Crypto Market Update: TRON Founder Justin Sun’s 2,200 ETH Transfer Amid Arrest Rumors and Legal Turmoil, Bitrue Got Hacked, and More
Written by Van - Perfected by ChatGPT
Justin Sun, founder of TRON, reportedly transferred 2,200 ETH to Binance and Huobi exchanges, raising suspicions amidst rumors about his arrest in Hong Kong. The recent transfer and arrest rumors have raised questions about potential legal issues and the future of the TRON project.
The SEC has announced charges against Sun and his companies, accusing them of the unregistered sale of securities and fraudulent manipulation of the secondary market. This has led to a sell-off of TRON’s cryptocurrency and the delisting of the token from several exchanges, indicating a loss of confidence in the project and its leadership. Sun’s ETH transfer could be an attempt to secure funds amid ongoing legal turmoil and uncertainty surrounding his arrest rumors.
Bitcoin Reaches 10-Month Highs and Shows Signs of Continuing Bull Market Trend
Bitcoin reached new ten-month highs of $30,982 and reinforced market participants’ convictions over continued strength and a break with the long-term downtrend, which has extended its on-the-year gains to over 85%.
Positive on-chain trends also indicate BTC’s trading bias in the medium to long-term will remain upwards. These metrics, such as those monitored by Glassnode, suggest that Bitcoin is currently in a bull market. The “Recovering from a Bitcoin Bear” dashboard tracks eight indicators, all of which have been flashing green since mid-March. Historically, this has been a great long-term buy opportunity for Bitcoin. However, analysts predict that Bitcoin may experience some shallow corrections in an upward trend and may dip below (30,000, with a potential resistance point at )31,700 - $32,000.
Source: Glassnode
ETH’s price has surpassed $2,000 following the Shapella upgrade, causing a decline in Bitcoin’s market dominance. ETH’s market share has increased by over 1%, while Bitcoin’s has gone down by just under 1%. Bitcoin’s market share has fallen to 47.8% as a result of Ethereum’s rally, knocking BTC off of an almost two-year high in terms of market share.
Source: Tradingview
Ethereum Takes The Lead As Altcoins Surge In Price During “Altseason 2.0”
Popular altcoins led by Ethereum also experienced a surge in prices, with ETH/USD soaring 10% throughout the day to hit its highest levels since May 2022. References were made to “altseason” and “altseason 2.0,” with sentiments suggesting that copycat gains on altcoins should follow an initial surge led by Bitcoin.
There were speculations that the Shapella upgrade could result in a massive sell-off and price slide. However, the unlocking was a lot less than expected, and ETH’s price surged instead. In the past 24 hours, ETH is up by more than 10%, outperforming Bitcoin and most of the altcoins. This has resulted in numerous short traders getting harmed, and the daily value of ETH liquidations tripled that of BTC at one point.
ETH whales showed some signs of offloading. Source: Santiment
At the time of writing, 874,335 ETH, worth $1.85 billion, is pending withdrawal. The net staking balance is currently negative as more ETH was withdrawn than deposited in the past day. However, there were some times when deposits outpaced withdrawals. Based on current trends, though, it’s likely that some of that ETH will get put right back to work.
Source: Nansen
Bitrue Exchange Hacked, Nearly $24 Million In Tokens Stolen From Hot Wallet
Bitrue, a centralized cryptocurrency exchange based in Singapore, has confirmed that it was hacked and roughly $24 million in tokens were stolen from one of its hot wallets. The tokens stolen included ether, QNT, GALA, SHIB, HOT, and MATIC. Bitrue addressed the issue quickly and prevented further exploitation, stating that the wallet containing the stolen assets represented less than 5% of their overall funds. To ensure complete security, Bitrue suspended all withdrawals until April 18 and stated that affected users would be compensated in full.
The hack was suspected by the crypto community after thousands of QNT tokens were sold from a single wallet causing the price to drop, and the wallet still held 28,000 tokens. QNT initially dropped by 12% before overcoming some losses with a -4% decrease.
Ripple Labs Launches Liquidity Hub to Bridge Fiat and Crypto
Ripple Labs has launched a liquidity hub that enables companies to access liquidity for digital assets from a variety of marketplaces and exchanges around the world. The hub aims to bridge the gap between fiat systems and crypto, using advanced technology to source the best rates for businesses. The hub supports five cryptocurrencies, including bitcoin and ethereum, but the absence of Ripple’s XRP has caused concern among members of the XRP community.
Arbitrum’s ARB Token Hits Two-Week High, Bull Run Potential Cited
Arbitrum’s ARB token has seen a surge in price, gaining 4.28% to reach (1.36, its highest level in two weeks, following Ethereum's Shanghai upgrade. As a layer-2 scaling solution for Ethereum, the market typically views Ethereum's growth as a positive for L2 chains. Three reasons cited for ARB's potential to continue its bull run and retest its record high of )1.60 include more utility for ARB, the opportunity to monetize maximal extractable value through sequencer auctions, and the potential to capture Optimism’s market share.
