Hello everyone, it’s a new edition of our weekly newsletter. Today, we’re starting from England we’re the new government, led by Prime-Minister Rishi Sunak, has been mulling new policies that could impact the growth of the cryptocurrency & blockchain industry. But what’s all that about? Let’s find out, and more.
Top stories in the Crypto Roundup:
On April 3, Elon Musk ruffled feathers in the crypto community as Twitter suddenly embedded the Dogecoin logo on its homepage. The event saw Dogecoin rapidly surge by 24% to reach $0.10 within 24 hours of euphoric trading activity.
Dogecoin miners appeared to have taken full advantage of the price surge to book some profits. Within the past week, the miners quickly offloaded 130 million reserve coins worth approximately $11.8 million, while the price was high.
The IntoTheBlock chart below shows how the Dogecoin miners’ reserves reduced from 4.76 billion to 4.63 billion DOGE between March 28 and April 5.
Dogecoin (DOGE) Miners Reserves. April 2023. Source: IntoTheBlock
When miners begin to offload their block rewards, the supply of coins in the crypto market increases. And with Dogecoin miners holding nearly 3.3% of the total DOGE circulating supply, their sell pressure can significantly impact the DOGE price this week.
Elon Musk, CEO of Tesla. Space X, and Twitter, has asked a US judge to dismiss a $258 billion lawsuit accusing him of running a pyramid scheme to support the meme-inspired cryptocurrency Dogecoin.
The lawsuit was filed by Dogecoin investors, and saw Musk’s lawyers call it a “fanciful work of fiction” over the Twitter chief’s “innocuous and often silly tweets” about the cryptocurrency. Musk’s lawyers argued that investors never explained how Musk intended to defraud anyone.
They also said that Musk’s statements, such as “no highs, no lows, only Doge” were too vague to support a fraud claim. His defense noted that their is “nothing unlawful about tweeting words of support for, or funny pictures about, a legitimate cryptocurrency that continues to hold a market cap of nearly $10 billion.”
The court, they said, should “put a stop to plaintiffs’ fantasy and dismiss the complaint.” In a footnote, they also rejected investors’ claims that DOGE qualifies as a security.
Popular decentralized exchange SushiSwap has seen a malicious actor exploit a bug that was introduced into its code four days ago for about $3.3 million worth of Ethereum. According to PeckShield, a wallet controlled by the victim was targeted by an “approve-related bug.”
The victim is a well-known member of the cryptocurrency community on social media, known as Sifu. Their wallet was targeted in SushiSwap’s RouterProcessor2 contract to steal about 1,800 ETH.
Ancilia, a cybersecurity firm backed by Binance, found that the bug was caused by not checking access permissions during a swap transaction. The firm also discovered the same vulnerable contract on the Polygon network.
SushiSwap’s “head chef” Jared Gray verified the bug an hour later, and advised users who have used the SushiSwap blockchain to revoke all permissions given to its contracts. The DEX has since moved to identify addresses affected by the exploit and rescue funds, and added there is currently no risk with using the Sushi Protocol or its user interface.
Arbitrum, the popular layer 2 scaling solution, recently airdropped its governance token, ARB, to users who interacted with its platform. The token is supposed to enable decentralized governance of the protocol and its parameters, but its governance has led to significant community backlash.
The first governance proposal made by the Arbitrum Foundation, the entity behind the project, dubbed AIP-1, sought to allocate 750 million ARB, worth around $1 billion, to the Foundation’s budget for special grants, reimbursements, and operational costs.
The Foundation claimed that the proposal was only a ratification of a decision that had already been made and that some of the tokens were already sold for stablecoins. In response, ARB token holders accused the Foundation of being undemocratic, untransparent and possibly fraudulent.
The backlash was so strong that the Foundation had to backtrack and hold redos. The Foundation pledged to split the proposal into parts and provide more context and accountability for its budget and actions, while making it clear it has no near-term plans to sell more tokens.
