The editors of Incrypted have prepared a weekly digest about the most important events in the cryptosphere. In it we will talk about the Bitcoin halving and the market reaction to this event, the TOKEN2049 conference in Dubai, which our team attended, Pavel Durov’s interview with journalist Tucker Carlson, and TON’s partnership with Tether, the issuer of the USDT stablecoin.
Top News Bitcoin News
- Bitcoin halving took place on April 20, 2024
On April 20, 2024, a halving occurred on the Bitcoin network at block height 840,000. The asset reacted to this event with a slight drop, but then rebounded to $65,690, according to TradingView. At the time of publication, it is trading near $65,000.
Bitcoin BTCNote that this is the fourth halving. He cut the reward for each block mined by half – to 3,125 BTC.
It is noteworthy that shortly before this event the number of search queries on Google reached a record high. Most often, information about Bitcoin halving was sought in the Netherlands, Switzerland, Slovenia and a number of other countries.
In addition, Bitcoin miners started a race to see who can mine the first block after the fourth halving, which contains an “epic Satoshi.”. Its estimated value ranges from $1 million to $50 million.
Expert opinion
According to one forecast, after halving, Bitcoin mining may be unprofitable for miners. Their losses will reach $10 billion within a year.
10x Research analyst Markus Thielen warned about a possible sale of $5 billion worth of bitcoins. The wave of sales will have a serious impact on the rate of the first cryptocurrency and the crypto market as a whole, he said.
Analysts from the JPMorgan Chase financial group also predicted a fall in the Bitcoin rate in the near future.. They attributed their forecast to rising miner costs and low venture capital funding.
- Binance CEO calls new halving “unique”
Binance exchange CEO Richard Teng announced that the new halving is occurring under unique circumstances. He included such events as the approval of spot Bitcoin ETFs, the growing popularity of L2 networks and stimulating the development of the DeFi sector in the Bitcoin ecosystem.
- Commissions on the Bitcoin network have increased ahead of the launch of Runes
At the end of April 2024, the release of the Runes protocol is expected, which is positioned by the developer as an alternative to Ordinals. Against this background, commissions on the Bitcoin network increased significantly, reaching an average value of $19.4.
After halving, this figure exceeded $90. Promotion confirmed in Whale Alert. Analysts reported that 6 BTC ($430,619 at the time) was paid in one transaction.
- An unknown person paid more than $12,000 in Bitcoin transfer fees
Two days before the halving, on April 18, 2024, an unknown Bitcoin owner sent 0.585 BTC to another address. The transaction fee was $12,581.
This is not the first time that users have paid huge fees for transferring funds.. On January 16, 2024, an unknown counterparty spent approximately $173,000 to transfer 2.9 BTC.
- Swedish Bitcoin miners accused of tax evasion of $90 million
The Swedish tax authority Skatteverket conducted an investigation into the activities of 21 mining companies between 2020 and 2023. The analysis revealed numerous irregularities and reporting errors amounting to $90 million.
We also covered the story of a Nebraska resident who was accused of illegal mining worth $1 million. According to the official statement, he used various email addresses and corporate connections to register numerous accounts and gain access to computing power.
- JPMorgan CEO Calls Bitcoin a Decentralized Ponzi Scheme
JPMorgan Financial Group CEO Jamie Dimon has once again stated that Bitcoin is a decentralized Ponzi scheme.
The head of the company claims that the first cryptocurrency has no prospects, and his attitude towards the asset’s potential remains skeptical. According to him, Bitcoin has all the hallmarks of a financial pyramid, which demonstrates a number of specific characteristics.
Cryptocurrency ETFs
- ETF approval in Hong Kong
On April 15, 2024, the Hong Kong Securities and Futures Commission (SFC) approved the launch of spot ETFs based on Bitcoin and Ethereum. The company did not name product tickers. It is known that they will be listed on the Hong Kong Stock Exchange (HKSE).
It should be noted that Bosera International and HashKey Capital entered into an agreement on strategic cooperation in early April 2024. In addition to these providers, Harvest Fund Management Company and China Asset Management also submitted bids.
