Today's news tips:
Galaxy Digital deposited 12,500 ETH to Binance in the early morning, equivalent to US$20.31 million
Data: Binance WCT is currently trading at $0.624, a 18.4% premium over OKX
Spot gold breaks through $3,300/ounce, setting a new record high
BNB Completes 31st Quarterly Token Burn, Worth Approximately $916 Million
Regulatory/Macro
Spot gold breaks through $3,300/ounce, setting a new record high
Spot gold prices hit a new high, breaking through $3,300 per ounce for the first time. The price soared by $70 during the day, an increase of more than 2%.
At today's regular press conference of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, a reporter asked that the latest statement of the White House on its official website stated that due to China's retaliatory measures, the US tariff on China has increased to 245%. In response, Foreign Ministry spokesman Lin Jian said that you can ask the US side for the specific tax rate. China has repeatedly stated its solemn position on the tariff issue. This tariff war was initiated by the US. China has taken necessary countermeasures to safeguard its legitimate rights and interests and international fairness and justice, which is completely reasonable and legal. There are no winners in tariff wars and trade wars. China does not want to fight, but it is not afraid of fighting.
According to Cointelegraph, CleanSpark, a US bitcoin mining company, said that in order to achieve financial self-sufficiency, the company will begin selling a portion of the bitcoins obtained from its mining business every month. In addition, according to a statement, CleanSpark has obtained a $200 million credit line backed by Bitcoin through an agreement with Coinbase Prime, the institutional brokerage division of the crypto exchange Coinbase. CleanSpark CEO Zach Bradford said that the bitcoin sales and credit lines together mean that CleanSpark has "achieved escape velocity - the ability to operate with its own funds, increase bitcoin reserves, and contribute to expansion capital through operating cash flow." The company added that CleanSpark has opened an institutional bitcoin trading desk to promote the sale of cryptocurrencies.
UK House of Commons Leader Lucy Powell’s X account hacked and used to promote “HCC” token scam
According to the BBC, Lucy Powell, the leader of the House of Commons, has had her account X hacked and used to promote a fraudulent "House of Commons" cryptocurrency. On Powell's X account, a series of now-deleted posts described the "HCC" token as "a community-driven digital currency that brings people power to the blockchain." The MP's office confirmed that her account was hacked on Tuesday morning and said that "measures have been taken quickly to protect the account and remove misleading posts." Recently, some public figures with a large number of fans, including BBC reporter Nick Robinson, have also suffered similar cyber hacking attacks. Luke Nolan, a senior researcher at CoinShares, said that the hack of Powell's account was an example of "pump and dump", and that the token had only 34 transactions, which may have brought a profit of about £225.
Japanese listed company Value Creation plans to spend another 100 million yen to buy Bitcoin
According to CoinDesk, Value Creation, a Tokyo-listed logistics and technology company, issued a statement saying that the company expects to add 100 million yen (about $700,000) worth of Bitcoin to its balance sheet in the next four months. The company has previously purchased about 200 million yen (about $1.4 million) worth of Bitcoin. The company said that the funds came from surplus capital reserved for future investments.
Metaplanet announces $10 million bond issuance to increase Bitcoin holdings
According to official news, Japanese listed company Metaplanet Inc. announced the issuance of US$10 million worth of interest-free ordinary bonds to increase its holdings of Bitcoin.
Janover Inc., a US listed company, announced on April 15 that it had purchased 80,567 Solana (SOL) worth approximately $10.5 million, according to an official announcement. This is the third execution under its newly adopted digital asset library strategy. The purchase brings the total amount of Solana held by Janover to 163,651.7, worth approximately $21.2 million (including staking rewards). The company will immediately begin staking its newly acquired SOL to generate revenue while supporting the Solana network. It is reported that Janover is an artificial intelligence platform that connects the commercial real estate industry.
