The Crypto Grimoire: Weekly Epilogue

April 29-May 5, 2023

So much happening but it somehow feels like nothing is happening. Like the market is holding its breath waiting. 

Tl:dr

- Shitcoin mania

- Banks dying

- fed still signaling staying the course to 2% inflation

- BTC & ETH cucked

- Previous strong alts look like poop

- BTC transactions going bananas (ordinals & BRC-20):

- no new money entering - stablecoin marketcap continues decreasing

- Crypto market cap cucked at $1.2T

- stablecoins keep flowing off exchanges

- no new money into defi tvl

- exchange volume falling for 3 weeks

- low dex volume

- low bridge volume

- low on-chain volume

- ethereum nft market drying up

- high gas fees

- active addresses falling

- no new addresses 

- no spikes in crypto related web/social searches (Bitcoin ticking up slightly in tweet volume)

- gold super close to making ATH  

- meh week for stonks

- dollar near multiyear lows 

- sui’s launch has been lackluster so far. Arb was lackluster as well

Expectation is still more crab. That can include up or down. The recent shitcoin mania is fun but it has yet to draw in new money, retail or anything. Just us pvp battling each other. See you on the battlefield and stay safe! 

- This grimoire is an open journal of notes, thoughts, data, and a collection of events from throughout the week in the world of crypto. I won’t always tell you what you want to hear but what you need to hear - 

Trying something a little different. Lots of these charts haven’t been changing too much week to week so I’m omitting screenshots for most of them and just including a link to the chart so you can check it out yourself if you want to. Only gonna include images for the ones that highlight some type of point. Drop a like if you prefer it this way so I know whether it’s a yay or a nay. Trying to make this more streamlined. 

Data:

Bitcoin: 

Bitcoin had a bit of a funky week pricewise but we’re still just stuck crabbing along sideways while the market has fun with memecoins. Any attempts to take back $30k will be interesting. Down fits into the crab expectation for the market as well. We need a new catalyst before exciting stuff starts happening again and the macro situation continues to grind along. Time and patience. 

Transactions on the Bitcoin network are going absolutely bananas. This is Ordinals and BRC-20 token related. We’re seeing a dropoff in NFT activity and so therefore all that attention is likely flowing here. On-chain volume is still in the dumps so it’s not actual volume being moved on the network, but lots and lots of transactions in the form of these inscriptions. $8M in fees paid so far. Could this be the next meta? Still a developing area - chart

Ethereum: 

ETH is stuck in this cucked $1800-$1900 region. Taking the backseat to Bitcoin as the network becomes congested from all the shitcoining and gas fees spike. Really curious how this shitcoin mania isn’t happening over on Arbitrum considering people could be saving a ton of money on gas. Goes to show that people like sticking with what’s familiar. 

Crypto Market Cap:  

Just shy of that pesky $1.2T area that we’ve been cucked at for months now. Mixed with falling exchange volume. Mixed with no new money flowing into stablecoin supply. Overall, same as it’s been for weeks now. No new money entering - chart 

Coins:

Lot’s of previously strong performing alts have been lagging lately. Looking like poop. Fascinating how easily strength can fizzle. Unless you’ve been living under a rock, you’ll know that attention on CT has been all over the memecoins - plenty are springing up. Pepe looks like it’s on its way to a $1B market cap. Insane! It’s a bit of a meme but lots of people are asking the question of if something like this could become the shib of the next cycle. Fascinating how things are able to go viral and take on a life of their own. All I know is memes and virality can be powerful. When something goes viral it takes on a life of its own. Enjoy making money if you are.  

Latest L1 Sui launched this week and it’s still early but it’s been underwhelming so far. Arb was also underwhelming but that had much more hype than Sui did. No airdrop = less hype. Go figure. 

