Today's news tips:
Binance Launchpool Launches Initia (INIT)
Ethereum fees drop to five-year low as transaction volume falls
BNB Chain announces 13 winning projects at BNB AI Hack, including BINK AI, Botzilla, and more
5 hours ago 14929 BTC were released from Babylon, worth $1.26 billion
Regulatory/Macro
According to the Financial Times, Binance CEO Richard Teng said that the United States, under the leadership of its President Trump, has taken a more friendly attitude towards cryptocurrencies, including plans to establish a digital asset regulatory framework and national reserves, which is stimulating other countries to take similar actions. Binance has approached many countries, hoping to help them develop a regulatory framework for cryptocurrencies. But he declined to disclose the list of countries that the company is working with. Richard Teng said that Binance is currently helping some countries establish national strategic digital asset reserves. Nearly a quarter of Binance's 6,000 employees are engaged in compliance work and will continue to invest heavily in this area.
According to a report by Cailianshe Silicon Valley NEWS, foreign media reported that cryptocurrency influencer Tiffany Fong gained Musk's attention during the reporting of the collapse of the FTX exchange. As Fong posted more content supporting Trump, Musk's interaction with her began to increase, and he followed her last summer. As part of the creator's revenue sharing plan, during the period of the most frequent interaction between the two in November last year, Fong earned $21,000 in traffic sharing in two weeks. Around that time, Musk, who had never met, sent a private message to Fong, asking if she was interested in having children for him. Fong rejected the request and revealed it to others. Musk then accused her of not being cautious enough and unfollowed her.
The U.S. SEC will hold the third crypto policy roundtable on April 25, focusing on custody issues
According to crypto journalist Eleanor Terrett, the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) has announced details of its third cryptocurrency policy roundtable. The April 25 meeting will focus on custody issues, with two panel discussions - one on broker-dealers and wallet custody, and the other on investment advisors and investment company custody. Members of the broker-dealer panel include: Jason Allegrante of Fireblocks, Rachel Anderika of Anchorage Digital, Terrence Dempsey of Fidelity Investments, Mark Greenberg of crypto exchange Kraken, Veronica McGregor of Exodus, Brandon Russell of Etana Custody, and Tammy Weinrib of Copper.co.
According to The Block, Panama City Mayor Mayer Mizrachi Matalon posted on the X platform on Wednesday that the Panama City government has approved the use of cryptocurrencies to pay taxes, fees, tickets and licenses. Local media confirmed that the city will accept Bitcoin, Ethereum, USDC and USDT. Mizrachi said that the Panamanian capital implemented this policy by working with a partner bank to convert cryptocurrencies into US dollars when paying, without the need for new laws.
Viewpoint
Glassnode: BTC first-time buyers are surging, while long-term holders stop adding to their positions
Glassnode analyzed on the X platform last night that on April 14, different investor groups showed divergent behavior in their Bitcoin operations: the 30-day relative strength index (RSI) of first-time buyers rose to 97.9, indicating a large influx of new demand; the RSI of firm buyers dropped to 3.2, meaning that they had almost completely stopped increasing their holdings. Such behavioral divergence often indicates that a local top is about to appear.
Russian Finance Ministry official: Russia should have its own stablecoin
Russia should develop its own stablecoin pegged to other currencies, a senior official at the Ministry of Finance said on Wednesday, after the stablecoin USDT held by digital wallets linked to Russia was frozen last month, Reuters reported. Russian regulators have allowed the experimental use of cryptocurrencies in international payments, which have become more difficult due to Western sanctions. Before USDT was frozen, it was popular among Russian businesses as a payment tool. "The recent freeze made us think that we need to consider creating an internal tool similar to USDT, possibly pegged to other currencies," said Osman Kabaloev, deputy director of the ministry's financial policy department. Elvira Nabiullina, governor of the Central Bank of Russia, opposes the use of cryptocurrencies in domestic payments, but she said Russian businesses are actively testing international cryptocurrency payments as part of experiments.
Powell: Banks' rules on cryptocurrencies may be "relaxed" in the future
According to The Block, Federal Reserve Chairman Jerome Powell said that in the future, the rules related to banks and cryptocurrencies may be "relaxed". In an interview with the Economic Club of Chicago on Wednesday, Powell pointed out that there has been "a wave of failures and frauds" in the cryptocurrency field over the years, but the atmosphere in the field itself is becoming more mainstream. At the event, Powell also talked about topics such as tariffs, immigration and inflation. "We have taken a fairly conservative approach to the guidance and rules imposed on banks, and other bank regulators have been even more conservative," Powell said. "I think these rules will be relaxed. We will try to do this in a way that maintains safety and soundness while allowing and promoting appropriate innovation, and will not expose consumers to risks they do not understand, nor will it reduce the safety and soundness of banks." Powell affirmed the work of lawmakers on stablecoins on Wednesday. "Stablecoins are digital products that may have fairly broad appeal and should contain typical consumer protection measures and transparency, which is exactly what the Senate and the House of Representatives are working on."
