Week in Review: Ethereum’s Shapella hard fork goes live as Bitcoin hits $30,000

The Ethereum activated the Shapella hard fork, Bitcoin price surpassed $30,000, and Binance.US announced the delisting of Tron, among other events of the past week.

In the Ethereum blockchain, the Shapella hard fork was activated. The cryptocurrency price rose above $2,000

In the night of April 13, Ethereum activated the Shapella hard fork on its mainnet. Users gained the ability to withdraw cryptocurrency from staking.

Against the update, prices surged above $2,000 — the first time since summer 2022. At the time of writing the asset was trading near $2,090.

A number of centralized platforms announced support for the hard fork. In particular, Binance will open withdrawals of Ethereum from staking on April 19.

On the activation day withdrawals from the staking contract totaled 14,300 ETH with inflows of 18,370 ETH. By April 14, the withdrawal queue surpassed 1 million ETH.

The leader in Ethereum withdrawals was Kraken — the exchange had previously shuttered its staking service at the request of the SEC.

Bitcoin price has settled above $30,000

Ahead of the Ethereum hard fork, in the early hours of April 11, Bitcoin rose above $30,000, a level last seen in June 2022.

Against the backdrop of slowing inflation in the United States, Bitcoin has settled above this level. At the time of writing the asset was trading near $30,280.

By week’s end, all top-10 cryptocurrencies by market cap were in the green. Cardano (ADA) led the gains, with its price rising by almost 16%.

Total cryptocurrency market capitalization surpassed $1.3 trillion — the first time since May 2022. Bitcoin’s dominance index fell to 44.2%.

Justin Sun subpoenaed in Tron case. Binance.US announces delisting of TRX

The cryptocurrency exchange Binance.US announced the delisting of Tron (TRX) and Spell (SPELL) from the platform due to quality standards concerns. The changes will take effect on April 18, 2023. Tron founder Justin Sun noted that TRX trading volume on the U.S. platform amounts to less than $2 million per day out of total $400 million.

On April 12, the SEC subpoenaed Sun, as well as rapper Soulja Boy and YouTube star Austin Mahone, following allegations raised last month of unregistered securities offerings in the form of TRX and BitTorrent (BTT) tokens.

In the US Congress introduced a bill to regulate stablecoins

The U.S. House Committee on Financial Services has published a bill aimed at regulating stablecoin issuers. The document will be considered at hearings to be held on April 18.

The bill would have the ФРС oversee centralised stablecoin issuers, and would study the potential impact of launching CBDC on monetary policy and financial stability.

The document contains a two-year (from potential enactment) moratorium on the issuance of stablecoins “with endogenous collateral.”

Authors categorize tokens pegged to the value of “other digital assets created or supported by the same [operator].” The term also carries another characteristic — a promise of redemption for a “fixed monetary value.”

What to discuss with friends?

• Warren Buffett called Bitcoin a “game token.”
• Snoop Dogg demonstrated a designer gold Ledger.
• The APT token rose 15% after Elon Musk’s tweet.
• Survey: more than 60% of Russians stated interest by the tax authorities in their Bitcoin transactions.

Ark Invest outlines timeline for Bitcoin to reach $1 million

Over the next decade, Bitcoin could reach $1 million as the digital economy grows. This forecast, in an interview with TD Ameritrade Network was given by Ark Invest analyst Yasin Elmandjra.

The expert noted Bitcoin’s impressive performance over the previous decade. In his view, that makes digital gold a compelling component of investment portfolios.

FTT soars 90% on FTX restart proposals

In July, FTX lawyers will present to the bankruptcy court a reorganization plan that could revive the exchange. The FTT token rose by 90%.

The company has raised assets totaling $7.3 billion. These will be complemented by assets from Ren Protocol, which will transfer all coins to creditors’ cold wallets in the bankruptcy process of FTX and Alameda Research.

This week FTX presented a new report indicating that former management did not maintain basic accounting records and financial controls. The platform was run by a small group of people described as arrogant, incompetent and greedy.

They relied on a “mishmash of Google documents, Slack chats, shared drives, Excel spreadsheets and other non-standard tools to manage their assets and liabilities,” often misplacing funds and approving deals with emojis.

The company also received invoices from lawyers and financial advisers in February. The total amount exceeded $30 million.

SushiSwap reveals plan to compensate for the hack

The developers reminded of the need to revoke approvals for the affected vulnerable contract (RouteProcessor2) if a user interacted with it within 10 days before the hack.

Otherwise, SushiSwap’s platform is “absolutely safe,” they assure. During the exploit funds were withdrawn both by white-hat hackers seeking to save funds and by attackers.

If a user’s assets fell into the first category, they can redeem them via the team-created Merkle Claim contract. The mechanism is expected to go live soon.

Those whose funds were in the second group should provide the team with transaction details and blockchain data via email or Discord.

KuCoin, OKX and Bybit announce listing of the SUI token

The Sui Network protocol does not plan or intend to conduct an airdrop. This was stated by co-founder and chief product officer of Mysten Labs Adeni Abiodun.

On April 15, KuCoin, OKX and Bybit announced the listing and start of sales of the network-native SUI token. The team chose this distribution method over the expected community airdrop.

Etherscan will stop showing near-zero token transfers

For security, Etherscan will stop by default displaying near-zero transfers, which have become a hallmark of a new wave of phishing attacks.

Attackers craft addresses that resemble the original (sharing the same prefix and suffix) hoping that users will mistype and send their cryptocurrency to them.

Solana unveils Saga smartphone sales date

Sales of Solana Labs’ Web3-focused Saga smartphone begin on May 8. Pre-ordered devices are already being prepared for shipment.

The Solana Mobile phone costs $1,000. Saga runs on Android and features 512 GB of memory, two versatile rear cameras, a 6.67-inch OLED display and a fingerprint scanner.

The phone uses Solana Mobile Stack (SMS). This is a suite of user overlays that integrate Web3 features into the device’s hardware and software.

SMS includes built-in security algorithms enabling sending, receiving, exchanging and storing digital assets on the device. Thus, the Solana phone can be used as a hardware wallet.

Saga users have access to a decentralised applications store. The company noted that they do not intend to charge “additional fees,” as other smartphone manufacturers do.

Also on ForkLog:

• MetaMask added the option to buy cryptocurrency with fiat.
• Uniswap Wallet is now available in the Apple App Store.
• David Marcus’s project launched an LN platform for business.
• Binance conducted a BNB burn of $676 million.

What else to read?

ForkLog explains how ETH will be withdrawn from staking and what impact the upgrade may have on Ethereum’s price.

Experts polled by the magazine also expressed views on the Shapella hard fork and its significance for the ecosystem of the second-largest cryptocurrency.

In an exclusive ForkLog interview, Binance Kazakhstan general manager Zhaslan Madiev discussed the local team’s work, the impact of the CFTC charges on its activities and a personal meeting with Changpeng Zhao.

In traditional digests, the week’s main events in cybersecurity and artificial intelligence were gathered.

The cryptocurrency industry is attracting an increasing number of institutional players. This is reflected in new investments in infrastructure and in the growing attention companies pay to Bitcoin as an asset class. The most important events of the past weeks are in ForkLog’s review.