Pretty good analysis on Sui. tl:dr - there’s about a month's golden window to trade this before emissions become a problem. Also highlight on the predatory tokenomics but that’s nothing new in crypto. 

https://twitter.com/defi_maestro/status/1654097133950357505?s=46&t=tBKj62OSDLHK93kCEAKp8A 

Stablecoin Total Market Cap: 

$130B. Keeps grinding downwards. New money is not entering stables and therefore not entering crypto. All this meme money flowing around is just us. The only ones left. One big game of PvP rotation hot potato. No considerable inflows or outflows - chart

Stablecoin Exchange Reserves:

$16.9B. One month ago we were at $18B. Stables keep flowing off exchanges. Plummeting to lowest in 2 years. I like to follow the money and it’s flowing off exchanges currently. Less buying power. Less to bid with. It’s also not showing up in on-chain - chart

DeFi TVL: 

$48B. The $50B zone continues to be that little zone that TVL just can’t seem to push past. We got money flowing into memecoins but most definitely not into DeFi. BTC and ETH have had their runs so far this year while DeFi lagged. Wen DeFi 3.0? - chart

Exchange Volume: 

Daily exchange volume continues to drop. Pepe has primarily been on-chain so none of that really flowed onto exchanges. Definitely odd that we had more volume in January/February when prices were much lower than they are now - chart

DEX Volume:

Surely all that memecoin money would register with high DEX volume, right? No! Make it make sense. Ethereum gas fees are spiking but it’s not registering on the volume side - chart

chart

On-Chain:

Overall, despite the crazy memecoin mania, metrics on-chain look pretty meh. No rise in number of active addresses, new addresses, low on-chain volume. Fees are however spiking - chart

This is interesting. We’re seeing a spike in daily new unique addresses for EVM-chains. More so than during the 2021 bull run. The bulk of those are from BNB Chain. 

We can see similarities when it comes to transactions on EVM chains. BNB Chain ticking upwards and Polygon slipping. But Polygon has Disney, Reddit and Starbucks! All those brand deals and CZ is still winning - chart

Bridge Volume: 

$1.82B over the past week. No particularly interesting bridge volume movements. Stargate is the highest volume bridge and has the highest number of transactions by far - chart 

For chain netflow from bridges, Nansen and DeFiLlama have different numbers. Nansen says Ethereum had the highest inflows over the past week and DefiLlama says it was Polygon and Ethereum. The numbers aren’t similar either. Either way, the volumes are low - Nansen vs DefiLlama 

Ethereum NFT Volume: 

Volume, sales and active wallets continue dropping. Blur’s new lending protocol announcement this week ended up being bearish. Did all the NFT money move over to memecoins? We don’t see that money popping up over in Dex volume or moving across bridges. On-chain volume isn’t popping off either. Where’s the volume going? One of the only things popping off lately is Ordinals and BRC-20 tokens. Are the NFT people moving over to Bitcoin? BTC-Fi eventually? - chart - chart

Revenue:

Ethereum revenue is up 22% in the past week and 63% in the last month. All that shitcoining is driving value back to ETH. nice. It would be in people’s best interest to try and own more ETH in the following years. ETH will absolutely have plenty of competition in the years to come but it has its place firmly as the New York City of blockchains. It has its problems but it’s a financial, business, wealth and cultural icon. It draws high value people and businesses to it. Oh and ETH is deflationary now - chart

Daily Active Users:

Over the past week, the top 3 protocols that saw the biggest increase in users were: 

• Flow - 342%

• Solana - 137%

• Cosmos - 117% 

Biggest drop:

This is curious. Notice the drop in OpenSea and Blur. Supports the idea that NFTs have fallen out of fashion for now - chart 

Tokenholders:

Arbitrum tokenholders increased 11.3%. On-chain data also shows a whale accumulating millions of ARB - chart

Thoughts/Observations: 

Monday:

Rough price action over the weekend for majors. Bitcoin attempted a stab at $30k again before being swatted down to $28k. Another weekend that Pepe captivated the mindshare of the market - up 4158% in 2 weeks at over $500M market cap now. Wild! Makes sense that the market is dull because the only remaining liquidity is off chasing memecoins. Degens are starving to be able to catch the next Shib or Doge. New memecoins like Mong, Bob and WSB gaining traction. Previous strong performing coins aren’t looking as great anymore.

Tuesday: 

Bitcoin once again pops upwards on news of banks failing. Pacwest and Western Alliance are tanking. Bitcoin has previously rallied on bank failure news however I don’t believe people are genuinely “fleeing to safety.” All the same, crypto is holding up when it seems like everything should be burning to the ground. Memecoins continue captivating the market. Blur sold off on its Blend announcement yesterday and reaction seems mixed. People like NFTs and people like DeFi - combining the two seems like a good union for speculation. FOMC tomorrow. Expectation is volatility and a basically locked in 25 bps rate hike. May be the last one for the year. Not expecting cuts for a while. Prob pause and maintain rates. 