- Fund flows
Outflows from US spot Bitcoin ETFs dominated this week. In particular, on April 15, the net daily capital outflow in this sector amounted to more than $36 million. The next day it grew to $58 million, and on April 17 it amounted to $165 million.
Towards the end of the week, the outflow decreased to $4.39 million, and on Friday, April 19, there was an inflow of funds in the amount of $59 million.
It should be noted that the main withdrawal of capital came from the GBTC fund of Grayscale Investments. Since its launch in January 2024, the converted fund has lost more than $16.6 billion.
According to CoinGlass, the volume of bitcoins managed by the Grayscale Bitcoin Trust has decreased by almost 50% since the product launched.. As of April 16, 2024, it held 311,621 BTC.
- Altcoin ETFs
A representative of the investment company Grayscale Investments, David LaValle, predicted the approval of ETFs based on cryptocurrencies other than Bitcoin and Ethereum. In his opinion, such products will be approved within the next two to three years.
Project news
- Tether CEO announced the launch of a tokenization platform
CEO of Tether, the issuer of the USDT stablecoin, Paolo Ardoino announced the launch of a tokenization platform. According to him, it will be completely non-custodial and will begin to support multiple blockchains and assets.
- The Solana team has released an update to combat network congestion
The Solana blockchain developers have released version 1.17.31 update, which is designed to solve the problem of network congestion.
Let us remind you that during the period from April 4 to April 5, 2024, approximately 77% of transactions on the Solana network were not completed. Presumably this was due to the hype around memoins.
Already on April 9, blockchain developers announced that they intended to solve the problem of non-performing transactions.
- Decentralized exchange Uniswap increased commissions
Uniswap Labs has increased the interface trading fee on its decentralized exchange from 0.15% to 0.25%.
Note that this decision was made against the backdrop of a warning about a possible lawsuit from the US Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). Despite this, the average daily trading volume on Uniswap exceeded $3 billion.
- OKX launched its own L2 network X Layer
On April 15, 2024, the OKX cryptocurrency exchange announced the launch of the second level network X Layer. According to the press release, the zero-knowledge proof protocol aims to provide lower fees on the Ethereum network and interoperability for users interacting with decentralized applications (dApps).
TOKEN2049 conference in Dubai
On April 18 and 19, the TOKEN2049 conference was held in Dubai, which was attended by the editors of Incrypted. During the event, a number of important announcements and statements were made.
- The Berachain team announced a partnership with Google
L1 blockchain Berachain announced a partnership with Google. It is known that as part of the collaboration, Google will support the Build-A-Bera incubator with “special resources.”
- Restaking and infrastructure development at Restaking & Infra Day
During the Restaking & Infra Day, which took place in Dubai as part of TOKEN2049, industry leaders discussed the topic of re-staking. Our team talked with representatives of the LayerZero, Alchemy Pay, EigenLayer and Etherfi projects.
- Arthur Hayes spoke about the advantages of Bitcoin over fiat and gold
Also speaking at the conference was investor and co-founder of the BitMEX cryptocurrency exchange Arthur Hayes. He spoke about the problems of the existing financial system, US monetary policy and the advantages of Bitcoin.
- The co-founder of Binance commented on the situation of Changpeng Zhao in the USA
Co-founder of the Binance exchange Yi He attended a community meetup as part of the TOKEN2049 conference. She dispelled doubts regarding the legal status of the former head of the company Changpeng Zhao (CZ). According to her, he is positive ahead of the trial.
Let us remind you that the trial in the CZ case will tentatively take place on April 30. Before that, he was released on bail of $175 million.
- Tether has added support for USDT on the TON network
Tether, the issuer of USDT, has officially added support for the TON network for the stablecoin. It authorized the issuance of 10 million USDT.
Besides TON, USDT is available on 15 other networks, including Tron, Ethereum, Solana, Omni and others. Most of the circulating supply of stablecoins is concentrated in the first two ecosystems.