Arbitrum is a layer-2 scaling solution for Ethereum that aims to provide fast, cheap and secure transactions, using a technique called optimistic rollup, which allows users to execute transactions on a sidechain and periodically submit proofs to the main chain.
The Bank of England is reportedly looking to establish a team of up to 30 experts to develop a central bank digital currency (CBDC).
In February, the UK’s central bank and finance ministry declared their intention to undertake further research and development on a digital version of the pound sterling and called on the public to offer input on the initiative.
The central bank hasn’t yet decided on whether a digital pound would use distributed ledger technology. Two new job openings for a digital pound project were posted on the bank’s website in late April, with one role for a Security Architect and another for a Solutions Architect for the digital currency. They offer up to £80,000 ($99,000) in salary.
The Treasury had already advertised for a Head of CBDC in January. A digital version of the pound sterling has, to the press, been dubbed Britcoin, although the central bank has expressed reluctance towards the term.
Binance.US is having trouble finding a new banking partner to enable fiat transactions for its customers in the country. The exchange lost its banking services with the recent collapse of Silvergate and Signature Bank, and now relies on intermediary banks to hold funds for it.
According to a Wall Street Journal report, the exchange also faces regulatory pressure from banks that are wary of crypto clients. The CFTC sued Binance Holdings and its CEO, CZ, in March for alleged trading violations, with the trading platform being under CFTC investigation since 2021.
The exchange needs a bank to hold its customer’s U.S. dollars directly, but it has not been able to secure direct banking partnerships with banks like Cross River Bank and Customers Bancorp.
The lack of a direct bank has affected Binance.US customers. The exchange said in a recent status update that it “was moving to new banking and payment service providers over the next few weeks,” and that some U.S. dollar deposit services would be temporarily disrupted during the move.
Binance.US is for now using the fintech firm Prime Trust to store customer funds. A spokesperson for the firm said the funds are held with its banking partners.
Decentraland’s Metaverse Fashion Week featured virtual clothes and exhibits from some major names in fashion, but according to some users, it was lonely, difficult to navigate, and pretty boring.
For an event with some of the biggest names in fashion on board, investors and users were hopeful it would generate massive attention and network traction. But that’s not how it went.
The Metaverse Fashion Week is the second edition of the annual event hosted by Decentraland. A bunch of top-notch and global fashion brands built virtual spaces in Decentraland to show off clothes, fashion vibes and digital architecture.
In total, more than 60 brands participated in the event, including big names like Balenciaga, Coach and Adidas.
While some participants were unimpressed, the markets responded differently, as MANA, the native token of the Decentraland platform, actually surged by 5% in the week that following the event.
As more brands are starting to experiment more with blockchain technology to explore what’s possible with NFTs and virtual social spaces like Decentraland, the Metaverse Fashion Week is surely a step in the right direction for the industry.
| Name (Ticker) | Price ($) | 7-day Growth (%) | Market Cap |
|---|---|---|---|
| Mil.K (MLK) | $1.05 | +87.47% | $255,341,879 |
| LUKSO (LYXe) | $11.0052 | +33.1% | $170,314,809 |
| Bitget Token (BGB) | $0.45591 | +12.95% | $638,272,462 |
| Audius (AUDIO) | $0.304 | +10.20% | $303,739,343 |
| Band Protocol (BAND) | $1.980 | +10.02% | $246,569,219 |
| Name (Ticker) | Price ($) | 7-day Drop (-%) | Market Cap |
|---|---|---|---|
| Wemix (WEMIX) | $1.05 | -19.22% | $259,655,175 |
| OriginTrail (TRAC) | $0.34 | -19.61% | $125,964,686 |
| Mask Network (MASK) | $5.45 | -9.0% | $404,668,826 |
| Gains Network (GNS) | $6.74 | -6.34% | $205,415,181 |
| Frax Share (FXS) | $5.17592 | -3.19% | $628,969,404 |
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Here’s where we’ll leave it for this week. Catch up with us again next week. Maybe Bitcoin will be back above $30,000, who knows?
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