The Omni Network’s ERC-20 token OMNI dropped over 55% nearly 18 hours after its airdrop, shaving off over half its market capitalization.

Meanwhile, a fake token sporting the same name has just been “rug pulled,” with its price dumping 100%.

The layer-1 testnet blockchain aiming to connect Ethereum rollups doled 3 million OMNI — 3% of its 100 million token supply — to its community contributors on April 17, starting at 11 am UTC. OMNI, market cap was $560 million.

Within half an hour, OMNI dropped nearly 30% from $53.80 to under $39 and has continued to slide to around $24 — an over 55% drop.

The current market cap is $267.5 million, giving it a fully diluted valuation of about $2.57 billion, according to CoinGecko.

OMNI’s price since its airdrop over 16 hours ago has continued to slide. Source: CoinGecko

The airdrop saw early testnet users, builders and community participants get 50% — 1.5 million OMNI — of the latest airdrop, worth about $36.2 million. Eligibility was determined via a snapshot on April 3.

The remaining tokens were split variously between EigenLayer restakers and some nonfungible token (NFT) projects including Pudgy Penguins, among others.

OMNI’s airdrop split, some tokens went to Pudgy Penguin NFT holders. Source: Omni Network

Omni Network outlined on April 15 that 9.27 million OMNI — 9.27% of the total supply — was being set aside as public launch tokens used for “launch pools and liquidity.”

OMNI’s full token distribution plan. Source: Omni Network

The largest chunk of OMNI — 29.5 million at 29.5% of its supply — will be set aside for “ecosystem development” and handed out initially at the discretion of the blockchain’s backing firm, the Omni Foundation.

Nearly a quarter of all OMNI — 23.3 million — was earmarked for investors and advisers.

Advisers today received 625,000 OMNI worth $15 million — another 875,000 OMNI will come after a year, then 437,500 OMNI every six months for two years.

Investors’ tokens were on a three-year unlock schedule, with nearly 6.7 million tokens — worth almost $161 million today — to come after 12 months, with the rest unlocking every six months until their allocation is exhausted.

Related: Withdrawals from real estate betting platform Parcl hit $74M after airdrop

Meanwhile, the developers of a fake OMNI token using the same ticker have pulled a $398,000 exit scam.

Blockchain security firm PeckShield wrote in an April 18 X post that a fake token dropped 100% after the deploying smart contract dumped over 1.7 quadrillion tokens for 132 Wrapped Ether (WETH).

Source: PeckShieldAlert

Magazine: The real risks to Ethena’s stablecoin model (are not the ones you think)

The world’s largest crypto exchange, Binance, is converting its Secure Asset Fund for Users (SAFU) into Circle’s stablecoin USD Coin (USDC), and now represents 3% of the stablecoin’s circulating supply. 

The company announced the move on April 18, stating that “we are transferring 100% of SAFU’s assets to USDC” but didn’t elaborate on why, other than it was “making use of a trusted, audited, and transparent stablecoin for SAFU,” which further enhances its reliability and ensures it remains stable at $1 billion.

The exchange’s Secure Asset Fund for Users is an emergency insurance fund established in 2018 to protect Binance users in extreme situations such as exchange hacks, whereby users could be reimbursed for unforeseen losses. 

Source: Binance

According to Etherscan, the SAFU wallet address made a transaction of 800 million USDC on Ethereum at 02:35 UTC for a transaction fee of just $1.88.

There was also a transfer of 1.36 million BNB worth around $754 million and a 16,277 BTC transfer as part of the conversion process.

The billion-dollar Binance insurance fund now represents around 3% of the entire supply of Circle’s stablecoin, which is $32.6 billion.

It is the second conversion of the fund in just over a year. In March 2023, Binance announced that it had replaced the Binance USD (BUSD) holdings in the SAFU with Tether (USDT) and TrueUSD (TUSD).

The move at the time was in response to a regulatory crackdown on BUSD issuer Paxos which announced that it would stop minting the exchange-backed stablecoin.

Related: Crypto exchange insurance funds surge more than $1B amid bull market

Tether remains the world’s dominant stablecoin with a circulating supply at record levels of $108 billion giving it a market share of 69%, according to CoinGecko.

Circle’s USDC is the second largest stablecoin, with a market share of around 20%, as its supply has increased by 33% since December.

Related: 'China is about to start bidding' — Will Hong Kong Bitcoin ETFs spark the halving rally?

Yuga Labs — the firm behind NFT collection Bored Ape Yacht Club (BAYC) — has offloaded the intellectual property for two of its games, HV-MTL and Legends of the Mara, in line with a previously announced effort to refocus the organization. 

In an April 17 post to X, Yuga Labs announced that Web3 gaming studio Faraway had acquired the IP, adding that its chief gaming officer Spencer Tucker would join Faraway as the new chief product officer in a bid to ensure continuity between the games at the new firm.

Source: Yuga Labs

HV-MTL is an NFT-oriented ‘mech’ game where players manage and level up their NFTs as well as local environments. Meanwhile, Legends of the Mara is an adventure game that functions as part of the Otherside metaverse, which was launched on April 30, 2022.

Yuga Labs and Faraway have worked closely together for some time, with Faraway previously developing a Mutant Ape Yacht Club-themed game called Serum City.

Yuga’s move to hand over its gaming IP to Faraway reflects a broader move to “unshackle” the team, which was introduced when co-founder Greg Solano rejoined Yuga and replaced Daniel Allegre as the company’s CEO in February this year.

“We want to unshackle the BAYC team at Yuga as much as possible to execute against its vision. More focus, more agility,” Solana wrote in a Feb. 22 post to X that announced his return to the organization.

Source: CryptoGarga

Related: Bored Ape NFT floor price hits lowest point in over two and a half years

Wednesday’s announcement comes as NFTs experience a broader downtrend across the market, with its flagship BAYC collection being among the hardest hit of top NFT collections.

As of the time of publication, the floor price of the BAYC collection stands at 11.7 Ether (ETH) — worth $35,400 at current prices. The floor price is down a staggering 92% from its all-time high floor price of 153.7 ETH, notched on May 1, 2022.

Bored Ape Yacht Club floor price. Source: CoinGecko

Earlier this year, Yuga Labs sparked outrage among holders and members of the NFT community on Jan. 7 when announced it would be acquiring the controversial Moonbirds collection and bringing on the project’s creator Kevin Rose as an adviser.

Magazine: The real risks to Ethena’s stablecoin model (are not the ones you think)

Former Ethereum developer Virgil Griffith, who was handed a 63-month prison term in 2022 for assisting North Korea in using blockchain technology, has requested a sentence reduction. 

The plea was made in a letter from Glen Garrett McGorty, an attorney representing Virgil Griffith, to Judge Kevin Castel of the United States District Court for the Southern District of New York on April 17.

The letter requests that the court revise Griffith’s sentence based on newly enacted revisions to U.S. sentencing guidelines, which provide a two-point offense level reduction for certain “zero-point” offenders.

Griffith was sentenced to 63 months and a $100,000 fine in April 2022 after pleading guilty to violating sanctions laws when he attended a conference in North Korea and assisted the state in using blockchain technology — despite economic sanctions imposed by the United States.

The letter argues that Griffith qualifies for a two-point reduction as a “zero-point" offender based on the criteria outlined in the revised guidelines.