Wednesday: 

FOMC day and SUI launch. Bitcoin dumps ahead of Fed meeting and there was some wonky price action during Jerome Powell’s press conference. His language doesn’t seem like they’re going to budge on inflation soon. They still seem committed to getting it down to 2% which could take months. Bitcoin starts moving back up later in the day. WSB dumps due to an insider selling and it causes controversy. Gold is near ATH. Dollar down. ETH mainnet gas fees are high again - reminding many that alt chains probably still have life in them because normies don’t want to pay these fees. 

Thursday:

Relatively meh red day. BTC and ETH are still stuck in the $28k-$29k and $1800-$1900 region. Alts are looking weak. Pepe had another leg up, now at just shy of $1BM market cap(many are joking but seriously wondering what if it becomes the next Shib). No interesting movements from Sui yet, lackluster launch so far. Conviction in the OpenSea insider trading case - this should set a precedent going forward. Rumors say Amazon’s NFT marketplace is coming May 15th finally. Will be interesting to see if any opportunities pop up there like with Reddit NFTs. Ordinals and BRC-20 transactions have been causing a spike on the Bitcoin network all week. What kind of meta will this develop into? Pepe so close to hitting $1B! Wow. This went much higher than originally anticipated. Don’t fight such power. Memes and internet virality are powerful and these things have a way of taking on a life of their own. 

Friday:

Pepe flirted with breaking that $1 billy level but has yet to cross it. Bitcoin looks like it wants to attempt $30k again. Bitcoin dominance still near ATH. ETH/BTC been looking meh. ETH looks like it could attempt $2k again if Bitcoin plays nice. Dollar still near multiyear lows. Gold super close to making ATH.  meh week for stonks. Decent number of news related to brands stepping into crypto this week. Expectation after fomc and everything this week is that we’ll still mostly crab for a while longer. Could pump a bit or move down but should stay relatively within old ranges. Don’t see a catalyst yet for the next move up. 

Crypto News: 

Monday:

• First Republic Bank seized in a deal to sell the bank to JPMorgan Chase & Co

• PayPal extending crypto transfers to more than 60M Venmo customers

• Samsung partners with Crypto.com for optimized crypto trading on Z Fold Devices

• Genesis to enter mediation with creditors to continue restructuring plan 

• US Government BTC holdings valued at $6B

• FalconX building new ChatGPT powered bot named Satoshi to help traders

• Mastercard Crypto Credential partnership with Solana, Aptos, Polygon and Avalanche

• Jack Dorsey’s Block acquires large amount of mining chips from Intel

• Dave Ripley takes over Kraken as CEO

• IRS official says crypto tax guidance could come within around one year

• Binance $9B VC arm keeps growing amid legal battles

• Binance to re-enter Japan possibly in June via acquired regulated exchange SEBC

• FTX confirm plans to restart Japanese exchange with operations starting after June

• Remaining FTX treasury has mostly been spent on legal fees

• Arthur Hayes sees BTC adoption and price going higher amid uncertainty with banks

• UK Government wants to change tax laws in order to tax individuals more efficiently in DeFi

• CEO of USDC issuer Circle comments on power of GPT4

• Yuga Labs appoint Epic Games and EA veteran as CTO

• Core Ethereum dev discounts Charles Hoskinson’s contributions to ETH

• Russia setting up committee to oversee use of crypto for settle international payments

• ChinaBank partner with QNB to facilitate direct transfer using RippleNet payment solution

• Crypto friendly bank Cross River Bank faces FDIC scrutiny over ‘unsafe’ practices

• A16z policy head sees Gensler ‘spiking the regulatory football’

• Bhutan confirms its been mining BTC for a longtime using renewable energy

• Taiwan to possibly allow traditional banks to offer crypto services

• Amid bankruptcy, Core Scientific signs large BTC mining hosting contract

• Hamas’ military wing to stop accepting BTC in order to protect donors

• ECB considering utilizing decentralized settlement system in its infrastructure

• Bit4you returning of funds and monitoring of situation amid crack down on CoinLoan

• FED had insufficient regulatory standards for recently closed Silicon Valley Bank

• Tencent Cloud reported to offer deepfake creation tool at $145

• Honk Kong Monetary Authority updates Annual report to include stablecoins

• Michelin NFTs for members

• $779B asset manager Bernstein recommends buying BTC amid US banking crisis

• Hong Kong fund managers granted licensing to handle more crypto

• Revolut partners with Koinly to integrate crypto tax report services

• Crypto app Simple.app piloting new solution to send money to Ukraine

• BTC futures open interest plunges to one-year low after week of heavy liquidations

