5/1/24: Remember Four šŸ”®āš”ļøšŸŖØ

Author

Valko
May 01, 2024

Top News

  1. Binance Founder CZ gets 4 months in prison

  2. Coinbase integrates Bitcoinā€™s Lightning Network

  3. BlackRockā€™s BUIDL fund crosses $375M AUM

Specsā€™ Breakdown

1. Binance Founder CZ gets 4 months in prison

āŒā—Ŗ-ā—Ŗ ā†’ CZ was just sentenced to 4 months and now the internet thinks heā€™s a time traveler. Why? Well becauseā€¦

  • $4B Binance fine

  • 4-month sentence

  • In the 4th month

  • In the 4th year of the decade

  • In the 4th millennium AD

To add to the confusion, last March CZ mysteriously tweeted,
ā€œRemember 4.ā€

Seriously, you canā€™t make this shit up. If you STILL donā€™t believe me, explain this picture of CZ holding up 4 fingers.

If youā€™re reading this CZ just remember:

  • ā€œJail is not that badā€ - Martin Shkreli

  • ā€œIt actually a really enjoyable experienceā€ - Su Zhu

  • ā€œYou feel a kinship with your ancestorsā€ - Su Zhu

Meanwhile, Roger Ver (aka Bitcoin Jesus) was just arrested and charged with $50M tax evasion.

2. Coinbase integrates Bitcoinā€™s Lightning Network

āŒā—Ŗ-ā—Ŗ ā†’ Coinbase just integrated Bitcoin lightning effort to bring every transaction under 1 second and 1 cent ā€” pretty exciting.

The integration is done via Lightspark, and started rolling out yesterday on Coinbase!

Meanwhile, Swan still doesnā€™t support Lightning even though their CEO Cory Kippsten promised theyā€™d integrate Lightning before Coinbase.

Seriously though, this could be big for two simple reasons

  • Coinbase has 100M+ users

  • Lightning avoids 2.5% credit card fees

2.5% back on all revenue is a pretty healthy incentive for businesses to adopt crypto-based payments infrastructure, enough to spark a completely new wave of adoption.

3. BlackRockā€™s BUIDL fund crosses $375M AUM

āŒā—Ŗ-ā—Ŗ ā†’ BlackRockā€™s $BUIDL fund just hit $375M AUM, beating out Franklin Templetonā€™s on-chain mutual fund $BENJI by nearly $8M.

For context, this means BUIDL has captured 30% of the $1.3B tokenized Treasury market in just 6 weeks, taking the #1 spot from Franklin Templeton, a 12-month-old fund.

Zooming out, tokenized US Treasury Products are on the rise, proving product/market fit for a new crypto use case and leveling the playing field for DAOs and all on-chain entities regarding asset allocation & risk management.

The game is maturing, this bull cycle is about to hit way different.

To study the numbers in detail ā†’ check out this dune dashboard.

Everything Else

ā›“ļø Crypto & DeFi

  • Restaking 'gold rush' spreads to Solana from Ethereum

  • Renzo airdrops REZ token, debuts at $289M market cap

  • CARV announces node sale for their new modular data layer

  • CZ says the crypto industry has 'entered a new phase'

  • Uniswap enables crypto purchases via Robinhood Connect

  • Paradigmā€™s special counsel Rodrigo Seira leaves the firm

  • Crypto scams hit historic low in April, plummeting 68%

  • Tether sees a record net profit of over $4.5B in Q1 2024

  • EigenLayer sees over 12,000 queued withdrawals

  • CEL burns 92% of the token supply

šŸ¦ Wallstreet & VC

  • Standard Chartered says Bitcoin price could fall further to $50k

  • Spot Bitcoin ETFs saw $344M net outflows in April

  • Saylor says Bitcoin is the 'only crypto asset' that will get SEC approval

  • NASDAQ $2.8B coal miner is now mining Bitcoin, holds 425 $BTC

  • Ex- Revolut exec raises $6.5M for X10, hybrid crypto exchange

  • Backed raises $9.5M round led by Gnosis for tokenized RWAs

šŸ›ļø Legal & Regulatory

šŸ–¼ļø NFTs & Metaverse

  • AnimeCoin launches ā€˜Gacha Grabā€™ game with Azuki

  • YouTuber KSI says heā€™s going to step back from crypto trading

  • Blast grants Blru 2M Gold incentive for 1 month

  • Animoca Brands is coming to Bitcoin with OPAL protocol

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