Today's Headlines:
- Sentencing hearing for Zhao Changpeng to begin at 12:00 a.m. on May 1
- New court documents show: SEC Chairman has consistently considered ETH as a "security" over the past year
- Hong Kong virtual asset ETF's first day of trading volume is approximately 87.6 million Hong Kong dollars, with Huaxia series accounting for nearly 57%
- MicroStrategy adds 25,250 more bitcoins in the first quarter of this year, bringing the total bitcoin holdings to 214,400
- EigenLayer to launch native token in May, with stakers receiving a 15% airdrop
- Liquidity staking protocol MilkyWay completes $5 million seed round financing, led by Binance Labs and Polychain Capital
- FTX debtor reaches $450 million settlement agreement with Voyager Digital
- Nansen: Total trading volume of Tether, USDC, and DAI in the past month exceeds Visa's average monthly level in 2023
Regulatory News
Sentencing hearing for Zhao Changpeng to begin at 12:00 a.m. on May 1
According to Reuters, Zhao Changpeng, the former CEO of the cryptocurrency exchange Binance, may face several years of imprisonment when he is sentenced after pleading guilty to violating U.S. anti-money laundering laws on Tuesday. Prosecutors have informed Judge Richard Jones of the Western District of Washington that they are seeking a sentence for Zhao Changpeng that is twice the maximum recommended under federal sentencing guidelines, which is 18 months. They stated that imposing a harsh penalty on this individual, who was once considered one of the most influential figures in the cryptocurrency industry, would send a message that "every correct choice is to abide by the law." The hearing is scheduled to begin at 9 a.m. Pacific Daylight Time on Tuesday (12:00 a.m. on May 1 Beijing time). Robert Fisher, a partner at the Boston law firm Nixon Peabody and a former federal prosecutor, expressed surprise at the prosecutors' request for an extended sentence after Zhao Changpeng's guilty plea, suggesting that they may be trying to set an example due to his high profile. He said, "It is unusual to seek a sentence beyond the sentencing guidelines, and they hope this will have a deterrent effect." Zhao Changpeng's lawyers have requested probation, citing his "unflinching" acceptance of responsibility and the payment of a $50 million criminal fine. They also stated that Zhao Changpeng has no prior criminal record, and no defendant in similar cases has been imprisoned.
Earlier, the U.S. Probation Office recommended a five-month probation for Zhao Changpeng.
According to CoinDesk, Samourai Wallet co-founder Keonne Rodriguez pleaded not guilty to money laundering charges on Monday. Rodriguez was released on $1 million bail, and his next hearing is scheduled for May 14 in Manhattan. Keonne Rodriguez faces charges of conspiracy to launder money and operate an unlicensed money transmitting 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 allege that Samourai Wallet processed over $2 billion in illegal funds from 2015 to 2024, including facilitating over $100 million in money laundering transactions for dark web markets.
According to Fox Business, based on legal documents related to the SEC's lawsuit against Consensys, SEC Chairman Gensler has consistently considered ETH as an "unregistered security" over the past year, which does not comply with current federal regulations.
In addition, on March 28, 2023, SEC's enforcement chief Gurbir Grewal approved a formal order to investigate the securities status of Ethereum, authorizing enforcement officers to investigate and subpoena individuals and entities involved in the matter. Subpoena recipients are required to strictly maintain the confidentiality of the investigation if they wish to learn more details about it, as per the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission's instructions.
Project Updates
Interactive Brokers launches Hong Kong spot Bitcoin and Ethereum ETP
Interactive Brokers announced the launch of spot Bitcoin and Ethereum exchange-traded products (ETPs) that can be traded on the Hong Kong Stock Exchange. Qualified clients of Interactive Brokers Hong Kong can now trade the new spot Bitcoin and Ethereum ETPs, along with stocks, options, futures, currencies, bonds, and funds, through a unified platform. Clients can purchase spot Bitcoin and Ethereum ETPs through their IBKR brokerage accounts and easily add cryptocurrency exposure to their investment portfolios without directly owning digital assets.
Both HashKey and Huaxia, as well as Jia Shi, have a total of 6 virtual asset spot ETFs officially listed on the Hong Kong Stock Exchange and open for trading today. This includes the HashKey Bitcoin ETF (3008.HK), HashKey Ethereum ETF (3009.HK), Huaxia Bitcoin ETF (3042.HK), Huaxia Ethereum ETF (3046.HK), Jia Shi Bitcoin Spot ETF (3439.HK), and Jia Shi Ethereum Spot ETF (3179.HK).