Screenshot from a letter in United States v. Virgil Griffith. Source: Pacer

This reduction would lower his total offense level from 26 to 24, resulting in a revised guidelines range of 51 to 63 months — potentially shaving a year or more off his sentence.

The letter requests that the court order the U.S. Probation Office to draft a revised pre-sentence investigation report, schedule a resentencing hearing, and allow for a briefing schedule so the defense can provide updated information and arguments for their reduction request.

“The defense respectfully requests the opportunity to provide the Court with updated information which would counsel toward a sentence no greater than the lowest end of the new Guidelines range–51 months—if not lower.”

A “zero-point” offender is a first-time, non-violent offender whose crime meets certain criteria indicating a lower risk of recidivism compared to other lawbreakers.

Related: Railgun denies being used by North Korea as it nears $1B total volume

In May 2023, the U.S. Department of Commerce also imposed a 10-year export privilege ban on Griffith, who was serving the first year of his five-year sentence.

This means he was restricted from engaging in any transactions involving commodities, software, or technology that fall under the jurisdiction of U.S. export regulations.

Magazine: Lawmakers’ fear and doubt drives proposed crypto regulations in US

The United States Securities and Exchange Commission chair Gary Gensler duped more than a few X users into believing he was resigning from the SEC on Wednesday — before saying he’s “not done.”

“It’s been an honor to serve as [SEC] Chair. Over the past 3 years, I’ve seen firsthand how the incredible staff at the SEC serve investors and issuers alike.” Gensler wrote in an April 17 X post.

In following posts, he noted the “more than 2,000 enforcement actions” and rules the SEC had finalized under his stewardship — words that appeared to lead up to him announcing his resignation.

“And we’re not done,” Gensler added, delivering the final punchline. 

Source: Gary Gensler

The posts went viral — they’ve currently been viewed over 1.1 million times, according to X figures.

“A legendary and respectable troll thread, honestly [in my opinion],” wrote crypto trader Jordan Fish, who goes by Cobie.

“This really does feel like a resignation tweet at first, but then it’s clearly not,” wrote Bloomberg Litigation Analyst Elliott Stein. “Gotta think that was intentional, given Gensler’s seeming penchant for trolling.”

Van Buren Capital general partner Scott Johnsson highlighted Gensler’s posts “leads with [number] of enforcement actions.”

“Would be like [Department of Justice/Bureau of Prisons] highlighting number of incarcerations. Lack of focus,” he added.

Last year, the SEC’s crypto-related enforcement actions reached a 10-year high under Gensler’s leadership — which brought 46 enforcement actions against crypto firms, doubling from 2021.

U.S. crypto industry executives and some lawmakers have claimed Gensler of taking a “regulation by enforcement” approach to crypto as the SEC has claimed dozens of cryptocurrencies are securities in lawsuits against crypto companies.

Gensler, meanwhile, has claimed crypto is full of fraud and manipulation and has said companies should “come into compliance.”

The crypto side of X got back at Gensler for his post — in its own way.

Related: Gary Gensler responds to US lawmakers over SEC’s false spot Bitcoin ETF tweet

Unofficial Crypto Twitter archivist “inversebrah” noted the platform’s crypto community “managed to score a couple of helthy [sic] ratios already.” A ratio is when a reply post garners more engagement — such as likes or shares — than the original post it replied to.

In this case, Gensler’s post received around 1,700 likes, but some responses have racked up more than three times that.

Some of the reply posts to Gensler’s thread with a greater number of likes. Source: X

U.S. President Joe Biden nominated Gensler to chair the SEC in 2021. Gensler started his five-year tenure on April 17, 2021, and could serve as chair until April 17, 2026.

It is, however, custom for the SEC chair to resign if the U.S. elects a new president and Americans are heading to polls on Nov. 5 to vote on a possible rematch between Biden and former president Donald Trump.

Magazine: Crypto regulation — Does SEC Chair Gary Gensler have the final say?

Big Four accounting firm Ernst & Young has launched an Ethereum-based solution using zero-knowledge proofs aimed at helping its private business clients facilitate complex contracts.

Called the EY OpsChain Contract Manager (OCM), the solution will help private businesses execute complex business agreements in a timely, confidential and cost-effective manner, the firm explained in an April 17 statement.

Among the types of contracts that can leverage EY’s Ethereum-based solution are purchase agreements, standardized rate cards, volume discounts, rebates and strike prices.

EY said it chose Ethereum — a public blockchain — instead of a private network as it would prevent a party from gaining a “strategic advantage” over another and reduce the risk of sensitive business information being leaked.

The firm built OCM as it realized through past client work that accuracy in contract terms could be improved while also cutting cycle times and administration costs by around 90% and 40%, respectively, noted Paul Brody, EY Global Blockchain Leader.

“With our zero-knowledge privacy technology, we have industrialized this capability, and we can now get these benefits at a fraction of the up-front cost.”

Source: Paul Brody

The solution was launched at the annual EY Global Blockchain Summit on April 17.

In a recent interview with Cointelegraph, former Grayscale executive Celisa Morin noted that TradFi institutions have started to prefer using  on public blockchains instead of private ones in recent months, noted former Grayscale executive Celisa Morin, with BlackRock’s BUIDL being a textbook example of that.

Related: Bitcoin ETF to trigger massive demand from institutions, EY says

OCM has been in the works since at least September 2021, when the accounting firm chose Polygon to help build its blockchain enterprise product. Polygon helped EY build Nightfall — an Ethereum-based enterprise solution to orchestrate private transactions — a few months later, in December 2021. However, no mention of Polygon was made in EY’s latest product information sheet for OCM.

EY first started experimenting with ZK-proofs in April 2019 for the purpose of building a blockchain-based platform for audit, tax and transaction monitoring. Ethereum has long been its chain of choice to build on.

The firm revealed it invested $1.4 billion into AI technologies for its new EY.ai platform late September, aimed at helping companies adopt AI through its in-house built large language model, EY AI EYQ.

Magazine: Ethereum is eating the world — ‘You only need one internet’

Solana’s native token SOL (SOL) experienced a significant 21% decline over the past week, reaching its lowest point in nearly six weeks. This downturn triggered a substantial $113 million in liquidations of leveraged long SOL futures contracts since April 11, suggesting that investors may have been overly optimistic following SOL's 61% price surge in March.

This raises questions about the potential for further corrections and whether the $130 support level will hold firm.

Solana ecosystem growth and Coinbase integration

Market analysts observe that Solana’s current market capitalization of $60 billion appears inflated, particularly when compared to Avalanche’s (AVAX) $13 billion and Tron’s (TRX) $10 billion, standing four and six times higher, respectively. However, some argue that the premium is justified by the rapid expansion of Solana’s ecosystem, with many projects launching their own tokens.

On April 16, Coinbase announced that its wallet is now fully integrated with the Solana decentralized exchange (DEX) ecosystem, supporting over 50,000 Solana SPL tokens. This integration simplifies the trading process for users by allowing them to directly input the contract address into the “swap flow,” thereby lowering barriers to entry into Solana’s ecosystem.

Between April 12 and April 17, the open interest in SOL futures decreased by 40% to $1.5 billion, reflecting a reduced demand for leverage. Analyzing the SOL futures funding rate can shed light on whether this decline was primarily due to a diminished interest in long positions.

The funding rate for SOL perpetual futures often serves as a gauge of market sentiment. A positive rate suggests a higher demand for leveraged long positions, whereas a negative rate indicates a preference for shorts, betting on a price decrease.

