The first quarter of 2024 had everything crypto could want for mass adoption — over $12 billion in net inflows from institutional ETFs, Solana’s memecoins season captivating retail investors, and Ethereum’s Dencun upgrade slashing Layer-2 (L2) transaction fees to pennies
As we step into April things are shaping up to get even wilder. The Bitcoin halving is 19 days away, and with the Fear & Greed index above 80 and Bitcoin holding above $70k, speculations are just heating up.
Top Story
Institutional Asset Managers Are Coming For Your Ethereum
Despite the SEC postponing spot Ether ETFs until May, BlackRock has declared its intent to tokenize the world. They are walking the talk with their real-world-asset (RWA) Ethereum fund $BUIDL, which now has a market cap of $275M. Launched on March 20 with a minimum investment requirement of $5M, the fund has attracted substantial interest, including $95M of OUSG assets allocated by the RWA platform Ondo Finance.
Additionally to BlackRock other asset managers have filed for Ether ETFs including Fidelity on March 27, Bitwise on March 28, and Grayscale on March 29. While Fidelity and Grayscale want to take advantage of the staking mechanisms on Ethereum, Bitwise has exclusively avoided any language around staking in their application.
Market Updates
Bitcoin Halving Ignites Wild Price Predictions & Layer-2 Launches
The Bitcoin halving has sparked speculative price predictions, including the possibility of a short squeeze that could send BTC “vertical” to $80k. However, one thing is staying under the radar regarding Bitcoin — the Layer-2 (L2) projects getting released in April. Let’s look at two of them.
Bitcoin’s Ordinals Creator Is Debuting a BRC-20 Rival Named Runes
Set to launch around the halving event, Runes picks up where BRC-20s left off, aiming to make the process of creating fungible tokens on Bitcoin more efficient. Unlike Ordinals, which are non-fungible tokens (NFTs), Runes are fungible tokens and will use Bitcoin to create new tokens. Runes uses an Unspent Transaction Output (UTXO) model.
Stacks, A Bitcoin L2 for Smart Contracts Closing In On Nakamoto Upgrade
The leading Bitcoin L2—Stacks is set to roll out its long-awaited Nakamoto upgrade this month. The Nakamoto upgrade will allow sBTC to be used in DeFi on Stacks, significantly reduce network block times, enhance scalability, and potentially trigger a new Bitcoin L2 season.
Can Crypto Handle $1.7+ Billion Token Unlocks in April?
CryptoRank, a leading cryptocurrency research and analytics platform, has identified April's top ten token unlock events. These assets have a total value of more than $1.7 billion, with approximately $390 million set to be released within the first week according to the latest update.
While Aptos is leading the charge, with a planned release of 24.84M $APT tokens worth ~$418.75 million on April 12, the top two projects to watch in the coming days are dYdX (April 1) and Sui (April 3).
DOJ and CFTC Bring Charges Against KuCoin And Founders
KuCoin and its founders are facing DOJ charges for running an unlicensed money transmission business, violating the Bank Secrecy Act, and handling over $9 billion in suspicious funds. Additionally, they are also dealing with CFTC charges for multiple violations of the Commodity Exchange Act.
In response to the charges, KuCoin is taking measures to retain its user base by airdropping $10 million in Bitcoin and its native token KCS. CEO Johnny Lyu has expressed gratitude to users for their support and assured them of the exchange’s commitment to asset security and regulatory compliance.
MORE BITE-SIZED STACKS
Hacks
- Munchables Hacker Returns $62.8 Million In Stolen Ether
- Over 336M Lost Due To Crypto Hacks and Fraud in Q1
Raises to monitor
Crypto courtroom
- Four Takeaways From Sam Bankman-Fried’s 25-Year Sentence
- SEC Can Proceed With Coinbase Lawsuit, Judge Rules
- SEC to Press Judge for $2 Billion in Fines and Penalties From Ripple
- US, UK Investigate $20 Billion Tether Inflow to Russian Exchange
DeFi news
- Solana Welcomes Circle’s Cross-chain Transfer Protocol
- Ethena Labs Initiates 750M ENA Token Airdrop On April 2
Yield-farming guides
- Ethena — 30% APY or Airdrop ($1.5b TVL & 118.6k users)
- Pendle — up to 70% variable APY + Airdrops ($3.5b TVL)
Tweets For Thought
DISCLAIMER: This content is for informational purposes only. It is not intended as financial advice or any form of recommendation for investment strategies. The information provided should not be relied upon in making any financial decisions. Always conduct your own research and exercise caution when dealing with financial matters.