Alexander Vinnik pleaded guilty to laundering over $9bn through BTC-e, a cryptocurrency exchange he operated from 2011 to 2017.

Lacking proper anti-money laundering controls, BTC-e was shut down in 2017.

ChainFeeds founder Pan Zhixiong outlined the "impossible triangle" for new token launches in 2024, noting it's unfeasible to achieve simultaneously:

⚫ Binance listing
⚫ Low valuation
⚫ Short cliff

That is related to the fact that almost any project listed on Binance will have high valuation, but might have a short cliff. On the contrary, projects that satisfy the other two criteria, are unlikely to be listed on Binance.

A man involved in ZKasino scam that stole over $30m from users was arrested by the police in Netherlands. Authorities seized over 11m euros ($11.8m) in crypto.

According to the recent data:

⚫️Buying enthusiasm for Bitcoin has decreased, as shown by negative Coinbase premiums and reduced leverage in futures positions
⚫️Growth in Bitcoin demand from large investors or whales has slowed, peaking at 12% in late March and now at 6%
⚫️Significant sell-offs by miners have increased supply, weakening price support
⚫️Recent price drop is due to traders opening short positions, anticipating further declines
⚫️Overall BTC balance on over-the-counter platforms has started to rise, reaching its highest level since November 2022

Apple’s revenue declined for the fifth time due to ailing iPhone sales and competition in China. It plans to buy back up to $110bn in stock.

Tether's Q1 2024 report details significant financial growth and increased transparency:

⚫A record Q1 net profit of $4.52bn, mainly from US Treasury holdings and gains in Bitcoin and Gold
⚫For the first time, Tether disclosed a net equity of $11.37bn, showcasing enhanced transparency
⚫90% of Tether-issued tokens are backed by cash and cash equivalents, ensuring robust liquidity
⚫Its strategic investments exceed $5bn in areas like AI and renewable energy

Bitcoin and a handful of altcoins were down around 7%-10% over the last 24 hours. Here are several factors:

1. Several macro data is being released this week and had investors spooked. Particularly, there is a declining probability of US interest rate cuts this month, and rumors of possible rate hike considerations

2. Over the last 24 hours, 115,804 traders were liquidated for a whopping $387.91m.

3. US Spot BTC ETFs saw an outflow of $161m yesterday

4. Hong Kong’s Bitcoin and Ether ETFs failed to meet expectations

5. RSI divergence indicators suggest a bearish trend, as it was in the "overbought" area during the US BTC ETFs launch

6. More BTC miners approach shutdown levels amid price drop below $57,000

It is important to note that during the 2015-2017 bull market, over 13 different 20% pullbacks occured. Price swings are quite normal and sometimes good for the markets.

🔴🔴🔴 FED’s FOMC meeting notes will be updated below:

1. Inflation is still high

2. There is a slowdown in inflation reduction progress

3. It is not feasible to reduce interest rates until there is confidence in a stable low inflation

4. Labor market demand still exceeds the supply

5. It is unlikely that the Fed's next step will be to raise rates

6. Interest rates reduction will take longer

The US DOJ has charged Roger Ver, also known as the Bitcoin Jesus, with mail fraud, tax evasion, and filing false tax returns. He was arrested this weekend in Spain based on the US criminal charges. He was a major supporter of Bitcoin Cash and an early investor in Bitcoin.

China's crypto transaction ban reportedly prevents mainland investors from accessing Hong Kong's Bitcoin and Ether ETFs.

Five rules for token launches from a16z:

⚫️Never publicly sell tokens in the US for fundraising purposes
⚫️Ensure the project's decentralization to enhance trust and reliability
⚫️Communication plays a crucial role in the success of a project
⚫️Exercise caution when dealing with secondary market listings and liquidity
⚫️Apply token lockups for at least one year to stabilize the market

Trader Avraham Eisenberg was found guilty of defrauding Mango Markets for $110m, a first in US crypto crime trials, with sentencing due July 29.

