Headlines
Magic Eden Launches Bitcoin Rune Platform
NFT market Magic Eden has launched the Bitcoin Runes platform, which is currently in the testing phase and allows users to redeem BTC with the Magic Eden wallet and purchase Runes and Ordinals. According to a message released by Magic Eden, the platform will also have a Swaps View feature that allows users to set a specific BTC amount they want to spend when purchasing Runes. (TheBlock)
Omni Foundation Announces the Launch of Omni Network Mainnet on L2 Networks Arbitrum and Optimism
The Omni Foundation announced the launch of the Omni Network mainnet on Ethereum Layer 2 networks Arbitrum and Optimism. The team said: "Omni is a Layer 1 Ethereum Rollup that provides users with access and liquidity to the Ethereum ecosystem. This launch follows Omni's token generation event and airdrop." (Coindesk)
Industry News
Thai authorities have decided to block “unauthorized” encrypted platforms in an effort to improve law enforcement and tackle online crime.
After a meeting of the Tech Crime Prevention and Combating Committee, the Securities and Exchange Commission of Thailand (SEC) was asked to submit information on unauthorized digital asset service providers to the Ministry of Digital Economy and Society to block access to these platforms. The SEC has taken into account the impact on users and will give them time to manage their accounts before stopping them from using the service. Therefore, the SEC requires users of the relevant platforms to quickly withdraw their assets from the platforms. (CoinDesk)
Venezuelan oil companies accelerate their embrace of USDT
Venezuela's state-owned oil company PDVSA plans to increase the use of digital currencies in its crude and fuel exports as the United States reimposes oil sanctions on Venezuela, according to three people familiar with the matter. The U.S. Treasury Department last week asked PDVSA's customers and suppliers to end transactions by May 31. The move will make it harder for Venezuela to increase oil production and exports because companies will have to wait for individual U.S. authorizations to do business with Venezuela. PDVSA has been slowly accepting USDT, or Tether, whose value is pegged to the U.S. dollar, in oil sales since last year. The people familiar with the matter said the restoration of oil sanctions is accelerating the shift, a move to reduce the risk that sales revenue will be frozen in foreign bank accounts due to sanctions.
Project News
Drift Protocol Completes First Snapshot, New Trading Incentive Program Coming Soon
Drift Protocol, a DEX derivatives platform in the Solana ecosystem, announced on the X platform that the first snapshot has been completed and all activities as of April 18 have been recorded. In addition, the protocol is about to launch a new trading incentive program, Drift Trader.
Earlier news, Drift Protocol stated that it plans to launch the DRIFT governance token within a few weeks and airdrop it to its users, accounting for 10% of the total token supply.
Impossible Finance will start Sophon node sales on April 27
According to official news, Impossible Finance will start selling Sophon (SOPH) nodes on April 27, with a total of 200,000 nodes for sale.
In addition, Impossible Finance will provide 3,700 nodes at Tier 3 prices ($335 per node) for the Sophon whitelist special event for IDIA stakers. Users who stake IDIA tokens before April 26 have a chance to get a whitelist spot. Node sales for Impossible Finance whitelists will begin on April 27, with the payment token being USDC (Arbitrum); the public sale will begin on April 30, with the payment token being wETH (zkSync).
By running a node on Sophon, users will be eligible to receive up to 20% of the SOPH token release within 3 years. In addition, node holders may receive potential airdrops from ecosystem participants. Network launch and node activation are expected to take place in the third quarter of 2024. According to the SOPH token economics information disclosed by it, the Sophon Foundation accounts for 25%, consultants account for 5%, investors account for 20%, node rewards account for 20%, and ecological reserves account for 30%.
Earlier in March, it was reported that modular blockchain Sophon completed a $10 million financing, with Paper Ventures, Maven 11, The Spartan Group, SevenX Ventures, OKX Ventures, HTX Ventures and others participating in the investment.
Bitcoin L2 network BOB postpones mainnet launch to May 1
Bitcoin L2 network BOB (Build on Bitcoin) posted on the X platform that due to the surge in the number of projects ready to be deployed on BOB, the team postponed the mainnet launch to May 1 (originally scheduled for April 24) to accommodate additional testing and auditing.
