1. Bitcoin price drops to $64,000, leading to $210 million in liquidations in one day
Bitcoin price drops to $64,000, leads to $21 billion in liquidations in one day. Crypto markets are once again gripped by volatility, with Bitcoin prices sliding to $64,000 from a recent rally on geopolitical tensions in the Middle East, marking a downtrend. The drop put more pressure on bullish investors and over-leveraged traders, causing daily liquidations to surge to over $210 million, according to CoinGlass data. The Bitcoin drop had a broad impact on the entire market, particularly affecting other tokens, which experienced larger drops than Bitcoin.
2. Morgan Stanley may become the first company to allow Bitcoin ETF recommendations
Morgan Stanley is planning to allow its 15,000 brokers to recommend Bitcoin (BTC) exchange-traded funds (ETFs) to clients, AdvisorHub reported. Previously, the Wall Street giant had approved the purchase of Bitcoin ETFs earlier this year, but only at the request of clients. The move is a testament to the demand for spot ETFs and could bring additional inflows to the fund. Morgan Stanley did not immediately respond to CoinDesk's request for comment.
3. Ki Young Ju: South Korea leads the world in crypto trading volume, but is one of the countries with the worst Web3 entrepreneurial environment
Citing Bloomberg news on social media, Ki Young Ju, CEO of CryptoQuant, said that South Korea's cryptocurrency trading volume leads the world, but it is one of the countries with the worst Web3 entrepreneurial environment. It's like more stocks from other countries are listed on the Korean Stock Exchange, while the trading volume of South Korean Ant is ahead of the US stock market. The biggest problem lies in the lack of awareness of regulators and the conservative attitude that stifles innovation. Bloomberg previously published that the trading volume of South Korean crypto exchange Upbit accounts for more than 80% of South Korea's trading volume, and has ranked among the top five exchanges in the world in terms of trading volume.
4. Google Cloud launches Web3 portal
On April 25, Google Cloud announced on the X platform that it has launched the Web3 portal. Blockchain developers can use this page to conduct experiments on the test network, discover blockchain data sets and development tools from Google Cloud and its partners, and learn about Web3 entrepreneurial plans.
5. Sui 2023 Q4 and 2024 Q1 report: Daily average DEX transaction volume increased by 3689%, DeFi TVL increased by 1459%
On April 25, Messari released the Sui 2023Q4 and 2024Q1 status reports. In the past two quarters, Sui's average daily DEX trading volume increased by 3689% to US$78 million. Cetus and Deep Book led with average daily trading volumes of US$37 million and US$26 million, respectively; projects built mainly on Sui raised US$11.3 million in Q1 24, 31% higher than the total financing for the whole year of 2023. At the end of March, Mysten Labs launched Pilotfish. DeFiT VL on Sui has increased by 1459% to US$786.6 million in the past two quarters. Incentive programs have driven growth, with several major protocols including NAVI, Scallop and Deep Book launching or announcing tokens in Q1 24; during Quest3, Sui had an average of 151,000 daily active addresses, with a peak of 453,000. Excluding this period, Sui had an average of 24,000 daily active addresses in the past two quarters.
6. BlackRock confirms that it has no commercial relationship with Hedera and has not chosen Hedera to tokenize any BlackRock funds
Cointelegrph and a BlackRock spokesperson confirmed that BlackRock has no business relationship with Hedera and has not chosen Hedera to tokenize any BlackRock funds. The spokesperson added that BlackRock has always communicated directly with the public about the evolution of its digital asset strategy. According to Coingecko data, HBAR fell 30% in 24 hours and is currently priced at $0.119.
7. Co-founder of Samourai Wallet, a cryptocurrency mixing service, arrested for suspected money laundering
The co-founders of Samourai Wallet, a crypto-currency mixing service, have been arrested, The Block reported. Prosecutors said they were suspected of laundering $100 million from Silk Road and other illegal markets. On Wednesday, Samourai CEO Keonne Rodriguez and CTO William Lonergan Hill were charged with operating Samourai Wallet. Prosecutors said Samourai was an unlicensed money transfer company that was involved in "more than $2 billion in illegal transactions and facilitated more than $100 million in money laundering transactions for illegal darknet markets, including Silk Road." Rodriguez was arrested on Wednesday morning and will appear before a judge in Pennsylvania. Hill was reportedly arrested in Portugal and the United States is seeking extradition. Prosecutors said Samourai's web servers and domains were also seized and the app can no longer be downloaded from the Google Play store in the United States. Rodriguez and Hill were charged with money laundering and unlicensed money transmission business, with maximum sentences of 20 years and 5 years, respectively.
8.Pendle: New sUSDe pool to be launched
The yield trading protocol Pendle announced on social platforms that it will launch a new sUSDe pool, which will expire on July 25, 2024, providing 20 times Sats plus USDe staking income every day. The existing sUSDe pool is about to expire (April 25, 2024). It is reported that sUSDe is the staking version of Ethena's synthetic USDe.
