Bitcoin Price: US$ 69,217.76 (-2.94%)
Ethereum Price: US$ 3,506.39 (-5.09%)
April’s Bitcoin halving, combined with a “bag of tricks” from the United States Federal Reserve and the Department of the Treasury, is predicted by BitMEX co-founder Arthur Hayes to depress the crypto market for weeks. Hayes believes that the halving coincides with a period of tighter dollar liquidity, exacerbating the potential downturn. However, Bitcoin’s year-to-date climb of over 61% and the Crypto Fear and Greed Index’s recent extreme greed suggest ongoing market optimism. Additionally, a Deutsche Bank survey indicates a shift in consumer sentiment towards cryptocurrencies, with over half of respondents viewing them as an important asset class. Meanwhile, despite the crypto surge, global fintech funding has fallen to its lowest level in seven years, reflecting a divergence in investment trends between the two sectors.
Crypto.com’s Dubai-based entity, CRO DAX Middle East FZE, has secured approval from Dubai’s Virtual Assets Regulatory Authority (VARA), marking it as the first crypto exchange allowed to operate with fiat currency in the UAE. This approval follows the fulfillment of pre-operational conditions outlined in the virtual asset service provider license awarded in November 2023. The exchange plans to introduce its institutional services exchange for spot trading, staking brokerage, and over-the-counter offerings for institutional clients and qualified retail investors. Meanwhile, intermittent congestion on the Solana blockchain has led several crypto projects, including NFT project Suit Up and altcoin project DuckCoin, to delay their launches until April 15, with developers working to address network performance issues. In the U.S., Deputy Treasury Secretary Adewale Adeyemo outlined proposed reforms to strengthen enforcement against international bad actors using crypto, including secondary sanctions targeting foreign digital asset providers and expanding existing authorities to address jurisdictional risks from offshore cryptocurrency platforms, emphasising the need for Congressional action to combat illicit finance effectively.
Circle has extended support for its stablecoin, USD Coin (USDC), to Ethereum’s zero-knowledge layer-2 solution, zkSync, enabling faster and cheaper transactions. With USDC now accessible on 16 blockchains, including Ethereum, Solana, and Arbitrum, developers can leverage the stablecoin for various applications. Meanwhile, Telegram-linked Toncoin surpassed Cardano’s ADA to become the ninth-largest cryptocurrency by market capitalisation, driven by a surge in interest and a $5 million incentive program for identity verification. Additionally, Crypto-focused VC firm Paradigm is leading a $225 million funding round into Monad Labs, a new layer-1 blockchain network aiming to compete with Solana, Ethereum, and others, signalling increased VC interest in crypto projects after a two-year slump.
Worldcoin, the brainchild of OpenAI CEO Sam Altman, has introduced new features aimed at enhancing privacy and security, including the ability for users to unverify their World IDs and in-person age verification checks. These updates come amid concerns about centralisation, privacy, and security surrounding the platform, which has faced scrutiny from governments and regulatory bodies. Meanwhile, CertiK has identified a “high-risk vulnerability” in the Telegram desktop application, potentially enabling remote code execution attacks through media processing. Although Telegram has not confirmed the existence of the vulnerability, CertiK advises users to disable automatic media downloads to mitigate the risk. Lastly, SushiSwap faces internal discord over a governance proposal by its team to overhaul the platform’s treasury structure, with voting currently in favour of the proposal despite opposition from some community members. This controversy adds to the platform’s turbulent history, marked by power struggles and controversies since its launch in 2020.
Source: https://cointelegraph.com
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