Global Crypto Crisis: Russia's Ban, U.S. Crackdown, and Market Turmoil

GM Anon ☕🐺

In today’s Alpha Bytes,

Geopolitical Tensions Escalate: Russia prepares for a total crypto ban amid rising geopolitical pressures, marking a pivotal shift in global finance.

U.S. Regulatory Crackdown: Phoenix and Wasabi, key self-custody wallet providers, exit the U.S. market in response to intensified regulatory scrutiny.

Crypto Market Turbulence: Bitcoin and Ether face significant losses as fears of U.S. stagflation underscore the volatility of digital assets in economic uncertainties.

BTC $62,713(0.1%), ETH $3173 (0.4%), SOL $136.64 (+0.3%)

Crypto News 📰

• Russia prepares for total crypto ban as geopolitical tensions rise

• Phoenix and Wasabi exit US market amid self custody wallet crackdown 

• Bitcoin, Ether nurse losses as US stagflation fears grip markets.  

• South Korea announces crackdown on crypto crimes with an investigative unit. 

• Crypto trader sees best ‘altseason’ as bitcoin price cools 

• Elon Musk teases crypto payments bombshell that could blow up price of Bitcoin 

• FBI warns against using unregistered cryptocurrency money transferring services 

• Binance founder faces possible three year jail sentence over wild west business model 

• Google Cloud’s Web3 portal launch sparks debate in the crypto industry 

• Ethereum gas fees hit a six-month low indicating a potential altcoin surge 

• Thai regulator cracks down on deceptive crypto ads 

• Justin Sun predicts SEC will reject spot Ethereum ETF in May, cites need for crypto education

• As Bitcoin outpaces fiat, what next for global finance?

• South Africa election will not interfere with crypto policy 

• Telegram is becoming a crypto-powered narcotics department store for South Koreans 

• Japan-based Akita dog society adopts blockchain to combat forgery 

• Open-AI hit with privacy complaint in Austria, potential EU law breach 

• Woman accused of $6 billion scam, China loophole for Hong Kong Bicoin ETFs

• Department of Justice’s Tornado Cash arguments show an obvious disdain for privacy: Lawyer 

• io.net responds to GPU metadata attack

• No plan for total crypto ban yet, Russian lawmaker

• Solo Bitcoin miner wins the 3.125 BTC lottery, solving valid block

• Apple reportedly courting OpenAI to develop AI features for iPhone

• Sam Altman’s OpenAI reportedly in talks with his other venture, Worldcoin

• Filipinos face higher fees after Binance ban

• The rise of DePins 

• DeFi for all: This protocol addresses liquidity fragmentation and complex interfaces 

• Lido Finance hits 1 million validators, fueling the growth of DeFi 

• Dubai does for crypto what Silicon Valley did for tech 

• Mango Markets’ Eisenberg charged with possession of child porn 

• Australia’s top exchange may approve spot Bitcoin ETFs later this year 

• DOJ challenges motion to dismiss Tornado Cash co-founder’s charges 

• Google suspends Trust Wallet from Google Play marketplace 

• OKX Jumpstart unveils BTX staking option for mining Runecoin 

• Pakistan mulls CBDC for women amid concerns of financial abuse 

• Regulating centralized exchanges won’t stop bad actors 

• Land registries should shift to blockchain technology 

• US asset managers increasing BTC portfolio allocation 

• Binance rival Fezoo exchange gaining momentum 

• Beribit in turmoil as Russian officials contemplate crypto exchange ban 

• Custodia bank claps back against court ruling, wants Fed master account 

• Stripe to start supporting stablecoin payments 

• SEC serves Consensys with Wells Notice 

• ConsenSys files lawsuit against Securities and Exchange Commission 

• Franklin Templeton enables peer-to-peer transfers of their tokenized shares 

• ETFs containing crypto to have zero collateral for loans, according to DTCC 

• Republic First bank officially collapses 

• Franklin Ethereum tr Ethereum ETF added to DTCC website 

• CBOE ending support for spot crypto trading 

Project Updates 🔥👷🏼‍♂️

• OGN tokenomics proposal 

• Jesse Pollak announces Based institute 

• Immutable launches $50 million reward program for exploring games 

• Euler Finance shares v2 codebase 

• Aethir Cloud presents Aethir cloud drop day 

• Pike Finance exploited for $300,000

• Renzo Protocol introduces ezpoints season 2 

• RiscZero introduces Steel 

• FriendTech snapshot completed 

• Anagramxyz introduces Bonsol; Verifiable compute for Solana 

• YugaLabs restructures company

• Ionet took action against sybil farmers 

• Offchain Labs disclosed two testnet security vulnerabilities to OP Labs 

• Etherscan updates its explorer with an airdrop checker 

• Martin Shkreli posts about concerning information regarding ionet founder 

• Update on ionet’s recent network attack 

• BTC_OS introduces BitSNARK & Grail 

• EigenLayer potential airdrop next week 

• Solidly Labs introduces MemeboxFi 

• Jupiter Exchange launches Tipping via Jito Bundles 

Interesting Threads🧵

• Thread about the future of Chain Abstraction

• Thesis on MKR

• Thread on MINIMA

• Ethena S2 farming strategies 

• Thread about understanding Monad 

• Phtevenstrong, 0xAndroid release Zircuitl2 Points calculator 

• Mike Dudas shares his thoughts on crypto 

• Thread about Simple DVT 

Anon, remember: Knowledge is freedom. It empowers you to make informed decisions.

Join us on the quest for crypto alpha and potentially unlock your financial freedom.