Apple is reportedly seeking a significant tech collaborator to enhance its artificial intelligence (AI) capabilities, particularly focusing on elevating the iPhone’s performance.
According to Bloomberg, Apple is engaged in advanced discussions with OpenAI to further integrate generative AI technologies into iOS.
Nevertheless, other reports suggest that Apple is exploring partnerships with Google as another potential cloud ally.
Despite its previous emphasis on internal AI development, Apple’s ambitions in the AI realm seem to have diminished over recent years.
By 2024, the iPhone, Apple’s flagship product, is displaying indications of falling behind competitors who prioritize AI.
The transition from internal development to external collaborations became apparent in May 2022 when Ian Goodfellow, renowned for his contributions to AI and often dubbed the “GANfather,” departed from his role as director of machine learning at Apple due to the company’s return-to-office policy.
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Since Goodfellow’s departure, Apple has remained active in the AI domain, releasing eight open-source large language models alongside their code and training logs.
While this demonstrates a sustained commitment to AI and machine learning, none of these models are likely to rival closed models like OpenAI’s ChatGPT and Google’s Gemini.
Given this context, Apple may be striving to finalize its generative AI partnerships ahead of its annual Worldwide Developers Conference (WWDC) in June.
The WWDC serves as a platform to unveil the company’s most significant products, and 2024 has been comparatively subdued for Apple thus far.
Meanwhile, Microsoft, Apple’s primary competitor, has experienced substantial growth since partnering with AI industry leader OpenAI.
Currently, Microsoft holds the title of the world’s most valuable company by market capitalization, boasting a total value of $3.019 trillion, while Apple follows closely behind with $2.614 trillion.
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Yuga Labs CEO Greg Solano faced a challenging day, as he conveyed to company employees in a message subsequently shared with the public.
Following an all-hands meeting where layoffs were disclosed, some staff members experienced an even tougher time. Solano attributed Yuga’s struggles to losing its original direction.
In his internal communication, Solano reflected on his two-month tenure as CEO, lamenting the erosion of the company’s creative ethos:
“The creative-first spirit that drove this company from inception has been getting muddied by labyrinthine corporate processes.
“We work hard and we care but somehow end up with groups and committees.
“We plan more than we ship.”
“Creator royalties were thriving and made our whole ecosystem electric. Now we’re in hard mode,” Solano said, but he has a plan.
Solano outlined initial steps in the restructuring, citing the spinout of HV-MTL and Legends of the Mara on April 17.
Yuga’s gaming properties were acquired by game developer Faraway, with Yuga’s chief gaming officer Spencer Tucker joining them.
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Solano’s message on April 26 emphasized Yuga’s focus on developing its Otherside metaverse project.
Shortly before Solano’s announcement, Won Kim was appointed as Yuga’s head of brand partnerships. Kim, co-founder of the Bored Room Ventures NFT fund and consulting agency, left his previous position for Yuga.
The X crypto community had mixed reactions to the layoffs, though Solano’s post garnered overwhelming support.
Amidst supportive responses, there were also dissenting voices. One individual, Ricefarmer, claimed to have been laid off from Yuga Labs and highlighted their former role as a Discord moderator.
Yuga Labs, known for pioneering NFT collectibles, has faced challenges amid market evolution. In October, the company underwent restructuring, which included a round of layoffs.
When approached for further comment, Yuga Labs declined to provide additional information.
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The closure of Philadelphia-based Republic First Bank marks the inaugural banking failure in the United States for 2024.
This event has ignited discussions within the crypto community, with Bitcoin, Ether, and various altcoins experiencing slight setbacks in the wake of the news.
Zesh Marius Martocsan, CEO of X, expressed skepticism towards traditional banking, stating, “Another bank just collapsed, the Republic First Bank. Yeah… I think I’ll stick to Bitcoin.”
Pillage Capital, a pseudonymous crypto trader on X, viewed the failure of Republic First Bank as a significant narrative for crypto, stating, “Republic First Bank failure is worth a look since bank failures are the best possible narrative we can get for crypto.”
Randi Hipper, a crypto commentator, posed a thought-provoking question to her 87,100 X followers, asking, “How many more need to fail before people start to be their own bank?”
Following the seizure of Republic First by the Pennsylvania Department of Banking and Securities on April 26, the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation (FDIC) was appointed as its receiver.
The FDIC will absorb nearly all deposits and assets of Republic Bank, as outlined in an April 26 statement by the agency.
As of January 31, Republic First possessed approximately $6 billion in total assets and $4 billion in total deposits.
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Subsequently, its 32 branches across New Jersey, Pennsylvania, and New York will reopen under the umbrella of Fulton Bank on April 27.
