain Fusion, streamlining the network, improving efficiency, reducing security risks and matching current technological demands.”

The team added that the move is also a part of the company’s growth plans to make the BNB Chain “more attractive to users.”

BNB Chain explained that with the feature, users can engage in decentralized finance activities without sacrificing the asset’s utility because they will have liquid staking tokens representing their staked crypto assets.

The BNB Chain core development team also told Cointelegraph in a statement that holders can delegate their BNB (BNB) to a liquidity pool or directly to the validator. They said:

“Liquidity staking not only rewards BNB stakers but also enhances security for the BNB Chain network. It offers BNB holders increased flexibility in staking their assets and more options for staking BNB.”

The team explained that when BNB holders stake their tokens in the liquidity pool, they can receive liquidity provider tokens, which they can use in many activities within the ecosystem.

Related: New crypto users shouldn’t ‘rush into DeFi’ — Security firms

According to the development team, liquid staking and the maximum extractable value (MEV) optimization for the BNB Chain will be rolled out together.

“Validators with MEV enabled will have the opportunity to boost their staking returns through MEV revenue, which will ultimately be factored into Liquidity Staking rewards,” the team added.

Magazine: 7 ICO alternatives for blockchain fundraising: Crypto airdrops, IDOs & more"
"[INST] Crypto VC Paradigm seeking up to $850M raise for fund: Report [/INST] Crypto venture capital firm Paradigm is reportedly negotiating a raise of up to $850 million for a new fund.

Paradigm is discussing with investors to raise between $750 million to $850 million as crypto markets have come back over the past months, Bloomberg reported on April 3, citing people familiar with the matter.

A $750 million raise would be the largest for crypto since May 2022, when Silicon Valley-based VC firm Andreessen Horowitz (a16z) raised a record-setting $4.5 billion.

If Paradigm completes the raise, it would be its largest since it raised a $2.5 billion fund in November 2021 at the peak of the last cycle’s bull run — which was the largest cryptocurrency fund ever at the time.

In September, The Information reported Paradigm was aiming to raise a $1 billion fund.

Paradigm did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

Some of Paradigm’s most notable Web3-related investments include Coinbase, Fireblocks, Blast, Optimism, Uniswap, Gitcoin and friend.tech.

It recently tipped Merkle Manufactory — the firm behind the decentralized social network Farcaster — into unicorn status as its valuation surpassed the $1 billion mark in a Paradigm-led funding round.

Paradigm also invested $278 million in the now-collapsed FTX. It wrote its investment down to zero just four days after Sam Bankman-Fried’s exchange filed for bankruptcy.

Matt Huang, Paradigm's founder and managing partner,said the firm felt “deep regret” for investing in a company that did “enormous damage to the ecosystem.”

Matt Huang, co-founder and managing partner at Paradigm. Source: Paradigm

Huang said FTX only constituted “a small part” of Paradigm’s total assets, however.

Related: Crypto VC funding surged 53% in March, Optimism wins largest share

VC fundraising for crypto projects sunk ta low of $445 million in October 2023 — the lowest monthly figure since December 2020, according to RootData.

However, the last three months have recorded consecutive monthly increases, with March seeing $1.16 billion, according to RootData.

Cryptocurrency fundraising between Jan. 2020 and April 2024. Source: RootData

The infrastructure and decentralized finance (DeFi) sectors received the most funding in 2024 at $1.14 billion and $459 million, respectively.

Nonfungible token (NFT)-related VC funding last year was $281.3 million, a 92% drop from the $3.4 billion in 2022.

The VC funding drop is in tandem with floor prices of major NFT collections also to falling. The two largest NFT projects by market cap, CryptoPunks and the Bored Ape Yacht Club, saw their respective floor prices fall around 63% and 90% from highs back in October 2021 and May 2022, according to NFT Price Floor.

Magazine: The secret of pitching to male VCs: Helping female crypto founders blast off"
"[INST] Hong Kong investment firm Victory Securities reveals Bitcoin and Ether ETF fees [/INST] Hong Kong-based investment firm Victory Securities has reportedly disclosed its proposed fees to investors for Bitcoin (BTC) and Ether (ETH) exchange-traded funds (ETFs) following the recent approval of cryptocurrency ETF products within the region.

The announcement comes even though the Hong Kong Securities and Futures Commission (SFC) has not yet published the list of approved ETF issuers.

If approved by the SFC, Victory Securities’ customers will face proposed fees for Ether and Bitcoin ETF shares in the primary market, set at 0.5% to 1% of the total transaction, with a minimum fee of $850, according to an extract of a translated report shared by Wu Blockchain on April 20.

For investors interested in buying and selling existing ETF shares on the secondary market, the fees will be 0.15% for online transactions and 0.25% for telephone transactions.

Source: Wu Blockchain

The fees are comparable to the rates set out by United States asset managers offering spot Bitcoin ETFs. While different fees in the U.S. are waived until various times this year, asset manager Franklin Templeton has set its fee at 0.19%, while other ETFs range between 0.20% and 0.90%.

The Grayscale Bitcoin Trust (GBTC) imposes a notably higher fee at 1.5%.

On April 15, Cointelegraph reported that Hong Kong has become the latest country to approve spot ETFs for Bitcoin and Ether.

Related: Hong Kong spot Bitcoin ETF approval draws praise and caution from industry players

At least three offshore Chinese asset managers, including Hong Kong units of Harvest Fund Management, Bosera Asset Management and China Asset Management (ChinaAMC), plan to launch their spot Bitcoin and Ether ETFs soon.

While the approval saw praise from many in the crypto community including local Hong Kong exchanges, others were more skeptical of the ETF's success within the region.

“Mainland China investors probably won’t be eligible to buy Hong Kong-listed spot Bitcoin and Ether ETFs as they are barred from buying virtual assets,” Bloomberg ETF analyst Eric Balchunas stated in an April 17 post on X.

Magazine: Get Bitcoin or die tryin’: Why hip hop stars love crypto"
"[INST] Bitcoin nosedives as political tensions escalate in the Middle East [/INST] Bitcoin price plummeted over 8.4% on April 13 after Iran launched an attack on Israel, escalating geopolitical conflicts in the Middle East.

The price of Bitcoin (BTC) dropped from around $67,000 to $61,625, wiping out over $130 million in market capitalization within minutes following news of the attack.

The sell-off is also affecting other cryptocurrencies. At the time of writing, Ether (ETH) was down 9.81% to $2,927, while Solana’s (SOL) sank 15.96% to $129. According to CoinMarketCap data, the global crypto market capitalization declined 8.19% to $2.23 trillion.

Bitcoin price on April 13. Source: TradingView

According to Bloomberg, Iran launched drones toward Israel on Saturday, April 13. The action is retaliation for an attack conducted by Israel days before, which targeted a diplomatic compound in Damascus, Syria, killing seven Iranians, including two generals.

Aside from the airstrikes, Iranian authorities have reportedly seized a cargo ship owned by a billionaire Israeli.

On April 12, United States President Joe Biden warned that Iran would launch attacks “sooner than later,” highlighting that the U.S. would help defend Israel:

“We are devoted to the defense of Israel. We will support Israel, we will help defend Israel, and Iran will not succeed.”

The conflict between Iran and Israel significantly escalates tensions in the region, something the U.S. has been reportedly trying to prevent since the Oct. 7, 2023, terrorist attacks carried out by Hamas, which has led to broader ongoing conflict between Israel and Hamas.

U.S. officials have been urging Israel not to escalate tensions in their response to Iran, a government source told CNN. The officials also expressed frustration with the lack of prior information Israel provided regarding its airstrike in Damascus. Israel only informed a U.S. official when its planes were already en route to Syria, sources said.

“We were not aware that Israel was going to carry out this airstrike in advance,” the official stated. “Minutes before it happened and when Israeli planes were already in the air, Israel reached out to a U.S. official to say they were in the process of conducting a strike in Syria. It did not include any details on who they were targeting or where it would be conducted, and the strike was already underway before word could be passed through the U.S. government.”"
"[INST] Cathie Wood’s ARK dumps $31M in Robinhood stock, stacks Roblox [/INST] ARK Invest, the investment management firm founded by veteran investor Cathie Wood, started dumping large amounts of stock of the cryptocurrency-friendly broker-dealer Robinhood (HOOD).

On March 25, ARK dumped 1.6 million Robinhood shares from its three funds, according to a trade notification seen by Cointelegraph.

The amount is worth $31.5 million, based on HOOD’s closing price of $19.08 on Monday, according to data from TradingView.

The most significant portion — or 1,247,181 shares — was offloaded from the ARK Innovation ETF (ARKK), worth about $24 million. ARK also offloaded 275,933 and 128,137 HOOD shares from the ARK Next Generation Internet ETF (ARKW) and ARK Fintech Innovation ETF (ARKF), respectively.

ARK’s latest Robinhood sale is the largest one since the company started actively stacking HOOD stock last year. The sales came amid Robinhood seeing significant success, with its price surging 36% over the past 30 days.

The firm was selling smaller portions of Robinhood shares previously, with the majority of such sales being forced by compliance with Rule 12d3-1. The rule prohibits funds from acquiring more than 5% of the value of its total assets in securities.

Related: Coinbase to launch DOGE futures, says it ‘transcended’ meme origins

After dumping $24 million in Robinhood shares, ARK’s ARKK holds HOOD as its eighth-largest portfolio asset, accounting for 4.3% of its entire $8.2 billion assets under management.

The top three assets are Coinbase (COIN), which accounts for 10.6% as of March 26, Tesla (TSLA) and Roku (ROKU), which make up 8.4% and 7.5%, respectively.

ARKK’s top nine assets by value as of March 26, 2024. Source: ARK Invest

While dumping Robinhood, ARK has continued buying more shares of the online game platform Roblox (RBLX). On March 25, ARK acquired 740,115 Roblox shares for its three funds, including ARKK, ARKW and ARKF. The amount is worth $27 million at the closing price on Monday, according to TradingView.

In addition to selling Robinhood, ARK continued to offload Coinbase shares, dumping 4,291 COIN on Monday. The sale is worth roughly $21 million as of Tuesday morning, according to TradingView data.

Founded in 2013, Robinhood is a crypto-friendly stock trading application that allows users to trade cryptocurrencies like Bitcoin (BTC) and Ether (ETH) in addition to stocks, exchange-traded funds (ETFs), options and other assets.

On March 20, 2024, Robinhood launched the Android version of its self-custodial wallet, the Robinhood Wallet app.

Magazine: Bitcoin ETFs make Coinbase a ‘honeypot’ for hackers and governments: Trezor CEO"
"[INST] Bitcoin whales in accumulation phase, with BTC halving just a week away [/INST] As the Bitcoin (BTC) halving approached, whales have acquired significant amounts of BTC in the past week. With around a week left unti the fourth Bitcoin halving — which will see the block reward reduced to 3.125 BTC — growing demand from whales indicates bullish market sentiment.

According to data shared by crypto analytic firm CryptoQuant, the growth in demand from Bitcoin whales has never been stronger.

Demand from “permanent holders” has exceeded the market supply of new Bitcoin for the first time. This indicates that the quantity of new Bitcoin produced by mining is insufficient to meet cryptocurrency investors’ demand, and the scarcity will only grow further after the halving of the Bitcoin.

Bitcoin issuance vs. permanent holder demand. Source: CryptoQuant

The increasing demand from BTC whales added to the spot Bitcoin inflows will put upward pressure on the price of the top cryptocurrency. In the intermediate and long run, this trend may potentially help to push the value of Bitcoin further.

The Bitcoin halving is a milestone event for the crypto ecosystem and is often preceded and followed by euphoric price action.

Historically, each bull run has started months before the halving in anticipation of the reduced BTC supply. Post-halving, the price of BTC rises multifold due to the decreased supply and widening supply-demand imbalance.

Besides the direct impact on supply, BTC halvings also impact the miners responsible for transaction verification and adding new blocks to the blockchain.

Each halving cuts the amount of BTC miners earn in half, increasing the cost of mining new BTC. Therefore, BTC prices must rise to a certain level for miners to continue operating profitably.

Related: Bitcoin RSI points to short-term gains as metric signals BTC price top

Currently, the average cost of mining one Bitcoin is about $49,000, which is profitable at the current trading price of around $70,000. However, post-halving BTC prices must cross $80,000 for miners to continue operating at a profit.

The whale accumulation phase is a bullish sign for the crypto market, indicating that big BTC holders are moving their holdings to cold wallets in anticipation of a price rise.

Magazine: Creating ‘good’ AGI that won’t kill us all — Crypto’s Artificial Superintelligence Alliance"
"[INST] eToro’s CEO predicts $100T crypto market amid shifts [/INST] In an interview at Paris Blockchain Week, Yoni Assia, CEO of the trading platform eToro, discussed the future of cryptocurrencies and blockchain technology. Assia predicts that the market capitalization for crypto projects could exceed $100 trillion as more physical assets transition to the blockchain.

Speaking with Cointelegraph Editor-at-Large Kristina Lucrezia Cornèr at the Paris Blockchain Week on April 10, Assia discussed eToro’s journey through several price crash events, recollecting “crypto winter” episodes of the Mt. Gox crash, the initial coin offering (ICO) bubble, nonfungible tokens (NFTs) and the recent ecosystem collapses.

In the process, Assia underscored the need for investors to learn about assets of interest and stick to a “long-term vision” amid market turmoil.

Unlike 15 years ago, investors now have the option to go beyond Bitcoin (BTC) and put their money into various altcoin projects and blockchains.

Moreover, Assia envisions a future where real-world assets will be traded over blockchains, much like digital asset securities. In doing so, traditional stock markets could go beyond the current T+1 settlement cycles to how crypto operates.

Over the next 10 years, Assia predicts that the market capitalization of crypto projects will exceed $100 trillion in value as most physical assets shift over to the blockchain.

He further anticipates that Bitcoin’s market price will continue to rise as more people realize the rising inflation of fiat money and use BTC as a hedge to retain their purchasing power.

Responding to Cornèr’s question on the redistribution of wealth via crypto, Assia said artificial intelligence (AI) will be one of the biggest disruptors, as it is well-positioned to create new types of jobs and generate wealth “through creating new forms of money.”

Related: Ethereum-based investment products see negative outflows for 4th consecutive week

The use of decentralized AIs in the future could be to make investments in an unstoppable blockchain like Bitcoin, and in the process, “the crypto community will be the first to identify singularity because it’s very hard to define what consciousness is,” he said.

In a previous interaction with Cointelegraph, Assia said Bitcoin adoption would be catalyzed by exchange-traded funds (ETFs) and ease of investing through various platforms for non-professionals.

Magazine: Synthetix founder: It’s DeFi that’s wrong, not the market"
"[INST] Grayscale spot Bitcoin ETF ‘halves’ before BTC halving [/INST] Major Bitcoin (BTC) investor Grayscale Investments has seen its spot BTC exchange-traded fund (ETF) holdings drop 50% ahead of the anticipated Bitcoin halving event.