SOL perpetual futures 8-hour funding rate. Source: Coinglass

The funding rate for SOL futures has been negligible since April 12, suggesting a balanced interest between long and short positions. This data is somewhat reassuring given that SOL’s price has dropped 33% in the last 16 days, with it poised to close below $136 for the first time since March 6.

Recent network congestion did not halt Solana DApps activity

The Solana network recently encountered severe congestion issues, with a failure rate of up to 75% for transactions, as reported by Cointelegraph. In response, developers rolled out an upgrade aimed at alleviating these bottlenecks. This issue has caused several projects to postpone their token launches until these network challenges are fully resolved.

Adding to the pressure on SOL’s performance were setbacks in several notable projects, such as MarginFi. On April 10, Edgar Pavlovsky, CEO of MarginFi, resigned, which led to $190 million in withdrawals. The controversy deepened as other Solana-based projects accused MarginFi of failing to release credits to users. This situation underscores the volatility and challenges within the Solana ecosystem.

Despite any underlying factors, the downturn in Solana SPL tokens was pronounced across the board. In the decentralized finance (DeFi) sector, Jito (JTO) plummeted by 29% since April 12, while Raydium (RAY) and Jupiter (JUP) registered declines of 24% and 27%, respectively. Additionally, prominent Solana memecoins, including Dogwifhat (WIF), suffered a steep 32% drop over a six-day period.

Analysts consider Solana’s DApp activity as indicative of SOL’s price movements since the usage of decentralized applications inherently boosts demand for SOL. This demand arises both from network usage fees and participation in SPL token airdrops.

Related: Memecoins are making millionaires, but are they actually good for crypto?

Top blockchains ranked by 7-day DApps volumes. Source: DappRadar

Recent data from DappRadar shows a significant uptick in Solana’s DApp volumes, which soared by 60% to $1.3 billion over the past week, outstripping its competitors. During the same period, Ethereum saw a 20% increase in activity, while BNB Chain experienced a 13% rise. Despite these gains, Solana’s active user count remained stable at around 2 million, even as the Ethereum network witnessed a 4% drop in active addresses.

Given the stable demand for leverage in futures markets coupled with robust on-chain activity, there is little to suggest that SOL will lag behind the broader altcoin market. However, continued network congestion could challenge the sustainability of Solana's premium valuation compared to other blockchain tokens.

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 level of interest in the ‘Bitcoin halving’ on Google has soared to its highest point of all time, with predicted data pegging it at more than double that of the last halving in 2020. 

Search interest for the term ‘Bitcoin halving’ has already reached a score of 45, according to Google Trends data — with Google predicting it will reach an estimated score of 100 by the end of this month.

Google Trends notes that a value of 100 translates to “peak popularity” for the term.

Search interest for ‘Bitcoin Halving’ has shot to record levels. Source: Google Trends

The Bitcoin halving refers to when the rewards paid to miners are halved. This year, the Bitcoin halving will block rewards reduced from 6.25 BTC to 3.125 BTC.

The halving is currently slated to occur around 4am UTC on April 20, per the Cointelegraph countdown timer.

Google Trends shows the Bitcoin halving saw the most interest from Nigeria, Netherlands, Switzerland, and Cyprus.

Search interest in the Bitcoin halving was highest in Nigeria. Source: Google Trends

Related: Bitcoin bull Pompliano says BTC will be bigger than gold and ‘the leader in the recovery’

Record levels of interest in the halving event may not come as a surprise following Bitcoin’s (BTC) banner performance over the last few months.

Bitcoin began the year at a price of $42,200 and soared 74% to reach a new all-time high of $73,600 on May 13, per CoinMarketCap data.

Bitcoin’s price action has since cooled off and has traded consistently lower since mid-May. At the time of publication, Bitcoin is changing hands for $61,078 — down 17% from its all-time high.

Despite souring sentiment from market participants, several market commentators have pointed to the historical patterns of Bitcoin price action to suggest that Bitcoin could rally significantly in the months following the halving.

Web3 Gamer: Bitcoin Halving will pump games, Shrapnel’s ‘simple’ secret revealed

Magic Eden, a Solana-based nonfungible token (NFT) marketplace, recorded its largest monthly trading volume in March, surpassing industry leader Blur.

Its NFT trading volume spiked 194.4% in March to $756.5 million, while Blur marginally increased to $530.4 million, according to CoinGecko’s Q1 2024 report, published on April 17.

CoinGecko said Magic Eden’s rise up the ranks was partly contributed by its new Diamond reward program and its continued partnership with Yuga Labs — at a time when the NFT studio cut ties with NFT marketplaces that weren’t supporting creator royalties.

It marked the sixth consecutive month that Magic Eden increased its trading volume.

Source: CoinGecko

March marked the first month Blur had been unseated as the leading NFT marketplace by trading volume since OKX’s NFT marketplace capitalized on a Bitcoin Ordinals craze last December. Prior to that, Blur led trading volumes for 10 stra months after it surpassed OpenSea in February 2023.

However, OKX has lost a large share of Bitcoin NFT trading volume since then to the likes of Magic Eden and UniSat, and as a result, its trading volume has tanked 73.3% since December to $180 million.

Despite this, OKX still managed to rake in the third-largest NFT trading volume in Q1 2024, with Solana-based Tensor and OpenSea rounding out the top five.

Meanwhile, NFT trading volumes across the top 10 marketplaces amounted to $4.7 billion in Q1 2024 — a 51.6% increase from Q4 2023.

Despite the rise, the floor prices of top NFT collectibles such as Bored Ape Yacht Clubs and CryptoPunks have plummeted more than 91% and 64%, respectively since reaching peaks in May 2022 and October 2021.

Related: 5 ways to monetize your digital art with NFTs

The enforcement of creator royalties has been a major issue between NFT marketplaces and studios of late.

OpenSea, once the leading NFT marketplace, controversially sunset its on-chain royalty enforcement tool last August. Its CEO, Devin Finzer, said the tool hadn’t had the success it hoped and claimed its competitors, such as Blur, Dew and LooksRare, were circumventing it by integrating the Seaport Protocol to bypass OpenSea’s blacklist and therefore avoid creator fees.

But OpenSea partially backtracked on this position earlier this month, enabling support for an ERC-721C programmable earnings standard.

Magazine: NFTs are like nightclubs, crypto is a volatile religion: NFTStats, NFT Collector

​​Welcome to the latest edition of Cointelegraph’s Nifty Newsletter. Keep reading to stay up-to-date with the latest stories on nonfungible tokens. Every Wednesday, the Nifty Newsletter informs and inspires you to dig deeper into the latest NFT trends and insights.

Read about how NASA uses virtual reality (VR) technology and the metaverse to train its astronauts in this week’s newsletter. What’s behind the decline in the floor price of Bored Ape Yacht Club (BAYC) NFTs? And Cointelegraph has exclusive updates from Paris Blockchain Week, including Ubisoft’s blockchain gaming plans.

NASA created a VR metaverse to prep astronauts for life on the lunar space station

While most of us spend our time in the metaverse trading assets or bopping around in virtual reality on legless avatars, astronauts working with the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) and SpaceX are using the metaverse to prepare for life aboard a lunar space station that has yet to be built.

The first humans to make their homes in deep space, according to NASA, will be the team tasked with operating a space station currently under development called “Gateway.”

