This week's crypto weekly was authored by
PRICE CHANGE: WTD/YTD
- BTC ($29,984): +7% / +81%
- ETH ($2,097): +14% / +75%
- SOL ($25.42): +26 / +161%
- UNI ($6.20): +6% / +20%
- MATIC ($1.17): +7% / +55%
MARKET CAP CHANGE: WTD/YTD
- Crypto Market Cap ($1.3T): +8% / +60%
- BTC Dominance: 46%
- ETH Dominance: 20%
- Tether ($81B): +1% / +22%
- USDC ($32B): -2% / -29%
NFT 3M TRADING VOLUMES
THIS WEEK IN CRYPTO
- Ethereum's Shanghai upgrade was implemented this week, enabling the withdrawal of staked ETH and marking the completion of the network's transition to a proof-of-stake consensus mechanism. Link.
- The price of Bitcoin and Ethereum increased this week following a lower-than-expected U.S. Consumer Price Index report and the Ethereum Shanghai upgrade going live. Ethereum reached an 11 month high, and the market cap of all cryptocurrencies rose to over $1.3 trillion. Link. Link.
- 94,800 ETH, worth roughly $198 million, was staked in the first 24 hours following the Shanghai upgrade. 874,000 ETH, worth roughly $1.8 billion, is still pending withdrawals. Link.
- The SEC is targeting decentralized finance (DeFi) platforms by reopening a proposal to expand the definition of "exchange," now explicitly including DeFi in the category of regulated exchanges. Link. Link. Press Release.
- The SEC’s DeFi announcement was met with opposition by commissioner Hester Pierce, who criticized the action as overly broad and infringing on first amendment protections. Link. Press Release.
- The European Parliament is set to vote on two landmark crypto licensing laws next week, the Markets in Crypto Assets regulation (MiCA) and Transfer of Funds regulation. MiCA would force wallets and exchanges to seek a license from national regulators, while the Transfer of Funds would require KYC on anyone making crypto payments. Link. Link. Link.
- The U.S. House Financial Services Committee published a draft version of a stablecoin bill that includes a moratorium on stablecoins backed by other cryptocurrencies and funds a study on a central bank digital currency. Link. Draft Bill.
- FTX has recovered over $7.3 billion in cash and liquid crypto assets and is now considering options for restarting its crypto exchange. Link.
- The House Committee on Financial Services is pressuring the SEC to provide documents related to charges against former FTX CEO Sam Bankman-Fried, accusing the agency of not sufficiently complying with previous requests. Link.
- David Marcus, who oversaw Facebook’s Diem blockchain, raised $175 million for Lightspark, a new startup commercializing the Lightning Network and Bitcoin micropayments. Lightspark creates software tools for businesses to easily setup and access the Lightning Network. Link.
- Reddit’s third-generation NFT collection saw sales volume of over $585,000. Over 7.4 million unique users now own Reddit NFTs. Link.
- Crypto bankruptcy marketplace Xclaim raised $7 million for its Series A round. Link.
- Mysten Labs, creator of Layer 1 blockchain Sui, repurchased an equity stake bought by FTX a year ago for $96 million. Link.
- The G7 plans to discuss ways to help developing countries introduce central bank digital currencies (CBDC) at their next meeting. Link.
- Binance announced users who staked ether (ETH) through the exchange can start redeeming April 19. Link.
- Arbitrum Improvement Proposal 1.05, which aims to return 700 million ARB tokens to the DAO Treasury, is likely to fail with over 83% of the total vote against it. Link.
- Digital asset investment firm NovaWulf is set to acquire the assets of bankrupt crypto lender Celsius Network, and plans to create a new company with tokenized equity following a payout to creditors. Link.
- Truth Labs, creators of the Goblintown NFT collection, made a controversial decision to change the NFT artwork and disable trading until a new smart contract is deployed later this week that enforces a 5% creator royalty. Link.
- Well-known BAYC holder @franklinisbored announced he is stepping away actively trading NFTs after losing $2 million in a rug-pull. Link.
- Ethereum scaling solution zkSync Era has seen over $245 million in total value locked in the three weeks since its launch. Link.
- Elizabeth Warren and Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez sent a letter to Circle and BlockFi questioning their banking relationship with SVB and its potential preferential treatment over other depositors. Link.
- South Korean authorities are working to freeze $5.3 million of digital assets owned by Terra co-founder Do Kwon while he faces investigations for fraud. Link.
- MicroStrategy, the largest corporate holder of Bitcoin, is now in profit on its BTC holdings which it purchased at an average price of $29,803. Link.
- Tyler and Cameron Winklevoss, co-founders of Gemini, recently provided a $100 million loan to the exchange after it failed to raise external capital. Link.
- Arkansas approved a bill treating Bitcoin miners the same rights as data centers. Link.
- Moonbirds is launching an NFT collection called “Moonbirds: Diamond Exhibition” featuring art by 22 artists including Beeple. Link.
- Uniswap’s new mobile wallet app finally received iOS app store approval after spending months in approval limbo. Link. Tweet.
- Canon USA announced plans to launch an Ethereum NFT marketplace for photography. Link.
- A bill protecting crypto miners' rights to operate in Montana is set to be signed into law. Link.
- MetaMask introduced a new feature allowing users to purchase crypto with fiat directly from its extension. Link.
- Mastercard launched a free Music Pass NFT drop as part of its Artist Accelerator program. Link.
- After announcing partnerships with WisdomTree and T Rowe Price, Avalanche's daily active addresses reached a six-month high of nearly 80,000, growing 85% in the past 90 days. Link.
- Twitter partnered with eToro to allow users to view stock market charts in-app. Crypto trading integration was not included for now. Link. Link. Tweet.
- An older version of the Yearn Finance protocol was hacked, resulting in a loss of $11.6 million. Link.
- Pussy Riot founding member Nadya Tolokonnikova and virtual social networking site IMVU are launching an NFT project with a portion of the proceeds going to LGBTQ+ charities. Link.
- LimeWire, the P2P music sharing app from the 2000s, is launching an NFT marketplace. Link.
- SushiSwap announced plans to refund affected users of its $3.3 million hack last week. Link. Link.
- Crypto financial services provider Paxos is exiting the Canadian market due to new regulations. Link.
- A Georgia-man who stole 50,000 BTC from the Silk Road in 2012 was sentenced to 1 year in prison. The BTC stolen is currently worth roughly $1.5 billion. Link.
- Nikhil Wahi, whose brother worked as a Product Manager at Coinbase, pled guilty to insider trading and agreed to pay $470k in restitution and will serve 10 months in prison. His brother is scheduled to be sentenced next month. Link.