Bitcoin holdings in the Grayscale Bitcoin Trust ETF (GBTC) shrunk by one-half from 619,220 BTC on the first day of trading on Jan. 11.

According to GBTC data, the spot Bitcoin ETF held 309,871 BTC on its 66th day of trading on April 16, down 50% of the amount since the trading debut. At the time of writing, the amount is worth $19.7 billion.

The GBTC “halving” came just two days before the much anticipated Bitcoin halving, which will reduce the mining reward by 50% from 6.25 BTC to 3.125 BTC.

Occurring once every four years, or once in 210,000 blocks, the Bitcoin halving is a major event, often tied to subsequent rallies in the crypto market.

The two events do not correlate but make for another coincidence in the chronology of Bitcoin-related occurrences.

GBTC has been experiencing a massive sell-off since the first day of trading, significantly impacting the Bitcoin price.

The outflows have been largely attributed to high trading fees as GBTC had the biggest fees of the 10 spot Bitcoin ETFs in the United States — 1.5% at the trading start. The majority of Bitcoin ETFs were lowering their fees to increase competitiveness, setting trading commissions between 0.2% and 0.4%.

Related: GBTC fees will drop when Bitcoin ETFs ‘start to mature’ — Grayscale CEO

GBTC’s biggest rival, BlackRock's iShares Bitcoin Trust (IBIT), offered a 0.25% fee at the trading start, not including a 0.12% discount for the first $5 billion of traded assets during the waiver period.

BlackRock's spot Bitcoin ETF has attracted a lot of inflows, with holdings surging more than 10,000% from just 2,621 BTC on the trading debut to 272,548 BTC on April 16. BlackRock’s IBIT is now 13% far from reaching GBTC holdings.

Despite the rapid growth, IBIT has failed to absorb GBTC outflows of 309,349 BTC. However, with eight other issuers, the spot Bitcoin ETF providers have accumulated around 224,552 BTC, excluding GBTC, since the trading launch.

As of April 16, 2024, the 10 spot Bitcoin ETFs collectively held around 862,162 BTC, worth $54.7 billion.

Magazine: Bitcoin Halving will pump games, Shrapnel’s ‘simple’ secret revealed: Web3 Gamer"
"[INST] SEC issues Wells notice to DeFi protocol Uniswap [/INST] The United States Securities and Exchange Commission has issued a Wells notice to the decentralized exchange Uniswap.

On X (formerly Twitter), Uniswap chief legal officer Marvin Ammori confirmed the regulator’s notice on April 10. “Today’s Wells notice against Uniswap is disappointing, but is not unexpected from this SEC,” Ammori wrote, arguing:

“If the SEC had authority over our self-custodial, non-intermediated products, it could tell us how to register them. It can’t and so it doesn’t. It has provided no clarity and no guidance — as several SEC commissioners have stated in multiple dissents.”

A Wells notice is a formal notification issued by the SEC to inform a company or individual that the regulator’s staff intends to recommend enforcement action against them. This notice gives the recipient an opportunity to provide a written explanation or argument (a “Wells submission”) as to why such action should not be taken.

Uniswap enables automated token exchanges on the Ethereum blockchain, allowing users to swap several crypto tokens without needing traditional intermediaries like centralized exchanges.

The SEC has been investigating Uniswap Labs, Uniswap’s main developer, since 2021. The decentralized exchange (DEX) has previously delisted several tokens from its platform, citing growing regulatory pressure.

Related: What is a Wells notice, explained

As part of its defense, Uniswap Labs previously claimed that it is only the software developer responsible for building the front-end portal to the app. The front-end is separate from the Uniswap protocol itself, which is autonomous code released for public use.

“The Uniswap Protocol, web app, and wallet don’t meet the legal definitions of securities exchange or broker,” said Ammori, adding that the protocol welcomes “regulations for crypto — and clear rule of law that we expect in the US — not arbitrary enforcement and continued abuse of power.”

The SEC has issued similar notices in the past, warning about legal actions against crypto exchanges Coinbase and Binance.

While the U.S. SEC unveils its latest legal action against crypto protocols, the European Union is advancing its Markets in Crypto-Assets (MiCA) regulation over decentralized finance (DeFi) protocols, including their front-ends.

The EU regulator is required to prepare a report by Dec. 30, 2024, assessing the feasibility of specific regulations for the decentralized finance market. The report will explore how decentralized systems, particularly those without a clear issuer or service provider, should be regulated in the region."
"[INST] Gary Gensler’s resignation ‘troll’ post disappoints Crypto X [/INST] United States Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) Chair Gary Gensler duped more than a few X users into believing he was resigning from the SEC on Wednesday — before saying he was “not done.”

“It’s been an honor to serve as [SEC] Chair. Over the past 3 years, I’ve seen firsthand how the incredible staff at the SEC serve investors and issuers alike,” Gensler wrote in an April 17 X post.

In following posts, he noted the “more than 2,000 enforcement actions” and rules that the SEC has finalized under his stewardship, which appeared to be teeing up a resignation announcement.

“And we’re not done,” Gensler added, delivering the final punchline.

The posts went viral and have been viewed over 1.1 million times, according to X figures.

“A legendary and respectable troll thread, honestly [in my opinion],” wrote crypto trader Jordan Fish, who goes by Cobie.

“This really does feel like a resignation tweet at first, but then it’s clearly not,” wrote Bloomberg Litigation Analyst Elliott Stein. “Gotta think that was intentional, given Gensler’s seeming penchant for trolling.”

Van Buren Capital general partner Scott Johnsson highlighted Gensler’s posts “leads with [number] of enforcement actions.”

“Would be like [Department of Justice/Bureau of Prisons] highlighting number of incarcerations. Lack of focus,” he added.

In 2023, the SEC’s crypto-related enforcement actions reached a 10-year high under Gensler’s leadership, which brought 46 enforcement actions against crypto firms, doubling from 2021.

U.S. crypto industry executives and some lawmakers have claimed Gensler takes a “regulation by enforcement” approach to crypto, as the SEC argues dozens of cryptocurrencies are securities in lawsuits against crypto companies.

Gensler, meanwhile, has claimed crypto is full of fraud and manipulation and has said companies should “come into compliance.”

The crypto side of X got back at Gensler for his post — in its own way.

Related: Gary Gensler responds to US lawmakers over SEC’s false spot Bitcoin ETF tweet

Unofficial Crypto Twitter archivist “inversebrah” noted the platform’s crypto community “managed to score a couple of helthy [sic] ratios already.” A ratio is when a reply post garners more engagement — such as likes or shares — than the original post it replied to.

In this case, Gensler’s post received around 1,700 likes, but some responses have racked up more than three times that.

Some of the reply posts to Gensler’s thread with a greater number of likes. Source: X

U.S. President Joe Biden nominated Gensler to chair the SEC in 2021. Gensler started his five-year tenure on April 17, 2021, and could serve as chair until April 17, 2026.

It is, however, custom for the SEC chair to resign if the U.S. elects a new president, and Americans are heading to polls on Nov. 5 to vote on a possible rematch between Biden and former president Donald Trump.

Magazine: Crypto regulation — Does SEC Chair Gary Gensler have the final say?"
"[INST] History of Crypto: Crippling inflation, rising debt, and the evolving crypto landscape [/INST] The cryptocurrency market took a beating in 2022, falling more than 70% during a time when the industry made headlines around the world for all the wrong reasons — from FTX’s bankruptcy and Sam Bankman-Fried’s arrest to the $50 billion collapse of the Terra ecosystem.

The United States also saw inflation hit a 40-year high as the country’s national debt figure continued to rise.

But it wasn’t all doom and gloom. In September 2022, Ethereum made the long-awaited transition to a proof-of-stake network, and Bitcoin’s hash rate increased threefold throughout the year. The market also rebounded strongly in 2023.

Here are some of the major industry events between 2022 and 2023.

EXPLORE THE HISTORY OF CRYPTO

U.S. inflation rates have topped out, for now

Crippling inflation was one of several macroeconomic factors that contributed to the 77.2% price drawdown for Bitcoin (BTC) from its previous all-time high of $68,990 to a cycle low of $15,740 in November 2022.

In fact, the U.S. Consumer Price Index (CPI) inflation rate topped out at 9.1% in June 2022, marking its highest level since 1982, according to the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics.

Fortunately, CPI inflation started trending downward after June 2022, bottoming out at around 3% in June 2023. Since then, monthly figures have hovered around the 3% range.

Change in CPI inflation over the last 20 years. Source: U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics

Since June 2023, Bitcoin has soared over 135% from $30,480 to set a new all-time high above $73,000.

However, the CPI inflation rate has risen 11.65% since November 2021, meaning Bitcoin still hasn’t hit its inflation-adjusted all-time high. That will happen when Bitcoin notches $77,026.

U.S. national debt continues to soar

The U.S. national debt continued its exponential rise in 2022 and 2023, increasing 4.35% to $33.2 trillion over those two fiscal years, according to data from the U.S. Treasury.

Change in U.S. national debt over the last 100 years. Source: U.S. Treasury

The debt, which has since risen to $34.5 trillion, has put the U.S. on an “unsustainable fiscal path,” according to U.S. Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell.

Fortunately, the U.S. debt to gross domestic product ratio has decreased from about 3.2% to approximately 123%.

Researchers from the University of Pennsylvania say financial markets can only withstand another 20 years of accumulated deficits projected under current U.S. fiscal policy. After that, the debt dynamics would begin to “unravel.”

EXPLORE THE HISTORY OF CRYPTO

Coinbase CEO Brian Armstrong recently voiced that increased Bitcoin (BTC) adoption in the U.S. could serve as a “check and balance on excessive deficit spending,” which he believes is essential for the U.S. dollar to remain strong.

Bitcoin’s inclusion would mark a “return to financial discipline,” he added.

El Salvador is a textbook example of this, according to venture capitalist Tim Draper, who believes the country’s Bitcoin investment could help pay off the $215 million in debt it owes to the International Monetary Fund.

“[If] Bitcoin hits $100,000, they’ll be able to pay off the IMF [and] never have to talk to them again.”

FTX’s collapse shocks the world as SEC plays cop on crypto industry

Tumbling macroeconomic conditions between 2023 and 2023 arguably impacted every cryptocurrency firm, which led to an array of bankruptcies, liquidations and even prison time for some of the industry’s most controversial figures.

The events triggered a wave of regulation by enforcement action by the Gary Gensler-led U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC), which declared itself the “cop on the beat” for the cryptocurrency industry.

No collapse was bigger than FTX, which saw more than $8 billion in misappropriated customer funds wiped from a crashing market. BlockFi also went bankrupt — citing loans it lost from FTX — while Three Arrows Capital filed for Chapter 15 bankruptcy after its excessive leverage on long positions was wiped out.

Celsius and Voyager were other notable firms that filed for bankruptcy.

Former FTX CEO Sam Bankman-Fried was convicted of fraud in November 2023 for his role in orchestrating what some described as the largest fraud in U.S. history.

The $50 billion collapse of the Terra ecosystem and its algorithmic stablecoin TerraUSD (UST) also caused carnage in May 2022.

The man largely responsible for that collapse was Do Kwon, the former CEO of Terraform Labs, who spent more than five months on the run in several countries before finally being detained at immigration control in Montenegro for using a fake Costa Rican passport.

He faces fraud charges in his home country of South Korea and in the U.S. for the role he played in the Terra collapse.

The SEC became even more determined to catch the remaining “hucksters,” “fraudsters” and “scam artists” in the cryptocurrency industry after Bankman-Fried. Most notably, it sued the world’s largest cryptocurrency exchange, Binance, and its former CEO, Changpeng Zhao, who pleaded guilty to money laundering violations in November 2023.

The securities regulator also sued Coinbase in June 2023, claiming the trading platform unlawfully listed cryptocurrencies, which it considered to be securities.

Related: Bitcoin’s banking crisis surge will ‘attract more institutions’: ARK’s Cathie Wood

March 2023 also saw a local banking crisis, with three cryptocurrency-friendly banks collapsing: Signature Bank, Silvergate Bank and Silicon Valley Bank (SVB). This gave rise to fears that the U.S. banking system may not be as resilient as initially thought.

Even Fed Chair Powell was left scratching his head over the collapse of SVB.

EXPLORE THE HISTORY OF CRYPTO

Despite several industry setbacks, builders kept building.

Most notably, Ethereum transitioned to a proof-of-stake consensus mechanism in September 2022 and, in doing so, decreased its energy consumption by over 99%.

The Bitcoin network also became more secure between 2022 and 2023, with its hash rate increasing 200% to 515 terrahashes per second during that time frame, according to Blockchain.com data.

Magazine: Unstablecoins: Depegging, bank runs and other risks loom"
"[INST] Tokenholders approve $7.5B AI merger [/INST] Tokenholders of SingularityNet, Fetch.ai and Ocean protocols have approved a $7.5 billion merger that would create a combined Artificial Superintelligence Alliance (ASI) project.

According to the April 16 announcement, the Fetch.AI (FET) token will become the ASI token with a total supply of 2.6 billion. Meanwhile, SingularityNet (AGIX) and Ocean (OCEAN) tokens will be converted into ASI at approximate ratios of 0.43:1, with ASI tokens having a combined value of $7.5 billion post-merger. The ASI has yet to schedule a launch date.

""Our mission is to create a decentralized AI infrastructure at scale, ensuring ethical and trustworthy practices,” said Humayun Sheikh, chairman of the Artificial Superintelligence Alliance and CEO of Fetch.ai. “By combining our platforms, we empower developers and users alike, fostering a more democratic and transparent AI ecosystem.""

The ASI is currently examining three distinct product pipelines: deployment of AI agents in commercial settings, neural symbolic language learning models (LLMs), and AI data sharing and utilization. “In the near term, we anticipate generating revenue as we launch the agentic network for deployment,” Sheikh told Cointelegraph in a statement. “In the short term, we’ll focus on deploying numerous commercial products that breathe life into AI applications.”

As for the project’s upcoming roadmap, ASI plans to further invest in its GPU infrastructure for its commercial, computing, and data efforts. Last month, Fetch.ai launched a $100 million investment to deploy Nvidia H200, H100, and A100 GPUs to create a platform for developers and users to utilize computing power.

Based in Cambridge, Fetch.ai uses LLMs and AI agents for its computing marketplace that matches users with AI-powered services. Meanwhile, SingularityNET, headquartered in Zug, Switzerland, explores the use of AI in realms such as finance, robotics, biomedical AI, media, arts, and entertainment. Finally, Singapore-based Ocean enables businesses and individuals to trade tokenized data assets via its platform.

Blockchain has recognized significant synergies with AI since the popularization of LLMs such as ChatGPT last year. In an interview with Cointelegraph on April 12, Booksie founder and CEO Sol Nasisi discussed the potential for AI and blockchain to enable self-publishing book platforms in the near future.

