With the rising number of memecoins entering the market, Dogecoin’s (DOGE) strong community could keep the cryptocurrency from fading into obscurity, but analysts are skeptical of traders' hopes that it could reach a price of one-dollar this cycle.

A one-dollar price tag would represent a 36% increase from Dogecoin’s May 2021 all-time high of $0.73 and a 525% increase from today’s price of $0.16.

Caption: DOG has seen a 2.58% rise over the past 7-days. Source: CoinMarketCap

Over the last week, DOGE posted a 2.58% gain — significantly less growth when compared to other large-cap memecoins within the same timeframe, per CoinMarketCap data.

The next three largest memecoins by market capitalization all experienced notable upside price action in the last seven days, with PEPE (PEPE) up 43%, Shiba Inu (SHIB) up 17.42%, and Dogwifhat (WIF) gaining 14.43%.

“DOGE is one of the most cyclical altcoins in the space,” pseudonymous trader Rekt Capital told Cointelegraph, adding that the rising popularity of other memecoins shouldn’t have a major impact on investor sentiment towards the largest memecoin.

“Other meme coins launching doesn’t mean DOGE will suffer,” Rekt added.

Pav Hundal, the lead analyst for Australian crypto exchange Swyftx offered a more skeptical position, saying that while DOGE has a “huge community of users,” any sharp spikes in price may lead to a significant sell-off from long-term holders.

“A lot will depend on the decision-making of the millions of minnow investors who bought DOGE in 2021 and right now are sitting on paper losses,” Hundal told Cointelegraph, suggesting it’s uncertain whether the price will hit a dollar before the potential sell-off:

“It’s a crapshoot. If most of these people decide to take quick profits during the cycle, you could start to see selling pressure ratchet up.”

Hundal added that Dogecoin is not “seeing the deep books of the last cycle.” In the derivatives market alone it has seen a 56% drop in Open Interest (OI) since the beginning of April.

OI in Doge— which measures the total value of all outstanding or unsettled DOGE futures contracts across exchanges — has declined from $2.15 billion on April 1 to its current level of $928.72 million, per CoinGlass data.

Related: Is Dogecoin copying the 2020 fractal that sent DOGE price soaring 15,800%?

Despite the decline in derivatives activity for the memecoin, Rekt Capital argued that the “cyclicality in DOGE’s chart,” suggests that Dogecoin will still “most probably” reach a price of one dollar this cycle.

He reiterated that Dogecoin comes packed with “historical heritage” and has largely predictable cycles, which traders point out frequently on social media.

Pseudonymous trader Blockchain Mane told his 15,300 X followers in an April 24 post that looking at past data, DOGE usually sees price growth during the month of May.

Source: Blockchain Mane

Rekt also looked to potential social media posts from billionaire Elon Musk as a price catalyst, asserting that Musk is still “very interested in Dogecoin.”

Since April 17, Musk has been interacting regularly with the well-known DOGE influencer DogeDesigner on X.

In April 2023, Musk requested a United States judge to dismiss a $258 billion lawsuit brought against him by investors alleging he operated a pyramid scheme to promote Dogecoin. Although, Musk has recently hinted that his interest in crypto may have waned slightly.

“I don’t spend a lot of time thinking about cryptocurrency. Hardly any at all,” Musk told Ark Invest CEO Cathie Wood in an X space on Dec. 2023.

Magazine: ChainLinkGod was in High School when he started the account! X Hall of Flame

Digital identity project Worldcoin will increase the supply of its WLD token by as much as 19% over the next six months through a swathe of private sales to non-United States institutions. 

In an April 23 blog post, Worldcoin shared that World Assets — a subsidiary of the Worldcoin Foundation in charge of token issuance — will sell up to 1.5 million WLD, about $8.2 million worth, every week through a series of “private placements to a select group of institutional trading firms” operating outside of the U.S.

Worldcoin will be increasing the supply of its WLD token over the next six months. Source: Worldcoin

“World Assets expects to sell between 0.5 million and 1.5 million WLD per week on average,” Worldcoin wrote. “The circulating supply of WLD will thus increase correspondingly.”

An increase of up to 1.5 million WLD tokens per week for six months equates to a supply increase of 36 million new tokens hitting the market — currently worth around $197 million, per CoinGecko data.

With a current circulating supply of 193 million WLD tokens, the private sales represent an 18.6% increase in the total available supply within the same time frame.

Worldcoin noted it would negotiate with individual trading firms — especially those engaged in competition with each other — to execute private placements as close to “prevailing [WLD] market prices” as possible, to help minimize potential price impact on the token.

At current prices, Worldcoin touts a market capitalization of $1 billion. However, this pales in comparison to its fully diluted value (FDV) of $54.5 billion — its total value if all tokens were circulating.

Worldcoin is ranked as the 6th largest cryptocurrency by FDV. Source: Coingecko

Related: Portuguese data regulator bans Worldcoin operations for 90 days

Launched out of beta in July 2023, Worldcoin was founded by OpenAI CEO Sam Altman, current Wolrdcoin CEO Alex Blania, and Max Novendstern who also serves as the CEO of biometrics research firm Mana.

Worldcoin is a crypto-based digital identity project that markets itself as providing a solution to identity issues brought about by rapid developments in AI as well as ushering in a novel universal basic income model by way of its native WLD token.

Worldcoin users register their identity with the company’s “World App” by scanning their retinas at machines referred to by the company as “Orbs.” In exchange for their biometric data, users are paid around 25 Worldcoin — currently worth around $137.

Buoyed by a wider rally in the price of AI-linked crypto projects, Worldcoin soared 435% from a launch price of $2.17 on July 24 to a peak of $11.74 on March 10.

Worldcoin grew more than 450% in six months. Source: CoinGecko

However, its price has tumbled more than 53% from its all-time high in the last few weeks and is currently changing hands for $5.49.

AI Eye: How to get better crypto predictions from ChatGPT, Humane AI pin slammed

The potential return of more than $9 billion worth of Mt. Gox-era Bitcoin (BTC) over the next few weeks might “spook the market” and put negative price pressure on Bitcoin, according to K33 Research analysts. 

Earlier this week on Reddit, some creditors of the failed Mt. Gox crypto exchange reported seeing updates on their claims, with many interpreting it to mean that crypto payments could soon be coming.

The updates included how much cryptocurrency and fiat were owed to creditors as well as completed repayment dates.

The new updates could mean creditors might start seeing Bitcoin returned as soon as next month — assuming it follows a similar repayment schedule for fiat in March, K33 Research analysts Anders Helseth and Vetle Lunde wrote in an April 23 market note.

Source: Kashif Raza

Over $9.4 billion in Bitcoin and $72 million in Bitcoin Cash (BCH) is owed to Mt. Gox’s 127,000 creditors, along with $445.8 million (69 billion Japanese yen).

“Mt. Gox coins could become a relevant negative price contributor in the next weeks,” said Helseth and Lunde.

While the release of Bitcoin may not necessarily equate to selling pressure, the “overhang” of 142,000 BTC and 143,000 BCH could still “spook the market,” they added.

