Cryptoassets experienced a slight decline after a volatile week, with Bitcoin falling by 3% after its latest halving event. The significant Bitcoin event, which occurs every 210,000 blocks or about every four years, took place between April 19 and April 20 across various time zones. Post-halving, the daily production of Bitcoin dropped from 900 BTC to 450 BTC, effectively lowering the annual inflation rate from 1.7% to 0.85%. The debate within the Bitcoin community continues as to whether the market has already priced in the halving’s effects. Historically, halving events have often followed a “buy the rumor, sell the fact” pattern, and this year appears to be no different.
US equities rebounded on Friday, driven by positive tech earnings, despite disappointing inflation data indicating persistent price increases and supporting the Federal Reserve’s ongoing tight monetary policy to combat inflation. In the crypto ETF realm, Hong Kong’s Securities and Futures Commission has approved several spot Bitcoin and Ethereum ETFs. The potential impact of these ETFs on the broader market could turn out to be somewhat muted, pending clarity on whether investors from mainland China can participate in the instruments. In the US, spot Bitcoin ETFs from BlackRock and Fidelity saw the end of their daily inflow streaks, with BlackRock’s ETF experiencing no new inflows after 71 days and Fidelity’s bitcoin ETF seeing outflows. Previously, after registering net inflows for the 70 consecutive days, BlackRock’s ETF had entered the top 10 of ETFs with the longest daily streaks of daily inflows.
Meanwhile, there are growing doubts among analysts and industry professionals that the SEC will approve spot Ethereum ETF in May. Similarly, an SEC Ethereum ETF approval by May 31st trades at only 13 cents on the dollar on decentralized prediction market platform Polymarket. Earlier this week, the SEC delayed making decisions on the next steps for two proposed spot Ethereum ETFs proposed by Grayscale and Franklin Templeton. It also asked for public comments on changes made to BlackRock’s proposed spot Ethereum ETF.
Market Overview
The global cryptoasset market capitalization currently amounts to roughly $2.47 trillion – compared with $2.5 trillion last week, with bitcoin accounting for about 50.3%. Among the Top 30 cryptoassets by market cap, Hedera (HBAR) outperformed, gaining about 26.5% over the week. The price of bitcoin (BTC) fell by 3.4% to $63,015 while the price of ether (ETH) increased by 2.6% to $3,235. The total value locked (TVL) in DeFi is sitting at $94 billion, with Ethereum (excluding Layer 2s) accounting for about 60% of TVL.
This Week’s Headlines
- Consensys sues SEC, challenging its approach to Ethereum and seeking court intervention
- Blockchain Association and Crypto Freedom Alliance of Texas sue the SEC over newly adopted dealer rule
- Celsius loan creditors plan appeal of Celsius’ reorganization plan amid frustrations over recoveries
- FBI warns Americans against using unregistered crypto money transmitting services
- Grayscale plans industry-low 0.15% fee for Bitcoin Mini Trust spinoff fund, under ticker BTC
- Stripe to enable USDC payments in several weeks
- Runes protocol generates over $135 million in transaction fees in first week on Bitcoin network
- Franklin Templeton enables peer-to-peer transfers for its on-chain US Government Money Fund
- US DOJ seeks 36 months of imprisonment for Binance founder CZ
- Co-founders of Samourai Wallet arrested and charged with money laundering
- Bore Ape Yacht Club creator Yuga Labs restructures company, cuts roles to focus on smaller crypto-native team
Notable Deals and Fundraising
- Pantera Capital looks to raise $1 billion for new crypto fund V
- Solana DEX aggregator Jupiter acquires Ultimate Wallet as part of mobile push
- Citi-backed Talos acquires crypto risk management platform Cloudwall
- Crypto wallet infrastructure provider Safe acquires crypto treasury management platform Multis for an undisclosed sum
- Movement Labs raises $38 million in a Series A round to bring Facebook’s Move Virtual Machine to Ethereum
- Aligned Layer raises $20 million to develop verification layer for scaling dapps
- Tokenization specialist Centrifuge raises $15 million for a generalist real-world asset platform
- Shiba Inu raises $12 million in token round for its new blockchain
- Web3 gaming firm InfiniGods raises $8 million in a Series A round from Pantera Capital
- Blast DEX Thruster raises $7.5 million in a seed round at $70 million valuation
- Decentralized AI firm Prime Intellect raises $5.5 million in seed funding
- Web3 gaming firm Tevaera raises $5 million in seed and private financing
- Only1 raises $5 million to build an OnlyFans clone on Solana
- Bitcoin-linked stablecoin firm OpenDelta raises $2.5 million in a pre-seed round
