Golden Weekly is a weekly blockchain industry summary column launched by Golden Finance, covering key news, mining information, project updates, technological advancements, and other industry dynamics. This article is part of the weekly news summary, giving you an overview of the major events in the blockchain industry this week.
Headlines
▌Meta to Lay Off Nearly 200 Employees in Silicon Valley
Meta is continuing its human resources restructuring and layoff plan in the San Francisco Bay Area. According to two official documents submitted this week to the California Employment Development Department, Meta plans to cut 124 and 74 jobs respectively in its Burlingame and Sunnyvale offices in California. The documents reveal that the layoff process for these nearly 200 employees is scheduled to officially take effect in late May and is explicitly stated to be permanent. This latest move is a continuation of a series of widespread personnel adjustments Meta has recently made.
In the past few weeks, the company has laid off approximately 700 jobs across its entire system, affecting business segments including recruitment, commercial sales, daily operations, and the Reality Labs division, which was once highly anticipated and focused on metaverse business. Iranian media reported on the 3rd that the Iranian military issued a statement saying that if the United States dares to attack Iranian infrastructure, Iran will destroy "all assets and infrastructure" of the United States and Israel in the Middle East. According to Iran's Fars News Agency, the statement was a response to US President Trump's recent repeated threats to destroy Iranian bridges, power plants, and energy infrastructure. The statement said that if these threats are carried out, Iran will destroy "all assets and infrastructure" of the United States and Israel in the Middle East; the scope of the attack may also be further expanded to "important assets of America's followers in the Middle East." The statement also said that countries hosting US military bases should urge the withdrawal of US troops from their territories if they wish to avoid being affected. SpaceX is poised to reach a $2 trillion valuation, surpassing Meta and Tesla. On April 3, sources familiar with the matter revealed that SpaceX has raised its target valuation for its initial public offering to over $2 trillion. These sources said the company and its advisors are disclosing this valuation target to potential investors in preparation for meetings in the coming weeks. According to previous reports from foreign media, these so-called "trial" briefings may contain more information supporting this valuation. In February, it was reported that after SpaceX acquired Musk's xAI, the combined company's valuation was $1.25 trillion. Based on a $2 trillion valuation, SpaceX would surpass all companies in the S&P 500 except for Nvidia, Apple, Alphabet (Google's parent company), Microsoft, and Amazon, and would also surpass two other members of the "Big Seven" of US stocks—Meta and Tesla, Musk's own company.
▌Ministry of Industry and Information Technology: Exploring Innovative Businesses such as "Computing Power Banks" and "Computing Power Supermarkets"
April 2nd, the General Office of the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology issued a special action plan on leveraging inclusive computing power to empower the development of SMEs. It mentioned innovating inclusive computing power service models. This includes improving the SME zone on the China Computing Power Platform, the computing power resource matching zone on the China SME Service Network, and the national computing power internet service node zone (hereinafter collectively referred to as the SME platform zone), promoting precise matching between SME demand and computing power resource supply, and implementing flexible payment models such as billing by "card time," "core time," and tokens.
Policy
▌Trump Appoints Crypto Enforcement Memorandum Author Todd Blanche as Acting Attorney General
On April 3, US President Trump dismissed Attorney General Pam Bondi and appointed his former personal lawyer, current Deputy Attorney General Todd Blanche, as acting Attorney General. Blanche previously represented Trump in criminal cases in New York. After taking office as Deputy Attorney General, he ordered the disbandment of the Justice Department's National Crypto Enforcement Team and signed a memorandum instructing prosecutors to cease pursuing regulatory violations in the crypto industry.
According to disclosed documents, Blanche held various cryptocurrencies worth approximately $159,000 to $485,000 at the time of signing the enforcement memorandum, including Bitcoin, Solana, Cardano, Ethereum, Polygon, Polkadot, Quant, and Coinbase stock, violating ethical guidelines and his previous promise to divest assets before handling crypto-related matters.
