Ethereum creator pumps Railgun price by 200%!

👀 Vitalik Buterin transferred 100 ETH to the DeFi protocol Railgun, which facilitates confidential transactions.

The creator of ETH has been using this protocol for the last six months 🤷, but it caught the media's attention today, and the RAIL token surged over 200% 🚀 (at its peak).

📉 Its price has since decreased somewhat but remains more than double what it was before.

Attackers can gain control of Trust Wallet on iOS due to a critical vulnerability in iMessages!

Trust Wallet has warned its users about a vulnerability in iMessages that could allow attackers to gain control of the wallet even if they didn't encounter any links 🙀.

Developers recommend turning off iMessages as soon as possible until Apple fixes 🔨 the problem.

How to do it?

Navigate to Settings -> Messages -> toggle iMessage off.

Adidas is launching a $2,500 Solana NFT sneaker line within the move-to-earn game 'Stepn'.

The game announced on Monday its collaboration with the sportswear giant Adidas, introducing the Stepn x Adidas Genesis Sneakers collection 👟. This marks the first of several co-branded initiatives planned between the two companies. Throughout their year-long partnership , more NFTs and physical items will be released.

OKX has launched own network

A few hours ago, the mainnet X Layer became available for everyone interested.

❌ Layer (X1) is a zkEVM L2 network where transaction fees are paid with the OKB token. The exchange aims to attract 50 million users to it.

Withdrawals from OKX to X Layer have the lowest fees 🤩

Buterin responded to discussions about his use of the Railgun mixer

Journalist 📝 Colin Wu, who tracked Ethereum co-founder Vitalik Buterin's transactions through the Railgun mixer , noted that this tool is also employed by the North Korean hacker group, 👤Lazarus.

The service gained prominence as an alternative following sanctions imposed on 🌪 Tornado Cash.

🧐 Wu referenced an FBI statement from January 2023, which indicated that over $60 million from the Harmony breach had been processed through the mixer.

🥷 In response to Wu's tweet, Vitalik Buterin stated that "privacy is normal."

Railgun uses the privacy pools protocol which makes it much harder for bad actors to join the pool without compromising users' privacy

- he sad.

Bitcoin price drops before each halving - CryptoQuant analyst

He notes that as the fourth Bitcoin halving approaches, its price has dropped ⬇️ by 16.65%, causing concern among crypto investors and traders.

👆 However, such declines are typical before each halving. For example, Bitcoin fell by 40.36% before the second halving and 20.35% before the third, only to later reach new highs 🚀.

Bitcoin has reached a local bottom

The Realized Profit/Loss Ratio has fallen 📉 below 1, indicating that losses have exceeded profits. Historically, on a bullish 🐃 market, this metric signals that Bitcoin has hit a local bottom during a correction.

👆According to Willy Woo, a bearish return is expected only if prices consolidate below $58.9k ⬇️.

The Ore protocol based on Solana has ceased mining operations to avoid overloading the network.

The mining 🔨 protocol Ore on Solana announced the suspension of its mining activities to prevent further disruption to Solana's functionality.

ℹ️ The Ore project has been one of the culprits behind recent network congestion issues. The protocol operated on a Proof-Of-Work (PoW) basis and allowed the mining of ORE tokens.

🙀 Following this announcement by the developers, the price of the token surged dramatically, increasing ⬆️ from $94 to $417 currently, according to CoinGecko.

The Korean won has surpassed the US dollar in trading volume on cryptocurrency exchanges

In the first quarter of 2024, the South Korean 🇰🇷 won exceeded the US dollar in trading volume on Bitcoin exchanges, achieving $456 billion versus $445 billion, according to data from Kaiko.

📈 This level of activity on South Korean cryptocurrency platforms hasn't been seen in two years, fueled by macroeconomic improvements and fierce competition.

👆 At the end of 2023, Bithumb and Korbit initiated aggressive zero-commission campaigns aimed at competing with Upbit, which has dominated the market with an average 82% share over the past three years.

👀 While trading volumes dipped in early April, analysts suggest that the approval of spot ETFs for Bitcoin and Ethereum in Hong Kong could potentially revitalize the market.

U.S. Senators have introduced a bill for stablecoins - The Block

Kirsten Gillibrand and Cynthia Lummis propose to:

▪️Prohibit unbacked algorithmic stablecoins.

▪️Require stablecoin issuers to hold fiat reserves in banks that back their tokens on a 1:1 basis.

▪️Require stablecoin issuers to implement anti-money laundering systems.

SingularityNet, Fetch.ai, and Ocean Protocol will conduct a token merger

🧐 Three AI-centric blockchain initiatives—SingularityNet, Fetch.ai, and Ocean Protocol—have unanimously received community approval to merge their tokens into a unified currency named ASI, as announced in a recent press release.

📅 In late March, these entities formed the Artificial Superintelligence alliance with a strategic aim to consolidate their individual tokens AGIX, FET, and OCEAN into ASI, positioning it among the top 20 cryptocurrencies by market capitalization.

