OVERVIEW

Altcoins Lead And Bitcoin Bleeds 😱

The Fed decided interest rates will sit tight for now. Risk-on markets everywhere turned green and then turned around and ran back into selling territory as investors tried to make sense of Powell’s commentary. 🟥

However, the altcoin market seems to be holding onto some gains and has recovered quite a bit, but Bitcoin is still in the doldrums.

In today’s Litepaper: surprising Cardano on-chain analysis, Bitcoin at a make-or-break level, Tether's jaw-dropping earnings, and BlockRock threw more money at tokenization! 📰

Before we dive in, here’s today’s crypto market heatmap:

And here’s a look at crypto’s total and altcoin market cap YTD:

CARDANO
That’s A Lot Of Cardano 😱

While everyone was focused on Bitcoin ($BTC), Ethereum ($ETH), and memecoin market, me and everyone else totally missed what was going on with Cardano. 🏎️

On-chain analytics firm IntoTheBlock even made a post about it.

You read that right: the average large transaction volume for $ADA is 1/3 of Bitcion’s volume, 500% more than Litecoin’s and 1,600% more than $DOGE. So, does that mean speculators are turning bullish on Cardano? No idea, but sellers are certainly slowing down. But let’s look at Cardano’s on-chain activity another way. 👁️

Coinglass’ Spent Output Profit Ratio (SOPR) is a friggin awesome tool. It’s computed by “dividing the realized value (in USD) divided by the value at creation (USD) of a spent output.” In other words, it’s measuring if the sellers are mostly in profit or at a loss.

Almost no one who has sold Cardano since April 1 was in-the-money. Those sellers' philosophy is the same as Betterment’s investment philosophy, which is “buy high, sell lower.” But let’s look at another indicator, one that some analysts and traders believe is a better leading indicator of when a market might shift directions: Stocktwits’ Sentiment Data. 📊

A month ago, Cardano’s sentiment score was bearish (31). Last week, it was 45. Yesterday, it was 54, and it’s still there today, a hair away from breaking the threshold into bullish territory (55). And look at the message volume - a month ago, it was trending toward extremely low, but now, it’s getting close to 50. 

For some traders and analysts, the rising sentiment and volume scores against falling or flat price action is a warning sign for bears: bulls might be coming in soon. 🐂

BITCOIN
Bitcoin At A Make Or Break Level? 🤔

Let’s look at the $BTC chart from the April 2 Litepaper:

We looked at that same chart in the April 17 Litepaper, then updated the chart, two days before the halving:

And this is where Bitcoin is at today:

This is a make-or-break zone for Bitcoin. It’s sitting right on top of the trendline at $56,961, and the RSI is just above its first oversold level. There is a hidden bullish divergence present (not drawn) - which is a bullish continuation warning.

However, there are some analysts who see Bitcoin continuing to fall towards the prior resistance level at $44,250. But how do the Stocktwits crypto users feel?

Sentiment remains volatile given the recent price action, settling into neutral territory as message volume surged back into high territory. With macro dominating the conversation right now, that volatility is likely to continue through at least the end of the week. 😬

TETHER
Tether's Q1: $4.50 Billion Profit 🤯

The world's largest printing-money-out-of-thin-air entity after the U.S. Federal Reserve, Tether Holdings Limited, released its Q1 earnings. In its latest attestation, overseen by the accounting firm BDO, Tether ($USDT) unveiled a comprehensive view of its financial standings. This more holistic view now encompasses the entire group's financial health as of March 31, 2024.

Key Financial Highlights from Q1 2024:

• Record Profit: Tether reported a record-breaking profit of $4.52 billion for the first quarter.

  • Sources of Profit:

    • Approximately $1 billion in net operating profits, primarily from U.S. Treasury holdings.

    • Mark-to-market gains in $BTC and gold investments contributed to the remainder of the profits.

• Treasury Holdings:

  • Direct and indirect ownership of U.S. Treasuries now exceeds $90 billion.

  • Investments include overnight reverse-repurchase agreements collateralized by U.S. Treasuries and holdings through money market funds.

• Net Equity: Revealed for the first time, Tether's net equity stood at an impressive $11.37 billion as of March 31, 2024.

  • A substantial increase from the $7.01 billion recorded on December 31, 2023.

