Headlines
TD Cowen: US SEC unlikely to approve spot Ethereum ETF before 2025
On April 30, investment bank TD Cowen said that it expects the legal battle between Consensys and the U.S. SEC to last for several years, and they still believe that the U.S. SEC is unlikely to approve a spot Ethereum ETF before 2025.
Ethereum stablecoin transaction volume exceeds $1 trillion so far in April, setting a new record
On April 29, data from The Block showed that as of April 28, the transaction volume of stablecoins on the Ethereum chain reached 1.08 trillion US dollars in April, a record high. Among them, DAIs transaction volume was 578.07 billion US dollars, ranking first; USDC ranked second with a transaction volume of 268.15 billion US dollars, and USDT ranked third with a transaction volume of 198.62 billion US dollars.
On April 29, six virtual asset spot ETFs under China Asset Management (Hong Kong), Bosera International and Harvest Asset Management, which were approved by the Hong Kong Securities and Futures Commission, had their first issuance on April 29 and were officially listed on the Hong Kong Stock Exchange on April 30.
In terms of issue price, the products of Harvest Asset Management and China Asset Management (Hong Kong) were issued at US$1 per share. The initial issue prices of Bose Bitcoin ETF and Ethereum ETF were basically consistent with 1/10000 and 1/1000 of the tracking index on April 26, 2024, respectively. That is, the converted net value of the fund shares corresponds to approximately 0.0001 BTC and 0.001 ETH, which means that holding 10,000 shares is approximately equal to 1 BTC, and 1,000 shares is approximately equal to 1 ETH.
It is understood that Hong Kong spot cryptocurrency ETFs are open to Hong Kong professional and retail investors. For Hong Kong investors, as long as they pass the cryptocurrency knowledge test on the basis of basic KYC (real-name authentication), they can purchase Hong Kongs spot Bitcoin and Ethereum ETFs. Hong Kong investors must be professional investors to purchase the corresponding ETFs in the United States, and there are high investment threshold restrictions.
Investors from mainland China are not currently allowed to participate in trading. The joint circular issued by the Hong Kong Securities and Futures Commission and the Hong Kong Monetary Authority on December 22, 2023 regarding virtual asset-related activities of intermediaries shows that both virtual asset futures ETFs currently available in the Hong Kong market and virtual asset spot ETFs to be issued in the future cannot be sold to retail investors in mainland China and other places where the sale of virtual asset-related products is prohibited. (China Fund News)
Industry News
FTX debtors reach $450 million settlement with bankrupt firm Voyager Digital
On April 30, with the approval of a bankruptcy judge, FTXs debtors reached 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 will agree to return $5 million held in escrow by Voyager and another $445 million from Alameda Research involved in a loan repayment lawsuit to the companys debtors. FTX will also give up all rights to these funds.
BlackRock IBIT has not increased its Bitcoin holdings for 3 consecutive days
On April 29, according to Lookonchain, BlackRocks spot Bitcoin exchange-traded fund IBIT has not increased its Bitcoin holdings for three consecutive days, and its current holdings are 274,462 BTC.
On April 29, according to court filings, CONSENSYS claimed that Gurbir Grewal, head of the SECs enforcement division, approved a formal order to investigate Ethereum in March 2023, authorizing law enforcement officers to investigate and subpoena individuals and entities involved in the incident.
Bitcoin balances on exchanges hit 6-year low
On April 29, HOD L1 5 Capital data showed that the exchanges Bitcoin balance hit a six-year low, down 8% since January 1, 2024.
China Asset Management is the largest issuer of the first batch of spot crypto ETFs in Hong Kong
Hong Kong’s spot crypto ETF will debut tomorrow, April 29. Here are six things to watch:
1. The Hong Kong Stock Exchange already trades Bitcoin futures and other cryptocurrency contracts.
2. All Hong Kong ETFs account for 0.6% of the US ETF market.
3. Hong Kong’s spot cryptocurrency ETFs will have at least one significant feature that differs significantly from such products in the United States, namely the ETF redemption method.
4. Hong Kong’s spot Ethereum ETF is not the only such ETF launched globally.
5. Mainland Chinese investors will not be able to purchase Hong Kong Bitcoin ETFs.
6. Based on the asset management scale, China Asset Management is the largest issuer. Zhu Haokang, head of digital asset management and family wealth of China Asset Management (Hong Kong), said that except for Grayscale, the other 10 US Bitcoin spot ETF issuers had an issuance scale of US$125 million on the first day on January 10 this year.
(Cointelegraph)
Project News
On April 30, blockchain data analysis platform Dune posted on the X platform that its account was attacked in the early hours of this morning and a false message about the Dune airdrop was posted (which existed for about 15 minutes). Currently, the Dune team has regained control of the account.
The official reminder states that there is currently no Dune airdrop or coin issuance and there is no plan to do so. Users are advised to be careful to prevent risks.
