LocalMonero has announced its closure

😳 The LocalMonero platform has announced its closure after seven years of operation.

The platform will cease operations on May 14th.

LocalMonero is the largest P2P platform for Monero users.

Crypto sector's influence in US politics grows

👥 Super PACs linked to the cryptocurrency sector have amassed over $102 million, making them one of the top contributors to the 2024 US elections. This includes significant funding from corporations like Coinbase and Ripple Labs, leveraging unlimited spending allowed by the Citizens United ruling.

🎯 Their aim? To support crypto-friendly candidates and combat stringent regulations. Notably, this sector has seen success in most of the primary races they've intervened in so far.

💼 On the corporate side, leaders like Brian Armstrong of Coinbase openly admit to using financial clout to shape electoral outcomes, emphasizing a strategy that prioritizes corporate profits over public interests.

📈 Despite controversies and ongoing legal battles with regulatory bodies like the SEC, these PACs are gearing up to heavily influence the upcoming general elections, seeking the adoption of laws beneficial to the industry in the future.

The administrator of the LockBit ransomware has been identified as Dmitry Khoroshev, a 31-year-old from Voronezh, known by the aliases LockBitSupp and 🦀 putinkrab.

🧐 The FBI, NCA, and Europol revealed that Khoroshev generated $100 M through his illicit operations, with his ransom demands surpassing $500 million.

🇬🇧The UK, 🇺🇸USA, and 🇦🇺 Australia have implemented sanctions against Khoroshev, including asset freezes and travel bans. Additionally, authorities are offering a $10 million reward for information that leads to his arrest.

👀 The US has previously indicted five other LockBit affiliates: Artur Sungatov, Ivan Kondratyev (Bassterlord), Ruslan Astamirov, Mikhail Matveyev (Wazawaka), and Mikhail Vasilyev. Following a successful operation, law enforcement disclosed that the breach and control of LockBit's infrastructure yielded more decryption keys than initially reported. On February 20th, the NCA confiscated part of the LockBit encryptor’s infrastructure and seized 200 related crypto wallets.

Bitcoin has established a local bottom at $56,500 and may reach $150,000 by the end of this year - Standard Chartered

💪 The situation has improved, with Bitcoin possibly having established a low at $56,500, according to Standard Chartered.

🤷 Experts have revised their previous forecast, which anticipated a drop to the $50,000-$52,000 range.

📈 They have confirmed a target of $150,000 by the end of the year and $200,000 by the end of 2025.

🏦 The reason for the change was a less hawkish-than-expected decision by the Federal Reserve and positive signals in the U.S. employment report.

Aragon co-founder launches "next-gen" crypto wallet

The Tuyo project has introduced a self-custodial cryptocurrency storage app focused on DeFi.

👝 Positioned as a non-custodial wallet of the next generation, it combines the convenience of centralized exchanges with user freedom "without any compromises."

👀 Tuyo was co-founded by Aragon's Jorge Izquierdo and Alejandro Parespaya, former head of digital products at Allfunds.

✔️ The creators pointed out that most novice cryptocurrency investors start and end their journey on centralized exchanges (CEXs) due to the simplicity and convenience of these platforms.

👍 Therefore, the Tuyo developers aimed to free users from unnecessary technical details. According to them, they have greatly simplified conducting online transactions while providing access to DeFi services like yield farming.

Binance helped arrest ZKasino fraud suspect

🧑‍💻 The investigative team at Binance was instrumental in the apprehension of a suspect linked to the ZKasino blockchain casino fraud. The individual was arrested on April 29 by the Netherlands' Fiscal Information and Investigation Service.

📝 Binance's team conducted an analysis of smart contracts and employed both on-chain and OSINT tools to pinpoint the account of the 26-year-old suspect, who was revealed to be the founder of the platform, known by the pseudonym Derivatives Ape. 🧐 The findings were then passed on to law enforcement authorities. The company highlighted the crucial role of the community in aiding the arrest of the criminal.

🚔 Following the arrest of Derivatives Ape and the confiscation of his cryptocurrency, there was still movement of some ZKasino 💵 assets, suggesting the involvement of additional accomplices in the scam.

SEC Chair Gary Gensler discussed key issues in a recent CNBC interview:

▪️The SEC manages a capital market worth $110 trillion, with cryptocurrencies representing only a minor segment.

▪️There is significant concealment of information by digital asset issuers and prevalent fraud within the cryptocurrency sector is avialable.

▪️Despite its modest scale, the crypto market garners an excessive amount of media attention, resulting in a disproportionate number of inquiries directed at it.

▪️The decision about Ethereum is currently pending.

▪️Legally, the majority of cryptocurrencies are classified as securities.

The number of BTC addresses making deposits on exchanges decreased to 12.8 thousand addresses for the first time since August 2015.

I wonder when investors will start selling the coins. Maybe when BTC will be $1,000,000? 👀

🐃 The current bull cycle of the cryptocurrency market may be shorter than previous ones and is unlikely to end in a major altcoin rally. This was announced by 10x Research analysts.

🤷 According to analysts, large volumes of token unlocks of almost $2 billion over the next ten weeks could have an extremely negative impact on altcoins.

An American mining company has opened a data center in Argentina to mine bitcoin using energy from 🔥 burning associated gas.

This would power 1,200 ASIC miners from a thermal power plant, which would burn gas that would have been burned anyway, and its heat would wastefully heat the atmosphere, exacerbating the 🌳greenhouse effect.

