Today's news tips:
Binance Announces KernelDAO (KERNEL) as Fourth Megadrop Project
Upbit adds COMP to Korean Won market
PumpBTC: On-chain airdrop claims will begin on April 2
Tether purchased another 8,888 BTC in Q1, worth $735 million
BlackRock CEO: Bitcoin may threaten the status of the US dollar, but tokenization has potential
Nigeria’s SEC to Regulate Virtual Asset Service Providers Under New Law
Rhode Island bill allows residents to trade $10,000 worth of Bitcoin per month tax-free
Regulatory/Macro
Metaplanet purchased 696 BTC, and its total holdings increased to 4046
Metaplanet, a Japanese listed company, announced that it has purchased 696 new bitcoins through its bitcoin revenue generation business line, with a total amount of approximately 10.152 billion yen and an average purchase price of 14,586,230 yen per bitcoin. As of now, the company's total bitcoin holdings have reached 4,046, with a cumulative purchase amount of approximately 52.368 billion yen and an average purchase price of 12,943,181 yen per bitcoin. In addition, the company generated 770 million yen in operating income in the first quarter of fiscal year 2025 by selling cash-secured bitcoin put options, equivalent to option fee income of 50.26 BTC.
Backpack Completes Acquisition of FTX EU and Starts User Fund Return Process Today
Backpack announced the official launch of the asset return plan for former FTX EU users to help eligible users recover frozen fiat funds. This marks an important progress after Backpack completed the acquisition of FTX EU, and the fund allocation work has officially begun. Eligible users can go to the Backpack EU platform to create an account and complete identity verification (KYC) from now on. The fund withdrawal function will be opened later, and users will receive a withdrawal notification at that time. This return process is only for the fiat balances and unfinished withdrawal requests of FTX EU users. Cryptocurrency and NFT-related claims still need to be processed through the FTX International platform. Backpack plans to execute the return process in an efficient and transparent manner, and restart FTX EU's MiFID II license. In the future, it will provide comprehensive crypto derivatives services throughout the EU.
According to Cryptobriefing, the U.S. Treasury Department and other federal agencies are expected to disclose their holdings of Bitcoin and other crypto assets on April 5 to follow President Trump's recent directive. Whether digital assets previously mentioned by Trump, such as XRP, SOL and ADA, will be included in the national digital asset reserve will also be clarified soon. David Bailey, CEO of BTC Inc, said that the audit results may reveal the reasons for Bitcoin's recent price movements. On March 6, Trump issued an executive order requiring the formation of a strategic Bitcoin reserve and a digital asset reserve. According to a presidential document released on March 11, all federal agencies must report their holdings of Bitcoin and other digital assets to the Secretary of the Treasury within 30 days of the issuance of the order. The Secretary of the Treasury was also instructed to establish two offices to manage digital assets held by the government. The Strategic Bitcoin Reserve will store Bitcoin obtained through criminal or civil forfeiture and will not sell Bitcoin. According to data tracked by Arkham Intelligence, the U.S. government currently holds about 198,012 Bitcoins, worth about $16 billion. David Sacks, the head of the White House's cryptocurrency affairs, said that the U.S. government has held about 400,000 Bitcoins through civil and criminal asset forfeiture over the past decade. However, about half of them, or 195,000 bitcoins, have been sold for $366 million. If the government had kept all 400,000 bitcoins, they would be worth more than $17 billion today.
Rhode Island bill allows residents to trade $10,000 worth of Bitcoin per month tax-free
According to Bitcoin Magazine, Bill 0451, submitted to the Senate of Rhode Island last month, proposes that residents and businesses in the state can conduct up to 10 bitcoin transactions (or equivalent sales) per month, with a single transaction value of less than $1,000, without paying state capital gains tax. The bill defines "bitcoin sales" as "any transaction in which bitcoin is exchanged for legal currency or other physical/digital assets", and emphasizes that the exemption only applies to state tax levels and does not affect federal tax obligations. According to the bill, individuals and businesses participating in tax-free transactions must keep complete transaction records, including data such as the total transaction amount per day, and be ready to accept audits and verifications by the state tax department at any time. Chris Perrotta, chairman of the Rhode Island Blockchain Committee, pointed out that the passage of the bill will effectively reduce the friction of digital asset payments, stimulate the development of the state's blockchain economy, and make Rhode Island a technological frontier. In addition, he also proposed that small businesses accept Bitcoin as a payment method for products and services to stimulate economic growth. So far, other states in the United States have not proposed similar bills.
