Bitcoin

Bitcoin has undergone its halving, with the 840,000th block being mined on Saturday at 2:09 AM (CEST). The fourth Bitcoin halving block comes from the ViaBTC mining pool, bringing it an additional 37.6256 BTC ($2,401,399) reward, paid as fees from the 3,050 transactions in the block. Following the halving, the BTC block reward decreased from 6.25 BTC to 3.125 BTC.

Concurrent with the Bitcoin halving, Casey Rodarmor, a Bitcoin developer, launched his latest creation, the Runes Protocol. In the first hours of the protocol’s launch, Runes users have already paid out 78.6 BTC (~$4.95 million) to purchase the rarities.

Speculators bet that the first runes will be the most valuable, hence the immense interest. There are already hundreds of rune projects currently being crafted, seeking prospective buyers.

Financial Institutions and Crypto Brokers

Landesbank Baden-Württemberg, Germany’s largest federal bank, announced its collaboration with Austrian crypto broker Bitpanda. Under the partnership, Bitpanda would provide custody services to the bank’s institutional and corporate clients from the second half of 2024.

Hong Kong’s financial market regulator has approved several spot BTC and spot ETH ETF products, including funds requested by China Asset Management, Harvest Global, Bosera, and HashKey. Asset managers have not yet disclosed the launch schedule.

Crypto broker OKX has launched its Ethereum-based zero-knowledge layer 2 network. Dubbed X Layer, the network utilizes the Polygon Chain Development Kit, allowing users to move cryptocurrencies through OKX with access to over 170 dapps, including Graph, Curve, LayerZero, QuickSwap, Galxe, and Timeswap. Fees on the platform will be paid with its native token, OKB.

Under PayPal’s new policy, NFT purchases will no longer be covered by the company’s buyer protection program. The regulation takes effect on May 20 and extends to NFT sales over $10,000, which will no longer be protected against false claims and other frauds that could cause sellers to lose money.

Binance announced the launch of a new platform, Binance Megadrop, where users can learn about new startup projects and access various web3 tasks, granting them early access to rewards from selected new projects before tokens are listed.

Project Investments

Decentralized physical infrastructure network (DePIN) project, SendingNetwork, focusing on web3 communication, has raised $7.5 million in a seed funding round. Investors include Nomad Capital, Symbolic Capital, Balaji Srinivasan, among others. The project aims to decentralize communication by creating a new TCP/IP stack regulating internet communication, facilitating data transfer between devices.

Hidden Road Partners, a prime brokerage firm supported by Citadel Securities, is gearing up for a $120 million funding round, which would approach the company’s $1 billion valuation. Founded in 2018 by Marc Asch, the company provides prime brokerage services in forex and crypto markets.

Blockchain Developments, Partnerships, Web3, and DeFi

The fitness app Stepn built on Solana and sportswear giant Adidas have teamed up to release a new NFT collection called Stepn x Adidas Genesis Sneakers, consisting of 1000 pieces. The collaboration lasts for a year, and besides NFTs, they plan to offer physical merchandise to users.

BytePlus, a technology solutions provider under ByteDance, the company behind TikTok, announced its partnership with the Sui blockchain team and Mysten Labs. Within the collaboration, BytePlus aims to make its services supporting gaming and social applications, as well as augmented reality products, available on the Sui blockchain in the future.

Tools for Humanity, founded by Sam Altman, and the main development team behind Worldcoin announced the launch of their own layer 2 blockchain. Named World Chain, the network will be powered by Ethereum. It is expected to debut this summer, owned and controlled by the Worldcoin project.

Ernst & Young, one of the Big Four accounting firms, announced the introduction of EY OpsChain Contract Manager (OCM), a transformative blockchain-based solution for contract management. EY OCM assists enterprises in executing complex business agreements, supports confidentiality, aids in improving time efficiency, and achieves cost reduction. The solution runs on the Ethereum blockchain, and corporate data protection will be provided by Zero Knowledge Circuits.

Ondo Finance, one of the largest RWA tokenization platforms, has partnered with the Cosmos-based Noble asset issuance network to make its tokenized products available on the Cosmos blockchain. This expansion means that Ondo’s offerings will be available to more than 90 blockchain users in the Cosmos ecosystem, increasing the acceptance of its products backed by US securities.

Aptos Labs, behind the Aptos blockchain, has partnered with major technology and financial companies, including Microsoft, Brevan Howard, SK Telecom, and Boston Consulting Group, to jointly build the Aptos Ascend digital asset management platform.

Aptos will leverage Microsoft Azure OpenAI Service, Brevan Howard’s market investment expertise, and SK Telecom’s web3 technology, such as wallet-as-a-service, to provide the best possible service to institutional clients in the future.

Tether, the stablecoin issuer, is launching its USDT backed by the US dollar and its XAUT backed by gold on The Open Network (TON) blockchain. Users can access USDT on the network starting from April 20, with XAUT to follow in the coming months.