Today's news tips:
The sentencing hearing for Zhao Changpeng will begin at 0:00 am on May 1
New court documents show that the chairman of the US SEC has always believed that ETH is a "security" over the past year
The trading volume of Hong Kong virtual asset ETF on the first day of listing was about HK$87.6 million, of which China Asset Management accounted for nearly 57%.
MicroStrategy added another 25,250 bitcoins in the first quarter of this year, and its total bitcoin holdings now stand at 214,400.
EigenLayer will launch its native token in May, and stakers will receive a 15% airdrop
Liquidity staking protocol MilkyWay completes $5 million seed round, led by Binance Labs and Polychain Capital
FTX debtors reach $450 million settlement with Voyager Digital
Nansen: The combined transaction volume of Tether, USDC and DAI in the past month exceeds Visa's monthly average in 2023
Regulatory News
The sentencing hearing for Zhao Changpeng will begin at 0:00 am on May 1
According to Reuters, Zhao Changpeng, the former CEO of crypto exchange Binance, could face several years in prison when he is sentenced after pleading guilty on Tuesday to violating U.S. money laundering laws. U.S. prosecutors have told Seattle District Judge Richard Jones that they want Zhao to serve twice the maximum sentence of 18 months recommended under federal guidelines. Prosecutors said that imposing a severe sentence on the man once considered the most influential in the cryptocurrency industry would send a message that "the right choice every time is to obey the law." The hearing began at 9 a.m. Pacific Daylight Time on Tuesday (0:00 on May 1, Beijing time). Robert Fisher, a partner at Nixon Peabody in Boston and a former federal prosecutor, said he was surprised that prosecutors were still asking for a heavy sentence after Zhao Changpeng pleaded guilty, but suggested that they may be trying to set an example because of Zhao's high profile. "It is unusual to ask for a sentence that exceeds the sentencing guidelines, and they hope it will serve as a deterrent," he said. Zhao's lawyers asked for probation on the grounds that Zhao Changpeng "unflinchingly" accepted responsibility and had already paid a $50 million criminal fine. They also said Zhao Changpeng had never committed a crime before and that no defendants in similar cases had been imprisoned.
Earlier news reported that the U.S. Probation Office recommended that Zhao Changpeng be sentenced to five months of probation.
Samourai Wallet co-founder pleads not guilty to money laundering charges; next hearing to be held on May 14
Samourai Wallet co-founder Keonne Rodriguez pleaded not guilty to money laundering charges on Monday, CoinDesk reported. Rodriguez was released on $1 million bail, and his next hearing will be held in Manhattan on May 14. Keonne Rodriguez is reportedly facing two charges of conspiracy to launder money and conspiracy to operate an unlicensed money transfer business, which together carry a maximum sentence of 25 years in prison. Rodriguez and another co-founder, William Lonergan Hill, were arrested last week, and authorities shut down the Samourai Wallet service. Prosecutors said Samourai Wallet was suspected of processing more than $2 billion worth of illegal funds between 2015 and 2024, including providing more than $100 million in money laundering transactions for darknet markets.
New court documents show that the chairman of the US SEC has always believed that ETH is a "security" over the past year
According to Fox Business, according to the relevant legal documents of the SEC's lawsuit against Consensys, US SEC Chairman Gensler has always believed that ETH is an "unregistered security" and does not comply with current federal regulations over the past year.
In addition, on March 28, 2023, Gurbir Grewal, head of the SEC's enforcement division, approved a formal order to investigate the status of Ethereum securities, authorizing law enforcement officers to investigate and subpoena individuals and entities involved in the incident. It is reported that the recipients of the subpoenas must keep the investigation strictly confidential if they want to know more details about the investigation in accordance with the instructions of the SEC.
Project News
Interactive Brokers Launches Hong Kong Spot Bitcoin and Ethereum ETPs
Interactive Brokers announces the launch of Hong Kong spot Bitcoin and Ethereum exchange-traded products (ETPs) available for trading on the Hong Kong Stock Exchange. Eligible clients of Interactive Brokers Hong Kong can now trade the new spot Bitcoin and Ethereum ETPs, as well as stocks, options, futures, currencies, bonds, funds and more, through a unified platform. Clients can purchase spot Bitcoin and Ethereum ETPs through their IBKR brokerage account and easily add cryptocurrency exposure to their portfolio without directly owning the digital assets.
