SBF files an appeal, Bitcoin block reward halving is one week away

Golden Weekly is a weekly blockchain industry summary column launched by Golden Finance, covering the week's key news, mining information, project dynamics, technological progress and other industry dynamics. This article is one of the news weekly, taking you to a glance at the major events in the blockchain industry this week.

Headline

▌SBF appeals against his 25-year prison sentence

SBF, founder of the cryptocurrency trading platform FTX, appealed against his 25-year prison sentence on April 11 local time. Last November, a jury in the Manhattan Federal Court found SBF guilty of seven counts of fraud and conspiracy caused by the collapse of FTX in 2022. Prosecutors said the case was one of the largest financial frauds in U.S. history. Previously, federal prosecutors had proposed a sentencing recommendation that SBF should be sentenced to 40 to 50 years in prison. U.S. District Judge Lewis Kaplan sentenced SBF to 25 years in prison on March 28 this year.

▌There is only about 1 week left before the Bitcoin block reward is halved

Data shows that there are 1,070 blocks left before the Bitcoin block reward is halved, which is about 7 days, 10 hours and 16 minutes.

▌Binance Chief Compliance Officer: Working with Nigeria to ensure the release of imprisoned executives

Binance Chief Compliance Officer Noah Perlman said that Binance is doing its best to "cooperate" with the Nigerian government to ensure the release of imprisoned financial crime investigation head Tigran Gambaryan. He is "optimistic" that Binance can reach a solution with the Nigerian government to release Tigran Gambrayan, but refused to disclose specific details.

Policy

▌US Congressman: Cryptocurrency will become an important issue in the Senate campaign

US Republican Senator Cynthia Lummis said that the Republican Party is working to ensure that the Senate Banking Committee seat is taken back from the Democrats while promoting cryptocurrency. She called on cryptocurrency enthusiasts to participate in public forums for the election, urging candidates to answer questions about their positions on digital assets.  

Lummis pointed out that the important elections in Ohio will determine the majority party in the Senate and the leadership of the Banking Committee, and predicted that cryptocurrency issues will become a focus of attention. Sherrod Brown, a Democratic congressman who currently dominates the Senate, is skeptical of digital assets, while his Republican challenger Bernie Moreno is a cryptocurrency enthusiast. Lummis suggested that industry insiders actively participate in public forums to ensure that candidates express their views on cryptocurrency issues.

▌Uniswap received a Wells notice from the U.S. SEC, and the founder responded that he would fight to the end

Hayden Adams, the founder of Uniswap, said on the X platform, "Uniswap Labs received a Wells notice from the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) today. Notice). I am not surprised, but annoyed, disappointed, and ready to fight back. I believe that the products we provide are legal and that our work is correct from a historical perspective. But it is clear that the SEC has not worked to develop clear and sensible rules for so long, and instead decided to focus on attacking long-term builders like Uniswap and Coinbase.

▌Lawyer: US SEC's lawsuit against Uniswap is foreseeable, marking more problems for DeFi

Legal experts say the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission's (SEC) move to sue Uniswap was foreseeable, but they believe the agency's action is a sign that DeFi will face more problems The SEC’s Wells notices to DeFi exchanges come as the agency weighs a rule proposal that would bring these companies into the fold. Coinbase files an interlocutory appeal in its case against the SEC By filing an interlocutory appeal, Coinbase is claiming good cause for a disagreement, according to a person familiar with the matter. Coinbase filed a motion last month to appeal a judge’s decision that allowed the lawsuit involving the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) and the exchange to proceed without being dismissed. In the motion, the exchange will hear whether the SEC has the authority to treat digital asset transactions as investment contracts, even if there is no contract between the issuer and the investor. Last year, Coinbase was sued by the SEC for allegedly acting as an unregistered exchange, broker, and clearing agency. The regulator also questioned Coinbase's staking and wallet services.

Blockchain Applications

▌Report: Ethereum L2 scalability has increased by more than 11 times since Dencun upgrade

According to a report from Brazil Inter, the "Blobs" introduced in Ethereum's recent Dencun upgrade have enabled the Layer 2 (L2) blockchain to increase network scalability by more than 11 times. Blobs are spaces within Ethereum blocks dedicated to receiving data from L2 chains such as Arbitrum, Optimism, and Base.

