Today's news tips:
One address sold CryptoPunk NFT for about $6 million, losing tens of millions of dollars
Binance will launch PROMPTUSDT perpetual contract with up to 25x leverage
Grayscale updates list of potential investment assets
U.S. SEC releases guidance on securities issuance and registration disclosure in crypto asset market
Trump signs bill to revoke Biden administration crypto tax rules
Spot gold breaks through $3,200 for the first time
China raises tariffs on US imports to 125%; China will ignore US tariffs if it continues
Regulatory/Macro
China raises tariffs on US imports to 125%; China will ignore US tariffs if it continues
The State Council Tariff Commission announced that starting from April 12, 2025, the tariff rate on imported goods originating from the United States will be increased from 84% to 125%. This adjustment is based on relevant Chinese laws and regulations and basic principles of international law and has been approved by the State Council. The Commission pointed out that even if the United States continues to impose tariffs, it will no longer make economic sense and will become a joke in the history of the world economy. At the current tariff level, there is no market acceptance for American goods exported to China. If the United States continues to play the tariff numbers game, China will ignore it, but if the United States insists on substantially infringing on China's interests, China will resolutely counter and fight to the end. Other related matters will continue to be implemented in accordance with previous announcements.
Spot gold breaks through $3,200 for the first time
Spot gold has reached $3,200 an ounce, setting a new all-time high. It has only been more than ten days since it broke through $3,100 an ounce. It rose 0.74% on the day and nearly 22% this year.
Trump signs bill to revoke Biden administration crypto tax rules
According to The Block, US President Trump has signed a joint congressional resolution to formally revoke the IRS crypto tax rules (DeFi broker rules) passed at the end of the Biden administration. The rules require "custodial brokers" to collect and report user data to tax authorities. The bill was initiated by Senator Ted Cruz and Congressman Mike Carey, who said it was the first crypto-related legislation to be signed into law. The bill was passed by both houses of Congress and received support from some Democrats. The DeFi Education Foundation said the move was a positive signal for the development of decentralized technology.
U.S. SEC releases guidance on securities issuance and registration disclosure in crypto asset market
According to the official website of the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC), in order to further clarify the applicability of federal securities laws in the crypto asset market, the SEC's Corporate Finance Division issued a statement to guide the registration and disclosure requirements of related securities. The statement covers equity and debt securities related to networks, applications and crypto assets, including crypto assets as part of investment contracts. The guidance covers key disclosure elements in documents such as Regulation SK, Form S-1, Form 10, such as business descriptions, risk factors, security characteristics, management information, financial statements and display requirements for smart contract codes.
Viewpoint
CryptoQuant analyst Darkfost recommends that investors consider implementing a DCA strategy on altcoins. He noted that it has entered a buy zone, defined by a 30-day moving average volume below the annual average. This last occurred in September 2023, after the bear market ended. Such phases can last for weeks or even months, and historically have provided good opportunities to set up a DCA strategy.
Project News
Grayscale updates list of potential investment assets
Grayscale has announced a list of potential digital assets that may be included in its investment products in the future. The assets being considered for inclusion include APT, ARB, TIA, HBAR, MNT, TON, TRX, VET, AREO, BNB, ENA, HYPE, JUP, ONDO, PENDLE, PLUME, AIXBT, IMX, IP, AKT, FET, AR, EIGEN, GEOD, HNT and JTO. In addition, assets not included in the crypto industry framework include Babylon, BERA, Monad, MOVE, Lombard, OM, SYRUP, ELIZA, DEEP, GRASS, Prime Intellect, Sentient, Space and Time, and WAL.
Binance will launch PROMPTUSDT perpetual contract with up to 25x leverage
According to Binance’s announcement, Binance Futures will launch USDⓈ-denominated PROMPTUSDT perpetual contracts at 14:30 (Beijing time) on April 11, 2025, supporting up to 25x leverage. PROMPT has previously been listed on the Binance Alpha market for spot trading.
Vitalik Releases Roadmap for Ethereum Privacy with Minimal L1 Changes
Vitalik Buterin published a post on the Ethereum Magicians forum, proposing a "minimalist L1 privacy roadmap" aimed at enhancing the privacy of Ethereum users while minimizing changes in the consensus layer. The roadmap covers four aspects: on-chain payment privacy, in-application activity anonymization, on-chain read privacy (RPC), and network-level anonymization. Core measures include integrating privacy tools into mainstream wallets, using "one address per application" by default, promoting FOCIL and EIP-7701, introducing TEE and future PIR privacy reading technology, etc. The ultimate goal is to achieve user operation isolation, default privacy sending, and anti-censorship infrastructure. Vitalik emphasized that this solution can be combined with longer-term and deeper L1 reforms.
