LUCKNOW (CoinChapter.com) — Every day, something new happens in the crypto world that you might be curious to know. A lot more has gone on in the crypto space in the last 24 hours. On one hand, Bitcoin regained $72K, while on the other hand, zkLink found that layer 3 could be the solution to Ethereum’s liquidity. Read on to learn about major news in the crypto world today!
Bitcoin Regains $72K
Bitcoin regained the $72,000 level on Monday, bouncing back after a rocky start to the month when it dipped below its 2021 high of $69,044. The price surge was driven by a spike in Bitcoin futures open interest, leading to the liquidation of over $58 million in short positions.
Experts attribute the initial dip to shrinking Grayscale Bitcoin Trust outflows, but the trust has since jumped in pre-market trading. The upcoming Bitcoin halving, scheduled for April 20th, is a historically bullish event. However, Coinbase has urged caution about assuming past performance will repeat.
Meanwhile, Analyst Mark Palmer nearly doubled his price target for MicroStrategy (MSTR) stock to $1,875, assuming Bitcoin will reach $150,000 by the end of 2025 due to growing demand for spot Bitcoin ETFs. MicroStrategy has steadily increased its Bitcoin holdings, and analysts expect the company to continue accumulating BTC.
Coinbase users won’t experience direct platform changes due to the Bitcoin halving. The exchange will facilitate the resulting trading activity and price volatility.
Layer 3 Network zkLink Launch
Layer 2 blockchains have effectively expanded Ethereum’s scalability, slashing transaction costs and fostering wider adoption. However, this success has given rise to a new challenge known as liquidity fragmentation, where capital is dispersed across various blockchains, leading to increased volatility and poorer trade conditions.
ZkLink is tackling this issue head-on with its layer 3 network, zkLink Nova, connected to eight Ethereum layer 2s.
Through MergeToken, zkLink consolidates assets from these layer 2s into a unified token, enhancing the trading environment for web3 users. Vince Yang, zkLink’s CEO, hopes this approach will set a precedent for smoother trading experiences across the ecosystem.
Previously dominating on-chain activities, Ethereum has seen a shift towards layer 2s like Arbitrum and Optimism, causing liquidity to disperse. ZkLink aims to reunite this scattered liquidity within its layer 3, ultimately improving capital efficiency and trade execution.
However, bridging assets to Nova and locking them in smart contracts poses security risks. To address concerns, zkLink has undergone rigorous audits and established a governance committee to oversee upgrades, enhancing trust and transparency.
In parallel, Immutable Games, the creator of the Ethereum NFT game Gods Unchained, unveiled a new expansion, Dread Awakening, featuring a collaboration with the Guild of Guardians.
Excited about the potential of web3 gaming, Daniel Paez, Executive Producer of Gods Unchained, emphasizes the broader implications of IP crossovers and interoperability.
Solana’s Tensor Token Volume Explodes
In the midst of airdrop season, Tensor’s token has made its debut in the crypto market. The Solana NFT marketplace launched its TNSR token, with over $200 million in tokens available through airdrop rewards and an impressive $640 million in trading volume within the first seven hours of launch.
Currently valued at $1.98, TNSR’s price has decreased 33% from its initial high of $2.45. Such fluctuations are common for newly launched tokens in volatile markets.
Following a model similar to BLUR on Ethereum, Tensor introduced a rewards program divided into four seasons, starting from March 4. Participants in each season received loot boxes crucial for creating Tensorian NFTs, with rewards for holding and staking the NFTs.
One fortunate Tensor user received 712K TNSR tokens, currently valued at around $1.15 million. This is potentially one of the largest single allocations to a trader.
To check eligibility and allocations for the airdrop, users can visit the designated page, with a 180-day window to claim via the decentralized exchange aggregator Jupiter. Users from the United States are ineligible for the airdrop.
According to the Tensor team, the TNSR token will empower the community to manage key protocol parameters. 55% of its 1 billion supply will be allocated to the community. The initial airdrop comprises 125 million tokens, equivalent to 12.5% of the total supply.
Crypto-Themed Restaurant Bored & Hungry Closes LA Location, Expands Globally
The Bored Ape Yacht Club-inspired restaurant Bored & Hungry has closed its original location in Long Beach, California, after a two-year run. However, the brand is far from finished, as the team behind the venture has plans for global expansion.
Co-founder Andy Nguyen announced on Monday that the Hungry DAO has acquired the Bored & Hungry brand. While the Long Beach restaurant has shuttered, Nguyen said the team is actively searching for a new location in the Los Angeles area to reopen potentially.
The restaurant, which allowed customers to pay with cryptocurrencies like Ethereum and ApeCoin, was conceived as a way to bring the popular Bored Ape Yacht Club NFT brand into the physical world. It quickly gained attention from the Web3 community but struggled to attract a mainstream customer base beyond crypto enthusiasts.
Despite the closure of the pioneering LA location, Nguyen said the Bored & Hungry brand is expanding rapidly internationally. The team has already opened three locations in Manila, the Philippines, and one in Seoul, South Korea. Nguyen revealed that upcoming pop-up events are planned for Hong Kong, Singapore, and Dubai.