Analyst @ali_charts posted on the X platform that the TD Sequential indicator (TD Sequential) has just issued a buy signal on the Bitcoin weekly chart. If it continues to close above $86,000, it may open the door to $90,000 or even $95,000. It is reported that TD Sequential is a technical analysis tool invented by Thomas DeMark, which is mainly used to identify turning points in market trends and help traders determine the timing of buying and selling. The indicator predicts the reversal points of market trends by analyzing the sequence and combination of price data, and is particularly suitable for identifying top and bottom signals.
Project News
Binance Launchpool Launches Initia (INIT)
Binance announced that it will launch the 68th Launchpool project, Initia (INIT), at 11:00 (UTC) on April 24, 2025. Users can lock BNB, FDUSD and USDC to obtain the INIT airdrop from 00:00 (UTC) on April 18, 2025, and the event will last for 6 days. Binance will provide INIT/USDT, INIT/USDC, INIT/BNB, INIT/FDUSD and INIT/TRY trading pairs. The total supply of INIT is 1 billion, of which 3% (30 million) are used for Launchpool rewards. In addition, an additional 10 million INITs will be allocated in batches for other marketing activities after spot listing, and another 20 million will be allocated 6 months after listing. The initial circulating supply is 148,750,000 INITs.
At 3:12 am Beijing time today, Base officially released the Meme coin "Base is for everyone" on the Zora platform. The market value once soared to 15 million US dollars, and the current market value is about 6.4 million US dollars. Then at 4:30, the second Meme coin named "Base @ FarCon 2025" was launched, with a current market value of 188,800 US dollars. Base officials subsequently issued a statement saying that this move is aimed at encouraging content to be put on the chain and promoting the development of on-chain culture, emphasizing that "Base has never sold these tokens, and these tokens are not official brand tokens of Base, Coinbase or any related products." Officials said that this is a public experiment and will continue to explore how cultural content can be expressed on the chain.
According to official news, Binance's second round of voting to delist coins ended at 7:59 today. The top five vote-winning coins are FTT (11.1%), ZEC (8.6%), JASMY (8.6%), GPS (8.2%), and PDA (7.6%). According to Binance, the voting results will not be the only factor in determining the final delisting decision. The monitoring of the project is still under evaluation, and the final decision will be made by Binance based on our official review process and standards. In addition, the delisting schedule will depend on Binance's procedures.
BNB Chain announces 13 winning projects at BNB AI Hack, including BINK AI, Botzilla, and more
BNB Chain announced 13 winning projects in the BNB AI Hack Program in the first quarter of 2025, including BINK AI, Botzilla, Tutorial Agent, Tokrio, Polycruz, WORLD3 Protocol, Sentism AI, iDos Games, Boomie, VitaminAI, Stitch AI, Tearline and Kudo. The winning team received $50,000 in start-up funds, BNB Chain support and marketing resources. As 2025 progresses, more projects will be supported and announced. Among them, Tutorial Agent has been listed on more than 30 centralized exchanges such as Binance, Bitget, KuCoin, Gate.io, etc. Earlier news, BNB Chain launched an AI hackathon to promote the integration of AI and blockchain.
According to official news, Layer1 blockchain Shardeum announced that it will conduct a TGE (Token Generation Event) on May 5, and more details about the SHM token airdrop, sales allocation, and listing will be released soon.
Ethereum fees drop to five-year low as transaction volume falls
According to Cointelegraph, according to the on-chain analysis platform Santiment, transaction costs on the Ethereum network have fallen to their lowest level in five years as activity on the blockchain is at a low point. Brian Quinlivan, marketing director of Santiment, said that the Ethereum network fee is currently about $0.168 per transaction, and as the fee decreases, the number of people sending ETH and interacting with smart contracts has also decreased. When many people use Ethereum, users bid higher fees to get their transactions confirmed faster, which pushes up the average cost, and when the number of transactions decreases, users do not need to bid too high fees. Therefore, the average fee will fall. This is essentially a supply and demand system. Quinlivan analyzed that from a trading perspective, low fees may hinder price rebounds; however, traders seem to be patiently waiting for global economic uncertainty to pass before increasing the frequency of Ethereum and altcoin transactions.
Regarding his "purchase of a token called FUN on pump.fun", ai16z founder Shaw explained: "There is no official auto.fun token yet, and there is no plan to launch it. The tokens purchased are just for hype. I will send my supply to the DAO, and I think we will keep it. You can give it CTO or whatever you want." Shaw then deleted the tweet and posted: "All have been destroyed."
