The global cryptocurrency market cap now stands at $2.50T, down by -5.20% over the last day, according to CoinMarketCap data.

Bitcoin (BTC) has been trading between $64,493 and $66,642 over the past 24 hours. As of 09:30 AM (UTC) today, BTC is trading at $66,449, up by 0.47%.

Most major cryptocurrencies by market cap are trading mixed. Market outperformers include XVG, ENA, and COS, up by 53%, 52%, and 25%, respectively.

Top stories of the day:

BNB Beacon Chain Mainnet Set for First Sunset Upgrade on 15th April 2024

Quantitative Hedge-Fund Investors Find Profit in Bitcoin's Volatility

Bitcoin's Rise Linked to Global Currency Devaluations, Says Cathie Wood 

Global Central Banks Collaborate on Tokenization Project Agorá 

Solana (SOL) Price Rises Backed by Meme Coin Recovery and Crypto Market Dominance 

Stablecoin Supply Hits Record High, Indicating Continued Capital Flow Into Crypto Market 

Bitcoin Miners' Revenue Hits Historic High in March 

ETH/BTC Exchange Rate Continues to Decline 

US Bitcoin Spot ETFs Witness Net Inflows of $40 Million 

Bitcoin Spot ETF ARKB Sees Second Consecutive Day of Net Outflows
 

Market movers:

ETH: $3331.75 (-0.25%)

BNB: $565.7 (+0.91%)

SOL: $189.98 (+4.19%)

XRP: $0.5902 (-0.61%)

DOGE: $0.18591 (+0.59%)

ADA: $0.5901 (+0.34%)

AVAX: $47.93 (+0.88%)

SHIB: $0.0000273 (+2.98%)

DOT: $8.703 (+0.65%)

BCH: $606.3 (-0.18%)

Top gainers on Binance:

XVG/USDT (+53%)

ENA/USDT (+52%)

COS/USDT (+25%)

According to Bloomberg, Irina Dilkinska, the legal and compliance head for the fraudulent cryptocurrency OneCoin, has been sentenced to four years in prison for her involvement in a $4 billion fraud scheme. This makes her the latest participant in the scam to face jail time. Dilkinska was sentenced on Wednesday by a US District Judge after being extradited to the US from her native Bulgaria last year.

From 2014 to 2019, Dilkinska assisted US-based lawyer Mark Scott in laundering OneCoin proceeds, as per the prosecutors. Scott, a former OneCoin member, was also implicated in the scheme. OneCoin operated as a large-scale international Ponzi scheme, offering commissions to members globally for recruiting others to purchase OneCoin packages, as stated by the government.

The alleged mastermind behind the fraud, Ruja Ignatova, also known as the 'Cryptoqueen', vanished in 2017 as her organization came under scrutiny. She is currently on the FBI's list of most wanted criminals.

According to Foresight News, Sanctum, a liquidity staking protocol in the Solana ecosystem, has successfully raised $6.1 million in a seed extension round. The funding round was led by Dragonfly, with participation from Solana Ventures, CMS Holdings, DeFiance Capital, Genblock Capital, Jump Capital, and Marin Digital Ventures.

Sanctum has announced plans to focus on two products in 2024: Sanctum LSTs and Infinity. Infinity is designed for liquidity collateralization on Solana. Users can deposit SOL or other LSTs into Infinity to earn cumulative staking rewards.

According to CryptoPotato, digital asset investment products saw a positive shift in sentiment in the last week of March, with inflows reaching $862 million. This nearly recovers from the previous week’s record outflows of $931 million. Despite this rebound, ETF activity appears to be slowing down, with the daily trading turnover now at $5.4 billion, a 36% decline from its peak three weeks ago. However, this figure is still significantly higher than the 2023 average of $347 million, indicating a moderation in the initial market frenzy.