Bitcoin is currently trading at just over $66,700, though recent volatility has been attributed to changing tensions in the Middle East and the Bitcoin halving on April 20.

Related: Mt. Gox trustee updates Bitcoin and fiat repayment timetable

Mt. Gox creditors have been waiting on the return of their funds for more than 10 years after the exchange collapsed in February 2014 when it succumbed to a series of hacks that went unnoticed for years.

In January, the Mt. Gox trustee began reaching out to creditors to confirm their identity and their crypto exchange accounts used to repay their owed Bitcoin and Bitcoin Cash.

Meanwhile, reports in December last year showed that some creditors had already started to receive Japanese yen repayments. More creditors reported receiving further fiat transfers in March, the K33 report noted.

Mt. Gox has a final repayment deadline of Oct. 31, 2024, for base repayments, early lump-sum repayments and intermediate repayments, though this can still be subject to change.

Magazine: Lazarus Group’s favorite exploit revealed — Crypto hacks analysis

Cosmos developers have fixed a “critical” security bug in its Inter-Blockchain Communication (IBC) protocol which put at least $126 million at risk, says a blockchain security firm that privately notified Cosmos of the issue.

“We privately disclosed the vulnerability through the Cosmos HackerOne Bug Bounty program and the issue is now patched,” Asymmetric Research said on April 23.

“No malicious exploitation took place and no funds were lost,” it added.

Source: Asymmetric Research

The bug could have allowed a reentrancy attack allowing a hacker to mint infinite tokens on IBC-connected chains like Osmosis and other decentralized finance ecosystems on Cosmos.

“We believe at least 126M+ in assets could have been stolen on Osmosis. However, rate limiting on Osmosis slows down the damage that could be caused.”

Rate limits serve to prevent or at least mitigate attacks that attempt to overwhelm a system by controlling the rate at which requests are made.

Asymmetric noted the bug has existed in ibc-go — a high-level programming language implementation of IBC — since it launched in 2021.

The bug only recently became exploitable, however, after Cosmos devs launched a new third-party application called IBC middleware — which allows ICS20 (interchain token standard) tokens to cross chains.

Related: Cosmos Hub greenlights ATOM inflation cut for security boost

“This issue demonstrates how easy it is to break trust assumptions and introduce new vulnerabilities by adding new features and functionality. It is also another example of the importance of defense-in-depth,” Asymmetric emphasized.

“This vulnerability highlights the critical need for more research into cross-chain security risks to protect the multichain ecosystem better."

The bug was patched up by Cosmos dev Carlos Rodriguez about three weeks ago, a GitHub commit shows.

Another “critical” security vulnerability was identified in the IBC protocol in October 2022, which impacted all IBC-connected chains but was patched before any potential exploit.

Magazine: Are DAOs overhyped and unworkable? Lessons from the front lines

Chainlink guru Zach Rynes only doxed himself as the man behind the six-year-old pseudonymous account ChainLinkGod a month ago. But he cant stress enough the perks of starting out in crypto anonymously. 

You should probably be anon first unless you have a good reason to be doxed because you can always go doxed from being anon, but you cant go the other way around, he tells Hall of Flame.Beginning incognito also offers you the flexibility to step back without embarrassment if your account is a flop within the community.

When Rynes started posting on X, he was just a kid.

“I joined crypto in early 2018. I was a high school student. I wasn’t even actually old enough to open a Coinbase account at the time.”

He started ChainLinkGod the following year aged 18. Raised in the Southwest United States, Rynes favorite subjects in school were history and computer programming. Apart from crypto, the now 24-year-old these days enjoys hiking, off-roading and heading down to the shooting range to engage a different part of his brain.

(X/Zach Rynes)

Despite starting out young, he was smart enough to understand the significance of Chainlink. 

The elder frog of Chainlink.

I knew there was a problem with smart contracts where they cant connect to anything in the external world. How useful could they be really at scale? And from there, I stumbled upon Chainlink, he explains.

Back in those days, most people in the Chainlink community were members of the frog army.

I think its more like every community has its own memetic energy to it. The Chainlink community was frogs and cubes and hexagons, and everybody was like a frog identity at the time, he adds.

Rynes’ educational threads about Chainlink ended up being a hit with the Chainlink community, garnering him 171,800 X followers.

I saw that there was this information gap where people didnt really understand oracles, and I wanted to step in and be that liaison, he says.

But its been difficult for ChainLinkGod to speak at crypto conferences or spread the word about LINK in real life due to the accounts anon nature, which helped prompt his decision to unmask himself.

“So really it was just joining the community camaraderie, but I figured over time it made more sense to go doxed.”

How did ChainLinkGod get Twitter Fame?

Rynes has been grinding away for six years, posting long educational threads on Chainlink, which fans have been accessing over time, resulting in a steady uptick in followers.

When I started doing these educational tweet threads, like these technical deep dives, I think that really helped serve as an accelerant, he says.

( X/Zach Rynes)

Rynes explains that the growing Chainlink community is a very tight-knit community and he was lucky to get in early and nab the SEO-friendly X username “Chainlink God.”

“If you look up Chainlink, my account is one the first ones that pops up because it is ChainLinkGod. The SEO port worked in my favor a little bit.”

It was in DeFi summer in 2020 and the craze of yield farming that Rynes began noticing a massive spike in followers, possibly because a fair amount of protocols that were enabled by Chainlink launched for the first time.

I think I pulled a lot of people into the channel and then helped them along their Chain journey during that time period, Rynes adds.

What type of content does ChainLinkGod like?

Rynes mainly follows thought leaders in the space for the long-form content they publish on social media.

In particular, he enjoys ShapeShift CEO Eric Vorhees content, a non-maximalist Bitcoin OG with over 640,000 X followers.

Rynes explains that Vorhees thoughts on Bitcoin are always just very well informed, and he has learned a lot through his posts.

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He is also a fan of both Ethereum founder Vitalik Buterin and BitMEX co-founder Arthur Hayes for their ridiculous amount of blog content.

That is because whether they end up being right or wrong, I like seeing what peoples thought processes are, he explains.

Every now and then, you can even catch him having a good old chat with Buterin on X.

( X/Zach Rynes)

For a laugh, he also enjoys popular pseudonymous crypto troll Gwart and their content and deadpan sarcasm.

What type of content does ChainLinkGod do?

I’m predominantly focused on Chainlink, so if you want to learn anything and everything about Chainlink oracles and adaptability, then Im definitely the person for that, he declares.

( X/Zach Rynes)

In general, I tweet about what I see are the major megatrends happening, such as tokenized assets and DeFi as a whole.Youll also catch Rynes chiming in whenever there is a proper circus happening in the crypto industry.

Read also Features

Bitcoin in Senegal: Why is this African country using BTC?

Features Crypto winter can take a toll on hodlers mental health

I also just enjoy tweeting about the things that I find interesting about the industry, which can include calling out the shenanigans as I saw them in 2022, he says.

