PRICE CHANGE: WTD/YTD

- BTC ($46,311): +3% / -2%
- ETH ($3,489):  +10% / -6%
- XRP ($0.84): 0% / 0%
- UNI ($11.73): +6% / -32% 
- Crypto Market Cap ($2.2T): +6% / -3%
- BTC Dominance: 41%
- ETH Dominance: 20% 

STABLECOIN MARKET CAP CHANGE: WTD/YTD

- Tether ($82B): +1% / +5%
- USDC ($52B): -1% / +22%

NFT 3M TRADING VOLUMES

THIS WEEK IN CRYPTO

- One in five Americans has invested in, traded, or used cryptocurrency according to a recent poll by NBC News. 40% of Black Americans and 42% of all people between 18 and 34 said they have traded or used crypto. Link. 
 
- President Biden's 2023 budget proposal includes an estimated $11 billion in revenue over the next decade from applying mark-to-market tax rules to actively traded cryptocurrencies. This means a user could have to pay taxes on unrealized gains if ETH goes from $3,000 to $4,000, even if they didn't sell. 
- It also projects $2.2 billion in revenue by requiring US residents to report any holdings in offshore accounts above $50,000. Link. Budget Proposal (PDF). Treasury Revenue Explanations (PDF). 

- Axie Infinity had $622 million drained from the bridge connecting its Ronin side chain to Ethereum, making it the second largest DeFi hack of all time. The hacker drained 173,600 ETH and 25.5 million USDC stablecoins. The attack took place on March 23 but wasn't noticed until this week. Ronin assets are controlled by a multi-sig that requires 5 of 9 validators to sign transactions. The exploit occurred because the hacker gained access to 5 private keys. Sky Mavis, the company behind Axie Infinity and Ronin, pledged to recover or reimburse all funds. Link. Link. Axie Infinity delayed the alpha launch of Origin, a significantly upgraded version of its NFT-driven monster-battling game, to the week of April 7. Link. Blog Post. 

- More than 90% of all Bitcoin is now in circulation. 19 million bitcoin has been mined, and there will never be more than 21 million. Link. 

- Bitcoin hit a 2022 high of $48k this week. Ethereum was up 10%, though it hasn't quite reached it's YTD high of $3.8k. Solana and Terra's LUNA . Link. 

- EU lawmakers approved new rules that would require crypto firms and exchanges to identify the recipients of any crypto transfers over 1,000 euros. Link. Brian Armstrong tweet.

- Users can now purchase NFTs on OpenSea using a credit card, debit card, or Apple Pay. The offering is powered by Moonpay. Link. 

- Ethereum miners made $1.29 billion in March while Bitcoin miners made $1.21 billion. Link. Link. 

- OpenSea announced it would add support for Solana NFTs in April. Solana (SOL) was up over 30% this week. Link. Coingecko. 

- Terra's LUNA token was up over 20% this week, after it added $135 million in bitcoin purchases to its stablecoin reserves. LUNA is the governance token for Terra's algorithmic dollar-stablecoin, UST. Link. Coingecko. 

- World of Women's new Galaxy NFT collection saw $79 million in sales in its first 24 hours ($34 million primary and $45 million secondary). 10,000 NFTs were reserved for World of Women holders, 2,222 were sold to community members at a lower price, and 10,000 NFTs were sold in a Dutch auction starting at 3 ETH. Link. CryptoSlam. 

- Wormhole, the crypto bridge that recently experienced a $325 million exploit, raised $200 million in a private token sale that valued the protocol at $2.5 billion. Link. 

- A proposed bill, The Stablecoin Transparency Act, would require stablecoins to be fully backed by dollars or short-term government securities, and would require regular audited reporting of reserves. Link. 

- The SEC proposed an updated definition of "dealer" that could implicate DeFi platforms for operating as unregistered dealers. The definition would impact automated market maker (AMM) liquidity providers, which is the architecture used by much of DeFi. Link. Tweet. SEC statement.

- A new SEC bulletin will require banks, retail brokers, and crypto exchanges who custody digital assets on behalf of their users to account for those assets as liabilities, as well as users about crypto-specific risks, "including technological, legal, and regulatory risks and uncertainties." Link. Link. 

- Azuki, the top NFT collection in 2022 in terms of trading volume, saw its first NFT sale of over $1 million. Azuki #9605 sold for 420.69 ETH, roughly $1.42 million. Link. Cryptoslam.

- China's central bank said it was expanding its central bank digital currency pilot to 6 cities. e-CNY is already being piloted by 10 major cities. Link.  

- Visa launched a 1-year NFT creator program, that will help creators build their businesses with NFTs. Link. 

- Helium, the blockchain company building a decentralized wireless network, raised $200 million in funding led by Tiger Global and Andreessen Horowitz at a $1.2 billion valuation. The company also announced it was changing its name to Nova Labs.  Link. 

- Galaxy Digital renegotiated the terms of its 2021 acquisition of crypto custodian BitGo. The $1.2 billion deal ($265 million in cash and a 10% stake in Galaxy Digital) was supposed to close in Q4 2021, but the deadline to close has been extended to the end of 2022. Link. 

- LayerZero Labs raised $135 million at a $1 billion valuation in a round led by a16z, FTX Ventures, and Sequoia Capital. LayerZero is building an interoperability protocol that would allow dApps to utilize multiple chains. Link. 

- Fractal, a marketplace for Solana gaming NFTs, raised a $35 million seed round led by Paradigm and Multicoin Capital. Fractal is founded by Justin Kan, the co-founder of Twitch. Link. 

- The WWE will be releasing trading card NFTs through Candy Digital, the digital collectibles arm of Fanatics'. Link. 

- Bitcoin miner Prime Blockchain is going public via SPAC, in a deal that values the miner at $1.25 billion. Link. Link. 

- Circle, the issuer of the USDC stablecoin, will use Bank of New York Mellon as the primary custody of its reserves. Link. Link. 

- 82 million wallet users will now be able to connect an Unstoppable Domains name to their Blockchain.com wallet address. Unstoppable domains supports 10 extensions -- .bitcoin, .coin, .crypto, .dao and a soon-to-be-released .blockchain domain. Link. 

- Soccer star Lionel Messi signed a $20 million deal with digital fan token company Socios.com. Link.