✔️ The alliance's mission is to forge a decentralized AI infrastructure, enhancing collaboration across platforms. This integration is expected to provide developers and users with enhanced capabilities to foster a more democratic and transparent ecosystem.

🔜 The official merger and the introduction of ASI are scheduled for the upcoming weeks.

Exchanges may run out of bitcoins

👀 Bitcoin exchange reserves will only last for the next nine months, according to data from CryptoQuant.

Analysts have calculated💻 that publicly available exchange reserves have decreased by more than 800,000 BTC, reaching a historic low for the two-year observation period. As of April 16, available exchange reserves are about 2 million BTC.

📝 Assuming a daily inflow to spot Bitcoin ETFs of about $500 million, equivalent to 8,025 BTC, it will roughly last nine months to completely exhaust all available reserves.

Worldcoin is set to introduce its own Layer 2 blockchain

🌎 Worldcoin is set to launch its own Layer 2 blockchain, named World Chain, as announced by Sam Altman, CEO of the artificial intelligence firm OpenAI.

This new 🔗 blockchain platform aims to enhance efficiencies during the user onboarding process. According to a recent statement, World Chain will be anchored on the Ethereum blockchain for security.

📝 The statement further noted that verified human users will receive 👆 "priority blockspace over bots and some free gas," enhancing their experience on the platform.

Crypto exchange Kraken has launched a non-custodial wallet

🐙 Kraken, the second-largest cryptocurrency exchange in the USA, has introduced a non-custodial wallet that allows users to independently store their funds. This wallet is accessible to everyone, not solely to Kraken clients.

👝 The wallet app is compatible with eight different blockchains: Bitcoin, Ethereum, Solana, Optimism, Base, Arbitrum, Polygon, and Dogecoin. It also supports the management of NFTs and DeFi positions.

👆 Additionally, the Kraken Wallet is open-source, providing the opportunity for third-party developers to incorporate it into various ecosystems.

The Notcoin listing scheduled for April 20th will not take place.

🔜 The project team did not provide any details about why the listing has been postponed, only stating that it will occur "anytime soon".

Bitcoin transaction fees have spiked amid the hype around Runes

📈 The average bitcoin network transaction fee (7DMA) has exceeded $16. The Block experts attribute this to user activity in anticipation of the launch of Runes.

Furthermore, today a record fee of 🙀 $12,581 was paid for a transaction of 0.58 BTC ($35,728) in the bitcoin network.

Binance has been fully licensed in Dubai and plans to return to India

🧐According to Bloomberg, the Dubai government granted Binance a 📝 full license after its former CEO, Changpeng Zhao, surrendered control of the platform in the jurisdiction. Since mid-2023, Binance FZE's local division had an interim Operational MVP permit to offer brokerage and exchange services.

Before issuing the VASP, the Dubai Virtual Asset Regulatory Authority required 🤷 Zhao to step down from decision-making authority within the company. 👀 Insiders suggest this was to ensure compliance with agreements between Binance and the 🇺🇸 US Department of Justice.

In parallel, The Economic Times reported on Binance's plans to re-enter the Indian market by paying a $2 million fine. The exchange will operate as an organization registered with the Financial Intelligence Unit (FIU).

As part of this registration, Binance will abide by anti-money laundering laws and adhere to the taxation system for virtual assets.

Tether is undergoing a corporate restructure to broaden its scope beyond stablecoins.

The entity behind 💵 USDT, Tether, has revealed plans to reorganize its structure into four divisions with the goal of diversifying its operations beyond stable coins.

Tether's activities will be 🔪segmented into four key sectors:

⏺ Tether Data: Focused on developing and strategically investing in emerging technologies like artificial intelligence and peer-to-peer platforms.

⏺ Tether Finance: Providing services for digital assets and serving as the foundation of the company's conventional products and financial services.

⏺ Tether Power: Committed to sustainable mining development and initiatives related to Bitcoin energy.

⏺ Tether Edu: Responsible for educational endeavors aimed at raising awareness about digital assets and other state-of-the-art technologies.

Currently, the 💰 market capitalization of USDT has surpassed $109 billion.

Hong Kong authorities have arrested 72 individuals associated with the bitcoin exchange JPEX.

The arrests were announced by the 🇭🇰 Hong Kong police as part of an investigation into fraudulent activities at the cryptocurrency exchange JPEX, according to local media reports.

Additionally, law enforcement has seized 💵 assets worth 228 million HKD ($29.37 million).

In total, 👮the police have received 2,636 reports from victims, with losses estimated at around 1.6 billion HKD (~$204.3 million).

JPEX exchange came under scrutiny in September 2023 when the Hong Kong 🏙 Securities and Futures Commission accused it of operating without a license. The platform was known for imposing high fees on asset withdrawals.

Among those arrested initially were bloggers who had featured in JPEX advertisements and operated unauthorized exchanges.

Amid a liquidity crisis, the exchange has suspended all operations on its JPEX Earn service.

Just two weeks in April, @base has already surpassed last month's total transaction count!

🙀 As of now, Base has logged 45 million transactions in April, a 50% increase ⬆️ from March's total.