In fact, his most popular post on X was him making a sly dig toward the crypto exchange FTX following its collapse in November 2022.

( X/Zach Rynes)

Hes also expanded out from just social media. 

Ive done a whole lot of different types of content. I write tweet threads and blogs. I’ve done podcasts. People always love podcasts, he says.

ChainLinkGods price predictions?

Unfortunately, we didnt get any price predictions from Rynes. Not everyones as open as Tim Draper with his $250,000 Bitcoin forecast.

“A lot of cryptos are just tied to what’s happening macro wise, and so macro wise interest rates drop that could be very good for the industry. But there’s so many different factors that are hard to account for so I’m always cautiously optimistic when it comes to crypto.”

Never mind. Whether the price of Chainlink crashes or goes through the roof, Rynes will keep churning out his educational content and probably hold onto any Chainlink he owns forever.

I’m in it for the long run so they can go up, down or in circles, and I’m still going to be here, he laughs.

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The United States Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) will delay its decisions on the BlackRock and Grayscale applications for spot Ether (ETH) exchange-traded funds (ETFs). The SEC released notices of the delay in the Grayscale decision and the amending of the BlackRock application just hours after the agency pushed back its decision on Franklin Templeton’s proposed spot ETH ETF. 

The SEC decision on converting digital asset manager Grayscale’s ETH Trust to a spot ETH exchange-traded product on NYSE Arca was due on April 24, but will now be extended 60 days to June 23.

“The Commission finds that it is appropriate to designate a longer period within which to issue an order approving or disapproving the proposed rule change so that it has sufficient time to consider the proposed rule change, as modified by Amendment No. 1,” the agency wrote in its notice on April 23. It published the notice of Grayscale’s amendment filing on April 2. The amendment strengthened Grayscale’s arguments, but did not materially change its proposal.

Related: Ether ETFs will ‘probably be rejected’ in May — VanEck CEO

The SEC is now expected to make a decision on the Franklin Templeton application by June 11.

Also on April 23, Grayscale filed an S-3 form, which is similar to the S-1 but shorter, for a Grayscale ETH Trust and an S-1 for a Grayscale ETH Mini Trust.

SEC notice of filing of BlackRock amendment. Source: sec.gov

BlackRock filed an S-1 application for a spot ETH ETF in November. The decision on the BlackRock application was delayed in March. Later that month, the SEC pushed back decisions on Hashdex and ARK 21 spot ETH ETF applications by two months to late May.

BlackRock filed the amendment to the application on April 19. The April 23 SEC notice details the changes found in the amendment, which mainly concern the creation and redemption of shares. It also extends the comment period on the proposal for 21 days after its publication in the Federal Register. No new deadline for an SEC decision on it was specified.

Source: Eleanor Terrett

Observers say the SEC is unengaged with spot ETH ETF applications, which many interpret to be a sign of looming rejection.

Grayscale won a victory over the SEC in August when an appeals court partially overturned the SEC's rejection of its application to convert its over-the-counter Grayscale Bitcoin Trust (GBTC) into a listed Bitcoin (BTC) ETF.

Magazine: Bitcoin ETFs make Coinbase a ‘honeypot’ for hackers and governments: Trezor CEO

Tigran Gambaryan, a Binance executive detained in Nigeria since February, will reportedly remain in custody until a bail hearing on May 17.

According to April 23 reports from local news outlets, Gambaryan will remain in Nigeria’s Kuje prison until at least May 17, when a judge will decide whether to grant the Binance executive bail. He initially traveled to Nigeria in February with fellow Binance executive Nadeem Anjarwalla to address claims the exchange manipulated the country’s fiat currency, the naira. Nigerian authorities detained both Binance executives as the crypto exchange announced that it intended to cease all naira transactions.

Gambaryan was expected to return to court on April 19 following an initial postponement, and the question of bail was to be addressed on April 22. He has pleaded not guilty to tax evasion and money laundering charges brought by Nigeria’s Economic and Financial Crimes Commission, with a trial scheduled for May 2.

Anjarwalla reportedly escaped Nigeria custody in March, using his Kenyan passport — he is both a British and Kenyan national — to fly out of Abuja. Reports from April 22 suggested that Kenya’s police arrested Anjarwalla and may extradite him to Nigeria to face criminal charges. 

Related: Nigeria launches first multilingual large language model in Africa

Many have criticized the government’s charges as lacking merit, as Binance said Gambaryan had “no decision-making power” at the crypto firm. On March 30, Yuki Gambaryan, Tigran’s wife, launched a petition for the U.S. State Department, Nigeria’s Economic and Financial Crimes Commission, the Nigerian government and U.S. President Joe Biden to to return him to the United States. As of April 23, the petition had 3,960 signatures.

In a separate case in the United States, former Binance CEO Changpeng Zhao is expected to be sentenced on April 30 following his guilty plea for failure to maintain an Anti-Money Laundering program while leading the exchange. He could face up to 10 years in prison.

Magazine: South Africa’s digital-nomad crypto hub: Cape Town, Crypto City Guide

The crypto markets’ focus on real-world asset (RWA) tokenization has gained momentum throughout 2024, and multiple entities within the traditional finance (TradFi) industry are also integrating blockchain and asset tokenization into their portfolios. 

Cointelegraph Markets spoke with Victor Sanchez and Alan Keegan, the co-founders of the RWA-focused blockchain project Kinto, to explore the market potential of tokenized RWAs. Both shared their views on the factors behind the rapid growth of RWAs and why they believe “big institutions” such as BlackRock are bullish on the asset class.

Cointelegraph: What would you say is the driving factor behind the rapid growth of RWAs this year?

Victor Sanchez: Interest has always existed due to the obvious advantages: removing middlemen (and their costs), an incredibly liquid and efficient 24/7 market and a transparent ledger. RWAs and TradFi have now found a counterparty safe, secure, composable and usable space in places and processes like the ones we implemented at Kinto.

Tokenized treasury products gre 782% in 2023, worth over $931 million as of Feb. 1. Source: CoinGecko

CT: Can you share your views on why BlackRock has suddenly become quite bullish on RWAs?

VS: RWAs are a multitrillion-dollar opportunity, and these big institutions are aware that blockchain technologies can go from 0 to 100 in a single bull market.

Real-world assets’ total market capitalization. Source: Galaxy Research

I honestly believe missing that train was simply not an option despite the day-one issues of being welcomed with a Tornado Cash dusting.

CT: Could you elaborate in a few sentences about what types of liquidity can be unlocked from RWAs and how this increases the bottom line for money managers?

Alan Keegan: Being able to transfer assets globally, 24/7, with T+0 settlement by itself is a huge benefit blockchains offer once the regulatory hurdles of using them to transfer securities are overcome.

However, the ability to have any arbitrary transaction neutrally and atomically enforced makes a lot of transaction types easier and more cost-efficient. This means overcollateralized borrowing, yield stripping, claiming collateral on bad debt, and even issuing dollar-pegged stablecoins as liquidity against treasury collateral at close to 100% LTV [loan-to-value] can be automatically done with a click of a button or triggered based on conditions.

