A memecoin trader cashed out millions in profits from several positions on meme-themed tokens in Solana (SOL). 

On April 26, blockchain analysis firm Lookonchain flagged the movements of a trader with the Solana Name Service account called “paulo.sol.” The crypto wallet realized profits on meme tokens like Dogwifhat (WIF), Jeo Boden (BODEN) and Bonk (BONK).

The trader got into BONK as early as Nov. 11, 2023. The user noticed that the memecoin was rising and bought tokens. The trader then performed swing trades, buying at lows and selling at highs. In total, the trader made about $6.28 million trading BONK.

Bonk buys and sells from the crypto wallet called paulo.sol. Source: Dexscreener (via Lookonchain)

Meanwhile, the trader also noticed WIF and BODEN. When the tokens first went online, the Solana memecoin holder did not immediately jump into them.

However, the trader started buying heavily when they showed upward swings for the first time. The trader started buying WIF on Dec. 4, 2023 and started trading BODEN on March 6. In total, the trader realized $9.51 million in profits from WIF trades and $7.04 million on BODEN.

Overall, the trader realized over $22.83 million from flipping Solana-based meme tokens. While the trader already secured millions in profits, the crypto user still holds $7.6 million in BODEN tokens and $5.7 million in WIF at the time of writing.

Apart from these memecoin holdings, the trader has also started to put money on other memecoins. The crypto wallet started buying tokens called PUPS and POPCAT.

The trader spent $1.77 million on POPCAT and almost $6 million on PUPS, becoming its largest holder on Solana.

Related: Solana memecoin craze continues with Biden parody token reaching $250M market cap

Community members praised the trader because of the impressive moves. One X user said the trader was not lucky but had “more conviction” than others.

Another user said that the trader had “diamond” hands, a term used to describe crypto traders that can hold tokens even under pressure.

This trader is one of the many who have reaped profits from the Solana memecoin craze. On Dec. 29, a trader hit a $2 million jackpot after putting only $62 on a SOL-based meme token. On April 3, another turned $13,000 into $2 million in just one hour as the memecoin frenzy continued.

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The rise in transaction fees from Bitcoin Runes — a new protocol for issuing fungible tokens on the Bitcoin network — is offering a significant revenue boost for Bitcoin miners, according to Nazar Khan, the co-founder and CEO of TeraWulf.

Khan told Cointelegraph in an exclusive:

“Runes significantly increased the transaction fees, so if anything, there was an increase in the hash price in the first 24-30 hours [after halving]. Since then, we’ve seen transaction fees come down, but compared to the average fees in 2023, they’re still pretty high.”

As the rest of the Bitcoin block reward is fixed issuance, the transaction fees are the “wild card” for Bitcoin (BTC) miners, explained Khan.

Nazar Khan, interview with Cointelegraph. Source: Cointelegraph

The boost in transaction fees represents a significant financial lifeline for miners after the Bitcoin halving reduced block rewards from 6.25 BTC to 3.125 BTC.

Total Bitcoin transaction fees stood at 105 Bitcoin on April 25, down from its peak of 1,257 on April 20 — the day of the Bitcoin halving — according to Cryptoquant data. Yet, transaction fees remained higher compared to most of 2023.

Bitcoin Miner Fees (Total). Source: Cryptoquant

Related: ‘Real opportunity’ for Bitcoin Runes will come after first wave of investor hype

On average, transaction fees made up 30% of the Bitcoin block rewards since the halving, which is almost an additional BTC for miners, on top of the existing block rewards, said Khan:

“If you think about the 30% [average transaction fee] where it's been the last few days, that's almost one BTC, on top of the 3.125 BTC that are being issued as block rewards. So it is very significant…”

Transaction fees comprised an average of 10% of Bitcoin block rewards in 2023. Terawulf assumed an average post-halving Bitcoin production cost of $37,000 per BTC, assuming a 10% average transaction fee.

But with higher average transaction fees, TeraWulf’s Bitcoin production cost will likely fall lower, contributing to its profitability, according to Khan:

“To the extent that transaction fees are higher than that, we will recognize a lower production cost. So even with 10% transaction fees, we will be very profitable, even post-halving.”

TerraWulf is the eighth-largest Bitcoin mining firm, with an over $750 million market capitalization, according to Companies Market Cap. The company is planning further expansions despite the halving of block rewards.

Top Bitcoin mining firms. Source: Companiesmarketcap

Related: BRC-20 tokens bleed ahead of Bitcoin halving as trader focus shifts to Runes

Big Tech giants Microsoft and Alphabet, the parent company of Google, unveiled their second-quarter earnings reports, which showcased an impressive growth fueled by their strategic investments in artificial intelligence (AI). 

The recent earnings reports released on April 25 painted a clear picture that the AI market is still booming and has played a significant role in driving growth while boosting product and financial performance.

Microsoft’s momentum

Microsoft revealed a 17% increase in revenue, soaring to $61.9 billion up from $52.9 billion in the previous year. Additionally, the company saw a 20% surge in profits, reaching $21.9 billion, in both instances outperforming analysts' forecasts. 

A significant contributor to this growth was the company’s robust integration of AI into its offerings, particularly evident in its cloud computing product Azure, which experienced a 31% growth.

Azure's generative AI services played a pivotal role in driving this expansion, attracting 53,000 customers, a third of whom were new to the platform. In many of its recent deals, Microsoft has incorporated Azure usage for partnering companies.

One example from April 16, is a $1.5 billion deal with the Abu Dhabi-based AI tech holding company G42, which will have the company run its AI applications and services using Azure.

Amy Hood, the chief financial officer of Microsoft, commented on the uptick saying:

“Near-term AI demand is a bit higher than our available capacity.”

To meet this demand, the company is ramping up investments in data centers and other AI infrastructure, anticipating a “material” increase in capital expenditures. Microsoft's cloud revenue stood at $35.1 billion for the quarter, resulting in a 23% growth year-over-year. 

Related: Mistral AI startup launches LLM to take on ChatGPT, Gemini and Claude

In January of this year, Microsoft released the pro-version of its AI assistant Copilot, which included custom GPTs and office tools. The company has also been actively involved in investing in AI infrastructure around the world.

Its $13 billion deal with leading AI developer OpenAI was also mentioned as an important touchpoint for its success. 

Alphabet's AI integrations

Similarly, Alphabet reported increased figures, with quarterly sales reaching $80.5 billion, a 15% increase from the previous year and profit surging by 36% to $23.7 billion. Again, both instances exceeded expectations.

Google's integration of AI across its product ecosystem, from search engines to YouTube and Google Docs, was highlighted as a major driver of its success, along with its significant investment of $11.9 billion in AI research and development during the first three months of the year.

During the call, Alphabet’s CEO Sundar Pichai emphasized the company's focus on leveraging AI to enhance the search experience while optimizing advertising revenue.

“We're being measured in how we do this focusing on areas where Gen AI can improve the search experience, while also prioritizing traffic to websites and merchants.”

The company also announced its first-ever dividend of 20 cents per share to be paid in June. Additionally, it authorized a $70 billion share repurchase program, demonstrating confidence in its future.

Google has encountered challenges in the field of AI, such as the recent scandal involving its AI chatbot Gemini, which internet users criticized for presenting “woke” content and historically inaccurate imagery. As a result, the company issued an apology.

However, during the call Pichai remained optimistic and expressed confidence in Google's infrastructure, claiming it’s “the best for the AI era” due to years of investment.

The contrasting strategies between Microsoft, Google, and Meta, formerly Facebook, are evident in their approaches to AI investment.

While Microsoft and Google have prioritized AI integration to drive growth, it contrasts with Meta whose shares dropped 15% this week after it announced plans to spend almost $100 billion this year to “invest aggressively” in its AI products.

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A crackdown on individuals buying and selling child sexual abuse material (CSAM) using cryptocurrencies is underway in the United States.

U.S. Senators Elizabeth Warren and Bill Cassidy want to ensure that federal agencies are fully equipped to track down crypto transactions linked to the sale of child abuse content.

In this effort to bring an end to CSAM, the Department of Justice (DOJ) and Department of Homeland Security (DHS) were asked to reveal their current technical capacity.

