Durov announced payments in Toncoin for content creators.

During the Token2049 conference in 🏙 Dubai, Pavel Durov, the founder of Telegram, announced that the 📨messaging app will start rewarding content creators 🖨 and enable cryptocurrency transactions.

🔜 Starting next week, the platform will offer the option for users to tip content creators using cryptocurrency via the 💎TON blockchain, with creators receiving up to 70% of these earnings.

🛒 The app will also facilitate the purchase of digital goods using cryptocurrency, with sellers retaining 70% of the generated 💲 revenue.

🙀 Moreover, users will have the chance to earn 95% in royalties from usernames and anonymous 🦊 NFTs on the TON blockchain, potentially including emojis and stickers.

The system for distributing 💵 rewards for advertising displayed on Telegram channels in TON was introduced a bit earlier.

Telegram Wallet introduces fee-free USDT transactions on TON!

Today is definitely a day full of news related to TON, and it's just a day before Bitcoin's halving)). It seems Durov chose the date of the conference for a reason 😉

The Telegram-integrated Wallet has launched USDT transactions based on 💎The Open Network (TON), announced TON CEO Andrey Rogozov during the Token2049 conference in 🏙 Dubai.

💵 USDT transactions in Telegram are commission-free and occur instantly. Additionally, users can send the asset to their Telegram contacts without needing a wallet address. 🙀

A correction and further growth to $100,000 awaits bitcoin - a venture capitalist

📊 Within 12-18 months, Bitcoin is expected to correct and grow to $100,000 with chances to reach 🚀$150,000-200,000. Anthony Pompliano, the founder of venture capital company Pomp Investments, said this on CNBC.

🧐 Pompliano expressed confidence in the market's stability, stating, "The probability of a decrease is currently quite low... I see no justification for the price to fall below $50,000. We've already crossed that threshold," he remarked.

👀 Additionally, the Bitcoin halving event is just about 10 hours away.

A user paid a $17,500 fee for a transfer of 1.34 BTC!

🙀 On April 19th, an unknown wallet sent 1.34 BTC (approximately $87,000 at the time of the transaction), paying a fee of $17,500.

🙈 The transaction fee was 105,305 sat/vB. This means the user overpaid by about 1269 times.

✔️A miner from the ViaBTC pool confirmed the block containing the transaction.

😳 On April 18th, another investor spent $12,581 on fees to transfer 0.58 BTC (approximately $35,728).

The fourth Bitcoin halving has occurred.

🎆 On April 20th, at block height #840,000, the fourth Bitcoin halving took place. The reward for finding a block decreased from 6.25 BTC to 3.125 BTC.

🔨 The block was mined by the ViaBTC pool. The mining difficulty of the first cryptocurrency was 86.39 T.

Bitcoin 🪚 halving is reduction by half of the reward for miners for adding a new block to the blockchain. Satoshi Nakamoto 💻 programmed this event in the Bitcoin network to occur every 210,000 blocks, which is roughly every four years, until the issuance of 21 million coins (likely in the year 2140), when the cryptocurrency emission will cease.

💵 The price of Bitcoin did not react to the halving at all. The digital gold currently costs around $64,000.

Magic Eden confidently holds the first place among NFT marketplaces.

🏡 Magic Eden's share has steadily increased, reaching 53% over the past month, while over a six-month period, it stands at 38%.

🌊 OpenSea was the leader a year ago but is now in second place with a significant lag, at only 22%.

🤷 Tensor has also lost ground in its positions. OKX's share has remained almost unchanged - 7%.

Bitcoin users incurred a record $2.4 million in fees on the halving block.

📰 The 2024 Bitcoin halving event marked a historic milestone with block 840,000 becoming the priciest ever mined, largely due to the frenzy surrounding the newly launched 🗿Runes Protocol.

⏹ This block, mined by ViaBTC at 12:09 am UTC on April 20, recorded users paying 💰a total of 37.7 Bitcoin (BTC) in fees, valued at approximately $2.4 million, to secure space on this block.

The halving itself reduced ⬇️ the mining reward from 6.25 BTC to 3.125 BTC per block. Including the mining subsidy, the total payment to ViaBTC for this block amounted to 40.7 BTC, or around $2.6 million.

