The past 72 hours have been chaotic for crypto. The key events of the first half of the week included a rough start for Hong Kong spot ETFs, a disappointing token model for EigenLayer's $EIGEN token, and the announcement of Binance founder CZ's four-month prison sentence.
Market Pulse: Total crypto market cap is $2.17T, with Bitcoin trading at $57,441, a 4.21% decrease in 24 hours. BTC dominates at 51.99%, with a total trading volume of $518.69B. Market sentiment is bearish, with 64% of cryptocurrencies increasing and 36% losing value.
Top Story
Mixed Reactions to CZ's Four "4" Month Prison Sentence
Changpeng 'CZ' Zhao, former CEO of Binance, was sentenced to four months in prison for anti-money laundering violations after pleading guilty on Tuesday. That sparked mixed reactions, with the majority of the crypto community showing their support for the founder of the largest crypto exchange. With his $43+ billion, CZ will become the wealthiest person sent to prison (Pablo Escobar had around $30 billion at his time of death, without accounting for inflation).
Of course, with the irony behind the '4-month' sentence and the earlier agreed '$4 billion' fine, X (Twitter) users found a humorous connection, pointing out that the number 4 seemed to be following him everywhere, leading to a wave of memes and jokes on social media. For context, CZ is known for using the message '4' in his tweets as a way to combat fear, uncertainty, and doubt (FUD) in the crypto space.
More crypto courtroom news:
- DOJ Rejects Tornado Cash Founder’s ‘Just a Developer’ Claim
- Samourai Wallet Co-Founder Pleads Not Guilty, Released On $1M Bond
- The U.S. IRS Charges ‘Bitcoin Jesus’ With $48 Million Tax Fraud
Market Updates
Over $360 Million Leverage Liquidated In The Last 24 Hours
Based on data from CoinGlass, 102,939 traders were liquidated in the last 24 hours, totaling $366.73 million. The largest liquidation order, valued at $6.07 million, was placed on OKX's ETH-USDT-SWAP. Bitcoin longs got rekt for $100 million, while the price correction after the FED meeting late last night led to the liquidation of at least $17 million in short sellers.
This week's CryptoQuant market report suggests that the recent correction in the price of bitcoin can be attributed to a slowdown in the growth of demand for the asset. The permanent holders' and big "whale" investors' bitcoin balances grew more slowly, according to the report (as per The Block article).
More trading news:
- Korean Streamer Satto At $100k In Profit For Shorting BTC Before Dump
- Over $600 Billion Of Volume On DEX Derivatives In The Last 60 Days
EigenLayer $EIGEN Token Airdrop Backlash Over Restrictions
Just one week after the backlash over Renzo's tokenomics model, another hyped project, EigenLayer, announced the release of the $EIGEN token. Unlike Renzo, the Eigen team didn't post any allocation diagrams, leading the users to do additional research to understand the token distribution. An article from the official blog revealed that there will be a total of 15% distribution for airdrops, split over several seasons, with the first one grabbing a 5% share after a screenshot taken on March 15, 2024.
Two things were criticized mostly by the users: the strict geo-location restrictions and the non-transferability of the token. In essence, users in most countries (U.S., China, Russia, Canada, and most of Africa) are restricted from receiving the airdrop, while all initial $EIGEN tokens will be non-transferable as a feature for 'fair distribution. You can read our guides on EigenLayer, Restaked Points, and $EIGEN airdrop to learn everything you need about the project and the situation.
More airdrop news:
- The $DRIFT Eligibility Checker Is Live With 12% Initial Airdrop Allocation
- 18 Recent Airdrops Had An Average Airdrop Distribution Of 5.87% At TGE
Hong Kong Spot Crypto ETFs Debut As U.S. Inflows Slow Down
Even though other more recent news faded this, the most awaited event for the week was the debut of Asia's crypto ETFs. While the Hong Kong Stock Exchange witnessed a mediocre debut for Asia's first spot bitcoin and ether exchange-traded funds with a combined trading volume of $11.2 million, the US-launched ETFs had a first-day volume of $4.5 billion.
An important point to note is that despite the smaller market in Hong Kong, the issuers there had assets under management arranged before trading started, whereas, in the U.S., this arrangement was delayed until the ETFs made their debut. The Hong Kong-based bitcoin ETFs allow investors to directly use bitcoin or ether to buy or sell the ETFs through an in-kind mechanism, unlike the U.S. spot bitcoin ETFs, which necessitate cash creation and redemption.
More ETF news:
- Spot Bitcoin ETFs Could Be on Australia's Largest Exchange This Year
- Solana Memecoin Hits a Whopping $328 TRILLION Market Cap
- Spot Bitcoin ETFs Saw $344 Million Net Withdrawals in April
MORE BITE-SIZED STACKS
Bitcoin
- Bitcoin Miners Not Showing Capitulation Signs, Says CryptoQuant CEO
- Solo Bitcoin Miner Wins the 3.125 BTC Lottery, Solving Valid Block
DeFi
- More Than $3 Billion in Tokens Unlock in May (Pyth, Aevo, Apecoin, Arbitrum)
- Tether Sees Record Net Profit of Over $4.5 Billion in First Quarter of 2024
Hacks
- ZachXBT: Lazarus Group Laundered $200M+ in Hacked Crypto Since 2020
- Monthly Crypto Losses From Hacks, Scams Were the Lowest on Record in April
Regulations
- SEC, Gary Gensler Viewed Ethereum as a Security for Over a Year
- Two SEC Lawyers Resign After Abuse of Power in Crypto Case
Partnerships
- Coinbase Integrates Bitcoin’s Lightning Network in Partnership With Lightspark
- Uniswap Enables Crypto Purchases Via Robinhood Connect
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.