The senators cited a Chainalysis study from January 2024, which suggested an increase in the use of cryptocurrency in the illicit trade of CSAM. In the study.

Chainalysis found that sellers of child abuse materials are using “mixers” and “privacy coins” like Monero (XMR) to launder their profits and evade law enforcement.

CSAM vendors’ usage of instant exchangers that allow for Monero conversion has increased significantly over the last few years. Source: Chainalysis.

Writing to Attorney General Merrick Garland and Secretary of Homeland Security Alejandro Mayorkas, the U.S. senators asked for the DOJ’s and DHS’s current capabilities to identify and prosecute these crimes.

“Existing Anti-Money Laundering (AML) rules and law enforcement methods face challenges in effectively detecting and preventing these crimes.”

The letter contained six questions, three of which were aimed at gauging the federal agencies’ independent findings on cryptocurrency’s link to CSAM. The rest were to identify the need for new tools to identify and prosecute sellers and buyers.

The senators requested a response to the questions by May 10.

Related: Crypto users fooled by fake Elizabeth Warren letter proposing crypto tax

The DOJ’s current technical capacity to examine crypto transactions led to the indictment of cryptocurrency exchange KuCoin and two of its founders.

On March 26, the DOJ charged KuCoin and its two founders with “conspiring to operate an unlicensed money transmitting business” and violating the Bank Secrecy Act, or BSA.

“In failing to implement even basic Anti-Money Laundering policies, the defendants allowed KuCoin to operate in the shadows of the financial markets and be used as a haven for illicit money laundering.”

According to the Justice Department, KuCoin received more than $5 billion and sent more than $4 billion of “suspicious and criminal funds.”

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Bitcoin (BTC) could see a “re-acceleration” of its bull market thanks to new United States economic shifts.

That is the latest macro forecast by Arthur Hayes, former CEO of crypto exchange BitMEX.

Hayes on crypto bull market: "Forget about the Fed" 

Bitcoin and altcoins have little hope in the Federal Reserve dropping interest rates soon to attract more liquidity into the economy.

As Cointelegraph reported, the odds of this happening sooner rather than later are becoming slimmer with each macro data print.

For Hayes, however, the Fed is no longer the U.S. yardstick worth watching — instead, it is Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen.

On April 29, the U.S. Treasury will release the quarterly refunding documentation, which sets out how the government will effectively manage liquidity.

On the radar are two key liquidity sources: the Treasury General Account (TGA) and so-called Reverse Purchase Agreements (RRPs).

“As expected tax receipts added roughly $200bn to TGA,” Hayes wrote in a post on X (formerly Twitter) on April 26.

“Forget about the May Fed meeting the 2Q24 refunding annc comes out next week.”

TGA vs. RRP liquidity chart. Source: Arthur Hayes/X

Draining either the TGA or money from the pool of RRPs allows for money to reenter the economy — a key stimulus for risk-asset performance, and specifically crypto upside.

Hayes argues that the focus is thus on Yellen as part of a theory, which calls for U.S. dollar printing to only accelerate toward the upcoming Presidential Election and afterward.

A $1 trillion TGA drain, $400 million in RRPs or a combination of both is on the table, potentially totaling a $1.4 trillion liquidity injection.

“The Fed is irrelevant, Yellen is a bad bitch, you best respect her,” Hayes concluded.

“If any of these three options happen, expect a rally in stonks and most importantly a re-acceleration of the crypto bull market.”

Bitcoin ETFs see "overdue" slowdown

Other players see the knock-on effect of Bitcoin’s mainstream entry becoming a positive feedback loop for price.

Related: BTC halving to fuel ‘raging firesale of crypto assets’ — Arthur Hayes

The U.S. spot Bitcoin exchange-traded funds (ETFs) remain far from their full captive audience — despite marking the most successful ETF debut in history.

Commenting on BlackRock’s iShares Bitcoin Trust (IBIT), the largest product by assets under management excluding the Grayscale Bitcoin Trust (GBTC), Bloomberg ETF analyst Eric Balchunas dismissed a recent cooling of inflows as cause for concern.

“While $IBIT's daily inflow streak is over at 71 days, it is not done setting records. Here's a look at ETFs all time by assets after first 72 days on market,” he wrote alongside Bloomberg data.

“The league of own-ness of IBIT, FBTC et al shows how overheated it all was, a breather was overdue tbh.”

U.S. spot Bitcoin ETF AUM chart. Source: Eric Balchunas/X

He added that “out of all the 10,698 registered funds in the U.S. (incl ETFs, mutual funds, CEFs) $IBIT currently ranks 2nd in YTD flows.”

While overall allocations remain small thus far, Cathie Wood, CEO of one spot Bitcoin ETF provider, ARK Invest, sees the trend gathering speed.

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.

What are crypto-to-crypto swaps?

Crypto-to-crypto swaps are the direct exchange of one cryptocurrency for another at the prevailing market rate. Unlike traditional exchanges, which would require fiat currency deposits and a longer process, crypto-to-crypto swaps facilitate the exchange seamlessly.

Swaps play a major role in enhancing the liquidity and efficiency of cryptocurrencies. The feature enables users to barter their cryptocurrencies with other coins in their wallets, enhancing the efficiency of the ecosystem as a whole and reducing the risk of censorship or control. 

Thanks to swaps, users can diversify their crypto holdings, take advantage of new investment opportunities and easily swap between cryptocurrencies without depositing fiat.

Is crypto swapping better than trading?

In the realm of cryptocurrencies, newbies may regard the terms “swap” and “trade” as the same. However, though the outcome might be similar, the process is different.

In crypto trading, transactions are executed based on an order book, limiting trades to pairs available on the exchange. Typically, trading involves exchanging crypto for fiat currency first and then using that fiat to purchase another coin. This process will entail the trader paying a commission at every step: first, selling a cryptocurrency and second, buying another coin.

Swapping, on the other hand, allows for seamless exchange between cryptocurrencies. The process occurs in one go, eliminating the need to convert crypto to fiat initially and, after that, buying another cryptocurrency. Swapping offers greater flexibility, enabling users to immediately exchange one asset for another.

How do crypto-to-crypto swaps function?

Crypto-to-crypto swaps can be executed on centralized exchanges (CEXs) or decentralized exchanges (DEXs). However, under the hood, the mechanism is different.

On CEXs, which act as intermediaries, users interact with the liquidity pool, and exchanges charge fees for facilitating swaps. On Coinbase, for instance, the user interacts with its order book when swapping. When they place a swap order, Coinbase matches their request with available liquidity from its internal pool, essentially acting as the counterparty to the trade. Fees are typically fixed and transparent but are higher than DEXs for facilitating swaps.

DEX swaps are peer-to-peer (P2P). Automated smart contracts manage liquidity pools — provided by users — eliminating the need for an intermediary in the exchange process. This usually means lower fees but may have slippage risks if liquidity is low. Uniswap, for example, uses liquidity pools composed of cryptocurrency pairs contributed by users. 

Smart contracts in DEXs execute swaps based on the ratio of assets within the pool. The user contributes one asset and receives the equivalent amount of the other instead of direct trades. Fees are paid to liquidity providers and are usually lower than those on centralized exchanges, but users need to consider slippage.

Users connect their wallets to the DEX platform, select the desired assets and quantities and authorize the transaction. Smart contracts facilitate the exchange by automatically executing the trade based on predetermined parameters, such as price and volume.

In both CEXs and DEXs, the swap process involves determining the cryptocurrency pairs, specifying the amount to exchange and confirming the transaction. Once executed, the swapped cryptocurrencies are transferred to the user’s wallet or managed within the exchange’s infrastructure.

Factors to consider before swapping

Before swapping, consider aspects such as security, liquidity, slippage, transaction fees, network congestion, regulatory considerations and jurisdictional differences.

Before a user proceeds with swapping, it is important to consider a few factors to ensure a seamless process:

Security

Assess the security measures of the platform. When using a CEX, users should consider the security certifications of the platform and whether it uses cold storage for the assets it holds. If the user wants to execute swapping in a DEX, they should factor in the security audit of the DEX and its track record.