Continue reading

Ubisoft teases new blockchain game at Paris Blockchain Week

AAA game studio Ubisoft is edging closer to releasing its first blockchain-based game after releasing the first gameplay trailer for Champions Tactics Grimoria during Paris Blockchain Week.

The tactical player-vs-player role-playing game’s lead developers gave Cointelegraph an exclusive playthrough at the conference. The RPG allows players to craft blockchain-based figurines with unique features and characteristics that can be combined into a team of three for the turn-based game.

Continue reading

Bored Ape NFT floor price hits lowest point in over two and a half years

The floor price of BAYC NFTs has fallen over 90% from its peak to 11.1 Ether (ETH) — its lowest point since August 2021.

BAYC is now approaching a sub-10 ETH floor price after a 50% fall since March 1 alone, according to NFT Price Floor.

The NFT collection’s fall from a peak of 128 ETH set on May 1, 2022, is part of an industry-wide decline in popularity for digital art NFTs.

However, it should be noted that a few BAYC NFTs have continued to sell significantly above their floor price, which is calculated by taking the lowest-priced NFT in a given collection.

Continue reading

VeChain announces tokenized gloves in partnership with UFC

According to an April 12 blog post from VeChain, gloves worn by Ultimate Fighting Championship (UFC) fighters will soon be tokenized, and their identities will be tracked on the VeChainThor network.

The gloves will contain VeChain near-field communication chips that record fight data, proving the authenticity of each pair, the post stated. After the fight, the athletes will “donate and give away” their gloves, making them into collectors’ items.

The chips inside each pair will allow a buyer to check the item’s authenticity via a VeChainThor network smart contract. Fighters began wearing the gloves at UFC 300 on April 13.

Continue reading

Thanks for reading this digest of the week’s most notable developments in the NFT space. Come again next Wednesday for more reports and insights into this actively evolving space.

MeWe chairman and CEO Jeffrey Edell recently penned an op-ed detailing how he believes the situation between the United States government and China’s TikTok could be avoided by implementing blockchain technologies.

Edell is in the unique position of helming a social media company with reportedly more than 20 million users that’s made the leap from traditional Web2 to the blockchain.

The TikTok situation

A slew of recent reports indicate that the U.S. is currently weighing an outright ban on China’s TikTok social media platform. There are allegations that ByteDance, the platform’s owner, has turned over sensitive user data to the Chinese government with potential negative implications for U.S. security.

In an op-ed penned for Rolling Stone, Edell wrote that the TikTok situation is, at its crux, a matter of user privacy that could have been averted through decentralization:

“While the concerns surrounding TikTok are valid, I believe the focus should not solely be on one app or one country. Instead, companies should work toward creating and setting strict guidelines for handling personal data, digital identity and users’ privacy, regardless of their origin.”

Edell added that “one way to ensure that personal data is secure and protected is through the use of Web 3-based, blockchain technology.”

Transitioning to blockchain

As Cointelegraph reported, MeWe made the transition from Web2 to the Frequency blockchain network, a Polkadot parachain, in April 2023.

Essentially, the argument for blockchain-based user privacy hinges on who, exactly, has access to user data. On traditional social media platforms, such as X, user data is held and accessed through a centralized control method wherein the company itself retains ownership of all data.

In TikTok’s case, this ostensibly means that ByteDance — and, by legal extension, the government of China — owns all of the platform’s user data, including more than 150 million U.S.-based users.

By placing data on the blockchain and implementing specific privacy controls, a social media network can give users control over their data without compromising platform functionality.

Related: Worldcoin launches its own ‘human-centric’ blockchain network

While MeWe’s user base doesn’t quite stack up to TikTok’s, the company’s transition to blockchain shows that it’s possible.

To that end, Edell shared six best practices for other companies considering the change in his Rolling Stone article: understanding the technology, starting small, choosing the platform that’s right for your organization, staying up to date with regulatory compliance changes, collaborating with stakeholders, and ensuring employees are educated and trained on blockchain.

A political action committee (PAC) used $3.7 million toward Democratic candidates in Alabama and Texas for the race to win seats in the United States House of Representatives starting in 2025. 

In an April 16 runoff between Democratic candidates to represent Alabama’s 2nd Congressional District, Shomari Figures defeated Anthony Daniels with roughly 61% of the vote. Figures is expected to face off against Republican Caroleene Dobson in the general election, scheduled for Nov. 5.

According to data from the Federal Election Commission (FEC), the Protect Progress Super PAC used roughly $1.7 million from donations, including Coinbase and Ripple Labs, to support Figures’ bid for office between July 2023 and February 2024. A Protect Progress spokesperson told Cointelegraph that an additional $950,000 was reported after February, with the funds used to purchase advertisements supporting Figures and polling.

Protect Progress’ website states the Super PAC “supports Democratic candidates committed to securing the United States as the home to innovators building the next generation of the internet,” specifically promoting blockchain technology. The group is affiliated with the Fairshake Super PAC, which was responsible for funding attack ads targeting Democratic Senate candidate Katie Porter in California.

Figures’ campaign website listed cryptocurrency among his issues as part of efforts “to stimulate innovation and technological advancement” and address regulatory concerns related to digital assets. According to the FEC, the Alabama candidate’s campaign raised roughly $400,000 — 14% of what Protect Progress contributed to his election bid.

“Shomari believes in working together to support innovation and create good paying jobs for his community and all Americans,” Josh Vlasto, a spokesperson for Protect Progress, told Cointelegraph. “We are proud to support leaders like Shomari on both sides of the aisle.“

FEC records showed Protect Progress also used roughly $1 million to support Julie Johnson’s bid to represent Texas’ 32nd Congressional District in the House. Johnson won her local Democratic primary with 50.4% of the vote in March but also raised roughly $1.3 million for her campaign.

Her campaign website stated that the U.S. “must lead the development of crypto and blockchain technology” while expressing concern about “clear rules of the road” for the industry. Following the primary election results, Coinbase chief policy officer Faryar Shirzad posted a congratulatory message on X:

Source: Faryar Shirzad

The U.S. general election on Nov. 5 will determine the winner of both aforementioned congressional seats and the other 433 in the House of Representatives, 34 in the Senate, and the Presidency. Other elections are seemingly being represented as a microcosm of pro- and anti-crypto views in government, including one between Massachusetts Senator Elizabeth Warren and lawyer John Deaton.

Magazine: Opinion: GOP crypto maxis almost as bad as Dems’ ‘anti-crypto army’

Bitcoin (BTC) dipped back toward $61,000 on April 17, indicating a lack of demand at higher levels. According to data from Farside Investors, Bitcoin’s recent price action has resulted in net outflows from the spot Bitcoin exchange-traded funds (ETFs) on April 12 and 15. CryptoQuant founder and CEO Ki Young Ju said in a X post that demand for Bitcoin ETFs has “stagnated for 4 weeks.”

However, a comforting factor for the bulls is that the whales have not panicked and are not selling on weakness. Data from research firm Santiment shows that the largest Bitcoin wallet cohorts have been on an accumulation spree since March 1.

Crypto market data daily view. Source: Coin360

The whales seem to be holding on to their positions due to the bullish outlook in the long term. Bitwise Asset Management said in a X post that after the three previous Bitcoin halvings, Bitcoin’s prices remained soft for a month but witnessed triple-digit gains a year after the event.