Bitcoin led the pack with inflows of $865 million last week, according to CoinShares’ Digital Asset Fund Flows Weekly Report. This was largely driven by renewed interest from new ETF issuers in the US, contributing $1.8 billion in inflows. This was offset by Grayscale’s outflows of $967 million. Short-bitcoin products saw outflows for the second consecutive week, totaling $2 million. Ethereum continued its negative streak with its fourth consecutive week of outflows, amounting to $19 million. This trend is often observed following network upgrades, suggesting investor caution.

Altcoins experienced inflows totaling $18.3 million last week, with Solana leading with $6.1 million in inflows. Other altcoins seeing inflows included Filecoin, Polkadot, and Chainlink, with inflows of $3.9 million, $2.4 million, and $1.9 million, respectively. Investment products for Cardano, XRP, and Litecoin also noted modest inflows of $1.1 million, $0.3 million, and $0.2 million, respectively.

With respect to regions, the divergence persists. The US experienced inflows of $897 million. Switzerland recorded the highest weekly outflows of $15.6 million, followed by Germany with $10.5 million and Sweden with $2.4 million. Europe and Canada collectively witnessed outflows of $49 million over the past week, bringing its year-to-date outflows to $785 million. Meanwhile, Brazil and Australia saw inflows of $2.9 million and $1.4 million respectively.

According to BlockBeats, on April 4th, Singapore authorities issued a license to cryptocurrency market maker GSR Markets. The firm is among the first to receive a major payment institution license from the Monetary Authority of Singapore. This license will permit the company to conduct spot over-the-counter trading and market-making services within the regulatory framework of Singapore.

The granting of this license to GSR Markets signifies a significant step in the integration of cryptocurrency into the mainstream financial system of Singapore. It also highlights the country's progressive stance towards digital currencies and their potential to revolutionize the financial sector. The license will enable GSR Markets to operate within the legal boundaries set by the Monetary Authority of Singapore, ensuring compliance with all necessary financial regulations.

This move by the Singapore authorities is expected to encourage more cryptocurrency firms to seek regulatory approval, thereby promoting transparency and trust in the digital currency market. It also sets a precedent for other countries to potentially follow, as the global financial landscape continues to evolve with the rise of digital currencies.

According to Foresight News, Circle, a blockchain-based financial services company, has issued an additional 55 million USDC on the Ethereum network. The transaction was recorded at 12:21 Beijing time, as per data from Whale Alert, a blockchain tracker and analytics system. This move signifies a further expansion of the USDC supply on the Ethereum blockchain. USDC is a stablecoin that is pegged to the US dollar, providing a stable value in the volatile crypto market. The issuance of more USDC tokens indicates a growing demand for stablecoins in the digital currency market. However, the exact reason for this specific issuance by Circle has not been disclosed.

The crypto market is abuzz with speculation as the US government recently moved significantly regarding seized Bitcoin (BTC) linked to the infamous Silk Road dark web marketplace. This development comes at a critical time for the Bitcoin price, which has struggled to maintain its position above the $70,000 threshold after hitting its current all-time high (ATH) of $73,700 on March 14. 

As the largest cryptocurrency experiences yet another round of price correction, the movement of these seized funds has triggered intense speculation about a potential sell-off by the US government.

Seized Silk Road BTC On The Move

According to on-chain data, a wallet linked to the US government recently transferred 30,175 Bitcoin, seized from the Silk Road dark web marketplace. 

This transfer follows the earlier seizure of over 50,000 Bitcoin from James Zhong, who illegally obtained the cryptocurrency from the Silk Road in 2012. The US Department of Justice’s (DOJ) seizure of these funds marked the largest cryptocurrency seizure in its history.

The 1-D chart shows BTC’s price drop on Tuesday. Source: BTCUSD on TradingView.com

This is not the first instance of the US government moving Bitcoin obtained from criminal cases. In March 2022, the government sold 9,800 Bitcoin, with plans to sell an additional 41,500 BTC. However, the recent transfer of the 30,175 BTC from Silk Road-related addresses has raised questions about the fate of these funds and their potential impact on the Bitcoin price correction. 