Liquidity and slippage

Users need to evaluate the liquidity of the assets they are swapping to avoid substantial price fluctuations during the transaction, which may result in slippage.

Transaction fees and network congestion

Network congestion has a role in determining the cost and speed of the swap. Research the fees charged by the platform and consider the current state of the blockchain network to prevent any delays or increased costs.

Regulatory considerations and jurisdictional differences

Regulatory considerations and jurisdictional differences are aspects that a user should not overlook. The user needs to ensure compliance with relevant laws and regulations governing cryptocurrency transactions in their location.

What are the risks and challenges in crypto-to-crypto swapping?

Anyone doing crypto swapping needs to factor in possibilities like price volatility, liquidity risks, counterparty risks, regulatory risks and market manipulation.

Crypto swapping has its own set of risks and challenges: 

Price volatility

Cryptocurrency prices are highly volatile, with rapid and unpredictable fluctuations. This volatility can affect the value of the assets to undergo swapping, leading to large gains or losses within a short period.

Liquidity risks

Liquidity refers to the ease with which a crypto asset can be bought or sold without significantly affecting its price. If a cryptocurrency has lower liquidity, the number of buyers or sellers at a given time may be insufficient, leading to delays or unfavorable prices during the swapping process.

Counterparty risk

When swapping cryptocurrencies on CEXs, users rely on the exchange to facilitate the transaction. There is a possibility that the exchange could face technical issues, become insolvent or engage in fraudulent activities.

Regulatory risks

The regulatory landscape for cryptocurrencies is still evolving and differs widely across different jurisdictions. Regulation changes could impact the legality or operational aspects of crypto-swapping platforms.

Market manipulation

In less regulated markets, there is a risk of market manipulation, where large traders or groups of traders artificially inflate or deflate prices to exploit other market participants. This may lead to unexpected outcomes for users engaging in crypto swapping.

The SlowMist security team has uncovered a novel cryptocurrency scam that exploits altered Ethereum nodes' remote procedure call (RPC) function. This type of fraud commonly targets physical offline transactions, employing Tether (USDT) as the preferred payment method.

According to SlowMist findings, the scam starts with convincing the victim to download the legitimate imToken wallet and gain trust by transferring a small amount of 1 USDT and Ether (ETH) as bait.

Subsequently, the scammer directs the victim to change their ETH RPC URL to a node controlled by the scammer (https://rpc.tenderly.co/fork/34ce4192-e929-4e48-a02b-d96180f9f748).

The scammer modifies the node using Tenderly’s fork feature, which falsifies the user’s USDT balance to make it appear that the scammer has deposited funds into the user’s wallet. When users view the balance, they mistakenly believe the funds are legitimate.

Analysis of a victim’s wallet address (0x9a7…Ce4) shows that the victim’s address received a small amount of 1 USDT and 0.002 ETH from another address (0x4df…54b)  Source: SlowMist

However, upon attempting to transfer out the miner’s fees to cash out the USDT, they realize they have been deceived. By this point, the scammer has disappeared without a trace.

In addition to modifying displayed balances, the fork feature can alter contract information, presenting an even more significant threat to users.

SlowMist Technology’s report stated that this type of scam exploits users’ trust and negligence, resulting in asset losses. The SlowMist security team reminds users to remain vigilant when trading and avoid using untrusted RPC nodes.

A remote procedure call lets a program run code on one computer on a remote server, mimicking local execution. In blockchain like Ethereum, RPC interacts with nodes, querying balances, sending transactions, or interacting with smart contracts.

Related: Bitcoin-hating European Central Bank isn't doing much to stop scammers

According to SlowMist, a user can adjust balance values using Tenderly’s custom JSON-RPC to control account balances within Tenderly Forks. This feature enables modifying account balances by setting specific values or increasing them as desired.

However, to establish a specific balance, use the code snippet “ether4s.utils.hexvalue(aBignumberish)” to convert the big number value into a suitable format without leading zeros. This snippet sets the balance value to 100 ETH for one or more addresses through the tenderly_setBalance custom RPC endpoint.

A similar scam circulated on Telegram, allowing the attacker to drain a victim’s crypto wallet without the victim needing to confirm a transaction. While the method does not require users to approve a transaction, it appears to require tricking the user into signing a message.

Magazine: $6B scam accused in court, China loophole for Hong Kong Bitcoin ETFs: Asia Express

More than half a billion dollars worth of Ether (ETH) long positions could face liquidation if Ether experiences the same price volatility as it did last weekend. 

This comes amid mounting concerns that the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) might reject an Ether spot ETF next month.

At the time of publication, Ether is currently trading at $3,134, as per CoinMarketCap data.

Ether's price has hovered between $3,705 and $2,915 over the past 30 days. Source: CoinMarketCap

Over the past few weekends, Ether has experienced short bursts of volatility in its price, followed by quickly recovering to key support levels.

On April 20, the price briefly dipped by 2.25% to $3,036. The previous Saturday, April 13, it fell nearly 9% to $2,950 before recovering to $3,075.

If it happens again this weekend, a significant amount of liquidations will be at risk. A similar drop of just 2.25% at its current price will lead to $510 million in long liquidations, as per CoinGlass data.

Meanwhile, a sharper decline similar to the 9% drop seen the previous weekend would result in $853 million being wiped in long liquidations.

Ether's price has little wiggle room without risking a significant amount of liquidations. Source: CoinGlass

The high volume of potential liquidations comes as Ethereum is experiencing broader uncertainties regarding the status of its spot ETF, along with other legal challenges.

Related: Ethereum price data points to strong resistance at $3.5K

On April 24, Cointelegraph reported that U.S. issuers and other firms expect the SEC to reject spot Ether ETF applications next month following meetings with the regulator in recent weeks, citing four people who participated in the meetings.

The four persons claimed that recent meetings between issuers and the SEC have been one-sided, and agency staff have not discussed substantive details about the proposed products.

Meanwhile, it has beenrevealed on Thursday that software development company Consensys filed a lawsuit against the SEC and its five commissioners over claims they plan “to regulate ETH as a security.”

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

The United States securities regulator filed a lawsuit against Geosyn Mining and its co-founders alleging they defrauded investors out of $5.6 million by lying about the amount of crypto mining rigs it operated while using customer money for personal expenses.

The Securities and Exchange Commission’s April 24 lawsuit in a Fort Worth, Texas federal court claimed Geosyn, its CEO Caleb Joseph Ward, and former operating chief Jeremy George McNutt defrauded around 64 investors through service agreements sold as securities between November 2021 and December 2022.

The SEC alleged the agreements to buy and run crypto miners on customers’ behalf for a fee “falsely claimed” Geosyn had contracts with electricity providers for cheap energy but in reality, the costs were “as high as 40-50% above” the rates it told customers.

Ward and McNutt also lied to investors about Geosyn’s operations, the SEC claimed. It alleged of the 1,400 mining rigs Geosyn entered into service agreements to purchase it failed to buy 400 of them and “never brought most of the purchased mining machines online.”

Geosyn’s agreements told investors they could choose what crypto to mine, the suit claimed, but the firm rejected requests to mine anything other than Bitcoin (BTC).

Ward (left) and McNutt (right) at Geosyn’s facility in Springtown, Texas in 2022. Source: Geosyn Mining

The SEC said the firm made BTC payouts to investors to make them “believe that their mining machines were operational and profitable when they were not” and created “bogus documents” with “fabricated mining production rates and profits.”

It earned $320,000 from mining BTC but gave around $354,500 worth to investors, the SEC alleged. To make up the difference, McNutt purchased Bitcoin and sent it to Ward to pass on to investors, the regulator said.

SEC also claims Ward and McNutt misappropriated around $1.2 million in investor funds for personal use such as meals, nightclubs, vacations, guns, watches and legal fees, including a case where McNutt allegedly used the firm’s credit card on a $20,000 “Las Vegas nightclub wedding celebration” for Ward and a $49,000 family trip to Disney World.

It claimed Ward and McNutt used other $22,000 of investor funds on a breathalyzer device and other expenses relating to McNutt and a Geosyn employee’s alleged separate arrests and convictions for drunk driving during a June 2022 crypto conference.