🤘 The surge in fees was driven by degens eager to inscribe rare assets using the Runes Protocol, introduced concurrently with the halving.

Bitcoin average transaction fee began to decline

💸 Transaction fees on the BTC network have begun to recover — on April 20, fees reached a record $128.5, but currently, the fees in the network of the first cryptocurrency have decreased ⬇️ to $35.

The increase in fees accompanied the launch of the 🗿Runes protocol, which allows for the creation of tokens on the Bitcoin network.

ZKasino faced allegations of misappropriating $33 million in user funds

🧑‍💻 Developers at blockchain-based ZKasino redirected 10,515 ETH, valued at $33.9 million, to the Lido staking protocol rather than reimbursing users and investors as initially promised.🙀

🏦 This Ethereum was originally deposited by early participants via the ZKAS pharma native token bridge, with assurances from the project team that the assets could be retrieved.

However, on April 20, ZKasino issued a 📝 statement announcing the network's launch along with revisions to the initial plan. According to the announcement, all the received ETH was supposedly ➡️ converted to ZKAS tokens at a discounted rate of $0.055 subject to a 15-month vesting period.

✔️ Additionally, the developers modified the initial terms on their website, omitting previous references to returning ETH.

The Fed's delayed rate cut led to new outflows from crypto funds.

According to CoinShares, cryptocurrency investment products saw $206 million ⬇️ in outflows from April 13 to 19, up from $126 million the previous week. This 📉trend is linked to concerns about the Fed's high interest rate policy. The report noted a decrease in investor 🙍 interest in ETP/ETFs, expecting prolonged high rates.

Bitcoin-related withdrawals totaled $192 million, up from $110 million, while instruments for shorting Bitcoin saw a $0.3 million loss, a shift ➡️ from previous inflows of $1.7 million. Ethereum funds experienced increased outflows, rising from $28.7 million to $34.2 million 🤷, marking a continued six-week negative trend. However, Litecoin and Chainlink-based products attracted 💪 $3.2 million and $1.7 million, respectively.

An expert has issued a warning about a possible profitability crisis facing EigenLayer

DEX 🧑‍💻developer 3Jane, also known as Chudnov, has stated that EigenLayer's liquid staking tokens need to offer more utility within the💰 DeFi sector to prevent a future profitability crisis for the protocol.

Chudnov 👀 observed that EigenLayer is experiencing faster growth in terms of Total Value Locked (TVL) compared to the active validation services (AVS) it supports, which could significantly reduce the protocol’s projected profitability.

The expert also 🔆 highlighted that a decline in altcoin prices could worsen the situation, as AVS would not be motivated to hold surplus capital on-chain. A temporary 🔨 fix could involve launching additional tokens to bolster budget security, but this would merely postpone addressing the core issue.

Chudnov 🤔 recommends enhancing the utility of LST tokens and fostering deeper integration with the decentralized finance sector as a long-term solution.

The developers suggested launching the Celo network based on Optimism

cLabs, the developer of Celo blockchain, is 🧳 transitioning to Ethereum's second layer using Optimism's OP Stack, aiming to enhance functionality and efficiency.

This decision, made on the blockchain's 🎉 fourth anniversary, follows extensive testing of multiple stacks and a unanimous community vote. OP Stack will enable single block finalization, ⬇️reduced fees, use of ERC-20 tokens for gas, and 💵 fund transfers via SocialConnect.

It also supports the Ultragreen Money 🍏 eco-campaign. This migration promises to halve the block creation time to two seconds and boost throughput by 50%, bolstering security through integration with Ethereum. cLabs plans to vote on this✈️ migration with the community on May 2, with the CEL2 test network launch expected this 🏖summer.

The crypto community believes in the inevitable start of the altcoin season... Historically, a global crypto market pump has occurred AFTER the halving, not BEFORE.

👀 Looks like we've reached point 3. Are you ready for a blast? 🚀

Thailand will block unauthorized cryptocurrency platforms

🇹🇭 Thailand's Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) has announced its crackdown on unauthorized cryptocurrency platforms.

The SEC will share 📂details of these platforms with higher authorities to facilitate their blocking. This directive, outlined on the regulator's website, follows a decision made during an April 19 meeting of the government's committee dedicated to preventing technology-related 🚔 crimes.