Bloomberg: Coinbase shares see worst quarter since FTX collapse
According to Bloomberg, the share prices of Coinbase Global Inc. and other cryptocurrency-related companies suffered heavy losses in the first quarter of 2025 due to growing concerns about the U.S. economic outlook. Coinbase's stock price fell 31%, marking its worst quarterly performance since the collapse of FTX at the end of 2022. Almost all major cryptocurrency-related stocks plummeted, from conglomerate Galaxy Digital Holdings Ltd. to mining companies Riot Platforms Inc. and Core Scientific Inc. None of them was spared. The situation in the crypto market is also not optimistic, with Bitcoin's market value falling by more than 10% and Ethereum's market value falling by 45%.
Musk plans to resign from DOGE at the end of May
Elon Musk plans to resign from his position at the Department of U.S. Government Efficiency (DOGE) at the end of May, according to Xiaoxiang Morning News. In an interview with Fox News, Musk said he was confident that he would achieve his goal of reducing the federal deficit by $1 trillion before leaving office. He also stressed that the government was inefficient, there was a lot of waste and fraud, and he was confident that he could reduce spending by 15% without affecting key services. In addition, Musk questioned the phenomenon of the unusually rich wealth of members of Congress. He pointed out that many members of Congress only earn $200,000 a year, but have assets as high as $20 million, questioning how they can accumulate such huge wealth on limited income.
According to crypto journalist Eleanor Terrett, Bryan Steil, chairman of the U.S. House of Representatives Digital Assets Subcommittee, revealed that after Wednesday's deliberations, the U.S. House of Representatives' STABLE Act (Stablecoin Transparency and Accountability for a Better Ledger Economy Act) will be "well aligned with the Senate's GENIUS Act (Guiding and Establishing the U.S. Stablecoin National Innovation Act)", which was achieved after several rounds of "draft revisions" in the House and Senate and technical assistance from the SEC and CFTC. Bryan Steil believes that there are 20% differences between the bill and the GENIUS Act, and these differences are only in text, not significant or substantial. At present, the biggest difference between the two is the requirements for international stablecoin issuers, state regulation of issuers, and some smaller technical differences between the two texts. Steil said, "At the end of the day, I think everyone recognizes that we want to work with our colleagues in the Senate to get this bill passed."
Nigeria’s SEC to Regulate Virtual Asset Service Providers Under New Law
According to Bitcoin.com, the Nigerian Investment and Securities Act (ISA) 2025, recently signed by Nigerian President Bola Ahmed Tinubu, effectively ended the uncertainty surrounding the status of cryptocurrencies. The new bill actually repealed the Investment and Securities Act No. 29 of 2007. This revised securities law "officially" recognizes cryptocurrencies as an asset class. This recognition not only eliminates the uncertainty surrounding cryptocurrencies, but also means that they are no longer prohibited assets. In addition, law enforcement agencies that have "harassed" people involved in these assets will have to stop such behavior. Emomotimi Agama, Director General of the Nigerian Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC), said that the new law gives the Nigerian Securities and Exchange Commission the power to promote innovation and protect investors more effectively, which repositions Nigeria as a competitive destination for attracting domestic and foreign investment. In addition to recognizing digital assets and investment contracts as securities, the Investment and Securities Act 2025 also explicitly places virtual asset service providers (VASPs) under the supervision of the Nigerian Securities and Exchange Commission. The law also prohibits Ponzi schemes and imposes severe penalties on the planners of the scam, including imprisonment.
According to Jinshi, White House press secretary Levitt said that US President Trump will announce his reciprocal tariff policy at an event in the Rose Garden of the White House on Wednesday. Levitt said that Trump's announcement was mainly "country-based" tariffs, but he also "promised" to implement industry tariffs at another time. Levitt said that members of Trump's cabinet will attend the announcement ceremony. "The president will announce a tariff plan that will reverse the unfair trade practices that have been exploiting our country for decades," Levitt said. "Now is the time for reciprocity, it's time for the president to take historic changes and do the right thing for the American people." In addition, Trump said that maybe tomorrow night, maybe on Wednesday, you will see the details of the (reciprocal) tariffs.
