Top Stories

Liechtenstein Considers Enabling Bitcoin Payments for Government Services

The government of Liechtenstein is exploring the use of Bitcoin and considering enabling its citizens to pay for government services with the cryptocurrency, according to Prime Minister Daniel Risch. Among the possible uses of Bitcoin is enabling citizens to make deposits in Bitcoin and immediately exchange them for the national currency of Liechtenstein, the Swiss franc.

Coinbase CEO Brian Armstrong Heads To UAE For Strategic Developments

Coinbase CEO Brian Armstrong and VP of International & Business Development Nana Murugesan are in the UAE for strategic developments in the region, seeking to establish the country as a hub for Coinbase. The company is working with Abu Dhabi Global Market regulators for licensing and availability for Coinbase International Exchange after launching the derivatives exchange in Bermuda last week. 

Pepecoin Drops Nearly 50% From Highs as Traders Likely Taking Profits for Ether

Pepecoin (PEPE) has seen a significant drop of nearly 45% after hitting a peak of $0.00000431 on Friday with a market capitalization of $1.8 billion. This drop is likely due to traders taking profits on their positions or using advanced trading strategies following the introduction of pepe-tracked futures.

BRC-20 Meme Coin Craze Overwhelms Bitcoin Network, Minting Fees Reach Record High

Meme coins are shifting to the BRC-20 standard, taking over the Bitcoin network as Ethereum faces congestion from new tokens. Daily minting fees on BRC-20 reached a record high of 247 BTC on May 7, and the total fee for these Bitcoin Ordinals was 641 BTC. BRC-20 tokens have a market cap of $541 million, with 14,079 tokens, many of which are meme coins.

Ripple CEO Reveals $200 Million Spent Defending SEC Case

Ripple CEO Brad Garlinghouse revealed that the company has spent $200 million defending itself against the lawsuit brought by the SEC. He expressed regret about the US falling behind in crypto regulation compared to the UAE and Europe.

Market Watch 

As of press time, according to Cointime data:

BTC 's live price is $27,948.55 USD, dropped by 3.48% in the last 24 hours;

ETH’s live price is $1,867.03 USD, dropped by 2.50% in the last 24 hours;

BNB’s live price is $317.55 USD, dropped by 2.15% in the last 24 hours;

XRP's live price is $0.4370 USD, dropped by 4.90% in the last 24 hours.

Fundraising News

Webb Protocol Raises $7 Million for Privacy-Focused Cross-Blockchain Asset Transfers

Webb Protocol, the creator of zero-knowledge infrastructure for private cross-blockchain asset transfers, has raised $7 million in a seed funding round led by Polychain Capital and Lemniscap. The funding will be used to expand the team and develop new privacy-focused tools. 

Hong Kong NFT Firm Artifact Labs Raises US$3.25 Mln in Seed Round

Artifact Labs, a Hong Kong-based non-fungible token (NFT) company, has raised $3.25 million in its seed financing round led by Blue Pool Capital and Animoca Ventures. The company, which is a spinoff of Hong Kong newspaper South China Morning Post, plans to use the funds to expand operations and increase its technical headcount. 

Crypto Startups Raise Approx $52 Million in the Past Week

Last week, crypto startups raised approximately $52 million, with Fedi raising $17 million and zkLink raising $10 million. Fedi is a developer of financial data technology that allows users to create federations for payments between friends and family using Bitcoin.

Siphon Lab Has Successfully Closed a $1.2M Seed Round Fundraising

Crypto DeFi startup Siphon Lab has recently closed a successful $1.2 million fundraising seed round ahead of its beta launch. The funding was led by Kima Ventures, with participation from Waveline Capital, BT Growth Capital, Uno Ventures, Quidnet Ventures, and Mava Ventures, among other notable angel investors in the web3 and web2 industry. The seed round funding will be used to accelerate Siphon’s development, expand its team and scale its operations to meet the increasing demand for its services.