The Disrupt

“The Fed’s [rate increase] was widely expected. The price of bitcoin (BTC) held steady in the immediate aftermath of the news.

The policy statement [however] was notable for leaving out prior language that suggested continuing rate hikes were a certainty. The statement did take note of “tighter credit conditions” as weighing on the economy going forward.

While inflation has fallen from nearly a double-digit pace one year ago to the current level of about 5%, it remains well above the Fed’s 2% target. The Fed, however, is fighting a two-front war, with its rate hikes possibly having helped expose balance sheet issues at a number of U.S. banks.”

See Also: Bitcoin, Ether Decouple From Stocks: What’s Next for Crypto After Fed Rate Hike?
See Also: RFK Jr. Raises Crypto Taxes, Regulation as Issues in Opening Days of 2024 Presidential Race

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“Bitcoin mining company Bitdeer (BTDR) said it will work with the Bhutan government to establish cryptocurrency mining operations. Bhutan’s goal for the venture is to ‘accelerate the Kingdom’s digital transformation and economic diversification by exploring emerging sectors.’

The Nasdaq-listed miner and the government’s commercial arm, Druk Holding & Investments, will establish a $500 million fund to raise money for the venture from international investors and expect fundraising efforts to start this month.”

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“Centralized crypto exchange giants Binance and Coinbase have suffered large outflows of staked ether (ETH) since Ethereum’s Shanghai upgrade as investors flock to decentralized rivals, blockchain data shows.

Coinbase’s staking platform has endured a $367 million net outflow of staked ETH since April 12. The staking service of Binance has had a net outflow of $340 million. Decentralized liquid staking protocols, on the other hand, have enjoyed a sharp rise in deposits. The amount of ETH staked on Frax and Rocket Pool has grown 32.5% and 31% in the past 30 days, respectively, according to DefiLlama data.

Regulatory risks and aversion to centralized crypto platforms after last year’s bankruptcies are likely among the reasons that drive investors to decentralized staking protocols. Investors could also be swayed by higher staking rewards that decentralized protocols can provide.

The upgrade has been “a major catalyst” for decentralized liquid staking systems.”

See Also: Curve Finance Deploys Native Stablecoin on Mainnet

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“The number of non-fungible tokens (NFT) tied to the Bitcoin blockchain surged above 3 million earlier this week after a one-day spike in activity that mainly consisted of text-based assets, data from Dune Analytics show.

These cost much less than digital art or meme coins because network fees are dependent on the amount of data inscribed. Monday saw over 372,000 unique inscriptions on the Bitcoin blockchain, of which 371,000 were text based. Just 316 image-based inscriptions were created.”