Buying MicroStrategy shares to play bitcoin can be a very, VERY expensive way to own crypto. CoinDesk's global capital markets managing editor Lawrence Lewitinn explains the MicroStrategy premium: https://trib.al/ki8mhLe

A surge in bitcoin balances on major cryptocurrency exchanges preceded Monday’s sell-off, potentially a sign that this year’s doubling in prices tempted some digital-asset investors to take profits.

The price of bitcoin (BTC, -6.29%), the largest cryptocurrency, tumbled 7.6% to about $52,800. It was the biggest decline in a month and trimmed the year-to-date gain to about 83%.

Some 40,000 BTC ($2.1 billion worth) have been transferred to exchanges since Friday on major crypto exchanges, pushing up the bitcoin reserves to levels not seen since the end of January, according to data from blockchain analytics firm Glassnode.

https://www.coindesk.com/bitcoin-transfers-billions-selling-pressure

SCOOP: Mastercard plans to give merchants the ability to accept crypto payments: source.

https://www.coindesk.com/how-bitcoiners-should-watch-the-us-federal-reserve-meeting-on-wednesday

What to watch for at tomorrow's Fed meeting.

DeFi tokens are attracting investors as bitcoin's rally fades and new protocols are updated.
https://trib.al/MJmehax

TON is officially dead.

Telegram founder Pavel Durov wrote in his public channel Tuesday that the Telegram Open Network (TON) project would be discontinued due to the company's ongoing legal fight with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC).

"Today is a sad day for us here at Telegram. We are announcing the discontinuation of our blockchain project. Below is a summary of what it was and why we had to abandon it," he wrote.

An accompanying blog post said the SEC's winning of a preliminary injunction in a U.S. court led to the decision because it barred Telegram from launching TON or distributing its gram tokens. The move is an abrupt shift for Telegram, which said less than two weeks ago it would be launching the network in April 2021.

Telegram announced at the end of April its investors could receive 72% of their funds back immediately, or 110% back in a year, once TON had launched. U.S. investors would not be able to take the latter option, Telegram said in a later update. In Tuesday's post, Durov did not say whether all investors would be immediately refunded or how much they'd receive.

Durov referenced third-party efforts to launch independent versions of the TON blockchain, but said no Telegram employee is involved with these projects.

"While networks based on the technology we built for TON may appear, we won't have any affiliation with them and are unlikely to ever support them in any way. So be careful, and don't let anyone mislead you," he wrote.

TON Labs, a startup that had been running a test network, launched its own version of the network last week, dubbed "Free TON," after Telegram announced further delays.

Durov also took aim at the injunction barring gram distribution worldwide, noting that the judge in his case had indicated if grams are issued, a U.S. citizen might still be able to access them.

"Sadly, the U.S. judge is right about one thing: We, the people outside the U.S., can vote for our presidents and elect our parliaments, but we are still dependent on the United States when it comes to finance and technology (luckily not coffee)," he wrote.
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https://bit.ly/2YWFYwn

Cryptocurrency exchanges based outside the U.S. are pushing to fill what they see as a competitive gap in the world's biggest economy – offering more leverage to traders who have limited alternatives due to a strict domestic regulatory environment.

Antigua and Barbuda-based cryptocurrency exchange FTX plans to launch its newly established U.S. unit this month. Margin trading, in which users can buy and sell assets using borrowed money, could become a key feature of the U.S. operations, FTX CEO Sam Bankman-Fried told CoinDesk.

You're reading First Mover, CoinDesk's daily markets newsletter. Assembled by the CoinDesk Markets Team, First Mover starts your day with the most up-to-date sentiment around crypto markets, which of course never close, putting in context every wild swing in bitcoin and more. We follow the money so you don’t have to. You can subscribe here.

“The crypto exchange ecosystem as a whole has been in need of competition for a while, and we're excited to be able to offer liquid order books, tons of features, margin trading for qualified customers and a constantly evolving product in the States,” Bankman-Fried said.

Catherine Coley, CEO of the U.S. unit of the big overseas cryptocurrency exchange Binance, told CoinDesk that the company is “actively working toward implementing margin trading.” The business, Binance.US, launched last year.

Outside the United States, traders can get leverage on purchases of cryptocurrencies and derivatives via exchanges including Binance, Bitfinex and BitMEX, in some cases enabling bets of up to 100 times the money down. All three exchanges initially welcomed traders in the U.S. but later started turning some customers away under pressure from local regulators.

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https://bit.ly/3dn38A9

As central banks and governments around the world inject trillions of dollars of coronavirus-related aid and stimulus into the financial system, big investors are becoming increasingly curious about bitcoin's (BTC) potential as a hedge against inflation.

And nowhere is that inflation resistance more evident than in bitcoin's once-every-four-years "halving." That's when issuance of new units of the cryptocurrency automatically gets cut in half. The plan, expected to continue for at least another century, was coded into the underlying blockchain network's programming when it was launched 11 years ago. The mechanism's very purpose was to prevent a rapid debasement of bitcoin's purchasing power.

You're reading First Mover, CoinDesk's daily markets newsletter. Assembled by the CoinDesk Markets Team, First Mover starts your day with the most up-to-date sentiment around crypto markets, which of course never close, putting in context every wild swing in bitcoin and more. We follow the money so you don’t have to. You can subscribe here.