A total of 6 virtual asset spot ETFs under Bosera HashKey, Huaxia, and Harvest were listed on the Hong Kong Stock Exchange and opened for trading
Today, six virtual asset spot ETFs under Bosera HashKey, China Asset Management and Harvest Asset Management officially rang the bell and were listed on the Hong Kong Stock Exchange and opened for trading, including Bosera HashKey Bitcoin ETF (3008.HK), Bosera HashKey Ethereum ETF (3009.HK), China Asset Management Bitcoin ETF (3042.HK), China Asset Management Ethereum ETF (3046.HK), Harvest Bitcoin Spot ETF (3439.HK) and Harvest Ethereum Spot ETF (3179.HK).
According to HashKey: Non-Hong Kong residents who meet local regulatory requirements can also purchase Bitcoin and Ethereum spot ETF products.
Both Bitcoin and Ethereum ETFs are anchored to the spot physical prices (BTC/ETH), and their fluctuations are basically consistent with the price changes of BTC/ETH.
EigenLayer will launch its native token in May, and stakers will receive a 15% airdrop
According to The Block, the liquidity re-pledge protocol EigenLayer will launch its native token in May and announced a token airdrop plan. The Eigen Foundation will be the entity that issues the token. The total supply of EigenLayer tokens is 1.67 billion, of which 45% will be allocated to its community, including pledge airdrops (15%), community programs (15%), and ecosystem development (15%). In addition, 29.5% of the tokens will be allocated to investors, while early contributors will receive 25.5% of the tokens. The tokens obtained by investors and early contributors will be locked for a total of three years, of which the first year will be fully locked and will be gradually released at a rate of 4% per month for the next two years. EigenLayer also released a white paper today describing the structure of the Eigen token and how it fits into the Eigen ecosystem.
Later in the news, EigenLayer clarified that it will distribute airdrops to LRT in Phase 2 of Season 1, including Pendle users; the top three stakers of Eigenlayer are expected to receive more than one million EIGEN airdrops, with Justin Sun ranking first; EigenLayer's airdrop plan has sparked controversy: the community calls for a fairer token distribution method.
MicroStrategy added another 25,250 bitcoins in the first quarter of this year, and its total bitcoin holdings now stand at 214,400.
According to The Block, MicroStrategy released its first quarter 2024 earnings report on Monday, and announced its Bitcoin holdings data. In the first quarter of this year, MicroStrategy's revenue was $115.2 million, a year-on-year decrease of 5%. At the same time, since the end of the fourth quarter of last year, the company has purchased 25,250 bitcoins at a price of $1.65 billion, with an average price of $65,232. This is also the 14th consecutive quarter that MicroStrategy has increased its holdings of Bitcoin on its balance sheet. As of March 31, MicroStrategy held a total of 214,278 bitcoins. MicroStrategy founder Michael Saylor later tweeted that MicroStrategy purchased another 122 bitcoins for $7.8 million in April this year, bringing the company's total Bitcoin holdings to 214,400, with a total value of $7.54 billion and an average holding price of $35,180.
FTX debtors reach $450 million settlement with Voyager Digital
According to Cointelegraph, a bankruptcy judge approved a motion to allow FTX debtors to reach a $450 million settlement with bankrupt company Voyager Digital. In a document filed with the U.S. Bankruptcy Court of Delaware on April 29, Judge John Dorsey approved the terms of the agreement between FTX and Voyager, allowing Voyager to resolve all claims with FTX as part of a plan to compensate creditors. Upon approval, the two parties agreed to return $5 million held by Voyager and another $445 million related to the Alameda Research loan repayment lawsuit to the company's debtors. FTX will also "give up" all rights to these funds. Paul Hage, the attorney representing Voyager Digital and its debtors, signed the agreement, and FTX restructuring officer and CEO John Ray III also signed the agreement on April 4.
friend.tech: V2 release postponed to May 3 to develop a feature
Web3 social platform friend.tech said on the X platform: “Many people asked you to share with the key holder when claiming the FRIEND airdrop. We think this is a great idea. We need more time to implement this feature, so we postponed the (V2) release time to 01:30 on May 3rd, Beijing time.
Coinbase to List Neon EVM (NEON)
Coinbase Assets said on the X platform that Coinbase announced that it will support Neon EVM (NEON) (SPL token) on the Solana network. If liquidity conditions are met, trading of NEON tokens will begin at approximately 12:00 noon (EST) on April 30, 2024. Once sufficient supply of the asset is established, the NEON-USD trading pair will be launched in phases.
Dune: There are currently no plans to airdrop Dune or issue tokens
Dune tweeted that its account had been hacked before. A fake post about Dune airdrop lasted for about 15 minutes, and the Dune team has now regained control of the account. Dune reminded users that there is no plan to conduct Dune airdrop or issue tokens, and users should be careful not to be deceived.