Viewpoint
According to Matrixport analysis, Bitcoin ETFs have experienced net outflows for two consecutive months. Although the inflows have remained positive since the beginning of the year (US$1.05 billion), this figure is mainly due to the surge of US$5.3 billion in January. Bitcoin ETFs have performed significantly weaker recently, especially compared with safe-haven assets such as gold, which continues to hit record highs. Fund flows show that Bitcoin ETFs are still highly dependent on favorable financing rates and arbitrage opportunities rather than broad investor interest. Coupled with the low speculative sentiment of retail investors in the crypto market, it is difficult for Bitcoin ETF inflows to pick up significantly in the short term.
Arthur Hayes, co-founder of BitMEX, said in a recent blog post: "Bitcoin Value = Technology + Fiat Liquidity. The technology works and is not going to change in any significant way in the near future, for better or worse. Therefore, Bitcoin is traded entirely based on the market's expectations of future fiat money supply. If my analysis of the Fed's major pivot from Treasury QT to QE is correct, then Bitcoin hit a local low of $76,500 last month and now we are starting to move towards $250,000 by the end of the year. Of course, this is not an exact science, but if I use gold as an example, if I had to bet between whether I think Bitcoin will hit $76,500 or $110,000 first, I would bet on the latter. Even if the U.S. stock market continues to fall due to tariffs, collapsing earnings expectations, or falling foreign demand, I still believe there is a greater probability that Bitcoin will continue to climb. Recognizing the pros and cons, Maelstrom is deploying capital cautiously. We do not use leverage, and we make small purchases relative to the size of our total portfolio. We have been buying Bitcoin and altcoins at all levels between $90,000 and $76,500. The pace of capital deployment will speed up or slow down depending on the accuracy of my forecasts. I still believe that Bitcoin can reach $250,000 by the end of the year. ”
Fidelity Digital Assets recently released a report exploring whether Bitcoin has entered a cyclical "peak and fall" phase, or is still on the edge of an "acceleration phase". Analyst Zack Wainwright pointed out that Bitcoin's acceleration phase is usually accompanied by high volatility and high returns, similar to the trend when it broke through $20,000 in December 2020. Although Bitcoin's return rate so far this year is -11.44%, down nearly 25% from its historical high, Wainwright believes that the current performance is consistent with the average retracement of previous cycles. He said that Bitcoin is approaching the end of this round of acceleration phase, which has lasted for 232 days as of March 3, while the peak of previous cycles usually occurred between the 244th and 280th days. In addition, many international companies and US listed companies have recently expressed interest in Bitcoin. Although the specific impact of institutional investment on prices is still unclear, Wainwright proposed a key indicator: the number of days to set a new high within 60 days. He predicts that if Bitcoin is about to reach a new high, its starting point may be close to $110,000.
Haseeb Qureshi, managing partner of Dragonfly Capital, responded to the statement that "VCs were wiped out in this round" on the X platform, saying: "I have been in the field of cryptocurrency venture capital for nearly eight years, and I am tired of hearing such clichés. The fundraising of crypto venture capital in 2018/2019 was terrible. There were constant statements like "no one is willing to buy these tokens, the fig leaf has been torn off, and there is no return in this garbage industry." Since you can say it so confidently, use real money to short it. The results will speak for themselves in three years."
BlackRock CEO: Bitcoin may threaten the status of the US dollar, but tokenization has potential
Larry Fink, CEO of BlackRock, said in a recent letter that Bitcoin and cryptocurrencies could pose a threat to the international status of the U.S. dollar. He pointed out that if investors view Bitcoin as a tool to combat dollar inflation, it could cause serious problems. However, Fink also emphasized that the cryptocurrency industry also has many advantages, especially in tokenization. Fink mentioned that the United States currently enjoys the status of the U.S. dollar as a global reserve currency, but this advantage is not permanent. He warned that by 2030, the United States' mandatory spending and debt repayments could exhaust all federal revenues, leading to a permanent deficit, which would provide an opportunity for digital assets such as Bitcoin to replace the U.S. dollar.
Despite this, Fink said he supports the development of cryptocurrencies and believes that tokenization can improve the traditional financial ecosystem through digital infrastructure and promote its democratization. He also mentioned that cryptocurrencies have a certain role in hedging inflation, but if they are not properly managed, they may also bring risks to the US economy. Fink showed special interest in the potential of asset tokenization and believed that it could bring profound changes to traditional finance.
