Rhythm Morning News | Avail opens the second phase of airdrop applications; Grayscale withdraws 19b-4 application for Ethereum futures ETF

Featured News:

1. Ethereum briefly fell below $3,000;

2. The fund managed by former Sequoia China partner Cao Xi holds a large position in BlackRock Bitcoin ETF, with a scale of over $24 million;

3. Avail: The second phase of airdrop applications has been opened;

4. Standard Chartered Bank: Bitcoin may benefit from the US fiscal dominance and Trump's election;

5. Grayscale withdraws 19b-4 application for Ethereum futures ETF

Price Observation

Ethereum briefly fell below $3,000

On May 8, according to OKX market data, Ethereum briefly fell below $3,000 and is now quoted at $3,013, a 24-hour drop of 1.8%.

Bitcoin rebounded above $64,000

On May 7, according to OKX market data, Bitcoin rebounded above $64,000 and is now quoted at $64,051, up 1.29% in 24 hours.

ENA rose above $0.97 and rose more than 6% in the past hour

On May 7, according to market data, ENA rose above $0.97 and is now quoted at $0.971, up more than 6% in the past hour.

BlockBeats previously reported that Bybit will list USDe as a collateral asset and spot trading pair.

Ethernity (ERN) briefly surged to $6.2, up more than 22% on the day

On May 7, according to OKX market data, Ethernity's native token ERN briefly surged to $6.2 today, and now fell back to $5.37, with a daily increase of more than 22%.

Aevo Pre-Launch launched AVAIL, temporarily reported at 0.314 USD

On May 7, according to the official page, Aevo Pre-Launch launched AVAIL, temporarily reported at 0.314 USD.

Transaction Tracking

Wintermute will provide liquidity for Hong Kong Bitcoin and Ethereum ETFs

On May 8, according to CoinDesk, crypto market maker Wintermute will provide liquidity for Hong Kong spot Bitcoin and Ethereum ETFs. Wintermute is working with OSL Digital Securities and HashKey HK Exchange to help OSL and HashKey buy, sell and deliver the underlying assets of the ETF.

The fund managed by former Sequoia China partner Cao Xi holds a large position in BlackRock's Bitcoin ETF, with a scale of over $24 million

On May 7, according to regulatory documents, Lisi Capital, an investment company co-founded by former Sequoia China partner Cao Xi, holds more than $24 million in BlackRock's spot Bitcoin ETF (stock code: IBIT), which is its fifth largest position and more than twice the size of its Meta stock.

The fund's top two holdings are Nvidia and Microsoft. Hong Kong-based IvyRock Asset Management also disclosed in a filing on Tuesday that it holds nearly $19 million in BlackRock's Bitcoin ETF.

Spot Bitcoin ETFs were listed on the Hong Kong Stock Exchange in January, but so far, these products have attracted far less capital than competing funds traded in the United States. Among the newly issued spot Bitcoin ETFs, BlackRock's funds are the most popular in terms of assets under management (AUM). Grayscale's fund currently has the highest AUM, but it is essentially a transformation, with billions of dollars in assets at the time of the transformation.

"Mr.100" address increased holdings by 300 BTC today

On May 7, according to HODL15Capital monitoring, the cold wallet "Mr.100" increased holdings by 300 BTC today.

Currently, the address has been marked as an Upbit cold wallet by Arkham, but the mark is still controversial.

A whale initiated a redemption application for 8453 stETH in Lido ten minutes ago, worth 30.17 million US dollars

On May 7, according to @ai_9684xtpa monitoring, the whale 0xAA1...3eE57, who had built a position of 52,732 ETH since September 2023, initiated a redemption application for 8453 stETH in Lido ten minutes ago, worth 30.17 million US dollars.

The ETH position building cost of this address is only 2030 US dollars, and it has currently made a floating profit of 54.15 million US dollars, with total wallet assets as high as 192 million US dollars.

Cyvers Alerts: PinkDrainer transfers $5.9 million in stolen money through 5 different addresses

On May 7, according to Cyvers Alerts monitoring, the fraud organization PinkDrainer is using 5 different addresses to transfer stolen funds. It has been found that a total of $5.9 million worth of crypto assets have been transferred from these 5 addresses and deposited into multiple other addresses. It is worth noting that PinkDrainer has processed 600 ETH worth about $2 million through the Railgun mixing service.

Project Dynamics

Circle has temporarily stopped minting USDC on Noble via CCTP

On May 8, as part of the CCTP maintenance upgrade on Noble, Circle has temporarily stopped minting USDC on Noble through Circle's Cross-Chain Transfer Protocol (CCTP).

Options Protocol Lyra Launches LDX Token Airdrop, LYRA Snapshot Completed

On May 8, options protocol Lyra published a blog post stating that LDX is Lyra's new utility token. The first round of LDX airdrop rewards traders and liquidity providers, using a points system to distribute LDX to users in proportion over 4 weeks. The airdrop will last for at least 3 rounds, or 12 weeks. Users can earn points through trading, yield, and invitations.