It’s difficult to think of any transaction type that won’t be improved by being on-chain once we’ve done the regulatory work to actually use the blockchain as the financial infrastructure layer and unlock its potential.

CT: In terms of fragmented and stranded liquidity, what are the areas of unlocked capital that RWAs can free up, and how might this process take place?

VS: RWAs face a unique liquidity and usability problem. The last bull and bear markets proved to institutions that for some transaction types, DeFi infrastructure offers benefits vs. traditional alternatives and operates smoothly even in extreme market conditions — in passive liquidity provision and overcollateralized lending, for example.

However, despite being tokenized, most RWAs today aren’t usable for any of this on-chain. We can only unlock the value the institutions are looking for by doing KYC on the chain level while remaining an open network.

CT: Is there a difference between DeFi and RWAs?

VS: There are a few, but the lines are starting to blur, and that is a good thing. Many of the RWAs that are starting to get tokenized today are highly regulated products in the real world with strict counterparty requirements.

“Historically, RWAs were missing a key aspect of DeFi: composability. We are fixing that.”

CT: Can you explain how RWAs fix the composability issue that plagues DeFi?

As of today, RWAs require their own compliance framework, KYC systems, etc. Essentially, they are controlling who you are, what you own and who you can send it to. If you think about this problem on an L1 or on non-KYC’d L2s, it basically means that even for a very similar use case on different DApps or protocols, you need to go through their process, and they do not “talk to each other.”

This is why we believe the right abstraction model is to KYC at the L2 level so everyone is under the same set of rules and capabilities, allowing RWAs to free flow, compose and more.

How RWA bridges the gap between TradFi and Defi. Source: Binance Research

CT: What are the current counterparty challenges with TradFi requirements for managing counterparty risk?

In any network, it does not matter if we are talking about an L1 or an L2, you are free to send anything to anyone, 24/7. That is the promise of crypto, and it is great in 99.9% of cases.

However, in a compliance environment where you need to know exactly who sends you what and why, this becomes a true counterparty-compliance nightmare.

“In our conversations with Trad-Fi, this counterparty issue is one of the most cited reasons for not being on-chain, followed by security and usability.”

CT: What is Kinto doing to bridge the gap between TradFi and RWAs?

VS: Kinto is the safety-first L2. In Kinto, every individual or corporation is KYC/KYB [Know Your Business] at the chain level. This information never leaves the KYC provider without user permission (we call this user-owned KYC), and it solves the counterparty requirements. 

On top of that, by doing this at the chain level, we enable, for the first time, the composability for these RWAs, allowing for products that can only exist on Kinto.

CT: It seems like RWAs are mainly for institutional investors and fund managers. How and when will retail investors be able to get a slice of the RWA pie?

VS: Due to the regulation we covered in previous questions, it was easy for these institutions and accredited investors to access these products.

However, as we facilitate counterparty requirements and other security elements (AML, fraud detection, Sybil resistance, etc.) protocols, we will be able to offer products to a much larger audience in Kinto than anywhere else.

CT: What is your utopian vision of what full RWA mainstreaming looks like in TradFi, and how would that benefit the average investor?

AK: Here is the dream for the future of Kinto. On Kinto, tokenized traditional ETFs could be provided as liquidity in an AMM like Uniswap or Curve. Your bank could be linked to your wallet, which is also used for payroll on-chain, and automatically approves and issues a mortgage using funds from an on-chain money market and the tokenized deed to your house as collateral.

Corporate treasuries could be held in on-chain assets, and corporate debt issuance could happen through a DApp. Any modern financial asset can be issued and traded on-chain, and any modern financial service can be provided on-chain.

“Our mission is not just to provide the first permissionless, decentralized network capable of supporting every traditional financial institution and every decentralized finance protocol. It is to provide the best infrastructure option for hosting the entire future financial system.”

This article does not contain investment advice or recommendations. Every investment and trading move involves risk, and readers should conduct their own research when making a decision.

Satoshi Nakamoto, the pseudonymous creator of Bitcoin (BTC), decided to move on to other things 13 years ago, when they sent the last communication to Bitcoin's first developers on April 23, 2011.

Bitcoin core developer Mike Hearn previously revealed the final instructions as part of an email exchange with Nakamoto about the challenges and technical aspects of implementing Bitcoin functionalities to control spam using BTC as collateral:

“I do hope your BitcoinJ continues to be developed into an alternative client. It gives Java devs something to work on, and it’s easier with a simpler foundation that doesn’t have to do everything.”

Satoshi’s final message also adds a sense of passage:

“I had a few other things on my mind (as always). [...] I’ve moved on to other things. It’s in good hands with Gavin and everyone.”

History of Crypto: Bitcoin — Satoshi Nakamoto’s response to the global financial crisis

Nakamoto’s identity remains one of the tech world’s biggest mysteries since no conclusive evidence has been found, which makes the communication with Bitcoin's first adopters a rich source of information about the early days of the cryptocurrency.

Source: Mike Hearn

Various individuals have been speculated to be the original crypto inventor. One of the most controversial cases involved Craig Wright, an Australian computer scientist who claimed to be Nakamoto in 2016. Wright faced a lawsuit by the Crypto Open Patent Alliance (COPA), with U.K. judge James Mellor ruling that he did not create Bitcoin last March.

Satoshi first introduced the world to Bitcoin with the publication of the Bitcoin white paper on Oct. 31, 2008, which was circulated among a mailing list of cryptographers. The paper outlined a method for using a peer-to-peer network to create a system of digital transactions without relying on trust or third-party involvement. Satoshi continued to work on Bitcoin software until 2010, when they handed over control to other developers. Since then, Bitcoin has grown to become a $1.3 trillion asset.

Magazine: Big Questions: Did the NSA create Bitcoin?

Payments firm Block, formerly known as Square, has announced plans to develop a Bitcoin (BTC) mining system in response to challenges faced by mining operators.

In an April 23 blog post, Block said it had completed development of a three-nanometer chip used for BTC mining, which led to the firm announcing a “full Bitcoin mining system.” Block — then Square — CEO Jack Dorsey suggested a collaborative approach to decentralize Bitcoin mining in October 2021.

“We’ve spent a significant amount of time talking to a wide variety of bitcoin miners to identify the challenges faced by mining operators,” said Block. “Building on these insights and pursuant to our goal of supporting mining decentralization, we plan to offer both a standalone mining chip as well as a full mining system of our own design.”

Source: Jack Dorsey

Block completed a prototype design of a five-nanometre BTC mining chip in May 2023, claiming at the time the centralization of chip development in the hands of a few companies was harmful to the ecosystem. The firm called on the mining community to provide additional feedback for the system, asking for comments on challenges it faced in purchasing miners, maintenance, transparency and software issues. 

Related: Jack Dorsey wants to decentralize Bitcoin mining with new investment

Intel announced in 2023 that it planned to end shipping for its Blockscale 1000 Series ASIC (application-specific integrated circuit) mining chips in April as part of cost-cutting measures. Such chips are often used for mining proof-of-work cryptocurrencies, including Bitcoin.