The Bitcoin and Ethereum ETFs are pegged to the spot physical prices of BTC/ETH, and their price movements are generally consistent with the changes in BTC/ETH prices.
According to The Block, the liquidity re-staking protocol EigenLayer will launch its native token in May and has announced a token airdrop plan. The Eigen Foundation will be the entity issuing the tokens. The total supply of EigenLayer tokens is 1.67 billion, with 45% of the tokens allocated to its community, including staking airdrop (15%), community initiatives (15%), and ecosystem development (15%). Additionally, 29.5% of the tokens will be allocated to investors, while early contributors will receive 25.5% of the tokens. The tokens received by investors and early contributors will be locked up for a total of three years, with the first year being fully locked, followed by a gradual release at a rate of 4% per month for the subsequent two years. EigenLayer also released a whitepaper today, describing the structure of the Eigen token and how it fits into the Eigen ecosystem.
Later on, EigenLayer clarified: LRT airdrop to be distributed in the second phase of the first quarter, including Pendle users, and more; Top three EigenLayer stakers expected to receive over a million EIGEN airdrop, with Justin Sun ranking first; EigenLayer airdrop plan sparks controversy: Community calls for a fairer token distribution method.
According to The Block, MicroStrategy released its first-quarter earnings report on Monday, along with its Bitcoin holdings data. In the first quarter of this year, MicroStrategy's revenue was $115.2 million, a 5% year-on-year decrease. Meanwhile, 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 marks the 14th consecutive quarter that MicroStrategy has increased its bitcoin holdings on its balance sheet. As of March 31, MicroStrategy holds a total of 214,278 bitcoins. MicroStrategy founder Michael Saylor later tweeted that in April, MicroStrategy purchased an additional 122 bitcoins at a price of $7.8 million, 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.
According to Cointelegraph, a bankruptcy judge has approved a motion allowing the FTX debtor to reach a $450 million settlement agreement with the bankrupt company Voyager Digital. In a filing submitted to the U.S. Bankruptcy Court in Delaware on April 29, Judge John Dorsey approved the terms of the agreement between FTX and Voyager, allowing Voyager to settle all claims with FTX as part of the compensation creditors plan. Upon approval, both parties agreed to return $5 million held by Voyager and an additional $445 million related to the repayment lawsuit with Alameda Research to the debtor of the company. FTX will also "waive" all rights to these funds. The agreement was signed by Voyager Digital and its debtor's attorney Paul Hage, and FTX restructuring officer and CEO John Ray III also signed the agreement on April 4.
Web3 social platform friend.tech announced on X platform: "Many people have asked you to share with key holders when claiming FRIEND airdrops. We think this is a great idea. We need more time to implement this feature, so we are postponing the (V2) release to 01:30 on May 3 Beijing time.
Coinbase Assets announced on X platform that Coinbase will support Neon EVM (NEON) (SPL tokens) on the Solana network. If liquidity conditions are met, trading of NEON tokens will begin at around 12:00 p.m. on April 30, 2024. Once sufficient supply of the asset is established, the NEON-USD trading pair will be launched in stages.
Dune tweeted that its account was previously attacked. A false post about a Dune airdrop lasted for about 15 minutes, and the Dune team has since regained control of the account. Dune reminds users that there are currently no plans for a Dune airdrop or token issuance, and users should beware of scams.
According to Decrypt, payment technology company Stripe seems to be aggressively entering the crypto space, as it announced today an integration with Avalanche. Just last week, Stripe announced that companies using its technology can accept USD Coin (USDC) stablecoin for online payments. Today, Stripe stated that its retail customers will have easier access to the Avalanche ecosystem. Ava Labs, the development company behind the Avalanche blockchain, stated that its wallet Core will use Stripe's fiat-to-crypto conversion service.
Solana ecosystem DeFi protocol Kamino announced on X platform that it will open KMNO token claim at 20:00 on April 30 Beijing time. Earlier reports stated that the total supply of KMNO tokens is 10 billion, with 10% to be circulated when first launched in April, and an additional 7% of the total supply designated for "initial community allocation."
According to DL News, DeFi protocol Karak is the latest participant in the cryptocurrency staking field, but it has faced controversy less than a month after its release. Dozens of DeFi users and members of the Terra Classic community have accused Andalusia Labs, the team behind the Karak DeFi protocol, of stealing 200 million USTC tokens (valued at approximately $7 million at the time) from the Terra ecosystem several months after the 2022 Terra ecosystem collapse. Karak responded to the accusations earlier this month, stating on X: "There is no involvement of user funds or misappropriation of user funds. Any contrary statement is FUD." Andalusia Labs claims that these tokens belong to them, with their co-founder Raouf Ben-Har stating earlier this month in Karak's public Discord channel that they were "granted" 200 million USTC tokens. Therefore, they can spend them in a manner they deem appropriate.