EigenLayer plans to open token claims on May 10
On April 30, the re-staking agreement EigenLayer plans to open token applications on May 10. The newly established independent non-profit Eigen Foundation will become the entity that issues tokens. The total supply of Eigen tokens at the time of issuance is 1.67 billion. The foundation has allocated 45% of the tokens to its community, which is further divided into equity investment (15%), community initiatives (15%) and ecosystem development (15%). In addition, 29.5% of the tokens will be allocated to investors, while early contributors will receive 25.5%. It is reported that the total lock-up period for investors and early contributors is three years, with a complete lock-up in the first year, and then gradually releasing their holdings at a rate of 4% per month over the next two years. (TheBlock)
Moonbirds turns to copyright protection after acquisition by Yuga Labs
On April 30, about two months after being acquired by NFT heavyweight Yuga Labs, Moonbirds announced a U-turn. The NFT series will now strengthen the rights of holders when commercializing individual Moonbirds, the series announced on the X platform.
From today, Moonbirds will join Mythics as a series with commercial rights, the post reads. If you made stuff in the CC0 era, thats cool. But from now on, you need to own a Moonbird to continue doing so. In 2022, Moonbirds shocked some holders when it suddenly changed its copyright model. At the time, Moonbirds adopted the Creative Commons CC0 copyright code, meaning that the artwork became part of the public domain and could be freely commercialized without the owners consent. Meanwhile, Moonbirds was acquired in February by Yuga Labs, the powerful NFT studio that created Bored Ape Yacht Club and owns the copyright to CryptoPunks.
On April 30, MicroStrategy released its Q1 financial report, with a net loss of $53.1 million for the quarter. Specifically, the company recorded a digital asset impairment loss of $191.6 million in the quarter, 10 times the same period last year. Its revenue also fell 5.5% to $115.2 million compared to the first quarter of 2023.
It is worth noting that the company has not yet adopted the new fair value accounting standard for digital assets, which would take into account the 65% increase in the fair value (or market value) of Bitcoin this quarter. (Cointelegraph)
Earlier today, MicroStrategy released the latest data on its Bitcoin holdings and its first quarter 2024 financial report on Monday. The company currently holds a total of 214,400 Bitcoins, with a total value of $7.54 billion, or $35,180 per token. Since the end of the fourth quarter, the company has purchased 25,250 Bitcoins at a price of $65,232 per BTC, totaling $1.65 billion.
Furthermore, the company purchased an additional 122 BTC in April at a cost of $7.8 million. As of March 31, MicroStrategy reported holding 214,278 BTC. The company may have purchased 32 BTC after March 19, when it disclosed holding 214,246 BTC.
Coinbase adds QCAD to its listing roadmap
On April 30, Coinbase Assets announced on the X platform that QCAD (QCAD) will be added to the coin listing roadmap.
Kamino Foundation: Will Launch KMNO Staking
On April 29, the Kamino Foundation announced on the X platform that it will launch KMNO staking, allowing users to stake KMNO to increase their staking multiplier, up to 300%.
Earlier news, Kamino announced on the X platform that it will open token applications at 20:00 UTC on April 30 (UTC+8). The total amount of KMNO is 10 billion, and the estimated initial circulation supply is 1 billion, of which 750 million will be distributed to the community.
Taiko: Proposal to deploy Uniswap v3 on mainnet has been approved
On April 29, Ethereum Layer 2 network Taiko announced on the X platform that the proposal to deploy Uniswap v3 on its mainnet has been approved. Nearly 4,200 addresses and 44.06 million UNI voted in favor of the proposal. At the same time, the team said that the proposal will be implemented soon.
Avail: Unification Drop airdrop claim ends May 4th, expanding rewards to Clash of Nodes contributors
On April 29, Avail posted on the X platform that the Unification Drop airdrop claim will end on May 4. In addition, the team is working on expanding the rewards for Clash of Nodes contributors, and will announce full details after the airdrop claim period ends. It is reported that Unification Drop will issue a total of 600 million AVAILs to community contributors including developers, educators, and pledgers, involving Bitcoin, Ethereum, Solana, Cosmos, Avalanche, Near and other ecosystems. Earlier news, Avail announced the airdrop details on the X platform and opened the airdrop query website. The airdrop targets and the number of AVAIL tokens allocated are as follows:
- Ecosystem developers: 90 million AVAIL will be distributed to developers who have made significant contributions to Github repos;
- Incentivized testnet contributors: 49.5 million AVAIL will be allocated to the Clash of Nodes incentive leaderboard and light client challenge winners;
- Ethereum L2 users: 380 million AVAIL will be distributed to highly active users of Arbitrum One, OP Mainnet, Polygon zkEVM, Starknet, and zkSync;
-Distribute 70 million AVAIL to Polygon PoS stakers;
- Community Contributors: 10.5 million AVAIL will be allocated to individuals who have made significant contributions to the ecosystem in terms of education, advocacy, and governance.
friend.tech: Plans to delay v2 release until this Friday
On April 29, friend.tech announced on the X platform that many users requested that they could share the FRIEND airdrop with keyholders when claiming tokens, so it would take some time to optimize. Therefore, it is planned to delay the release time of v2 to 10:30 a.m. Pacific Time this Thursday (1:30 a.m. Beijing Time this Friday).