NFT project CyberKongz announced that the US SEC has ended its investigation into it
According to The Block, the NFT collection project CyberKongz announced that the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) has ended its investigation into it. This is the latest investigation into such projects that the SEC has ended since President Donald Trump took office earlier this year. On Tuesday, CyberKongz posted a message on the X platform to confirm that the SEC's investigation has officially ended and revealed that it will launch a "rebranding" plan. "For CyberKongz, the shackles have been lifted," the company said. "We have been preparing for this for a long time. Soon, we will announce a comprehensive rebranding plan and new development direction." In December last year, CyberKongz received a Wells Notice from the SEC, which is a formal warning issued by the SEC to relevant companies before possible enforcement actions. CyberKongz revealed that they have been under tremendous pressure since they first received an inquiry from the SEC two years ago. The project said that the SEC's enforcement team raised "a very worrying argument that tokens (ERC-20) cannot be used in conjunction with blockchain games without registering them as securities."
Viewpoint
Coinbase said in its latest report that some extreme negative sentiment has emerged due to the implementation of global tariffs and the potential for further escalation, which may herald the beginning of a new round of "crypto winter". At the same time, although venture capital funding for cryptocurrencies in the first quarter of 2025 increased from the previous quarter, it was still 50%-60% lower than the level at the peak of the 2021-2022 cycle. This has greatly limited the entry of new capital into the cryptocurrency ecosystem, especially in the field of altcoins. In the case of poor stock market performance, even if the regulatory environment brings some unique favorable factors, the road to recovery in the cryptocurrency market is still challenging. The interaction of these factors paints a difficult cyclical outlook for the digital asset sector, which may require continued caution in the short term (perhaps the next 4-6 weeks). However, Coinbase also believes that investors need to take a tactical approach to the market, because Coinbase expects that when market sentiment is finally reset, the process may be quite rapid, and is optimistic about the market in the second half of 2025. In addition, the report pointed out that recently, both Bitcoin (BTC) and the COIN50 index fell below the 200-day moving average (200DMA). This technical breakdown may indicate that the crypto market is about to enter a bear market cycle.
According to OKG Research, White House adviser Bo Hines recently mentioned the "budget-neutral purchase of BTC" plan. OKG Research systematically sorted out five possible paths, including tariff revenue redistribution, gold revaluation, asset tokenization, unused budget recovery and pension guidance allocation, and estimated that its potential release range is: $764 billion-$874 billion+. Under the effect of the market multiplier (2x-5x), it may drive the BTC market value to increase by 1.5-4.4 trillion US dollars. If estimated by the actual active circulation, the theoretical price anchor of Bitcoin may be reset to: $207,000-$398,000/coin. OKG Research believes that budget neutrality is not a simple fiscal technique, but an institutional precursor for the sovereign structure to re-anchor the value of digital assets; its expectation itself has the ability to re-price.
Standard Chartered Bank: Stablecoin supply is expected to surge to $2 trillion by 2028
According to The Block, Standard Chartered Bank's latest report predicts that the upcoming US Stablecoin Regulation Act (GENIUS Act) will drive the global stablecoin scale from the current $230 billion to $2 trillion by the end of 2028. Geoffrey Kendrick, the bank's head of digital assets, pointed out that the bill will provide legal status for the industry and prompt stablecoin issuers to increase their holdings of US Treasuries on a large scale. The report shows that in the next four years, the stablecoin industry's demand for US Treasuries is expected to reach $1.6 trillion - enough to absorb all new short-term Treasury bonds issued during Trump's term if he is re-elected; based on an average of $40 billion per year, the stablecoin industry may become the largest buyer group in the US Treasury market. In addition, Circle has currently allocated 88% of its USDC reserves to short-term US Treasuries, and this model may become an industry standard. Analysts believe that the rapid development of US dollar stablecoins will consolidate the status of the US dollar in the short term, but in the long run, the emergence of stablecoins backed by other currencies may pose a challenge to the status of the US dollar. It is worth noting that the bill requires that the term of stablecoin reserve assets shall not exceed 93 days, which will prompt issuers to concentrate on allocating short-term Treasury bonds, further affecting the structure of the US Treasury market.
Project News
Bithumb will list WalletConnect (WCT) Korean Won trading pairs
South Korean exchange Bithumb announced that it will launch the Korean won market trading on WalletConnect (WCT). The supported network is Optimism, and recharges on other networks are not supported. Trading is expected to start at 19:00 on April 16, 2025.