- Pavel Durov announced the tokenization of stickers in Telegram
Telegram founder Pavel Durov said that the messenger will have the ability to tokenize stickers and emoji, the owners of which will receive 95% of the income from the sale.
In addition, at the TOKEN2049 event, Durov announced that in a few weeks Telegram will allow the purchase of physical and digital goods within the messenger.
Hackers and hacks
- A group of hackers transferred $1 million to launch a new project
A group of scammers that stole tens of millions of dollars from Magnate, Kokomo and Lendora has launched a new project on the Blast network. Expert ZachXBT reported this.
- Hackers hacked Tom Holland’s X account to distribute a fake SPIDER token
Unknown people hacked the page of actor Tom Holland, who played the Marvel comic book character Spider-Man.. Having gained access to an account on social network X (formerly Twitter), they began distributing phishing links.
- The analyst named the suspect in the Prisma Finance hack
On-chain analyst and crypto detective ZachXBT named the hacker allegedly behind the hack of the Prisma Finance liquid staking protocol.
Let us remind you that at the end of March 2024 the protocol suffered from a hacker attack. PeckShield analysts found that the attacker who hacked Prisma Finance sent $6.5 million to the Tornado Cash mixer. According to them, the total losses of the protocol amounted to $11.6 million.
- Mango Markets hacker found guilty of fraud and manipulation
On April 18, 2024, a jury found Mango Markets DeFi protocol hacker Abraham Eisenberg guilty of fraud and manipulation.. Now he faces up to 20 years in prison.
TON Foundation presented the Memelandia memecoin center
The non-profit organization The Open Network Foundation (TON Foundation) introduced Memelandia, a cultural hub for memcoins.
In their statement, TON representatives recognized the importance of memcoins for increasing loyalty and further development of the community. Earlier in March, the organization launched a $100 million initiative to reward community members.
Nigerian authorities managed to track down the fugitive Binance executive in Kenya
Nigerian authorities have learned about the whereabouts of Binance top manager Nadeem Anjarwalla. According to reports, he is hiding in Kenya.
Let us recall that the regional head of the exchange for East and West Africa managed to escape from Nigerian law enforcement agencies thanks to a Kenyan passport. He and another top manager, Tigran Ghambaryan, have been detained in Nigeria since the end of February 2024.
The next Binance hearing in India will take place on May 17, 2024. According to local media, it was postponed by almost a month due to the fact that the Nigerian authorities did not bring formal charges against the crypto exchange.
Pavel Durov spoke about investments in Bitcoin and IPO Telegram
The owner of the Telegram company, Pavel Durov, said in an interview with journalist Tucker Carlson that he has several hundred million in dollars and bitcoins.
Note that this is the first video interview with Durov in a long time.. According to him, the material was filmed back in February 2024.
US Senators Introduce Bill to Regulate Stablecoins
On April 17, 2024, US Congress Senators Kirsten Gillibrand and Cynthia Lummis introduced a bill to regulate stablecoins.
According to a press release, the bill was developed jointly with the Federal Reserve and the New York State Department of Financial Services. It envisions the use of stablecoins for faster international transactions, lower fees and unlocking the potential of the digital asset industry.
The NBU announced the need to implement MiCA into the legislation of Ukraine
Ukrainian legislation should be adapted to the MiCA regulations, taking into account that the country has received EU candidate status. These are several large-scale events, including a conference, meetups and an online marathon. Stay tuned – we will soon announce speakers and provide details regarding this event.
Sergey KhukharkinAirdrops
Guides and activities:
- Olive Staking Saga;
- Karak;
- Massa – Liquidity Incentive Program;
- Sanctum;
- Solv Protocol;
- DeBridge;
- Magic Square;
- Venom – Quests Season 1 – Stage 2;
- Swell L2;
- ZeroLend – Intract Campaign;
- Holograph Goddess Roulette;
- SanR;
- TeleportDAO On CoinList.
Besides…
- We have collected for you in one material key investments in the field of blockchain, crypto assets and AI.
- We regularly update the Incrypted crypto calendar, in which you will find a lot of interesting events and announcements.