Renzo, an Ethereum re-staking protocol, announced that the eligibility check for the first-quarter airdrop will open today at 18:30, followed by the claim opening at 19:00. The number of eligible users for this quarter's airdrop is 103,500, and the distribution ratio of the REZ token is 7%.
It's worth noting that Binance will list Renzo (REZ) on April 30, 2024, at 20:00 (Beijing time), and will open trading pairs for REZ/BTC, REZ/USDT, REZ/BNB, REZ/FDUSD, and REZ/TRY.
Animoca Brands announced on X platform that it is entering the Bitcoin space with support from the BLIF token and the OPAL Protocol (@OpalBTC) initiated by Darewise and Animoca Brands. The OPAL Protocol will become a Web3 ecosystem for games, entertainment, DeFi, education, and culture based on Bitcoin. BLIF will be the native token of the OPAL Protocol, providing support for true digital life on the Bitcoin and broader domains. Six portfolio companies of Animoca Brands have become founding members. Additionally, all future Bitcoin-based projects of Animoca Brands will collaborate with the OPAL Protocol, laying a solid foundation for cooperation. The flagship project supported by BLIF and AAA multiplayer game Life Beyond will set an example. Other important members who have joined this initiative include Magic Eden, Xverse, ALEX, and Horizen Labs. Yat Siu, the Executive Director and Co-Founder of Animoca Brands, stated, "With the emergence of Ordinals, Bitcoin has made a huge leap from being just a store of value to becoming a cultural store of the Web3 era. Establishing our presence on the Bitcoin chain through the OPAL Protocol will help advance our vision of an open metaverse, where everyone has the opportunity to enjoy digital property and benefit from the power of network effects."
ZachXBT, a blockchain detective, claimed that the Lazarus North Korean hacker group laundered stolen cryptocurrencies worth $200 million into fiat over four years, as reported by THE BLOCK.
In investment and financing news, Tether has invested $200 million in the biotechnology company Blackrock Neurotech, which is dedicated to developing tools to assist patients with paralysis, functional loss, and neurological disorders.
MilkyWay, a liquidity staking protocol in the Celestia ecosystem, has completed a $5 million seed round of financing, with Binance Labs and Polychain Capital leading the investment.
Nansen data shows that in the past 30 days, the combined trading volume of Tether, USDC, and DAI has exceeded the monthly average level of Visa in 2023. Tether processed a trading volume of $654 billion, DAI's volume exceeded $394 billion, and USDC's volume was $321 billion, totaling $1.369 trillion. In comparison, Visa's annual trading volume in 2023 was $14.8 trillion, with a monthly average volume of $12.3 trillion.
The translations are complete.
Nansen's data shows that the monthly trading volume of Tether alone is almost equivalent to that of the world's second-largest credit card provider, Mastercard. In 2023, Mastercard's average monthly trading volume was $750 billion, with a total annual volume of $9 trillion. The data also indicates that Tether has surpassed PayPal, which managed an average monthly fund of $125 billion last year.
The Huaxia Bitcoin ETF and Ethereum ETF have successfully launched today, with a combined initial scale of over 1.1 billion Hong Kong dollars. As of April 29, the initial scale of the Huaxia Bitcoin ETF and the Huaxia Ethereum ETF was 950 million Hong Kong dollars and 160 million Hong Kong dollars, respectively.
On the first day of listing, the Hong Kong Virtual Asset ETF had a trading volume of approximately 87.61 million Hong Kong dollars, with the Huaxia series accounting for nearly 57% of the total. The trading volumes for specific ETFs are as follows: Huaxia Bitcoin ETF (3042.HK) had a volume of 37.1684 million Hong Kong dollars, Huaxia Ethereum ETF (3046.HK) had a volume of 12.6635 million Hong Kong dollars, Jia Shi Bitcoin ETF (3439.HK) had a volume of 17.8908 million Hong Kong dollars, Jia Shi Ethereum ETF (3179.HK) had a volume of 4.9553 million Hong Kong dollars, Bo Shi HashKey Bitcoin ETF (3008.HK) had a volume of 12.4476 million Hong Kong dollars, and Bo Shi HashKey Ethereum ETF (3009.HK) had a volume of 2.4893 million Hong Kong dollars.
In comparison, when the United States introduced 11 spot Bitcoin ETFs for trading in January, the total daily trading volume on the first day was approximately $4.6 billion. Excluding the Grayscale ETF, the total initial scale of the 10 U.S. spot Bitcoin ETF issuers on January 10 this year was $125 million, lower than the reported initial scale of over 1.1 billion Hong Kong dollars for the Huaxia Bitcoin and Ethereum ETFs.
