The Block
Quick Take In a new blog post, Ethereum co-founder Vitalik Buterin has shared his thoughts on three issues core to Ethereum’s decentralization: MEV, liquid staking, and the hardware requirements of nodes. In Buterin’s view, many of the concerns around Ethereum’s centralization can be addressed through smart protocol design and upgrades, some of which are already in progress.
Quick Take This is an excerpt from the second edition of The Block’s The Funding newsletter sent to our loyal readers on May 18. The Funding is a fortnightly newsletter written by Yogita Khatri, The Block’s longest-serving editorial member. To subscribe to the free newsletter, click here.
Reported holdings of spot bitcoin ETFs were a mere fraction of the total cumulative trading volume during the first quarter.Holders made up a diverse set of financial institutions including Morgan Stanley, a hedge fund that manages the endowments of Yale University and Princeton University, and the State of Wisconsin Investment Board.
The macro environment remains a key driver for crypto performance, evidenced by the rebound in bitcoin prices after April’s softer CPI print, a Coinbase report said.
Zksync said Friday in an X post that it would soon roll out its v24 upgrade, as it aims to further decentralize its protocol this summer. The announcement fueled rumors that an airdrop from the Layer 2 solution could come as early as June.
May spot bitcoin ETF inflows have already made up for April’s negative outflows, notes senior ETF analyst Eric Balchunas.The last two months exhibit why traders shouldn’t get “emotional” over inflows and outflows; it’s a “part of ETF life,” he adds.
GameStop-themed memecoins GME and Roaring Kitty spiked 10% and 42%, respectively, in the past 24 hours. In the same period, GameStop’s stock fell around 20% to $22.22 per share. The firm posted net sale losses in first-quarter preliminary results on Friday.
The exploiter seems to be using flash loans to get enough SOL to buy out Pump.fun memecoin bonding curves.
Quick Take Daren Li, 41, was arrested on April 12 at Atlanta’s airport, and Yicheng Zhang, 38, was arrested on Thursday in Los Angeles for their alleged involvement, the Justice Department said in a statement on Friday. “The fraud scheme involved more than $73 million laundered through U.S. financial institutions to bank accounts in The Bahamas, and converted to the virtual asset USDT, or Tether,” the DOJ said.
Quick Take Thomas John Sfraga, also known as “TJ Stone,” allegedly promised investors up to 60% returns in three months for a fake cryptocurrency digital wallet. Sfraga instead pocketed the funds or used the proceeds to pay prior victims. Sfraga also purportedly engaged in fraudulent behavior around crypto staking, claiming it was an “ironclad situation” with “no risk.” He also claimed to own Vandelay Contracting Corp.