▌Federal Reserve President Logan: Balance Sheet Can Be Shrinked by Changing Regulatory Rules
April 2nd - Dallas Federal Reserve President Logan on Thursday outlined the path and options for the Federal Reserve to shrink its balance sheet, while noting that the current system is functioning well and benefits overall financial stability. Logan stated that the Fed's current system for managing financial liquidity is designed to provide "ample" levels of reserves, and that the system is "efficient and effective." However, there are still several ways to help reduce the size of the Fed's holdings under the current system, many of which involve rules governing how financial institutions manage cash reserves. Recent internal and external research by the Fed indicates that by adjusting regulations to encourage banks to hold lower levels of reserves, the Fed could further shrink its balance sheet under the current system. Logan agreed, stating that the Fed is currently working to make reserve management "more efficient" during periods of stress. She also stated that while some liquidity rules have increased reserves, they have not improved safety because banks are reluctant to use these reserves during crises.
"This is an inefficient use of the Federal Reserve's balance sheet, and we could have completely avoided this." On April 3, according to market news, the U.S. Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC) and the Department of Justice (DOJ) filed a lawsuit against the Governor and Attorney General of Illinois, accusing them of exceeding their legal authority in attempting to regulate prediction markets. The two agencies stated that Illinois' regulatory measures are invalid because the state government has no jurisdiction over federally regulated prediction markets. The lawsuit emphasizes protecting innovative financial instruments from unauthorized interference by local governments.
▌IMF Warns Tokenized Finance Could Amplify Market Crises Beyond Regulators' Response Capacity
On April 5th, the International Monetary Fund (IMF) stated that migrating Wall Street's trading infrastructure to a blockchain-based system could accelerate the outbreak of a financial crisis, exceeding regulators' response capacity, despite the technology's promise to reduce costs and eliminate settlement delays. IMF's Tobias Adrian wrote in a report released Thursday that tokenization—representing assets such as stocks, bonds, and cash with digital tokens on a shared ledger—is a structural reshaping of the financial system architecture, rather than a marginal efficiency improvement. Banks, clearinghouses, and asset management firms such as BlackRock and JPMorgan Chase are already conducting field pilot tests of this technology, hoping to increase related fee revenue by improving the ease of trading traditional assets such as stocks and bonds.
Blockchain Applications
▌YZi Labs Announces Strategic Additional Investment in Predict.fun
On April 2nd, YZi Labs announced a strategic additional investment in Predict.fun following the second quarter of its EASY Residency program. Susquehanna Crypto, a leading global digital asset exchange, also participated in the investment. Since graduating from YZi Labs' EASY Residency incubation program, Predict.fun has experienced rapid growth, facilitating over 4 million orders and exceeding $1.8 billion in trading volume.
Blockchain Applications
▌YZi Labs Announces Strategic Additional Investment in Predict.fun
On April 2nd, Piero Cipollone, a member of the Executive Board of the European Central Bank (ECB), stated that the digital euro has "good momentum" and is expected to launch potentially in July 2029. "There is already sufficient consensus on this project," the Italian official said on Latvian television on Wednesday. "We are on the right track, and I see good momentum on the legislative front. I see increasing interest from banks in participating in the pilot program." JPMorgan Chase CEO Jamie Dimon stated on April 1st, according to CBS News, that the company is considering offering prediction market services to clients, but explicitly stated that it will not involve areas such as sports and politics. Former CFTC commissioner Brian Quintenz responded on X, calling it "absurd" that JPMorgan would not face risks due to specific election results, pointing out that with efficient and regulated products already available, shareholders may demand hedging strategies for events such as elections in the future, drawing parallels to interest rate risk management. On March 31, OpenFX, a forex market-making and cross-border remittance startup, completed a $94 million funding round led by Accel, Lightspeed Faction, M13, Northzone, and Pantera, valuing the company at approximately $500 million post-money. OpenFX bridges the gap between the banking system and blockchain infrastructure using stablecoins, providing faster and lower-cost settlement services for large cross-border funds. OpenFX plans to use the funds to expand into Southeast Asia and Latin America. (Note: The text also includes a separate section about Twitter co-founder Jack.) On April 4th, Bitcoin at Block, a company founded by Twitter co-founder Jack Dorsey, will launch a free Bitcoin faucet. This marks the return of the Bitcoin faucet after 16 years. Jack Dorsey has already announced the faucet's location, "btc.day," on the X platform. The total distribution pool is reportedly approximately $1 million worth of BTC (about 15 BTC), funded by the Bitcoin treasury of Jack Dorsey's Block company.