Binance will launch AERGO/USDT perpetual contract with up to 15x leverage
Binance announced that it will launch the AERGOUSDT perpetual contract at 19:00 (Beijing time) on April 16, 2025, with a leverage of up to 15 times.
BNB Completes 31st Quarterly Token Burn, Worth Approximately $916 Million
The BNB Foundation announced the successful completion of the 31st quarterly BNB token destruction, which destroyed a total of 1,579,207.72 BNBs, equivalent to approximately $916 million. After this destruction, the remaining number of BNBs to be destroyed is 40,886,572.43, and the total supply is 139,311,899.514. Earlier news, BNB Chain completed the 30th BNB quarterly destruction, destroying a total of approximately $1.116 billion worth of BNB.
Upbit will list DEEP and SHELL in BTC and USDT markets
According to the official announcement, South Korean cryptocurrency exchange Upbit will launch DEEP and SHELL in the BTC and USDT markets, and trading is expected to start at 18:00 (UTC+8) on April 16.
Upbit will list WCT in the KRW, BTC, and USDT markets
According to the official announcement, South Korean cryptocurrency exchange Upbit will list WCT in the Korean won, BTC, and USDT markets, and trading will begin at 17:00 (UTC+8) on April 16.
Binance Futures to Launch Pre-Market Trading of INITUSDT USDT Perpetual Contract
According to the official announcement, Binance Futures will launch pre-market trading of INITUSDT perpetual contracts at 14:30 (ET8) on April 16, 2025, with a maximum leverage of 5 times.
Bithumb to List KERNEL in Korean Won Market
According to an official announcement, South Korean crypto exchange Bithumb will list KERNEL in the Korean won market.
Towns will launch TOWNS tokens in Q2, with an initial airdrop ratio of 10%
According to official news, the decentralized communication protocol Towns announced that it will launch the TOWNS token in the second quarter of 2025. The initial total supply of TOWNS is 10 billion, and it will be launched on Base and Ethereum. 10% of the supply will be distributed to its supporters in the form of an initial airdrop. Membership fees, tips, transaction fees, and other transaction fees flow back into the TOWNS token ecosystem through automatic mechanisms (such as the sale and destruction of tokens), powering the network and strengthening the community's ownership of the protocol. Earlier in April, it was reported that the social communication protocol Towns completed a $10 million Series B financing, led by a16z crypto.
According to The Block, the decentralized lending protocol Maple Finance has received a $25 million allocation from the Sky ecosystem, aiming to continue to expand into the real-world asset space. The funds come from the stablecoin and lending protocol Sky (formerly MakerDAO) and the Spark sub-DAO. The two parties plan to increase the deployment amount, possibly as high as $50 million. The protocol will first allocate $25 million and gradually scale up by investing an additional $5 million per day in Maple's lending market syrupUSDC pool. Maple pointed out that the allocation of funds from Sky and Spark will increase loan book activity and support protocol revenue through repurchases. This latest allocation of funds represents Sky's deepening commitment to diversifying its exposure to the DeFi and RWA fields.
Mantra CEO promises to destroy his OM tokens to regain investor trust
According to CryptoSlate, Mantra CEO John Patrick Mullin proposed to destroy his OM tokens to restore investor confidence after the price of the protocol's native token plummeted. Mullin said that the tokens he holds are part of the 300 million OM tokens reserved by the team, and the unlock period for these tokens is until April 2027. On April 15, Mullin issued a public statement on the X platform, promising to destroy his future share of tokens, and said that if the project recovers, the community can decide whether to let him regain these tokens. According to Tokenomist data, he currently holds about 772,000 OM tokens, less than 1% of the more than 80 million OM tokens in circulation on April 15. Mullin has configured his tokens on the liquid proof-of-stake protocol Fluxtra. Although he made a promise and disclosed his current holdings, he did not disclose the specific holdings, saying that he would wait until the destruction plan is ready before disclosing the share of tokens he holds. Related reading: The out-of-control crypto train, OM's market value of tens of billions collapsed, and various parties held different opinions after the manipulation was exposed
Semler Scientific Files for $500 Million Securities Offering to Buy More Bitcoin
Nasdaq-listed medical technology company Semler Scientific has applied to the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) for a $500 million securities offering by filing an S-3 registration document. The offering will be used primarily for general corporate purposes, including but not limited to the purchase of Bitcoin.
