The Chinese police forces have burst a large underground banking operation using the popular stablecoin Tether (USDT) to facilitate transfers of up to 13.8 billion yuan ($1.9 billion).
According to a report from local media house Weixin, the Public Security Bureau of Chengdu Municipal arrested 193 suspects linked to the case and froze 149 million yuan ($20.6 million) after raiding the operation’s location.
A $1.9B Underground Banking Operation
Investigations conducted by the police force since 2021 revealed that the underground banking operation was headed by a criminal gang, which originated from the Chinese import and export business. They used USDT to run a foreign exchange payment and settlement business, providing illegal services to cosmetics and drug smugglers and

Since 2021 when El Salvador began validating Bitcoin blocks with volcanic energy, the Central American country has mined 474 BTC worth approximately $29.6 million at current prices.
According to a Reuters report, El Salvador mined the cryptocurrencies using a geothermal power plant fueled by the Tecapa volcano in the nation’s east central region.
El Salvador Mines 474 BTC With Volcano
The energy generated from the Tecapa volcano is relatively small, but it powers 300 mining processors installed by El Salvador’s Bitcoin-friendly President Nayib Bukele. The nation dedicated 1.5 megawatts (MW) out of the 102 MW produced by the power plant to crypto mining.
El Salvador’s volcano-powered mining plant presents a sustainable alternative to the electricity-consuming operations of

Decentralized blockchain network Internet Computer Protocol (ICP) has released a new roadmap for driving decentralized artificial intelligence (DeAI) and chain fusion in the web3 space.
According to an official statement sent to CryptoPotato, ICP is unveiling the Year 4 Internet Computer Roadmap to celebrate the third anniversary of its mainnet launch.
ICP Releases New Roadmap
The new roadmap summarizes three years of progress on ICP’s mainnet and outlines major development areas to position the network as the home of DeAI and the orchestration layer for the blockchain industry. Although the new roadmap outlines several focal areas, the biggest highlights are DeAI and chain fusion.
The DeAI roadmap describes a path where AI models would be trained to run on-chain, moving

The lawyers of Ryan Salame, a former executive of the bankrupt cryptocurrency exchange FTX, who pleaded guilty to his role in the firm’s collapse, have requested that a court sentence their client to 18 months in prison in an upcoming hearing scheduled for May 28.
According to a sentencing memorandum seen by Inner City Press, Salame’s attorneys are asking the court for leniency in the form of the recommended jail term in addition to the restitution and forfeiture obligations to which their client has agreed.
Salame Seeks 18-Month Jail Term
While Salame worked for FTX and its sister trading firm Alameda Research, he handled customer fiat conversions and wire deposits, managed political contributions, and led charitable initiatives using Alameda funds in The Bahamas.
One

The crypto whale who lost $71 million worth of wrapped bitcoins (WBTC) via a dusting attack has recovered the stolen funds after negotiations with the hacker.
According to a tweet by blockchain security firm PeckShield, the scammer began returning the funds on May 9 and completed the process on May 11.
Stealing $71M WBTC
The whale’s woes began on May 3 after they mistakenly sent 1,155 WBTC to a wrong address placed in the transaction history via address poisoning.
An address poisoning or dusting attack is a scam in which a malicious actor sends a transaction of zero or negligible value to a victim’s wallet to make the address appear in their transaction history. These malicious addresses usually have similar starting and ending characters to those of the victim’s true

Tether CEO Paolo Ardoino has slammed Ripple chief executive Brad Garlinghouse for spreading fear, uncertainty, and doubt (FUD) about USDT, its largest stablecoin offering.
In a Monday tweet, Ardoino outlined Tether’s efforts to sustain a global financial ecosystem while maintaining regulatory compliance by working with law enforcement agencies to combat criminals.
Spreading FUD About USDT
CryptoPotato reported earlier on Monday that Garlinghouse expressed concern over the United States government’s scrutiny of Tether during a recent interview with Chris Vasquez on the World Class YouTube channel.
The Ripple chief said the U.S. government was going after Tether, and he was uncertain what the impact of the scrutiny would be. Although he did not label any potential