Payments Giant Stripe Expands Crypto Business Through Integration with Avalanche
Payment technology company Stripe seems to be going all-in on the crypto space as it announced an integration with Avalanche today, according to Decrypt. Just last week, Stripe announced that it would allow companies using its technology to accept USD Coin (USDC) stablecoins for online payments. Today, Stripe said it will make it easier for its retail customers to enter the Avalanche ecosystem. Ava Labs, the development company behind the Avalanche blockchain, said its wallet Core will use Stripe's fiat-to-cryptocurrency conversion service.
Kamino will open KMNO tokens for redemption at 20:00 on April 30
Solana Ecosystem DeFi Protocol Kamino announced on the X platform that it will open KMNO token applications at 20:00 Beijing time on April 30. According to previous news, the total supply of KMNO tokens is 10 billion, of which 10% will be circulated when it is first launched in April, and the other 7% of the total supply is designated for "initial community allocation."
Terra Classic Community Accuses Karak Developer Andalusia Labs of Stealing 200 Million USTC Tokens
According to DL News, DeFi protocol Karak is the latest entrant in the cryptocurrency staking space, but it is already facing controversy less than a month after its launch. Dozens of DeFi users and Terra Classic community members accused Andalusia Labs, the company behind DeFi protocol Karak, of stealing 200 million USTC tokens (worth about $7 million at the time) from the Terra ecosystem a few months after the Terra ecosystem collapsed in 2022. Karak fought back against the allegations earlier this month, saying on X: "There is no involvement of user funds or misappropriation of user funds. Any statement to the contrary is FUD." Andalusia Labs claims that the tokens belong to it, and its co-founder Raouf Ben-Har said in Karak's public Discord channel earlier this month that it was "granted" 200 million USTC tokens. Therefore, they can spend them as the organization sees fit.
Renzo: The first quarter airdrop qualification inquiry will be open at 18:30 today, and the application page will be online at 19:00
Ethereum restaking protocol Renzo announced that the eligibility query for the first quarter airdrop will be open at 18:30 today, and then open for claiming at 19:00. The number of qualified users for this quarter's airdrop reached 103,500, and the allocation ratio of REZ tokens was 7%.
It is worth noting that Binance will launch Renzo (REZ) at 20:00 on April 30, 2024 (Beijing time), and open REZ/BTC, REZ/USDT, REZ/BNB, REZ/FDUSD, and REZ/TRY trading pairs.
Animoca Brands to Enter Bitcoin Space with OPAL Protocol, Powered by Rune Token BLIF
Animoca Brands said on X Platform that Animoca Brands is about to enter the Bitcoin space. The OPAL Protocol (@OpalBTC), powered by BLIF tokens and initiated by Darewise and Animoca Brands, will become a Web3 ecosystem for games, entertainment, Defi, education and culture based on Bitcoin. BLIF will be the rune token of OPAL Protocol, supporting true digital life on Bitcoin and beyond. Six Animoca Brands portfolio companies have become founding members. In addition, all future Bitcoin-based projects of Animoca Brands will work with OPAL Protocol to lay a solid foundation for cooperation. Among them, the flagship project and AAA multiplayer online game Life Beyond powered by BLIF will play an exemplary role. Other important members who have joined the action include Magic Eden, Xverse, ALEX and Horizen Labs. Yat Siu, Executive Director and Co-Founder of Animoca Brands, said: “With the advent of Ordinals, Bitcoin has made a huge leap from being just a way to store value to becoming a cultural store of the Web3 era. Establishing our presence on the Bitcoin chain through OPAL Protocol will help advance our vision of an open metaverse where everyone has the opportunity to enjoy digital property rights and benefit from the power of network effects.”
ZachXBT: North Korean hacker group Lazarus laundered $200 million worth of stolen crypto into fiat in four years
According to THE BLOCK, on-chain detective ZachXBT claimed that the North Korean hacker group Lazarus laundered $200 million worth of stolen cryptocurrencies into fiat currency in four years.
Investment and Financing
Tether invests $200 million in biotech firm Blackrock Neurotech
According to The Block, stablecoin issuer Tether has invested $200 million in Blackrock Neurotech, a biotech company dedicated to developing tools to help patients with paralysis, loss of function and neurological diseases.
The investment was made through Tether’s newly formed venture capital arm, Tether Evo. With this investment, Tether is now a majority shareholder in Blackrock Neurotech, the stablecoin issuer said on Monday. Tether added that the investment will help Blackrock Neurotech finance the commercialization and promotion of its medical solutions and assist in its research and development efforts.