The Bitcoin halving on April 19 cut the block reward for miners from 6.25 BTC to 3.125 BTC. The event will likely shake up the market as miners compete for fewer rewards for the same work until the next halving, expected in another four years.

Magazine: Bitcoin is on a collision course with ‘Net Zero’ promises

Amid surging prices, many crypto projects have seen a rise in fake farm accounts, or “Sybil attacks,” named so after a book about a woman with many personalities. These fake accounts create artificial network activity to claim as many tokens as possible during airdrop events, which have become highly lucrative over the years. 

“We’ve recently taken action by banning approximately 2,000 users whom we suspect were farming Degen,” creators of the Degen memecoin project, which was built on the Farcaster social media protocol, wrote on X. "Taking part in Degen farming, such as coordinated posting or artificial engagement, could lead to bans.”

The Degen airdrop is ongoing until Aug. 1 and will reward users who engage with or create quality content posted on Farcaster social channels. However, it appears that a sizable number of users began posting sub-par content for the sole purpose of earning airdrop points. “Joining organized actions mainly to earn tokens and posting unrelated content in boosted channels" will result in bans, Degen developers wrote.

Degen's warning to Sybil attackers

The memecoin project is far from the first protocol to suffer from Sybil attacks. 

On April 4, self-custody wallet Bitget Wallet said it would deduct airdrop points from users who use “emulators and cloud phones” to create artificial wallet referrals and downloads to farm BWB token rewards. “Upholding fairness and integrity for all participants is paramount to us, and we cannot turn a blind eye to any dishonest behavior that violates the rules of conduct for the event," Bitget Wallet staff wrote. 

The Bitget Wallet airdrop has been ongoing for the past month and is scheduled to end on April 27. Users can earn rewards by referring friends, depositing tokens, or performing decentralized finance (DeFi) swaps through the self-custody wallet. 

Despite identifying the problem, cracking down on Sybil attacks remain difficult. 

"To be certain that we do not inadvertently penalize honest users, we have identified and deducted points only for the top 50 users who boosted their referral points through illicit means," explained Bitget Wallet developers. 

Earlier this year, prominent DeFi developer Banteg also raised an issue with the Ethereum layer-2 protocol Starknet and its airdrop. They claimed to have gone through all Starknet airdrops and “found 1854 people who have either renamed or deleted their account since the activity snapshot.” Banteg also identified an estimated 701,544 addresses that were allegedly linked to repeat or renamed GitHub accounts controlled by airdrop farmers.

Despite such revelation, the airdrop farmers’ addresses were included in the Starknet airdrop anyway. Shortly after its launch, Starknet temporarily surpassed a fully diluted valuation of $20 billion. The airdrop is ongoing until June. 

In a report by Gamic HQ last August, researchers explained that to deploy a Sybil attack, airdrop farmers “leverage scripts or bots to create a massive number of fake accounts on a targeted platform” that proceed to automate tasks such as “generating random usernames and emails, filling out registration forms, and even verifying accounts with CAPTCHAs."

Gamic HQ researchers further wrote that Sybil attacks “amass a large portion of the airdropped tokens, leaving less for genuine users who might be more interested in using and supporting the project long-term.” As a result, a project's reputation is damaged, its token supply inflates, and price manipulation may occur as a result of excessive dumping by airdrop farmers after the event is over. 

However, the firm also noticed several positives as a result of the attacks. “The rise of Sybil attacks has pushed blockchain projects to develop more sophisticated methods for verifying user identities and ensuring fair airdrop distribution,” they claimed. “This ongoing battle will hopefully lead to a more robust and secure blockchain ecosystem in the long run.”

Related: Blockchain data-availability protocol Avail announces 600M token airdrop

Ether (ETH) experienced a significant drop of 14.8% between April 13 and April 14 and has since been trading below $3,300. Each time the price of ETH tested the $3,000 level, buyers intervened, strengthening the support. However, some traders remain concerned that ETH might not reclaim $3,500 without a stronger narrative.

Source: DeFiSurfer808

Analyst DeFiSurfer808 suggests that Ether's price weakness compared to Bitcoin (BTC) stems from a lack of fresh fundamentals, as the Ethereum native token lacks "some new narrative and flows."

Ethereum deals with constant regulatory uncertainty

Over the past two months, Ether underperformed Bitcoin by 16%, a trend that intensified on April 9 after Jan van Eck, the chief investment officer of VanEck investment firm, mentioned that U.S. requests for a spot Ether ETF might be rejected in May. Van Eck’s comments follow a period of inaction by the U.S. SEC concerning seven pending applications for spot Ether ETFs, as reported by Cointelegraph.

Even if Ether is classified as a non-security asset, ongoing disputes between regulators and exchanges dampen investors’ enthusiasm for the broader Ethereum ecosystem, including layer-2 solutions, decentralized finance (DeFi), and nonfungible token (NFT) marketplaces.

On April 11, Uniswap Labs announced that it was "ready to fight" after receiving a potential enforcement notice from the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). Although Uniswap Labs did not disclose the precise details of the Wells notice, it asserted in a blog post that UNI was not a security and emphasized that its platform does not meet U.S. legal definitions of a securities exchange or broker.

Meanwhile, the regulatory landscape appears to be shifting. Michael Welsh and Joseph Watkins, lead SEC attorneys in the lawsuit against crypto platform DEBT Box, resigned on April 22 after a Bloomberg report revealed findings of "gross abuse" of power in the case. In March, federal Judge Robert J. Shelby penalized the SEC for making false statements and misrepresentations in its lawsuit.

Additionally, the Blockchain Association and the Crypto Freedom Alliance of Texas have initiated a lawsuit against the SEC in the Northern District of Texas. They are challenging the regulator's broad interpretation of the term "dealer" within the Securities Exchange Act of 1934, claiming that this expansion creates a vague and burdensome regulatory landscape for digital asset businesses.

Related: Ripple contests $2B SEC fine, says penalty shouldn’t exceed $10M

Ether’s on-chain and derivatives data tell a different story

On April 23, Ether's price rose above $3,200, supported by increased demand for Ethereum decentralized applications (DApps). According to DefiLlama, the network’s smart contract deposits, measured by the total value locked (TVL), reached their highest level since July 2022 at 30.2 million ETH on April 22, marking an 8% increase from the previous month.

Top Ethereum DApps by TVL, USD. Source: DefiLlama

Highlights of Ethereum's TVL growth include innovative platforms such as EigenLayer staking solution, the decentralized exchange Uniswap, automated yield provider Pendle, and Renzo, a liquid staking application. In contrast, the Tron blockchain's TVL saw a 5% decrease in TRX (TRX) terms over the past 30 days, with its largest DeFi application, JustLend, experiencing an 11% reduction in deposits.

To understand if professional traders flipped bearish after Ether’s price underperformance, one should use the ETH options 25% delta skew as a proxy. A skew metric rising above 7% indicates anticipations of a price drop, whereas a negative 7% skew typically reflects bullish sentiment.