Will Bitcoin and altcoins deepen their correction or remain range-bound for a few more days? Let’s analyze the charts of the top 10 cryptocurrencies to find out.

Bitcoin price analysis

The bears are trying to sink Bitcoin below the $60,775 support on April 17 and complete a double-top pattern.

BTC/USDT daily chart. Source: TradingView

If they manage to do that, the BTC/USDT pair may start a downward move to the 50% Fibonacci retracement level of $58,017 and then to the 61.8% retracement level of $54,298. The bulls are likely to defend this zone, but if the bears prevail, the pair may plummet to the pattern target of $47,773.

This negative view will be invalidated if the price turns up from the current level and breaks above the moving averages. That may trap several aggressive bears, resulting in a short squeeze. That enhances the prospects of a rally above $73,777.

Ether price analysis

Ether (ETH) turned down from the 20-day exponential moving average ($3,301) on April 15 and broke below the $3,056 support on April 16.

ETH/USDT daily chart. Source: TradingView

If the price maintains below $3,056, the ETH/USDT pair may drop to $2,852. This is a crucial level for the bulls to defend because a break and close below it may accelerate selling. The pair may tumble to $2,717 and subsequently to $2,200.

Conversely, if the price rebounds off $2,852 with strength, it will signal solid buying at lower levels. The bulls will then make another attempt to clear the 20-day EMA. If they succeed, the pair may attempt a rally to $3,679.

BNB price analysis

After trading between the moving averages for three days, BNB (BNB) slipped below the 50-day simple moving average ($541) on April 17, signaling that bears have overpowered the bulls.

BNB/USDT daily chart. Source: TradingView

The BNB/USDT pair could tumble to the strong support at $495, an important level to watch out for. If this support gives way, the BNB/USDT pair will be vulnerable to fall to $460 and later to $400.

On the upside, a break and close above the 20-day EMA ($565) will be the first sign of strength. The pair could then attempt a rally to the overhead resistance of $635, where the bears will try to stall the up move.

Solana price analysis

Solana (SOL) turned down from $156 on April 15 and reached the crucial support at $126. This suggests that every recovery attempt is being met with strong selling from the bears.

SOL/USDT daily chart. Source: TradingView

The moving averages have completed a bearish crossover, and the relative strength index (RSI) is in the negative zone, signaling that the path of least resistance is to the downside. If the $126 support cracks, the selling could intensify and the SOL/USDT pair may plummet to $100.

On the contrary, if the price turns up sharply from the current level, it will suggest solid demand at lower levels. The pair may then rise to $162. A break and close above this resistance will signal that the bulls are back in the game.

XRP price analysis

XRP’s (XRP) recovery fizzled out at $0.52 on April 15, indicating that the bears are keeping up the pressure and are selling on minor relief rallies.

XRP/USDT daily chart. Source: TradingView

The downsloping 20-day EMA ($0.56) and the RSI near the oversold zone suggest that bears are in control. Sellers will have to sink the price below $0.46 to start the downward move to the vital support at $0.41. Buyers are expected to fiercely defend the $0.46 to $0.41 support zone.

Any recovery attempt is likely to face selling at $0.52 and again at the 20-day EMA. A break and close above this resistance will suggest that the XRP/USDT pair may swing between $0.41 and $0.74 for a while longer.

Dogecoin price analysis

Dogecoin’s (DOGE) relief rally stalled at the 50-day SMA ($0.17) on April 15, indicating that the bears continue to sell on every rise.

DOGE/USDT daily chart. Source: TradingView

The 20-day EMA ($0.17) is turning lower, and the RSI is in the negative territory, signaling that bears have the edge. They will again try to sink the DOGE/USDT pair to the crucial support at $0.12. This level is likely to attract buying because a break below it could open the doors for a fall to $0.08.

The downtrend line is the important resistance to watch out for on the upside. If buyers overcome this barrier, the pair may rise to $0.20 and later to $0.23.

Toncoin price analysis

Toncoin (TON) turned down from the resistance line of the ascending channel on April 15 and fell near the support line on April 15.

TON/USDT daily chart. Source: TradingView

The rising 20-day EMA ($5.92) and the RSI in the positive zone suggest that the bulls are in the driver’s seat. Buyers will once again try to push the price to the resistance line. If this resistance is cleared, the TON/USDT pair could pick up momentum and surge to $8.56 and then to $10.

This optimistic view will be negated if the price turns down and dives below the channel. That will clear the path for a drop to the 50-day SMA ($4.54).

Cardano price analysis

The failure of the bulls to start a meaningful rebound off $0.46 increases the risk of a breakdown to $0.40 in Cardano (ADA).

ADA/USDT daily chart. Source: TradingView

Buyers are likely to defend the $0.40 with vigor because if this support cracks, the selling could pick up, and the ADA/USDT pair may collapse to $0.35. The downsloping 20-day EMA ($0.54) and the RSI in the oversold zone indicate that bears are in control.

If the price bounces off $0.40, it will suggest demand at lower levels. The bulls will gain strength above $0.50. The pair could then rally to the 20-day EMA and thereafter to $0.62, where the bears may again pose a strong challenge.

Avalanche price analysis

Avalanche’s (AVAX) recovery could not even reach the breakdown level of $42, signaling a lack of aggressive buying by the bulls.

AVAX/USDT daily chart. Source: TradingView

The downsloping 20-day EMA ($43) and the RSI near the oversold territory indicate that bears are in charge. The support to watch on the downside is $29 and then $27. If this zone cracks, the selling could intensify and the AVAX/USDT pair could plummet to $20.

The relief rally is likely to face strong selling at the downtrend line. A break and close above this resistance will be the first indication that the bulls are on a comeback. The pair could then attempt a rally to $50.

Shiba Inu price analysis

Shiba Inu (SHIB) has been trading inside a tight range for the past three days, indicating a lack of aggressive selling or buying at these levels.

SHIB/USDT daily chart. Source: TradingView

The bears are expected to take another shot at the $0.000017 level. If this support breaks down, the selling could accelerate and the SHIB/USDT pair may start a sharp fall toward the next major support at $0.000010. That will complete a 100% retracement of the most recent leg of the rally.

On the contrary, a rise above the downtrend line will be the first indication that the bears are losing their grip. The pair may rise to $0.000033, where the bears are expected to mount a strong defense.

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.

Pomp Investments founder and partner Anthony Pompliano says Bitcoin’s sound monetary principles will make it bigger than gold, particularly after the upcoming supply halving.

Speaking during an interview on Fox Business on April 17, Pompliano reiterated his bullish stance on the pioneer cryptocurrency, saying that Bitcoin (BTC) has performed better than any other asset in the four years following the last halving.

“The last halving, we are four years later. It was eight thousand dollars. Today, it’s $64,000. Name any other asset that has performed so well over a four-year cycle,” Pompliano said in response to concerns about Bitcoin’s latest correction.

Source: Anthony Pompliano

Pompliano explained that despite the crypto market’s drawdown that bagan o April 12, Bitcoin was not the only asset that crashed; gold and other financial markets also dropped in the wake of escalating geopolitical tensions in the Middle East.

Bitcoin has dropped more than 9% since Saturday, April 13, when Iran launched attack drones and missiles against Israel, while Ether (ETH) has declined 8%. According to data from TradingView, the S&P 500, the Nasdaq 100, and the gold index (XAU) are also down 1.83%, 3.5%, and 5%, respectively, over the same timeframe.