The Hong Kong police force is in search of four men who abducted a crypto investor on Tuesday at Tai Lau Leng Village off Po Shek Wu Road in Sheung Shui district.
According to a report by the South China Morning Post, the suspects stopped the 55-year-old woman while she rode in a car with her husband and attacked him with a stun gun when he tried to prevent them from taking her.
Four Abduct Crypto Investor
The unidentified woman was freed around 9:45 pm, roughly an hour after she was taken away in a seven-seater vehicle. She works as a crypto investor, while her 43-year-old spouse owns an information technology firm.
People familiar with the matter said the attack was tied to a HK$15 million (U.S.$1.9 million) crypto investment dispute in which the victim was involved.

Over the years, analysts and developers have touted Ethereum as a deflationary network, presenting the blockchain as ultrasound, aligning with Bitcoin’s sound money principle. However, that seems to have changed with the network’s latest upgrade.
CryptoQuant analysts revealed in the firm’s latest weekly report that Ethereum ceased to be a deflationary network after the Dencun upgrade, implemented in March, which reduced the blockchain’s transaction fees by a substantial amount.
The Ultrasound Money Narrative
Ethereum’s ultrasound money narrative refers to the network as a system that maintains its purchasing power over time and stays resistant to inflation. Compared to Bitcoin, the term suggests that Ethereum has the potential to remain more sound by not just preserving

The Bitcoin kimchi premium in South Korea has plummeted significantly amid a broader market decline, signifying weakened enthusiasm among digital asset investors in the country.
According to data from CryptoQuant, the Bitcoin kimchi premium slumped to 1.5% on Friday during the afternoon trading session in Asia.
Bitcoin Kimchi Premium Slumps
For the uninitiated, the kimchi premium is an indicator of the difference between Bitcoin’s valuation on South Korean exchanges and global crypto trading platforms. The term also refers to a South Korean dish.
Bitcoin’s (BTC) price on South Korean exchanges differs from that of global platforms because of capital control policies prohibiting foreign investors from trading on local platforms. Likewise, the policies have banned local

The Nigerian government has denied the allegations made by Binance’s CEO, Richard Teng, claiming that its officials demanded a $150 million bribe to settle the criminal charges against the crypto exchange.
In an official statement released on Wednesday, the Special Assistant to the Minister of Information and National Orientation, Rabiu Ibrahim, dismissed the claims as baseless.
A “Diversionary Tactic”
Ibrahim stated that the allegations were part of a coordinated effort by Binance to discredit the Nigerian government and divert attention away from the charges the company is currently facing in the country.
“This claim by Binance CEO lacks any iota of substance. It is nothing but a diversionary tactic and an attempted act of blackmail by a company desperate to obfuscate

The Bitcoin network’s mining difficulty has experienced its largest negative adjustment since December 2022, when the bear market was in full gear.
According to data from the real-time Bitcoin dashboard Bitbo, the mining difficulty fell 5.7% to 83.1 trillion on Thursday at block height 842,688.
Bitcoin Mining Difficulty Negatively Adjusts
Bitcoin’s mining difficulty measures how tough and time-consuming it is to produce a new block. The difficulty rises when the number of active miners increases and falls when it decreases, easing the mining process for other miners.
The mining difficulty automatically adjusts after every 2,016 blocks, which is roughly every two weeks, to ensure that a new block is produced every 10 minutes on average, notwithstanding the number of active

Analysts at investment research firm Bernstein have reaffirmed their prediction that bitcoin (BTC) would hit $150,000 in this bull cycle despite the asset’s retracement in recent weeks.
According to a recent report, Bernstein analysts Gautam Chhugani and Mahika Sapra said Bitcoin metrics show the network is in a healthy cycle still in its early stages. Notwithstanding the latest dip, the leading cryptocurrency is far from done.
Bernstein Reiterates BTC $150K Prediction
Bernstein first predicted that BTC would rally to $150,000 next year in November 2023 due to optimism surrounding the launch of spot Bitcoin exchange-traded funds (ETF) in the U.S. Now, the ETFs have been greenlit, BTC has hit $73,700 and fallen to $60,000, but the firm is not deterred in its prediction.
In