Ether 60-day options 25% delta skew. Source: Laevitas

The Ether options skew metric showed an increase between April 9 and April 18, suggesting that traders were becoming less risk-averse. However, this trend reversed on April 19 as ETH traded below $3,000. Current data reveal a balanced dynamic between call (buy) and put (sell) options, indicating a neutral market sentiment.

On-chain metrics for Ethereum and ETH derivatives demonstrate resilience, even though Ether’s price has recently struggled to maintain the $3,000 support level. Nevertheless, it seems premature to anticipate a bull run surpassing $3,500, given the subdued investor enthusiasm regarding the prospects for a U.S. spot Ethereum ETF approval.

This article does not contain investment advice or recommendations. Every investment and trading move involves risk, and readers should conduct their own research when making a decision.

Fidelity’s Bitcoin exchange-traded fund (ETF) has achieved a new record as the largest single investment in a Bitcoin fund, attracting $40 million from two traditional United States financial advisers. 

According to Bloomberg analyst Eric Balchunas, financial advisers Legacy Wealth Management and United Capital Management of Kansas have each recently invested $20 million in shares of the Fidelity Wise Origin Bitcoin Fund (FBTC), joining the fund’s top shareholders.

Legacy Wealth Management oversees more than $359 million in assets under management, while United Capital Management of Kansas manages over $436 million. The figures are part of recent 13F form filings submitted by asset managers to the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) for the first quarter of 2024.

Source: Eric Balchunas

According to data from investment research firm Fintel, Bitcoin (BTC) represents 6% and 5% of the funds’ portfolios, respectively.

Bloomberg’s Balchunas believes the figures indicate a growing adoption among traditional investors. “This is as Boomer as it gets,” he noted on X in reference to United Capital Management of Kansas.

“Likely a wonderful sight for those hoping to see long-term adoption and an absolute nightmare for the RIA Skeptics Branch of the Underwhelmers Club,” he added.

However, the recent disclosures have prompted some to express concerns regarding the limited mainstream participation in BTC ETFs.

Jim Bianco, founder of macro research firm Bianco Research, described the first-quarter allocation data as a “disappointment.” “Unrealized gains are shrinking fast,” he added, referring to ETF investor gains versus current Bitcoin prices.

Fidelity’s BTC fund is the second-largest Bitcoin ETF in terms of assets under management, with over $10 billion at the time of writing, just behind BlackRock's iShares Bitcoin Trust (IBIT), which holds more than $18 billion.

Despite newcomers and growing adoption among traditional investors, Bitcoin ETFs are experiencing a slowdown in demand. CryptoQuant CEO Ki Young Ju noted on X that the demand for BTC funds has stagnated since its peak in March.

On April 15, Bitcoin ETFs experienced net outflows of $36.7 million. According to Farside Investors, only Grayscale and BlackRock recorded positive flows on April 12 and April 15, while all other funds saw outflows.

Magazine: Get Bitcoin or die tryin’: Why hip hop stars love crypto

Bitcoin (BTC) has just completed its fourth halving, and market participants are waiting for its impact. However, the value of BTC lies in its unique “monetary properties.”

That is one of the findings by Joe Burnett, a researcher at Unchained, a Bitcoin financial services company that provides individuals and businesses with value-collaborative custody for their BTC.

Burnett recently published research findings revealing that Bitcoin is the best savings tool that can “stop the free market from inevitably melting your wealth.”

He believes Bitcoin is a superior asset that allows for the transfer of “modern wealth through time without a leak.”

In an interview with Cointelegraph, Burnett revealed his reasons for being a vocal Bitcoin bull and why it pays to invest in BTC for the longer term.

Cointelegraph (CT): There’s been a ton of talk in crypto circles about the impact of halving, but for the average non-crypto-centric person, this probably sounds garble. What’s the most important thing you think retail investors should know about the Bitcoin halving?

Joe Burnett (JB): At block 840,000, the Bitcoin block subsidy drops from 6.25 to 3.125 BTC, programmatically. No government, no company, and no group of people can alter Bitcoin’s supply schedule. If you change the rules, you simply fork off and create another network. Bitcoin is the best money because it has the best monetary properties (portable, durable, divisible, fungible), and it has the most credibly scarce supply limit.

Monetary properties of different assets. Source: Unchained

The halving is just another block in the chain that confirms a predictable, immutable, and transparent monetary policy.

CT: The ETFs have been credited with putting some oomph behind Bitcoin price, but at some point, ETF holders are bound to rebalance or become sellers, impacting the direction of Bitcoin price. Given Unchained’s focus, what type of convos are you having with investors about Bitcoin’s price volatility?

JB: Unchained is designed to build financial services for long-term Bitcoin holders. When it comes to Bitcoin, it’s best not to hold it for short periods of time. Instead, allocate capital that you intend to save for years to Bitcoin. This enables you to ignore the short-term volatility and focus entirely on the long-term capital appreciation.

CT: I know a lot of analysts and researchers don’t like to talk about price, but hey, it’s what the people want to know. Data shows that Bitcoin price goes parabolic ahead of the halving, yet we are more than 10% down from the all-time high here. What do you think of the left-translated cycle theory, and why did the BTC price sell-off sharply ahead of the halving?

JB: This is actually the first cycle where Bitcoin made a new all-time high before a halving.

BTC/USD daily chart. Source: TradingView

The spot Bitcoin ETFs may have played a critical role in the price increase before the halving, but it seems likely that the approximately 18 months after the halving will be positive as well. In my opinion, the BTC price has been selling off with traditional markets. The S&P 500 is also down.

S&P 500 performance since 2012. Source: Unchained

Bitcoin is a gauge for global liquidity. If macro conditions are tightening, Bitcoin will suffer. If conditions are easing, Bitcoin will benefit. In the long run, more dollars will be created, and Bitcoin is the fastest horse.

CT: Why are you such a Bitcoin bull? Recently, you said investors are seeing their wealth “melt away” for various reasons.

JB: Any wealth that humanity stores outside of Bitcoin can be debased. If the world holds $15 trillion dollars worth of wealth in gold, entrepreneurs will figure out how to mine more gold. If the world holds $300 trillion dollars worth of wealth in real estate, entrepreneurs will figure out how to build more houses.

Lumber production since 1975. Source: Unchained.

Bitcoin is the one asset with the most superior monetary properties and does not melt, no matter how much wealth is stored in Bitcoin. We have not, until now, had an adequate asset to transfer our modern wealth through time without a leak.

Related: Bitcoin Bollinger Bands hit level that saw BTC price squeeze past $50K

CT: What is the biggest psychological hurdle that potential investors at Unchained need to overcome or be convinced of before making an allocation to Bitcoin?

JB: Individuals and enterprises considering saving Bitcoin in their treasury should note that Bitcoin is a long-term saving, not a short-term get-rich-quick scheme. If you hold Bitcoin, you should be prepared to hold it for multiple years and expect extreme volatility.

CT: The halving is over, and Bitcoin is up 58% this year. Do you think it’s too late for investors to position in BTC?