Highlighted excerpt of the SEC’s claims relating to the alleged drunk driving incident. Source: SEC

By the end of 2022 new investor funds dried up and Geosyn had less than $1,900 in the bank — “unable to make a profit because it did not have the favorable electricity contracts that Defendants touted to investors” the SEC said.

Related: FBI warning against crypto money transmitters ‘appears’ to be aimed at mixers

It added in October 2022, McNutt left and gave up ownership. Ward allegedly contacted the authorities to report McNutt for embezzlement “without disclosing his own misappropriations,” the SEC said.

With Geosyn in “dire financial straits,” in early 2023 Ward emailed investors “IOU” notes for their owed Bitcoin and that June said it would file for bankruptcy which never happened, according to the SEC.

The regulator asked for a permanent injunction, the repayment of the alleged misappropriations and for penalties to be leveled against the trio.

Geosyn, Ward and McNutt could not be immediately reached for comment.

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

Pre-order holders of Solana’s ‘Chapter 2’ mobile phone had a brief chance to profit from the yet-to-be-released mobile phone — after memecoins airdropped to buyers briefly exceeded the cost of the phone. 

In April, the teams behind two cat-themed memecoin projects: Cat in a dog’s world (MEW) and Maneki (MANEKI) airdropped tokens to the wallets of crypto users who pre-ordered the new Chapter 2 device — which initially cost $450 upfront.

Source: Solana Floor

On April 1, the team behind MEW airdropped 37,600 of its tokens to each holder. At its peak post-airdrop price of $0.0089, this allocation was worth $334, per CoinGecko data.  

Similarly, a total of 5,199 MANEKI was airdropped to each holder on April 24, which also hit a peak price of $0.269 on April 25.

Combined with other memecoin projects, including Wuffi (WUFFI), which airdropped 114,000 tokens to Chapter 2 wallets, the combined airdrops would have garnered holders $480 — allowing them to pay off the device and even make another $30 in profit, according to airdrop value checker twoloot.com,

The memecoins have since dropped in value, however, with MEW now only worth $220 at current prices while MANEKI has fallen to $124.

When pre-ordering Chapter 2 devices, buyers were required to connect a Solana wallet address, meaning that the airdropped tokens were available to holders before the phone arrived.

Related: BONK, POPCAT and Solana memecoins stay green even as Bitcoin price drops

Owners of Solana’s first mobile device, the ‘Saga,’ also received the same amount of Maneki in their respective wallets.

The original Solana Saga was released in May last year to little fanfare, with many reviews detailing technical issues and usability concerns with the devices.

However, the phones began flying off the shelves in December when degens figured cottoned on to a bizarre arbitrage opportunity presented by a memecoin rally for Bonk (BONK).

Between Nov. 15 and Dec. 15 last year, the price of BONK surged more than 1,100%. At peak prices, the value of the 30,000 BONK airdrop was more than $1,150 — $551 more than the original $599 price tag attached to the Saga phone.

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Digital asset investment manager Pantera Capital is reportedly looking to raise more than $1 billion for a new fund that offers investors exposure to a “full spectrum” of blockchain-based assets.

Slated for an April 2025 launch, the Pantera Fund V is set to serve as the firm’s ‘all-in-one’ fund, a slight change of tune from its existing Liquid Token Fund, Early Stage Token Fund, Bitcoin Fund and Venture Funds — which offer a more specific investment focus.

The fund requires a minimum $1 million allocation from qualified investors. The first close is scheduled for April 1, 2025. Limited partners will need to contribute a minimum of $25 million, according to an April 25 report from Bloomberg.

Startup equity, early-stage tokens, and liquid tokens are among the asset types that would be included in the Pantera Fund V, according to Pantera’s website.

Panteramaintains a total of $5.2 billion in assets under management across its four existing funds.

A $1 billion raise would be the largest for the cryptocurrency industry since May 2022, when Silicon Valley-based venture capital firm Andreessen Horowitz raised a record-setting $4.5 billion.

VC firm Paradigm is also reportedly negotiating a raise of up to $850 million for a new cryptocurrency fund, which — combined with Pantera — could signal that more institutional capital is coming back into the sector following a market rebound in 2023.

Cointelegraph contacted Pantera for comment but did not receive a response the time of publication. 

Last week, venture capital firm Andreessen Horowitz announced it raised $7.2 billion to invest in several technology-focused sectors, including GameFi and artificial intelligence. However, its $4.5 billion cryptocurrency-focused fund did not receive any additional capital.

Meanwhile, Pantera has doubled down on GameFi platform InfiniGods, exclusively taking its $8 million Series A round on April 25, the firm revealed in a statement.

Source: Pantera Capital

Related: ‘FOMO’ once drove GameFi funding, but VCs say it’s different this time

Over $3.5 billion in funds have poured into the cryptocurrency industry, raised across 604 funding rounds so far in 2024. If the current trend continues, this year's funding is on track to clear the $9.3 billion raised in 2023 by a considerable margin, according to RootData.

Despite the recent uptick, venture capital funding is still far off previous highs in 2021 and 2022, which saw a respective $31.2 billion and $29.3 billion raised. 

Cryptocurrency fundraising between Jan. 2020 and April 2024. Source: RootData

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A total of $1.3 billion of USD Coin (USDC) in transfers from apparent whale addresses to cryptocu Coinbase on Thursday could potentially be a “giant buy signal” for Bitcoin (BTC) and Ether (ETH), according to market observers. 

“USDC moving onto exchanges is a giant buy signal, as the saying goes on the internet ‘money printer go brr,’” crypto trader Blockchain Mane told Cointelegraph.

The five transfers totaling $1.3 billion — with the amounts ranging from $150 million to $350 million — were made to Coinbase on April 25 at 08:15 UTC, according to Etherscan data.

Five large amounts of USDC were transferred to Coinbase at the same time. Source: WhaleBot Alerts

Traders often view large stablecoin deposits on exchanges as a bullish sign, indicating possible large buy orders in the near future, while significant crypto deposits on exchanges can signal a potential sell-off, making traders wary of a downturn.

“If this is indeed a whale buying and at current prices then yes, it can have a big impact on the price of the asset they are buying, which at that level is almost certainly only Bitcoin and Ethereum,” crypto commentator Lark Davis aka “The Crypto Lark” told Cointelegraph.

Bitcoin is trading at $64,389 at the time of publication. Source: CoinMarketCap

However, crypto analysts agreed that whale movements are never a guaranteed indicator for the crypto market.

“A lot of attention gets paid to whale movements, but we never really know what they are doing,” Davis said.

“$1.3B is a good amount of capital but it depends on where this is getting deployed,” crypto trader and YouTuber Brian Jung added.

Related: Where will Bitcoin's price be at the next halving in 2028?

Davis also pointed out that whales might place limit orders instead of instantly buying the assets, which will instead create stronger support levels for the cryptocurrencies they invest in.

“A limit order will go in, creating a buy wall that will act as a layer of price support for the assets,” Davis explained.

However he warned it is “never definitive” how these large transfers will impact the market.

Meanwhile, Jung argued that the market could “shift positively” if a significant amount of funds were to go into a single crypto token as “we would see additional liquidity help move the price of other cryptos up.”

Although he is doubtful an investor would see the benefit of doing so, due to overexposure risks.

“If this amount were deployed into a single altcoin with a $100M market cap, it would absolutely spike the price, but I can’t imagine any whale in their right mind doing this as it would make it nearly impossible for them to be profitable by doing so.”

“If it was used to buy Bitcoin, it wouldn’t have a similar effect,” Jung added.

The large movement of funds happened despite the crypto market sentiment slightly declining, according to the Fear and Greed Index.

The Greed score dropped from 64.04 to a neutral level of 59.78 over the past 24 hours, suggesting a shift in traders’ focus away from accumulation.

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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 Federal Bureau of Investigation’s recent warning to Americans from using unregistered cryptocurrency money-transmitting services might be aimed at smart-contract-driven privacy tools, according to a crypto lawyer.

In an April 25 public service announcement, the FBI urged Americans only to use registered Cryptocurrency Money Services Businesses that comply with existing Know Your Customer (KYC) and Anti-Money Laundering (AML) laws.

