🇪🇺 MiCA will transform the EU into a crypto adoption hub this year
Markets in Crypto-Assets Regulation (MiCA) was signed into law in June 2023, a framework for twenty-seven countries was finally in place. Although this was a landmark piece of legislation for a region that represents nearly twenty percent of the global economy, MiCA is serving as the beginning of a twelve to eighteen-month process of transition, transformation, and customization; that’s because MiCA includes a “substantial number of Level 2 and Level 3 measures,” as noted by the European Securities and Markets Authorities, that still must be developed and refined.
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🇰🇷 Crypto.com denies reports that South Korean regulator is delaying local unit leadership change
Crypto.com has denied a local media report that said the firm might have encountered a roadblock in entering the South Korean crypto market, as the local financial regulator could be deferring the approval of a local entity's transition of executive leadership. The global cryptocurrency exchange announced on April 2 that it is launching a local trading platform in South Korea, which hosts one of the largest crypto markets in the world. The
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💰 Bitcoin Miners Ramp Up Hashrate as Halving Nears, Network Hits 653 EH/s Record
Just before the upcoming block reward halving, with only 72 blocks left until reaching block height 840,000, bitcoin miners have significantly boosted their hashrate. As of 8:50 a.m. EDT on April 19, 2024, the hashrate soared to a record 653 exahash per second (EH/s).
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💰 Bitcoin to Hit $122,000 in 2024, Predicts Finder’s Latest Survey of Experts
Finder’s latest survey on bitcoin’s (BTC) price involved a unique panel of 31 crypto and fintech experts. The results suggest that BTC could reach a peak of $122,000 in 2024, and then settle at $109,000 by year’s end. Nick Ranga, the senior crypto and forex analyst at Forextraders, attributes the current uptick in BTC’s value to growing institutional engagement. Ranga is among those experts who foresee BTC reaching its zenith once more in 2024, ultimately closing the year around the $100,000 mark per unit.
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💰 Funding rate turns negative as Bitcoin drops below $64k
In the volatile world of cryptocurrency, perpetual futures are a go-to for many traders. These contracts don't expire, relying instead on a mechanism called the funding rate to balance market forces. Recently, Bitcoin's perpetual futures saw a dramatic shift. Typically steadied by consistent positive funding rates, a sudden plunge into negative territory coincided with geopolitical turmoil and a significant drop in Bitcoin's price.
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🇭🇰 Hong Kong spot bitcoin ETFs could go live as soon as this month: OSL
Hong Kong asset managers, including units of China Asset Management (ChinaAMC) and Harvest Global, may soon launch their spot bitcoin exchange-traded funds as early as later this month, OSL confirmed with The Block today. “Reports suggest a spot ETF may start in late April, with a spot ETF following shortly after,” said Patrick Pan, chairman of the board and CEO of OSL. “All parties are working expeditiously to complete the process. However, exact dates remain unconfirmed at this time.”
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🇭🇰 Hong Kong approves first batch of spot bitcoin, ether ETFs in drive to become crypto hub
Hong Kong approved the applications of several spot bitcoin and ether exchange-traded funds on Monday, as the region continues its drive to become a regional crypto hub. China Asset Management, a major Chinese asset manager, said that its Hong Kong unit has received approval in principle from the Hong Kong Securities and Futures Commission to offer retail asset management services related to spot crypto ETFs.
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🇬🇧 Chinese Fraud Victims Seek Government Aid in Recovering 61,000 BTC Seized by UK Law Enforcement
A group of Chinese victims of a $6 billion fraud scheme have requested assistance from their country’s foreign ministry in recovering 61,000 bitcoins, seized from a fraudster and her associate. The fraud victims have strongly opposed attempts to transfer the ownership of these bitcoins to the U.K. government.
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💰 Bitcoin and Ethereum ETFs could launch in Hong Kong before halving
Hong Kong is poised to approve the launch of new exchange-traded funds (ETFs) that will directly invest in Bitcoin and Ether potentially as soon as Monday. This key development, as reported by Bloomberg, involves key financial players, including an international branch of China’s Harvest Fund Management Co. and a partnership between Bosera Asset Management (International) Co. and HashKey Capital.
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💰 Bitcoin price gains despite a pullback in global markets as ECB holds rates steady
Bitcoin's price gained on Thursday after the European Central Bank (ECB) voted to keep interest rates on hold for the fifth consecutive meeting. Although bitcoin typically closely tracks risk-on assets like major equity indices, the cryptocurrency's upward trajectory came as global markets inched down. The Dow Jones Industrial Average fell for a fourth day in a row, the S&P 500 declined 1% and the Nasdaq Composite dropped 0.1%. In Europe, the regional Stoxx 600 index fell 0.7%, and London's FTSE fell 0.67%.