Pompliano said,

“So, when people saw Bitcoin go down on Saturday, they said, “Oh, my God! Bitcoin went down!” So did gold, and so did any other financial market that was open.”

The investor explained that during times of political uncertainty, investors begin “selling anything that is liquid” for U.S. dollars, and so they sold Bitcoin, along with gold, stocks and bonds.

Pompliano believes that when the dust settles, Bitcoin will lead the recovery and will continue to do so for another four-year cycle after halving.

“What will happen is that on the way back up, Bitcoin will be the leader in the recovery, and my guess is that it will continue to perform just as well as it has for the last four years, for the four years to come.”

He also highlighted that Bitcoin and gold hold sound money principles in that they are assets “outside the system that no one can create more.” He further explained that those who are looking for “downside protection” should buy gold because it is less volatile. However, Bitcoin is the best option for those seeking to increase their purchasing power.

“The digital version of a product is always bigger and more valuable than the analog version of it. And so, Bitcoin will be more valuable than gold one day.”

Source: Anthony Pompliano

The upcoming Bitcoin halving is set to significantly impact market dynamics. Pompliano says that the event, which is just a few days away, could be a “sell-the-news phenomenon” but advises investors to always buy Bitcoin for long-term gains.

“I always tell people that if you buy Bitcoin and you are trying to predict what the price is in an hour or a day, a week, or even a month, that’s probably a fool’s errand. Instead, what you should think about is, “This is a savings technology. ””

The investor also reiterated his belief in dollar-cost averaging Bitcoin — regularly investing a fixed dollar amount in BTC, saying that people who do this over a long time are “going to do great.”

Pompliano revealed to the Fox Business anchor that Bitcoin makes up more than 50% of his portfolio.

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 Pi Network app now has more than 10 million users who have verified their identities by completing the Know Your Customer (KYC) process, according to an April 16 announcement.

 The Pi team has promised that it will launch a mainnet and that its tokens will become tradeable if a series of milestones are reached, including after 15 million users pass KYC. With 10 million accounts already verified, this implies that the KYC goal will be reached when another 5 million users complete verification.

Despite this achievement, business analytics platform AIMultiple has claimed that Pi may bring "no value to users,” since they “can not yet exchange their Pi coins with fiat currency on exchanges.” Pi Network was launched in 2019 as a centralized app. Users produce Pi tokens by pushing a button from within the app each day, and Pi cannot presently be transferred to other users through a wallet.

Pi Network official website. Source: Pi Network

According to the announcement, 10 million users, called “Pioneers,” have completed identity verification through the app’s native identity verification solution, Pi KYC. This solution provides “a unique and proprietary approach that combines machine automation and crowdsourced, hyperlocal human verification to accomplish secure, accurate and efficient KYC,” the announcement claimed.

Dr. Nicolas Kokkalis, co-founder and head of technology for Pi, stated that the achievement “proves that the industry doesn’t need to depend on fiat services to succeed.” He also claimed that the new KYC system will “allow other Web3 services involving ownerships of assets to achieve their identity verification needs through Pi.”

In December, the team announced plans to launch an “Open Network” or mainnet in 2024, if certain conditions are met. These conditions include that 100 Pi apps must have been developed, in addition to the 15 million users passing KYC. In addition, the team must have completed all “technology, product, business and legal” work needed to launch the network, and there must not be an “unfavorable external environment” that would hinder the network's success. The team has not yet announced a specific date for mainnet launch.

AIMultiple analyst Cem Dilmegani claimed that Pi Network will probably not benefit users, stating, “[w]e don’t expect anyone except the founders to benefit from PI Network in a significant way.” That's because it “works like a direct selling or affiliate marketing system, promising future rewards to users for bringing in new users.” Dilmegani claimed that the affiliate marketing system is used to drive traffic to the app, which is, in turn, used to sell advertising for the benefit of the app’s developer. “Founders are already benefitting from the app,” Dilmegani stated, as they “launched optional video ads at launch to monetize the active user base.”

Dilmegani acknowledged that the Pi team could eventually launch a blockchain mainnet. However, he argued that this was unlikely because it would cause the token to rapidly fall in value as users sold into the market. “Then, the coin would not be valuable enough for people to keep on logging in to click,” which would potentially eliminate the value of the app to advertisers.

Cointelegraph reached out to the Pi team for comment. In response, a representative acknowledged that Pi has taken an “unconventional and novel” approach to blockchain development, such as providing “an intermediate Enclosed Network period of mainnet" instead of launching an open network immediately. This novel approach was taken to “enable utilities building on the platform and KYC processing of millions of our community members, to help the community further build a robust network for the benefit of the whole community before we launch the Open Network."

The representative claimed that Pi has accomplished multiple goals since its launch, including the creation of "Pi mining mobile app, Pi Browser mobile app as the interface of the Web3 ecosystem, Node application, Testnet and Mainnet blockchains, Wallet, developer platform, a novel KYC solution" and more. The representative argued that the decision to not launch an open network right away was worth it, stating "we believe anything worthwhile takes time and patience and such components are essential for a healthy launch of the Open Network." 

According to a March 3, 2021 report from Vietnamese media outlet vnExpress, Pi Network is the 22nd most downloaded iOS app in Vietnam. In May 2021, a Vietnamese news outlet reported that Pi had inadvertently leaked images of users’ identity cards to a hacker. However, a Pi Network spokesperson stated that the app handled KYC through a third-party and did not store this data on its servers, nor was there any evidence of a data leak.

Related: Vietnam government warns about crypto trading risks as Pi gains in popularity.

Bitcoin price briefly fell below $60,000 only a few days before the much-anticipated Bitcoin halving. Yet, many traders remain optimistic about Bitcoin’s long-term price outlook based on historical chart patterns and institutional inflows.

Bitcoin remains in pre-halving “danger zone”

Despite the recent price correction, Bitcoin (BTC) reclaimed a key moving average indicator, which signaled the start of the bull runs during previous market cycles, according to popular crypto analyst Moustache, who wrote in an April 16 X post:

“Many people are expecting much lower prices, but I’m not… BTC reclaimed the [blue] line last month, now backest. When this happened in 2012, 2016 and 2020, Bitcoin was just getting started.”

BTC/USD, 1-month chart. Source: Moustache

Bitcoin has been in the pre-halving “danger zone” for a month since March 14, according to popular crypto analyst Rekt Capital, who wrote in an April 17 X post:

“It has been a month that Bitcoin has been in the ‘Danger Zone’ (orange). In that time, Bitcoin has retraced twice -18% in March and now almost -16% thus far.”

BTC/USD, 1-week chart. Source: Rekt Capital

The pseudonymous analyst added that Bitcoin could already be entering a reaccumulation phase, in an April 17 video posted on X:

“We’ve seen the pre-halving retrace take place because -17% downside has occurred already, so maybe we’re slowly transitioning to the re-accumulation period.

Following the Bitcoin correction, key technical indicators have been reset, suggesting that Bitcoin is no longer overbought now that it fell on the daily chart to 41, down from 58 on April 8.

BTC/USD, 1-day chart. Source: TradingView

Bitcoin price has falle over 7% during the past week. The main reason behind the drawdown could be the recent geopolitical tensions between Iran and Israel, according to John Patrick Mullin, CEO and founder of Mantra, who told Cointelegraph:

“A major event took place this week with Iran and Israel. Crypto markets are more fast-moving than any on the planet, hence events like this reflect almost instantly, which is what we’ve seen. What I will say though, is that a bounce back was seen right after, which is very optimistic long term.”

