02
CoinMarketCap To Launch Competition TV Show

Crypto price tracking site CoinMarketCap is diving into the world of reality TV, releasing a competition show called "Killer Whales" that draws inspiration from the popular TV series Shark Tank, CoinDesk reports.  

In partnership with Web3 entertainment company Hello Labs, the new program will allow entrepreneurs to pitch their projects to the "Killer Whale" judges made up of entrepreneurs, influencers and founders of Web3 companies. Hello Labs was founded by Paul Caslin, producer of the MTV VMA Awards.

“Killer Whales is a fun and exciting opportunity to bring the entrepreneurial energy of the Web3 space to homes all over the world," said Jonathan Isaac, chief marketing officer at CoinMarketCap, in a press release.

28
Standard Chartered: Bitcoin Could Rise 270% To $100,000

Standard Chartered said in a paper released on Monday that the price of Bitcoin may increase to as much as $100,000 by the end of 2024, signaling the end of the “crypto winter.”, BITCOINIST reports. 

According to Geoff Kendrick, head of digital assets research at Standard Chartered, Bitcoin could benefit from recent turmoil in the banking sector, a stabilization of risk assets as the US Federal Reserve ends its interest rate-hiking cycle, and improved profitability of crypto mining.

While the cryptocurrency’s original goal of serving as a hedge against skyrocketing inflation last year was unsuccessful, it recently achieved success by serving as a wager against the traditional banking system.

25
Dormant Wallet Holding 1,000 Bitcoin Worth $27 Million Activated After 12 Years

A Satoshi-Era Bitcoin Whale has moved 400 BTC, worth around $11 Million after going 12 years without transactions, Watcher Guru reports. 

Monday’s movements showed the whale moved 360 BTC ($9.8 million) to one wallet, and another 40 BTC to a number of other locations. 600 BTC remains in the wallet. This has become a common occurence recently, with whales “waking up” and moving their holdings after years of inactivity. Last week, it was recorded that a whale moved over 279 BTC, or $7.6 million, to new wallets after a decade of inactivity.

22
Russia Plans to Mine Crypto for Cross-Border Deals

CoinDesk reports that the Central Bank of Russia is working on a bill that will introduce an “experimental legal regime” for cryptocurrencies to be used exclusively in export-import deals, the head of the regulatory agency, Elvira Naiullina, said last Monday. 

The country’s government is also working on a bill that will create a national agency to license and supervise cryptocurrency platforms operating in Russia, wrote local newspaper Vedomosti on Tuesday, citing Sergei Altukhov, a member of Russian parliament’s economic policies committee. Altukhov added that a new tax code will be introduced for miners as a part of the regulation.

18
London Stock Exchange Group Unit to Clear Bitcoin Index Futures, Options

LCH, the clearinghouse arm of the London Stock Exchange Group, will offer clearing services for cash-settled bitcoin (BTC) index futures and options, reports CoinDesk

The separate service LCH DigitalAssetClear, part of the company's French arm, will finalize trades made on GFO-X, a U.K.-regulated digital asset exchange, LCH said.

“Bitcoin index futures and options are a rapidly growing asset class,” Frank Soussan, head of LCH DigitalAssetClear, said in a statement, citing “increasing interest among institutional market participants looking for access within a regulated environment they are familiar with.”

14
Solana’s Crypto-Ready ‘Saga’ Smartphone Goes on Sale May 8

Solana Labs’ crypto-forward smartphone Saga will go on public sale May 8, the company behind the Solana blockchain said Thursday. Pre-ordered devices are shipping now, CoinDesk reports.

The new device from Solana Mobile costs $1,000 and is built on hardware from Bay Area smartphone company OSOM. It has 512 GB of storage, two versatile back camera lenses, a 6.67-inch OLED display and a fingerprint scanner. It will ship with the latest Android operating system installed.

What makes the Saga different, according to Solana, is the “Solana Mobile Stack” (SMS), a lineup of custom add-ons that integrate crypto usefulness into the phone’s hardware and software. SMS has ingrained security features to provide for sending, receiving, trading and storing crypto on the device.