Crypto Scoop: Standard Chartered Bank Says Bitcoin May Hit $100K By Year End

With exciting predictions about BTC's price and fascinating crypto integrations, we see continued crypto adoption continues across the globe. In this edition of the crypto scoop, we review the following.

• Standard Chartered Bank's price prediction
• Ethereum's increased weekly inflows
• Solana's AI integration
• USDC's cross-chain transfer protocol
• CBDC initiatives in China and Zimbabwe

Standard Chartered Bank Predicts Bitcoin May Hit $100,000

This week, bitcoin's price dipped as low as $27,0000 before rebounding above $29,000, while ETH traded at $1,900. Nevertheless, stakeholders remain optimistic about bitcoin's price gains, with renowned Standard Chartered Bank predicting that bitcoin may hit $100,000 before the year ends.

Last year, there were several predictions of Bitcoin also hitting $100,000; however, the crypto winter put a hold on these expectations. Standard Chartered Bank reports that the crypto winter is finally over, and the bitcoin halving is set to a positive accelerator for its price. The report notes that Bitcoin's climb to $100,000 may be driven by several factors, including the recent US bank sector crises, which have helped to "reestablish Bitcoin's use as a decentralised scarce digital asset."

Ethereum records an increase in weekly inflows

Last week saw a record-breaking weekly inflow of ETH deposits for staking following Ethereum's Shanghai upgrade. According to crypto analysts, this was driven mainly by institutional staking service providers and investors reinvesting profits after withdrawal. According to Tom Wan, an analyst for the digital asset investing company 21Shares, investors locked about 571,950 ETH tokens into staking contracts valued at more than $1 billion. 

According to blockchain data provided by 21Shares, this was the largest weekly token inflow in roughly two and a half years. European cryptocurrency investment firm CoinShares reports that Ethereum-linked digital asset investment products saw net inflows of about US$17 million in the week ending April 21, up from US$300,000 the previous week. This indicates investor confidence following the blockchain's milestone Shanghai upgrade on April 12.

Solana Integrates AI ChatGPT Plugin

Solana Labs revealed a ChatGPT plugin allowing chatbot users to interact with the Solana blockchain. 

According to Solana Labs, users can utilise the plugin to check their wallet balances, transfer tokens, and purchase NFTs directly via ChatGPT. Solana did not specify when the plugin would be available to the public but explained that developers could create their own plugins using the project's source code.

Using the address https://solana-gpt-plugin.onrender.com, the code can now be installed as an unconfirmed plugin, according to the project's GitHub page. 

Circle Launches Cross-chain USDC Transfer Protocol For Ethereum and Avalanche

On April 26, Circle, the parent company of USDC, announced the launch of a mainnet protocol that lets users transfer USDC between Ethereum and Avalanche. 

In the past, users of Avalanche who had USDC on Ethereum had to deposit their coins with a Circle partner or utilise a third-party bridge to move their USDC from one network to the other. The new Cross-Chain Transfer Protocol (CCTP) protocol eliminates the need for USDC bridges. The team anticipates CCTP will address the " fragmentation " issue in the Web3 ecosystem. 

Most unauthorised versions of USDC currently floating around on other networks result from tokens on one network being bridged to another. The team anticipates that these unauthorised copies will gradually reduce now that there is a formal means to transfer USDC from one network to another, making the token easier to use.

CBDC Initiatives In China and Zimbabwe

Changshu, a Chinese city with over 1.5 million residents, has announced it will pay public employee salaries using the digital yuan (CBDC), the country's official digital currency. This initiative is one of Bejing's CBDC adoption acceleration plans to increase the use of digital currency. 

John Mangudya, the governor of the Zimbabwean central bank, recently disclosed that the Reserve Bank of Zimbabwe (RBZ) intends to launch a digital currency backed by gold that will function as an alternate medium for exchange and a store of value. The governor predicts that the soon-to-be-introduced gold-backed digital money would help lessen local demand for the dollar and reduce the Zimbabwe currency's depreciation. The Reserve Bank of Zimbabwe (RBZ) released actual gold coins in 2022, and this gold-backed version of the Zimbabwean currency will complement them. 

Bitcoin White Paper Removed By Apple From Latest MacOS Beta

Since 2018, the Bitcoin white paper has been discreetly distributed with every version of the Apple Mac operating system version. Technologist Andy Baio later revealed that every copy of MacOS for the previous five years had come with a PDF copy of Satoshi Nakamoto's Bitcoin white paper.

The latest MacOS Ventura 13.4 beta included the Virtual Scanner II test scanner tool, which Apple removed on April 25. As a result, the Bitcoin white paper was also erased, according to the Apple-focused news site 9to5Mac.