Officials added that users' locked assets will receive additional returns over an extended week and will be available at the start of Season 2 on May 1. User assets are safe and its non-custodial BOB Fusion contract has been strictly audited. In the unlikely event of further delays, user assets will be automatically unlocked on May 15 at the latest.
Earlier in March, BOB announced the completion of a $10 million seed round of financing, led by Castle Island Ventures, with participation from Mechanism Ventures, Bankless Ventures, CMS Ventures and UTXO Management, as well as some angel investors; later, BOB announced that Coinbase Ventures joined its $10 million seed round of financing.
Biconomy airdrops ARB to BICO stakers, airdrop query website is now open
According to official news, Biconomy, a multi-chain infrastructure developer, announced that it will airdrop ARB to BICO stakers (this is Airdrop #1). The airdrop qualification query website is now open, and the application period is from April 22 to May 10. According to reports, the condition for obtaining the ARB airdrop is to stake at least 1,000 BICO (or 190 BBPT), and the snapshot time is 0:00 on April 12.
Biconomy added that users will need to sign a “claim transaction” but will not receive ARB immediately. Once the claim period ends, the official will automatically deposit the ARB allocation directly into the user’s Arbitrum on-chain wallet.
Character*Voice
Skybridge Capital CEO: I believe Bitcoin’s market value will eventually exceed that of gold
Anthony Scaramucci, CEO of SkyBridge Capital, said in an interview with CNBC that Bitcoin's market value will eventually exceed the valuation of gold ($16 trillion). Bitcoin is a high-quality asset unprecedented in human history over the past 5,000 years.
Scaramucci said Bitcoin still has a long way to go to catch up to gold's $16 trillion market cap, but he believes the gap will narrow over time as regulators gain acceptance of Bitcoin.
“We actually think it will (eventually) exceed the market cap of gold,” he said. “If you think there aren’t enough U.S. ETF holders to drive it to that point, I disagree because regulatory acceptance over time will allow people to include it in their portfolios. A 1% position in these global portfolios would do that.” (The Daily Hodl)
Investment and Financing
Shiba Inu raises $12 million through TREAT token sale to develop L3 Chain
The Shiba Inu team raised $12 million by selling its yet-to-be-issued token TREAT to develop its new privacy-focused Layer 3 chain. Investors include Polygon Ventures, Mechanism Capital, Big Brain Holdings, Shima Capital, Animoca Brands, Morningstar Ventures, Woodstock Fund, DWF Ventures, Stake Capital, and Comma 3 Ventures.
Shiba Inu lead developer Shytoshi Kusama said the round began a few months ago and closed earlier this month, but he declined to disclose the specific valuation.
Sources revealed that this is a round of financing in batches, with each batch valued at $75 million, $100 million, and $200 million. Shytoshi Kusama confirmed that this token sale round of financing includes the Pre-Seed round and the Seed round. (The Block)
Othentic, a project focusing on shared security of distributed systems, announced the completion of a $4 million seed round of financing on the X platform. Finality Capital Partners and Breyer Capital jointly led the investment, and Coinbase Ventures, HashKey Capital, Collider Ventures, BanklessVC, Robot Ventures, Everstake, PUNK DAO and others participated in the investment. According to reports, Othentic is committed to creating novel distributed computing services by providing self-deployed infrastructure to launch systems with underlying shared security, including promoting innovative work on EigenLayer and Babylon. Its Othentic Stack allows AVS developers to self-deploy operator networks that customize computing services and run arbitrary computing tasks in a trustless execution environment.
In addition, Othentic introduces a framework for Stateless Rollups to support flexible and secure execution of off-chain computations. Stateless Rollups are computational networks that provide services to other networks or applications without being bound to any specific blockchain. The framework facilitates the creation of coprocessors, ZK provers, privacy-preserving computations, decentralized order books, AI inference networks, vulnerability prevention systems, and other new services.
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