🔨 Once approved by the court, the Ministry of Digital Economy and Society will implement local access restrictions. In light of this development, the SEC has urged local users to 📴 withdraw their assets from such platforms promptly.

The SEC emphasizes that blocking these platforms will aid law enforcement efforts in curbing criminal activities like money laundering, which exploit these unregulated channels.🧐

Notcoin's launch was delayed due to technical limitations

🚫 Notcoin co-creator Sasha Plotvinov revealed in a recent interview at Token 2049 that the $NOT token launch, initially slated for around April 20, has been postponed due to a very large 👀 number of users.

The team cited the need for additional 🕐 time to ensure a smooth launch process, considering the anticipated high demand from millions of 📱 players.

👆Despite the delay, Plotvinov assured that the launch is imminent, with a new target set for the 👏 end of this month.

The winner of "Crypto: The Game" donated the prize to the Tornado Cash developers

🥇 The winner of the second season of "Crypto: The Game," who goes by the pseudonym Player 733, donated his prize of 71.8 ETH (valued at approximately $210,000 at the time) to Tornado Cash developers Oleksiy Pertsev and Roman Storm.

In August 2022, the 🇺🇸 U.S. Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC) placed Tornado Cash on its blacklist for facilitating the 🧺 laundering of over $7 billion in criminal proceeds.

During that month, Oleksiy Pertsev was detained, but his detention status was modified to 🏘 house arrest in April 2023.

🌪 Tornado Cash co-founders, Roman Storm and Roman Semenov, faced charges in the U.S. for money laundering and breaching sanctions. Storm was released on bail, while Semenov remained free but under sanctions.

As of January 2024, Storm and Pertsev began raising $1.5 million for legal fees through the newly established JusticeDAO fund, receiving substantial support from the cryptocurrency community.

Whales "forgot" about millions of dollars worth of crypto-assets in cross-bridges

Millions of 💲 in tokens remain unclaimed in contracts associated with cross-chain bridges, according to experts at Arkham Intelligence.

🧑‍💻 The researchers identified several addresses belonging to major players in the DeFi and NFT sectors, and possibly to Ethereum co-founder Vitalik Buterin. He sent 50 $ETH ($1.05 million) to an address whose owner has not moved them from the Optimism bridge for seven months.

😳 Around 27 $WBTC ($1.8 million) are also stored on an Ethereum address linked to Bofur Capital and have not been moved from the Arbitrum bridge for over two years.

Experts 👆 explained that unlike cross-chain bridges like Hop, where users automatically receive their funds in another network, in many other cases, users need to manually claim their assets.

If a user 🙈 forgets to do this, the smart contract does not have the capability to remind them, potentially leading to situations where crypto remain unclaimed.

New bitcoin whales double the old ones!

Investments in Bitcoin by new 🐳 whales have almost doubled those of the old major players. These estimates were shared by Ki Young Ju, CEO of CryptoQuant.

The 🧐 expert categorized as whale addresses those not associated with CEXs and miners, with a balance of over 💪 1000 BTC. Owners of coins "younger" than 155 days fall into the "new" category, while the "old" ones exceed this term.

🙀 Nubank, the largest digital bank in 🇧🇷Brazil, has enabled the option to withdraw and deposit funds in #BTC, #ETH, #SOL!

🔜 They promise to soon add support for deposits in other altcoins as well.

The mining pool ViaBTC has auctioned off an "epic satoshi"

The 🥇first satoshi (sat) from a halving block, which is categorized as "epic" due to its rarity, was put up for auction. This block #800,400 was mined by the ViaBTC pool on April 20.

🔨 The auction is organized in partnership with CoinEx and will conclude on April 26. Bids are accepted in Bitcoin, and each subsequent bid must ⬆️ exceed the previous one by at least 5%.

Currently, the highest bid stands at 2.5 BTC (~$167,400).

The SEC delays decision on Franklin Templeton's spot Ethereum ETF

The 🇺🇸 U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) has prolonged the evaluation period for the application by investment firm Franklin Templeton to introduce a spot Ethereum-based ETF, as reported on the agency's website.

🗒 The revised deadline is set for June 11. By this date, the SEC is required to either approve or deny the application for the new product.

✔️Earlier, the SEC had similarly extended the review timelines for comparable applications from BlackRock and Fidelity.