The current drawdown is considered a healthy correction, as the outlook for the next 18 months remains bullish, according to Mullin:

“Another angle to consider is that historically, miners sell BTC around halving, so short term it could be bearish. But these are healthy corrections, as BTC has been bullish consistently for quite a while, so anything offsetting euphoria is good long term.”

Related: ETH price nears 3-year lows vs. Bitcoin — Will an Ethereum ETF stem the tide?

Bitcoin ETF inflows will drive post-halving rally

Bitcoin traders also remain optimistic thanks to the continued inflows from the 10 spot Bitcoin exchange-traded funds (ETFs) in the United States and the recent approval of spot Bitcoin ETFs in Hong Kong, which are set to launch for trading over the next two weeks.

The Bitcoin ETFs have seen over $12.5 billion in net inflows since launch, amassing over 838,000 BTC, worth $53.7 billion in total holdings, according to Dune.

While the post-halving period is usually followed by short-term price stagnation, this cycle could be different due to the approval of Bitcoin ETFs, according to Ivo Georgiev, CEO of Ambire. He told Cointelegraph:

“[This halving] is different because BTC received institutional approval in the form of an ETF, so there’s a lot more retail and institutions watching this one. It doesn’t happen completely in the background as it did before. It isn’t just a party for crypto natives.”

The listing of the first batch of Bitcoin ETFs in Hong Kong will also contribute to Bitcoin’s price rally, according to Mantra’s CEO, Mullin, who said:

“More and more ETFs announced globally means an inflow of ‘fresh’ funds that weren’t in crypto before, so this is a factor I still see as underrated by most analysts in terms of the scale of the funds coming in. It’s not just BlackRock and Grayscale and Hong Kong, but many more will come, in size crypto hasn’t seen before.”

Related: Bitcoin supply to run out on exchanges in 9 months — Bybit

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 ICO boom of 2018 was an absolute disaster. It was a Wild West that saw venture capital (VC) funds throwing money at the wall to see what stuck with little regard for due diligence. More than $7 billion was funneled into ICOs in 2018, often based on little more than a drunken conversation at a cryptocurrency party. But the stories that stick are the monumental disasters that have made ICOs synonymous with fraud.

Perhaps the most prominent of these was the Bitconnect Ponzi scheme. After promising sky-high returns and seeing the value of its token (BCC) rocket to $400, it soon left investors nursing losses of some $2.4 billion. So it's understandable that as a new bull market gathers pace there is still a degree of caution around ICOs.

Despite increased caution, though, there is no question that a fresh ICO boom is just around the corner. Already, we are seeing tentative signs of this. The monthly number of token sales has reached a two-year high, according to CryptoRank, while RootData reports that VCs allocated 52% more to crypto projects in March than in February.

Related: SEC has 'very low' odds of winning against Uniswap: Crypto lawyer

We now find ourselves at an inflection point in the digital asset fundraising landscape. With the event season firmly underway, I expect to see an acceleration of new launches in the coming months, leading to a resurgence in ICO activity.

Monthly number of ICO fundraising rounds (green) and total cash value of sales (blue) from December 2022 through March 2024. Source: CryptoRank.io

The last ICO boom was driven by a burst of development activity on Ethereum (ETH). This time around, it will be advancements in real-world asset tokenization, innovations like decentralized physical infrastructure (DePIN) and AI, and new developments in decentralized finance (DeFi) such as layer-2s and zero-knowledge (ZK) rollups, that will lead the surge in fundraising. Growing institutional interest will also ensure that new infrastructure projects, security solutions and off-ramp providers come to market. According to CryptoRank, a total of $2.3 billion was raised across 422 funding rounds in Q1. We could easily see this number grow 10-fold before the year is out.

However, the lessons we learned in 2018 mean that the projects fundraising today will face much greater scrutiny from both investors and regulators. As a result, we will see a much higher survival rate and fewer monetary losses. The next ICO boom is going to look a lot less like a Saturday night in the Last Chance Saloon, and a lot more like Wall Street when JPMorgan took over.

It is perhaps foolish to expect this coming boom to be ethical, per se. However, we will certainly see much greater organization and stricter due diligence policies. Gone are the days when a project could approach an investor with a business plan scribbled on a napkin. The VCs of today have become far more discerning. They require a full-blown whitepaper with well-fleshed-out tokenomics, strong numbers, and reliable revenue projections before they commit their capital.

In part, this has to do with the experiences of 2022 where many high-profile investors lost money in projects like FTX and Celsius, which appeared legit on the surface. The wounds the crypto industry suffered during 2022 are still too fresh to launch headfirst into another irresponsible fundraising boom.

Instead, we have seen crypto-specific regulations rolled out across several jurisdictions, such as the Markets in Crypto Assets (MiCA) in the European Union, and there is only more regulatory scrutiny on the horizon. With the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) firmly focused on the regulatory status of a raft of altcoins, the crypto ecosystem is well and truly in the spotlight this time around.

Related: Bitcoin's halving won't see a 600% return this year — so adjust your strategy

This focus will likely deter future Bitconnect-like schemes. Indeed, as we saw with the trial and conviction of FTX founder Sam Bankman-Fried — who received 25 years in prison — the law is unlikely to be lenient towards those committing crypto crimes. His sentencing was certainly designed to scare off other would-be fraudsters and will act as a warning as crypto fundraising begins in earnest.

So this cycle’s ICOs will be very different from what we saw in 2018. This time around it will be about due diligence, compliance, investor accessibility, and reliable returns. That is not to say that we will not see a rise in scams and rug pulls as the bull market accelerates. There will simply be different vehicles for this. Indeed, the meme coin frenzy we are witnessing right now closely resembles the ICO craze of 2018, so perhaps that will produce more of the losses this time.

When it comes to ICOs, however, we will see a landscape much more akin to the traditional financial ecosystem. This means more sophisticated investors, including large institutions like BlackRock and Fidelity, which are already making increasingly large commitments to digital assets.

We will also see a resurgence of launchpads, which are designed to help investors gain access to ICOs. Here, there will also be a greater emphasis on due diligence to ensure that each new project has been fully vetted before being presented to investors. With growing regulatory complexity around ICOs and ongoing fears around the potential risks, launchpads will play a key role in helping investors navigate these. This new, more sophisticated ecosystem will help investors sort the wheat from the chaff.

In addition, the profile of the typical ICO investor is arguably changing in this market. It will no longer be "degens" hoping to grow their assets 1000%. It’s more likely to be smart entrepreneurial types looking to support the next Binance or Coinbase, and they will be willing to invest big bucks.

We are entering the season of "more." More new projects, more success and more money. And, hopefully, far fewer Ponzi schemes.

Lucas Kiely is a guest author for Cointelegraph and the chief investment officer for Yield App, where he oversees investment portfolio allocations and leads the expansion of a diversified investment product range. He was previously the chief investment officer at Diginex Asset Management, and a senior trader and managing director at Credit Suisse in Hong Kong, where he managed QIS and Structured Derivatives trading. He was also the head of exotic derivatives at UBS in Australia.

This article is for general information purposes and is not intended to be and should not be taken as legal or investment advice. The views, thoughts, and opinions expressed here are the author’s alone and do not necessarily reflect or represent the views and opinions of Cointelegraph.