Related: SingularityNet, Fetch.AI, Ocean Protocol merger will drive decentralized AI development: ChainGPT CEO"
"[INST] THORChain hits $10B monthly volume as Bitcoin maxis debate safety [/INST] The decentralized liquidity protocol THORChain has notched more than $10 billion in total monthly trading volume for the first time in history. However, Bitcoin (BTC) maximalists are divided on whether the platform offers enough safety to potential borrowers.

In a March 27 post to X, the official social media account for THORChain announced the milestone, with Runscan data showing that the protocol has since notched $10.26 billion this month.

In a series of follow-up comments and posts, a debate between Bitcoin maximalists broke out over THORChain’s security and potential pitfalls for Bitcoiners looking to take out interest-free loans against their BTC using the platform.

In a March 27 post to X, mathematician and Bitcoin investor Fred Krueger said he was “willing to take the heat” for declaring THORChain to be “real” — which is essentially saying that BTC-backed loans on the protocol were a safe bet for Bitcoiners looking to gain more in the way of liquid funds.

However, Bitcoin analyst Dylan Le Clair pushed back on Krueger’s claims.

“A bitcoin collateralized loan that is dependent on the exchange rate of an altcoin to offer you a ‘“0% interest no liquidation risk” loan is simply transmuting the risk,” asserted Le Clair.

“You are shorting a tail that you don’t know how to quantify.”

THORChain is a decentralized liquidity protocol that facilitates native asset swaps across blockchains. The protocol offers interest-free loans against major crypto assets like Bitcoin and Ether (ETH) and doesn’t enforce liquidations or fixed expiry dates.

Related: THORChain becomes third-largest DEX as RUNE surges 50% in a week

As part of the protocol’s most recent Jan. 30 upgrade, collateral requirements for Bitcoin and Ether were slashed from 400% to 200%, allowing users to borrow half the total value of their provided assets.

On March 10, analyst Chris Blec described THORChain’s no-liquidation lending model as “interesting,” however he noted two major catches with the concept.

The first was that investors take the risk more obvious risk of lending their Bitcoin to a protocol that could otherwise collapse or fall victim to an exploit — which THORChain already did in 2021, although the funds were returned.

The second was that investors are relying upon a centralized provider not to change its terms and conditions at a later date, exposing their loans to risk.

Notably, THORChain was forced to halt its mainnet twice in 2023 amid reports of potential security vulnerabilities with the protocol.

Magazine: Bitcoin ETFs make Coinbase a ‘honeypot’ for hackers and governments — Trezor CEO"
"[INST] Bitcoin halving hype breaks week-long ETFs outflow streak [/INST] Bitcoin (BTC) investments in the United States exchange-traded funds (ETFs) market recorded a net positive inflow right before the Bitcoin halving day following five consecutive days of drain.

Anticipating an increase in market value post-halving, investment strategies worldwide recommended adding Bitcoin to existing portfolios. The Bitcoin ETF market followed through with the strategy while putting an end to an outflow streak dating back to April 12.

Spot Bitcoin ETF net flows. Source: Farside

According to Farside data, the U.S. Bitcoin ETF ecosystem recorded outflows for five straight days between April 12 and 18, owing to a lack of contribution from most players. The outflows are majorly attributed to the Grayscale Bitcoin Trust ETF (GBTC), which has been shedding investments since January when the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) approved spot Bitcoin ETFs.

However, on April 19, five of the 10 approved ETFs recorded positive inflows that overshadowed the GBTC outflows, bringing in a total of $30.4 million to the market.

Negating cumulative outflows of $47.6 million from GBTC ($45.8 million) and Fidelity Wise Origin Bitcoin Fund (FBTC) ($1.8 million), Fidelity Wise Origin Bitcoin Fund (FBTC) brought in $54.8 million right before the Bitcoin halving event commenced.

Other inflow contributors include Bitwise Bitcoin ETF (BITB) at $4.9 million, ARK 21Shares Bitcoin ETF (ARKB) at $12.5 million, Invesco Galaxy Bitcoin ETF (BTCO) at $3.9 million and Franklin Bitcoin ETF (EZBC) at $1.9 million.

Bitcoin price between two halving events. Source: TradingView

The previous Bitcoin halving took place on May 11, 2020, when the asset had a market value of roughly $8,500. However, the subsequent reduction in BTC issuance appreciated its value to roughly $65,000 in four years, according to data from Cointelegraph Markets Pro and TradingView.

Related: Bitcoin mining stocks saw spikes across the board ahead of halving event

The Bitcoin block 840,000, which triggered the fourth-ever Bitcoin halving event on April 20, at 12:09 am UTC, momentarily spiked the network fees due to high demand.

Users spent $2.4 million in fees to inscribe runes and rare satoshis on the first halving block. Source: Mempool.space

As a result, Bitcoin users have spent a staggering 37.7 BTC in fees — worth just over $2.4 million at current prices — to nab their share of limited space on the fourth-ever Bitcoin halving block.

Magazine: Get Bitcoin or die tryin’: Why hip hop stars love crypto"
"[INST] Massive SOL liquidation by FTX estate nets nearly $2B [/INST] The FTX estate unloaded over half of its Solana (SOL) tokens at a 63% discount from current prices, according to a Bloomberg report on April 5. SOL tokens represent the majority of the bankrupt exchange’s assets.

The sale received interest from asset managers and venture capitalists, including Galaxy Trading and Pantera Capital, people familiar with the matter told Bloomberg.

The bankrupt exchange sold between 25 million and 30 million locked-up SOL tokens at $64 a token, generating around $1.9 billion for FTX creditors. FTX was an early investor in Solana. Its 41 million SOL tokens are subject to a four-year vesting schedule, meaning they cannot be traded in the market until the deadline passes.

According to CoinMarketCap, the SOL token is trading at $176 at the time of writing, posting an impressive 743% gain over the past 12 months, boosted by the recovery of the crypto markets and the surge of memecoins.

SOL token performance over 12 months. Source: CoinMarketCap

Galaxy Trading, a division of Mike Novogratz’s Galaxy Digital, reportedly raised roughly $620 million to purchase SOL tokens from the FTX estate. Investing in the fund will incur a 1% management fee. According to sources, the fund also seeks to generate returns for its investors from staking. Galaxy Asset Management, another branch of Galaxy Digital, assisted in exchanging and selling its assets.

Pantera Capital also raised $250 million to purchase SOL tokens from FTX estate, Bloomberg said. Neptune Digital Assets, a Canadian blockchain company, acquired 26,964 SOL tokens for $64 each on March 27.

The sale of FTX assets at a steep discount has sparked criticism from the exchange’s creditors.

On March 28, former FTX CEO Sam Bankman-Fried was sentenced to 25 years in prison on charges of fraud stemming from the exchange’s collapse in November 2022. During his sentencing, creditors accused the exchange’s liquidators of violating the creditor’s “property rights.”

“They have liquidated billions of dollars of crypto assets. There’s a token S&C [Sullivan & Cromwel] sold at 11 cents; it’s now trading at two dollars. FTX had $10 billion [misprint] in Solana tokens — they sold it at 70% discount,” said FTX creditor Sunil Kavuri.

Creditors of FTX have filed a class action against Sullivan & Cromwell, alleging that the firm participated in the fraud before representing the exchange during bankruptcy proceedings."
"[INST] FTX former execs and promoters to settle class-action lawsuit for $1.3M [/INST] Former FTX executives and promoters have come to a nearly $1.36 million settlement with a class-action group of the crypto exchange’s former investors seeking compensation for being defrauded.

FTX co-founder Zixiao “Gary” Wang, former engineering lead Nishad Singh and sister trading firm Alameda Research ex-CEO Caroline Ellison agreed to cooperate and give information to the lawsuit to resolve the claims against them, according to a March 27 Miami federal court bid seeking the settlements’ approval.

Settlements were also reached with seven other influencers and former FTX chief regulatory officer and FTX US chief compliance officer Daniel Friedberg.

The former execs didn’t admit to any of the lawsuit’s allegations, but the class group found the trio’s “knowledge and other information” would be valuable in strengthening its case against others it sued — including celebrities, companies and venture capitalists.

A highlighted excerpt of Ellison’s settlement notes her testimony against former boyfriend Sam Bankman-Fried could help the suit — the FTX MDL (multidistrict litigation). Source: PACER

Wang, Singh and Ellison will turn over — and have already begun sharing — “all non-privileged documents and/or data” they gave when helping prosecutors lock up their old boss, Sam Bankman-Fried, for 25 years.

The three each face their own sentences after pleading guilty to fraud. The class will affirm their cooperation with the court before their sentencing.

The former execs will also hand in records used in FTX’s bankruptcy case and make themselves available for depositions and hearings.

The settlement agreement further saw the three agree to forfeit their assets for the judge in their criminal case to decide the recovery and distribution of victim funds.

They are not to oppose a request from FTX investors that the funds be distributed through the class suit, as opposed to FTX’s proposed bankruptcy paybacks or other lawsuits.

A settlement with Friedberg was also reached, with the filings noting he has voluntarily “provided valuable information” to the class group and “has agreed to do so on an ongoing basis.”

Related: Sam Bankman-Fried sentenced to 25 years in prison

Friedberg’s settlement notes he “did not have knowledge of the FTX fraud,” and after he found out about it, he “immediately resigned” and “promptly contacted the authorities.”

Seven YouTubers and influencers also paid to settle the suit, including $180,000 from Brian Jung, $122,000 from Kevin Paffrath, $37,485 from Tom Nash, $10,000 from Graham Stephan, and $5,000 each from Jeremy LeFebvre and Andrei Jikh.

Information for American football star William Trevor Lawrence’s settlement wasn’t available, but he seemingly paid $1 million to settle based on the total disclosed relief minus the other agreements’ sums.

All named in the settlements were released “from all claims related to any of the alleged conduct giving rise to this litigation.”

Deposit risk: What do crypto exchanges really do with your money?"
"[INST] Apple Pay is the benchmark as crypto mobile payments push for adoption [/INST] Cryptocurrency payment platforms are slowly being onboarded to major e-commerce platforms and retail stores, but their user experience and performance don’t quite match that of Apple Pay.

Stijn Paumen, CEO of growing crypto payments platform Helio, paints a picture of a sector still in its infancy during a one-on-one interview with Cointelegraph.

The CEO and founder said that while Bitcoin and Ethereum are pioneering decentralized blockchain protocols, the base layer of both chains cannot compete with the performance and functionality of traditional financial infrastructure.

“I think the benchmark is Apple Pay. How are you going to beat Apple Pay, where I can just tap my phone and I’ve paid within three seconds,” Paumen explains.

Gareth Jenkinson (l) in conversation with Stijn Paumen. Helio operates out of London with a team of 15 people.

The advent of newer blockchain networks is beginning to bridge the gap, but not without teething issues, as Paumen said:

“Now with the second generation of blockchains like Solana, even though there’s a lot of talk about congestion, we actually have the engineering resources to figure it out.”

Helio was founded by Paumen and chief technology officer Jim Walker in March 2022. The pair had previously exited a successful startup and shifted into the crypto sector. Paumen says they were excited by the prospect of Solana’s high TPS and fast finality as the basis of building a new crypto payment platform.

“Ever since someone paid 10,000 BTC for a pizza, crypto payments became a thing. But the user experience sucked. You had 20-minute payment times or payments not being processed at all,” Paumen said.

Related: How Solana developers are tackling network congestion challenges

Helio’s platform allows merchants and e-commerce sites of all sizes to set up and accept cryptocurrency payments. According to Paumen, the platform facilitates $30 million in monthly payments but still mainly caters to the Web3 space on both the user and merchant fronts.

It has also made waves in the Solana ecosystem, facilitating the sale of some 80,000 Solana mobile phones through its payment plugin. Helio's high-profile integrations include managing the Solana Pay plugin on Shopify and its WooCommerce plugin.

Helio has been operating the Solana Pay plugin on Shopify since December 2023. Source: Helio

The platform supports Bitcoin (BTC), Solana (SOL), Solana-based USD Coin (USDC) and SPL tokens as well as Ethereum-based payments. Helio also facilitates ticket sales for the annual Ethereum Community Conference (EthCC), which connects to their Bizzabo event software.

Related: Boba Guys, Shopify users showcase adoption of Web3 tools — Solana Breakpoint

Paumen believes that Web3 payments potentially challenging mainstream industry players remains an ecosystem challenge.

“If you have a Phantom wallet and you know how to use it, you can pay on a Helio checkout with a single tap as fast as Apple Pay. But you need to assume that you're a crypto-fluent user, and that's a very small percentage,” Paumen admits.

Progress will likely be gradual, as more crypto-curious users begin to use Web3 wallet and make payments in their token of choice. Paumen also says that the onboarding user experience needs to improve to be accessible to a wide demographic of users.

Helio's platform allows merchants to accept a variety of cryptocurrencies as payment for goods and services. Source: Helio

“We talk about this concept of crypto granny internally. What we mean is, when crypto granny buys a Bored Ape hoodie for her grandson, she needs to be able to do that without owning crypto, without even knowing what blockchain is,” Paumen added.

Helio’s CEO concluded by saying that the future could see the likes of Apple Pay potentially settling payments on their own blockchain. However, he said he firmly believes in the idea of a decentralized way to send money worldwide “without intermediaries, with fast or instant settlement with low fees.”

“I think it’s just a really powerful technology. We’re still early. The fact that Visa is partnering with Solana is a great signal, though.”

While onboarding major e-commerce platforms is the lowest-hanging fruit for mass adoption, Paumen believes that streaming platforms like Vimeo and even OnlyFans also present an excellent platform for the utility of crypto payments.

Magazine: Big Questions: How can Bitcoin payments stage a comeback?"
"[INST] Wormhole’s huge airdrop attracts scammers, spoof tokens and a $3B valuation [/INST] Crypto scammers, hackers and memecoiners have flocked to a massive $850-million airdrop event from cross-chain bridging platform Wormhole, which released its native governance W (W) token on Thursday.

In an April 3 post to X, independent blockchain sleuth ZachXBT noted that Wormhole’s official post announcing the airdrop was targeted by “tons” of convincing scam accounts, many of which sported “gold checkmarks.”

The official X account of the Wormhole founder Robinson Burkey also suffered an attack that saw the founder begin posting malicious links to suspected wallet drainers several hours after the airdrop was announced. Burkey’s account has since been made private.

Source: Robinson Burkey

The W token officially launched on April 3 at a price of $1.66 on the Solana-based decentralized exchange (DEX) OpenBook, commanding a total market capitalization of $2.98 billion at launch.

The token’s price has since fallen 19.5% and is currently trading at $1.34.

The bridging protocol set aside 674 million tokens — 6.75% of the total supply — for the airdrop, meaning that the current total value of the airdrop stands at $896 million for users who met the protocol’s eligibility requirements.

Wormhole token price action since launch. Source: CoinGecko

Related: Largest Ethena airdrop recipient gets nearly $2M

Wormhole’s W token is currently only available on the Solana network; however, the project has shared that it will soon be made available on the Ethereum network as an ERC-20 token and other layer-2 networks at a later date.