Liquidity staking protocol MilkyWay completes $5 million seed round, led by Binance Labs and Polychain Capital
According to The Block, Celestia ecosystem liquidity pledge agreement MilkyWay has completed a $5 million seed round of financing, led by Binance Labs and Polychain Capital, with participation from Hack VC, Crypto.com Capital and LongHash Ventures. MilkyWay co-founder and CEO JayB Kim said MilkyWay started this round of financing in December last year and closed it about a month ago. The structure of this round of financing is a simple agreement for future equity (SAFE) and token warrants for the joint lead investors, as well as a simple agreement for future tokens (SAFT) for participating investors. He declined to comment on the valuation.
It is reported that MilkyWay is the first Celestia ecosystem liquidity pledge protocol launched in December last year, and its only competitor is Stride. MilkyWay is also "tailor-made for the modular ecosystem", although it currently focuses only on Celestia (TIA) token liquidity pledge. Data shows that MilkyWay's TVL is about US$24 million. MilkyWay also plans to launch its own tokens and conduct airdrops in the coming months. MilkyWay is currently running a points program called mPoints. MilkyWay said in February that it would then conduct an airdrop called "Massive Airdrop" or "MassDrop", allocating at least 10% of the total supply of MILK tokens to mPoint holders. Kim said that the total supply of MILK tokens will be announced later, but added that the token is expected to be launched at the end of the second quarter or the beginning of the third quarter.
Important data
Nansen: The combined transaction volume of Tether, USDC and DAI in the past month exceeds Visa's monthly average in 2023
According to The Block, Nansen data shows that in the past 30 days, the combined transaction volume of Tether, USDC and DAI has exceeded Visa's monthly average in 2023. Stablecoin Tether has processed $654 billion in transactions in the past 30 days, while DAI's transaction volume exceeded $394 billion and USDC's transaction volume was $321 billion. The total amount of the three is $1.369 trillion. In comparison, Visa's annual transaction volume in 2023 was $1.48 trillion, with an average monthly transaction volume of $1.23 trillion.
Nansen data shows that Tether's monthly transaction volume alone is almost as high as that of Mastercard, the world's second-largest credit card provider. In 2023, Mastercard's monthly average transaction volume was $750 billion, with a total of $9 trillion for the year. Tether also surpassed PayPal, which managed an average of $125 billion per month last year, the data shows.
The total initial offering size of ChinaAMC’s Bitcoin and Ethereum ETFs exceeds HK$1.1 billion
Huaxia Bitcoin ETF and Ethereum ETF were successfully listed today, with the largest initial offering size. As of April 29, the initial offering size of Huaxia Bitcoin ETF and Huaxia Ethereum ETF was HK$950 million and HK$160 million respectively.
The trading volume of Hong Kong virtual asset ETF on the first day of listing was about HK$87.6 million, of which China Asset Management accounted for nearly 57%.
Hong Kong stock market data shows that as of today's close, the trading volume of Hong Kong virtual asset ETFs on the first day of listing reached HK$87.6149 million. Among them, the trading volume of China Asset Bitcoin ETF (3042.HK) was HK$37.1684 million, the trading volume of China Asset Ethereum ETF (3046.HK) was HK$12.6635 million, the trading volume of Harvest Bitcoin ETF (3439.HK) was HK$17.8908 million, the trading volume of Harvest Ethereum ETF (3179.HK) was HK$4.9553 million, the trading volume of Bosera HashKey Bitcoin ETF (3008.HK) was HK$12.4476 million, and the trading volume of Bosera HashKey Ethereum ETF (3009.HK) was HK$2.4893 million.
Compared to when the US just launched the Bitcoin spot ETF, the daily turnover of 11 spot Bitcoin ETFs reached about $4.6 billion on the first trading day when they started trading in the US in January. But excluding the Grayscale ETF, the issuance scale of the 10 US Bitcoin spot ETF issuers on the first day of January 10 this year was $125 million, which is lower than the total issuance scale of the Huaxia Bitcoin and Ethereum ETFs reported this morning, which was HK$1.1 billion.
OKLink: In April, the total loss caused by security incidents across the network was approximately US$110 million, a decrease of 42.11% from the previous month
OKLink released its April 2024 security report. The total losses from on-chain security incidents in April were about $110 million. Among them, the losses from phishing incidents accounted for 7.67%, the losses from REKT incidents accounted for 43.90%, and the losses from RugPull incidents accounted for 44.07%. The largest security incident for REKT losses this month was the attack on Hedgey Finance, which caused a loss of about $44 million. The reason was that there was a vulnerability in the contract that lacked verification of user input, resulting in the theft of assets in the contract; the largest security incident for RugPull losses was the RugPull incident on the encrypted gambling platform ZKasino, which caused a loss of about $33 million.
