The Sui Network team launched the project’s mainnet, Bitcoin’s daily transaction count reached a new all-time high, and the Fed raised its policy rate, among other events of the past week.
Bitcoin reacts cautiously to the Fed rate hike
On May 3 the U.S. Federal Reserve raised the target range for the federal funds rate by 25 basis points, to 5–5.25%. Equity and crypto markets reacted to the news with caution.
At the time of writing, Bitcoin was trading around $28,900, Ethereum around $1,910.
The top-10 by market capitalization closed the week with mixed results. Cardano (ADA) posted the worst performance, down 5.4%. The best performer was BNB Coin (BNB), up 0.7%.
The total market capitalization of cryptocurrencies declined to about $1.24 trillion. Bitcoin’s dominance index fell to 45.2%.
The Sui Network team launches the project’s mainnet
On May 3 the developers of the first-layer blockchain Sui Network AOPEN_2 launched the project’s mainnet. The SUI token began trading on all major platforms, briefly approaching $2. The Trust Wallet AOPEN_3 integrated Sui Network alongside AOPEN_4Toncoin.
On the eve of the mainnet launch Whale Alert trackers recorded a transfer of 115.1 million TrueUSD (TUSD) from Tron founder Justin Sun to the cryptocurrency exchange Binance. Changpeng Zhao AOPEN_5 Sun against farming SUI, saying the option is aimed at retail investors.
In response Sun said the TUSD transfer was to provide liquidity. However, due to internal miscommunication within the company, there were some mistakes.
PEPE takes third place by market cap among meme tokens
Over the past week Pepe (PEPE) rose more than 900%. At week’s end the asset was listed on Binance.
PEPE’s market capitalization surpassed $1 billion, securing third place in the meme-token category and a place in the top 50. The daily trading volume as of Friday exceeded the combined total of Dogecoin and Shiba Inu. The surge in PEPE’s price turned meme-token holders into millionaires.
According to Scimitar Capital analyst going by the alias Alex, since 16 April 2023 PEPE holders have realized $160 million in profits — nearly all of it coming from users who purchased the asset in the first week after launch.
Bitcoin’s daily transaction count hits a historic high
On May 1 the daily transaction count on the Bitcoin network reached a historic peak of 685,711. The driver was a surge in Ordinals-related activity. The surge led to mempool congestion and higher fees.
A similar situation arose on the Ethereum network. The rising popularity of memecoins pushed fees higher, with Uniswap — the main gas consumer — bearing the majority of the load. By the end of the week, Ethereum fees topped $15.
Coinbase shares rise on earnings release
Coinbase released its first-quarter 2023 earnings report. Net loss stood at $78.9 million, or $0.34 per share, which was notably better than analysts’ expectations ($0.87). In after-hours trading the stock rose.
The leading American platform also announced the launch of Coinbase International Exchange — an international futures exchange for digital assets. The company obtained a Bermuda regulator license, where it registered the new entity.
The platform will allow institutional users in suitable jurisdictions outside the United States to trade perpetual futures with up to 5x leverage.
Meanwhile the main platform in the U.S. also announced the closure from May 10 of the Borrow service for Bitcoin-backed lending. The company said the reason was weak demand rather than regulatory pressure.
Since 2021 Israel has seized 189 Binance accounts linked to terrorists
Israeli authorities have confiscated 189 Binance accounts since December 2021, allegedly linked to ISIS and Hamas.
The exact amount of seized cryptocurrency and evidence of links to terrorists were not disclosed by the Israeli National Counter-Terrorism Bureau. According to the media, most of the remaining accounts belonged to three Palestinian money-exchange firms.
Binance confirmed cooperation in this regard, noting that criminals do not register accounts under the names of their criminal enterprises.
What to discuss with friends?
- Binance: ChatGPT spreads fake news about Changpeng Zhao.
- Meta’s metaverse-focused unit losses reached $4 billion.
- Ex-Coinbase CTO lost $1 million in a bet on the collapse of the fiat economy.
- Texas authorities have charged the creator of Elon Musk AI Token with fraud.
Bhutan and Bitdeer’s Jihan Wu to allocate $500 million for Bitcoin mining
The Bhutanese government-owned Druk Holding & Investments and mining services provider Bitdeer AOPEN_19 will create a $500 million fund to organise cryptocurrency mining in the Himalayas. The raised capital will be directed toward deploying the necessary renewable energy infrastructure.
Earlier, media reported that Bhutan began mining Bitcoin when it traded at around $5,000.
Curve developers deploy crvUSD on mainnet
Curve Finance’s developers AOPEN_20 launched the smart contracts for the decentralised stablecoin crvUSD on the Ethereum mainnet. However, after a few hours the project team AOPEN_21 said a re-run was necessary. The reasons for this decision were not disclosed.
The stablecoin is built on the Lending-Liquidating AMM (LLAMMA) algorithm, which continuously liquidates and automatically posts collateral to manage risk and maintain parity with the US dollar. A similar mechanism is used by MakerDAO’s DAI.
Poloniex to pay $7.6 million in OFAC settlement
The cryptocurrency exchange Poloniex, owned by Justin Sun, agreed with OFAC to pay $7.6 million for sanctions violations. According to the regulator, between 2014 and 2019 the platform conducted over 66,000 transactions totaling more than $15.3 million in “blocked jurisdictions” — Crimea, Cuba, Iran, Sudan and Syria.
Cardano developers launch Hydra L2 protocol on mainnet
The initiative is intended to make the network more scalable and adaptable for various use cases requiring fast and cheap transactions. Developer Sebastian Nagel noted that Hydra is the first of the protocols that will help Cardano achieve the desired maximum throughput.
Block by Jack Dorsey developed a mining chip prototype
Block, Jack Dorsey’s company, completed the creation of an open-source ASIC Bitcoin mining chip prototype. The project aims to reduce industry centralisation to “optimize innovation and expand the ecosystem” of crypto mining. As part of the project Block bought a batch of ASIC chips from Intel.
Lightning Network team simplified node management
Lightning Labs released an update to the Litd node-management tool. It is designed to simplify the use of Bitcoin’s micropayment layer by abstracting certain node functions so users do not have to manage them directly.
The protocol now automatically updates fee data based on the weekly transaction count of a given node.
Also on ForkLog:
- FTX has demanded $4 billion from the bankrupt Genesis.
- The court found former OpenSea executive guilty of NFT insider trading.
- An expert pointed to Bitcoin mining problems in Kazakhstan.
- In South Korea, calls were made to extradite Do Kwon to his home country.
What else to read?
The Shapella hard fork sparked a surge of interest in staking, Arbitrum surpassed Ethereum in average daily transactions, and Bitcoin’s hash rate and mining difficulty again reached new highs. ForkLog published its April analytical report.
In an exclusive piece, we examined the prospects of leading Layer-2 solutions StarkNet and LayerZero.
Detailed examination of the MiCA and TFR drafts, together with lawyer Anna Voevodina, CEO and founder of Manimama Legal & Growth Agency.
Traditional digests compile the week’s key events in cybersecurity and artificial intelligence.
The DeFi sector continues to attract heightened attention from crypto investors. ForkLog has compiled the most important events and news of the past weeks into the digest.
ForkLog has also collated the latest developments in DeFi in our weekly digest.