Tornado Cash Developer Released, Solana Monkey Business IP Sold
Market Update
- Digital asset markets continue their decline from earlier in the week amidst a broader market correction. $SPX (-0.1%) and $QQQ (-0.1%) are poised to make weekly losses, while NDAQ (-0.5%) is set to close the week up 2.0%. $BTC (-2.3%) is trading at $28k at time of writing after getting rejected from the $30k range on Wednesday. $ETH (-3.0%) exhibited a higher beta as it slid below $2k as well. Given the market's progress since the November bottom, much of market sentiment has improved and perhaps overheated, as evidenced by newer projects and increased meme-coin price action. A correction at these levels should be constructive for another leg up without losing market structure at $23k and $1.5k.
- Tornado Cash developer Alex Pertsev is expected to be released from jail on April 26 pending trial. He spent almost nine months in prison after being arrested by Dutch authorities in August on suspicion of involvement in money laundering through the crypto mixing service Tornado Cash. The suspended release will allow Pertsev to await trial from home under surveillance and with an ankle monitor. Pertsev's arrest occurred after the US Treasury Department placed several Tornado Cash addresses on the Office of Foreign Asset Control sanctions list. Previously, a Dutch court denied Pertsev's plea to be released under surveillance, arguing that he posed a flight risk. Crypto mixing services, such as Tornado Cash, are designed to make cryptocurrency transactions anonymous and difficult to trace by mixing transactions with others and sending them to various wallet addresses.
- Solana Monkey Business (SMB), a leading Solana NFT collection, has its intellectual property now owned by MonkeDAO, an independent collective of SMB holders. The Solana NFT exchange Hadeswap sold it for $2 million, following a HadesDAO governance proposal that received 97% approval from token-based voters. MonkeDAO, a decentralized autonomous organization, celebrated the acquisition as its "independence day," marking the end of disputes with the project's original creators. Launched in June 2021, SMB's Gen2 collection has generated $164 million in trading volume, with secondary market prices starting at around 200 SOL or $4,375. When MonkeDAO and SMB disagreed over royalty shares for project funding, MonkeDAO considered "wrapping" SMB NFTs to redirect royalties to the DAO treasury. The IP purchase was facilitated by a $1 million bridge loan from NFT investor SOL Big Brain.
Daily Technical Strategy
Mark L. Newton, CMT
Head of Technical Strategy
Stellar looks like an attractive risk/reward technically following its recent post breakout consolidation. $XLM has pulled back to the exact 50% retracement level of its prior low to high range. Furthermore, this area lies exactly near an area of prior highs from January- February of this year. Normally, former areas of resistance can often act as support on pullbacks. Daily $XLM charts show the volume to have been far heavier on the rally back in March than on the subsequent consolidation. Overall, this looks to be a very attractive area of risk/reward support for Stellar and rallies back to test and exceed recent highs near 0.1145 looks likely. Intermediate-term resistance targets on a breakout above 0.1145 lie near 0.133 which aligns with last Fall’s peaks.
Daily Important Metrics
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All metrics as of April 21, 2023 11:58 AM
All Funding rates are in bps
Crypto Prices
| Symbol | Market Cap | Last Price | Daily Change | Year to Date | Relative to BTC YTD |
 BTC | $542B | $28,026 | ↓ -1.95% | ↑ 69% | |
 ETH | $229B | $1,903 | ↓ -2.48% | ↑ 59% | ↓ -10% |
 ADA | $14B | $0.3990 | ↓ -2.51% | ↑ 62% | ↓ -7.52% |
 DOGE | $12B | $0.0836 | ↓ -3.69% | ↑ 19% | ↓ -50% |
 MATIC | $9.6B | $1.04 | ↓ -2.57% | ↑ 36% | ↓ -33% |
 SOL | $8.6B | $21.87 | ↓ -1.96% | ↑ 121% | ↑ 52% |
 DOT | $7.1B | $6.03 | ↓ -3.76% | ↑ 39% | ↓ -30% |
 LINK | $3.8B | $7.39 | ↓ -4.92% | ↑ 33% | ↓ -36% |
 NEAR | $1.8B | $2.01 | ↓ -4.14% | ↑ 58% | ↓ -11% |
Exchange Traded Products (ETPs)
| Symbol | Premium to Nav | Last Price | Daily Change | Year to Date | Relative to BTC YTD |
| GBTC | ↓ -38% | $15.59 | ↓ -1.43% | ↑ 88% | ↑ 19% |
| BITW | ↓ -56% | $11.06 | ↓ -0.83% | ↑ 106% | ↑ 37% |
| ETHE | ↓ -50% | $9.26 | ↓ -2.22% | ↑ 95% | ↑ 25% |
| BTCC | ↓ -0.27% | $5.16 | ↑ 0.00% | ↑ 70% | ↑ 1.12% |
News
REGULATION
Decrypt.co SEC Warns Advisers to Apply 'Heightened Scrutiny' When Recommending Crypto Assets Protecting retail investors, including those seeking exposure to cryptocurrencies, remains a priority for the SEC. |
CoinDesk EU Crypto Industry Applauds MiCA – But Looks to What’s Next A Thursday vote sealed the deal on the long-awaited crypto law, but there’s still plenty of details to settle. |
Decrypt.co Dutch Court Agrees to Free Tornado Cash Dev Alex Pertsev Pending Trial The developer of coin mixer Tornado Cash, Alex Pertsev, is set to be released on bail after nine months in detention without a trial. |
NFTS
Decrypt.co Solana Monkey Business IP Acquired by DAO of NFT Holders Prominent NFT project Solana Monkey Business is now owned by the independent collective of holders that formed around it. |
HIRING
The Block Polygon research lead quits to join its spin-off blockchain project Avail Polygon research lead Prabal Banerjee has quit to join its spin-off Avail — a modular blockchain — as a co-founder. The post Polygon... |
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