Benjamin Skew, an on-chain data expert, took to social media to offer insights into the situation. Skew clarified that although there is chaos surrounding the Silk Road Bitcoin being sent to Coinbase for sale, a closer examination reveals that the main funds were transferred to a newly created wallet that remains inactive. 

However, Skew stated that 2,000 BTC of the total amount was transferred to the alleged Coinbase wallet for undisclosed purposes, while the rest was sent to a newly created wallet. 

200EMA Support Crucial For The Bitcoin Price

The Bitcoin price is currently witnessing a lack of bullish momentum as the cryptocurrency continues to face resistance in consolidating above the crucial $70,000 threshold. However, there is still hope on the horizon. 

Crypto analyst Ali Martinez highlights the importance of the 200-epimetric moving average (EMA) on the 4-hour chart of BTC. According to Martinez, this indicator has acted as formidable support since early February and continues to play a crucial role in preventing further downward movement. 

The focus on the 200EMA stems from its potential to either catalyze a rebound or trigger more losses for Bitcoin. Martinez stated that if the 200EMA continues to hold as strong support, it signifies a significant probability of a price rebound. This scenario would provide renewed bullish momentum and potentially propel Bitcoin’s price above the $70,000 mark. 

However, if the 200EMA is broken, as it was in mid-January, as seen in the chart below, the analyst suggests that this could expose the Bitcoin price to further downward pressure and potentially lead to further losses.

BTC’s 200EMA support. Source: Ali Martinez on X

Bitcoin (BTC) is trading at $65,390, continuing its recent price correction. Over the past 24 hours, BTC has experienced a 5% decline; over the past seven days, it has seen a significant drop of over 6%. 

The market closely monitors whether the current key support level can sustain further price drops or if a potential bounce will occur before reaching that point. The outcome of these scenarios remains uncertain. 

Featured image from Shutterstock, chart from TradingView.com 

Disclaimer: The article is provided for educational purposes only. It does not represent the opinions of NewsBTC on whether to buy, sell or hold any investments and naturally investing carries risks. You are advised to conduct your own research before making any investment decisions. Use information provided on this website entirely at your own risk.

Source: NewsBTC.com

The post Bitcoin Price Plummets As US Government Transfers $2B In Seized Silk Road BTC, Coincidence? appeared first on Crypto Breaking News.

ENA, the governance token of the high-yield protocol Ethena, has been successfully launched on major cryptocurrency exchanges, immediately showing a positive performance of +90%.

The token launch was accompanied by an airdrop to the platform’s first users with a total of 750 million ENA distributed to USDe holders, fueling the hype of an airdrop season that seems to never end since the beginning of January 2024.

April promises to be a month full of new beginnings in the crypto world: below we see who will be the next protagonists of the market.

Great performance of Ethena Protocol’s ENA token on its market debut

Ethena, a yield platform based on the synthetic dollar USDe, celebrated today the launch of its governance token ENA which was successfully launched on major cryptocurrency exchanges such as Binance, Bybit, and HTX.

We remind you that Ethena represents an innovative protocol that generates high yields in DeFi by leveraging Ethereum staking and advanced hedging strategies.

At the time of writing the article, the prestigious cryptographic resource ENA is trading at a price of 0.59 dollars, marking an increase of 90% compared to the initial starting value.

The market capitalization is equal to 840 million dollars, but it could easily reach the billion mark as early as today, while volumes are around 760 million dollars in just 3 hours of trading.

The debut of ENA was accompanied by an airdrop, previously announced by Ethena Labs, which saw the distribution of a value equivalent to 450 million dollars to the community.

A total of 750 million ENA tokens, equivalent to 5% of the total crypto supply, have been allocated to all USDe holders who have contributed to maximizing the liquidity of the platform up to now.

You can check your eligibility at the following link.

The claim page for $ENA is now live:https://t.co/inUyUBQrzL

Please ensure you are using only this link and avoiding links posted anywhere else

This is the only claim link associated with @ethena_labs

— Ethena Labs (@ethena_labs) April 2, 2024

Most likely, Ethena’s success as a protocol that was able to quickly gather around 1.3 billion dollars is due precisely to the hype of an airdrop that was expected to be very appealing to the world of farmers.