We previously reported that the coal company 🔨 mined 425 BTC, also using its own surplus energy. It seems that green mining is becoming a trend.

Taiwanese authorities have implemented new strict cryptocurrency regulations. The key aspects of these regulations are:

1️⃣ Digital asset service providers who do not register with the regulatory bodies and fail to meet anti-money laundering standards may be subjected to up to 2 years of imprisonment.

2️⃣ Individuals utilizing virtual asset accounts for illegal activities could receive prison terms of 6 months to 5 years.

3️⃣ Infringements of licensing regulations could lead to penalties as high as 50 million Taiwanese dollars (approximately $1.54 million).

The difficulty of mining Bitcoin has plummeted by nearly 6%

⬇️ As a result of the recent recalculation, the difficulty of mining the primary cryptocurrency fell by 5.63% to 83.15 T. This fall is the most significant since December 2022.

✔️ From the previous adjustment, the average hash rate over approximately a two-week period was 595 EH/s compared to 630 EH/s earlier. This suggests that miners may have disconnected equipment that became unprofitable to operate following the halving.👀

🏔On April 25, the mining difficulty reached a new high of 88.1 T.

The Dencun upgrade has made ether inflationary again.

👀 According to a CryptoQuant report released on Wednesday, the Dencun upgrade has reduced transaction fees on the Ethereum network, resulting in a significant decrease in the amount of ether being 🔥 burned.

🤔 This has brought ether burn rates to one of their lowest points since the Merge, when Ethereum transitioned from proof-of-work (PoW) to proof-of-stake (PoS) consensus. Consequently, the supply of ether is expanding at its quickest daily pace since the Merge.

"Before the Dencun upgrade, the higher network activity on Ethereum meant higher fees burned and hence less ether supply. However, after the Dencun upgrade, the total amount of fees burned has decoupled from the network activity"

- CryptoQuant analysts said.

✔️ The report also noted that given the current level of network activity, it is unlikely that Ethereum will become deflationary again in the near future.

👥 Hello, folks! Our channel team has decided to slightly change the format of our activities. Of course, we will continue to publish the most interesting news from the world of cryptocurrencies, but we have decided to make your time here a bit more enjoyable. Therefore, we will be conducting a daily giveaway of cash rewards.

To participate, you will need to meet certain conditions:

1️⃣ React with a dragon emoji 🐲 to every post about the giveaway

2️⃣ Share this message with a friend

3️⃣ Fill out a Google form.

4️⃣ Subscribe to the Daily 🐲 drops channel, where the results of the draws will be published

After that, a draw will take place after some time, during which five lucky participants will be randomly selected. The prizes will be distributed as follows:

▪️1st place - $20
▪️2nd place - $10
▪️3rd place - $8
▪️4th place - $4
▪️5th place - $4

Announcements for the draw will appear on the Crypto soothsayer channel at different times each day, after which you will have 4 hours to fill out the form. Everyone who manages to do so will have a chance to win a prize!

Trading volumes on cryptocurrency exchanges declined for the first time in seven months

👀 In April, the combined volume of spot and derivative cryptocurrency markets fell by 43.8% to $6.58 trillion, after reaching a record $9.12 trillion in March, according to CCData.

🤷 This positive trend was interrupted after six months.

✔️ Experts attributed the trend reversal to escalating geopolitical tensions and a slowdown in the inflow of funds into spot ETFs. Additionally, optimism was undermined by a decreased likelihood of the Federal Reserve easing its policy this year.

Joseph Lubin believes the SEC has reclassified ETH as a security

👤Ethereum co-founder and head of Consensys, Joseph Lubin, believes that the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) has reclassified Ethereum (ETH) as a security.

"The SEC appears to have reclassified Ether as a security without telling anybody that that’s the case. They are going about a strategic series of enforcement actions rather than open discourse and clear rulemaking"

- Lubin stated.

🤦🏻‍♂️He also thinks that these regulatory enforcement measures aim to instill fear, uncertainty, and doubt within the cryptocurrency industry, attempting to paralyze Consensys and force the company to leave the country.

✔️This position of the SEC first became known from the agency's response to a lawsuit from Consensys, which wanted to get a clear answer from the SEC about whether Ethereum is a security.

Binance fined $4.4 million by Canadian financial regulator

🤷 Binance has been fined $4.4 million by the Financial Transactions and Reports Analysis Centre of Canada (FINTRAC) for violations related to anti-money laundering regulations.

👀 The penalty was imposed because Binance failed to register as a foreign money services business and did not report transactions involving virtual currency that exceeded 10,000 Canadian dollars.

Binance ceased operations in Canada last year.

🔥Venture fund Pantera Capital reported that it has invested a record amount in TON, calling it the "largest" investment for the company.

💰 The exact size of the investment is not specified, but Pantera Capital had previously invested over $250 million in Solana.

📈 This news triggered a sharp increase in $TON, which rose by almost 15% in the last 24 hours and 30% over the past week.

🤷 Mainland Chinese investors could gain access to a Bitcoin ETF in two years...

🇭🇰 Harvest Global Investments, the issuer of a Bitcoin ETF in Hong Kong, is considering an application to join the Shanghai-Hong Kong Stock Connect program, provided there are no complications in the next two years.🧐

✔️ The Shanghai-Hong Kong Stock Connect serves as a cross-border investment channel connecting the stock exchanges of Shanghai and Hong Kong.

🇰🇷 South Korean supermarket chain launched for sale 30,000 Bitcoin-branded meal boxes, offering customers the opportunity to win bonus BTC.