The news of Republic First Bank’s closure follows a challenging year for the banking industry, with FDIC data reporting five banking failures in the U.S. in 2023.
Furthermore, recent history has shown that even rumors of potential banking failures can impact Bitcoin’s price.
However, in this instance, Bitcoin is down 1.16% and trading at $62,715, while Ether is down 0.58% and trading at $3,095, according to CoinMarketCap data.
Altcoins have experienced a slightly more significant decline, with Dogecoin down 2.88% and Solana down 1.79% in the past hour.
In 2023, the closure of Signature Bank and Silicon Valley Bank, among others, underscored the challenges faced by the banking industry.
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An Arkham Intelligence report unveils the current top 10 holders of SHIB, with the burn SHIB address reigning supreme, holding a staggering 410,418,816,901,215.06 SHIB, valued at over $10 billion, comprising 41% of the total Shiba Inu supply.
Following closely behind is Crypto.com, holding 37,570,344,005,265.1 SHIB, equating to 3.76% of the supply and valued at $968,560,000.
However, this wallet’s online connectivity exposes it to potential security risks.
Third on the list is a Binance cold wallet, possessing 35,000,000,000,000 SHIB, totaling $902,300,000. Robinhood’s cold wallet trails shortly after, securing 31,753,251,930,362.97 SHIB, valued at $818,600,000.
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The Shib team’s wallet rounds out the top 10, holding 6,397,162,264,908 SHIB, worth $164,920,000.
In a significant development, cryptocurrency whales have moved nearly 17 billion SHIB coins in recent hours, predominantly from Kraken to OKX.
Meanwhile, an upcoming “hard fork” for Shibarium, scheduled on May 2, promises faster block production and more predictable transaction fees.
Despite this, there’s no mention of the automated burn mechanism tested on the Puppynet testnet since January.
SHIB burns continue manually, primarily by the SHIB army, with occasional involvement from the developer team, funded by BONE collected from Shibarium transaction fees.
However, over the past 24 hours, the burn rate has seen a significant decline, with only 4,422,643 SHIB removed from circulation, marking an 88.96% decrease.
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The United Kingdom’s National Crime Agency (NCA) and police have been granted expanded authority to deal with cryptocurrency used for illicit activities, including the power to “seize, freeze, and destroy” such digital assets.
Under the new regulations, law enforcement in the UK will no longer need to make an arrest prior to confiscating crypto holdings.
In a statement released by the UK Home Office, it was disclosed that police can now also seize materials such as passwords or memory sticks that could assist in ongoing investigations.
Additionally, UK law enforcement will have the capability to eliminate a crypto asset if reintroducing it into circulation is deemed harmful to the public interest.
Effective from April 26, the new laws authorize the police to transfer seized illicit cryptocurrency to wallets under their control, with provisions for crime victims to seek reimbursement from their crypto accounts.
UK Home Secretary James Cleverly emphasized the necessity of preventing criminals from profiting from illegal activities, citing the use of cryptocurrency fundraising by various groups as a key driver behind the introduction of these enhanced police powers.
Cleverly underscored the potential national security implications, citing instances where terrorist organizations like Daesh have been known to finance their operations through crypto transactions, highlighting the importance of enabling agencies to more effectively strip them of their assets.
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The enactment of these regulations follows the passage of a crime bill by the UK parliament in 2023, which facilitated the swift seizure of cryptocurrency assets.
Privacy coins were singled out in the press release as being particularly detrimental to the public good.
While cryptocurrencies like Bitcoin (BTC) and Ether (ETH) offer pseudo-anonymity through public ledgers, privacy coins afford users a higher degree of anonymity.
Despite the anonymity associated with wallet addresses, it was noted that once linked to an individual’s identity through procedures like Know Your Customer (KYC), all transactions conducted through that wallet can be traced and identified.
The announcement acknowledged that cryptocurrencies and nonfungible tokens (NFTs) have been exploited by drug dealers and fraudsters, leading to various investigations.
However, the new measures aim to curtail the exploitation of crypto for illicit purposes while fostering its legitimate potential to drive economic growth.
This concerted effort to regulate crypto is not unique to the UK, as evidenced by recent actions taken by law enforcement globally, including the arrest of the founders of Bitcoin mixer Samourai Wallet in the United States on charges of conspiracy to commit money laundering on April 24.
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The Depository Trust and Clearing Corporation (DTCC), a key player in financial services offering clearing and settlement services, has declared its decision not to allocate any collateral to exchange-traded funds (ETFs) linked to Bitcoin or other cryptocurrencies, and will not extend loans against them.
Effective April 30, 2024, DTCC will enact alterations to collateral values for specific securities during its annual line-of-credit facility renewal, potentially impacting position values in the collateral monitor.