Spoof “Warmhole” memecoin takes off

The wormhole airdrop event didn’t escape the gaze of opportunistic memecoin developers, with one parody token dubbed “Warmhole” being launched immediately following the announcement of the airdrop.

The Warmhole memecoin rapidly shot from a market cap of around $100,000 at launch to a peak value of $8.3 million — an approximate gain of 83,000% in less than six hours.

One user jested that if Wormhole airdrop recipients had immediately traded their new W tokens for the Warmhole memecoin, they would have become billionaires.

Magazine: ‘SEAL 911’ team of white hats formed to fight crypto hacks in real time"
"[INST] Montenegro’s Justice Minister to decide on Do Kwon’s extradition after court ruling [/INST] Montenegro’s High Court in Podgorica has reportedly issued a decision putting the question of Terraform Labs co-founder Do Kwon’s extradition to the United States or South Korea to the country’s justice minister.

According to an April 10 report from Montenegrin news outlet Vijesti, Justice Minister Andrej Milović will have the final decision on whether Kwon is to be extradited and to which country. The reported decision came after Montenegro’s Supreme Court approved a request for a protection of legality against a lower court decision that would have allowed his extradition to South Korea.

Authorities in Montenegro arrested Kwon in March 2023 for using falsified travel documents while attempting to leave the country. He reportedly remains free to travel within Montenegro as courts determine whether to grant an extradition request from the U.S. or South Korea, where he would face criminal charges.

Kwon and others at Terraform were allegedly responsible for fraud and lying to investors amid the platform's collapse in May 2022. On April 5, a jury found the company and Kwon liable for fraud as part of a civil case brought by the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission. The Terraform Labs co-founder could also face criminal charges in the U.S. and South Korea.

Related: Terraform Labs was ‘built on lies’ — SEC at trial

Kwon’s case in Montenegro has been bounced from court to court as his lawyers continue to file motions and appeals regarding procedure. It’s unclear if the legal team also intended to appeal the April 10 ruling.

Terraform Labs’ former chief financial officer Han Chang-joon — arrested with Kwon in Montenegro — was extradited to South Korea in February. Authorities in South Korea have also indicted several individuals connected to Terraform, including co-founder Hyun-seong Shin.

Magazine: Memecoins make millionaires, Terraform and Do Kwon liable for fraud, and more: Hodler’s Digest, March 31 – April 6"
"[INST] Ether ETFs will ‘probably be rejected’ in May — VanEck CEO [/INST] The chief executive of investment firm VanEck says it’s unlikely the United States Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) will approve spot Ether (ETH) exchange-traded funds (ETFs) in May.

In an April 9 interview with CNBC, Jan van Eck said his firm’s spot Ethereum ETF application will “probably be rejected.”

He noted that VanEck was the first to file for a spot Ether ETF in the United States alongside Cathie Wood’s ARK Invest, both of which are awaiting a final decision on May 23 and May 24, respectively.

“The way the legal process goes is that regulators will give you comments on your application and that happened for weeks and weeks before the Bitcoin ETFs, but now pins are dropping as far as Ethereum is concerned.”

CoinShares CEO Jean-Marie Mognetti was equally pessimistic, telling CNBC, “I don’t see anything being approved this side of the year.”

Van Eck’s comments come following prolonged inaction from the U.S. SEC regarding a roster of seven pending applications for spot Ether ETFs.

Jan van Eck on ETH ETFs. Source: CNBC

Several commentators, including Senior Bloomberg ETF analyst Eric Balchunas, have also looked to the ongoing “radio silence” between the regulator and prospective fund issuers as a key reason why a May ETF approval seems increasingly unlikely.

VanEck’s Ether ETF application is due for a final decision on May 23 — the first of seven fund issuers, including Grayscale, BlackRock and Fidelity, awaiting approval.

ETH ETF applications. Source: Bloomberg

Balchunas lowered his formal odds for an Ether ETF approval by May from 70% to 35%. The analyst reiterated his stance on the pending approvals and echoed Van Eck’s sentiments in an X post on April 9. The analyst reduced his approval odds to 35% in March.

Related: Bitwise CIO ‘excited’ for a product that gives exposure to Ethereum DeFi

“As we’ve said, need SEC to give comments on the filing documents (the “critical feedback” he mentions) and that still ain’t happening, even in person they offering nothing. Silence is violence.”

Fellow ETF analyst James Seyffart offered a similar take, saying that “zero comments/interactions is a bad sign.”

“There’s no reason for the SEC to have done absolutely nothing for months when we knew this was coming,” he added.

VanEck’s spot Bitcoin ETF — which trades under the ticker HODL — is the fifth largest of the newly launched 10 funds (excluding Grayscale). It witnessed an inflow of $461.7 million since it launched in mid-January, according to data from Farside Investors data.

Commenting on the success of Bitcoin ETFs, van Eck described Bitcoin as a “maturing asset,” adding there are still many investors yet to gain exposure to the asset.

Magazine: Bitcoin ETFs make Coinbase a ‘honeypot’ for hackers and governments: Trezor CEO"
"[INST] Bitcoin FilmFest: Lights, camera, halving as Bitcoin cinema hits Warsaw [/INST] Bitcoiners from around the world descended upon Poland’s capital, Warsaw, from April 18 to 21 for a weekend of films, networking, group activities and the much-anticipated Bitcoin halving.

The second edition of the family-friendly Bitcoin FilmFest hosted several film premieres and screenings, including a biopic of Carl Menger, founder of the Austrian school of economics and “grandfather of Bitcoin;” Gods of Their Own Religion, a dystopian story in the not-too-distant future about a city living under the jackboot of a technocratic empire; Dirty Coin, which addresses the widespread misconceptions about Bitcoin (BTC) and its reputation as a “dirty coin” due to its energy consumption and alleged role in facilitating illegal activities — and several others.

Bitcoin FilmFest saw the iconic Kinoteka venue transformed into a Bitcoin-themed theater. Source: Cointelegraph

The festival took place in Warsaw’s famous Palace of Culture and Science, a stunning display of Stalinist-Gothic architecture known locally as “Stalin’s Palace.” The building is a reminder of the troubled history of Poland, which spent over 50 years under repressive communist rule.

The palace symbolizes soviet grandeur and propaganda — built in the middle of devastated post-World War II Warsaw when residents faced unimaginable struggles. It’s a true product of statism, and it is fitting, then, that it should host an event focused on educating about Bitcoin and building a decentralized economy outside of the government-controlled fiat system.

The Palace of Culture and Science in Warsaw. Source: Cointelegraph

The festival also featured the documentary My Trust in You is Broken, which highlights the dangers of trusted third parties and chronicles the story of decentralization, focusing on Nicolas Dorier’s contribution to the Bitcoin ecosystem. His innovation, the BTCPay Server, played a major role in progressing Bitcoin acceptance worldwide.

There were also short films and mini-documentaries, such as Lekker Feeling, which is set in Mossel Bay, South Africa, where an organization called Bitcoin Ekasi partnered with a local surfing group to create new opportunities with Bitcoin.

Bitcoin FilmFest co-founder Tomek Kolodziejczuk told Cointelegraph that the event has evolved into much more than just movies about Bitcoin:

“Most Bitcoiners say The Matrix is a Bitcoiner movie. But then, what is a Bitcoiner movie? That’s a big debate, right? Is it just a film that includes Bitcoin, or maybe a film that has nothing to do with Bitcoin but was crowdfunded with Bitcoin? Or maybe it’s a film that somehow aligns with Bitcoin’s values of decentralization, autonomy and independence, like maybe a movie that is anti-system, right?”

The event had several satellite meetups, networking gatherings and leisure activities for all — including children. Each morning, the festival hosted an “Amondo morning,” which included a cinema meetup for kids and young people. On April 21 was “Cartoonfest,” a series of short kid’s films and cartoons with narratives about Bitcoin and sound economics.

Buying flats with sats

One such satellite event was “Sats4Flats,” a private event for Bitcoin and real estate professionals that included a discussion on Bitcoin, real estate and tokenization. Participants also shared real estate investment opportunities and brainstormed how to make purchases using Bitcoin.

An example of an apartment for sale advertised by Sats4Flats, with its price in BTC. Source: Sats4Flats

The Sats4Flats event also saw the launch of a new Bitcoin real estate community in Poland, with several presentations from special guests. Sats4Flats founder Maciej Kordala introduced the new initiative, which he said aims to attract the interest of investors and developers in the traditional Polish real estate market.

Tick tock, next block

One of the highlights of the weekend was the Bitcoin halving — an event occurring every four years that halves the block reward for Bitcoin miners, hard-coding Bitcoin as a scarce and ultimately deflationary asset. The festival included a “European Halving Party,” which saw attendees celebrate the halving in the wee hours of the morning on April 20.

Related: Bitcoin halving 2024 — Done and dusted!

This year’s halving came at a time of euphoric optimism in the Bitcoin community, which has seen some big wins in recent months. In January, the United States Securities and Exchange Commission approved spot Bitcoin exchange-traded funds in the country, which was followed soon after by a new all-time high of over $73,000 for Bitcoin. All of this is happening in the context of an increasingly tense and uncertain macro climate.

The event coincided with the Bitcoin halving and included a European Halving Party. Source: Cointelegraph

Bitcoiners who spoke to Cointelegraph at the event shared their beliefs that the current system is broken. One attendee shared the story of how Bitcoin has enabled him to build wealth in a “broken system that no longer works for the average person.” This was a common theme at the event. Kolodziejczuk told Cointelegraph, “It makes people ask the question: Is something wrong with the system? And then this question brings them to question the fiat structures and fiat system and then to Bitcoin.”

Kolodziejczuk said the long-term plan is to keep growing and building a culture around Bitcoin. He added that they plan to keep the event in Warsaw and that there’s still a lot of untapped potential, particularly in the traditional film industry. The Bitcoin FilmFest team is “trying to build this bridge to more Hollywood or legacy filmmakers who are getting orange-pilled, with more networking between producers, investors and actors,” Kolodziejczuk said, adding:

“With each next edition, it will be more for filmmakers who are interested in Bitcoin. This is the boiling pot of what fosters the growth of Bitcoin cinema that happens in Warsaw, and let’s continue. It’s just the second edition, right? But the plan is definitely long-term.”

Magazine: Get Bitcoin or die tryin’: Why hip hop stars love crypto"
"[INST] Second phase of crypto bull market about to start, says on-chain analyst [/INST] The crypto bull market is about to transition into its second and final phase, which will be characterized by euphoria and sharp price movements, according to James Check, lead on-chain analyst at Glassnode.

“We are transitioning from the enthusiastic bull, which is below the all-time high, generally speaking, into the euphoric bull,” he said in an exclusive interview with Cointelegraph.

According to Check, the enthusiastic bull phase started in October 2023 and concluded after Bitcoin (BTC) reached an all-time high earlier in March.

Check said the next phase will be marked by people getting “more and more excited,” which will be accompanied by higher volatility. “Increased coverage of Bitcoin in the news will lead to increased demand,” he said.

“The price will rise until supply comes back on the market to satisfy it,” he stated.

Check noted that the current bull market has been among the strongest in Bitcoin’s history, given the smaller corrections throughout the rally.

“The market just seems to find support very quickly and this is obviously a good sign,” he said.

To find out more about what on-chain analysis can tell us about the next phase of Bitcoin’s bull market, check out the full interview on Cointelegraph’s YouTube channel — and don’t forget to subscribe!"
"[INST] Linux on Bitcoin? Open-source framework BitVMX envisions BTC-powered programs [/INST] Bitcoin researchers are polishing a new open-source framework called BitVMX, which promises to allow complex applications and functions to be built and executed securely on Bitcoin’s base layer.

BitVMX, inspired by Robin Linus’s BitVM project, is backed by RootstockLabs, the development firm behind the Bitcoin layer-2 protocol Rootstock. The project aims to create an open-source, peer-reviewed, sidechain-agnostic framework for developing Bitcoin-based programs.

Cointelegraph spoke exclusively to RootstockLabs chief scientist Sergio Demian Lerner to unpack details of the BitVMX project and its potential impact on the Bitcoin ecosystem. The project is set to be officially unveiled at the Bitcoin++ Austin conference along with the publication of its white paper.

Lerner’s research into the mining patterns employed by Bitcoin creator Satoshi Nakamoto has been widely cited by news outlets and researchers. Source: Bitslog

Lerner is best known for his research exploring patterns to identify what hardware Satoshi Nakamoto used to mine in the early days of Bitcoin, which Cointelegraph Magazine covered in 2021.

BitVMX wants to power programs on Bitcoin

On a technical level, BitVMX allows funds to be locked in an unspent transaction output (UTXO) with a spend condition that depends on the result of a program’s execution. Lerner said a program must be defined when the UTXO is created, but the program input does not need to be.

The scientist said the possibilities of the framework are broad and have the potential to power a variety of applications and functions:

“The incredible thing about BitVMX is that it essentially allows developers to run anything on Bitcoin, even Linux.”

Lerner said that BitVMX could power bridges to Bitcoin that allow the unilateral flow of BTC between the main chain and sidechains like Rootstock, where it can then be used to interact with decentralized applications (DApps) and other smart contracts.

Related: Bitcoin needs DeFi, consumer apps for mass adoption — L2 devs

Another use case would be building aggregator oracles that collect and verify data from various sources and store them on the Bitcoin network in an automated and decentralized way.

BitVMX will also support Zero-Knowledge Succinct Non-Interactive Argument of Knowledge (zk-SNARK) and Zero-Knowledge Scalable Transparent Argument of Knowledge (zk-STARK) verifiers directly on Bitcoin. This promises to open up new applications such as zero-knowledge contingent payments and autonomous bug bounty programs.

Bitcoin L2 criticisms

The Bitcoin community has been vocal about the increased affinity marketing ploys by startups promoting Bitcoin L2s that claim to operate natively on-chain.

Lerner stressed that BitVMX is not associated with any token sale and that the framework allows the creation of secure and more decentralized bridges that don’t rely on collateralization in foreign tokens.

Bitcoin layer-2 protocols ranked by the total amount of Bitcoin locked in various protocols. Lightning’s peer-to-peer protocol still has the most BTC locked in payment channels. Source: Bitcoin Frontier Fund

The computer scientist also said that Rootstock Labs believes in simple criteria to define what constitutes a Bitcoin L2:

“It must use BTC as its native asset and as a settlement mechanism to enforce transactions and demonstrate a functional dependence on Bitcoin. Everything else is just affinity marketing.”

Lerner added that duplicitous projects claiming to be built on Bitcoin have marred every bull market. He adds that users should stick to battle-tested solutions like the Lightning Network, Liquid and Rootstock rather than “risking their sats on untested or unknown solutions with deep pockets and shiny marketing campaigns.”

Shifting the narrative for Bitcoin’s functionality

The BitVMX project openly credits the foundational work of Robin Linus’ BitVM framework. It looks to build on the theoretical approach of BitVM, which uses a complex combinatorial logic circuit approach relying on large Merkle trees for gate-level verification.