Important data
5 hours ago 14929 BTC were released from Babylon, worth $1.26 billion
According to Lookonchain monitoring, about 5 hours ago, 14,929 BTC (worth $1.26 billion) were unstaked from Babylon.
GSR may be a $WCT market maker, depositing 4 million WCT into Binance 6 hours ago
According to The Data Nerd, GSR may be the market maker of $WCT. 6 hours ago, GSR deposited 4 million $WCT to Binance, equivalent to $1.61 million. Today, a total of 7 million $WCT, equivalent to $3.46 million, has been deposited in Binance. According to previous news, GSR Markets and Flow Traders are the two major market makers of WCT, and the market-making tokens account for 8% of the initial circulation.
According to Deribit official news, more than $2.25 billion of crypto options will expire on the Deribit platform at 16:00 Beijing time tomorrow. Among them, the notional value of Bitcoin options is $1.98 billion, the Put/Call ratio is 0.92, and the maximum pain point price is $82,000. The notional value of Ethereum options is $271 million, the Put/Call ratio is 0.88, and the maximum pain point price is $1,600.
Report: Total cryptocurrency market value fell 18.6% in Q1 2025, with a loss of $633.5 billion
According to BeInCrypto, according to Coingecko's quarterly report, in the first quarter of 2025, the total market value of cryptocurrencies fell sharply by 18.6%, with a loss of up to $633.5 billion. As token prices declined, investor activity decreased significantly, and daily trading volume fell 27.3% month-on-month from the end of 2024. Among them, the spot trading volume of centralized exchanges fell by 16.3%, and Coingecko analysis believes that this is at least partly related to the hacking of the Bybit exchange. In the first quarter of 2025, Bitcoin's market dominance increased, accounting for 59.1% of the total market value of cryptocurrencies. Bitcoin has never reached such a high market share since 2021, which shows its stability relative to other cryptocurrencies. However, Bitcoin prices also fell by 11.8%, underperforming gold and U.S. Treasuries. The report also shows that other cryptocurrencies have suffered even more serious losses. All the gains accumulated by Ethereum in 2024 disappeared in the first quarter of 2025, and the total locked value (TVL) of multi-chain DeFi also fell by 27.5%.
According to SoSoValue data, yesterday (April 16, Eastern Time), the total net outflow of Bitcoin spot ETFs was $170 million. The Bitcoin spot ETF with the largest net inflow in a single day yesterday was BlackRock Bitcoin ETF IBIT, with a net inflow of $30.5803 million in a single day. Currently, IBIT's total net inflow has reached $39.673 billion. The second is Bitwise ETF BITB, with a net inflow of $12.8131 million in a single day, and BITB's total net inflow has reached $1.976 billion. The Bitcoin spot ETF with the largest net outflow in a single day yesterday was Fidelity Bitcoin ETF FBTC, with a net outflow of $114 million in a single day, and FBTC's total net inflow has reached $11.256 billion. As of press time, the total net asset value of Bitcoin spot ETFs was $93.65 billion, and the ETF net asset ratio (market value to Bitcoin's total market value) reached 5.6%, and the historical cumulative net inflow has reached $35.267 billion.
Family offices have nearly five times more allocations to spot Ethereum ETPs than to Bitcoin
According to Cryptoslate, there are differences between family offices and professional investors in allocating spot Ethereum and Bitcoin ETPs, and family offices prefer Ethereum. According to Bitwise data as of December 31, 2024, family offices and trusts allocated 0.62% of the AUM of spot Ethereum ETPs, and only 0.13% of spot Bitcoin ETPs. The allocation share of Ethereum is almost five times that of Bitcoin (not an absolute value). In terms of institutional allocation, hedge funds accounted for 36.97% of Bitcoin ETPs, investment advisors accounted for 33.11%, and brokerage firms accounted for 14.91%. The total allocation of the three plus small contributors such as banks exceeded 85%. The ownership distribution of Ethereum ETP is more balanced, with brokerage firms, investment advisors, and hedge funds accounting for 25.25%, 29.79%, and 24.74% respectively, and the "other" category accounting for 16.96%. Banks and pension funds have moderate allocations to Bitcoin and Ethereum products, with the AUM of the two accounting for 1.27% and 1.02% in Bitcoin ETPs and 0.62% and 0.90% in Ethereum ETPs. Private equity firms have limited participation, with allocations to Bitcoin and Ethereum at 2.90% and 1.11%, respectively. The largest holders of Bitcoin and Ethereum ETPs are also different. Millennium Management ranks first with $4.42 billion in Bitcoin ETP holdings, followed by Brevan Howard, Jane Street, and Goldman Sachs. In the Ethereum field, Goldman Sachs leads with $477 million, Jane Street with $450 million, and Millennium Management with $182 million. Institutions such as Jane Street, DE Shaw, and Brevan Howard appear on both lists, showing their extensive participation in cryptocurrency ETPs.