• Hackers reported to breaking into AT&T accounts to steal crypto

• KuCoin confirms exchange user behind alleged daily rug pulls

• New study reveals 46% of millennials own crypto across major economies

• SEC targets all involved in UpToken ICO and issues $3.9M in fines

• Twitter to roll out new ability for media publishers to monetise articles 

• Cost to mine BTC rises from $5k to $17k in US in 2023

• Bitcoin addresses holding 0.01 Btc reaches new ATH

• US loses crypto market share in Q1 2023

• BTC miner Bitfarms sees new hashrate highs amid Argentine expansion

Tuesday: 

• Paypal announce $50k of voluntary Reg E coverage for consumer crypto payments

• Over $790M worth of token unlocks scheduled for May

• OPNX hit with reprimand from Dubai regulator

• Coinbase insiders sued for dumping stock

• Legal suit alleges Coinbase violated Illinois’ biometric privacy laws

• Gemini warn Barry Silbert that DCG is at risk if it cannot repay $630M to Genesis

• Sotheby’s launches on-chain secondary NFT marketplace 

• Meta SEC filing reveals debt securities offering plans

• ‘Godfather of AI’ resigns from Google and warns of dangers of AI

• Unknown parties utilized ChatGPT to fabricate rumors Binance CEO CZ is tied to the CCP 

• Hackers stole $93M from crypto protocols in April

• EX-Opensea employee says that information he used was not confidential in insider trading case

• Binance reprimands Justin Sun for attempting to farm SUI token

• Microstrategy bought $290M of BTC in Q1 2023 and repaid Silvergate loan

• Gemini Earn updates

• IMF warns retail CBDCs could pose unknown risk

• Poloniex agreed to $7.6M fee to settle sanction violation charges

• Grayscale still believes crypto prices could rise even if FED hikes rates

• CoinMarketCap launching competition TV show

• Celsius is attempting to merge UK and US entities amid allegations distinction was a ‘sham’

• Nigeria SEC will support asset-backed tokens

• Darknet hackers sell verified accounts on CEXs ranging in price but some as low as $30

• Ark buys another $8.4M in Coinbase stock

• Sharpe Ratio indicates BTC is best investment

• Raoul Pal sates crypto will outpace traditional assets amid currency debasement

• Bittrex CEO discusses US and SEC actions at Consensus 2023

• GPT-like AI system that is capable of interpreting and reconstructing human thoughts

• Bitfarm BTC production declines by 10% in April despite hashrate growth

• Liechtenstein adapts blockchain laws to developing crypto industry

• Bitcoin whales continue buying spree and accumulation

• A16z urges UK to consider ‘more nuanced’ regulatory framework

• Block planning on bringing ‘open source’ Bitcoin mining rig design to market 

• First Republic closure contradicts anti-crypto narrative

• Coinbase exec uses ChatGPT ‘jailbreak’ to get odds on wild crypto scenarios

• Bitget study reveals Millenials and Gen Z are more crypto friendly 

Wednesday: 

• Balaji settles Bitcoin bet early and insist there is ‘fiat crisis’

• Coinbase launch international exchange for institutional traders outside US

• Gemini Foundation launch Non-US derivatives platform in 30 countries

• Politician sold shares of First Republic in March, then bought ahead of JPMorgan acquisition  

• Microstrategy to possibly sell BTC to pay debt obligations

• Sports Illustrated launch Box Office NFT ticketing platform

• Whitehouse proposes Digital Asset Bill - miners could be taxed 30% in new climate change tax

• Bloomberg opinion piece believes crypto crackdown is a good thing for innovation

• Samsung bans employees from using ChatGPT

• DCG’s CFO steps down as crypto conglomerate repays $350M loan

• Hong Kong VC firm launch $100M blockchain fund

• Citi cuts Coinbase rating to neutral amid regulatory uncertainty

• Kenya introduces 1.5% tax to crypto companies

• Crypto.com hint at benefits for card holders after slight improvement in market

• ByBit introduce ByBit lending 

• Revolut now offering crypto investments in Brazil

• Bhutan plans $500M crypto mining fund with Bitdeer

• A16z warns UK on grouping DeFi into broader crypto laws

• DCG tells shareholders revenue is up 63% in Q1 2023 compared to previous period