Earlier this week, the largest stablecoin issuing company, Tether, revealed that it made more than $4.52 billion in net profit in the first quarter of 2024. With the firm having expanded its operations recently, a substantial portion of the profits came from its long-standing businesses and not the newly formed divisions.
Tether revealed in an attestation report that roughly $1 billion of the profit in Q1 2024 came from entities in charge of issuing stablecoins and managing related reserves.
Tether Made $4.52B in Profit Last Quarter
In mid-April, Tether announced that it was expanding its framework beyond stablecoins. The firm unveiled new divisions, including Tether Edu, Tether Power, and Tether Data, which would handle digital skills education, sustainable Bitcoin mining

A former executive of the European arm of the bankrupt cryptocurrency exchange FTX has bought a gold pocket watch recovered from the Titanic wreck for £1.175 million ($1.5 million), the largest sum ever spent on any piece from the memorable incident.
According to a Wall Street Journal report, German fintech entrepreneur and former head of FTX Europe Patrick Gruhn bought the 14-karat gold watch last Saturday from the English auction house Henry Aldridge & Son, a leading seller of Titanic memorabilia.
Former FTX Exec Buys Titanic Gold Watch
The pocket watch belonged to American property mogul John Jacob Astor IV, who sank with the ship after his pregnant wife, Madeleine Astor, was rescued in a lifeboat. Astor, the richest passenger aboard the Titanic, was returning from a

Over time, the United States government, through its regulatory agencies, has filed cases against several crypto firms, demanding compliance for their products and services.
While the list is extensive, some cases have stood out, like lawsuits against decentralized protocols like Uniswap, crypto mixing platforms like Tornado Cash, and big firms like Binance and Coinbase.
The U.S. Fights Crypto
The U.S. government’s fight against crypto entities became more intense last year. Within 48 hours in early June, the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) sued Binance and Coinbase, the largest crypto exchanges globally and in the country. The allegations against the entities were similar: failure to register as brokers, national securities exchanges, clearing agencies, and

While the crypto market witnessed significant bloodshed in April, layer-2 networks recorded substantial developer activity, signaling a strong belief in these projects despite the latest slumps in the value of their native tokens.
A tweet by crypto data analytics platform Santiment revealed that the top ten layer-2 networks were selected by counting each project’s non-redundant GitHub activity and averaging their daily activity over the past 30 days.
According to Santiment, analysts obtained the projects’ GitHub activities from their repositories through a back-tested process to ensure that only the teams’ efforts to improve and innovate were included. A project’s GitHub activity can be used to determine whether the team is actively working on the protocol. High developer

Financial technology conglomerate Block, owned by X co-founder Jack Dorsey, has decided to invest 10% of all profits made from bitcoin-related products in monthly BTC purchases.
Speaking to shareholders in a Q1 2024 earnings report, Dorsey outlined several reasons for the decision, addressing investors’ concerns about why Block is so focused on the largest cryptocurrency.
Block to Invest in Bitcoin Monthly
Dorsey explained that bitcoin is the best and only candidate for a decentralized open protocol for money, which the world needs. BTC would eventually become the native currency of the internet and help serve users worldwide faster without the need to customize hundreds of payment schemes and intermediaries.
Block also intends to make BTC more usable for everyday

CryptoQuant analysts have found that Bitcoin miners have increased their selling activity in the last month amid slow demand growth for BTC.
According to the latest CryptoQuant weekly report, the decrease in BTC demand is evident in low Bitcoin whale demand, fewer purchases from spot exchange-traded funds in the United States, and the Coinbase premium falling below zero.
Miners Increase Selling Activity
Miners have sent a large amount of BTC to spot exchanges, creating an imbalance in the market. Since the halving was completed on April 19, miners’ revenue has decreased significantly following the reduction of block rewards by 50%.
Presently, mining entities are selling their holdings to cover operational costs; however, if the trend continues and miners’ profitability