JB: If the halving made you think about Bitcoin again and you’ve started to accumulate some, make sure you’re holding it in the most secure way possible. Collaborative custody is the best way to hold Bitcoin because it enables you to hold it without a single point of failure. Don’t trust Mt. Gox, FTX, Coinbase, or BlackRock with all of your Bitcoin. A single institution should not be able to lose your coins. Unchained fixes this!

This article does not contain investment advice or recommendations. Every investment and trading move involves risk, and readers should conduct their own research when making a decision.

The United States Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) has postponed a potential decision of an application for a spot Ether (ETH) exchange-traded fund (ETF) from Franklin Templeton.

In an April 23 notice, the SEC said it had designated a longer period to approve or disapprove a proposed rule change allowing the Cboe BZX Exchange to list and trade shares of the Franklin Ethereum Trust. The commission will have until June 11 to reassess its decision on the spot ETH ETF — an additional 45 days.

Many analysts have speculated that the SEC will reach a final decision on whether to approve or deny a spot Ether ETF for listing and trading on U.S. exchanges in May, during deadlines for applications from several asset managers. In March, Bloomberg ETF analyst James Seyffart suggested that the current round of Ether ETF applications would “ultimately be denied.”

Related: Ether ETFs may be delayed, as institutions are unprepared — Web3 exec

In January, the SEC began allowing U.S. exchanges to list and trade shares of spot Bitcoin (BTC) ETFs — a landmark decision that will likely continue to affect how financial institutions handle cryptocurrencies. Though some speculated at the time that the commission was likely to follow suit with a spot ETH ETF, reports have suggested that it may be attempting to classify Ether as a security.

Franklin Templeton’s spot BTC ETF was in the first round of approvals by the SEC. As of December 2020, the firm reported it had more than $1.5 trillion in assets under management.

Magazine: Get Bitcoin or die tryin’: Why hip hop stars love crypto

Bitcoin's (BTC) price has finally outperformed Tesla's (TSLA) stock over the past five years in percentage terms. The electronic vehicle manufacturer has also missed out on a potential $1.27 billion in profit after selling a big chunk of its BTC holdings in 2022.

BTC overtakes TSLA in long-term gains

Over the past five years, Bitcoin's price has risen over 1,180%, while Tesla's stock price has risen over 806%, according to TradingView data.

BTC&TSLA, 5-year chart. Source: TradingView

Looking at smaller time horizons, Bitcoin’s returns have outperformed TSLA over the past year, in particular. Bitcoin rose 139% while Tesla fell over 11% over the past 12 months, while year-to-date BTC is up 49% while Tesla’s stock price is down 42%.

BTC&TSLA, YTD-year chart. Source: TradingView

Such a stellar year so far for BTC has made it the world’s ninth-largest asset with a $1.3 trillion market capitalization, larger than Meta Platforms, Berkshire Hathway, Visa, or JPMorgan Chase.

In comparison, Tesla is the world’s 21st largest asset, with a $455 billion market capitalization, according to Companiesmarketcap.

World’s 10 largest assets by market capitalization. Source: Companiesmarketcap

Tesla was among the first publicly traded companies to invest in Bitcoin back in February 2021, when the company bought over $1.5 billion worth of BTC, around the $36,000 mark.

However, Tesla sold around 10% of its holdings in March 2021. Then, the company sold approximately 75% of its Bitcoin reserves in the second quarter of 2022.

Had Tesla not sold, it would have made over $1.27 billion in profit, up over 84% on its initial investment, at current price levels.

Tesla BTC Balance. Source: Arkham Intelligence

Tesla currently holds 11,509 BTC worth over $766 million with Coinbase Prime Custody, according to Arkham Intelligence.

Related: Bitcoin price breaks above $66K — Has BTC flipped bullish again?

Bitcoin ETFs are the main reason why BTC is winning

The approval of the ten United States spot Bitcoin exchange-traded funds (ETFs) was the main reason behind BTC price rising 60% so far this year, according to Andrey Stoychev, the head of prime brokerage at Nexo. He told Cointelegraph:

“U.S. spot Bitcoin ETFs’ role in elevating Bitcoin to a genuine asset class has been invaluable, with pleasing trading volumes and capital flows since launch.”

The ten Bitcoin ETFs amassed over 835,000 BTC in cumulative on-chain holdings, worth over $55.1 billion, according to Dune.

Related: New Bitcoin whales, ETFs are up only 1.6% in unrealized profit — Is the BTC bottom in?

This article does not contain investment advice or recommendations. Every investment and trading move involves risk, and readers should conduct their own research when making a decision.

USDT-issuer Tether says it will freeze addresses linked to sanctioned entities following a report that Venezuela’s state-run oil company was using the stablecoin to bypass sanctions.

A spokesperson from Tether told Cointelegraph that the company remains committed to stopping payments linked to Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC) sanctioned entities:

"Tether respects the OFAC SDN list and is committed to working to ensure sanction addresses are frozen promptly."

This comes after an exclusive report from Reuters claimed that Venezuela’s state-run oil company, PDVSA, has been using cryptocurrencies to facilitate its crude oil and fuel exports. The country is facing new oil sanctions reimposed by the United States.

According to the report, the U.S. Treasury Department requires PDVSA customers and providers to wind down transactions by May 31 due to Venezuela’s failure to implement electoral reforms.

Related: Tether’s USDT stablecoin goes live on TON blockchain

The report, which cited anonymous sources, says the reimposed sanctions will make it harder for Venezuela to increase its oil product and export because companies will require U.S. authorizations to do business with the South American nation.

The sources claim that PDVSA has been moving its oil sales to Tether (USDT) as a mitigating move to avoid funds being frozen in foreign bank accounts as new sanctions take effect.

Reports in 2023 linked cryptocurrency payments to a corruption scandal at PDVSA involving the discovery of $21 billion of unaccounted receivables for oil exports.

Related: Stablecoin competition crucial for regulatory engagement — Tether CEO

Reuters’ sources also claim that PDVSA has reworked its spot oil deals in 2024 to a contract model that requires prepayment for exported cargo in USDT. The report also suggests that the Venezuelan state-run oil firm requires new customers looking to conduct oil transactions to hold cryptocurrency in a digital wallet.

It’s understood that companies that looked to resume business with PDVSA following a six-month licensing approval from the U.S. in October 2023 had to resort to intermediaries to carry out the cryptocurrency payment requirements.

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The saga of El Salvador’s state-operated Bitcoin (BTC) wallet, Chivo, continues to unfold as hackers expose more sensitive information related to the wallet.

The hacker group known as CiberInteligenciaSV released part of the source code on the black hat hacking crime forum BreachForums on April 23.

“This time I bring you the code that is inside the Bitcoin Chivo Wallet ATMs in El Salvador, remember that it is a government wallet, and as you know, we do not sell, we publish everything for free for you,” the hacker group wrote.

Source: BreachForums

The move follows a series of Chivo hack-related events, including the public exposure of personal data of 5.1 million Salvadorans — or almost the entire adult population of the country — which was reported in early April.