This announcement made on April 26 signifies that ETFs and analogous investment instruments backed by Bitcoin or other cryptocurrencies will be deprived of any collateral value, resulting in a complete reduction of 100% in their collateral value.
However, as cryptocurrency enthusiast K.O. Kryptowaluty elucidated in a post, this decision will solely affect inter-entity settlement within the line of credit system.
A line of credit represents a borrowing agreement between a financial institution and an individual or entity, permitting the borrower to access funds up to a predetermined credit limit, with interest typically applied solely to the borrowed amount.
According to Kryptowaluty, leveraging cryptocurrency ETFs for lending and as collateral in brokerage activities will proceed unaffected, contingent on the risk tolerance of individual brokers.
While DTCC has taken a stance against crypto ETFs, the sentiment is not mirrored across all traditional players.
Goldman Sachs’ clients have reentered the crypto market in 2024, propelled by revived interest post the approval of spot Bitcoin ETFs.
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The debut of spot Bitcoin ETFs in the United States has ignited escalating institutional interest in this investment vehicle.
Within a mere three months of their introduction, all U.S.-based Bitcoin ETFs have amassed over $12.5 billion in assets under management.
In February, an estimated 75% of fresh Bitcoin investments stemmed from the 10 spot Bitcoin ETFs greenlit in the U.S. on Jan. 11.
Nevertheless, net inflows into the ETFs have recently decelerated. Various ETF issuers have reported substantial outflows of late.
As per Farside Investors, spot Bitcoin ETFs in the U.S. witnessed a net outflow of $218 million on April 25, following a $120 million outflow the prior day.
Grayscale’s GBTC ETF observed a notable single-day outflow of $82.4197 million. Data from Farside indicates a significant total net outflow from GBTC, tallying up to $17.185 billion.
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On Thursday, a substantial $1.3 billion worth of USD Coin was transferred from notable whale addresses to the crypto exchange Coinbase, potentially signaling a significant opportunity for Bitcoin and Ether, according to market analysts.
“USDC moving onto exchanges is a giant buy signal, as the saying goes on the internet ‘money printer go brr,'” remarked crypto trader Blockchain Mane.
These transfers, totaling $1.3 billion and ranging from $150 million to $350 million, occurred on April 25 at 08:15 UTC, as per Etherscan data.
Such sizable deposits of stablecoins on exchanges are often perceived as bullish indicators, suggesting potential large buy orders in the near future.
Conversely, significant crypto deposits on exchanges may indicate a looming sell-off, prompting caution among traders.
“If this is indeed a whale buying and at current prices then yes, it can have a big impact on the price of the asset they are buying, which at that level is almost certainly only Bitcoin and Ethereum,” noted crypto commentator Lark Davis.
Nevertheless, analysts caution that whale movements are not foolproof signals for the crypto market.
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“A lot of attention gets paid to whale movements, but we never really know what they are doing,” remarked Davis.
“$1.3B is a good amount of capital but it depends on where this is getting deployed,” added crypto trader and YouTuber Brian Jung.
Davis emphasized that whales might opt for limit orders instead of instant purchases, thereby establishing stronger support levels for the cryptocurrencies they invest in.
“A limit order will go in, creating a buy wall that will act as a layer of price support for the assets,” explained Davis, while also stressing that the impact of such large transfers on the market is “never definitive.”
Meanwhile, Jung speculated that a significant influx of funds into a single crypto token could “shift positively,” potentially boosting the prices of other cryptocurrencies due to increased liquidity.
However, he expressed doubts about the practicality of such a strategy due to the risks of overexposure.
Despite the significant fund movement, the crypto market sentiment has slightly declined, with the Fear and Greed Index dropping from 64.04 to a neutral level of 59.78 over the past 24 hours, indicating a shift in traders’ focus away from accumulation.
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An exceedingly rare event in the world of Bitcoin unfolded recently as an “epic sat,” the smallest unit of the cryptocurrency, was mined from the fourth Bitcoin halving block and subsequently sold for a staggering 33.3 Bitcoin (BTC), equivalent to approximately $2.13 million.
The transaction took place on cryptocurrency exchange CoinEx Global on April 25, merely five days after the block, numbered 840,000, was mined on April 20 by Bitcoin mining pool viaBTC, a partner of CoinEx.
The auction for this rare satoshi, denoted as “sat number 1,968,750,000,000,000,” commenced on April 22 and attracted a total of 34 bids before an undisclosed bidder secured ownership rights to the coveted sat.
The runner-up bid amounted to 20 Bitcoin.
CoinEx celebrated the successful conclusion of the auction, highlighting the significance of the event beyond mere financial transactions.
They emphasized, “This auction isn’t just a bidding event; it marked the community recognition, media attention, & widespread embrace of #Bitcoin.”