• Legal bills of FTX amount to $145M

• Binance and Circle provide feedback on UK’s proposed crypto regulatory framework

• Ron Desantis criticizes CBDCs again 

• Ripple lawyers claim SEC is ‘exploiting legal uncertainty’ to redefine securities laws

• Institutional liquidity provider B2C2 will begin trading on crypto exchange Bullish 

• Crypto mining firm Marathon Digital mine $20M worth of BTC and increase hashrates in April

• Robert F. Kennedy Jr. wades further into crypto amid banking crisis

• Survey finds Lisbon, Berlin and Paris emerging as European crypto hubs

• UK tax authority consulting public for comments on treatment of DeFi lending and staking 

• BitFlyer fined $1.2M by NYDFS

• World’s richest man Bernard Arnault owns NFTs

• Law enforcement agencies seize $53M in cash and crypto and arrest 288 vendors

Thursday:

• US Fed raises interest rate by 25 bps and announce no decision made yet to pause hikes

• Jury convicts former OpenSea product head of NFT insider trading trial

• Coinbase to stop issuing loans via Coinbase borrow

• PacWest assessing options including possible sale. Data indicating more US bank failures ahead

• FTX going to court to retrieve $4B from Genesis Global Capital

• Amazon is set to launch its NFT marketplace by May 15, according to rumors 

• Socios.com and Sony promotion partnership 

• Crypto.com launch ChatGPT based AI user assistant Amy

• Alex Mashinsky of Celsius responds to New York State lawsuit blaming him for collapse 

• QCP Capital believes BTCand ETH face short squeeze in dollar index risk

• Arthur Hayes believes crypto will surge to $1M amid banks collapsing

• Michael Saylor believes fiat decline will create surge in BTC adoption

• Binance spot BTC trading plunges 65% after fees were added back in April

• BTC miners have earned $50B from block rewards since 2010

• Speculation surrounding TrueUSD and Justin Sun unfolding

• Regulators in Texas targeting promoter aiming to capitalize on Elon Musk’s AI pursuits

• Coinbase trading volume drops ahead of earnings report

• Registered UK crypto firms can approve their own ads

• Blockchain Association leaves New york 

• Nigerian government formally approves blockchain use

• Binance blocked thousands of accounts needlessly mostly from Iran

• Crypto trading platform Enclave starts fully encrypted spot exchange

• BAYC founder’s Twitter is compromised by hackers

• French senator supports influencers to promote registered crypto firms

• UK planning to ban cold calls selling financial products including crypto 

Friday:

• Western Alliance Bank says it is not exploring sale as an option

• Deloitte, the world's largest accounting firm, will use Polkadot's parachain KILT Protocol to enhance its identity protocol

• Alibaba Cloud, Avalanche partner to deploy metaverses on the blockchain

• Star Wars crypto toys coming through Disney, Cryptoys partnership

• Stripe expands access to its crypto onramp with a new hosted option

• Coinbase is looking at using AI for customer service

• Bittrex CEO says he never got a chance to respond to SEC Wells Notice

• Voyager to possibly distribute cash and crypto to creditors in next few weeks

• Court asks SEC to reply to Coinbase in 10 days

• Block Q1 2023 shareholder letter

• Israel seize nearly 200 Biance accounts over terrorism links

• Media want the FTX bankruptcy court to give the list of 9M customers and creditors

• Bank of England tech expert defends a UK CBDC

• President of El Salvador eliminates taxes on all tech innovations

• North Carolina joins Florida in passing anti-CBDC legislation

• US SEC changes its mind on officially labeling digital assets

• ECB announces quarter percent key rate increase

• Iran will allow crypto payments for imports through dedicated platform

• Though trading volumes have declined, market still larger than before the 2020 bullrun

• Lisbon emerges as most promising European crypto hub

• Mircrosoft giving users free access to GTP-4

• Bitget pledge $10M for Blockchain4Youth

• Coinbase post smaller first-quarter loss

• BTC buying on Cash App surges to $2.2B in Q1

• Oscar-winner Gwyneth Paltrow’s team denies she invested in NFT project called Wild

• ChatGPT created Turbo meme coin crosses $50M market cap

• Nigeria won’t allow regulated crypto trading yet but okays tokenized assets

• Montana governor signs pro-cryptocurrency mining bill into law

• DeSantis vows to outlaw CBDCs

• Volume on South Korean exchanges recover following Terra collapse

• Over 75% of global institutions anticipate a successful cyber attack within a year