Tether has announced that it will undergo restructuring with the purpose of

"broadening its mission towards delivering a range of infrastructure solutions for a more inclusive world."

The company stated that it will include four distinct business divisions within Tether:

⚫Tether Data: Strategic Investments in Technology Division
⚫Tether Finance: Digital Asset Services Division
⚫Tether Power: Sustainable Bitcoin Mining and Energy Division
⚫Tether Edu: Digital Education and Advancement Transformation Division

Arkham created a dashboard to monitor the 10 reachiest crypto asset owners. The top 5 include:

⚫️Justin Sun ($1.1bn)
⚫️Rain Lohmus ($793m)
⚫️Vitalik Buterin ($782m)
⚫️Stefan Thomas ($452m)
⚫️James Fickel ($446m)

Trust Wallet has issued a warning on Twitter for iOS users about a high-risk zero-day exploit targeting iMessage, which can infiltrate iPhones without any link being clicked.

They advised disabling iMessage immediately until Apple releases a patch.

According to the data, in 2024, the cryptocurrency landscape has expanded dramatically, with over 2.52m cryptocurrencies existing to date, a surge from the 0.44 million at the end of 2021:

⚫️Approximately 0.54m new tokens have been created as of early April 2024, averaging 5,300 new launches daily
⚫️2024 is on pace to exceed the 0.83m new tokens recorded in 2023, indicating a continuous growth in token creation
⚫️The record for monthly new token launches was broken in March 2024 with 195,735, influenced heavily by memecoin seasons
⚫️The ease of token creation and cheaper onchain trading are contributing to spikes in new tokens, reflecting a rise in onchain speculative activity

🚀 The 3 Biggest Winners of the Week:

1. Bitcoin Ordinals
Ordinals, also known as Bitcoin NFTs, first launched back in Jan 2023.

⚫️Over the last week, Bitcoin had more NFT sales volume than Ethereum, Solana, Polygon, and Mythos combined.
⚫️The top 3 most traded NFT collections this week were all on Bitcoin.

2. Toncoin (TON)
Toncoin is a Layer 1 blockchain crteated by Telegram in 2018. It raised a whopping $1.7bn in its token sale, which is the second most successful ICO ever behind EOS that raised $4.1bn. After running into trouble with the SEC, the project was picked up by the The Open Network (TON) community.

⚫️Over the last week, Toncoin hit a new all-time high of $7.65 (based on CMC)
⚫️Toncoin climbed up to the 8th place by market cap, surpassing Caradno then Dogecoin.
⚫️Fees and revenue have also skyrocketed recently, with daily revenue hitting $125k on April 8, the second biggest day ever.

3. Base
⚫️ Activity on Base exploded this week, having ~3m daily transactions every day this week.
⚫️ Base had twice as many transactions as any other Layer 2 yesterday.

📣Samsung Taps Polygon, OpenSea, WoW for NFT TV Bundle

Boosting its web3 initiative GEN|3|GATE, Samsung is debuting a limited-edition ‘Web3 TV Bundle’ on April 24. By utilizing Polygon Labs’ blockchain technology, OpenSea’s NFT marketplace, and Ledger’s secure hardware wallets, users can soon seamlessly obtain top NFTs through the ‘Samsung NFT Gallery TV App’.

The app connects with Samsung Lifestyle TVs, enhancing the Smart Hub’s ‘Art Mode’ with immersive art and rewards from blockchain pioneers: Illuvium, Wilder World, and World of Women, as well as Vienna’s Belvedere Museum (contributing to The Kiss NFT project).

The Winklevoss twins reportedly invested $4.5m in Bitcoin into Real Bedford FC to fund a Bitcoin vault, a new training center, and more.

According to WSJ, forecasters now expect the first rate cut no sooner than Q3 and anticipate only one or two cuts this year, despite earlier consensus predicting a June rate cut.