Coinbase Restores Service After Outage; Major Financial and Legal Developments

GM anon ☕🐺

In today’s Alpha Bytes👇

Recent crypto news highlights Coinbase recovering from a major outage, Falcon Labs settling with the CFTC over registration violations, and Alexey Pertsev receiving a 64-month prison sentence for his Tornado Cash protocol, accused of enabling money laundering.

This has sparked concern among digital privacy advocates, emphasizing the ongoing conflict between innovation and regulation in the crypto industry.

BTC $63,564 (+3.0%), ETH $2,933(+1.2%), SOL $148 (+1.5%)

Crypto News 📰

• Coinbase back online after facing major outage 

• Falcon Labs settles with CFTC over registration violation 

• Tornado Cash dev Alexey Pertsev gets 64-month prison sentence 

• State of Wisconsin Investment Board has purchased $100 million worth of spot Bitcoin ETFs

• GameStop $GME and $AMC Entertainment stocks halted a combined 34 times 

• Restrictive policy may take longer than expected to bring down inflation: Jerome Powell 

• Swiss bank UBS holds 3600 shares in BlackRock’s iShares Bitcoin Trust, SEC filings reveal 

• Initia launches 8-week incentivized testnet program ]

• Macro investor Dan Tapiero predicts “scary bullish BTC prospects” foresees $90k for the asset

• Crypto investment firm BlockTower Capital suffers major losses in hack

• UK closes crypto firm for giving investors reckless advice 

• Trader makes $46 million with PEPE hitting new all-time high 

• Stablecoin issuer Circle plans legal base shift to the United States ahead of IPO

• Crypto game Guild of Guardians to launch on Apple and Android devices with $1 million in prizes 

• Crypto investment funds take in $130 million. 13F filings reveal list of spot Bitcoin ETF purchasers 

• Legal experts weigh in on case against Roger Ver 

• FUI steps up AML and CFT compliance for crypto exchanges in India 

• Interactive Brokers now allows UK clients to trade crypto 

• Poloniex hacker laundered over 60% of stolen funds in just over a week 

• ARKB ETF records $133 million in inflows as BTC surged 

• ABT token surges to reach new all-time high 

• Ripple to develop EVM XRP Ledger sidechain 

• Tether partners with RAK DAO as UAE expansion continues 

• Sonne Finance crippled by $20M exploit, hacker in no mood for negotiations 

• Israeli fintech firm Kima, Mastercard lab look to develop “DeFi credit card.

• North Korea used Tornado Cash to siphon off HTX’s $147.5M loot

• Bitget wallet launches $10M ecosystem fund alongside Onchain layer 

• Solana-based Cypher developer admits to gambling away $300k worth of user funds 

• El Salvador mines 474 Bitcoin using geothermal volcanic energy 

• Vanguard names Bitcoin-friendly BlackRock executive as new CEO

• Filing suggests SEC is exploring grounds to deny spot Ether ETFs 

Project Updates 🔥👷🏼‍♂️ 

• Cypher Protocol redemption contract drained by contributor 

• Predy Finance exploited for $464K

• Equalizer0x frontend hacked 

• DriftFDN announces airdrop claims will go live on May 16th 

• Vertex Protocol launching on @BotanixLabs 

• Introducing @TheoricAI

• Fjord Foundry announces the introduction of $JFO staking 

• @Zapper_fi teases token 

• Bounce Finance introduces $MBA 

• Liquidity Protocol v2 whitepaper released 

• Natix will be launching on Coinlist 

• Pear Protocol public beta goes live 

• Caddi introduces BYOB: Bring Your Own Bridge 

• Degen Chain and Proof of Play’s Apex chain are halted 

• Safe Wallet native swaps - powered by CoW Swap 

Interesting Threads 🧵

• A thread on Quilibrium_xyz by @BassManTV 

• A thread on Worldcoin by @DefiSquared 

• Ethereum co-founder Vitalik Buterin drafts EIP-7706

• A guide for @initiaFDN by @ahboyash

• Garden Finance playbook 

• A thread on ProjectZKM

• A thread on the TON blockchain by @PinkBrains_io  

• Nairolf: What is Initia 

• Understanding Connext: A thread by Stacy Muur 

• Salazar.eth: Diving deep into $AVAIL 

• Common Prefix: Caveats of EigenLayer 

• LongHash Ventures: Understanding the Proof of Sampling Protocol (PoSP) by Hyperbolic Labs 

• Five years in prison for developing an application

Launches 🚀

• Limitless Fi mainnet

• Pear Protocol beta 

• Quilibrium TGE 

• YieldNest mainnet 

• GSWP TGE 

• Ion Protocol

• Planar Finance Origin Pools 

• Victoria VR Asugea Early Access 

Fundraise 🤑

• @TheoricAI (blockchain service) raises $6.2 million in round led by Hack VC

• Zeta Markets (DeFi) raises $5 million in strategic round led by Electric Capital 

• @sekuyaofficial raises $1.6 million in round led by @SingularityDAO 

• @BSUniverse_OFCL: $TBD Seed

That's a wrap for today!

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