• SpartacusDAO leader barred from touching $35M in investor funds 

• Scammers scam elderly couple out of $1M in crypto in Hong Kong

Coin/Project Updates:

Monday:

• Sui can now be farmed on Binance by staking BNB and TUSD

• Arbitrum surpasses Ethereum in total transactions processed

• Binance Launchpad open subscription for Open Campus(EDU) token sale

• Lens rebrand Bonsai to Momoka

• Magic Eden announce AMM

• DigiDaigaku Bitcoin Ordinals NFTs coming soon

• Adidas and Pharrell release digital clothing for Doodles NFT holders

• Volatility expected after $4.6B BTC and ETH options expire and FOMC on May 3rd

• Bitcoin whale adds $1.8B worth of BTC

• Blur announcement coming May 1st 

• Sui provide performance update

• DeFi protocol 0VIX hacked for $2M in flash-loan exploit. Warning to hacker

• OP Labs announce new CEO

• Space ID announce .sei name service for Sei Network

• Dymension announce first IBC-enabled EVM rollup

• Bitget pledges $10M for Fetch.ai development 

• Balancer announce new boosted paradigm for one LP position with Aave V3 

• OKX adds ZK-Starks to proof of reserves verification

• Polygon give an overview of their partnership with Google Cloud

• Ripple has bought $1B in XRP since SEC lawsuit while also selling large amounts 

• ForTube get exploited in flash loan hack

• Arrakis release Optimism liquidity mining update

• Introducing Galahad Finance allowing loans against ETH on zkSync

• Socket confirms token

• Erigon receive $200k grant from BNB chain

• Spartacus served by US federal judge over discord

• Aevo invite Lyra traders to use protocol

• Threshold launch $500k bug bounty program in partnership with Immunefi

• Zcash version 5.5.0 goes live

• Skale release Q1 update

• Uniwhale Exchange propose deploying on Arbitrum

• RabbitX announce token 

• Grayscale take note of Bitcoin Ordinals in new report

• Argent hint at airdrop and tell users to make sure wallet is funded

• Paima Studios launches Web3 engine 

• CyberConnect announce sale on Coin List for May 18th

• Hook Protocol hint at some kind of airdrop in May

• Merlin exploit highlights role of code auditor CertiK

• Postmortem on Hedera hack that occurred on March 9th

• Iron Bank has not released depositors funds. Legal action being taken by Alpha Homora

• EthereumPoW has made no GitHub code updates to Geth fork since launch

• Base Goerli Regolith hardfork update after hardfork did not activate

• Omni Network provide an overview of their innovation to unite Etherum’s modular future

• Astaria introduce beta launch

• ETH team lead proposes terminating Rinkeby testnet on June 1st 2023

Tuesday: 

• Bitcoin processes more transactions than ever before

• Blur launch p2p NFT lending protocol

• PEPE enters Top 100 and is now third largest meme coin by market cap

• LSD solutions now have more TVL than DEXs

• Curve Finance’s crvUSD stablecoin deployed on Sepolia testnet

• Magic Eden to refocus on Solana after rise of Tensor

• BIT Mining Limited announce next generation of Litecoin and dogecoin mining

• Level Finance confirms $1M exploit due to bug in smart contract code

• Uniswap introduce Uniswap Agora

• Rocket Pool voting to reduce RPL emissions

• ‘Bitcoin Request for Comment’ token hits $137M in market value

• Wormhole introduce Wormhole Connect

• Polygon submit response to HM Treasury 

• Gamma Swap beta testnet is open to public on Goerli Network

• Astaria introduce beta launch with NFT lending platform

• Safe announce Safe AAnything goes hackathon

• 0x introduce Ox Dashboard

• Eigen Labs provide updates on EigenLayer mainnet launch

• Binance removes multiple spot trading pairs

• Binance burns billions of Terra Classic and users anticipate revival 

• Opside announce validator whitelist round 1

• Quickswap voting on new features with new proposal

• Balancer voting on proposal to fund Balancer Foundation

• Idle DAO proposal for incorporation in the marshall Islands 

Wednesday: 

• Multiple exchanges including South Korea’s largest exchange to support Sui as token goes live 

