Crypto Scoop: Bitcoin Price Rebounds To $70,000 As Halving Approaches

With Bitcoin halving almost a week away, the broader crypto market is gradually recovering as prices rise again. In the latest edition of Crypto Scoop, let's explore the following highlights of the crypto market. 

• Price Moves of Top Cryptocurrencies 
• Market Expectations Ahead of Bitcoin Halving
• Crypto Innovations and Initiatives On The Horizon
• Crypto Regulations and Litigation Updates Post-Halving

Price Moves of Top Cryptocurrencies

This week's crypto market cap increased slightly to $2.62 trillion in valuation, after a slight dip from last week. As a result, Bitcoin increased from $66,000 to the $70000 range, Ethereum moved from the $3200 to $3,500 mark, while other altcoins rallied along this week with XRP at $0.607.  

The previous week's declines led to almost $200 million worth of leveraged derivatives trading positions being liquidated across all digital assets, according to a data report by CoinGlass.

As bitcoin hit $70,000, the value of many meme coins increased, making them the most profitable group among altcoins. Data from Coinmarketcap shows DOGE, TRUMP, AIDOGE, and SPX have also rallied 9%, 36%, 31%, and 70% in the past week.

This week, the top ten crypto assets by market capitalization were shaken up as Toncoin flipped Cardano to rest at no. 8. Telegram's adoption triggered a surge in activity on The Open Network as TonStat reports nearly doubled the number of accounts on the network from last month, at around 12 million.

Other altcoins continue to thrive as Polkadot accumulated over 605,200 active addresses, according to the latest stats by Parity Data. Ripple CEO Brad Garlinghouse continues to be bullish. He believes macro trends, the big picture things like ETFs, are driving real institutional money into the industry for the first time. On the impact of stablecoins in all this digital transformation, Cantor Fitzgerald CEO and Tether custodian Howard Lutnick has said that stablecoins increase demand for US Treasury notes.

Market Expectations Ahead of Bitcoin Halving

In a recent post, crypto analyst Arthur Hayes believes that while the halving might increase BTC prices in the medium term, the asset could drop both before and after the event. According to him, reducing block rewards for miners and tighter dollar liquidity could result in a “firesale” of crypto assets and drive prices downward.

Mechanism Capital co-founder Andrew Kang is more optimistic. In an April 11 post on X, he said, “I expect BTC to touch $80K by May.”

As the halving approaches, the bitcoin hash rate, or the cost of mining bitcoin, is set to increase tremendously. On the other hand, Bitcoin miners are depleting their coin stashes, as the number dropped to 1.794 million BTC this week, the lowest since early 2021, according to CoinMetrics. 

The Halving is set to reduce the per-block BTC emission to 3.125 BTC from 6.25 BTC and algorithmic trading firm Wintermute shared in a newsletter that the high bitcoin prices allow miners to take profits at higher prices to fund equipment upgrades and prepare for the reduced rewards rate post-halving. The overall security this high cost of mining brings the crypto market is also a great advantage. 

Crypto Innovations and Initiatives On The Horizon

Circle also announced on April 9th that its native USDC is now available on the leading layer 2 rollup, zkSync, for various purposes, including payments, trading, borrowing, and lending. This allows developers and users to access it without bridging.

Christian Langalis' viral photo-bombing of Janet Yellen, the then-Federal Reserve chair, during her televised Congressional testimony in July 2017 with a "Buy Bitcoin" sign is finally up for auction. It will be listed Thursday on Scarce City, an online marketplace that sells physical and digital collectables with only Bitcoin payments.

In another story, NEAR blockchain co-founder and AI researcher Polosukhin was on the panel of the Nvidia conference last month's event titled  "Transforming AI", where he highlighted some of the disruptive plans to expect from the network. This week, NEAR in a presentation is looking to implement its AI aspirations by hiring Artificial Intelligence (AI) engineers as part of its 3-6 month roadmap to building user-owned AI.

Crypto Regulations and Litigation Updates Post-Halving

According to an April 9 filing, Voyager Digital has announced a $484.35 million recovery from settlements with FTX, Three Arrows Capital (3AC), and Directors and Officers (D&O) Insurance.

In an April 11 notice, lawyers representing Sam “SBF” Bankman-Fried filed the paperwork to appeal the former FTX CEO's conviction and sentence. Earlier last week, Judge Kaplan found him guilty and ordered the forfeiture of $11 billion.

In other news, the United States Securities and Exchange Commission has notified the decentralised cryptocurrency exchange, Uniswap, that it intends to file a lawsuit against the company. Uniswap's native token, UNI, fell 9.5% immediately following the announcement and has lost 18% further. This would not be the first time a crypto company has received the famous Wells Notice, and the firm has reaffirmed in a famous post tagged “Fighting for DeFi” its readiness to defend itself and the Defi industry accordingly. 

South Africa's financial regulator has begun issuing cryptocurrency licenses in the country. This good news began in June 2023, when they began accepting licensing applications from crypto firms following the passage of legislation to include crypto in the country's regulated financial activities.

In Paraguay, lawmakers are considering a proposed alternative to banning Bitcoin miners: studying the economic advantages of selling excess energy to Bitcoin miners instead.

Finally, after their collapse, ASIC launched legal actions against two Australian cryptocurrency firms, NGS and DCA Capital. In the fallout, investors are still owed over $160 million. ASIC Commissioner Alan Kirkland highlights the need to solve Australia's “regulatory trilemma” by providing financial innovation, consumer protection, and market integrity.