🔸️Ethereum | Bitcoin & Altcoin News

🪙 Saylor predicts SEC will designate Ethereum as a security and deny spot ETF applications this summer MicroStrategy executive chairman and co-founder Michael Saylor believes the SEC will classify Ethereum as a security this summer and reject the related spot ETF applications filed by various asset managers, including BlackRock. Saylor made the prediction in a social media post on May 2 during a presentation at the MicroStrategy World 2024 conference. He further predicted that other cryptos “down the stack” will also gain an unregistered security designation, including BNB, Solana (SOL), XRP, and Cardano (ADA). Source ETH | BTC & ALTCOIN News

🇮🇷 Elizabeth Warren raises concerns over Iran’s crypto mining operations Senators Elizabeth Warren and Angus S. King, Jr. have formally addressed top Biden administration officials in a letter concerning US efforts to combat Iran’s utilization of crypto mining as a means to evade international sanctions. Addressed to Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin, National Security Advisor Jake Sullivan, and Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen, the letter details concerns over Iran’s increasing capabilities in the sector since it legalized crypto mining in 2019. Source ETH | BTC & ALTCOIN News

💰 BlackRock Sees Sovereign Wealth Funds, Pensions Coming to Bitcoin ETFs Financial institutions are holding diligence and research conversations, with BlackRock playing an educational role, said Robert Mitchnick, the firm's head of digital assets. BlackRock has been talking about bitcoin to these sorts of institutions for several years. While becoming the biggest spot bitcoin ETF would be an impressive milestone, BlackRock says it isn’t really focused on the size competition with Grayscale’s GBTC. Source ETH | BTC & ALTCOIN News

💰 Bitcoin Miners Log Second Highest Monthly Revenue in April, Despite Falling Hash Value On May 1, 2024, Bitcoin’s hashprice significantly decreased to approximately $44.97 per petahash, a sharp decline from $50 just two days prior. The hashprice represents the expected daily earnings from 1 petahash per second (PH/s) of mining power. Despite the downturn in hashprice, April’s revenue remained strong, marking the second-highest in the last 12 months. Source ETH | BTC & ALTCOIN News

💰 Bitcoin faces potential miner capitulation as hash rate continues to drop The price of Bitcoin has tumbled from its highs of around $73,500 to below $57,000, and as a result of this, further hash rate drops are expected. Luxor’s “hashprice” metric, which quantifies the expected value of 1 TH/s of hashing power per day, currently sits at a five-year low of $0.045 per terahash/second per day. If this trend persists, the digital asset community may witness a miner capitulation event, where Bitcoin mining becomes too expensive relative to the cost of mining. Source ETH | BTC & ALTCOIN News

🟠 Binance founder Changpeng ‘CZ’ Zhao sentenced to 4 months in prison Former Binance CEO Changpeng Zhao has been sentenced to four months in prison, according to a report from Bloomberg on April 30. Zhao’s final sentence is considerably less than the three-year prison sentence prosecutors were seeking — more than twice the recommended guideline for the relevant charges. A separate report from Fortune noted that Zhao will pay a $50 million personal fine, allowing him to keep most of his $43 billion in personal wealth. Zhao will be the wealthiest individual in the US prison system, according to the report. Source ETH | BTC & ALTCOIN News

🏦 Coinbase rolls out Lightning Network support in collaboration with Lightspark Coinbase, the largest U.S. crypto exchange by trading volume, is rolling out support for the Lightning Network from today, enabling a faster and cheaper way for its users to send, receive or pay with bitcoin directly from their account. Previously, bitcoin transfers on Coinbase were processed on-chain, meaning transactions could take between 10 minutes and two hours, incurring high fees during periods of network congestion. Source ETH | BTC & ALTCOIN News

🪙 Consensys alleges the SEC considered ether to be a security over a year ago The U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission approved a "formal order" to investigate ethereum a year ago, Consensys Software Inc. alleged in a newly unredacted complaint on Monday. The blockchain and web3 development company behind the well-known MetaMask Wallet said the regulator "already made what it knew would be a destabilizing reversal of its declaration that ETH was not a security" by early 2023. Source ETH | BTC & ALTCOIN News

🟠 Binance's CZ Will Spend Less Than a Year in Prison, Polymarket Traders Bet Binance's founder and former CEO, Changpeng "CZ" Zhao, will be sentenced in a U.S. court in Seattle Tuesday. The Department of Justice said in a recent sentencing memo that he should spend three years in prison, citing the scale of his misconduct. "Yes" shares for the "less than six months" contract on the crypto-based prediction market platform were trading at about 42 cents Monday, indicating a 42% chance CZ will be out in less than six months. Source ETH | BTC & ALTCOIN News

🟠 Binance-linked HKVAEX Officially Stops Supporting Hong Kong Users From April 30 Hong Kong-based crypto exchange HKVAEX, affiliated with Binance, has announced the permanent closure of its trading platform. The decision comes just over a year after HKVAEX launched its virtual asset trading platform (VATP) in February 2023. The move was aimed at securing its position as a pre-existing service provider to meet regulatory requirements set by the Securities and Futures Commission (SFC). Source ETH | BTC & ALTCOIN News