In addition, there were 32 cases of fraud and phishing on official social media, mainly concentrated in channels such as X, Discord and various phishing websites. OKLink reminds users to avoid revealing your private key or mnemonic to anyone, and not to store it in the form of screenshots. In addition, be careful when downloading software to prevent the device from being compromised by Trojans, resulting in the leakage of private keys or mnemonics. Security awareness is the most powerful shield in the Web3 world.
Six whales sold more than 44,000 ETH after the market fell, worth about $140 million
According to Lookonchain monitoring, after the market fell, six whales sold a total of more than 44,000 ETH (worth about US$140 million).
The address starting with 0x4353 deposited 10,431 ETH (about 32.66 million US dollars) into Binance;
The address starting with 0x4446 deposited 11,892 ETH (about 38 million US dollars) into Binance;
The address starting with 0x488b sold 3,543 stETH (about 11.23 million U.S. dollars) at an average price of $3,170, and sold 3,000 wstETH (about 11.07 million U.S. dollars) at an average price of $3,692.
The address starting with 0x59e9 deposited 7,943 ETH (about 24.9 million US dollars) into Coinbase;
The address starting with 0xC47f deposited 5,584 ETHH (about 17.5 million US dollars) into Coinbase;
The FTX/Alameda address deposited 2,000 ETHH (approximately US$6.28 million) into Binance.
The top three Eigenlayer stakers are expected to receive over one million EIGEN airdrops, with Justin Sun ranking first
According to the latest data from Spot On Chain, among the top airdrop recipients of $EIGEN in the first season, @justinsuntron (Sun Yuchen) leads the pack, collecting a total of 3,559,570 $EIGEN. Following closely behind is address 0x4b25e4, which collected 2,426,294 $EIGEN, while address 0xca264a of the @0xMantle Treasury collected 1,346,851 $EIGEN. In addition, address 0xe2008b also received 553,106 $EIGEN.
Assuming the fully diluted market capitalization (FDV) of the Eigenlayer project is around $15 billion (similar to Ethena), the price of $EIGEN could reach around $10, and these recipients would earn millions of dollars.
OKLink: In April, the total loss caused by security incidents across the network was approximately US$110 million, a decrease of 42.11% from the previous month
OKLink released its April 2024 security monthly report. The total losses of the entire network due to on-chain security incidents in April were approximately $110 million. Among them, the losses from phishing incidents accounted for 7.67%, the losses from REKT incidents accounted for 43.90%, and the losses from RugPull incidents accounted for 44.07%. The largest security incident for REKT this month was the attack on Hedgey Finance, which caused a loss of approximately $44 million. The reason was that there was a vulnerability in the contract that lacked verification of user input, resulting in the theft of assets in the contract; the largest security incident for RugPull losses was the RugPull on the encrypted gambling platform ZKasino, which caused a loss of approximately $33 million. In addition, there were 32 incidents of fraud and phishing on official social media, mainly concentrated in channels such as X, Discord and various phishing websites. OKLink reminds users to avoid revealing your private key or mnemonic to anyone, and not to store it in the form of screenshots. In addition, be sure to be cautious when downloading software to prevent your device from being compromised by Trojans, which could lead to the leakage of private keys or mnemonics. Security awareness is the most powerful shield in the Web3 world.
Bitcoin spot ETF had a total net outflow of $51.5316 million yesterday, continuing its net outflow for 4 consecutive days
According to SoSoValue data, yesterday (April 29, Eastern Time), the total net outflow of Bitcoin spot ETFs was $51.5316 million. Yesterday, Grayscale ETF GBTC had a single-day net outflow of $24.6607 million, and the current historical net outflow of GBTC is $17.21 billion. The Bitcoin spot ETF with the largest single-day net inflow yesterday was Bitwise ETF BITB, with a single-day net inflow of $6.8362 million, and the current total net inflow of BITB reached $1.775 billion. The second was Valkyrie ETF BRRR, with a single-day net inflow of $2.6663 million, and the current total net inflow of BRRR reached $449 million. As of press time, the total net asset value of Bitcoin spot ETFs was $52.209 billion, and the ETF net asset ratio (market value to the total market value of Bitcoin) reached 4.21%, and the historical cumulative net inflow has reached $11.942 billion.
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