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🪙 VanEck, CoinShares CEOs doubt SEC will approve spot Ethereum ETFs: CNBC
Firms that gained the Securities and Exchange Commission's approval for a spot bitcoin exchange-traded fund are not feeling very confident that the agency will greenlight proposals for an ether product, according to reporting from CNBC. VanEck CEO Jan van Eck told CNBC in an interview posted on Tuesday that he expected the VanEck Ethereum ETF to be rejected in May – the first deadline approaching for when the SEC will decide whether to allow those products to pass.
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🪙 Ether outperforms bitcoin and sustains rally, amid surge in short liquidations
Ether has maintained its rally while outperforming bitcoin as market volatility prompts a surge in short liquidations. Ether short positions bore the brunt of market volatility damage as the digital asset rose above the $3,600 mark on Monday. According to Coinglass data, there were over $27 million in ether short liquidations in the past 24 hours. In the wider cryptocurrency market, there have been over $204 million in liquidations over the past 24 hours.
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🪙 Ether options point to bullish market sentiment for end of April
The options market seems to have taken on more bullish positions in the largest cohort of ether options open interest by expiration date, contracts for the end-of-April expiry. Some $3.3 billion of notional ether options set to expire, according to Deribit data, and roughly two-thirds of that amount have been placed on calls, or bullish bets on price. "Call strikes are clustered between $3,700 - $4,000, showing an upside bias and underlying bullish sentiment in the market," Wintermute OTC Trader Jake Ostrovskis told The Block.
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🪙 Ethereum’s Q1 2024 Revenue Soars to $1.2 Billion, Marking 155% YoY Increase
Ethereum posted an impressive performance in the first quarter of 2024. As per Coin98’s Ethereum Q1 2024 Financial Report, the blockchain network clocked in a massive surge in income statement metrics. Fees and revenue witnessed a 1.8 times increase quarter-over-quarter (QoQ), while earnings tripled over the same period. This financial momentum is essentially aligned with significant advancements in network and ecosystem metrics.
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💰 BlackRock Adds Goldman Sachs, Citigroup, UBS as APs for Bitcoin ETF
BlackRock (BLK) has added five additional authorized participants (APs) to the iShares Bitcoin Trust (IBIT), bringing the total number to nine as the fund continues to attract billions of dollars from investors. The new APs include Wall Street banking giants Goldman Sachs, Citadel Securities, Citigroup and UBS as well as clearing house ABN AMRO, according to a prospectus filed with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). They join Jane Street Capital, JP Morgan, Masquarie and Virtu Americas.
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💰 93 Blocks, $71 Million in Fees: Bitcoin Mining Revenue Booms Post-Halving
Since the halving, miners have successfully extracted 93 blocks, accumulating a significant 1,087.99 bitcoins valued at approximately $71.04 million solely from transaction fees. As of 2:00 p.m. EDT on Saturday, the current metrics indicate a high-priority transaction cost of 492 satoshis per virtual byte (sat/vB), equivalent to $44.83 per transfer.
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💰 After Halving Event, Bitcoin Transaction Fees Soar to Over $240
Upon reaching block height 840,000, when the mining pool Viabtc collected 37.626 bitcoin in fees worth $2.39 million, the expense for onchain transfers climbed, surpassing $240 per transaction. Block 840,003 recorded 16.06 bitcoins in fee payments, and block 840,004 accumulated 24 bitcoins in fees valued at over $1.5 million.
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💰 Bitcoin Halving Is Not a Bullish Event, Says 10x Research Analyst
Bearish signals are looming over the crypto market these days and will almost certainly push prices down in the short term, well-known research analyst Markus Thielen said. “We don't have the typical drivers anymore that really brought prices from the $40,000 to the $70,000 region,” he said. The main reason behind this, he added, is the spot bitcoin ETFs, which have seen little to no new inflows over the past few weeks as investors have moved past the initial euphoria of the January launch.
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🏦 Kraken launches self-custodial mobile wallet and releases its open-source code
The crypto exchange giant Kraken released a self-custodial mobile wallet called Kraken Wallet, and it even published the app's code at launch. Kraken Wallet lets users manage their NFTs, tokens and DeFi positions across Bitcoin, Ethereum, Solana, Optimism, Base, Arbitrum, Polygon and Dogecoin, according to a release from Kraken. Users can also connect to popular decentralized applications and access round-the-clock customer service support.
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💰 Bybit Report Suggests Bitcoin Exchanges to Run Dry in 9 Months
As the crypto landscape evolves, a significant tightening in bitcoin’s available supply on exchanges has emerged, hinting at just nine months of reserves left. Bybit’s latest halving report unveils the reasons behind this tightening grip, indicating a looming scarcity that could reshape market dynamics.