Important data
Data: Binance WCT is currently trading at $0.624, a 18.4% premium over OKX
According to OKX and Binance market data, WCT is currently quoted at $0.527 on OKX and $0.624 on Binance, with Binance having a premium of about 18.4% over OKX. Earlier news indicated that Bithumb will launch WalletConnect (WCT) Korean Won trading pair.
According to @ai_9684xtpa, 40 million TRUMP tokens will be unlocked on April 18, accounting for 20% of the circulating supply and 4% of the total supply. The TRUMP developer address removed 366,000 TRUMP and $4.6 million USDC liquidity from Meteora 16 hours ago. Currently, the address still holds 14.72 million TRUMP and 200 million USDC liquidity in Meteora, and 15.38 million TRUMP on the chain, worth about $120 million.
1ROR/WETH pool was attacked and lost $780,000, and the funds flowed to TornadoCash
According to Cyvers Alerts, the 1ROR/WETH pool was attacked on the Ethereum chain, with a loss of approximately $780,000. The attacker exploited a vulnerability in the emergencyWithdraw() function to carry out the attack, having previously deposited only a small amount of funds to trigger the vulnerability. After the attack, the funds were quickly converted to ETH and transferred through multiple wallets, some of which flowed to TornadoCash. Monitoring shows that the suspicious address used by the attacker was also initially funded by TornadoCash.
According to the monitoring of the on-chain analyst Ember, the MELANIA project has sold a total of $14.06 million worth of MELANIA (20.5 million) in the past month through liquidity addresses and community addresses to add unilateral liquidity. The average price is about $0.686. Community allocation part: 10.5 million MELANIA were sold in exchange for 44,013 SOL. 10.5 million MELANIA were transferred to 4 addresses to add unilateral liquidity, and then SOL was transferred and stored in 9 wallets. Liquidity allocation part: 10 million $MELANIA were sold in exchange for 57,407 SOL. 10 million MELANIA were transferred to 5 addresses to add unilateral liquidity, and then SOL was transferred and stored in 5 wallets. The 101,000 SOL obtained from the sale of 20.5 million MELANIA are stored in the following 15 addresses. It is currently worth $12.83 million.
Galaxy Digital deposited 12,500 ETH to Binance in the early morning, equivalent to US$20.31 million
According to Spot On Chain monitoring, Galaxy Digital deposited 12,500 ETH (about 20.31 million US dollars) to Binance about 8 hours ago. In the past 4 days, Galaxy Digital has deposited a total of 37,500 ETH (about 60.34 million US dollars) to Binance, and the average price of ETH at the time of deposit was 1,609 US dollars.
Financing
Treehouse Finance valued at $400 million in new funding round
Treehouse Finance, which focuses on DeFi fixed income, has completed a round of strategic financing, with a fully diluted token valuation of $400 million. This round adopts a SAFT structure, and investors include well-known institutions such as MassMutual Ventures and industry figures such as Ethena and QCP. Treehouse is committed to creating a decentralized benchmark interest rate DOR and income assets tAssets, aiming to connect with the traditional $600 trillion fixed income market. The platform has attracted more than 30,000 wallets and 120,000 ETH deposits. The mainnet is expected to be launched in June.
Optimum Completes $11 Million Seed Round, Led by 1kx
Infrastructure project Optimum announced the completion of a $11 million seed round of financing, led by 1kx, with participation from Robot Ventures, Finality Capital, Spartan, CMT Digital, SNZ, Triton Capital, Big Brain, CMS, Longhash, NGC, Animoca, GSR, Caladan, Reforge, etc. The financing will be used for product development and ecological integration. Optimum is committed to building a decentralized high-performance memory infrastructure for blockchain. Based on random linear network coding (RLNC) technology, it has launched a high-performance node communication layer OptimumP2P and a decentralized memory product DeRAM, aiming to provide efficient data transmission and storage solutions for any blockchain network. OptimumP2P is about to go online on the test network, and is inviting public chain and node operators to participate in the test.