The largest American cryptocurrency exchange, Coinbase, has added support for the Lightning Network on its platform to enable faster and cheaper payments.
According to a blog post, the Lightning Network integration on Coinbase will reduce the cost of sending bitcoin (BTC) globally by 20x compared to the 2% charged on United States credit card transactions and the $30 paid for wire transfers.
Coinbase Integrates Lightning Network
Coinbase’s Lightning Network integration was spearheaded by Lightspark, a lightning infrastructure provider led by David Marcus, the co-founder of payments giant PayPal. The crypto exchange entered a partnership with Lightspark earlier this month when it announced plans to move forward with the Lightning integration.
The high cost and delay of

The United States Department of Justice (DOJ) has charged and arrested Roger Ver, an early BTC investor known as Bitcoin Jesus, for evading taxes of up to $50 million.
According to an official release, the DOJ unsealed the indictment against Ver on April 29 and ordered his arrest in Spain during the weekend.
U.S. DOJ Charges Ver for Tax Evasion
The DOJ’s indictment accused Ver of filing false tax returns, committing mail fraud and tax evasion between 2011 and 2017 through his computer and networking equipment companies MemoryDealers Inc. and Agilestar Inc.
Ver began purchasing thousands of bitcoins (BTC) for himself and his firms in 2011. At the same time, he became known for promoting BTC, earning the alias Bitcoin Jesus.
By February 2014, Ver and his companies had

DYDX, the native token of the dYdX Chain, has evolved from a governance-only coin to a dynamic, multifaceted asset within six months of its launch.
According to a blog post by the dYdX Foundation, DYDX has become the powerhouse of the layer-1 blockchain, enabling decentralized governance and allowing users to stake their tokens for rewards.
A Timeline of DYDX’s Launch
DYDX was launched in October 2023 alongside the dYdX Chain. Before that, the dYdX Foundation had launched DYDX (now ethDYDX) in August 2021. ethDYDX serves as a governance token for the Ethereum-based layer-2 protocol dYdX v3.
In September 2023, the dYdX community voted to adopt DYDX as the native token of the dYdX Chain. To this effect, a wethDYDX smart contract was deployed to serve as a bridge for token

The portion of Bitcoin miner revenue coming from transaction fees has fallen significantly after surging on the day of the last halving event.
A CryptoQuant report revealed that transaction fees now represent 35% of total miner revenue, a significant decline from the 75% recorded on April 19.
Transaction Fees Surge During Halving
The fourth Bitcoin halving, which took place last Friday, slashed miner block rewards by half to 3.125 bitcoins (BTC), resulting in daily issuance falling from an average of 900 BTC to 450 BTC.
On the halving day, daily miner revenue spiked to $100 million, stemming from a notable spike in transaction fees. Daily fees on the Bitcoin network surged to 1,258 BTC ($80 million), a level never seen before, representing 75% of the total revenue for that

Bitcoin whales appear to be realizing their profits from BTC’s latest rally, as on-chain analysts have identified a surge in inflows to centralized crypto exchanges.
According to a CryptoQuant Quicktake by anonymous crypto analyst Phi Deltalytics, BTC whale inflows to exchanges currently constitute a substantial portion of overall flows to trading platforms.
Whales May Be Taking Profits
A separate Quicktake from analyst Woominkyu on April 25 revealed that the unrealized profits of long-term bitcoin whales had gotten high, especially with BTC hovering above $60,000. Analyzing the chart in his post, Woominkyu explained that whales were seeing an increase in their profits, but they had not cashed out yet.
The analyst identified a spot on the chart that indicated a significant

Since the bear market in 2022, bitcoin (BTC) has witnessed substantial pullbacks, losing up to 23% of its value on some occasions. Understanding the depth of these declines could help investors maximize their returns, as rebounds from these drops usually yield substantial gains.
According to a tweet by crypto trader and analyst Rekt Capital, accumulating BTC after a pullback of approximately 20% could fetch investors good money as the crypto asset resumes its upward trajectory.
Bitcoin’s Pullbacks in This Cycle
2022 was a tough year for BTC as the asset suffered the pangs of the bear market. The collapse of the TerraLuna ecosystem, with the contagion that ensued, wiping out roughly $40 billion and dragging many crypto firms into bankruptcy, and the crash of FTX, one of the