▌Chainlink launches cross-chain application Transporter, which will connect to 8 networks in the first round

Chainlink announced the official launch of Transporter. This is a highly secure token cross-chain application built on the cross-chain interoperability standard Chainlink CCIP.  

Transporter is co-developed by the Chainlink Foundation and supported by Chainlink Labs. Chainlink's mature infrastructure provides Transporter with a deep defense security model so that users can transfer tokens across different blockchains. The first batch of blockchains connected include Arbitrum, Avalanche, Base, BNB Chain, Ethereum, Optimism, Polygon and WEMIX.

▌EigenLayer founder: missing functions will be launched in "phases"

According to market news, the key functions of the crypto project EigenLayer have not been perfected. The "re-mortgage" protocol with $15 billion in deposits has not paid depositor rewards and lacks the key "punishment" function. Although the project attracted $12 billion in user deposits on the Ethereum mainnet, most of the core functions have not yet been launched, including the reward system and the "punishment" mechanism. Despite attracting widespread attention from the market, EigenLayer has not yet achieved the expected level, and market expectations are rising.  

Sreeram Kannan, founder and chief architect of EigenLayer, acknowledged in an interview that the project will move forward without some key features, but will be rolled out in "phases" under an unspecified timeline.

▌NEAR will hire AI engineers as part of its roadmap

NEAR will hire artificial intelligence (AI) engineers as part of its AI roadmap, and NEAR will begin its AI program in the next 3-6 months. The company introduced that NEAR will use near ai to present AI information and will make an external announcement in May.

Cryptocurrency

▌VanEck CEO: On-chain transaction fees are more worthy of attention than spot ETFs

VanEck CEO said that on-chain transaction fees outside of Bitcoin and Ethereum ETFs are more worthy of attention. He pointed out that the SEC did not respond to the application, suggesting that the Ethereum ETF may not be approved before the May deadline. Van Eck believes that the cryptocurrency industry should focus more on transaction fees rather than Bitcoin or Ethereum and their related ETFs. He emphasized that new solutions such as Solana and Layer 2 offer lower and predictable fees, which are expected to drive application development.

▌Portal Announces Plans to Integrate Stacks into Portal DEX

Portal DeFi announced plans to integrate Stacks into Portal DEX and enable cross-chain sBTC transactions. This move will be implemented in the months after the launch of Nakamoto, followed by the release of sBTC. Portal's Stacks integration will unlock Bitcoin as a fully programmable, productive asset. Portal DeFi is the first trust-minimized, Layer 2 cross-chain platform without the need for bridging, custody or encapsulation.

▌The total transaction volume of Optimism and Base network on Synthetix platform last week was US$526.6 million

Synthetix released its perpetual contract data for last week (April 1 to April 8) on the X platform, with a total transaction volume of US$526.6 million (Optimism: US$445 million, Base: US$81.6 million); average daily transaction volume: US$75.2 million (Optimism: US$63.6 million, Base: US$11.7 million); cumulative transaction volume: US$53.42 billion (Optimism: US$52.98 billion, Base: US$411 million); cumulative transaction fees: US$40.67 million (Optimism: US$40.49 million, Base: US$171,000).

▌Fidelity: FBTC has more than 172 million shares in circulation, and its net assets have risen to $10.17 billion

According to official data, Fidelity updated the net asset information of its spot Bitcoin exchange-traded fund Fidelity Wise Origin Bitcoin (FBTC), showing that the current net assets of FBTC have reached approximately $10.17 billion, an increase of approximately $3.74 billion from the previous net assets of $6.43 billion as of March 7, and the current total number of shares in circulation has increased to 172,175,000.

▌Spot Bitcoin ETF had a net outflow of approximately $187.7 million on April 10

According to Lookonchain data, on April 10, 9 Bitcoin spot ETFs (including Grayscale) had a net reduction of 2,714 BTC, with a net outflow of approximately $187.7 million. Among them, Grayscale reduced its holdings by 4,245 BTC, with a net outflow of approximately US$293.6 million, and currently holds 318,452 BTC, equivalent to approximately US$22 billion. BlackRock increased its holdings by 1,868 BTC, with a net inflow of approximately US$129.2 million, and currently holds 266,102 BTC, equivalent to approximately US$18.4 billion.