Instead, BitVMX touts a streamlined approach by executing central processing unit instructions directly using Bitcoin script opcodes. Lerner says this makes it better suited for real-world applications and unlocks use cases such as running sidechain light clients and verifying using zk-SNARKs.

The chief scientist explained that the framework brings disputable computation to Bitcoin in an “efficient and secure way,” which enables a range of new use cases.

Lerner briefly unpacked the paradigm of disputable computation. No computation is performed on-chain if all parties agree on a computation result.

However, if a party disagrees, an on-chain interaction begins to solve the dispute formally and efficiently. The worst-case scenario leads to a single disputed gate, wire or computation step being verified on-chain.

Related: Bitcoin L2 tokens surge double digits as BTC notches 25-month high

Lerner envisions BitVMX inspiring a new wave of Bitcoin builders by broadening the network’s functionality. He highlighted the framework enabling more complex spending constraints for Bitcoin’s base layer.

The computer scientist added that Bitcoin’s scripting language lacks key opcodes that could make BitVMX cheaper and more efficient.

“It will no longer be a question of should Bitcoin be able to do X?, but “how efficiently can Bitcoin do X,” Lerner said.

A shifting narrative could also accelerate changes to Bitcoin and the potential to bring back opcodes, including OP_MUL or OP_CAT.

Magazine: The value of a legacy: Hunting down Satoshi’s Bitcoin"
"[INST] Binance Labs-backed Velvet Capital repels potential phishing attack [/INST] Decentralized finance (DeFi) asset management protocol Velvet Capital deactivated its website temporarily to prevent a phishing attempt.

Crypto community members on X reported unusual activity on Velvet Capital’s trading platform on April 23. Some users trying to connect to the front-end were prompted to approve their wallet access to the protocol.

Internal investigations led Velvet Capital to issue a cybersecurity alert, advising investors to deny all wallet connect requests from the application until further notice.

Velvet Capital issues alert against a possible website compromise. Source: Velvet Capital

Velvet Capital deactivated the application to minimize any further losses for investors.

Velvet Capital takes down comprimized website for further investigation. Source: v2.velvet.capital

Velvet Capital founder Vasily Nikonov announced the website closure on Telegram:

“ATTN, don’t interact with the Velvet website, we’re closing it for maintenance and investigating the issue, we will issue a post-mortem once the issue is solved.”

Nikonov advised any affected users to open a ticket on Discord and share the transaction details with the Velvet Capital team for remediation. He added:

“Rest assured that the smart contracts are not impacted and funds on Velvet are not affected, we’re investigating the front-end issue that some of the users faced this morning and will share the results asap.”

Nikonov told Cointelegraph that after investigating the issue and adding precautionary security measures, the site was re-opened, and that no users reported any loss of funds.

Blockchain investigation firms Blockaid and Scam Sniffer had confirmed the incident before Velvet Capital’s official announcement.

Magazine: Lazarus Group’s favorite exploit revealed — Crypto hacks analysis"
"[INST] Telegram labels potential download vulnerability as hoax [/INST] The blockchain security firm CertiK claims it has uncovered a major vulnerability on Telegram messenger that could expose users to malicious attacks, but Telegram itself is calling the threat a hoax.

CertiK Alert took to the social media platform X on April 9 to warn the public against a “high-risk vulnerability in the wild,” potentially allowing hackers to deploy a remote code execution (RCE) attack through Telegram’s media processing.

According to the post, CertiK’s team had discovered a “possible RCE” attack in Telegram’s media processing on Telegram Desktop application.

“This issue exposes users to malicious attacks through specially crafted media files, such as images or videos,” CertiK wrote.

A spokesperson for CertiK told Cointelegraph that the vulnerability is exclusive to the desktop Telegram application because mobile ""does not directly execute executable programs like desktops, which generally require signatures."" The representative noted that the news on the issue came from the security community.

To avoid the vulnerability, CertiK says users should check their Telegram Desktop configuration and disable the auto-download feature. The feature can be disabled by going to “Settings” and then tapping on “Advanced.”

“Under the ‘Automatic Media Download’ section, disable auto-download for ‘Photos’, ‘Videos’, and ‘Files’ across all chat types (Private chats, groups, and channels),” CertiK noted.

Despite the warning from CertiK, a spokesperson for Telegram has told Cointelegraph that the company “can't confirm the existence of such a vulnerability in Telegram clients,” and on April 9 labeled the threat as most likely a hoax.

Source: https://twitter.com/telegram/status/1777677001739944273

Telegram is a major cryptocurrency-friendly messenger that allows users to communicate and exchange files and transact cryptocurrencies like Bitcoin (BTC) and Toncoin (TON) using its custodial wallet solution called, simply, Wallet.

The “custodial” part means the Wallet doesn’t give users the private key by default. Instead, it puts the assets in its own custody to help industry newcomers avoid self-custody responsibilities.

While Telegram itself states there is no danger posed by auto-downloading media files, crypto enthusiast and grey hat SEO Yannick Eckl told Cointelegraph that the issue is not new. “It is a known issue in many, but obviously not all, IT-security circles.”

Related: Telegram channels eligible for 50% ad revenue, but there’s a catch

In 2023, Google engineer Dan Reva found a significant bug that could allow attackers to activate the camera and microphone on laptops running macOS.

In 2021, a security researcher from Shielder discovered a similar media-related issue on Telegram, which reportedly allowed attackers to send modified animated stickers, which could have exposed the victims’ data.

Telegram has been actively addressing potential vulnerabilities on its app, though. Telegram’s bug bounty program has been active since 2014, offering developers and the security research community the opportunity to submit their reports and be eligible for bounties ranging from $100 to $100,000 or more, depending on the severity of the issue.

Magazine: 1 in 6 new Base meme coins are scams, 91% have vulnerabilities"
"[INST] Binance exec seeks redress over Nigeria detention, demands apology [/INST] Binance’s head of financial crime compliance has asked the Federal High Court in Nigeria to mandate the Office of the National Security Adviser (ONSA) and the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) to issue an apology to him regarding his detention in the country.

According to local reports, Tigran Gambaryan is suing the government for violating his fundamental human rights. Gambaryan’s motion claims that his detention in Nigeria soon after his arrival in February and the confiscation of his passport violates the country’s constitution, which guarantees an individual’s right to personal liberty.

In the lawsuit, Gambaryan disclosed that the federal government is using his ongoing detention “as a means to exert pressure and persist in making requests to Binance.”

The motion emphasized that Nigeria could communicate with Binance through other channels instead of detaining Gambaryan, who only attended a meeting.

The financial crime compliance head for Binance also reportedly requested the court to order the immediate return of his passport and the issuance of a public apology.

Nadeem Anjarwalla, regional manager of Africa at Binance, detained alongside Gambaryan, also lodged a similar complaint. Anjarwalla reportedly escaped Nigerian detention recently.

During the court session, Gambaryan’s attorney informed Justice Inyang Ekwo that their application had been served to the respondents, who still had time to reply.

The lawyer requested an adjournment for the ONSA and EFCC to respond. The judge granted the request, postponing the case to April 8.

Related: Binance’s Russian successor CommEx to shut down in April

Among Nigerian crypto enthusiasts, various theories have risen in a bid to make sense of the situation. An enthusiast, who identifies as Chineduokoli expressed concerns about the possibility of getting proper redress in a Nigerian court.

Another individual, Obinna Uchechukwu Uzoije, questioned the delay in the Binance executive’s decision to file a lawsuit against the agencies and speculated whether his colleague’s escape prompted it.

Gambaryan, a United States citizen, and Anjarwalla, who holds both British and Kenyan citizenship, purportedly landed in Abuja, Nigeria’s capital, on Feb. 25.

The court allowed the EFCC to hold the Binance executives for 14 days and ordered Binance to give the government access to data and details of Nigerian traders using its platform.

Nigeria’s Federal High Court will arraign Binance and the two executives on April 4. Meanwhile, the government plans to enlist Interpol’s help to recapture Anjarwalla for trial.

Magazine: Is measuring blockchain transactions per second (TPS) stupid in 2024? Big Questions"
"[INST] Mt. Gox’s $9B overhang could ‘spook the market,’ pressure Bitcoin: K33 [/INST] The potential return of more than $9 billion worth of Mt. Gox-era Bitcoin (BTC) over the next few weeks might “spook the market” and put negative price pressure on Bitcoin, according to K33 Research analysts.

Earlier this week on Reddit, some creditors of the failed Mt. Gox crypto exchange reported seeing updates on their claims, with many interpreting it to mean that crypto payments could soon be coming.

The updates included how much cryptocurrency and fiat were owed to creditors as well as completed repayment dates.

The new updates could mean creditors might start seeing Bitcoin returned as soon as next month — assuming it follows a similar repayment schedule for fiat in March, K33 Research analysts Anders Helseth and Vetle Lunde wrote in an April 23 market note.

Over $9.4 billion in Bitcoin and $72 million in Bitcoin Cash (BCH) is owed to Mt. Gox’s 127,000 creditors, along with $445.8 million (69 billion Japanese yen).

“Mt. Gox coins could become a relevant negative price contributor in the next weeks,” said Helseth and Lunde.

While the release of Bitcoin may not necessarily equate to selling pressure, the “overhang” of 142,000 BTC and 143,000 BCH could still “spook the market,” they added.

Bitcoin is currently trading at just over $66,700, though recent volatility has been attributed to changing tensions in the Middle East and the Bitcoin halving on April 20.

Related: Mt. Gox trustee updates Bitcoin and fiat repayment timetable

Mt. Gox creditors have been waiting on the return of their funds for more than 10 years after the exchange collapsed in February 2014 when it succumbed to a series of hacks that went unnoticed for years.

In January, the Mt. Gox trustee began reaching out to creditors to confirm their identity and their crypto exchange accounts used to repay their owed Bitcoin and Bitcoin Cash.

Meanwhile, reports in December last year showed that some creditors had already started to receive Japanese yen repayments. More creditors reported receiving further fiat transfers in March, the K33 report noted.

Mt. Gox has a final repayment deadline of Oct. 31, 2024, for base repayments, early lump-sum repayments and intermediate repayments, though this can still be subject to change.

Magazine: Lazarus Group’s favorite exploit revealed — Crypto hacks analysis"
"[INST] Hollywood union deal with music giants guards against AI use [/INST] Entertainment industry workers have struck a preliminary agreement with top record labels like Warner Music Group and Sony Music Entertainment to secure higher minimum wages and safeguards against using artificial intelligence (AI).

According to a statement on the website of the Hollywood actors’ union — the Screen Actors Guild-American Federation of Television and Radio Artists (SAG-AFTRA) — the “Sound Recordings Agreement” covers the period from 2021 to 2026 and has received unanimous approval from SAG-AFTRA’s executive committee, representing about 160,000 actors and media personnel.

As the music industry faces the challenge of songs produced by generative AI, which allows internet users to easily replicate the voices of artists — frequently without the artists’ permission — the proposed agreement with record labels mandates consent and compensation before releasing songs featuring digital replicas of artists’ voices.

According to SAG-AFTRA, the terms “artist,” “singer” and “royalty artist” exclusively denote humans under this accord. The agreement also encompasses enhancements in health and retirement benefits, along with an expansion in the portion of streaming revenue subject to contributions.

A final vote for ratification by members is anticipated in the coming weeks.

The agreement comes as AI technology has become a significant concern in the entertainment sector, dominating discussions between SAG-AFTRA and major studios in 2023. Following months of strikes, negotiations concluded in November with a contract agreement.

Related: Amazon denies using AI voice in Road House remake

SAG-AFTRA national executive director and chief negotiator Duncan Crabtree-Ireland believes that Music’s essence should perpetually stem from authentic human expression and lived experiences:

“This agreement ensures that our members are protected. While technology can enhance the creative process, the essence of music must always be rooted in genuine human expression and experience.”

In January, SAG-AFTRA reached another agreement with Replica Studios — an AI voice technology company — concerning the use of AI voices in video games. The agreement will provide performers with the right to consent and negotiate with the AI company, as well as the power to opt out of “continued use” of their voices in “new projects.”

AI holds immense potential in film, especially in virtual filmmaking. It offers lifelike sets and cost efficiency. With its greater creative flexibility and lower production costs, this technology has the potential to completely transform the filmmaking process. Despite its transformative power, the AI protection deal aims to ensure fair credit for industry contributors.

Magazine: AI has killed the industry’: EasyTranslate boss on adapting to change"
"[INST] Bitcoin miners spreading sales dulled post-halving price drop: Bitfinex [/INST] Bitcoin (BTC) miners were selling their reserves ahead of the halving and the spot exchange-traded funds (ETFs) in the United States may have “spread out the potential selling pressure,” which helped avoid a sharp price drop alongside the event, said Bitfinex.

“It appears that miners have executed their selling in advance, which has turned out to be advantageous for the market in the short term,” the crypto exchange wrote in its April 22 weekly market report.

It cited CryptoQuant data showing that in March, a daily average of 374 BTC was sent by miners to exchanges — an over 70% fall from February’s 1,300 BTC daily average, equivalent to $86.4 million.

“We assume miners were already selling their BTC holdings or collateralizing them to upgrade their machinery and infrastructure,” Bitfinex wrote.

Cointelegraph Markets Pro shows Bitcoin rising around 4.5% to $66,597 since the April 20 halving, continuing an upswing that started on April 17 after it hit a more than 40-day low of under $60,000.

Bitcoin’s seven-day price (vertical line denotes the halving). Source: Cointelegraph Markets Pro

Miners usually see their revenues decrease after halvings, the report explained; this time, their rewards were cut to 3.125 BTC per block mined, roughly $208,000 at current prices.

In past halvings, miners have exerted “significant selling pressure,” aiming to maximize earnings before their revenue stream is essentially slashed by 50% — which in turn potentially leads to short-term “increased volatility and price declines,” Bitfinex added.

But rising prices and expanding mining operations typically follow to “compensate for the reduced rewards,” and the negative market effects “are often temporary, as market dynamics adjust,” it wrote.

Bitcoin ETFs help dampen halving impact

Institutional demand for the new United States spot Bitcoin ETFs may have also lessened a potential price stumble caused by Bitcoin’s new reward schedule, Bitfinex added.

The ETFs’ “large-scale” flows — reaching $192 million in Bitcoin investment product outflows last week — can “significantly sway market sentiment and pricing” and are often detached from “the usual supply-demand framework,” it added.

“The added dynamic of the halving-induced ‘supply shock,’ the combination of ETF demand and constrained supply could drive further price appreciation for BTC.”

The crypto exchange noted that ETF flows have slowed since their January launch and sometimes have seen net outflows but still had “strong interest.”

Related: Bitcoin ‘no longer cheap’ — Fidelity revises medium-term outlook for BTC

The amount of Bitcoin the ETF issuers purchased for their funds has also outpaced new BTC creation since launch, which Bitfinex expects will significantly tighten.