• High gas fees sees users flock to other EVM- compatible chains

• TUSD depegs amidst heavy borrowing

• ETH withdrawals decline while meme coin trading activity is increasing burn rate

• Transactions on the Bitcoin network overtook the number of regular BTC transactions 

• Injective integrates Astar Network and Polkadot Assets to expand IBC interoperability

• Binance USD stablecoin activity slides to two-year low

• Amount of stablecoins held on exchanges drops to two year low

• Blur NFT loans surpasses $16M in loans

• zkSync provides update on short period of generating no proofs for some blocks 

• ConsenSys’ L2 Linea adds loyalty NFT campaign to drive adoption

• DefiLlama add bank failures tab

• Litecoin experiment to with Oridnals with LTC-20

• Sommelier goes multi-chain and expands to Arbitrum

• Maverick rolls out liquidity incentives for price stability

• Hashflow partners with Moonpay

• Qredo previews Qsign

• Argent announce xplorer campaign

• Gaming guild P2Earn adds EA alum Jeff Burton to its board

• Bounce Finance integrate zkSync Era 

• Thala provide project updates and  introduction of major new features

• Web3 MMORPG Mirandus will not have NPCs

• El Dorado Exchange experienced setbacks expanding to Arbitrum but is restructuring 

• Lybra identify bug in their esBLR vesting smart contract

• Coinlist rebrand

Thursday:

• Sui Network officially launched mainnet

• NFT trading activity continues to drop as sales have plunged 76%

• Whale takes profit from Pepe and market drops nearly $200M

• PEPE liquidity pool becomes the most active on Uniswap

• Binance launch SUI token perpetual contracts

• Curve Finance deploys native stablecoin on mainnet

• Yearn and CowSwap dumping service 

• Uniswap V2 smart contracts have been deployed on Bitcoin

• Bitcoin Ordinals reach 3M inscriptions

• Inaugural crvUSD $1M loan

• On-chain data reveals whale accumulating millions of ARB

• Moonpay launch new crypto app for retail

• Polygon sends users zkEVM mainnet beta soulbound token

• Arkham announce private labels dashboard

• Blockstream developer Neigut expects ‘Cambrian Explosion’ of Bitcoin L2 protocols

• TrueUSD borrowing rates jumped to 100% as TUSD soared to $1.20 

• All funds compromised in Euler hack have been recovered

• Delphi launch Curve Finance dashboard

• INX launches wallet for institutions 

• SynFutures public beta V2 to go live on Polygon

• Aragon bans at least 6 DAO members following treasury discussion

• Goblintown will prioritize ‘worst’ traders in second season mint

• CoinDesk validator Zelda exits Ethereum successfully

• Fuse pledges $10M for ecosystem development

• New Cosmos chain will use liquid staking tokens from other networks for security

• Frax to support Curve and Convex Lps

• Shiba Inu burn rate spikes 30000%

• Swell token to launch soon

• Aptos grants update

• Astroport launch new testnet on Sei

• BTC L2 Stacks begins May with strength

• Cult DAO clarify involvement in newly rug pulled XIRTAM

• zkLink introduce ‘Dunkirk’ asset recovery test and user rewards 

Friday:

• WSB Coin rugged by team member

• Immutable launches beta passport

• SushiSwap launches V3 liquidity pool on 13 chains

• Securitize expands access to Hamilton Lane tokenized fund on Polygon 

• Tokenized vault standard on Ethereum set to start new DeFi summer

• All Core Devs update 

• Chronos reaches $127M TVL with staking 

• Base Goerli Regolith hardfork is a success

• Cosmos liquid staking proposal approved by community

• BNB Greenfield storage network mainnet launch planned for Q3 2023

• OpenSea to integrate Bubblemaps

• Over 18k ETH deposited on Blur

• Statemind release lido V2 audit report with multiple bugs found

• Solana Foundation launch NFT contest for aspiring creators

• Aztec introduce the Hybrid zkRollup

• Coinbase will not support Gala V2

• Volumes have fallen steeply for Art Blocks amid declining NFT sales

• Palm rolls out generative at tool for creators

• Stablecoin Labs is winding down and returning funds

• Stronghold Digital to add 400 PH/s capacity Via 4K Btc miners from canaan subsidiary