SEC and Ripple reach preliminary settlement agreement, both parties apply to suspend appeal process
According to former U.S. federal prosecutor James K. Filan, the SEC and Ripple have jointly filed a motion with the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit to "abeyance" the appeal and cross-appeal proceedings between the two parties, on the grounds that the two parties have reached a "principle settlement agreement" and are currently awaiting approval from the SEC committee. If approved, they will apply to the local court for a confirmatory ruling. The court has canceled the original arrangement to submit the reply materials on April 16. This motion marks that the case may soon usher in a final settlement.
Wayfinder (PROMPT) Now Available on Coinbase
According to Coinbase Assets, Wayfinder (PROMPT) is now available on the Coinbase official website and its iOS and Android apps, with an experimental label of “Experimental”. Users can now buy, sell, exchange, send, receive and store.
SEC drops unregistered securities charges against Helium founder Nova Labs
According to the official blog of Helium, the US SEC has agreed to "with prejudice" withdraw the unregistered securities charges against Helium's founding team Nova Labs, confirming that the issuance of Helium Hotspots devices and HNT, IOT, and MOBILE tokens do not constitute securities. This decision brings key regulatory clarifications to the Decentralized Physical Infrastructure Network (DePIN) project, meaning that building real infrastructure through crypto incentives is no longer automatically considered a securities offering. The "prejudicial" nature of the SEC's withdrawal of the lawsuit also means that it may not bring the same charges against the matter in the future.
Coinbase International will launch COMP, UXLINK and ATH perpetual contract trading
PANews reported on April 10 that Coinbase International Station announced on the X platform that Coinbase International Station and Coinbase Advanced will add support for Compound, UXLINK and Aethir perpetual contracts. The COMP-PERP, UXLINK-PERP and ATH-PERP markets are expected to open at or after 17:30 Beijing time on April 17.
Important data
FTX/Alameda address released 186,000 SOL 1 hour ago, worth about 21.56 million US dollars
According to PeckShieldAlert, the FTX/Alameda related wallet address released 186,000 SOL one hour ago, which is valued at approximately US$21.56 million based on the current market price.
The whale unstaked more than 140,000 SOL and transferred them to the Kraken exchange
According to Onchain Lens, a whale address has unstaked 141,771 SOL (about $15.96 million) and transferred it to the Kraken exchange. The address still has about 1.69 million SOL (about $191 million) in pledge, and currently has a book loss of about $22.67 million.
One address sold CryptoPunk NFT for about $6 million, losing tens of millions of dollars
According to Arkham, an NFT trader sold the Alien series CryptoPunk NFT he bought a year ago for 4,000 ETH (about 6 million US dollars). The original purchase price was 4,500 ETH (about 16 million US dollars), with a loss of 10 million US dollars.
Financing
Plastic Labs Completes $5.35 Million Pre-Seed Funding and Launches AI Identity Platform Honcho
Plastic Labs announced the completion of a $5.35 million Pre-Seed round of financing, led by Variant, White Star Capital and Betaworks, with participation from Mozilla Ventures, Seed Club Ventures, Greycroft and Differential Ventures, and angel investors including Scott Moore, NiMA Asghari and Thomas Howell. At the same time, its personalized AI identity platform "Honcho" is now open for early access. Honcho provides user identity modeling and social cognition capabilities through cloud APIs, helping developers build AI agents with personalized memory and adaptability. Plastic plans to expand Honcho from a platform to a decentralized network, allowing users to share and sovereignly own their "digital identity representations" across multiple AI applications, promoting an individual-led AI alignment paradigm.
Social communication protocol Towns completes $10 million Series B financing, led by a16z crypto
According to Towns Protocol official news, the decentralized communication protocol Towns announced the completion of a $10 million Series B financing, led by a16z crypto, with Coinbase Ventures joining the investment and Benchmark continuing to participate. Towns is committed to building on-chain communication infrastructure and promoting the development of Web3 social and collaboration tools. The project owner said that "the future of communication will go on-chain." Related reading: Understand the social communication protocol Towns in one article: Benchmarking Farcaster, why is it worth a16z's $22.5 million bet?
Crypto insurance company Meanwhile completed a $40 million Series A round of financing on Thursday, led by Framework Ventures and Fulgur Ventures, with participation from Wences Casares, founder of cryptocurrency bank Xapo. This round of financing values Meanwhile at $190 million, almost double its valuation in its most recent round of financing in 2022. Meanwhile will use the funds raised from this round of financing to expand globally and ensure that its products meet regulatory requirements.