Cryptocurrency
▌Tether Launches Final Sprint for Fundraising at $500 Billion Valuation
April 3, according to The Information: Tether has launched a final sprint for fundraising at a $500 billion valuation and is urging investors to commit to an agreement within the next two weeks.
▌ZeroStack Reaches Definitive Agreement for $107 Million Funding Round Peged to 0G Tokens
Nasdaq-listed ZeroStack Corp. announced that it has reached a definitive agreement for a $107 million funding round pegged to 0G tokens. Upon completion of the transaction, ZeroStack will hold approximately 21% of the total 0G token supply. Under the terms of the funding round, ZeroStack will establish a Texas-based company, Texas Blocker, to facilitate the transaction. Investors intend to contribute 142,232,948 native 0G tokens (worth approximately $107 million). Texas Blocker will become a wholly owned subsidiary of ZeroStack after the share exchange is completed. The share exchange is expected to be completed around July 5, 2026, subject to customary closing conditions and shareholder approval.
▌MetaPlanet Receives $255 Million in Funding, Potentially Acquiring Over 3,800 BTC
On March 31, MetaPlanet received $255 million in funding from global institutional investors, as previously announced. This funding would allow it to purchase over 3,800 BTC at current prices, potentially making it the third-largest holder of BTC globally.
▌Michael Saylor: The biggest risk of Bitcoin lies in bad ideas leading to artificial protocol changes
On April 4th, Michael Saylor posted, "Bitcoin has won. The global consensus is that BTC is digital capital. The four-year cycle is over. Prices are now driven by capital flows. Banks and digital credit will determine Bitcoin's growth trajectory. The biggest risk lies in bad ideas leading to artificial protocol changes."
▌Decentralized email platform Dmail will cease service on May 15th
Decentralized email platform Dmail Network After five years of operation, the platform announced its closure, citing high infrastructure costs, insufficient profitability, failed fundraising, and limited token utility. The platform stated it would gradually cease all services starting May 15th and urged users to export their data before then. The platform stated that all nodes would be shut down after May 15th, at which point users would lose access to their emails and accounts.
Important Economic Developments
▌Following the Non-Farm Payrolls Release, the Probability of the Fed Maintaining Interest Rates in June Increases
April 3rd news: According to CME's "FedWatch": the probability of the Fed raising interest rates by 25 basis points in April is 0.5%, and the probability of maintaining interest rates unchanged is 99.5%, both unchanged from before the announcement.
The probability of the Federal Reserve cutting interest rates by a cumulative 25 basis points by June is 2.0% (7.8% before the announcement), the probability of keeping interest rates unchanged is 97.5% (91.7% before the announcement), and the probability of raising interest rates by a cumulative 25 basis points is 0.5% (the same as before the announcement). Market pricing indicates a decrease in bets on a Fed rate cut in 2026. April 3rd news: Market pricing indicates a decrease in bets on a Fed rate cut in 2026. US non-farm payrolls increased by 178,000 in March, far exceeding market expectations. April 3rd news: US non-farm payrolls increased by 178,000 in March, exceeding the estimated increase of 65,000 and the previous value of a decrease of 92,000.
▌UBS: Gold Still Has a Chance to Hit New Highs This Year, Average Price 5,000 USD for the Year
On April 2nd, UBS strategist Jonny Tevez predicted that despite recent gold price volatility, gold prices will reach new highs this year, viewing recent pullbacks as buying opportunities. UBS forecasts an average gold price of $5,000 per ounce in 2026, $4,800 in 2027, and $4,250 in 2028.
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