TLDR: The Bitcoin Network Undergoes its Fourth-ever 'Halving' Event, Runes Excitement Drives up Transaction Fees on Bitcoin, OKX Rolls Out Its Layer 2 Solution, EigenLayer Ditches Deposit Caps and Lets the Staking Party Begin, Picasso Network Launches Solana IBC, Solana Unwraps Update to Beat the Congestion Blues, Home Equity Loans Tokenized on Avalanche, Kraken Unveils its Very Own Web3 Wallet & Worldcoin to Launch its Own Layer 2 Blockchain.

Premium Content of the Week

Bitcoin Highlights of the Week

The Bitcoin Network Undergoes its Fourth-ever 'Halving' Event

Last Friday on April 19th, the Bitcoin network marked its fourth "halving" event, reducing miners' rewards from 6.250 bitcoins to 3.125. The price of bitcoin experienced volatility leading up to the event, dropping approximately 4% during the week to hover around $64,100. While the halving itself is not expected to have an immediate impact on bitcoin's price, many investors anticipate significant gains in the coming months, drawing on the cryptocurrency's performance following previous halving events. Historically, after the halvings in 2012, 2016, and 2020, the price of bitcoin surged by approximately 93x, 30x, and 8x, respectively, from its halving day price to its peak in each cycle.

Bitcoin Spot ETFs Experienced Five Consecutive Days of Withdrawals Prior Halving

U.S.-based spot bitcoin (BTC) exchange-traded funds (ETFs) recorded a combined outflow of $4.3 million on Thursday, continuing a four-day streak of withdrawals leading up to the anticipated bullish mining reward halving. Since April 12th, these ETFs have experienced a cumulative net outflow exceeding $319 million, with Grayscale's GBTC accounting for a substantial portion of the withdrawals. Notably, on Thursday, GBTC alone witnessed a significant outflow of $90 million, partially offset by inflows into Fidelity's FBTC and BlackRock's IBIT.

Runes Excitement Drives up Transaction Fees on Bitcoin

This week marked the occurrence of the bitcoin halving, an event generating excitement primarily because it slows down bitcoin's issuance, reducing the block reward to 3.125 BTC. However, there's additional buzz surrounding the emergence of Runes, a new protocol developed by Casey Rodarmor, the mind behind Ordinals. While Ordinals primarily aimed to introduce non-fungibility to Bitcoin by distinguishing specific satoshis based on their minting order, it also gave rise to the BRC-20 token standard, facilitating the issuance of fungible tokens on the network. Unlike BRC-20, Runes adopts a UTXO (unspent transaction output) model, aiming to enable the trading of new tokens on Bitcoin more efficiently without causing network congestion.

JP Morgan CEO Brands Bitcoin as a Decentralized Ponzi Scheme

This week, Jamie Dimon reignited his criticism of Bitcoin, dismissing its value. While Dimon acknowledges the potential of smart contracts and blockchain technology, he remains a staunch critic of Bitcoin, asserting that its only practical applications are in "sex trafficking, tax avoidance, anti-money laundering, and terrorism financing." Dimon has suggested that if these "bad use cases" cannot be addressed, regulators should consider shutting down Bitcoin. However, with over 20,000 Bitcoin nodes currently active, such a move would be challenging. Despite his outspoken disapproval of Bitcoin, Dimon declared during an interview with CNBC at the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland, in January that he would no longer discuss the cryptocurrency on the platform, stating, "This is the last time I'm ever talking about this on CNBC, so help me God." Interestingly, Dimon's critique of Bitcoin contrasts with the investment activities of his own firm. JP Morgan is an "authorized participant" in spot Bitcoin ETFs offered by BlackRock, Invesco/Galaxy Digital, and Fidelity, all of which were approved by the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission earlier this year.

Victory Securities Reveals Bitcoin and Ether ETF Fees Despite Outstanding Approval

Following the recent approval of cryptocurrency ETF products in the region, Hong Kong-based investment firm Victory Securities has revealed its proposed fees to investors for Bitcoin and Ethereum exchange-traded funds (ETFs). Despite the Hong Kong Securities and Futures Commission (SFC) not yet publishing the list of approved ETF issuers, Victory Securities has outlined its proposed fees. If approved by the SFC, customers of Victory Securities will encounter proposed fees for Ethereum and Bitcoin ETF shares in the primary market. These fees are set at 0.5% to 1% of the total transaction, with a minimum fee of $850, as per a translated report excerpt shared by Wu Blockchain on April 20. For investors looking to trade existing ETF shares on the secondary market, online transactions will incur fees of 0.15%, while telephone transactions will be subject to a 0.25% fee.

Ethereum Highlights of the Week

OKX Rolls Out Its Layer 2 Solution

OKX has debuted its proprietary Ethereum-based zero-knowledge Layer 2 network, known as X Layer, on the mainnet, with the goal of incorporating its 50 million users into the ecosystem. Developed utilizing Polygon's Chain Development Kit, this network supports over 170 decentralized applications and utilizes OKX's platform token, OKB, for transaction fee payments. X Layer aims to boost transaction throughput, lower costs, and uphold Ethereum's security standards. Additionally, its integration with the AggLayer enables shared liquidity across various blockchain networks.

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