▌IBIT may be expected to surpass GBTC to become the largest spot Bitcoin ETF

According to data from The Block, as of Tuesday, BlackRock's spot Bitcoin ETF IBIT managed assets of US$18.2 billion, while Grayscale GBTC managed assets of US$23.2 billion. IBIT seems to be on track to surpass GBTC and become the spot Bitcoin ETF with the largest assets under management. GBTC charges higher fees than many competitors, and its assets under management have decreased by billions of dollars since it began trading in January.

▌JP Morgan: Cryptocurrency venture capital funds are "sluggish" and pose a downside risk

JPMorgan analysts warned that despite the market rebound, cryptocurrency venture capital funds remain "sluggish" this year, so there is a potential downside risk. In addition, analysts reiterated that they believe the US SEC will eventually approve the spot Ethereum ETF.

▌Thailand's crypto exchange Bitkub will IPO next year and its valuation may be as high as $3 billion

Bitkub Capital Group CEO Jirayut Srupsrisopa said that the owner of the Thai cryptocurrency exchange Bitkub Online plans to IPO next year, and its valuation may be as high as $3 billion.

▌Esports club RNG team CEO: Will issue NFT to reverse the financial crisis

In an interview with Zhiwei, Li Jieming, CEO of the esports club RNG team, said that RNG has long been out of money and can even be disbanded immediately and declared bankruptcy.  

Li Jieming said, "We hope to get a short-term recovery by issuing cards, NFTs, and interesting digital people, which are related to fans. We will give real rights to fans. For example, if you buy cards or NFTs, you have a certain level of knowledge and participation rights. We hope to let fans participate in the operation and decision-making of the club... We are designing how to protect such rights and interests, and setting up a path to make this matter legal and compliant in China. Roughly speaking, the money raised in the short-term goal can pay off part of the debt, and strive for half a year to cultivate our medium-term goal: to make a game version of "Eastern Selection"... …Within three months, we will issue NFTs, and fans will participate together to make short-term goals. In half a year, we will gradually start the game's Oriental Selection, so it will be about 8 months, and RNG's financial situation will improve. ”

Important Economic Dynamics

▌Federal Reserve Bostic: The outlook for 2024 is to cut interest rates once before the end of the year

Federal Reserve Bostic said that the outlook for 2024 is to cut interest rates once before the end of the year. I am not in a hurry to cut interest rates; pay attention and adjust the outlook as needed; inflation will continue to fall, but the slowdown will be much slower.

▌The three major U.S. stock indexes closed down collectively

The three major U.S. stock indexes closed down collectively, with the Dow Jones Industrial Average down 1.24%, the Nasdaq down 1.62%, and the S&P 500 down 1.45%. Hot technology stocks fell across the board, with Nvidia, Tesla, and Meta down more than 2%, and Microsoft and Google down more than 1%.

▌Fed's Daly: There is no urgency to cut interest rates

Fed's Daly said there is no urgency to cut interest rates; it is necessary to wait until there is full confidence that the inflation rate is heading towards 2% before cutting interest rates; there is no reason to be surprised by the bumpy road of inflation retreating; we are moving towards the goal of reducing inflation to 2% as gently as possible.

▌Fed's Bostic reiterated that he expects one rate cut this year

Fed's Bostic reiterated his expectation of one rate cut this year, but added that he is open to delaying or further rate cuts if the economic situation changes. Bostic emphasized the continued strength of the U.S. economy and labor market, but said signs of weakness in the job market would prompt him to consider earlier and more rate cuts than currently expected. Previously, he said he expected the Fed to cut interest rates in the fourth quarter. He said: "I do think the risks are balanced, and given that the U.S. economy has been so strong, robust and resilient - I can't rule out the possibility that we may even have to delay rate cuts further." But he also said: "If I start to get different signals that there will be a lot of pain in the labor market, then I would be willing to change our policy stance and maybe cut rates earlier."

▌The probability of the Fed keeping interest rates unchanged in May is 97.4%

According to CME's "Fed Watch", the probability of the Fed keeping interest rates unchanged in May is 97.4%, and the probability of a cumulative 25 basis point rate cut is 2.6%. The probability of the Fed keeping interest rates unchanged by June is 42.2%, the probability of a cumulative 25 basis point rate cut is 56.3%, and the probability of a cumulative 50 basis point rate cut is 1.5%.

Disclaimer: As a blockchain information platform, Golden Finance publishes articles for information reference only and is not intended as actual investment advice. Please establish a correct investment concept and be sure to improve risk awareness.