Project News
Binance Announces KernelDAO (KERNEL) as Fourth Megadrop Project
Binance announced KernelDAO (KERNEL) as the fourth project on its Megadrop platform. KernelDAO is a restaking protocol that supports Kernel, Kelp, and Gain. The total supply of KERNEL tokens is 1 billion, of which 40 million (4% of the total supply) will be issued as Megadrop rewards, and another 40 million will be distributed in batches for other marketing activities 6 months after the spot launch. The initial circulating supply at launch is 162,317,496 (16.23% of the total supply).
Upbit adds COMP to Korean Won market
Upbit announced that it will add Compound (COMP) trading pairs in the Korean Won market at 16:35 on April 1, 2025, supporting the Ethereum network.
OKX will delist MAX/USDT, KISHU/USDT, 1INCH/USD and GRT/USD perpetual contracts
OKX announced that it will regularly delist some perpetual contracts. The following trading pairs will stop trading at 16:00 (Beijing time) on April 8, 2025: MAXUSDT, KISHUUSDT, 1INCHUSD and GRTUSD.
PumpBTC: On-chain airdrop claims will begin on April 2
According to official news, the Bitcoin re-staking protocol PumpBTC announced that the on-chain airdrop claim will start at 02:45 Beijing time on April 2, and the distribution details will be announced soon.
Ethereum transaction fees have dropped to their lowest level since mid-2020
As Cointelegraph reported, Ethereum transaction fees have fallen to their lowest levels since mid-2020.
Bithumb to List REZ Token in Korean Won Market
According to an official announcement, South Korean crypto exchange Bithumb will list REZ tokens in the Korean won market.
Important data
Compound founder suspected of selling 50,000 COMP, worth about $3.19 million
According to monitoring by ai_9684xtpa, Compound founder Robert Leshner is suspected of selling 50,000 COMP tokens through Galaxy Digital, with a total value of approximately $3.19 million. The tokens were transferred to Galaxy three weeks ago (March 12), when they were worth $2.03 million, and may have been entrusted to sell. Half an hour ago, all these tokens were recharged to Binance. It is worth noting that today, due to the positive news of COMP listing on Upbit, the token price rose by 90% in a short period of time.
According to OKX market data, COMP rose 66.69% in a short period of time, and is now quoted at $64.5, with a maximum increase of $74.97. Earlier news showed that Upbit had added COMP to the Korean won market.
According to the monitoring of on-chain analyst @ai_9684xtpa, the market makers have just been severely punished for their misconduct, and GUN is suspected of defying the law. There are always high-frequency small sell orders from early morning to eight in the morning, with an average of 10 orders per second, each order is about 6 US dollars, and about 216,000 US dollars of tokens can be sold every hour. According to Binance's new coin research report, 2% of the total GUN tokens (i.e. 200 million) are used for liquidity/market making, and it is marked that "the tokens have not yet been distributed to the market maker, and additional address information will be provided later", but the address has transferred 191 million tokens at 3 am yesterday. At present, the price of GUN has fallen to 0.07634 US dollars. The market maker seems to have just withdrawn the batch sell order, and the price of the coin has rebounded slightly.
The zkLend hacker accidentally clicked on a phishing website, resulting in the theft of 2,930 ETH
SlowMist Technology Chief Information Security Officer 23pds posted on the X platform that the zkLend hacker (the original case occurred in February) accidentally clicked on a phishing website when trying to use Tornado Cash, and 2,930 ETH of stolen money was stolen by the phishing website.
Tether purchased another 8,888 BTC in Q1, worth $735 million
According to the monitoring of on-chain analyst Ember, USDT issuer Tether purchased another 8,888 BTC (US$735 million) in the first quarter of this year: The address where Tether purchased and reserved BTC withdrew 8,888 BTC from Bitfinex on the first day of the first quarter. This is the BTC purchased by Tether in the first quarter of this year: Tether announced in May 2023 that it would regularly use 15% of the company's profits to purchase Bitcoin to enhance its reserves. Tether currently holds a total of 92,647 BTC (US$7.64 billion), making it the sixth largest BTC wallet address. Their combined BTC purchase cost is approximately US$41,147, and their current floating profit is as high as US$3.83 billion.
Vitalik sent 274.1 ETH as a grant or donation to a contract deployed by @0xisla
According to OnchainLens, Vitalik has sent 274.1 $ETH ($500,000) as funding or donation to a contract deployed by @0xisla, which is building Zuitzerland.
