Category: News

A16z doubles down on LayerZero with $55M investment

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Venture capital firm Andreessen Horowitz, or a16z, announced a $55 million investment in LayerZero, a Web3 company that runs a crosschain messaging protocol. The investment was disclosed in an April 17 X post by Ali Yahya, a general partner in the firm. A16z has made previous investments in LayerZero, including an initial investment in March 2022 and a subsequent investment during LayerZero’s Series B funding round in April 2023. The companies have not disclosed the funding round’s valuation. Source: Ali Yahja | alive.eth The Canada-based LayerZero was valued at $3…

Ethena Labs, Securitize unveil ‘Converge’ network roadmap

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Ethena Labs, the developer of the USDe synthetic dollar (USDe), and financial technology company Securitize, released a preliminary roadmap for their upcoming Converge network, a high-throughput blockchain focused on real-world assets and decentralized finance (DeFi). According to the announcement, a testnet will be live in the coming weeks, with a mainnet launch later in 2025. Converge will feature a 100 milliseconds (ms) native block time, with plans to reduce block times to 50ms by Q4 2025. The developers also plan to achieve at least one gigagas of potential throughput during…

4 reasons why Bitcoin price could rally to $90K in April

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Key points:  Monetary stimulus in China and Europe increases investors’ focus on Bitcoin price. The US Federal Reserve is under political pressure to cut rates, as the DXY weakens. Bitcoin’s decoupling from traditional markets continues to gain attention.  Bitcoin (BTC) traders are somewhat puzzled by BTC price jumping to $85,000, especially since the S&P 500 index has dropped 5.7% in April, and this move came after the cryptocurrency managed a 14% rebound off its trade-war induced crash to $74,400. Investors are cautiously optimistic, but multiple events and data points to…

Trump blasts ‘too late’ Powell for not cutting interest rates

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US President Donald Trump renewed his criticism of Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell, accusing him of being too slow to cut interest rates and escalating a long-running conflict that risks undermining the central bank’s political independence. With the European Central Bank (ECB) cutting interest rates again on April 17, “Too Late” Powell has failed to act appropriately in the United States, even with inflation falling, Trump said on Truth Social on April 17.  “Powell’s termination cannot come fast enough!” Trump said. Source: realDonaldTrump Florida Senator Rick Scott agreed with the…

Wyoming commission floats whether stablecoin is ‘covered’ by SEC rules

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The Wyoming Stable Token Commission, a body authorized by the US state to issue a stablecoin, has suggested that it may clarify its language to better comply with potential guidelines from the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). In an April 17 meeting in the extension of the Wyoming Capitol building, Commissioner Joel Revill suggested the body could reduce the risk of the state’s proposed WYST stablecoin qualifying as a security under SEC rules. The discussion among the commissioners and Executive Director Anthony Apollo followed the SEC issuing guidelines that certain…

When gold price hits new highs, history shows ‘Bitcoin follows’ within 150 days — Analyst

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The price of gold surged to a new all-time high of $3,357 per ounce on April 17, igniting speculation on whether Bitcoin (BTC) would follow. Bitcoin-gold comparison. Source: Cointelegraph/TradingView In 2017, Bitcoin rallied to $19,120 after gold witnessed a 30% hike a few months earlier. Similarly, gold reached a new high near $2,075 in 2020 during the COVID-19 pandemic, which preceded Bitcoin’s surge to $69,000 in 2021. Bitcoin has historically surpassed its previous all-time highs whenever gold rallies, reflecting a dynamic relationship between the two assets during periods of economic…

Huaxia to add staking to Ether ETF, Hong Kong’s second of its kind

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Huaxia Fund is set to launch staking services on its Ether exchange-traded fund (ETF), making it the second in Hong Kong. OSL Digital Services (OSL) will provide custody and staking infrastructure for the fund. The staking feature will be live on May 15, moving the ETF from a strictly passive investment vehicle to an “active participant” in the Ethereum ecosystem, according to the announcement from OSL. Huaxia Fund, a subsidiary of China Asset Management (ChinaAMC), first launched its Ether ETF in April 2024.  The introduction of a staking provision comes…

Digital Currency Group CEO Barry Silbert says he should have just held BTC

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Barry Silbert, the CEO of Digital Currency Group, said he would have secured higher investment gains by just holding the Bitcoin that he invested in early-stage crypto projects around 2012. During an April 17 appearance on Raoul Pal’s Journey Man podcast, Silbert said he discovered Bitcoin (BTC) in 2011, purchasing BTC at $7-$8 per coin. Once the price of BTC surged, Silbert started looking for early-stage crypto companies to invest in. The executive told Raoul Pal: “I was using Bitcoin to make a bunch of those investments, and you would…

How Do We Protect Bitcoin From Quantum Computers? Not With A Joke

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Recently, Project Eleven (a quantum computing research group) announced a 1 bitcoin reward for the first team able to complete a challenge to demonstrate breaking a ECC (elliptic curve cryptograph) key using Shor’s algorithm on a quantum computer.  The deadline for this challenge is April 5th, 2026, meaning in order to qualify for the prize a team must demonstrate breaking a key pair it must be done before that deadline.  This is frankly a completely absurd and meaningless prize for a number of reasons, the first of which is the…

Why it’s outperforming altcoins — and what comes next

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Over the past year, most altcoins have struggled to keep up with Bitcoin, but one project is breaking away from the pack: XRP. While other tokens have stagnated or slid, XRP (XRP) has surged more than 300% in just six months against Bitcoin (BTC) to quickly become one of the best-performing assets in the crypto space. But what’s really behind this rally — and more importantly, can it last? Some say it’s the fundamentals finally shining through. Others argue it’s just hype and speculation driven by a passionate community. Then…