PRICE CHANGE: WTD/YTD

- BTC ($7,101): +5% / -2%
- ETH ($164): +15% / +25%
- LTC ($43): +8% / +3%
- XRP ($0.19): +8% / 0%
- Crypto Market Cap ($202B): +6% / +6% 
- BTC Dominance: 64%

THIS WEEK IN CRYPTO

- Chinese tech giants Tencent and Alibaba filed the most blockchain patent applications in 2019, together accounting for over 20% of the 5,800 applications filed last year. About 63% of firms with over 20 blockchain patent filings are based in China. Link. 

- Reddit appears to be building a points system that runs on a blockchain. Users will have a crypto wallet connected to the app where they can collect points based on their involvement in the community. It appears that the points will have value, probably as a cryptocurrency, though it's unclear if points can be sent outside of the app. Link. 

- India has seen a significant increase in crypto trading volumes amid domestic economic issues stemming from coronavirus-related lockdowns. Crypto banking platform Cashaa India saw a spike of 800 percent in trading volumes in the 48 hours following announcement of a 3-week lockdown. The activity increased even further after Yes Bank, India's fourth-largest lender, collapsed, damaging confidence in the country's banking system. Link. 

- Bitcoin payments app Fold has joined Visa's fintech fast track program, setting the stage for its launch of a Visa debit card that allows users to spend USD and earn bitcoin cashback rewards. It is the first crypto company to be admitted into the program. Fold has opened up a waitlist and is anticipating launching the debit card in Q3. Link. 

- Bitcoin Cash, one of bitcoin's forks and the fourth largest cryptocurrency by market cap, went through its first halving this week. The amount of BCH produced with each new transaction block was reduced from 12.5 BCH to 6.25 BCH; this means Bitcoin Cash miners will be earning lower rewards going forward. Bitcoin's halving is expected to occur sometime next month. Link. 

- Greenidge Generation, an upstate New York power plant that's using proprietary facilities to mine bitcoin, has sold up to 30 percent of its computing power to institutional buyers, including hedge funds and family offices. The sale allows these buyers to get exposure to bitcoin mining without having to purchase and set up their own equipment. Greenidge benefits from locking in profits and receiving upfront capital to continue expanding its operations. It's estimated that at Bitcoin's current mining levels, buyers will receive a daily yield of about 1.8 BTC, worth around $13,000. Link. 

- Crypto exchange Bitfinex is launching a staking service, offering 10% annual returns for staked EOS, V.Systems, and Cosmos tokens. Tezos is expected to launch in May. Exchanges Coinbase and Kraken already support staking of Tezos while Binance currently supports over 15 proof-of-stake tokens. Link. 

- HTC will allow users of its EXODUS 1S blockchain smartphone mine monero (XMR) directly from the phone. To do this HTC is partnering with ASIC chip designer Midas Labs to develop an app called DeMiner, which is expected to launch in Q2. Link. 

- Dapp transactions were up 10x in Q1 from the same period in 2019, hitting almost $8 billion in transaction volumes across a dozen different blockchains. Smart contract protocols Ethereum, EOS, and TRON account for 99% of all dapp transactions. Ethereum is the leading protocol for DeFi projects, making up $5.6 billion of the transaction volume. 80% of that volume came via ERC-20 tokens. Link.

- Chinese bitcoin mining operator Bytepool has shut down internal operations. Bytepool contributed more than 4% of all hashing power for the Bitcoin network in December 2019. Bitcoin mining profitability fell 50% between August and December 2019, then fell an additional 50% from December during the March crash. Link. 

- Online learning platform Udemy saw a fourfold increase in demand for its Bitcoin and cryptocurrency courses in the past month. Coursera, which collates courses from universities worldwide, saw a similar spike in blockchain-related classes over the last month. Link. 

- Block.One, creator of the EOS blockchain, plans to start actively voting for EOS block producers. Block.one allocated itself 10 percent of the total EOS token supply in its $4 billion ICO but has yet to stake its tokens and vote on the network. Now Block.one plans to play an active role in the network, voting to support block producers who have added code or who are actively developing projects to its standards. Link. 

- Canada has launched a closed-end fund tied to the price of Bitcoin. Link.