Financial Institutions and Crypto Brokers

On May 3, Grayscale Investments recorded inflows for the first time in the GBTC asset. This turnaround comes after nearly four months of continuous outflows since January when it converted to a Bitcoin exchange-traded fund (ETF). Following approximately $17.5 billion in outflows, buyers dominated once again yesterday, purchasing a net $63 million worth of GBTC.

Crypto payment startup MoonPay announced that users in the United States can now buy and sell over 110 cryptocurrencies using PayPal. Currently, about half of MoonPay’s customers can take advantage of the integration, but the company plans to expand this feature to users in the United Kingdom and the European Union in the near future.

Stablecoin issuer Tether Holdings Limited released its financial report for the first quarter of 2024, revealing a net profit of $4.52 billion, with total equity exceeding $11.3 billion. The majority of the profit came primarily from interest on US Treasury bonds, with the remaining portion from bitcoin and gold positions.

Official trading of six Bitcoin and Ethereum spot ETFs has begun in Hong Kong. The newly debuted ETFs are managed by China Asset Management, Harvest Global, Bosera, and HashKey. According to data from the Hong Kong Stock Exchange, the ETFs processed approximately HK$ 87.5 million (US$ 11.2 million) in trading volume on the first day, well below analysts’ expectations. This figure pales in comparison to the first-day trading volume of $4.6 billion for the 11 spot Bitcoin ETFs launched in the United States.

Crypto broker Coinbase has introduced long-awaited Lightning Network support, providing users with a faster and cheaper way to conduct bitcoin transactions.

Project Investments

Cryptocurrency venture capital investor Pantera Capital, with over $5 billion in managed assets, announced its investment in The Open Network (TON), believing that the layer 1 blockchain can make cryptocurrencies accessible to the masses.

Securitize, a leading player in tokenizing real-world assets, announced the successful closure of a $47 million financing round led by BlackRock, with participation from Hamilton Lane, ParaFi Capital, and Tradeweb Markets. The fresh capital will be used to further the company’s ongoing innovation and expansion, strengthening its position in the digital securities ecosystem.

Tether’s newly established Tether Evo venture arm has invested $200 million in Blackrock Neurotech, a biotechnology company, becoming the majority shareholder. The company develops devices for people with paralysis, loss of function, and neurological disorders, and the investment helps finance the commercialization of their medical solutions.

Blockchain Developments, Partnerships, Web3, and DeFi

The team behind the memecoin Shiba Inu raised $12 million through a forthcoming TREAT token sale to develop their new, privacy-focused layer 3 blockchain. The project received contributions from names like Polygon Ventures, Mechanism Capital, Big Brain Holdings, Shima Capital, Animoca Brands, Morningstar Ventures, Woodstock Fund, DWF Ventures, Stake Capital, and Comma 3 Ventures.

Aligned Layer, one of the projects that will run through the restaking EigenLayer protocol, raised $20 million in a Series A financing round led by Hack VC. The project will serve as a verification layer for receipts generated by layer 2 dapps. Supporters include DAO5, Iterative Layer, Nomad Capital, and Finality Capital.

Web3 gaming platform Immutable announced a $50 million reward program. Starting today, players can receive instant rewards by completing missions, playing games, and owning Immutable collections. The ecosystem boasts over 270 projects under development, including high-profile gaming projects like Illuvium and MetalCore.

San Francisco-based Movement Labs raised $38 million in a Series A financing round led by Polychain Capital. The project aims to manage the vulnerabilities of smart contracts through the Movement zero-knowledge layer 2 blockchain, increase transaction throughput, and primarily bring the Move Virtual Machine to Ethereum.

Blockchain Developments, Partnerships, Web3, and DeFi

LayerZero Labs, the team behind a cross-chain communication protocol, announced that the snapshot for the upcoming airdrop has been taken, which will be distributed to community members and early users. The announcement noted that a separate allocation has been set aside for excessive airdrop farming or sybil activity if they signal that they fall into this category. Sybil activity refers to a person using hundreds or even thousands of addresses to accumulate tokens for the sole purpose of shortly transferring them.

Stablecoin issuer Tether has partnered with blockchain analytics firm Chainalysis to track transactions made with its tokens on secondary markets. The monitoring system will mainly assist in detecting illegal transfers and help Tether identify crypto wallets that may pose risks or be associated with illegal or sanctioned addresses.

Michael Saylor, CEO of MicroStrategy, unveiled the company’s new decentralized identity protocol, MicroStrategy Orange, at the annual conference in Las Vegas. Saylor believes that the most appropriate way to store digital identity is on the Bitcoin blockchain, as the data is protected by the strength and security of the Bitcoin network. The protocol will be easy for developers to integrate into their own applications using the Orange software development kit.

Avalanche announced a partnership with fintech company Stripe. As part of their collaboration, Stripe will integrate with Avalanche Core Wallet, making it easier for users to purchase assets.

Regulatory Procedures and Hacks

Former CEO of Binance, Changpeng “CZ” Zhao, was sentenced to four months in prison after pleading guilty to money laundering charges in November 2023 and agreeing to pay a $50 million fine.

ZkSNACKs, after blocking access to Wasabi Wallet for US citizens last week, announced that it will also discontinue its Coinjoin service on June 1, which provided anonymity for crypto transactions. Although Coinjoin operates differently from traditional mixers, its technology is used for the same purpose, prompting them to shut down to comply with US authorities.

Federal prosecutors are investigating Jack Dorsey’s company Block, the co-founder of Twitter, alleging that the company engaged in unlawful conduct at its two main units, Square and Cash App. The allegations include processing multiple crypto transactions for terrorist groups and failing to report the majority of credit card transactions, dollar transfers, and bitcoin transactions to the government as required.

Dutch investigators arrested the man behind ZKasino, a web3 decentralized gambling platform, on charges of fraud, embezzlement, and money laundering. Assets worth over $12 million were seized at the defendant’s home. Shortly after its launch, ZKasino changed its rules, preventing investors from withdrawing their ETH, causing approximately $33 million in damages to around 10,000 users.

Early bitcoin investor Roger Ver, known as “bitcoin Jesus” online, has been charged with fraud, tax evasion, and filing false tax returns by US authorities, and was arrested in Spain over the weekend. According to the indictment, in 2017, he concealed ownership of bitcoin from the US tax authorities, causing a $48 million loss.