A jury has begun deliberations for charges related to market manipulation and fraud following an alleged $110 million exploit of the Mango Markets decentralized exchange by Avraham “Avi” Eisenberg.

On April 17 in United States District Court for the Southern District of New York, Judge Richard Berman excused the jury for the day following closing arguments by prosecutors and defense attorneys. The individuals will continue deliberations tomorrow on whether to find Eisenberg guilty of commodities fraud and commodities manipulation after a two-week trial.

In October 2022, Eisenberg allegedly executed a series of large purchases on Mango Markets to artificially raise the price of the token relative to USD Coin (USDC), then withdrew the assets from the platform. U.S. authorities arrested Eisenberg in Puerto Rico in December 2022, claiming he “willfully and knowingly” engaged in a scheme involving manipulating the price of perpetual futures on Mango Markets.

During closing arguments on April 17, Eisenberg’s lawyers argued that he did not commit any crimes but orchestrated a “successful and legal trading strategy” resulting in roughly $110 million in gains. Prosecutors claimed he “had to lie” to remove funds from Mango Markets, suggesting fraud was part of his plan.

“My client [...] fully complied with the Mango Markets smart contracts,” said Eisenberg’s attorney, according to reporting from Inner City Press. “He withdrew his own capital. It wasn’t a borrow. And the rest of the money? He returned shortly afterwards. They called Avi brazen. That’s not a crime. He didn’t hack into Mango Markets.”

Following the exploit, Eisenberg returned $67 million worth of crypto to Mango Markets but claimed he had obtained the remainder of the funds legally.

“He had control of $110 million,” said defense attorneys. “But he was seeking to return the funds. Maybe you wouldn’t have done it. But this is how people do it in this world of cryptocurrency. He sent $67 million. What was kept were the profits.”

Related: Mango Markets heist like a fake diamond ring scam: Prosecutor

A jury could come back with a verdict in the case as early as April 18. Reports have suggested that Eisenberg could face up to 20 years in prison if found guilty. He has been held in custody since January 2023.

In addition to the criminal charges, Eisenberg faces civil action brought by the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission and the Commodity Futures Trading Commission. Both cases have been stayed until the conclusion of the criminal trial.

Magazine: US enforcement agencies are turning up the heat on crypto-related crime

United States Senator Elizabeth Warren has sent a letter to Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen commenting on Deputy Treasury Secretary Wally Adeyemo’s testimony before the Senate Banking Committee on April 9. She pursued the same line of thought as she did during the hearing — Anti-Money Laundering and Combating the Financing of Terrorism (AML/CFT).

Warren expressed her support in the letter for the legislative adoption of more comprehensive AML/CFT measures for stablecoins. Adeyemo appeared at the Senate hearing to discuss Treasury proposals for expanding its sanctions powers to blockchain validator node operators, among other measures. The Treasury listed its enhanced enforcement goals in response to gaps in current regulation in a document Warren calls a “letter to Congress” dated November 2023. Warren wrote:

“Those authorities must be adopted into any legislation Congress advances to create a new regulatory framework around the $157 billion stablecoin market.”

Warren was apparently not referring to the stablecoin bill introduced into the Senate by Senators Kirsten Gillibrand and Cynthia Lummis on April 17, the day after the date of her letter. The 179-page Lummis-Gillibrand bill makes almost no mention of AML/CFT.

Related: Elections may swing Senate Banking Committee toward crypto, Sen. Lummis says

Source: Alexander Grieve

Rather, it seems Warren had in mind a bill that is expected to come out of the House of Representatives from Finance Committee chair Patrick McHenry and ranking member Maxine Waters. Warren sent them a letter on April 8 voicing much of the same concerns as in her letter to Yellen. Warren concluded her letter to the treasury secretary by saying:

“Stablecoin legislation […] must include the full suite of AML tools that Treasury requested in its November 2023 letter to Congress as necessary to effectively combat that threat [of terrorism financing].”

Digital Chamber Senior Policy Associate Taylor Barr commented on X, possibly with the Lummis-Gillibrand bill in mind, “Would love Sen. Warren’s take on the new bill’s increased consumer protection language, added receivership text, or the Fed/OCC’s enforcement power. All this is conveniently left out of her talking points...”

Magazine: Unstablecoins: Depegging, bank runs and other risks loom

On-chain wallet data promises to be a game-changer for companies looking to target Web3 users, developers and traders — but this hinges on infrastructure connecting wallets to social media profiles.

Cointelegraph spoke to Addressable chief technology officer Asaf Naddler during Paris Blockchain Week, who unpacked details of a new partnership with mobile analytics platform AppsFlyer to improve marketing campaigns for Web3 applications.

Naddler said the company is looking to solve user acquisition challenges in the cryptocurrency ecosystem. Conversations with more than 300 marketers over the past two years have centered around reaching a target audience based on on-chain activity.

Related: TON continues to attract Web3 firms as Telegram Ad Platform goes live

“They’re looking for traders, for developers that deploy smart contracts on blockchains, for NFT collectors, for gamers playing blockchain games,” Naddler explained.

Addressable’s platform allows advertisers to target specific Web3 wallets from different EVM chains. Source: Addressable

Naddler gave Cointelegraph a first-hand demo of the Addressable platform, showing how users could filter and target wallets from different Ethereum Virtual Machine (EVM chains to build a targeted advertising campaign. The process is similar to adding filters like gender, age and geographic location in conventional advertising platforms. 

Addressable’s data visualization includes a geographical breakdown of Web3 wallets in a global format. Source: Addressable

Considering that most Web3 wallets are alphanumeric and anonymous, many advertising platforms cannot target wallet owners. Addressable’s infrastructure combines conventional Web2 information with blockchain data to target a niche but growing sector of the internet:

“We’re connecting wallet owners to social profiles so companies can run targeted advertisement campaigns on Twitter [now X] and display ads to a group of wallets.”

The platform is specifically aimed at serving Web3 companies and clients. Conventional advertising platforms provide customizable targeting, but Naddler said that cryptocurrency-related products and services are typically not relevant to a broad audience on social media platforms like X or Facebook:

“The thing about crypto is most products aren’t a commodity. My mother wouldn’t understand most crypto products. So a tweet on X just flies by anybody who is not native and doesn’t understand that.”

Addressable currently supports seven different Ethereum EVM chains, including BNB, Polygon, Arbitrum, Optimism and Avalanche.

“The key is that we’re able to collect the data to build wallet profiles and associate them to real-world data so that they’re targetable,” Naddler said.

Related: Telegram channels eligible for 50% ad revenue, but there’s a catch

Addressable’s integration with AppsFlyer provides more utility for the targeted advertising platform. Clients can tap into data from Web3 mobile platforms and target users of these mobile applications. 

Naddler said the integration includes data sharing from their platform so that mobile advertisers can get more utility than just an increase in application downloads:

“They can optimize for what drives the wheels into their protocol, what drives people that are spending more crypto on their wallets, on their apps, on their games. It’s an industry milestone.”

AppsFlyer is a specialist mobile marketing tool used by TikTok, Disney, Binance and Crypto.com. It aims to optimize mobile app marketing campaigns with granular attribution data. The partnership is touted to allow Addressable to reach a significant percentage of Web3 mobile applications.

Magazine: 1 in 6 new Base meme coins are scams, 91% have vulnerabilities