5/6/24: Bitcoin's Big Milestone 🪙💸📜

Author

Valko
May 06, 2024

Top News

  1. Bitcoin officially surpasses 1 billion transactions

  2. ETH Stablecoin volume hits all-time high of $1.2T in April

  3. SEC issues Wells Notice to Robinhood Crypto

Specs’ Breakdown

1. Bitcoin officially surpasses 1 billion transactions

⌐◪-◪ → Bitcoin just passed a historic milestone of 1 billion transactions processed since its inception in January 2009.

  • Achieved on May 5, 2024, with block 842,241.

  • Took 15 years since Bitcoin's launch on Jan. 3, 2009.

  • Averages 178,507 transactions per day.

Here’s how other popular networks stack up in terms of total transaction count:

  • Hedera: 50B in 4 years

  • Solana: 29B in 3 years

  • Polygon: 3.9B in 3 years

  • XRP: 3.1B in 11 years

  • Ethereum: 2.4B in 8 years

This milestone follows an uptick in tx volume since BTC’s 4th halving and Runes, a protocol for fungible tokens on ETH, which both went live on 4/20.

Bitcoins’ highest daily tx count of 926,000 was recorded on April 23rd, coinciding with peak activity on the Runes protocol.

2. ETH stablecoin volume hits all-time high of $1.2T in April

⌐◪-◪ → Ethereum stablecoin volume just smashed its monthly all-time high with a new record of nearly $1.17T in April.

As you can see in the chart above, $DAI led the way with a massive $636B in trading volume — accounting for 53% of total volume.

In terms of market cap, however, USDT is still leading the way:

  • USDT: $110B | up $20B in 1 yr

  • USDC: $30B | up $7B in 1 yr

  • DAI: $5.1 billion | up $0.4B in 1 yr

More interestingly, a new study from VISA determined that less than 10% of stablecoin transaction volume is from real users.

Out of $2.2T in total transactions since April, only $149B originated from “organic payments activity” - the rest are bots and large-scale algorithmic traders.

I think this offers a glimpse into the future of finance and how AI + bots may take up a greater % of market activity in the future.

3. SEC issues Wells Notice to Robinhood Crypto

⌐◪-◪ → The SEC just sent Wells Notice to Robinhood — adding another major fintech/crypto company to their campaign against crypto.

The number they’ve sent in recent months is astonishing, and it’s hard to imagine they can/will bring so many enforcement actions at once.

As a reminder, the SEC is already up against Uniswap, Coinbase, Kraken, and Bittrex.

Crypto-lawyer Jake Chervinsky suggests that they’re using the Wells Notice as a new scare tactic.

Since the notice was filed, Robinhood’s stock dropped 5% and the company delisted tokens flagged by the SEC to minimize legal risks, including Solana, Cardano, and Polygon.

Let me know what you think about this move in Specs Chat!

Everything Else

⛓️ Crypto & DeFi

  • BTC worth $44M moves for the first time in a decade

  • Sui creator says crypto’s 'ChatGPT moment' moment is coming

  • ETH’s low gas fees drives burn rate to yearly low of 650 ETH/day

  • Under 10% of stablecoin tx volume is from real users

  • 80% of daily active ETH addresses are on L2s

  • Bitfinex CTO denies rumors of data breach from ransomware group

  • LayerZero offers sybil farmers chance to 'self-report'

  • MoonPay CEO explains their recent partnership with PayPal

🏦 Wallstreet & VC

  • Grayscale ETF sees 1st day of inflows since Jan 11th launch

  • Alliance Bernstein analysts double down on $150k BTC price target

  • Nvidia is the only stock to beat BTC over the last 10 years

  • May 15th filings to reveal which corporations purchased Bitcoin

🏛️ Legal & Regulatory

  • Coinbase hit with new lawsuit alleging tokens are securities

  • Former Cred execs indicted on wire fraud charges

  • BTC-e operator Alexander Vinnik pleads guilty to money laundering

  • SEC postpones decision on 7RCC spot BTC and Carbon Credit ETF

  • CTFC commissioner voices concern about AI and how it applies to DeFi

  • Exploiter steals $68M worth of crypto through in poisoning attack

  • Cartier heir arrested for laundering hundreds of millions with USDT

🌎 Rest of the World

🖼️ NFTs & Metaverse

  • FriendTech v2 sees massive adoption with 85,000 clubs created

  • Logos Network inscribed larges Ordinal to date, 3.969 megabytes

  • Solana game Nyan Heroes returns with expanded P2E airdrop

  • Saga reveals 1st ‘Power-Level Over 9,000’ airdrop with $10M rewards

  • Memecoin Hammy does 10x thanks to viral sad hamster meme

  • $Popcat cat owner considers legal action, says he’s anti-crypto

  • Walmart to sell products on Roblox as part of metaverse strategy

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