Self Chain updates SELF token economics: extends team token vesting period from 2 years to 6 years
On April 29, according to official news, Self Chain updated the SELF token economics and extended the team allocation vesting period from 2 years to 6 years to achieve long-term and sustainable development of the project. According to its disclosed information, the initial total supply of SELF tokens when the Self Chain mainnet is launched is 360 million, and the distribution details are as follows:
Migration Allocation: 25%, or 90 million tokens;
Equity investors: 10%, or 36 million tokens;
Validator nodes/growth sales: 28%, or 100 million;
Ecosystem: 19%, or 68 million coins;
Foundation nodes: 10%, or 36 million tokens;
Team: 8%, or 30 million pieces.
Among them, the SELF tokens allocated to the team will not be released when the mainnet is launched, followed by a 12-month cliff, followed by 72 months of monthly vesting. According to reports, Self Chain is a Modular Intent-Centric Access L1 chain, and also provides wallet infrastructure services for multi-chain Web3 access using MPC-TSS/AA.
Chainlink VRF v2.5 is now available on Ethereum, Arbitrum, Polygon and other mainnets
On April 29, Chainlink announced on the X platform that it had completed the VRF v2.5 upgrade to expand on-chain verifiable randomness. Chainlink VRF v2.5 has been officially launched on the Arbitrum, Avalanche, BNB Chain, Ethereum and Polygon mainnets.
Payment giant Stripe integrates Avalanche network
On April 29, payment giant Stripe announced the integration of the Avalanche network, allowing users to seamlessly access crypto products and decentralized applications, such as decentralized trading platforms and NFT platforms running on Avalanche, which also means that users can purchase AVAX directly through mobile applications without going through exchanges. (Decrypt)
NIM Network plans to launch the mainnet and launch the staking function on May 1
On April 29, Nim Network, an AI game chain based on Dymension, announced on the X platform that it will launch the mainnet this Wednesday (May 1) and launch the token staking function at the same time. According to its token economics, the initial circulation of NIM is 18% of the total. The issuance rate of NIM tokens is set at an annual interest rate of 4%, half of which will be distributed as staking rewards and half will be locked in a community-managed pool.
OKX Jumpstart announces the launch of RUNECOIN (RSIC•GENESIS•RUNE)
On April 29, OKX officially announced that the new round of Jumpstart mining will start at 15:00 Beijing time on April 29, 2024. BTC holders can pledge BTC to mine RUNECOIN (RSIC•GENESIS•RUNE).
Character*Voice
The U.S. Probation Office recommended that CZ be sentenced to five months probation.
On April 29, according to court documents, although the Department of Justice requested a 36-month prison sentence and a $50 million fine for CZ, the probation office recommended a five-month suspended sentence in its statement report. At the same time, the defense requested house arrest and probation without jail time. (CoinDesk)
Analysis: CZs final decision depends on the judges discretion
On April 29, according to court documents, although the Department of Justice requested a 36-month prison sentence and a $50 million fine for CZ, analyst Tama Kudman, partner of Kudman Trachten Aloe Posner LLP, said that the Department of Justices request for an extended sentence seemed to send a strong message that the U.S. Department of Justice has been working hard to combat money laundering through cryptocurrencies, and CZ is very blatantly violating anti-money laundering rules. However, the decision now depends on the judge, who has broad discretion to accept or reject arguments from either party about the importance of deterrence and what kind of sentence will adequately deter CZ and other members of the cryptocurrency community from potential future criminal behavior. (Coindesk)
Vitalik Buterin: Binius binary field proof will be more efficient
On April 29, Ethereum co-founder published an article titled Binius: Efficient Proofs of Binary Fields, which pointed out that SNARK relies on arithmeticization, a method of converting statements about programs into equations involving polynomials (sometimes vectors and matrices). In order to keep the numbers within a reasonable size, arithmetic must not be done on regular integers, but on structures called finite fields. Modular arithmetic is the simplest example of a finite field, but there are other examples.
In real programs, most numbers are very small: for loop indices, True/False values, array indices, counters... If the field is large, the extra values generated during proof computation will be much larger, which is a key source of inefficiency. Plonky 2 and similar protocols reduce the field size from 256 bits to 64 or 31 bits. But it is more efficient to use binary fields directly. Binary fields are a fascinating mathematical structure with many unique properties. Tower structures are a fascinating way to produce them, which adds more advantages.
FOX: US SEC Chairman identified ETH as an unregistered security in the past year
On April 29, according to the relevant legal documents of the SECs lawsuit against Consensys, the Chairman of the US SEC, Gensler, has always believed that ETH is an unregistered security over the past year and does not comply with current federal regulations. According to the newly submitted documents, on March 28, 2023, Gurbir Grewal, head of the SECs 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. (Fox Business)
On April 29, Arthur Cheong, founder and CEO of DeFiance Capital, posted on the X platform that the level of VC due diligence has declined significantly in the past few months, and a project full of suspicious data and a suspicious founder history has completed financing at a valuation of $1 billion. Unless this situation changes, we will see more speculators entering the industry.