  • A $1 billion increase in excess reserves, pushing the total to nearly $6.30 billion to support stablecoin operations.

Reserves Report

• Cash and Cash Equivalents: 90% of Tether-issued tokens are backed by cash and cash equivalents, ensuring liquidity within the stablecoin ecosystem.

• Stablecoin Issuance: Over $12.50 billion USDT was issued in the first quarter alone.

• Assets vs. Liabilities:

  • Total assets: $110,289,406,409

  • Total liabilities: $104,027,539,692

  • Net differential in assets over liabilities: $6,261,866,717

Strategic Investments and Future Adaptations

• Total Strategic Investments: Over $5 billion in various sectors, including AI and data, renewable energy, P2P communication, and BTC mining.

• Management's Outlook: CEO Paolo Ardoino emphasized Tether's commitment to transparency, stability, liquidity, and responsible risk management.

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NEWS
Securitize Scoops $47 Million from BlackRock-led Round 🪙

BlackRock ($BLK) has once again flexed its financial muscles in the tokenization arena. This time, BlackRock is leading a beefy $47 million investment into Securitize—a name becoming increasingly synonymous with the fusion of traditional finance and blockchain technology. 🪨

Not Their First Rodeo

For those out of the loop, tokenization is about transforming physical and traditional financial assets into blockchain-friendly formats. Proponents of tokenization say it could slash costs and boost transparency like never before. BlackRock's Larry Fink has even touted tokenized securities as "the next generation for markets."

One example is buying a home. Anyone who has gone through that process knows where I'm going. Heading to the title company to sign a bajillion forms is just horrible. Tokenization could eliminate most, if not all, of that process.

Joseph Chalom, BlackRock's strategic maestro and newly minted board member at Securitize, says, "We believe that tokenization has the potential to drive a significant transformation in capital markets infrastructure." 🏚️

NEWS
Crypto News In Three Sentences 📰

💥 Real-World Asset Tokenization Skyrockets. The tokenization of real-world assets (RWA) has soared, pushing the total value locked (TVL) to an impressive $8 billion, driven by heightened demand and the introduction of new tokenization protocols. A significant portion of the growth is attributed to stablecoin-backed protocols and debt instruments that offer stable, attractive yields. From Finbold.

⚖️ SEC vs. Ripple's Legal Tussle Intensifies. The legal skirmish between Ripple Labs ($XRP) and the SEC heats up over the testimony of an SEC accountant, whom Ripple argues was providing expert, not merely summary, evidence. The SEC maintains that the accountant's role was routine data simplification, which does not qualify as expert testimony needing special disclosure. More from DailyCoin.

🔇 Silk Road Founder's Fading Voice. Ross Ulbricht, founder of the infamous Silk Road, fears permanent silencing as the Bureau of Prisons contemplates banning social media access for inmates. Ulbricht, who has already spent over a decade in prison, uses social platforms managed by relatives to maintain a link to the crypto community. U.Today has more.

🔐 Vitalik Buterin Debates Crypto Wallet Security. Ethereum founder Vitalik Buterin advocates for multisig setups over traditional hardware wallets to mitigate risks like human error and loss. During a discussion, Buterin critiqued the practical challenges of using Shamir's Secret Sharing an (algorithim), emphasizing the reliability and user-friendliness of multisig configurations. More from Bitcoinist.

🔓 Pike Finance's Repeated Hack Woes. Pike Finance has fallen victim to hackers twice within a week, bleeding a total of $1.90 million as cyber crooks exploited fresh vulnerabilities during protocol pauses. Despite immediate actions to secure the platform, a second breach leveraged an "upgrade" attack, allowing the assailant to hijack and drain funds to an $ETH address via the Railgun ($RAIL) privacy protocol. Protos has more.

Links That Don’t Suck 🔗

🐝 A six-armed robot for precision pollination

❓ Here’s why Changpeng Zhao got a lighter prison sentence

🦾 Providing further transparency on our responsible AI efforts

🦇 A new Batman: Arkham game is coming later this year, and, oh, it's a VR game

💢 Don't get left behind: Web3 wallets offer more than you think in today's market

🗣️ Cardano founder and Ripple CTO go head to head over XRP regulations and ETHGate allegations

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