Local cybersecurity project VenariX took to X on April 22 to warn the public about the upcoming leak. It referred to CiberInteligenciaSV’s Telegram channel, which posted about plans to release the source code.

“Tonight we will publish part of the source code and VPN access that belongs to Chivo Wallet, for free as always, unless one of you nosy government people wants to talk,” CiberInteligenciaSV’s Telegram post reads.

CiberInteligenciaSV also published the file Codigo.rar, which includes a compilation of code and VPN credentials from the Chivo Wallet ATM network.

In September 2021, El Salvador became the first country in the world to adopt Bitcoin as legal tender, with the government promoting Chivo as the official BTC wallet for citizens. The platform allows users to buy and sell Bitcoin, as well as store and withdraw BTC from ATMs.

Related: El Salvador’s newest Hilton hotel to tap into tokenized debt on Bitcoin

The Chivo wallet had a bumpy start, with users subsequently reporting multiple bugs and technical glitches.

Despite reports of a personal data hack on Chivo surfacing in early April, the Salvadoran government has not addressed the issue.

According to industry reports, El Salvador authorities have not released any official statement related to the hack, causing more confusion about the situation.

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When crypto users lose their private keys or get scammed out of their coins by a con artist, they usually cannot recover their funds. In most cases, their crypto is lost forever. But according to a father and son team that operates out of New Hampshire, all hope is not lost. They claim to have recovered more than $6 million worth of lost crypto throughout their careers.

Chris and Charles Brooks run Crypto Asset Recovery, a service that offers to help crypto users recover lost wallets. They also provide scam-tracking for victims of crypto theft.

Charles and Chris Brooks. Source: Crypto Asset Recovery homepage

In a conversation with Cointelegraph, Chris Brooks, the father of co-founder Charles Brooks, said that about 70% of the duo’s clients come to them after losing their Bitcoin (BTC) wallet password. These users sometimes have no seed word backups, so if they lose their password, their wallets are difficult to recover without the help of a specialist.

 “The BIP39 recovery seed [generated by most modern wallets], was only proposed in 2013 and it didn’t start getting wide adoption until 2015, and so, for folks who have older wallets, that’s not even an option for them,” he stated. Even if a wallet is fairly new, there is still a “handful of wallets where you have to go searching for your seed words if you want to back that up.”

In these cases, if a user forgets their password, they lose access to their wallet since they don’t have any seed word backups they can use to restore it. Even so, Chris claimed that most of these wallets can still be recovered using software that guesses the password through brute force.

Even if a user has a seed word backup, they may have made a mistake when copying it down. For example, they may have left one word out, or they may be getting an error when they attempt to enter the words. Chris said he could often recover these wallets as well by brute-forcing the missing word or the correct order of words.

Charles Brooks said he recently helped a “Casascius coin” collector recover his lost wallet key. A Casascius coin is a physical coin that carries a Bitcoin private key inside of a film on its back side. The private key is only 26 to 36 characters long instead of the usual 51 characters. On the front side of the coin is the first eight characters of the Bitcoin address that corresponds to its key. According to Charles, the collector had accidentally ripped part of the coin’s film, causing “5 or 6 characters” to become illegible. Using the remaining characters and the snippet of the Bitcoin address from the front of the coin, Charles was able to use software to guess the missing characters to the private key.

Related: Crypto’s Indiana Jones? Coinbase exec helps recover $322K of once-lost crypto

The duo recently launched a scam tracking service for users who have their crypto stolen by con artists. In a case where a client was scammed, “[W]e will take the transaction hashes of [the victim] sending funds to the scammer, [and] we will follow those funds into the scammer’s wallet,” Charles stated. After establishing the scammer’s address or “address cluster,” they will attempt to associate it “with a known entity, which is more often than not an exchange.” Once this entity is known, they will “compile a report and help the client report the case to law enforcement.”

In contrast to crypto lost from a forgotten password, Charles cautioned that scammed funds are usually gone forever. The only sliver of a hope of recovering them is by involving police and the courts, he explained:

“We don’t see much likelihood in recovery of scam cases. Once the funds are in somebody else’s wallet, [...] you need to go hunt them down with police and gain access to their Ledger, or whatever is holding it, so we tell [clients] that there is a very low likelihood of recovery.”

Even so, some crypto users may benefit from being able to trace stolen funds and provide a report to the police, he claimed. Charles stated that law enforcement is working on a few cases that the team has reported, but so far, none of these cases has concluded.

The duo claimed that they’ve recovered $6 million in crypto lost through forgotten passwords, missing seed words, and other issues. “We’ve been pretty successful in recovering lost wallets,” Charlie stated. “We have right around a 45% or 46% success rate when somebody needs help with a cracked password, and so over time that has built up.”

Crypto users have lost billions of dollars from forgetting passwords and losing seed words over the years. According to an estimate from Chananalysis, over 20% of the Bitcoin supply is in wallets that are no longer under the control of any person.

The Blockchain Association (BA) and the Crypto Freedom Alliance of Texas (CFAT) revealed a new lawsuit against the United States Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) in the Northern District of Texas, according to a statement. 

On April 23, the BA announced the lawsuit in a move to challenge the SEC’s recent expansion of the “Dealer Rule,” which the industry groups argue stifles innovation in the U.S. digital asset market.

The BA and CFAT argue that the SEC overstepped its authority by implementing a broad interpretation of the term “dealer” within the Securities Exchange Act of 1934.

In February the SEC adopted new rules which redefine “dealer” and “government securities dealer” and therefore require more crypto market participants to register, join a self-regulatory organization and comply with federal securities laws. 

This expansion, the lawsuit claims, creates a vague and burdensome regulatory environment for businesses involved in digital asset trading.

The lawsuit alleges that the SEC failed to adequately address public concerns raised during a limited comment period and neglected to assess the potential negative impacts of the rule.

Kristin Smith, the CEO of the Blockchain Association, said this the latest example of the SEC’s “blatant attempts to unlawfully regulate outside its authority.”

“The Dealer Rule advances the SEC’s anti-digital asset crusade and unlawfully redefines the boundaries of its statutory authority granted to it by Congress, threatening to drive U.S. companies offshore and incite fear in American innovators.”

Related: SEC’s Hester Peirce wants more decentralization in the financial system

The lawsuit seeks a court order to overturn the Dealer Rule expansion based on violations of the Administrative Procedure Act (APA). The APA ensures fair and transparent rulemaking by requiring agencies to consider public feedback and provide clear guidelines.

Smith said that they are seeking “declaratory judgment and injunctive relief” against the regulators to overturn the expansion of the rule and ultimately to prohibit its use against the industry “before more harm can be done by this rabid regulator.”

The BA and CFAT represent a significant portion of the cryptocurrency industry, including leading investors, companies, and projects. Overall, their work advocates for a national policy framework within the U.S. that aims to foster local innovation and responsible development within the digital asset space.

Magazine: Altseason on the horizon, SEC targets Uniswap, and BTC halving news: Hodler’s Digest, April 7-13