Arbitrum Improvement Proposal 1.05, which aims to return 700 million ARB tokens to the DAO treasury, is set to fail as 83% of the total vote is against the proposal. The proposal claims that the allocation of the tokens to the Arbitrum Foundation was an overreach of power, and that the governance holders ultimately control the DAO. However, some large holders and delegates are focused on the long-term sustainability of the foundation and view the proposed forced buyback as an exaggeration. The price of Arbitrum’s governance token is up 15% in the past 24 hours.
Solana Labs Introduces Saga, Crypto Smartphone For Self-Custodianship And Access To Dapp Store
Solana Labs has announced the launch of Saga, a crypto smartphone built on the Android operating system (OS) to compete with its competitors’ flagship products. Saga will be available for pre-order in May 2022 for $1,000 and features a Snapdragon 8+ Gen mobile platform, an integrated secure element, a high-performance chip, 512GB storage, a 6.67” OLED screen, and a 120HZ refresh rate. The phone also comes with OSOM’s Seed Vault for crypto self-custodianship and access to Solana’s dApp Store. Solana’s native token, SOL, didn’t react positively, recording a -3% loss in 24 hours.
Uniswap Approves Deployment On Polygon zkEVM, Expanding Ethereum Apps To ZK-Rollups
The Uniswap DAO approved a proposal to deploy the Uniswap v3 decentralized exchange on Polygon zkEVM, a new ZK-Rollup solution compatible with the Ethereum ecosystem. This move continues the expansion of Ethereum apps to the new wave of ZK-Rollups, suggesting that Ethereum is growing in its ability to offer its main features at scale. The proposal was initiated by Polygon Labs and passed with a high number of votes in support. After execution, Uniswap will be officially released on the zkEVM and will join nearly 50 other projects that already exist on the network. This will let users access the decentralized exchange from Polygon’s Layer 2 network.
Elon Musk’s Tweet Caused 8% Surge In Aptos Token, Price Dropped After Deletion
Elon Musk sent out a tweet mentioning ‘APT’, the Aptos token ticker, causing its price to surge by 8%. However, he eventually deleted the tweet, causing the price to drop back down. Despite this, Aptos is still 33% below its all-time high from January 2021. The token has a 24-hour trading volume of almost $460 million, and millions of tokens were recently unlocked, with another unlock scheduled in 27 days.
Source: Elon Musk/Twitter
EOS Network Foundation Launches Beta Version Of EOS EVM Mainnet To Bridge Ethereum Scalability Gap
The EOS Network Foundation has launched the beta version of the EOS EVM mainnet to improve interoperability between Ethereum and EOS networks. EOS EVM emulates the Ethereum Virtual Machine to allow for the deployment of decentralized applications written in Solidity. The launch of EOS EVM aims to bridge the scalability gap of Ethereum by combining the resources of the Ethereum community with the performance of the EOS Network. The move towards EVM compatibility has been prioritized by various projects, including Astar Network and Polygon’s zkEVM, to improve DApp scalability and performance. Surprisingly, the EOS price dropped by -2.62% during the day when altcoins had been enjoying the rally.
Zipmex Struggling To Secure Promised Funds From Rescue Investor V Ventures
Zipmex’s rescue investor, believed to be V Ventures, has reportedly gone back on its pledge to provide 100% payment to the troubled exchange’s creditors and is now only prepared to consider a compromise that results in a return of between 10c to 20c on the dollar of their existing debt. Last month, V Ventures missed a fourth tranche payment worth $1.25 million to Zipmex. With its protection from creditors set to expire on April 23, the company plans to apply for a further extension, per the letter. ZMT once fell as much as -8%, then recovered a bit to mark a -5.79% decline.
Summary of Market Events and Price Action
As a summary of today’s events and price action in the market, it is crucial to note the following key points:
BTC nearly reaches $31,000 before stepping back
ETH surpasses $2,100, sparking discussions about “altcoin season”
Bitrue gets hacked, QNT sees massive dump
XRP stays steady following Ripple’s liquidity hub
ARB becomes one of the best daily performers
SOL slightly drops amid the Solana Saga introduction
UNI barely moves after Uniswap votes to deploy on Polygon zkEVM
APT’s roller coaster with Elon Musk’s tweet
EOS dumps despite EVM mainnet beta
ZMT in trouble due to Zipmex’s rescue investor
Top Altcoin Gainers and Losers
Gainers:
Injective INJ (+26.57%)
Arbitrum ARB (+15.44%)
Rocket Pool RPL (+13.41%)
Losers:
FTX Token FTT (-11.33%)
Conflux CFX (-5.08%)
Quant QNT (-3.53%)
NFT Market Map
Canon USA is launching Cadabra, an Ethereum NFT marketplace for photography. The marketplace is expected to offer photos in various categories including sports, lifestyle, and wildlife. Canon will provide opportunities for photographers to monetize their work and reach a wider audience. Cadabra will support purchases with credit/debit cards and cryptocurrency. However, there are concerns about the sustainability of NFTs on the Ethereum network, which requires a significant amount of energy consumption. It remains to be seen how Canon will address the environmental impact of its marketplace.
In the meantime, NFT teams have been busy with their new plans. Outlaws, a new collection in the top 10 leaderboard these days, hinted at a partnership with more details to come in the next few hours. MutantApeYachtClub’s volume grew by 186.52% as Blur Dumping Bot spotted almost 100 NFTs had been sold to the Blur pool for ETH.