TLDR Crypto 2024-04-17

Bitcoin's price has dropped below $62,000. Analysts attribute the decrease to geopolitical tensions, a strengthening dollar, and volatility ahead of the upcoming halving. The wider crypto market has similarly fallen, with large cap cryptocurrencies experiencing double-digit losses and liquidations occurring across the market.

A list of Bitcoin ETF holders has been released thanks to quarterly reporting requirements. The largest holder of IBIT, BlackRock's ETF, and Fidelity's FBTC is Brookstone Capital Management. There were no surprising or well-known holders. More filings are expected to be released over the coming month.

This thread provides a concise analysis of Omni Network, a cross-rollup bridge launching on Binance Launchpool. Omni aims to become the dominant bridge by leveraging restaked ETH for security, offering fast finality, and providing developers with cross-chain tooling. Omni's success hinges on convincing users that Ethereum alignment matters for bridges and supporting developers in making Omni their primary deployment and liquidity focus.

Reth AlphaNet, an OP Stack-compatible testnet rollup, has been open-sourced to maximize Reth performance and enable experimentation with cutting-edge Ethereum research. AlphaNet aims to break the gigagas barrier and tackle the state growth problem while implementing three new Ethereum Improvement Proposals (EIPs) not yet available on other networks. Built using the modular Reth SDK, AlphaNet allows for extreme customization without forking the node, enabling developers to experiment with custom RPCs, EVMs, and block builders.

This post discusses the evolution of memecoins, from early beginnings on Bitcointalk to their growing presence on Twitter in 2024, highlighting their role in each cycle of the crypto ecosystem. It also touches on the psychology behind memecoin trading (a blend of minimal research and luck, among other items). Many memecoin collections are highly concentrated within the top 10 holders.

a16z research partner Joseph Bonneau documented his experience at the 11th zkSummit in Athens. ZK hardware has been accelerating support for faster proof generation, which, when paired with a zkVM, could achieve a 1000x overhead over primitive computation and potentially become part of Ethereum's final version. Decentralized prover networks promise to create more competitive and distributed markets for generating proofs for L2s and other applications. Instead of re-creating identification systems, protocols like ZK Email and zkPassport are building upon existing systems for greater anonymity and applicability.

Circle and Tether are adopting different approaches toward driving global stablecoin adoption. While Circle seeks clearer regulations and coordination among nations, particularly urging U.S. lawmakers to take action, Tether is focusing on developing countries and regions with less stringent regulations.

TON, one of the best-performing tokens of the past month, is being used to share 50% of advertiser revenue with Telegram channel owners. The TON Foundation's Open League program will distribute nearly $200 million to community members to incentivize the network's growth. TON aims to become the home of blockchain-based consumer products, bringing millions of Telegram users onchain.

EigenLayer has unpaused LST deposit caps, meaning users can once again deposit tokens like Lido's stETH.

Bitcoin's fourth halving will reduce block rewards from 6.25 BTC to 3.125 BTC, putting pressure on miner profitability.

Scroll's upcoming Bernoulli upgrade, scheduled for April 29th, will reduce transaction costs 10x by introducing support for EIP-4844 and blobs.

In an interview with Blockworks, BitGo CEO Mike Belshe discusses the impact of the recently launched spot bitcoin ETFs on institutional and retail demand, as well as the potential differences in this halving compared to previous ones due to the evolving market landscape.