Bitfinex estimated, based on issuance trends, that as low as $30 million worth of Bitcoin could be supplied to the market per day post-halving, while the average daily net inflows to ETFs “dwarf that number at over $150 million,” it wrote.

The ETFs’ total demand has outstripped supply by over 150,000 BTC so far, Bitfinex wrote. “We expect this trend to continue in the coming months.”

Magazine: Big Questions: How can Bitcoin payments stage a comeback?"
"[INST] Rep. McHenry hopes digital asset bill passage will be his ‘biggest win’ [/INST] Representative Patrick McHenry, chair of the United States House Financial Services Committee who has announced that he will not seek reelection in 2025, said he saw hope for the passage of legislation on digital assets before the end of his career in politics. Speaking at the Bitcoin Policy Summit in Washington, D.C., McHenry summed up his hopes for his remaining time in office.

“We don't have a federal law — a definition of a digital accent. We don't have in federal law a means of exchange for a digital asset. We have to provide that clarity,” McHenry said. “The key thing to remind members of Congress though is that we now have this thing that is not defined in federal law.”

Source: Swan

McHenry expressed his hopes for the Financial Innovation and Technology for the 21st Century Act and the Clarity for Payment Stablecoins Act, both of which were approved by the House Financial Services Committee in 2023. The former bill “would state clearly what is a commodity, what is a security […] for digital assets and it would create a means of exchange,” McHenry said.

McHenry was optimistic about the stablecoin bill. He has been working for two years with his “counterpart” on the House Financial Services Committee — apparently ranking member Maxine Waters — and they have achieved an understanding. Its passage into law “would be the first sign that there is hope and [...] there is bipartisanship when it comes to this digital world.”

Related: Elizabeth Warren crypto bill draws criticism and sparks election challenge

McHenry took crypto opponents to task for their lack of knowledge:

“If they just take the time to read Satoshi white paper, it is a much easier conversation. […] That willfulness to not educate themselves leads them down rabbit holes of misinformation.”

Nonetheless, McHenry said he hopes to see the stablecoin bill passed and “we can create some level of clarity by a definition which would then codify a property right.” In addition, he said he considered digital privacy another priority. In all:

“If we can get clarity around digital assets that is going to be the biggest win of my 20 years in Congress. That would be fantastic.”

Other aspects of cryptocurrency regulation were in better shape, though. “I believe the Biden administration is good enough to go on energy question,” McHenry said.

Magazine: Lines in the sand: US Congress is bringing partisan politics to crypto"
"[INST] Elon Musk offers users free premium features on X, crypto scammers included [/INST] Elon Musk will no longer charge influential accounts on X for certain premium features as long as they meet certain conditions. However, those conditions also appear achievable for accounts involved in cryptocurrency scams.

On March 28, Musk announced that accounts with 2,500 verified subscribers as followers will no longer need to pay for “Premium” features on X. Additionally, accounts with over 5,000 followers will get free access to “Premium+.”

X offers paid subscriptions for three tiers of premium services — Basic, Premium and Premium+ — incrementally unlocking more features for content creators within the X platforms.

However, the ability to purchase verification on Twitter allows scammers and bad actors to easily impersonate influential people and dupe their followers into various scams.

Elon Musk rolled out the paid verification model on X, earlier known as “Twitter Blue,” to fight scammers and spammers thriving on the platform before his takeover.

Regardless, the crypto community argues that the X Premium features continue to aid scammers in reaching potential victims more effectively.

While some community members appreciated Musk’s decision not to charge popular account verification fees, skeptics pointed out possible loopholes, given the lack of information about the platform’s internal mechanism to ensure eligibility.

Prominent game developer Tyler Glaiel argued:

“Haha so a bot farm can buy 2500 accounts and then use those to verify infinite accounts (or have them all follow each other and then stop paying?)”

Few users — while acknowledging the costs involved — echoed Glaiel’s sentiment in speculating that the new feature could incentivize large groups of scammers to join hands and repurpose accounts for different types of cyberattacks.

Some smaller accounts on X believe that Musk’s recent move incentivizes the “rich,” while others urged fellow verified users to play the system by following each other in order to claim free premium services.

Related: X launches dedicated payments account, crypto community speculates

X is well aware of the concerns around verified scam accounts as, earlier in January 2024, the platform scaled back pricing for verified organizations on the social media platform.

The move was aimed at countering numerous “gold check” accounts dedicated to pushing crypto scams.

A recent CloudSEK report highlighted that “malicious campaigns are brooding on a large scale that requires a Twitter Gold account,” targeting X users with job and crypto scams.

However, many speculated the price drop may have been an attempt to gain more paid subscribers.

Magazine: ‘SEAL 911’ team of white hats formed to fight crypto hacks in real time"
"[INST] Nearly $100M recovered from hacks in March — PeckShield [/INST] Nearly $100 million in digital assets stolen in March hacks has been recovered, according to data compiled by blockchain security firm PeckShield.

PeckShield said on April 1 that over 30 hacking incidents occurred in March, accounting for $187 million in funds lost.

Total hack losses in 2024 by month. Source: PeckShield

While the losses ran into the millions, 52.8% of the hacked funds were returned. PeckShield said that $98.8 million in stolen digital assets were recovered last month.

PeckShield also highlighted the top five incidents within the month. The Munchables incident took the top spot in terms of losses in a hacking incident. It was followed by the Curio hack, the Prisma Finance incident, the NFPrompt hack and the WOOFi exploit.

Most recovered funds were from the incident involving the nonfungible token game based on the Blast network called Munchables. On March 26, the project announced that it had been exploited, with initial estimated losses put at $62 million.

However, the hacker later returned the funds without demanding a ransom. On March 27, Munchables determined that the hacker was one of its own developers.

In the end, Blast creator Pacman announced that $97 million in crypto taken from the incident had been secured by Blast core contributors.

Related: Hacker moves $10M from 2023 phishing incident to Tornado Cash

Meanwhile, the Prisma Finance incident, which saw about $11 million in digital assets stolen, might also have a chance to recover its lost funds. On March 28, the decentralized finance protocol froze its platform to investigate the hack.

However, around six hours after the attack, the hacker said in an on-chain message that the incident was a “white hat rescue.” The protocol is currently in talks with the hacker, which may lead to a recovery.

On March 24, Curio’s MakerDAO-based smart contract on Ethereum was breached. While initial estimated losses were $16 million, PeckShield claims it is closer to $40 million. The security firm noted that the incident ranks second in terms of the amount lost last month.

The Binance-incubated platform NFPrompt saw hackers illegally access about $10 million, and the WooFi decentralized exchange suffered losses of about $8.5 million.

Magazine: DeFi’s billion-dollar secret: The insiders responsible for hacks"
"[INST] Hong Kong bank embraces stablecoin issuers [/INST] In a move poised to accelerate local Web3 adoption, Hong Kong’s ZA Bank has announced it will offer dedicated banking services for stablecoin issuers.

According to the announcement on April 5, the Hong Kong-based virtual bank is opening up security for fiat reserves, which issuers can use to back digital assets.

Stablecoin issuers will also have access to banking services such as fund transfers, payroll management and various deposit options.

Devon Sin, the alternate chief executive of ZA Bank, said the institution has “unwavering support” for the Web3 community:

“With these new services, we’re directly addressing the unique challenges faced by stablecoin issuers, ultimately promoting growth and stability within the Web3 economy.""

Generally, for stablecoins to maintain their value, the issuer will need to securely store an equivalent amount of fiat currency, such as dollars, in fiat reserves. This ensures that holders can always redeem their stablecoins for the equivalent amount of the underlying fiat currency.

Related: Japan’s Sony Bank tests yen-backed stablecoin for gaming and sports IP payments

However, managing these reserves securely has been challenging for stablecoin issuers, hindering wider adoption and creating a major need in the greater Web3 community.

ZA Bank has been actively trying to involve itself in Hong Kong’s burgeoning Web3 scene. In 2023, it reported over $1 billion in transfer volume from clients in the Web3 space.

In May 2023, it announced it would begin offering retail virtual asset trading in the administrative region, one day after the Hong Kong Securities and Futures Commission (SFC) said it would start accepting retail virtual asset trading platform (VATP) license applications.

The bank has since reportedly secured more than 80% of the client banking needs of the VATP in Hong Kong.

It also said it worked to onboard more than 100 Web3 companies in its efforts to push for local adoption.

In December 2023, the Hong Kong government announced that it would oblige stablecoin issuers to obtain licenses, according to a consultation paper from the Financial Services and the Treasury Bureau and the Hong Kong Monetary Authority.

The criteria for obtaining such a license will entail full backing of all circulating stablecoins with reserves “at least equal to the par value.”

Magazine: SBF gets 25 years in prison, Fidelity eyes ETH staking, and Coinbase’s court loss: Hodler’s Digest, March 24-30"
"[INST] DePIN platform peaq secures $15M in pre-launch round [/INST] Update (March 27 at 17:58 UTC): This article has been updated to clarify that peaq is a layer-1 platform for DePINS, and Julia Pönitzsch is not a co-founder.

Layer-1 platform peaq — focused on decentralized physical infrastructure networks (DePINs) — has disclosed a $15 million funding round ahead of its mainnet launch in May.

The round was led by Generative Ventures and Borderless Capital, with participation from Spartan Group, HV Capital, CMCC Global, Animoca Brands, Moonrock Capital, Fundamental Labs, and other investors.

Behind the peaq network is the Berlin-based startup EoT Labs, founded in 2017 by Leonard Dorlöchter, Max Thake, and Till Wendler. The peaq blockchain applies decentralization to physical infrastructure and systems, aiming to build an “Economy of Things” network. According to the company, its ecosystem is home to more than 20 DePIN projects — “already more than the likes of Solana, Polygon and other prominent layer-1s,” the company claimed in a statement to Cointelegraph.

Announcing: peaq raises $15M in a pre-launch funding round led by @genventurecap and @borderless_cap



The funds will go towards making it easier and faster for #DePINs to build, launch, and scale on peaq, ahead of peaq’s upcoming public offering, and the launch of peaq’s… pic.twitter.com/1ErsxsIUFP — peaq (@peaqnetwork) March 27, 2024

DePIN uses blockchain technology to incentivize people to build, own and run real-world physical infrastructure, thus distributing control across a network and avoiding centralization in any single organization’s hands.

Initiatives in different industries are exploring DePIN use cases, such as energy systems for peer-to-peer energy trading, supply chains, telecommunications for internet access, and data storage for secure data management. Data from intelligence firm Messari indicates that the DePIN market valuation could reach $3.5 trillion in the next four years.

The startup offers DePINs with Modular DePIN Functions, which are ready-to-use functions that allow DePINs to build and deploy their projects on the blockchain. Features available for projects include a machine tokenization platform and a DePIN Accelerator program.

In 2021, peaq raised nearly $2.7 million in a seed round. The additional funds will be primarily allocated to its ecosystem expansion and further development of solutions for developers.

“We will keep working on expanding the ecosystem, which will stand to benefit from more funds going into the Ecosystem Grant Program, and further developing the peaq SDK and the Modular DePIN Functions. All and all, this year is shaping up to be intense, growth-focused, and very promising, which is how we like it,” Leonard Dorlochter, co-founder of peaq, told Cointelegraph.

Magazine: Inside Pink Drainer — Security analyst defends his crypto scam franchise"
"[INST] Paraguay’s proposed Bitcoin mining ban could cost $200M a year [/INST] The Paraguayan economy could lose more than $200 million annually if the country’s lawmakers pass a recently introduced bill to ban crypto mining in the country.

Lawmakers introduced the draft bill on April 4, claiming illegal cryptocurrency mines steal power and disrupt the country’s electricity supply. If passed, the ban would last 180 days or until new laws are enacted and the national power grid operator can ensure it can supply sufficient energy.

But a ban on lawful miners operating in the region could prove costly for the South American country, according to Hashlabs Mining co-founder and chief mining strategist Jaran Mellerud, who recently spoke with Cointelegraph:

Banning Bitcoin mining could cost Paraguay more than $200 million a year, assuming the country has 500 megawatts of legal miners paying $0.05 per kilowatt-hour in operating expenses.”

Markets of this size aren’t common in Paraguay either, which boasts a rather small population of 6.8 million people and the 94th-largest gross domestic product in the world at $41.7 billion, according to Worldometer, citing 2022 data.

Bitcoin (BTC) mining has provided a “significant, positive contribution to Paraguay’s trade balance” until this point, Mellerud argued.

Bitcoin mining firms currently need to register and receive authorization from the Paraguayan Ministry of Industry and Commerce.

If passed, the bill may impact one of the industry’s largest players, Marathon Digital Holdings, which started deploying 27 megawatts around the Itaipu hydroelectric power plant last November.

The Itaipu Dam has become a popular site for miners to set up, as it supplies all of Paraguay’s local electricity needs and leaves a large amount of excess electricity to tap into.

This excess electricity has historically been exported to Brazil at low prices. However, Mellerud noted that a wave of Bitcoin miners has swooped in at slightly higher prices in recent months.

But lawmakers say there have been 50 cases of interrupted power supply linked to cryptocurrency miners illegally tapping into these electricity sources since February alone.

The country’s National Electricity Administration estimates each cryptocurrency mining operation has caused damages and losses up to $94,900. Total annual losses in the Alto Paraná area — where the Itaipu power plant is based — could be up to $60 million.

“Illegal operations can be harmful to the grid if it draws too much electricity from low voltage lines,” Mellerud acknowledged.

Related: Bitcoin’s halving won’t see a 600% return this year — so adjust your strategy

A similar situation played out in Kazakhstan a few years ago, ultimately leading to the Kazakh government cracking down on the industry and kicking illegal mining operators out of the country.

Mellerud previously told Cointelegraph that Paraguay and Argentina would take in an influx of United States-based miners looking to expand or even migrate to the energy-rich nations due to lower electricity costs.

The controversy in Paraguay comes as Bitcoin miners prepare for the upcoming Bitcoin halving event expected to take place on April 20, which will slice miner rewards from 6.25 Bitcoin (BTC) ($434,000) to 3.125 BTC ($217,000).

Magazine: Wolf Of All Streets worries about a world where Bitcoin hits $1M: Hall of Flame"
"[INST] Why Bitcoin ETFs with ‘zero flows’ don’t mean what you think [/INST] Bitcoin (BTC) exchange-traded funds (ETFs) having days of zero inflows is completely normal and shouldn’t be misinterpreted as a failure of the products themselves, said Bloomberg ETF analyst James Seyffart.

On most days, the “vast majority” of all United States ETFs post zero inflows — something completely normal for any ETFs in a given sector, Seyffart said in an April 16 X post.

“On any given day, the vast majority of ETFs will have a flow number of ZERO — this is very normal. There are ~3,500 ETFs in the U.S. Yesterday 2,903 of them had a flow of exactly zero.”

Several market commentators voiced concerns about the low inflows into U.S.-based Bitcoin ETFs. BlackRock’s Bitcoin ETF was the only one to see inflows for two consecutive trading days this week — between April 12 and April 15.