• Liquid staking on Lido surpasses 6M Eth

• KuCoin publish proof of reserves

• Seed Club introduce Consumer Crypto Accelerator

• Curve redeploy crvUSD stablecoin after error

• CertiK freeze $160k from stolen Merlin DEX funds

• Arrakis Op rewards are now live

• Olympus bridges to Arbitrum

• South Korean publisher Neowiz launches $10M grant fund with Polygon

• Ether.fi provide detailed analysis of Phase 1

• Aptos Hack Holland applications now open

• Treasure release new game on Arbitrum Spark Defense

• Aevo extend new trader incentive program to May 14th

• Opside release overview of their tokenomics

• Magpie introduce $PNP to support long term development of Pendle

• Tristero sets out to build autonomous dark pools with recent funding

• Wallet Guard introduce Stormwatcher

• Wormhole now supporting Sui

• Xirtam team move scammed tokens to Binance

• Lyra to be airdropping Arb to users

• Pyth Mainnet launches on Injective

• Factor V2 launch

• Jito Labs introduce redesigned Solana MEV explorer

• Starknet now available on Alchemy

Fundraises:

Monday:

• OpenAI close $300M share sale at $27B-$29B valuation

• Zodia Custody raised $36M

• Goal raised $20M 

• Crypto wallet Giddy raised $6.9M

• nChain invest $4M in Transmira

• Secro raised $3.5M

• Tribe3 raised $2.1M and public beta launching May 3rd

• SuiPad raised $1.155M 

• A16z invests in Pinecone a leading vector database

• Aki Protocol valued at $40M after recent funding

Tuesday: 

• Temasek $10M into algorithmic currency system Array. Temasek denies investing

• FARE Protocol raise $6.2M ahead of token launch

• Fineqia announce proposed private placement of up to $1M

• OKX Ventures invests in Cetus Protocol 

Wednesday: 

• Entendre Finance raised $4M in seed funding

• Nolus raised $2.5M 

• Cetus closes seed round fundraising led by Kucoin Ventures and OKX Ventures

Thursday:

• Credibly Neutral raise $5.5M

• Tangem raise $8M  

Friday:

• AlienSwap raised $12M

• Coinbase Ventures backs ZkLink with $10M

• Alchemy Ventures backs $4M for NFT platform Vibe

• Portals raised $2M

• OpenTrade raised $1.5M to build structure financial products 

• Mysten Labs invests in MovEX

Research/Reads:

• What is De-Dollarization And What Does It Mean for Crypto - source

• Exploring Institutional Interest in Blockchain Applications and Digital Asset Use - source

• Data availability sampling and danksharding: An overview and a proposal for improvements - source 

• Confirmation Rule for Ethereum - source

• The Resurgence of Solidly Forks - source

• Secretive trading firms that pile into crypto are ‘first sign’ of mainstream adoption - source

• The Kingdom of Bhutan Has Been Quietly Mining Bitcoin For Years - source

• Blend: Perpetual Lending With NFT Collateral - source

• DeFi on Bitcoin? Trustless Computer Says Yes - source

• Yuga Labs: From Nothing to The Disney of Web3 in 2 Years - source

• Sui Token and Network Launch: What You Need to Know - source

• What Is Sui? The Latest ‘Solana Killer’ From Former Diem Devs - source

• Can CBDCs, Tokenized Deposits, Stablecoins and DeFi Coexist? - source

• DeFi Slippage Attacks - source

• The dead end of trading mining - source

• Exploring MEV on EigenLayer - source

• How Chinese airdrop hunters obtained SUI on KuCoin and OKX IEO - source

• How are Bitcoin options traders positioning for the US banking crisis? - source

• Exploring MEV on EigenLayer - source

• Artemis: An Open-Source MEV Bot Framework - source

Twitter: 

• Messari dive into the latest L1 Sui - source

• Overview of crvUSD - source

• Latency and oracles - source

• Number of important macro conditions that have recently come together - source

• Overview of BRC-120 token standard on Bitcoin - source

• Overview of Sui ecosystem ahead of mainnet launch May 3rd - source

• Overview of crypto macro indicators for April - source

• ZK Fundamentals: What is proof aggregation, recursion, and composition - source

• How and why of oracle free lending for callable loans - source

• Details on major RWA developments - source

• Decentralised Shared Sequencers - source

• Blur - source

• Is the depegging of crETH2 an arbitrage opportunity or a sign of something more serious? - source

• Potential causes and ramifications of 3M Bitcoin Ordinals and ATH daily inscriptions - source

• Top 10 most common bugs in your Aptos move contract - source

• Berachain - source

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