Bankrupt cryptocurrency exchange FTX is looking to offload its remaining Solana native tokens, SOL, via an auction this week.
According to a Bloomberg report, people familiar with the matter said the bankruptcy estate would auction an unspecified amount of SOL in the hopes of receiving a higher price than that which they would have gotten through direct sales.
FTX to Sell SOL Via Auction
The blond auction represents a shift from the fixed-price sales the bankruptcy estate has engaged in over time. Notably, most creditors have expressed dissatisfaction with the direct sales approach as it undermines the value of the FTX’s assets, minimizing creditors’ potential recovery.
Since FTX began offloading its SOL via direct sales, it has attracted the interest of major crypto firms

Data from IntoTheBlock revealed that investors withdrew approximately half a billion ETH from centralized exchanges last week, the highest the asset has seen since February.
$500M ETH Leaves CEXs
The withdrawal of large amounts of ETH from centralized exchanges signals investor confidence in the long-term price trajectory of the asset. Market participants usually withdraw their cryptocurrencies from centralized trading platforms to hold the assets in their private wallets or cold storage in anticipation of higher prices.
Such large withdrawals have been considered an indicator of bullish sentiment and holding attitude among investors. Most of the time, ETH has recorded substantial gains in the weeks following large withdrawals from exchanges.
Anticipation for higher ETH

Bitcoin’s fall to $61,000 over the weekend was a result of market participants reducing their exposure to the digital asset ahead of the halving slated for April 20, according to the latest CryptoQuant weekly report.
Analysts said traders closed their long positions to take profits, and now, the volume of sell orders in the perpetual futures markets is dominating buy orders. This is evident in the Buy Sell Ratio, which has declined below one. The ratio rallies above one when buy orders dominate sell orders.
Traders Decrease Exposure to Bitcoin
As traders decreased their exposure to Bitcoin, total open interest fell from 250,000 BTC to approximately 220,000 BTC. Short-term holders (entities holding BTC for less than six months) offloaded their assets to realize high-profit

The neutralization of funding rates in crypto perpetual markets following the drawdown suggested that the correction was healthy and that volatility may eventually decline.
With the Bitcoin halving a few days away, the amount of BTC leaving centralized exchanges has risen to levels not seen for more than 15 months. At the same time, the number of BTC that have not moved in over a year has declined significantly.
According to the Bitfinex Alpha report, these on-chain activities come as Bitcoin recovers from a two-day plunge that triggered a massive liquidation cascade over the weekend.
BTC Exchange Outflows Surge
The net amount of BTC that exited exchanges on April 12 was the highest seen since January 2023. Bitfinex analysts found that investors transferred 6,767 BTC on

Decentralized blockchain network Internet Computer Protocol (ICP) has successfully implemented threshold-Schnorr signatures to harness the potential of Bitcoin-based decentralized finance (DeFi) and web3.
According to a release seen by CryptoPotato, the new cryptographic signature scheme will enable ICP smart contracts to etch the Bitcoin token standard, Runes, and trade BRC-20 tokens.
Implementing Threshold-Schnorr Signatures
Threshold-Schnorr is a digital signature scheme that enables the secure signing of transactions and messages on-chain by facilitating the common ownership of a private key by a group of network participants.
ICP said combining threshold-Schnorr-BIP340 with its integration with the Bitcoin network gives rise to new possibilities for decentralized

Bitcoin (BTC) could be worth $91,000 at the bottom of the bear market and $650,000 at the top of the bull cycle upon the full deployment of the cryptocurrency’s exchange-traded funds (ETFs) in the coming years.
According to a tweet by Bitcoin analyst Willy Woo, the digital asset can achieve these price targets if investors fully deploy Bitcoin ETFs according to the recommendations of asset management firms.
Bitcoin’s New Price Targets
To substantiate his claim, the Bitcoin analyst elaborated some calculations based on allocation recommendations, self-custody inflows, and market value to realized value (MVRV), which is the ratio between the market value of BTC and its realized value.
Woo explained that asset managers like Fidelity are advocating for modest crypto portfolio