TON Offers $5M Incentive
The Open Network (TON) Society and biometrics developer HumanCode AI have launched a $5 million incentive program to encourage users to enroll in a palm-scanning “proof of personhood” verification system.
The program will reward TON wallet holders who connect their accounts and complete the palm scan using a smartphone on the TON Society website. HumanCode claims its technology can reliably verify a user’s humanity while maintaining their physical anonymity, unlike eye-scanning solutions like Worldcoin.
Co-founder Dong Zhang said HumanCode’s palm-based system offers greater user privacy protection and does not require specialized hardware. According to TON Foundation’s Director of Growth Ekin Tuna, the goal is to provide a scalable, private, and decentralized identity solution to help onboard the first billion users to the Web3 ecosystem.
This latest “proof of personhood” initiative comes amid growing concerns around AI-generated deepfakes and bot-driven online scams. While Worldcoin has made headlines with its eye-scanning identity verification, HumanCode and TON are betting that a palm-based approach will be more appealing to users concerned about privacy.
The one million Toncoin incentive, worth around $5 million at current prices, is designed to drive the adoption of the HumanCode system within the TON community. Originally developed by the Telegram team, TON was revived by a group of developers in 2021 and has seen increasing activity, including a recent Toncoin airdrop.
dYdX Chain Experiences 9.5 Hours Of Lengthy Halt During Scheduled Upgrade
Early morning on 8 April, the dYdX Chain encountered a significant disruption lasting over 9 hours due to a software bug that emerged during a planned v4 upgrade. Developers worked tirelessly to address the issue caused by an erroneous bug fix within the Cosmos IAVL library.
Throughout the 9-hour and 32-minute pause, the dYdX perpetual futures DEX remained operational. Interestingly, despite the interruption, the value of the native DYDX token rose by approximately 4%.
The v4 upgrade aimed to implement minor enhancements to the trading platform while introducing measures to mitigate malicious validators. The dYdX Chain, a specialized “app chain” operating on the Cosmos network, is tailored to support the dYdX derivatives platform. Having entered beta testing in November, it recently incorporated liquid staking for DYDX.
dYdX assured that the fix implemented did not disrupt the existing state of the software. This incident echoed recent disruptions observed on Solana and Polygon. However, dYdX successfully restored normal operations following the resolution of the technical issue.
Dimitar Petkov, the DeFi technical project lead within dYdX’s Operations subDAO, explained that the chain halt stemmed from the inclusion of an incorrect bug fix version from Cosmos’ IAVL library in the dYdX software release, resulting in network state corruption during the upgrade process.
Arthur Hayes Sells $9.6 Million of GMX
Arthur Hayes, a prominent figure in the crypto space, recently sold off his stake in GMX, a decentralized perpetual exchange. Hayes, known for his involvement with BitMEX and Maelstrom, opted to offload his entire holding of 237,000 GMX tokens in a transaction.
Hayes’ journey with GMX began on March 3, 2022, when he initially invested $150,000 in the project, purchasing 53 Ether worth of GMX at $31.9 per token. Over time, he continued to accumulate more tokens through various transactions across different wallets.
However, Hayes’ decision to part ways with his GMX holdings marks a significant shift in strategy. The sale, totaling $9.6 million, yielded him a net profit of $2.6 million.
One notable aspect of Hayes’ involvement with GMX was his participation as a staker. Despite the potential for lucrative returns, Hayes chose to divest his holdings.
Bitcoin ETFs Experience Slower Inflows Amid Price Surge
Last week saw a notable deceleration in net inflows into spot bitcoin Exchange-Traded Funds (ETFs). Despite this slowdown, investor interest remained positive, coinciding with Bitcoin’s impressive surge in value, which surpassed $72,000 on Monday morning.
Genesis, a once-bankrupt lender, concluded the sale of its shares in the Grayscale Bitcoin Trust ETF (GBTC), a process that intermittently dampened the segment’s flow dynamics. According to data from Farside Investors, the US BTC fund segment, comprising 11 funds, captured a total of $485 million in net inflows from April 1 to April 5.
This figure, averaging a daily net inflow of $97 million, marked a reduction from the preceding week’s daily average of $211 million and the $214 million seen since the ETFs’ launch on January 11.
Digital asset investment products have witnessed year-to-date influx of $13.8 billion. This is largely fueled by spot bitcoin ETFs. This figure already surpasses the entirety of 2021’s inflows, which stood at $10.6 billion.
However, there are indications of a moderation in ETF investor appetite, with weekly flow levels failing to match those observed in early March. Volumes dipped to $17.4 billion last week compared to the robust $43 billion recorded in the first week of March.
Among the standout performers, BlackRock’s iShares Bitcoin Trust (IBIT) led the segment with $811 million in net inflows, followed by Fidelity’s Wise Origin Bitcoin Fund (FBTC) with $395 million. Meanwhile, Grayscale Investments’ Bitcoin Trust ETF (GBTC) continued to witness asset outflows totaling $738 million for the week.
Speculation had arisen regarding the influence of bankrupt lender Genesis, which had been offloading its GBTC shares, valued at approximately $1.6 billion in mid-February. However, court filings on Friday revealed that Genesis and its affiliates had fully liquidated their nearly 36 million GBTC shares by April 2, utilizing the proceeds to purchase 32,041 BTC.
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