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🪙 Ethereum validator queue hits highest level since September 2023
Staking on Ethereum has become all the rage recently with the recent popularization of restaking, which we talked about a bit last week. In a fun update, EigenLayer did launch on the Ethereum mainnet last week along with its EigenDA data availability layer. Coinbase Cloud and Google Cloud are among the protocol’s first operators, and it announced six actively validated services that will be secured through EigenLayer’s restaking on Friday.
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🇳🇬 Nigeria’s 🟠 Binance crackdown threatens Web3 industry
Nigeria is feeling the consequences of actions against Binance executives, with investors withdrawing from deals and partnerships, particularly in the web3 sector. They mention Nigeria’s perceived lack of safety for business and government hostility, citing the Binance case as evidence, according to Lucky Uwakwe, the chairman of Nigeria's Blockchain Industry Coordinating Committee (BICCoN).
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💰 Bitcoin’s halving countdown continues with one week to go
Bitcoin’s next halving event is now just one week or approximately 1,000 blocks away, according to The Block’s Bitcoin Halving Countdown page. The estimated countdown is based on Bitcoin's average block generation time of 10 minutes, setting a potential date of April 20 at around 9 a.m. UTC (5 a.m. ET), to reach the next halving block height of 840,000, as things stand. Bitcoin’s next halving event will see the subsidy reward for miners on the network drop from 6.25 BTC to 3.125 BTC per block.
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🪙 Chainlink launches Transporter bridging app for moving crypto cross-chain
Decentralized computing platform Chainlink has launched a bridging app for moving crypto tokens and messages between blockchains, powered by its cross-chain interoperability protocol. Built in collaboration with the Chainlink Foundation and developer Chainlink Labs, the “Transporter” app aims to provide a user-friendly interface for submitting and monitoring cross-chain transactions on CCIP, according to a statement shared with The Block.
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💰 Hong Kong's Incoming Spot Bitcoin ETFs Could Be 'Big Deal.'
Heightened anticipation for spot-based bitcoin ETFs in the U.S. and the eventual inflows supercharged bitcoin's run-up to new all-time highs, and now Hong Kong regulators reportedly are inching closer to approving similar funds, news that thus far has been mostly unnoticed in crypto circles. These vehicles, however, could open the floodgates for Chinese investors looking for a new haven next to gold and overseas real estate and stocks in which to store their wealth.
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📊 VanEck CEO Says Transaction Fee Is Bigger Story Than Bitcoin or Ethereum ETFs
The CEO of VanEck – the global investment firm whose Bitcoin Trust (HODL) is among the almost dozen spot bitcoin ETFs – thinks the cryptocurrency industry should focus more on transaction fees and not so much on Bitcoin (BTC) and Ethereum (ETH) or their related exchange-traded funds. Jan van Eck said on CoinDesk's "Markets Daily" that the transaction fees on the Bitcoin and Ethereum blockchains are unpredictable, making it harder to build applications in those ecosystems.
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💰 Bitcoin’s latest rally driven by ‘huge accumulation’
Bitcoin’s (BTC) latest rally was driven by “huge accumulation” as investor appetite remains high despite five days of trading in the red over the past week, according to CryptoQuant research. Just three days ago, Bitcoin was trading at roughly $65,500 as markets closed on Friday. However, a sustained rally over the weekend took prices to $72,500 before US markets opened for trading on Monday.
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⬜️ Ripple CEO expects crypto market cap to double by year-end: CNBC
Ripple CEO Brad Garlinghouse said the entire cryptocurrency market capitalization will likely double by the end of 2024, according to a CNBC report on Sunday. The current global crypto market cap stands at around $2.59 trillion, CoinMarketCap data showed. Garlinghouse told CNBC that he is “very optimistic” about macroeconomic trends in crypto such as the emergence of spot bitcoin exchange-traded funds (ETF), which he said has brought forth “real” institutional investments in crypto for the first time.
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💰 World’s First Bitcoin ETF Has Lost 20% of Assets Since BlackRock Approval
The Purpose Bitcoin ETF (BTCC) – the world’s first Bitcoin exchange-traded fund – has struggled to compete with its U.S. counterparts since its January debut. The Canadian fund has lost 20% of its Bitcoin (BTC) under management over the past three months, despite rising demand and record-high prices for the asset during that time. In BTC terms, the amount is fairly average by historical standards. Since launching in February 2021, the firm’s holdings have mostly oscillated between 20,000 and 40,000 BTC, remaining relatively stagnant throughout 2023 at around 23,000.
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💰 Terraform co-founder Do Kwon found liable for civil fraud: reports
A jury has found that both Terraform Labs and its cofounder, Do Hyeong Kwon, misled investors and are found liable for civil fraud, according to multiple reports. Deliberations began Friday afternoon after both sides made closing arguments in the morning, according to reporting from Coinage. The trial lasted two weeks. The Securities and Exchange Commission charged Terraform and Kwon in February 2023 over the algorithmic stablecoin Terra USD, which collapsed in a dramatic fashion a year earlier.
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