LYRA has completed the snapshot, and the points earned by staking and locking LYRA have stopped accumulating.

Gitcoin: The funding round GG20 for open source software has officially ended

On May 8, Gitcoin's funding round GG20 for open source software has officially ended, with donations reaching US$632,091. It is reported that GG20 will run based on the v2 version of the community resource allocation protocol Allo.

Avail: The second phase of airdrop claims has been opened

On May 8, Polygon modular blockchain project Avail tweeted that the second phase of airdrop claims has been opened. To reward the Avail community, Phase 2 introduces rewards for multiple groups, including:

• Rewards for more Clash of Nodes participants;

• Rewards for Polygon PoS Liquid Stake protocol users.

The event will run from now until 16:00 UTC on May 12.

Aethir announces airdrop to Azuki community

On May 8, the decentralized cloud computing infrastructure project Aethir officially announced that it will airdrop to the Azuki NFT community.

Users need to connect their wallets to the Aethir Cloud Drop platform to check whether they are eligible for the badge.

OpenAI releases its position on data use in the AI era and launches the Media Manager tool to serve content creators

On May 8, OpenAI issued an announcement, expounding on its position on data use in the AI era, and announced that it will launch the Media Manager tool to enable content creators and copyright owners to manage how their works are used in AI training.

OpenAI said that AI systems should respect and benefit content creators, and they are working closely with the creator community to continuously improve industry-leading systems to reflect the wishes of copyright owners. The Media Manager tool will allow content owners to label their content and specify how it should be included or excluded in machine learning research and training.

In addition, OpenAI also announced a partnership with several global news publishers to display their content in ChatGPT to enrich the user experience on news topics. In the future, this content can also be used to train ChatGPT to better present relevant publisher content to users.

OpenAI said that they hope to work with creators, content owners and regulators to launch the Media Manager tool by 2025, set a benchmark for the AI industry, and jointly create a social contract that benefits all parties in the AI era.

Sui Ecological Lending Platform Suilend Launches Points System

On May 8, Sui Ecological Lending Platform Suilend announced the launch of the points system Suilend Points.

Since its launch on March 11, Suilend has attracted more than 5,000 users, with a total locked value (TVL) exceeding $45 million. On the existing basis, Suilend will issue 10 million points per day to encourage user participation, including 2 million points in SUI tokens, 4 million points each in USDC and USDT.

Unlike traditional points stored in centralized databases, Suilend Points will exist in the form of non-transferable and non-extractable on-chain tokens. Users can obtain corresponding points in proportion by making deposits and loans on Suilend. In addition, Suilend will also provide point rewards to encourage users to contribute to the community by posting and making memes.

It is worth mentioning that in order to cooperate with the launch of the points system, Suilend has lowered the borrowing rate of USDT and USDC to 0.20%. This move is expected to further improve the platform's capital utilization efficiency.

Zora acquires NFT casting aggregator mint.fun

On May 7, Zora announced the acquisition of NFT casting aggregator mint.fun.

Yearn is about to launch the new yPRISMA YBS staking system, and users need to migrate their assets as soon as possible

On May 7, Yearn announced that it will launch the new yPRISMA YBS staking system in accordance with the YIP-77 proposal at 00:00 UTC this Thursday (May 9).

All yPRISMA stakers need to migrate their assets to continue to receive staking income. The best migration period is within one week after the new system goes online. Users can choose to deposit into the new yPRISMA Yearn machine gun pool yvyPRISMA, or directly stake into the new Yearn Boosted Staker (YBS).

The yvyPRISMA option is suitable for users who want to increase their yPRISMA positions and are more concerned about gas costs. The YBS direct staking option is suitable for users who want to earn stablecoin rewards, do not mind the additional gas costs, and expect to become long-term ecological participants.

YBS adopts an innovative mechanism to incentivize long-term stakers to stay by giving them higher rewards. Rewards will be issued in the form of stablecoin yvmkUSD-A wrapped by Yearn Machine Gun Pool, and accumulated rewards can be claimed at the beginning of the next week after staking for a full week.

To ensure safety, the reward contract will ignore the amount of staked in the first week of staking. Therefore, after the new system goes online, no user will be eligible to receive the 1x value increase before May 23. Users who complete the migration during the migration week (before 00:00 UTC on May 16) can claim the accumulated double rewards on that day.

Users who migrate after the migration period will miss out on a week of double rewards. The original yPRISMA staking contract will be deprecated on Thursday.

Ethernity Launches Ethereum Layer 2 Network with Enhanced AI-Driven Security

On May 7, Ethernity announced the launch of the eponymous Ethereum Layer 2 expansion network Ethernity Chain, which integrates enhanced AI-driven security mechanisms and aims to set a benchmark for global brands to transition to blockchain.

Given that the global entertainment and media market is expected to reach $3.5 trillion by 2030, Ethernity Chain hopes to become a top platform for brands to import their franchises to the blockchain. Previously, the team has successfully put well-known IPs such as Lionel Messi, Shaq, and Muhammad Ali on the chain.