Now the project is already thinking about the second phase of distribution, announced last week through a blog post. The short-term goal is to push for maximum use of the protocol and bring ENA to a record token price of 1 dollar.

As the excitement of decentralized finance enthusiasts for Ethena grows, we would like to point out that the platform’s strategy to generate yield for its users is not without risks.

Indeed, choosing to pair liquid Ethereum staking tokens with perpetual future short positions on ether could lead to the collapse of the ecosystem itself (with a USDe depeg) if ETH were to experience a significant drawdown.

If Ethena’s strategy is delta neutral, why aren’t hedge funds already doing it?

If HFs put much capital into doing it, yield should go down instead of being at 20+%

Either HFs know something about the strategy’s risk that we don’t, or our market is highly inefficient

— Larry Engineer (@larry0x) April 2, 2024

The next tokens to be released: April looks promising with lots of surprises

After the launch of ENA, the token of the innovative Ethena protocol, the month of April is preparing to give us many more surprises by inaugurating a multitude of new cryptocurrencies with an airdrop parallel to different communities.

First of all, we cannot fail to mention the long-awaited launch of the W token by Wormhole, which will make its debut on the main crypto exchanges tomorrow, Wednesday 3 April at 11:30 UTC.

W could soon establish itself as the main token of interoperability in the market, with an expected capitalization exceeding one billion dollars just a few minutes after launch.

W

Wormhole Wednesday

3-April-2024

11:30AM UTC pic.twitter.com/CjdmT1i8PE

— Wormhole (@wormhole) March 28, 2024

Even NIBI, the utility token of the Nibi Chain network, is waiting for the completion of an airdrop scheduled for April 7th, where different categories of testnet users will be able to claim their allocated share based on the role played in the community.

However, NIBI, unlike the W and ENA tokens, has already been listed on the markets before the airdrop started, and already boasts a market capitalization of 71 million dollars.

Your guide to claiming Testnet rewards begins here,
and the X Airdrop Claims are just on the horizon!

https://t.co/xHdTwDk0Zx

Check out this detailed breakdown of the campaign here. This post includes the raw dataset snapshots. https://t.co/nbrlmlEdeW pic.twitter.com/0OOoSOZxf7

— Nibiru Chain (@NibiruChain) April 1, 2024

On the horizon we then find a long list of possible token launches, with related airdrops, that could debut right in the month of April.

Among the most interesting names we definitely see the presence of EIGEN, token of the restaking protocol Eigenlayer worth 11.9 billion dollars.

After the recent launch of Etherfi, now could be the ideal time to start trading your own crypto, even for its cousin Eigenlayer.

Next, we see the possibility of launching a coin for Mode Network, Kamino Finance, MarginFi, and MerkleTrade.

Hypothetically, it is also possible that the famous layer-2 ZkSync Era will inaugurate an airdrop that is expected to be the richest of all 2024, although it is more likely to happen in May/June.

This is a general announcement. Products and services referred to here may not be available in your region.
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About Binance Inscriptions Marketplace
Binance Inscriptions Marketplace is a one-stop solution hosted within the Binance Web3 Wallet that allows users to inscribe and trade a wide variety of inscription tokens such as BRC-20 tokens, EVM tokens, ARC-20 tokens and more, within the Binance App.
Guides & Related Materials:
Binance Inscriptions Marketplace: Trade, Mint BRC-20 and EVM Tokens in Your Web3 WalletWhat Is Binance Web3 Wallet and How Does It WorkHow to Manage ARC20 Assets in My Binance Web3 WalletHow to Inscribe and Trade BRC-20 Inscription Tokens on Binance Inscriptions MarketplaceHow to Inscribe and Trade EVM Inscription Tokens on Binance Inscriptions Marketplace
Note: There may be discrepancies in the translated version of this original article in English. Please reference this original version for the latest or most accurate information where any discrepancies may arise.
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Binance Team
2024-04-03