Financing
“Hyper-Casual Finance” Network Hana Network Announces $6 Million in Funding
Hana Network, which focuses on "hyper-casual finance", announced that it has completed a total of US$6 million in financing. In the recent No More CEX round of financing, core members of the L1/L2 project and some KOLs participated. In addition, Hanafuda announced that the second and third phases of its mainnet are expected to be launched in the next few months. According to reports, Hana Network claims to be incubated by Yzi Labs and supported by Hyperliquid. Hana Network launched Hana Gateway in January 2024, a trustless crypto asset up and down channel. It is currently focused on developing "hyper-casual finance" and realizing user-led distribution through social platforms, such as attention incentives, social rewards and P2P financing.
Rekord AG, a blockchain-based data verification platform, has completed a seed round of financing of 4.5 million Swiss francs (about 5.51 million U.S. dollars), and the investors are not disclosed. According to reports, Rekord AG is a data infrastructure company headquartered in Switzerland, focusing on blockchain-supported data verification and integrity solutions.
Embr Labs, a Meme-based application development team, completes $1.8 million in Pre-seed funding
Embr Labs, an application development team based on Meme in the Initia ecosystem, announced the completion of a $1.8 million pre-seed round of financing. This round of financing was jointly led by Robot Ventures and Lattice Fund, with participation from TempleDAO and individual investor Daryl Lau. It is reported that Embr.fun developed by Embr Labs is an application chain based on the Initia Interwoven Stack with Meme as the core, integrating a gamification experience, allowing users to publish, compete and grow their Meme assets in a competitive environment.
According to official news, decentralized AI platform ORO AI announced the completion of a $6 million seed round of financing, led by a16z Crypto Startup Accelerator (CSX) and Delphi Ventures, with participation from Ocular VC, Orange DAO, NEAR Protocol and 0G Labs. It is reported that ORO is a decentralized AI platform designed to unlock high-quality, private data for advanced AI models. ORO uses blockchain technology to promote secure and licensed data sharing, enabling AI developers to train models on quality data sets while protecting data privacy.
DeFi protocol Neutrl completes $5 million seed round, led by STIX and Accomplice
DeFi protocol Neutrl has completed a $5 million seed round of financing, led by STIX and Accomplice, with participation from Amber Group, SCB Limited, Figment Capital and Nascent. Neutrl launched the stablecoin NUSD, which purchases locked altcoins at a discount in the OTC market and hedges with perpetual contracts to achieve hedging returns. This strategy aims to popularize hedge fund-level arbitrage methods to mass investors, with a target market size of $10 billion.
Auradine, a US Bitcoin mining machine manufacturer, has completed a $153 million Series C financing, of which $138 million is equity financing and $15 million is venture debt. This round was led by StepStone Group, with participation from Samsung, Qualcomm, Premji Invest and others. Auradine plans to expand its core mining machine business and the newly established AI infrastructure department AuraLinks AI, which currently has an annual revenue of $150 million and serves more than 40 data center customers.
Resolv Labs Completes $10 Million Seed Round, Led by Cyber.Fund and Maven11
Resolv Labs, the company behind the DeFi protocol Resolv, announced the completion of a $10 million seed round of financing, led by Cyber.Fund and Maven11, with participation from Coinbase Ventures, Susquehanna subsidiary SCB Limited, Arrington Capital, Gumi Cryptos, NoLimit Holdings, Robot Ventures, Animoca Ventures, etc. Resolv focuses on the yield-based stablecoin USR, which adopts a Delta-neutral strategy hierarchical structure, and coin holders can obtain stable returns. The current TVL of the protocol is $450 million, and the new funds will be used to expand BTC-related strategies and multi-chain deployment.
Crypto investment startup Glider announced the completion of a $4 million financing led by a16z, with participation from Coinbase Ventures, Pivot Global, Uniswap Ventures and GSR. Glider is committed to combining AI and DeFi to provide users with automated, non-custodial, personalized crypto asset allocation solutions. The product is still in the testing phase and is expected to be launched in the next few months. The company will also join a16z's crypto accelerator program in San Francisco.
Bloomberg: Galaxy Ventures fund has exceeded its $150 million fundraising target
According to Bloomberg, people familiar with the matter revealed that Michael Novogratz's Galaxy Ventures Fund I LP has exceeded its fundraising target of $150 million and will build a portfolio of about 30 investments. This fund focuses on investing in early-stage startups, especially in the fields of payment and stablecoins. It is expected to complete fundraising by the end of June, with a fundraising amount of between $175 million and $180 million. The limited partners of this new fund are mainly family offices and high-net-worth individuals. Galaxy itself has also invested in the fund. Galaxy recently obtained permission for a direct listing on the Nasdaq Stock Exchange, and the transaction is expected to take place after a special shareholders meeting in May.