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An epic satoshi is the first satoshi mined in the initial new Bitcoin halving block, and with four halvings to date, only four of these rare sats exist.
Each epic sat is assigned a unique sequence number under the Ordinals number system, which relies on mining timestamps.
While an ordinary satoshi is currently valued at $0.00065, certain sats hold special significance within the Bitcoin ecosystem due to their rarity and unique identifiers.
Bitcoin Ordinals explorers like Ordiscan and OrdinalHub enable users to verify whether a Bitcoin wallet possesses a rare sat by examining the exact UTXO and output number.
Owners of such rare sats can then transfer them to an Ordinals-supported wallet.
ViaBTC, the entity responsible for mining the fourth halving block, received a substantial reward of 3.125 Bitcoin as the new block subsidy, along with an impressive 37.6 Bitcoin in reward fees, valued at $2.4 million at the time.
The next Bitcoin halving event is anticipated to occur around 2028 at block 1,050,000, halving mining rewards to 1.5625 Bitcoin.
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Renzo Protocol’s EZETH token experienced a price depeg on April 24, briefly plummeting to $688 on Uniswap before stabilizing at its parity with Ether (ETH), Dexscreener data reveals.
This incident seems to have been triggered by a broader market sell-off following the conclusion of Renzo Protocol’s season 1 airdrop, as noted by pseudonymous crypto analyst Tommy in an April 24 post:
“The sell-off likely caused by the conclusion of Season 1 Airdrop, users want to get back $ETH to farm other [liquid restaking tokens] LRT/protocols.”
Renzo stands as the second-largest liquid restaking protocol, boasting a total value locked (TVL) surpassing $3.3 billion, marking a 126% increase over the past month.
Ether.fi leads with over $3.9 billion in TVL, according to DefiLlama.
These depegging incidents present a recurring challenge for liquid restaking tokens (LRTs), as highlighted by the analyst:
“On the depeg, it is a risk that we need to recognize for all LRTs, even if withdrawal is enabled, the DEX pool can still depeg simply based on the temporary imbalance.”
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The depegging event triggered widespread liquidations on leveraged platforms like Gearbox and Morpho Labs, particularly affecting loopers, users leveraging LRTs repeatedly as collateral to borrow ETH, who bore the brunt of the losses.
Renzo Protocol garnered increased attention following the addition of its incoming token (REZ) to the Binance launch pool on April 23, coinciding with the announcement of its forthcoming airdrop, where 10% of token allocation was earmarked for season 1.
In the wake of Renzo’s depegging, crypto trader czsamsunsb.eth managed to profit significantly, earning 121.65 ETH, equivalent to over $396,000, within two hours.
According to on-chain intelligence firm Lookonchain:
“czsamsunsb.eth made 121.65 $ETH in just 2 hours after $EZETH (Renzo Restaked ETH) depegged! He spent 4,099 $ETH to buy 4,221 $EZETH successfully, making 121.65 $ETH!”
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Bitcoin miners are experiencing a significant revenue surge due to the rise in transaction fees from Bitcoin Runes, a novel protocol for issuing fungible tokens on the Bitcoin network, as stated by Nazar Khan, the co-founder and CEO of TeraWulf.
Khan emphasized the impact of Runes on transaction fees, noting, “Runes significantly increased the transaction fees, so if anything, there was an increase in the hash price in the first 24-30 hours [after halving].
Since then, we’ve seen transaction fees come down, but compared to the average fees in 2023, they’re still pretty high.”
Given that the remainder of the Bitcoin block reward is a fixed issuance, transaction fees serve as the variable element for Bitcoin miners, Khan explained.
This surge in transaction fees provides a crucial financial boost for miners following the Bitcoin halving, which reduced block rewards from 6.25 BTC to 3.125 BTC.
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Although total Bitcoin transaction fees decreased from their peak of 1,257 on April 20 to 105 BTC on April 25, they remained notably higher compared to most of 2023, according to CryptoQuant data.
On average, transaction fees constituted 30% of Bitcoin block rewards post-halving, translating to almost an additional Bitcoin for miners on top of the existing block rewards, Khan revealed.
In contrast, transaction fees comprised only 10% of Bitcoin block rewards in 2023.
TeraWulf estimated a post-halving Bitcoin production cost of $37,000 per BTC, assuming a 10% average transaction fee.
However, with the current higher average transaction fees, TeraWulf anticipates a further reduction in Bitcoin production cost, thereby enhancing its profitability, Khan suggested.
Despite the halving of block rewards, TeraWulf remains positioned for expansion as the eighth-largest Bitcoin mining firm, boasting a market capitalization exceeding $750 million, according to Companies Market Cap.
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