The FBI warned Americans against using unlicensed money-transmitting services. Source: FBI

In its announcement, the FBI wrote that it had recently conducted law enforcement operations against cryptocurrency services that were not licensed in “accordance with federal law,” adding that anyone using unlicensed services could “encounter financial disruptions” during law enforcement actions, particularly if the money is intermingled with illegally obtained funds.

Michael Balcina the Digital Asset Partner at Piper Alderman lawyers told Cointelegraph that the FBI’s announcement seemed to be directed at warning users against using crypto mixing services but noted that the “broad” warning missed much of the finer details.

“While this appears an attempt to warn consumers away from smart-contract driven privacy tools like Samouri or Tornado Cash, it’s a very broad warning which misses a great deal of nuance in how decentralized systems operate.”

“The sooner fit-for-purpose regulation and clear guidance for cryptocurrency replaces regulation by enforcement, the better the outcomes for consumers will be,” Bacina added.

On April 25, the co-founders of Bitcoin wallet and crypto mixing service Samourai Wallet were arrested on charges of money laundering.

Samourai Wallet CEO Keonne Rodriguez and CTO William Hill were charged with money laundering and operating an unlicenced money-transmitting business, and currently face a maximum sentence of up to 25 years in prison.

Several other commentators on X also noted the hazy definition of what could potentially be considered an MSB and questioned what it could mean for crypto service providers.

Related: Crypto market stumbles amid arrest of Samourai Wallet founders

Describing the FBI’s announcement as “eerie,” Bankless co-founder Ryan Sean Adams, drew attention to what kind of services would technically fall under the designation of an MSB in an April 25 post to X. 

“Oh and is your code or wallet a MSB? maybe, maybe not — but we're arresting privacy devs right now & calling them MSBs so…”

These developments come amid a broader escalation of legal tensions between crypto firms and regulators in the United States.

On April 25, Ethereum development firm Consensys sued the SEC, alleging the regulator had orchestrated a campaign to “seize control over the future of cryptocurrency” with enforcement actions aimed at deeming Ether (ETH) as a security.

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Institutional investors appear to be “broadening their exposure to altcoins” including Solana (SOL), which has seen a “dramatic increase in allocations” from wealth managers and hedge funds, says CoinShares.

“Investors are more optimistic for Solana,” the asset manager’s head of research, James Butterfill, wrote in an April 24 report based on its survey of 64 investors with a combined $600 billion in assets under management.

Nearly 15% of surveyed investors said they had invested in SOL, a significant bump from CoinShares’ January survey which showed none of the respondents had any investment in the altcoin.

Crypto investments in January (black diamonds) compared to April (blue). Source: CoinShares

Butterfill noted XRP (XRP) had seen a “significant decline, with none of the survey respondents holding it now" compared to the January survey.

Despite the surveyed institutions not holding XRP in this survey, investment products for the cryptocurrency do see allocations, with CoinShares’ report showing minor inflows of $1.3 million to XRP products for the week ending April 19.

Meanwhile, Solana was third when ranked by the “most compelling growth outlook” with just under 15% of respondents agreeing — a bump up from over 10% from the same survey in January.

Bitcoin (BTC) however, remained in investors’ top spot with 41% agreeing it had the best growth potential.

Ether (ETH) was runner-up with just over 30% of respondents bullish on its growth. Butterfill noted that “investor appetite has waned since January” with ETH’s score dropping from around 35%.

Cryptocurrency ranked by growth outlook. Source: CoinShares

The survey also found the percentage of cryptocurrency in investors’ portfolios rose to 3% compared to 1.3% in January which Butterfill said was “the highest weighting since the survey began in 2021.”

“Unsurprisingly, some of the largest contributors to this were allocation from institutional investors who finally had the ability to gain exposure to Bitcoin via the U.S. ETFs,” Butterfill wrote

Equities — stocks — were still the most weighted asset class at over 55%.

Institutions were second behind individual investors for being the most positioned in crypto. Source: CoinShares

Exposure to distributed ledger technology was the main reason investors bought digital assets and despite most cryptocurrencies rising in price since January the percentage that said they are “good value” jumped from under 15% to over 20%.

“Client demand has risen too, as is often the case during positive price momentum,” Butterfill added.

Crypto still has “significant barriers to entry”

While the overall data trended positive toward crypto, wealth managers and institutional investors, in particular, reported there were “significant barriers to entry to the asset class.”

Of the respondents that didn’t have crypto in their portfolio “regulation remains stubbornly high” as a reason preventing them from crypto investments, Butterfill noted.

“Although this maybe due to corporate restrictions and the way in which regulatory guidelines are interpreted,” he added.

Related: 12 Solana presale memecoins abandoned after just a month

As for investors who had crypto investments, regulations and politics were the top perceived risks to crypto, rising from the January results.

Investor beliefs on key risks to crypto. Source: CoinShares

Butterfull said it was encouraging that volatility and custody concerns “continue to diminish.”

Magazine: Blockchain detectives: Mt. Gox collapse saw birth of Chainalysis

Bitcoin mining firm Marathon Digital has announced it is increasing its 2024 hash rate target from 35-37 exahashes per second to 50 EH/s, citing expanded capacity after recent acquisitions.

“Given the amount of capacity we have available following our recent acquisitions and the amount of hash rate [...] we now believe it is possible for us to double the scale of Marathon’s mining operations in 2024,” explained Marathon’s CEO Fred Thiel.

Thiel said its target would be “fully funded” as there is no need for the firm to raise additional capital to achieve its new target hash rate.

Source: Marathon Digital

The firm’s recent acquisitions include a 200 megawatt Bitcoin mining center purchased from Digital Applied for $87.3 million in March and two additional mining sites, totaling 390 megawatts from Generate Capital for $179 million last December.

Marathon currently boasts a hash rate of 24.7 EH/s for its Bitcoin mining endeavours, with Core Scientific and Riot Platforms filling out the podium at 16.9 EH/s and 12.4 EH/s respectively, according to Hashrate Index.

If Marathon reaches its 50 EH/s target, it would mark more than a 100% increase in the firm’s hash rate since the start of 2024.

Marathon’s (MARA) stock fell 0.42% to $19.01 on April 25 but has rallied 4.5% in after-hours trading following the announcement, according to Google Finance.

Change in MARA’s share price over the last trading day. Source: Google Finance

Marathon has increased more than 15% since the fourth Bitcoin halving event occurred at block 840,000 on April 20 — an increase consistent with other miners in the industry.

Related: Jack Dorsey’s Block announces development of ‘full Bitcoin mining system’

While the block subsidy halved to 3.125 Bitcoin — worth $200,000 at current prices — miners benefitted from a record-setting $128 average transaction fee on the halving day, earning more than they usually were pre-halving.

Much of the initial demand at block 840,000 came from memecoin and nonfungible token enthusiasts competing to inscribe and etch “rare satoshis” via the Runes protocol.

However, transaction fees have since fallen to $28.20, according to YCharts, citing April 24 data.

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

Bored Ape co-founder Wylie Aronow also known as Gordon Goner online struggled through a decade afflicted by an autoimmune disease before recovering to launch the worlds hottest NFT project three years ago this week.

After hitting stratospheric heights of money and success, with BAYC being feted by major celebrities like Paris Hilton and Snoop Dogg, Aronow came crashing back to earth after being diagnosed with a heart failure condition in January 2023.

Being in your mid-30s and being told you have a condition that 50% of people pass away from within five years is hard to comprehend. Aronow has drawn upon his spirituality to help with the gravity of the situation he faces.

Its a very personal thing, if Im being honest, but I was a practicing Hindu for many years. I grew up next to an ISKCON temple, which is like Krishna consciousness, he says.

Id had this deep spiritual side to me that I dont talk about very often, and then later, I became a Buddhist.

When youre told you might die soon, youre just thinking about death a lot. The hard part is confronting that moment, its only going to happen once. Like you are going to die, and most people, until youre told youre going to die, dont have to think about it.

Confronting death is on my mind a lot. I cant say Im in a great place with it, but Im better than I was when I first got told the news. Its a very deep, personal, weird spiritual journey that I think is just going to be different for everybody.