BlackRock was the only fund to see inflows between April 12 and 15. Source: Farside Investors

Seyffart said the flows were no cause for concern and were typical for most ETFs due to how new inflows are recorded.

For an ETF to record new inflows or outflows, there has to be a significant enough mismatch between supply and demand to justify making or destroying new fund shares, which are issued in “creation units,” Seyffart explained.

“This ONLY happens when there is a mismatch in supply [and] demand. And that mismatch has to be large enough to justify tapping the underlying market and a ~bigger mismatch than a creation unit,” Seyffart added.

Creation units are the “lots” in which ETF shares are created and redeemed.

“Every ETF can have a different-sized creation unit. In the case of the spot Bitcoin ETFs they are blocks of shares ranging from 5,000 shares to 50,000 shares,” he said.

Related: Bitcoin Halving will pump games, Shrapnel’s ‘simple’ secret revealed: Web3 Gamer

Four of the last six trading days have seen all 10 U.S. spot Bitcoin products witness net outflows, with selling from the Grayscale Bitcoin Trust (GBTC) far outpacing inflows into the new funds.

On April 16, Bitcoin ETFs posted $58 million in net outflows, according to data from Farside Investors. The outflows were led by GBTC, which saw $79.4 million in outflows and $12.9 million from ARK 21Shares Bitcoin ETF (ARKB).

BlackRock iShares Bitcoin ETF (IBIT) saw the largest inflows, generating $25.8 million. Four of the funds, including those from Bitwise and Invesco Galaxy, saw zero new inflows.

April 14 and 15 saw all combined ETFs post net outflows of $55.1 million and $36.7 million, respectively.

Outflows from GBTC have outpaced inflows into new funds. Source: Farside Investors

The recent net outflows for the Bitcoin ETFs follow several days of subpar price action for Bitcoin, which is down 7.8% on the week to $63,723, per TradingView data.

Traders and market pundits have pointed to escalating geopolitical tensions in the Middle East as well as the upcoming Bitcoin halving event — currently slated for April 20 — as primary causes of volatility.

Magazine: The real risks to Ethena’s stablecoin model (are not the ones you think)"
"[INST] $2B in Silk Road Bitcoin seized by DOJ moves to new wallet [/INST] Roughly $2 billion in Bitcoin (BTC) previously seized by United States authorities and connected to the Silk Road marketplace has moved to a new address.

According to data from the blockchain on April 2, a wallet known to be associated with the U.S. Justice Department made a 0.001 BTC transaction to a Coinbase Prime address — possibly as a test transaction. Shortly thereafter, the same wallet transferred 30,174 BTC, or roughly $2 billion at the time of publication, to a new address. Online sleuths identified the DOJ wallet as that containing Bitcoin seized from James Zhong, who in 2022 was convicted of charges connected to “unlawfully obtained” crypto from Silk Road.

Zhong stole more than 50,000 BTC from Silk Road in 2012. In 2021, U.S. authorities raided his property and discovered hard wallets containing Bitcoin, including one “on a single-board computer that was submerged under blankets in a popcorn tin.” The bulk of the seized crypto was sent to the same address that moved more than 30,000 BTC on April 2.

Related: US Justice Department charges KuCoin and two founders with violating AML laws

In March 2023, U.S. government authorities reported they had sold roughly 9,861 BTC of the crypto seized from Zhong for more than $215 million, leaving roughly 40,000 BTC. The April 2 transaction followed the price of Bitcoin dropping more than 7% to reach $65,475 at the time of publication.

The Silk Road marketplace, defunct for more than 10 years, allowed users to buy and sell illicit goods, including weapons, drugs and stolen credit card information. U.S. authorities arrested its creator, Ross Ulbricht, in 2013. He is serving two life sentences without the possibility of parole.

Magazine: Bitcoin ETFs make Coinbase a ‘honeypot’ for hackers and governments: Trezor CEO

This is a developing story, and further information will be added as it becomes available."
"[INST] Sam Bankman-Fried asks to stay in Brooklyn prison for appeal [/INST] Former FTX CEO Sam “SBF” Bankman-Fried, recently sentenced to 25 years in federal prison, has requested a judge allow him to temporarily remain incarcerated in the New York City area instead of California.

In an April 8 filing in United States District Court for the Southern District of New York, Bankman-Fried’s lawyers asked Judge Lewis Kaplan to approve an order allowing the former FTX CEO to remain at the Metropolitan Detention Center in Brooklyn, where he has been since August 2023. According to the legal team, SBF wanted to stay at the Brooklyn prison to “facilitate access to his appellate counsel” as part of his expected appeal for his conviction and sentencing.

Before Judge Kaplan announced Bankman-Fried’s 25-year sentence on March 28, attorney Marc Mukasey said his team intended to appeal SBF’s conviction on seven felony counts. No filing appeared in the online portal for the U.S. Court Of Appeals for the Second Circuit at the time of publication. Some legal experts have also suggested that the former FTX CEO could have years knocked off his time in prison based on good behavior.

The judge initially ruled that Bankman-Fried would serve his sentence at a medium- or low-security prison in the San Francisco Bay Area, likely due to family members living nearby. Before Judge Kaplan revoked SBF’s bail in August 2023, the former FTX CEO was mainly confined to his parents’ California home near Stanford University.

Related: Sam Bankman-Fried speaks out after sentencing: ‘I never thought what I was doing was illegal’

Bankman-Fried was one of the only individuals tied to the collapse of FTX and Alameda Research to plead not guilty and face a jury. Caroline Ellison, Gary Wang, Nishad Singh and Ryan Salame — others associated with the crypto firms charged in the same case as SBF — pleaded guilty and accepted deals.

Salame is scheduled to be sentenced on May 28, but it was unclear when Wang, Ellison, and Singh would appear before a judge. Changpeng Zhao, who pleaded guilty to one felony count in a separate case involving cryptocurrency exchange Binance, will be sentenced on April 30.

Magazine: ‘Less flashy’ Mashinsky set for less jail time than SBF: Inner City Press, X Hall of Flame"
"[INST] Over $6B worth of BTC moved by 5th-richest Bitcoin whale [/INST] The fifth-largest Bitcoin (BTC) holding address — also dubbed “37X” — has moved over $6 billion worth of BTC to three new addresses for the first time since 2019.

The Bitcoin whale transferred nearly its entire balance of 94,500 Bitcoin, worth $6.05 billion, on March 23, leaving only 1.4 BTC in the initial address, according to a March 25 X post by Arkham Intelligence. It wrote:

“$5.03B BTC was sent to bc1q8yj, with addresses bc1q6m5 and bc1q592 receiving $561.46M and $488.40M in BTC respectively. bc1q592 has since sent those funds onwards.”

Fifth-largest BTC address flows. Source: Arkham

The transfer occurred during a period of increased institutional interest in Bitcoin, driven by the upcoming Bitcoin halving, which will slash block issuance rewards in half when it occurs in late April.

Despite the Bitcoin price reaching an all-time high before the halving for the first time in history, the incoming supply issuance reduction is still not priced in to the full extent, co-founder of D8X decentralized exchange and former executive director at UBS told Cointelegraph.

Related: Is the Bitcoin halving the right time to invest in BTC?

The over $6 billion BTC transfer occurred two days before Bitcoin reclaimed the $70,000 psychological price level on March 25 for the first time in 10 days. As investors have resumed accumulating BTC off exchanges, BTC supply on Coinbase reached a nine-year low of 344,856 BTC on March 18.

Bitcoin rose 6.4% in the 24 hours leading up to 9:53 am in UTC to trade at $71,222, according to CoinMarketCap.

BTC/USDT, 1h chart. Source: CoinMarketCap

Bitcoin’s current rally is mainly driven by the anticipation of the halving and the increased institutional inflows from the ten spot Bitcoin exchange-traded funds (ETFs) in the United States, Christopher Cheung, partner at digital asset funds Ten Squared, told Cointelegraph in a research note:

“The involvement of traditional financial institutions like BlackRock and Fidelity in launching BTC products is further legitimizing cryptocurrency as an alternative asset class. This reduces the ‘career risk’ for investors who were previously hesitant to enter the crypto market.”

Bitcoin ETFs have reached a combined total of $58.3 billion in on-chain holdings, which represents 4.17% of the current BTC supply, according to Dune.

Related: Who is ‘Mr. 100’? Mysterious Bitcoin whale becomes 14th-biggest BTC holder"
"[INST] DeFi platform Hedgey Finance hit by $44 million exploit [/INST] Hedgey Finance, a token infrastructure platform, has suffered two parallel exploits amounting to a total of $44.7 million worth of lost funds.

Hedgey suffered an exploit worth over $42.8 million Arbitrum (ARB) tokens on the Arbitrum network, according to an April 19 X post by on-chain security firm Cyvers. The attacker has already deposited part of the funds to the Bybit cryptocurrency exchange.

Smart contract vulnerability. Source: Cyvers

Earlier, Hedgey protocol was hacked for a total of $1.9 million worth of crypto on the Ethereum network, according to an X alert by Cyvers.

Hedgey exploit alert. Source: Cyvers

Hedgey protocol confirmed the exploit, adding that it is actively working with auditors to understand the vulnerability behind the potentially ongoing attack. It said in an April 19 X post:

“We're investigating an attack on the Hedgey Token Claim Contract. If you have created active claims, please cancel them using the “End Token Claim"" button…”

Shortly after Hedgey confirmed the exploit, scam accounts impersonating the protocol have started posting potentially malicious links under the thread, urging people to ask for a refund or revoke their smart contract approvals, pointing to suspicious links without connection to Hedgey protocol.

The exploit occurred hours before the much-anticipated Bitcoin halving, set to reduce block issuance rewards in half.

Related: New Bitcoin whales, ETFs are up only 1.6% in unrealized profit — Is the BTC bottom in?

Over $500 million stolen in crypto hacks in Q1 2024

The first quarter of 2024 saw 223 hacks and exploits that amounted to a total of over $502 million worth of stolen digital assets, according to the Hack3d report by on-chain security firm CertiK.

This represents a 54% increase compared to the first quarter of 2023, which saw a total of $326 million worth of funds stolen. January was the most lucrative month for hackers, who stole over $193 million worth of crypto in 78 on-chain incidents.

Hacks by type. Source: CertiK

As in previous quarters, compromised private keys remained the top attack vector, with over $239 million lost in 26 such incidents. Compromised private key exploits only account for 11.7% of all security incidents, according to CertiK.

On the bright side, over $77.9 million worth of stolen funds were ultimately returned in the first quarter, most attributed to the Munchables security incident.

A total of $1.8 billion was lost to crypto hacks and scammers in 2023, of which 17% can be attributed to the North Korean Lazarus Group, according to a Dec. 28 report by Immunefi.

Related: Prisma Finance exploited in $10 million breach"
"[INST] 2 on-chain metrics suggest Bitcoin at its ‘best moment to buy’ [/INST] Bitcoin could be entering into an attractive buy zone according to two popular metrics used by cryptocurrency analysts to track on-chain trading activity.

The market value to realized value (MVRV) and open interest (OI) weighted funding rate metrics could suggest Bitcoin (BTC) is at an attractive entry point for traders.

“This is the best moment to buy Bitcoin,” pseudonymous trader Mister Crypto told his 94,100 X followers in an April 23 post on X.

Bitcoin’s price is $64,230 at the time of publication. Source: CoinMarketCap

Bitcoin’s OI weighted funding rate — which represents the cost of holding Bitcoin futures positions — breached positive territory on April 24 after 24-hours in the negative zone, posting 0.0093%, according to CoinGlass data.

Despite the upswing, it is still significantly lower than the 0.0714% recorded at the beginning of April, a correction that analysts view as favorable for the market.

“One of the healthiest market resets I have seen in a long time,” on-chain analyst Checkmate declared in an April 24 post.

“Rates holding strong. Bitcoin ready for liftoff,” Crypto Banter host Kyle Doops added in an April 24 post.

Related: $1M Bitcoin price still in play amid ‘macro liquidity surge’ — Arthur Hayes

The higher funding rates signal increased interest in long trades, reflecting a more bullish sentiment in the market.

The last time Bitcoin’s OI-weighted funding rate peaked significantly in early March, Bitcoin reached an all-time high of $69,200 on the same day.

Just a week later, on March 14, it surpassed that milestone again, climbing to $73,835, per CoinMarketCap data.

However, founder of the Capriole Investments fund, Charles Edwards, told Cointelegraph that while funding rates are a good indicator “broadly speaking,” it no longer carries the same level of certainty as it did a few years ago.

“2018 through 2020 and 2021, that sort of three-year window, it wasn’t talked about much. It wasn’t understood, and it was a hundred percent hit rate metric, where if it went negative, it was almost a hundred percent guaranteed; if you went long, you would make money.”

Although now there are “so many more parties involved, it’s a bit more of a complex metric to consider,” according to Edwards.

Bitcoin’s OI-weighted funding rate has declined significantly since the start of April. Source: CoinGlass

Meanwhile, the MVRV indicator — which aims to identify when Bitcoin is over or undervalued relative to its fair value — also suggests Bitcoin has headed further into favorable buying conditions.

At the time of publication, Bitcoin’s MVRV score is 2.32, down 6.45% since the start of April, according to LookIntoBitcoin data.

An MVRV score above 3.5 suggests that the market is almost at its peak, whereas a score below one indicates that it has bottomed out.

Bitcoin’s MVRV score has dropped 6.45% since the start of April. Source: LookIntoBitcoin

Edwards pointed out that the current MVRV levels indicate “we’ve got quite a bit of leeway over the next year.”

However, he explained that the current buying opportunity is far less lucrative compared to those available as recently as two years ago.

“It’s not a deep value opportunity that it was a year ago or two years ago when it was way lower. But it’s also not screaming ‘overvaluation,’ which is four or five or six.”

Magazine: Get Bitcoin or die tryin’: Why hip hop stars love crypto

This article does not contain investment advice or recommendations. Every investment and trading move involves risk, and readers should conduct their own research when making a decision."
"[INST] ‘FOMO’ once drove GameFi funding, but VCs say it’s different this time [/INST] Venture capital firms haphazardly piled into blockchain gaming projects during the last bull run but are taking a much more mature and sustainable approach this time, according to industry executives.

“[It was] insane,” Shi Khai Wei, founder of cryptocurrency-focused VC firm LongHash Ventures, told Cointelegraph, adding that some GameFi projects were receiving up to $100 million valuations with only a few team members and some lofty promises.

Keiran Warwick, founder of GameFi studio Illuvium, who recently raised $12 million in VC funding, said he saw the same thing, with much of the investor fervor then driven by a fear of missing out (FOMO).

Illuvium confirmed it secured a $12 million Series A funding round on March 26. Source: Illuvium.io

“If someone’s speaking to you and they pitch a game that four or five other firms have invested in, you think, well, they’ve done their due diligence, and they know what they’re doing, so we’re just going to follow suit,” said Warwick, adding:

“You get this FOMO and traction purely because people don't want to miss out and they think, well, others are in, so we're in.”

