Top stories

• Q1 result publications: Rising crypto prices positive, but miners struggle

• Binance halted Bitcoin withdrawals twice - plan changes

• Unexplained problem disrupts transaction finality on Ethereum

We are in the midst of the Q1 results publication season. We have summarized this week's publications in the table below. The rising crypto prices in Q1 generally led to better results, but miners struggle massively with increased competition and repercussions from last year's downturn.   

Binance halted withdrawals of Bitcoin twice in the last week, citing network congestion. The congestion was, in reality, temporarily higher transaction fees due to the BRC-20 and ordinal hype competing for block space. So unlike on most highways, Binance could have paid its way out of the queue but chose not to. Withdrawals have resumed, and Binance is now changing its fee policy for Bitcoin withdrawals and planning to integrate the Lightning Network.

Since "The merge," the Ethereum network is split into a consensus layer (beacon chain) and an execution layer (the "old" Ethereum Mainnet). On Thursday, transaction finality on the Ethereum network was briefly disrupted due to an unexplained problem with the beacon chain.

Other News

• EU could veto stablecoins during MiCA approval process.

• Crypto tax data sharing 'unanimously supported' by EU members.

• Liechtenstein plans to accept Bitcoin for payments to the state.

• Crypto VCs made $2.6B worth of deals in the first quarter of 2023.

• EY launches Ethereum-based carbon emission tracking platform.

We bring you some amusing crypto celebrity news to round off this week's newsletter. Or, everyone does not find this funny, as disgraced Three Arrows founder Su Zhu has obtained a restraining order due to Twitter harassment from another partly disgraced crypto founder, Arthur Hayes (Bitmex). 

With that, we wish you a great weekend!

From our Analysts

Worrying memecoin rally as BTC reigns stable

The on-chain fees on Bitcoin surged over the past week. We elaborate on why, its short-term implications on the market, and how this may lead to increased selling pressure from miners onwards.

Further, we explore some interesting short-term developments in the perp OI following the Monday market headwinds.

Read the full report here.

Weekend Reading

The Denominator by Arthur Hayes

The economics of nightclubs and national banking systems have a lot in common.

2016 - How The DAO Hack Changed Ethereum and Crypto

The $60 million hack in 2016 led to a controversial revision of the blockchain, and was a factor leading to the ICO boom starting the following year, argues David Z Morris. This feature is part of our “CoinDesk Turns 10” series.