Bitcoin's next halving isn't expected until May. But two lesser cryptocurrencies, bitcoin cash and bitcoin SV, are due for their halvings this week, offering an advance glimpse of the quadrennial phenomenon.

"You're going to get a sneak preview of what happens with bitcoin in a month," said Greg Cipolaro, co-founder of Digital Asset Research, a New York-based analysis firm.

Bitcoin cash (BCH), a cryptocurrency that split off or "forked" from bitcoin in 2017, is expected to undergo its halving on Wednesday. Bitcoin SV (BSV), which forked from Bitcoin cash the following year, is due for a halving on Friday.

In the realm of cryptocurrencies, the two forked cryptocurrencies are considered also-rans, with a combined total market value of roughly $8 billion, versus $131 billion for bitcoin.

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https://bit.ly/34lOEx4

"It's exactly why bitcoin (BTC) was created," Michael Novogratz, CEO of the cryptocurrency-focused investment firm Galaxy Digital, told CNBC last week.

It's a common refrain heard these days from bitcoin bulls: The U.S. dollar and other currencies will eventually be debased by the injections of trillions of dollars of coronavirus-related aid and monetary stimulus by governments and central banks. That should, theoretically, strengthen the case for bitcoin, the oldest and largest cryptocurrency, as a hedge against inflation.

You're reading First Mover, CoinDesk's daily markets newsletter. Assembled by the CoinDesk Markets Team, First Mover starts your day with the most up-to-date sentiment around crypto markets, which of course never close, putting in context every wild swing in bitcoin and more. We follow the money so you don’t have to. You can subscribe here.

Such predictions might eventually come true, but for now bitcoin investors are stuck in a holding pattern: The cryptocurrency pushed above $7,000 on Monday, but for the past couple weeks it has struggled to hold that level, which it hasn't reliably traded above since early March.

"A nice recovery from the lows leaves investors hopeful," cryptocurrency analysis firm Arcane Research wrote Friday in a report. "However, this is not yet reflected in the market sentiment."

Any inflation stemming from fiscal and monetary stimulus could take a while to appear – partly because of higher unemployment and a drop-off in economic demand could relieve upward pressure on consumer prices in the near term. In the U.S. alone, roughly 10 million new unemployment claims were filed during the last two full weeks of March, and JPMorgan economists predict that a report this week will reveal another seven million claims were filed last week. Bank of America says the lack of an effective policy response to control the spread of the virus will push 2020 global growth to a contraction of 2.7 percent, instead of an expansion of 0.3 percent.

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https://bit.ly/2URySqN

A flood of class-action lawsuits were filed in New York Friday, taking aim at a number of major cryptocurrency projects.

First reported by Offshore Alert, at least 10 complaints were filed in the Southern District of New York on April 3, alleging that the firms had sold crypto tokens to U.S. investors that were in fact unregistered securities.

Among those targeted in the suits are cryptocurrency exchanges Binance (see complaint) and BitMEX operator HDR Global Trading, as well as notable blockchain projects like Tron (see complaint), Civic, Block.One, Kyber Network and Status. Bibox, Quantstamp and Kucoin are also named in individual complaints.

The actions, which also name executives from the firms including Binance's CEO Changpeng "CZ" Zhao and Civic's Vinny Lingham, were brought by "litigation boutique" Roche Cyrulnik Freedman on behalf of the plaintiffs. The law firm is also currently representing the Kleiman estate in a lawsuit against Craig Wright over a trove of bitcoin worth billions.

The complaint against Binance states:

"Binance and the Issuers wrongfully engaged in millions of transactions—including the solicitation, offer, and sale of securities—without registering the Tokens as securities, and without Binance registering with the SEC as an exchange or broker-dealer. As a result, investors were not informed of the significant risks inherent in these investments, as federal and state securities laws require."

The suits have been brought on behalf of several individuals, including Chase Williams, Alexander Clifford and Eric Lee, as well as William Zhang in the case of Civic. As class actions, they are also brought "on behalf of all others similarly situated."

In making their case, the plaintiffs raise the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission's action against EOS maker Block.One over its over $4 billion ICO in 2018. The firm agreed to pay penalties of $24 million for conducting an unregistered securities sale in September of last year.

The plaintiffs draw comparison between tokens issued by the companies accused in the complaints and Block.One's sale of EOS.

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https://www.coindesk.com/top-crypto-firms-including-binance-civic-tron-targeted-in-flood-of-lawsuits

After three weeks of listening, recording and talking bitcoin (BTC) in Africa, podcaster Anita Posch is back in part 3 of her six-part documentary podcast series. Presented in audio and full written transcript below.

In the first and second part of this six-part series you heard about the difficult living situation, the hyperinflation and about the multi-currency world that Zimbabweans have to live with since many years. In this - the third part - you will hear from two early bitcoin (BTC) adopters based in Harare. We speak about the different use cases for bitcoin, how it can be exchanged to U.S. dollar and RTGS [the Zimbabwe dollar], what the obstacles and pros are, about regulation and what the two online entrepreneurs want to tell people outside of Africa.

See here: https://www.coindesk.com/using-bitcoin-in-zimbabwe-part-3-of-a-six-part-documentary-podcast-series