But in a positive development, he reveals that the condition has responded well to an experimental new stem cell treatment, even if healing “hasn’t been a straight line.”

Aronow says that having to face his mortality was probably behind his November 2023 NFT shopping spree that lit up social media. He purchased a Zombie CryptoPunk for 600 ETH and NFTs from collections such as Cool Cats, Mocaverse, World of Women, Doodles, Meebits, Chromie Squiggles and more.

Bored Ape Beginnings

Bored Ape Yacht Club this week notches up the third anniversary of starting its mint on April 23, 2021.

The NFT Ape pics entered the global zeitgeist at a pace never seen before. Even today, if you ask a regular person on the street what an NFT is, chances are high theyll respond with a Bored Ape.

From Steph Curry to Eminem, Jimmy Fallon to Elon Musk, Bored Apes were celebrated by some of the worlds biggest influential personalities. But it was always developed as a counter cultural and irreverent brand targeted at a small niche community of crypto natives. 

Had you minted a floor Ape at 0.08 ETH (around $220) and collected all the airdrops and benefits that came your way, you would have seen the investment skyrocket to around $1 million if you had sold even remotely close to the top when the floor price peaked at 150 ETH in April 2022. 

Bored Ape Yacht Club Origin Story

Aronows health battle forced him to step back from Yuga Labs, the company behind BAYC. Prior to Bored Apes, hed spent a decade fighting an autoimmune disease. 

I was really ill for 10 years and had been bed-bound for a lot of it. I had to drop out of college my senior year just to be a sick guy. I was traveling around the country, going to different doctors, trying to fix my autoimmune disease, which at the time was really extreme. I was having a lot of intestinal blockages, which were extraordinarily painful, and I had really severe colitis, on top of a couple other conditions, so my life was over for like 10 years, says Aronow. 

I didnt do anything but read books, watch movies, play video games, and meditate. It was just nothing, just pure nothingness. But then I kind of miraculously had gotten better, which put me in a position for Bored Apes to be born. 

Despite Aronows health situation not being widely known for much of BAYCs existence, it was central to its origin story as childhood friend Greg Solano aka Garga reached out about an idea. 

I found the right combination of medicines and lifestyle modifications that got me better. Then, literally, a month later, Im trying to figure out how to pay off my extraordinary medical debt and my incredible student loan. Im $80,000 in the hole, and I havent had a job since I was 16 years old, working at a retail store. Greg texts me, and he goes, Lets make an NFT, says Aronow. 

I dont know if Ive ever shared what I said in response to that, but my response to his text was, What the fuck is an NFT? That was the real response. Then I remembered pretty much instantly what an NFT was because I remembered CryptoPunks.

Aronow and Solano observed the minting and early formation of Hashmasks but didnt love the community aspect, as the Discord group was full of holders dunking on and trying to outtrade one another. 

BAYC #1 owned by Gordon Gonor, who displays it as his PFP.

There was very little communal feeling to it, and we just set out to come up with the idea that would eventually be Bored Ape Yacht Club. 

The first idea was actually Crypto Girlfriends when the four of us were brainstorming, and we posed the question, What do all these crypto bros need and my answer was girlfriends. My own girlfriend, who Im still with today, wasnt a fan [laughs], and it did feel off to us it didnt feel like it had a lot of staying power. 

Aronow recalls getting Ozone IV treatments for his health condition, colitis, in Knoxville, Tennessee and having a huge wave of creativity and consciousness that would eventually give birth to the name and concept of the Bored Ape Yacht Club. 

I was feeling really terrible at night, and I couldnt sleep because of the treatments. I was up for 24 hours, and I sent Greg this fucking essay about all the things that I thought were cool. It centered around two things, one of which is this place that weve gone to growing up called Church Hills Pub in Miami, which is a very infamous punk club going back 30 years in Miami and then the CBGBs bathroom. 

The Swamp with Curtis from LowFi Hip-Hop Mix

The first idea for utility centered around the idea of that bathroom. It was like, What if you could drop a pixel? What if buying this NFT gave you access to this club where you could drop a pixel and contribute to a collective art experience? and were kind of off to the races after that. 

Id given Greg a ton of different names for what we could call it, including Bored Ape Yacht Club, and he woke up in the morning to this giant stream of consciousness, and anyone whos ever worked with me knows that thats how I work. But when Greg read Bored Ape Yacht Club, he said thats the thing. I knew it right away, and it just felt kismet. 

The early magic and experimentation of Bored Apes

To say Bored Ape Yacht Club bottled magic would be an understatement, particularly in its first year when the brand could do almost no wrong. Even those sidelined with no exposure to the BAYC ecosystem watched the emergence of a cultural phenomenon in awe. 

Its hard to capture all the moments in the mania that was BAYCs first year or so, but heres a walk down memory lane and a reminder of how instrumental the project was as infinite copycat projects tried to roll out their own version: 

BAYC minting out / Roadmap 2.0 / Treasure Hunt / J1mmy.eth and Pranksy mint a huge amount of Apes / Elons seems kinda fungible tweet after momentarily changing his PFP to a collage of Bored Apes.

Bored Ape Kennel Club surprise drop / Meebits v Apes with Beeple’s art /Apes flipping Punks / the Fuck It. Mutants Saturday iconic tweet / Yacht Club / IP rights gifted to holders in the wild, including Bored & Hungry, Tyrese Haliburton shoes in NBA and Snoop Dogg with Dr. Bombay Ice Cream.

Ape Fest / Celebs jumping on board, including Paris Hilton, Jimmy Fallon, Steph Curry, Snoop Dogg, Eminem, Timbaland, Justin Bieber, Madonna, Josh Hart, LaMelo Ball / the BAYC mural during the Australian Open tennis / Otherside trailer / and plenty more, too.

How Bored Apes avoided Von Dutching themselves?

BAYC was hardly short of oh shit moments in its first 12 months of existence, but Aronow recalls Paris Hilton on the Tonight Show with Jimmy Fallon showing off her Ape as one of the biggest moments in terms of how much BAYC had captured mainstream culture. 

Pretty much every celebrity interaction with BAYC I did not know was going to happen beforehand. Someone DMd me and said Paris Hilton is on the Tonight Show talking about her Bored Ape, and theyre showing it, says Aronow. 

She had the one with an S&M hat, and Im sitting back, thinking, I know where I took inspiration for that variable. Thats from underground sex clubs in New York City, he explains. Thats where I was inspired by that variable. Is she aware of that?I know shes a smart person, so Im sure she is, but I remember thinking, Thats a little risque.

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But while, on one hand, he couldnt believe how successful it was becoming, he was worried about Bored Apes getting co-opted by the mainstream.

I called up Greg right after that happened, in my exact words, and Ill never forget; were like, How do we not Von Dutch ourselves? I began to become concerned that this was jumping the shark. 

I said this project was meant for a niche crypto community. Now its as mainstream as you can get. Paris Hilton on the fucking Tonight Show Dont get me wrong, I love Paris Hilton… I have a lot of respect for her. 

They talked it out and ultimately agreed the only solution was to stay authentic no matter what. If we can just try and be a little subversive or a little bit irreverent and stay crypto native, he says.

But that ultimately became very hard as the company grew and as our ambition scaled to match. It became very hard to stay crypto-native. I think were back on track now, but it took a while to get us there.

Paris Hilton on The Tonight Show Aronows creativity like a Hot Wheels track 

The magic of BAYC was in giving the impression they were just making things up on the fly, but behind the scenes, much of it was very deliberate. The catch cry Fuck Doing Expected Things was one of Aronows memorable tweets that doubled as a mission statement.

Aronows creativity in drumming up anticipation in an industry where anticipation is often referred to as the oxygen of the space cant be understated. Behind the social media shitposting and regular banter with Solano is a very deep curiosity about the creative process and writing. 

Having studied creative writing, Aronow was inspired by short story writers, which filtered through to the lore of BAYC, Bored Ape Kennel Club, Mutant Ape Yacht Club and Otherdeeds for Otherside. 

I love creative process stuff; it was really interesting to me. I like talking to other creatives, writers and artists about their process. Thats the shit that Im really into, Aronow says, singling out George Saunders as probably the greatest living short story writer and a source of personal inspiration.