Reuters: Trump family controls at least 60% of World Liberty Financial through new holding company
According to Reuters, when World Liberty Financial raised more than $500 million, industry experts pointed out that the family of former US President Donald Trump took control of the crypto business and seized most of the funds with governance terms that favored insiders. The project is billed as a "DeFi platform" and claims to allow users to bypass banks and directly use cryptocurrencies to obtain financial services. However, the investigation found that the platform has not yet been publicly operated and the team size is extremely limited. Despite this, World Liberty announced in mid-March that it had raised $550 million by selling governance tokens. Reuters calculations show that most of the sales occurred after Trump's victory in November last year, and the WLFI token only gives holders voting rights to modify the project code and cannot be traded publicly. In January of this year, the details of the World Liberty website changed, showing that the two co-founders, Zak Folkman and Chase Herro, had transferred control to an entity in which the Trump family holds a 60% stake. At this point, the Trump family can obtain 75% of the net proceeds from the token sale and 60% of the platform's operating income. According to this calculation, about $400 million in financing has now belonged to the Trump family, and only 5% (about $27.5 million) is left for platform construction.
Financing
Andrew Chen, general partner of a16z, disclosed on the X platform that a16z Speedrun has launched a new round of startup applications, with the application deadline being May 11. a16z Speedrun will provide up to $1 million in investments to very early-stage startups, and then work closely with them over the next 90 days and help them promote them. The next round of projects will be launched from July 28 to October 10, 2025.
Pantera disclosed in a blog post titled "PANTERA's All-in-One Blockchain Investment Strategy" that it plans to raise funds for its fifth venture capital fund (Pantera Fund V), which is now open for subscription. The new fund is an "all-in-one" venture capital style fund that provides access to a full range of blockchain assets, including venture capital equity, private tokens, liquidity tokens, etc. The first closing date is June 30, 2025, with a target fundraising amount of US$1 billion and a minimum investment amount of US$1 billion.
According to CoinDesk, the crypto-AI project Ambient has completed a $7.2 million seed round of financing, with participation from a16z's crypto accelerator program, Delphi Digital and Amber Group. It is reported that Ambient aims to combine artificial intelligence technology to provide fast, cheap and open intelligent services. The project uses a proof-of-work mechanism similar to Bitcoin and is similar to the way Solana's network operates.
According to CNBC, OpenAI announced on Monday that it had completed $40 billion in financing, setting a record for the highest financing for private technology companies. After this round of financing, the company's valuation reached $300 billion (including newly injected capital). Japan's SoftBank became the lead investor in this round with $30 billion, and existing investors such as Microsoft, Coatue, Altimeter and Thrive jointly invested $10 billion. This round of financing has made OpenAI's valuation jump to the third place among unlisted companies in the world, second only to SpaceX (US$350 billion) and on par with TikTok's parent company ByteDance. OpenAI stated in its official blog that the new funds will be used to "break through the boundaries of AI research" and expand computing infrastructure. People familiar with the matter told CNBC that about $18 billion of this will be invested in the "Stargate" project, a joint venture between OpenAI, SoftBank and Oracle, announced by former US President Trump in January 2025. The first $10 billion in funds will be in place immediately, and the remaining $30 billion is expected to be completed by the end of 2025. But the financing agreement comes with a special clause: if OpenAI fails to complete the restructuring of its for-profit structure by December 31, 2025, the financing amount may be reduced by up to $10 billion. This clause has increased the pressure on the company to transform, and the plan needs to be approved by Microsoft and the California Attorney General.
AI+Crypto Project Mahojin Completes $5 Million Seed Round Financing, Led by A16z, CSX, and Others
AI+Crypto project Mahojin announced the completion of a $5 million seed round of financing, led by a16z CSX and Maelstrom.
It is reported that Mahojin is a GitHub for AI model creators and datasets, which can track IP and pay compensation to model creators and dataset owners.
Nasdaq-listed Internet company The9 Limited announced that it has signed a private placement agreement with cryptocurrency investment funds Elune Capital, Fine Vision Fund and Bripheno Pte. Ltd. According to the agreement, the investors will inject $8 million into The9. The9 will issue Class A common shares to the investors at the average closing price of the 30 trading days before the signing of the agreement, and the issued shares will comply with the statutory lock-up period. The9 will establish a new company to operate its global GameFi platform. The company plans to reach a cooperation with a third-party international cryptocurrency foundation and use the GameFi token issued by the foundation as the official cryptocurrency of the platform. At the same time, it will cooperate with cryptocurrency exchanges to promote platform crypto users to join The9's GameFi ecosystem.