But VCs have since expanded their checklists and want to see gameplay, artists, developers, security audits and much more, Warwick noted.

“The amount of scrutiny that VCs are putting projects under now versus then is huge.”

Wei attests to this and says a longer checklist actually helps his firm weed out the not-so-legitimate projects.

LongHash has been more invested in GameFi this time as the top-tier projects have launched or are close to launching and are priced at much more reasonable valuations, Wei explained. His firm has invested in Yield Guild Games, Saga, Guildfi, Overworld and Moonveil.

Wei said GameFi has become a focus area for LongHash Ventures in recent months and hopes the firm will be 6-12 months ahead of the curve when the next wave of FOMO kicks in.

Why #web3?



Network effects are the true underlying force of web3 and it also leads to cross-game collaborations.



“#Gaming, art, and decentralized finance all connect together [in web3],” Robby Yung (@viewfromhk), our CEO of investments, said to @lloydWahed from @manasearchuk. pic.twitter.com/JzUVndu60I — Animoca Brands (@animocabrands) April 15, 2024

Gabby Dizon, co-founder of Yield Guild Games, told Cointelegraph that VCs are now also more aware of the “cyclicality” of cryptocurrency markets, as many of them hamstrung themselves by investing at the peak of the last bull market.

Related: Crypto VC funding breaks 2-year downturn in Q1 2024

It comes as Warwick’s Illuvium.io secured $12 million in a Series A funding round in late March, led by King River Capital, Arrington Capital, and Animoca Ventures.

Among the other GameFi projects to have received funding in recent months are Helika Games, Parallel Studios and Elixer Games in $50 million, $35 million and $14 amounts, respectively.

More than $2 billion was invested into GameFi projects in Q4 2021, but funding amounts fell for six consecutive quarters after the first quarter of 2022, according to RootData.

However, the trend was finally bucked in the third quarter of that year, and the GameFi sector has seen three consecutive quarterly increases since then, including the last quarter, which tallied $268 million.

Source: RootData

Magazine: Web3 Gamer: Games need bots? Illivium CEO admits ‘it’s tough,’ 42X upside"
"[INST] BRC-20 tokens bleed ahead of Bitcoin halving as trader focus shifts to Runes [/INST] The two largest BRC-20 tokens saw over 40% declines on the weekly chart, days ahead of the Bitcoin halving. Meanwhile, traders are shifting their focus to Bitcoin Runes, a new token standard on Bitcoin that makes it easier for users to create fungible tokens.

ORDI and SATS down over 40% ahead of the halving

BRC-20 tokens Ordinals (ORDI) and Sats (SATS), the two largest BRC-20 tokens by market capitalization, saw significant declines. ORDI fell over 42%, while SATS fell over 45% over the week, according to CoinMarketCap data.

ORDI and SATS, 1-day chart. Source: CoinMarketCap

BRC-20 token sales have also been declining. PUPS BRC-20 sales fell by 30% in the past 24 hours to $1.4 million, while WZRD BRC-20 sales fell 63% to $1.1 million, according to NFT data aggregator CryptoSlam.

On the other hand, the daily sales volume of RUNE BRC-20 tokens skyrocketed over 4,500% to $251,000, suggesting that traders are shifting their focus to Bitcoin Runes.

Over the past week, PUPS BRC-20 and WZRD BRC-20 tokens were the second and third-largest collections by sales volume across all blockchains, respectively. PUPS amassed over $41 billion in sales volume, while WZRD amassed $16.3 million in weekly sales, according to CryptoSlam.

Top NFT collections by weekly sales volume. Source: CryptoSlam

The surge of interest in Bitcoin Runes, a new protocol for issuing fungible tokens on the Bitcoin network, can be attributed to its upcoming launch, which is set to go live with the Bitcoin halving later this week.

Despite the surging interest, the real market opportunity for Runes may only come months after the first wave of investor hype subsides, according to the pseudonymous decentralized finance (DeFi) researcher Ignas, who wrote in an April 17 X post:

“Runestone, RSIC, and PUPS are already pumping, promising holders shiny new Rune token airdrops. And FOMO threads keep coming. But, like the NFT frenzy post-JPEG reveal, the market could soon cool off.”

Related: Bitcoin slips below $60K, but some traders aren’t turning bearish on BTC just yet

Rune price in danger after Bitcoin halving

Rune prices could see a significant decline after the halving, as they don’t immediately improve the trading experience of BRC-20 tokens and because small traders may be priced out of the increasing Bitcoin (BTC) transaction fees, according to the pseudonymous researcher.

Daily inscription fees and BRC-20 hype wave. Source: Ignas

Ignas expects hundreds of Runes to potentially launch on the market, diluting trader attention and capital inflows.

Paired with the lack of initial utility around Runes, these aspects will make them akin to memecoin trading, according to the pseudonymous researcher, who wrote:

“Finally, utility-wise runes will trade as memecoins like BRC-20s. At least at first, so the excitement of ‘new’ will fade away. Especially if no rune token manages to sustain the pump and degens lose money.”

However, Runes could progressively gain more functionality, which is why Ignas noted that he was “bullish” on Runes long term.

The Internet Computer Protocol (ICP) is planning a Runes integration that will enable ICP smart contracts to interact with Runes and BRC-20 tokens directly on Bitcoin’s base layer, unlocking more possibilities for holders.

ICP’s efforts are part of a new paradigm dubbed Bitcoin DeFi, or BTCFi, aiming to create more utility around BTC and Bitcoin-native assets.

Related: ETH price nears 3-year lows vs. Bitcoin — Will an Ethereum ETF stem the tide?

This article does not contain investment advice or recommendations. Every investment and trading move involves risk, and readers should conduct their own research when making a decision."
"[INST] Welcome to the future where on-chain robots serve coffee and crypto rewards [/INST] The future is here and it has arrived in the form of a fully-automated robot serving coffee and sprinkled-topped ice cream all powered by blockchain technology.

Deployed at Token2049 in Dubai, Peaq, a layer-1 blockchain for DePIN and Machine RWAs (real-world assets), alongside XMAQUINA and ELOOP, launched a live demonstration of tokenizing autonomous value-generating robots.

The robo-cafe demo included serving attendees coffee and soft serve while allowing users to earn crypto rewards for each cup sold via XMAQUINA’s machine pool.

XMAQUINA's automated robo-cafe at Token 2049 Dubai. Source: Peaq

XMAQUINA leverages Peaq IDs for identity management across its network and taps peaq’s other Modular DePIN Functions as part of its architecture. Users are then able to see all the transactions by looking up the robo-cafe’s Peaq ID via Subscan.

Peaq’s layer-1 is then used for the smart contracts that power its business logic, along with setting up machine pools.

The first pool launched will represent the revenues generated by a tokenized automated robo-cafe set up in a strategic location in Europe. According to XMAQUINA, token holders will get a cut from every cup sold.

Cointelegraph heard from Mauricio Zolliker, the co-founder and CEO of XMAQUINA, who explained why the company is using a DePIN-based coffee-serving robot to demonstrate how Web3 technologies can help humans manage automation.

Related: DePINs to decentralize internet access and connectivity in India

Don’t fear the robot

A recent McKinsey report found that automation has the potential to wipe out nearly 375 million jobs by 2030. Add artificial intelligence (AI) to the picture and a further 12 million roles will be lost in the ame time frame.

While the prospect of intelligent robots wiping out jobs across major industries on a global scale sounds worrying, XMAQUINA is trying to use robots, along with decentralized technology, to give people more equity in the situation.

By tokenizing revenues generated by DePINs of autonomous robots, people can become stakeholders in automation, not its victims it claims.

“Everybody gets to be a stakeholder, not just the 1%, which is a more sustainable approach to automation than the alternatives.”

Zolliker said in this way anyone can become an entrepreneur. “Just think of it, users can crowdfund a project of any technological complexity,” he said. “This stimulates wider economic growth by incentivizing the creation of new businesses and also creates new jobs in the process.”

What about user data?

XMAQUINA leverages Peaq's identity management system so users can interact with the technology and the robots. Zolliker explained that Peaq IDs allow the machines to interact with the blockchain and redistribute the rewards in a “secure and trustless manner.”

“They can also store the usage data, properly anonymized, on-chain — for maintenance purposes,” he said.

Token 2049 conference goers getting tokenized coffee and ice cream. Source: Peaq

“As far as the sale transactions are concerned — when the robot sells coffee, in other words — the user data is handled in line with the conventional protocols for credit card payments. All the appropriate protection applies, it’s part and parcel of regular business.”

An automated future

When asked whereelse this technology could be well-suited for this DePIN model, Zolliker answered:

“In essence, it comes down to one simple question: Can the machine create value autonomously? If the answer is yes, it’s most likely a good fit.”

More specifically, he said the project is already looking into different sectors of potential use cases. This includes robots for logistics and delivery, agriculture, manufacturing, service and hospitality, construction and even environmental monitoring.

“People don’t need to fear robots coming for their jobs when they can earn from these robots,” he said.

“While there’s no stopping automation, the most equitable way of moving forward with it is to let everyone have a stake in it.”

Magazine: Bitcoin Halving will pump games, Shrapnel’s ‘simple’ secret revealed: Web3 Gamer"
"[INST] White hat hacker group SEAL launches crypto threat-sharing center [/INST] A team of white hat hackers called the Security Alliance (SEAL) has said it recovered $50 million in assets since its inception in 2023 and has launched a threat-sharing platform to support the crypto space.

On April 17, the alliance announced its free Information Sharing and Analysis Center (ISAC) called SEAL-ISAC — a platform purpose-built for crypto aiming to protect against cyberattacks and financial crimes by providing security intelligence and connections to experts.

Its features include information sharing, threat analysis and alerts, best practices, incident coordination and response and education on security best practices and threats.

Nearly two dozen major crypto organizations, including the Ethereum Foundation, Polygon, Uniswap Labs, Chainalysis and MetaMask, have joined the initiative as early participants.

The platform is built on the open-source Open Cyber Threat Intelligence Platform (Open CTI) and supports centralized and decentralized crypto entities.

The ISAC integrates with SEAL’s other initiatives, such as its SEAL 911 crypto security incident response — a Telegram messenger channel where a team of around 40 white hat hackers can pick up reports of hacks in progress and assist in real time.

Related: Crypto hack losses declined 51% in 2023: Report

Crypto markets are poised to enter another bull cycle following a decline in hack losses in 2023.

More than $7.7 billion has been stolen in crypto hacks since 2016 — the majority pilfered from major exploits in 2021 and 2022, according to DefiLlama.

Crypto total value hacked since 2017. Source: DefiLlama

SEAL team member and Paradigm security head “Samczsun,” told Cointelegraph Magazine in March that the increasing complexity of crypto-related hacks is “the equivalent of taking a college-level course on quadratic equations.”

“Things are getting harder, but it’s a good sign we are forcing the hackers to solve more and more complicated problems,” they added.

Magazine: ‘SEAL 911’ team of white hats formed to fight crypto hacks in real time"
"[INST] Binance launches ‘Megadrop’ early access program for Web3 rewards [/INST] Cryptocurrency exchange Binance recently launched an early access incentive and rewards program for Web3 users featuring airdrops and quests.

Dubbed “Megadrop,” the new program is a token launch platform where users “can subscribe BNB to Locked Products and/or complete tasks in their Web3 Wallet for early access to rewards from selected Web3 projects before their tokens are listed on the Binance Exchange,” according to a Binance blog post.

Essentially, Megadrop will function as a loyalty and rewards program with incentives for participation. Users who sign up for the platform will be given the opportunity to stake Binance’s BNB (BNB) token prior to the launch of projects on the platform.

Users will also have access to quests. The blog post didn’t specify how quests will work, but they’ll likely involve performing engagement tasks such as watching educational videos about Web3 products or signing up for mailing lists.

While similar platforms exist throughout the industry — Coinbase Earn, for example — Binance’s Megadrop appears to separate itself from the herd with a few key differences.

While typical learn-to-earn and staking services tend to be periodic or one-offs, Binance is incentivizing users to engage in long-term participation with an early access platform.

According to the blog post, Megadrop rewards increase as users participate in more events and for longer periods of time:

“Longer subscriptions yield higher scores. […] Users will receive a Web3 Quest Bonus and a Web3 Quest Multiplier when they complete all the designated Web3 Quests with the minimum requirements specified.”

The new platform’s launch comes as the company moves on after paying $4.3 billion in fines and restitution as part of a plea deal with the United States government after the company’s former CEO, Changpeng “CZ” Zhao, pleaded guilty to running afoul of Anti-Money Laundering laws.

Related: Binance’s US settlement was a ‘turning page,’ says exec

CZ is currently slated for sentencing in the U.S. on April 30 after being found guilty of money laundering. Despite the former executive’s current predicament, Binance co-founder He Yi says CZ is in “a positive situation.”

According to analysts, CZ faces anywhere from 12 months to 10 years in federal prison."
"[INST] US gov’t commits $3.6M to address cybersecurity skill shortage [/INST] The United States National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) said it awarded cooperative agreements of almost $3.6 million, aiming to build a workforce to help guard businesses against cybersecurity risks.

The NIST, an agency of the Department of Commerce, announced on April 3 that 18 education and community-focused organizations in 15 states will receive grants of roughly $200,000 to address the shortage of skilled cybersecurity employees.

The cooperative agreements will be a multisector effort as they will be overseen by NICE — a partnership between government, academia and private entities.

Laurie E. Locascio, director of NIST, said the investment is filling a “critical gap” in the cybersecurity workforce.

“Our economic and national security depend on a highly skilled workforce capable of defending against ever-increasing cyber threats.”

According to the U.S.’s CyberSeek tool, which analyzes data about the cybersecurity job market and was funded by NICE, the local market has had around 450,000 cybersecurity job openings in the last year.

However, NIST said only 82 workers were available to fill every 100 cybersecurity job openings at the time, stressing the need for the current initiative.

Related: Empirical analysis identifies blockchain as highest-performing information security startup investment

Data from Statista says that in 2023, there were at least 100 cases of private data exposure for U.S. government entities reported, up from 74 the previous year. Within those cases, the violations affected the private data of 15 million people.

The Consumer Sentinel Network said in 2023, overall, more than 353 million people were impacted by data breaches.

Additionally, an Internet Crime Report from the Federal Bureau of Investigations (FBI) said that in 2023, 880,418 cybercrime complaints were received from the public — a 10% increase from 2022.

The total cost of damage caused by cybercrime is expected to reach $10.5 trillion by 2025.

NIST’s award grantees will together build the Regional Alliances and Multistakeholder Partnerships to Stimulate (RAMPS) cybersecurity education and workforce development, through which it plans to align with local businesses and nonprofits in need of a cybersecurity workforce.

In November of last year, NIST also led efforts to establish an Artificial Intelligence (AI) Safety Institute consortium in response to an executive order on AI safety policies released by the Biden administration

Magazine: NFTs are like nightclubs, crypto is a volatile religion: NFTStats, NFT Collector"