George had written this essay about a Donald Barthelme story called The School, and his essay was called The Perfect Gerbil. It blew my mind when I read it over a decade ago because it explained how narrative works in a way that I couldnt quite digest yet from Aristotles poetics or the like. My stupid brain finally understood it when he explained it as a Hot Wheels track. 

George basically said it had these little gas stations that sped up the car around the track, and it was your goal as a writer to place these Hot Wheels tracks at just the right moments to get the reader through the story. For example, lets use a novel; you could have the greatest moment ever on page 276, but if your reader stops reading at 275, what was the point of it, right? Thats what matters, and timing was everything. 

MAYC #7069 Bored Ape Kennel Club #8908 BAYC Digital Hoodie

Aronow believes that narrative drives community, and apart from Bitcoin and Ethereum, most crypto kind of exists because of X and Twitter. I know thats going to be a very unpopular thing to say, but they have a very codependent relationship. 

What works on social media is narrative. When people talk about community being the most important thing, I think thats a bit of a meme. Im not saying that community is not important. Community is extraordinarily important, but what comes before community? Community follows narrative. Narrative comes first. Its almost like one begets the other. If you have a strong narrative about something, community will form around it. 

Bored Apes controversy and its toll on his health

They often say fame comes at a heavy cost, and for Aronow, the cost has been higher than most, revealing his nervous system feels shot to bits dealing with the autoimmune disease and heart failure while battling internet trolls amid the infamous Buzzfeed doxing.

When Aronow was diagnosed with heart failure, he posted Setting the Record Straight on Substack to address the bizarre Nazi conspiracy smear campaign that shook him and his co-founders. 

I started to get sick, and I hid it for a while. I just really started to burn out. All the trolls and all the nastiness. The doxing, and the way all that shit went down; it was brutal, and there was so much happening on that front behind the scenes, Aronow says. 

So many people are not aware. Two trolls, which I wont name just because they would love it if I did, really tried to make our lives a personal living hell in the most egregious of ways. Therell probably be multiple documentaries coming out in the future about just how nasty those guys were. 

By the time I was diagnosed with heart failure when I was told I had a 50% chance of dying within five years, I just closed my fucking laptop.

I fulfilled every promise that Ive ever made I just deserve my own peace now. I worked nonstop up until that point, and I mean, nonstop. I didnt take a day off, neither did Greg by the way. Greg took six hours off during that second year to get married. Im not fucking kidding.

Forever the optimist, Aronow shares that a recent treatment has had a positive effect on countering his heart failure condition.

I did an experimental stem cell thing for my heart, which did really help it. It slowed the progression of the disease pretty dramatically, but it made it so that the medications that allowed me to create Yuga in the first place for my colitis stopped working entirely. 

Im now back to this place where I was. Im back to dealing with the disease that I was sick with for 10 years on top of now having heart failure, which, again, has been fairly stable. But as a result of the stem cells, now Im struggling in this way, which is pretty difficult.

Its hard to appreciate everything we were able to build and everything it did for the ecosystem all the new people it brought in when your nervous system is so thrashed. I still, to this day, feel thrashed from it all. 

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Not one to wallow in his own adversity, Aronow, whos ridden the rollercoaster of a lifetime with his treasured Bored Ape Yacht Club, remains optimistic that the collection will see its time in the sun again. 

I think Apes will always have some kind of cultural relevance due to the splash that they made in its first year. I think those moments are going to come back again and again and again. Its going to follow the same attention economy that all of crypto has, says Aronow.

I think one of the reasons for that is that we have an extraordinary BAYC team being headed up by Jeff Nicholas, Figgie and Greg now. Theres going to be just a ton of extraordinary moments out in the next year, and I think a lot of them can bring a lot of attention back to the space as a whole, but in particular, Bored Apes. I think Bored Apes are going to be around pretty much forever.

Aronow also has his sights set on returning to the space once his health improves. 

Eventually, I will get better. I feel that in my heart, that even if I cant fully correct the colitis or the heart failure, that I will get back to a place where Im building, and I think itll probably be what everyone is expecting on some level. Ill probably create some kind of corner for myself. Ive tentatively wanted to call it the basement, and its like my little corner where I get to do whatever the fuck I want and everyone leaves me alone. 

I want to capture the meta-narratives; I want to capture that stuff that only a really small, nimble and extraordinarily degenerate team can accomplish. Thats because thats the kind of shit that gets me going; thats the kind of shit that I get out of bed, and Im like, Yeah, lets fucking do it. 

BAYC co-founder Greg Solanos aka Garga PFP BAYC co-founder Kerem Atalays aka EmperorTomatoKetchup PFP BAYC co-found Zeshan Alis aka Sass PFP Rapid fire Q&A with Gordon Goner

Favorite NFT in your wallet? 

Bored Ape number one. I know its a boring answer, but its that one, absolutely.

Favorite 1-of-1 art piece? 

I havent collected a lot of 1-of-1s. I absolutely will over the next year, and I have a few in mind that Im just waiting for the right price moment or negotiation to come through.

Who are your top 3 favorite follows on Twitter for NFTs?

1. NFT Nick I love Nick. I would put him in my top three.

2. CL207 Someone whos not as involved in the NFT space who doesnt know who I am and probably doesnt give a shit about me one way or the other. But I have always secretly loved him as a guy. Probably been my all-time favorite Crypto Twitter personality.

3. Lior I have a lot of respect for him, not just as a founder, but also as a community member, and I like his thoughts on things. Hes such a fucking incredible guy.

Advice on how to survive NFTs and crypto in the long run?

I think its important to not follow every meta-narrative, right? I think its important to think long-term. To have the discernment on what metas to follow and what not to follow, and that only comes unfortunately from just being around long enough. You have to get burned enough times.

The other thing I will say is that pride comes before the fall in crypto. Dont let hubris get the best of you because crypto has a way of humbling you every fucking time. 

I cant think of a single person. I honestly cant think of a single person since 2017 who has not burned themselves from not showing humility and or letting greed take over.

Would you do anything different in the last three years of this wild ride? 

Id do a million things differently, but I wouldnt even know where to begin. Its not like Im filled with regret or anything, but there are a tremendous amount of moments that I would redo if I could almost on a day-to-day level, but I really did the best I could. 

Im not just thinking about myself but thinking from the perspective of the holders. That became harder as I became sicker and had to sort of step away from the company and entrust others along the way, but everyone weve entrusted has only gotten better and better. 

I feel good about where were heading now. I feel so filled with optimism and hope for the entire NFT ecosystem. Im feeling pretty fucking great about where everything is heading. 

On a personal level, all of this was the first time for us. You learn through doing. 

What message do you want to get out to the Bored Ape community? 

Apes together strong I love you.

Wylie Aronow, straight after this interview. Subscribe The most engaging reads in blockchain. Delivered once a week.

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An "epic sat" — an exceptionally rare satoshi that was mined from the fourth Bitcoin halving block — has sold for 33.3 Bitcoin (BTC), worth about $2.13 million.

The sale of the satoshi — the smallest unit of Bitcoin — took place on cryptocurrency exchange CoinEx Global on April 25 — roughly five days after one of its partners, Bitcoin mining pool viaBTC, mined it in block 840,000 on April 20.

The auction, which commenced on April 22, saw 34 bids before an unidentified bidder won ownership rights to the epic sat — with “sat number 1,968,750,000,000,000.”

The next closest competitor bidded 20 Bitcoin for the rare sat.

“The auction has concluded successfully, with the FIRST & ONLY epic sat selling for 33.3 $BTC (≈$2,134,000),” CoinEx posted to X on April 25.”

“This auction isn't just a bidding event; it marked the community recognition, media attention, & widespread embrace of #Bitcoin.”

Auction of the epic sat mined in the fourth Bitcoin halving block on April 20. Source: CoinEX

An epic sat refers to the first satoshi mined in the first new Bitcoin halving block. Given there’s been four halvings, only four of these rare sats exist.

These sats are allocated a unique sequence number under the Ordinals number system, which is based on mining timestamps.