OKLink released its April 2024 Security Monthly Report, indicating that the total cumulative losses from on-chain security events in April amounted to approximately $110 million, a decrease of 42.11% compared to the previous month. Phishing events accounted for 7.67% of the losses, REKT events accounted for 43.90%, and RugPull events accounted for 44.07%. The largest security event in terms of REKT losses this month was the attack on Hedgey Finance, resulting in a loss of approximately $44 million due to a vulnerability in the contract that allowed assets to be stolen. The largest RugPull event was the RugPull at the ZKasino crypto gambling platform, resulting in a loss of approximately $33 million. Additionally, there were a total of 32 cases of fraud and phishing events on official social media, primarily concentrated on X, Discord, and various phishing websites. OKLink reminded users to avoid disclosing their private keys or mnemonic phrases to anyone and not to store them in screenshot form. Furthermore, users were advised to exercise caution when downloading software to prevent their devices from being compromised by trojans, leading to the leakage of private keys or mnemonic phrases, as security awareness is the most powerful shield in the Web3 world.
According to Lookonchain monitoring, after the market downturn, six whales collectively sold over 44,000 ETH (valued at approximately $140 million). The specific transactions include the deposit of 10,431 ETH (approximately $32.66 million) into Binance from an address starting with 0x4353, the deposit of 11,892 ETH (approximately $38 million) into Binance from an address starting with 0x4446, the sale of 3,543 stETH (approximately $11.23 million) at an average price of $3,170 and the sale of 3,000 wstETH (approximately $11.07 million) at an average price of $3,692 from an address starting with 0x488b, the deposit of 7,943 ETH (approximately $24.90 million) into Coinbase from an address starting with 0x59e9, the deposit of 5,584 ETH (approximately $17.50 million) into Coinbase from an address starting with 0xC47f, and the deposit of 2,000 ETH (approximately $6.28 million) into Binance from the FTX/Alameda address.
According to the latest statistics from Spot On Chain, the top three recipients of the first-quarter $EIGEN airdrop are expected to receive over a million EIGEN tokens, with @justinsuntron (Sun Yuchen) leading the way with a total of 3,559,570 $EIGEN. This is followed by address 0x4b25e4, which collected 2,426,294 $EIGEN, and the address 0xca264a of @0xMantle Treasury, which collected 1,346,851 $EIGEN. Additionally, address 0xe2008b also received 553,106 $EIGEN. Assuming that the fully diluted valuation (FDV) of the Eigenlayer project is approximately $15 billion (similar to Ethena), the price of $EIGEN could reach around $10, making these recipients potential earners of millions of dollars.
OKLink released its April 2024 Security Monthly Report, indicating that the total cumulative losses from on-chain security events in April amounted to approximately $110 million, a decrease of 42.11% compared to the previous month. Phishing events accounted for 7.67% of the losses, REKT events accounted for 43.90%, and RugPull events accounted for 44.07%. The largest security event in terms of REKT losses this month was the attack on Hedgey Finance, resulting in a loss of approximately $44 million due to a vulnerability in the contract that allowed assets to be stolen. The largest RugPull event was the RugPull at the ZKasino crypto gambling platform, resulting in a loss of approximately $33 million. Additionally, there were a total of 32 cases of fraud and phishing events on official social media, primarily concentrated on X, Discord, and various phishing websites. OKLink reminded users to avoid disclosing their private keys or mnemonic phrases to anyone and not to store them in screenshot form. Furthermore, users were advised to exercise caution when downloading software to prevent their devices from being compromised by trojans, leading to the leakage of private keys or mnemonic phrases, as security awareness is the most powerful shield in the Web3 world.
According to SoSoValue data, the total net outflow of Bitcoin spot ETFs yesterday (April 29, Eastern Time) was $51.5316 million. The Grayscale ETF GBTC had a net outflow of $24.6607 million, bringing its historical net outflow to $17.21 billion. The Bitwise ETF BITB had the highest net inflow on the day, with a net inflow of $6.8362 million, bringing its total historical net inflow to $1.775 billion. This was followed by the Valkyrie ETF BRRR, which had a net inflow of $2.6663 million, bringing its total historical net inflow to $449 million. As of the time of writing, the total net asset value of Bitcoin spot ETFs was $52.209 billion, with an ETF net asset ratio (market value as a percentage of total Bitcoin market value) of 4.21%, and a total historical net inflow of $11.942 billion.
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