This week is a funny one. Let's see what happened. Ethereum is going fine, and Binance is trying hard to improve its odds. Coinbase is fighting the SEC and we do not know yet who is David and who is Goliath. What else? Check below:

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• Bitcoin: Standard Chartered predicted the end of the Crypto Winter. Are they right? Most probably not. They see Bitcoin as a safe haven, especially as the halving is coming around March 2024, more or less one year from today, and MiCA regulations in the EU will be probably followed shortly by UK and US. MicroStrategy CEO, Michael Saylor, advocates for BTC adoption in Argentina.

• Ethereum: Ethereum's latest upgrade, Shapella, boosted interest from institutional investors, as top ETH staking services had a threefold rise in inflows in April, compared with the previous month. With the last update, 18M ETH worth $35B were unlocked, and Ethereum's price surged to 2100, falling to 2000 after that. DEX volumes, NFT volumes, and total value locked saw above-average growth, stablecoin supply fell by $13M, and Layer-2 solutions like Arbitrum and Optimism contributed 45% of the transactions across L1-L2. The next upgrade is the Cancun/Deneb, aiming to make transactions on rollups 10-100 times cheaper. Binance introduced ETH-based liquid staked after the ETH 2.0 transition and expelled North Korean users, in order to comply with the international sanctions.

• Altcoins: Solana seems to do well, with daily unique fee payers and transactions bouncing back from the q4 lows, stake amounts are increasing and a growing validator set is leading the network to a more decentralized state. Tezos doubled down on scaling the network, delivering the most important forkless network upgrade with Mumbai, its DEFI grows stronger and it announced multiple partnerships in its NFT and gaming sectors. AAVE is doing well too, with the outstanding loan balance on Arbitrum up 305% after the ARB airdrop, and interest revenues increased slightly after the USDC depeg, while they are also working to do the voting process more efficient and inclusive. Polygon is also sustaining greater levels of activity in each sector, with some notable launches and upgrades of its scaling solutions. USDC itself unveiled a new cross-chain transfer protocol, called CCTP, initially starting with ETH-AVAX, with other chains to be integrated in the second half of 2023. Global investment management giant Templeton launched a money market fund on Polygon also. USDT trading volume accounted for 79% of all stablecoin volume in April. Pancake (CAKE) is looking for aggressive solutions to reduce the inflation rate of its token. Sui, the layer 1 blockchain built by ex-Facebook developers, will be launched on the 3rd of May. Check GND Protocol on Arbitrum!

• Blockchain games and NFTs: Solana is working on an integration with Open AI'S Chat GPT, to create a plugin that will allow users to interact with the Solana network for different tasks such as checking wallet balances and purchasing NFTs. Binance US offers free web3 domain creation for its American users, under .crypto and .nft extensions. On Splinterlands we have a new promo card on sale on May 2nd, Zyriel, a premiere being both Life and Death Splinter, costing 80K DEC or Credits per BCX. You can now also use DEC-B for guild building upgrades.

• Good news: Gemini plans to launch an offshore derivatives platform, copying Coinbase's playbook. Ukraine intended to adopt the European Parliament's MiCA (Markets in Crypto Act) in its own country. As FTX failed, 20% of the exchanges are using Proof of Reserves or something similar, while 13% have done audits or integrated Proof of Liabilities. This must be good. Google Cloud launched a special initiative tailored for Web3 startups. Do they want a slice of the crypto pie? For sure. Galaxy Digital partnered with the German bank DWS, in order to bring crypto ETPs in Europe. South Korean Court rules LUNA as not a security. New California bill may offer regulatory relief for DAOs. Visa is hiring developers to take crypto mainstream.

• Bad news: A judge approved surveillance on SBF's parents' phone, to ensure bail compliance. Binance.US terminates its asset purchase agreement with Voyager, as SEC previously tried to block the deal over VGX tokens being classified as unregistered securities. UK Treasury and HM Revenue and Customs are looking into tax changes for DEFI transactions. Zimbabwe Central Bank wants to introduce a gold-backed digital currency. , to stabilize the local currency and counter the dollar depreciation. Kucoin's Twitter account was hacked early Monday morning for 45 minutes. Trust Wallet disclosed a security vulnerability and now it is patched, but $170K were lost by some users, and they will be reimbursed. Digital Yuan adoption gains momentum, as China is using it to pay wages in Changshu. Bybit Exchange imposes mandatory KYC for all services.

• Joke of the week: Coinbase filed a legal action against SEC, seeking regulatory clarity for the crypto sector, urging them to provide a clear response to their July 2022 petition for formal rulemaking guidance for the crypto industry. As we remember, it all started with a Wells notice received by Coinbase on the 22nd of March. They even said that SEC is making decisions regarding alleged legal violations on the spot. SEC chairman, Gary Gensler, underlined the importance of regulatory compliance rather than explaining the lack of regulatory clarity.

All the best,

George

Why not...

...have fun and win rewards on my favorite blockchain games (Splinterlands - Hearthstone-like card game) (Mobox - GamiFI NFT platform) and (X-Portal - Elrond all in one app, free NFTs, and more).

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