Source: Ord.io

As there are one hundred million sats in a Bitcoin, an ordinary satoshi is currently priced at $0.00065.

But certain sats have a special meaning within the Bitcoin ecosystem, CoinEx explained.

"Given that satoshis are assigned unique identifiers, they inherently possess higher collectible value. As periodic events occur within the Bitcoin network, some more frequently than others, scarcity is naturally promoted.”

Related: El Salvador’s Bitcoin wallet gets sats, cats and a cypherpunk manifesto

ViaBTC mined the fourth halving block, block 840,000, at 12:09 am UTC on April 20.

It received the new block subsidy of 3.125 Bitcoin, in addition to an eye-popping 37.6 Bitcoin in reward fees, worth $2.4 million at the time.

The next Bitcoin halving event is expected to occur sometime in 2028 at block 1,050,000, which will see mining rewards halved to 1.5625 Bitcoin.

Big Questions: How can Bitcoin payments stage a comeback?

Caroline Crenshaw, one of five commissioners of the United States Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC), could be leaving the financial regulator after roughly four years.

As of April 25, President Joe Biden’s administration will have 41 days to decide whether to nominate someone to replace Crenshaw before her term ends on June 5. The commissioner was nominated by former President Donald Trump in 2020 to fill a seat left vacant by former SEC commissioner Rob Jackson but may continue to serve until the end of 2025 if no replacement is found.

During her time at the SEC, Crenshaw, a Democrat, was one of the seemingly anti-crypto voices. In January, she voted against approval of listing and trading for spot Bitcoin (BTC) exchange-traded funds, claiming the underlying markets were “marred by fraud and manipulation.”

“[I]t is well-documented that many criminals use bitcoin to evade U.S. financial sanctions,” said Crenshaw in January. “Many ransomware attacks demand payment in bitcoin, and analysis shows that these payments may end up funding our geopolitical rivals or adversaries.”

Caroline Crenshaw. Source: SEC

Crenshaw, Chair Gary Gensler, and Commissioner Jaime Lizárraga supported efforts to redefine the term “dealer” under SEC rules. Many in the crypto space criticized the change as a threat to the industry, with the Blockchain Association filing a lawsuit against the SEC with the Crypto Freedom Alliance of Texas.

Gensler, often the commission’s public face, has taken the brunt of ire from many crypto users over leading the commission through a “regulation by enforcement” approach to companies. Many on social media believed the SEC chair was resigning after an ambiguous X post in April, but his term does not end until 2026.

Related: Consensys files lawsuit against SEC and commissioners over Ether regulation

The White House has sometimes put forward names for financial regulators reaching the end of the terms only days after they have officially ended. For example, in June 2023, President Biden nominated Commissioner Mark Uyeda to serve at the SEC for five years. He was sworn into office in December 2023, roughly six months after his initial term ended.

No pick for Crenshaw’s replacement or her nomination appeared on the White House website at the time of publication. Any nominations would first go to the Senate for approval.

President Biden would have the choice to nominate either a Republican or Democrat to fill Crenshaw’s seat based on SEC rules. It’s unclear what impact her potential departure could have on the regulation and enforcement of crypto. The commission has several ongoing lawsuits against crypto firms, including Coinbase, Binance and Ripple.

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

Nearly every corner of the crypto market has corrected at some point in April, but, memecoins in the Solana ecosystem seem to be charting a different path. 

According to CoinGecko data, the total market capitalization of memecoins on Solana has significantly risen in the last 24 hours, climbing 4.2% to $8.261 billion.

Bonk (BONK) gained the most, rising 15.2% over the last 24 hours and 8.7% in the last hour. Popcat (POPCAT) followd with double-digit gains of 10.7% over the last 24 hours and 214% over the last seven days.

Top-cap memecoins in the Solana ecosystem. Source: CoinGecko

The leading Solana-based meme token by market value — Dogwifhat (WIF) — saw a 1.4% price ascent on the day and a 5% increase in an hour, bringing its market cap to $3.185 billion. Notably, WIF still accounts for nearly half of Solana's total memecoin market share.

Many crypto analysts believe that it’s common for memecoins to pump on launch and plummet sharply when the price of BTC crashes.

Mert Mumtaz, the co-founder and CEO of Helius Labs pointed out the importance of memecoins for the industry and the networks hosting them, saying memecoins are good for “getting crypto into the hands of more people” and for stress testing the network.

Mumtaz added,

“Memecoins have improved Solana 10x long-term, just as NFTs had done in 2021.”

According to a recent report by CoinGecko, the memecoin sector has emerged as the most profitable narrative year-to-date..

The bullishness displayed by Solana memecoins reflects a broader trend of capital moving back into the riskier assets as the market readies for a sustained recovery after the April 20 Bitcoin halving event.

Solana network activity spikes

The rally in Solana memecoins amid a pullback in the broader market is evidence of the increased relevance of Solana as a layer 1 ecosystem. This means investors’ sentiment toward the blockchain is not speculative. Instead, it is rooted in genuine user engagement and high development activity.

Its potential has been reinforced by high transaction volumes and growth in DeFi applications (DApps).

Related: Why is Solana (SOL) price down today?

Data from DefiLlama reveals that volume on Solana climbed to $1.5 billion on April 25, up from $840 million on April 7. The blockchain’s all-time high volume is $3.8 billion — a figure set on March 15.

Transaction volume on Solana. Source: DefiLlama

Looking at other metrics, data from The Block shows that the number of active addresses on the Solana network continues to rise. According to the chart below, more than 842,000 active addresses were clocked yesterday—higher figures than those recorded in 2022 and 2023.

Number of daily active addresses on Solana. Source: The Block Solana price in slight retracement

Compared to memecoin gains, the price of Solana (SOL) has experienced a pullback after its rally that began on April 17.

Data from Cointelegraph Markets Pro and Tradingview shows that SOL’s price decreased by 1.15% in the past 24 hours to $147.

SOL/USD daily chart. Source: TradingView

Trading volume across all major centralized cryptocurrency exchanges has dropped by 56% from a six-week high of $8.9 billion on April 13 to $3.9 billion, according to data from CoinMarketCap.

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.

Payment service Stripe is bringing back crypto in the form of stablecoin payments, co-founder and president John Collison has announced. The new service will be available this summer, he said.

“Crypto is finally making sense as a means of exchange,” Collison told the audience at the company’s developers conference in San Francisco on April 25. Since Stripe discontinued its Bitcoin (BTC) payment option in 2018, transaction times have increased, fees have decreased and stablecoins are performing stably.

Source: John Collison

“If we’re in a crypto winter post 2021, nobody told the stablecoins,” Collison said, referring to a chart of stablecoin value transferred. Therefore:

“We’re bringing back crypto as a way to accept payments, but this time with a much better experience with stablecoins.”

Collison proved his point by carrying out a transaction on stage. Stripe will offer payment services using USD Coin (USDC) on the Solana, Ethereum and Polygon blockchains.

Besides the stability Collison has found in USDC, its dollar peg makes it a store of value. “You don’t see it in the U.S. You have a very good currency,” said Collison, before displaying a chart of stablecoin use versus the volume of Turkish lira traded across crypto exchanges.

Stripe president John Collison speaking in San Francisco on April 25. Source: YouTube

Stripe was the first major payment provider to adopt Bitcoin in 2014. “At the time, Bitcoin was a pretty terrible payment method,” Collison said, explaining its discontinuation four years later.

Stripe did not entirely turn its back on crypto, however. It was one of the participants in Facebook’s ill-fated Libra project, before backing out under pressure from United States politicians. It began rebuilding its crypto engineering team in 2021.

Related: 7 payment gateways for fast online transactions

Stripe is the payment processor for payouts on X. In 2022, Stripe and X (then Twitter) introduced a program to allow creators on the social platform to receive payment in USDC on Polygon. After that, it created fiat-to-crypto on-ramps via application programming interfaces (APIs) in conjunction with cryptocurrency exchanges.

It began hosting a fiat-to-crypto on-ramp for U.S. customers, taking on conversion and compliance obligations such as Know Your Customer and fraud prevention. It was following the examples of Venmo and Robinhood with this move.

Magazine: Big Questions: How can Bitcoin payments stage a comeback?