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(Photos from Smorshedi/Wikimedia Commons and CoinDesk/Flickr, modified by CoinDesk)
Consensus Magazine

CZ’s Trial Proves it Pays to Cooperate

His four-month sentence was vindication for the Binance founder’s legal strategy.

May 2, 2024

May 1st

U.S. Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell (screen capture courtesy of the Senate Banking Committee)
Finance

Federal Reserve Holds Policy Steady, Says Progress on Inflation Has Stalled

Hopes for a series of interest rate cuts in 2024 have all but vanished over the past few weeks as both the economy and inflation exhibit unanticipated strength.

May 1, 2024

(Ivana Cajina/Unsplash)
Technology

The Protocol: EigenLayer's 'Intersubjective Forking' Is Objectively Not Done

Much-hyped restaking project EigenLayer's 43-page whitepaper about its now-revealed EIGEN token has raised lots of questions. They may not matter initially, because much of th...

May 1, 2024

Rootstock founder Sergio Demian Lerner spoke Wednesday about BitVMX at the Bitcoin++ conference in Austin, Texas (Bradley Keoun)
Technology

Bitcoin's Ethereum-Style Programmability Could Come in 12 Months, Rootstock Founder Says

The new project would build off the much-discussed "BitVM" design released last year by developer Robin Linus, which has kindled hopes that the oldest and largest blockchain c...

May 1, 2024

(Kevin Grieve/Unsplash)
Markets

‘Sell in May and Go Away’: The Seasonality of Crypto-asset Returns

The summer months, between June and September, have historically brought significantly lower investor returns than other months of the year, says André Dragosch, head of resea...

May 1, 2024

(Trac Vu/Unsplash)
Finance

An ETH ETF Wouldn’t Deliver Full-Returns to Investors

An SEC approval for spot ETH ETFs looks unlikely but even if the SEC approves exchange traded funds for Ether, investors should learn about total return ETH investment product...

May 1, 2024

Bear vs Bull Market economy (Pixabay)
Finance

Bitcoin Could Drop Further to as Low as $50K, Standard Chartered Says

The cryptocurrency is now trading below the average spot ETF purchase price of about $58K, and this could trigger liquidations, the bank said in a report.

May 1, 2024

(Jim Henderson, modified by CoinDesk)
Finance

RWA Tokenization Firm Securitize Raises $47M Led by Fund Partner BlackRock

BlackRock and Securitize last month teamed up to create the BlackRock USD Institutional Digital Liquidity Fund, which may prove to be geared toward RWA tokenization

May 1, 2024

Michael Lewis (Danny Nelson/CoinDesk, modifed)
Consensus Magazine

As CZ Gets His Sentence, Michael Lewis Should Rewatch 'Star Wars'

He likened FTX's Sam Bankman-Fried to Luke Skywalker and Binance's Changpeng Zhao to Darth Vader. Federal judges saw it differently.

May 1, 2024

Atmosphere
Technology

Protocol Village: Chainlink CCIP to Power New 'FIX-Native Blockchain Adapter' With Rapid Addition

The latest in blockchain tech upgrades, funding announcements and deals. For the period of April 25-May 1.

May 1, 2024

Elliptic co-founder Tom Robinson (center) is one of the authors of the AI research paper (CoinDesk archives)
Technology

Blockchain Sleuth Elliptic Explores AI and Anti-Money Laundering Using 200M Bitcoin Transactions

Patterns of illicit activity involving groups of bitcoin nodes and chains of transactions are described in a research paper by Elliptic and MIT-IBM Watson AI Lab.

May 1, 2024

BTC price FMA, May 1 2024 (CoinDesk)
Markets

First Mover Americas: Bitcoin Sinks Below $58K in Run-Up to Fed Decision

The latest price moves in crypto markets in context for May 1, 2024.

May 1, 2024

Solana Hacker House in Miami (Danny Nelson/CoinDesk)
Finance

Restaking 'Gold Rush' Spreads to Solana From Ethereum, With Jito and Others Joining In

The race is on to build a dominant restaking protocol for Solana.

May 1, 2024

UK United Kingdom British England Flag (Unsplash)
Policy

Crypto Was One of the Biggest Money Laundering Risks in 2022-2023: UK Govt. Report

Between 2022 and 2023, crypto alongside retail banking, wholesale banking and wealth management posed the greatest risk of being exploited for money laundering, a report by th...

May 1, 2024

16:9 Market decline (Mediamodifier/Pixabay)
Markets

Bitcoin Trades Around $57K, Crypto Market Drops 6% in Run-Up to Fed Decision

BTC is down about 6.3% in the last 24 hours having dropped below the $60,000 support level late on Tuesday.

May 1, 2024

April 30th

Binance founder Changpeng Zhao, left, exits a Seattle courthouse after being sentenced to four months in prison. (Danny Nelson/CoinDesk)
Finance

How Changpeng Zhao's 'Good Guy' Reputation Secured a 4-Month Prison Sentence

Judge Richard Jones said he spent the weekend poring over the voluminous letters of support for the ex-CEO of Binance until the book they were contained in literally fell apar...

April 30, 2024

U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission Chair Gary Gensler has been accused of misleading Congress on his ether views. (Jesse Hamilton/CoinDesk)
Policy

House's McHenry Accuses SEC Chief Gensler of Misleading Congress on Ethereum

The chairman of the House Financial Services Committee says Gensler refused to discuss his view on ETH in testimony even after the SEC was investigating it as a security.

April 30, 2024

Bitcoin price in April (CoinDesk)
Markets

Bitcoin Tumbles Below $60K, Risking Deeper Pullback as Crypto Markets Endure Worst Month Since FTX Crash

Recent U.S. economic data could prompt more hawkish forward guidance from the Federal Reserve.

April 30, 2024

EigenLayer founder Sreeram Kannan at ETH Denver 2024 (Danny Nelson/CoinDesk)
Consensus Magazine

Why Eigenlayer’s Airdrop Is Controversial

Although it’s actually conservative.

April 30, 2024

An effort to attach a stablecoin bill to another must-pass piece of legislation looks to be unlikely to succeed. (Jesse Hamilton/CoinDesk)
Policy

Stablecoin Bill Unlikely to Get Pinned to FAA Reauthorization, Putting Effort On Hold Again

A flash of hope that an FAA bill could carry U.S. stablecoin rules across the finish line has been momentarily dashed as congressional leaders were said to ward off amendments...

April 30, 2024