After discussions with industry leaders, Ethernity Chain provides brands with customized second-layer solutions, with key features including: AI-enhanced security and digital rights management, plug-and-play toolkits for easy integration, a friendly ecosystem with reduced gas fees, and 100% EVM compatibility that seamlessly connects with existing standards.

Brands can use the Ethernity product suite and plug-in toolkit to build a new generation of Web3 applications on their chain, covering Web3 games, digital collections, physical assets, and interactive media. In addition, products such as Fanable and Exorians will also be launched in the near future.

Ethernity said that its ecosystem will continue to be powered by the native token ERN.

Silent Protocol to launch the first modular Layer 1.5 "Ghost Layer" for Ethereum

On May 7, Silent Protocol announced the release of Ghost Layer, a cutting-edge modular Layer 1.5 designed specifically for the Ethereum ecosystem. The solution aims to provide compliant privacy enhancements for public chains, suitable for retail and institutional applications.

Ghost Layer uses a zero-knowledge proof-based system and its proprietary 0VM technology. These technological advances allow for private storage of assets and support omnidirectional value flows across multiple blockchains. By opening access to different execution layers, Ghost Layer is able to seamlessly integrate existing applications into private workflows.

CeFi News

Bybit will launch USDe as a collateral asset and spot trading pair

On May 7, the cryptocurrency exchange Bybit announced a new partnership with Ethena Labs to integrate the latter's synthetic USDe as a collateral asset into its unified trading account (UTA). Users can use USDe to trade perpetual contracts for all assets, which is expected to earn returns and "unleash higher capital efficiency."

The integration will also add spot trading pairs for USDe with Bitcoin and Ethereum. USDe will also be available on Bybit's Earn platform, where users can participate in Launchpool mining using synthetic dollars. Guy Young, founder and CEO of Ethena Labs, said the move is an important step in promoting the use of USDe. Providing USDe as collateral on Bybit, an important derivatives platform, will unlock the potential for its next wave of growth and further challenge the existing stablecoin hegemony.

Viewpoint Data

U.S. spot Bitcoin ETFs had a net outflow of $19 million yesterday

On May 8, according to HODL15Capital monitoring, the net outflow of funds from U.S. spot Bitcoin ETFs reached $19 million yesterday.

BlackRock IBIT had a net outflow of $3.1 million yesterday

On May 8, according to market monitoring, BlackRock IBIT had a net outflow of $3.1 million yesterday.

Grayscale GBTC had a net outflow of $28.6 million yesterday

On May 8, according to Farside Investors data, Grayscale's GBTC had a net outflow of $28.6 million yesterday.

Data: 168 asset management companies already hold BlackRock IBIT

On May 8, according to HODL15Capital monitoring, the first quarter 13-F filing deadline is May 15.

168 asset management companies have submitted 13-F documents showing that they hold BlackRock IBIT, the two largest of which are located in Hong Kong.

Bloomberg Analyst: Grayscale Spot Bitcoin ETF Inflows May Be the Result of Short-Term Trading

On May 8, Bloomberg's ETF analysts put forward some theories about Grayscale's spot Bitcoin exchange-traded fund's two consecutive days of inflows. Grayscale's spot Bitcoin ETF ended a 78-day outflow streak after recording net inflows for two consecutive days.

Analyst James Seyffart said he was not entirely sure what might have caused the volatility, but there could be several different explanations. He said: "This could be a short-term tactical trade or some kind of hedging trade. In a shorter time frame, fees are far less important."

Robinhood's first-quarter revenue is expected to hit a three-year high

On May 8, Reuters reported that trading app Robinhood is expected to record its highest quarterly revenue in nearly three years, benefiting from a steady rebound in stock and cryptocurrency trading. Expectations of global interest rate cuts pushed U.S. stocks and Bitcoin to record highs earlier this year, attracting traders back to the market and helping the retail brokerage company earn more trading revenue. Robinhood was at the forefront of the "monster stock" frenzy in 2021 and is now recovering from the downturn after the trading boom caused by the epidemic. JPMorgan analysts said that Robinhood's core business saw a sharp rebound in stock, options and cryptocurrency trading volumes in the first quarter, with total trading volumes up nearly 20% year-on-year. Driven by strong retail trading activity, Robinhood's stock price soared 58% in the first three months of this year, its biggest quarterly gain since its listing.

Fed Kashkari: I don't expect more than 2 rate cuts in the June economic forecast

On May 7, Fed Kashkari said that I don't expect more than 2 rate cuts in the June economic forecast (Golden Ten).

Standard Chartered Bank: Bitcoin may benefit from US fiscal dominance and Trump's election

On May 7, Standard Chartered Bank said in a research report that the risk of US fiscal dominance brought about by the Federal Reserve's monetization of government debt is rising. In this case, investors may seek alternative assets including cryptocurrencies, which is good for cryptocurrencies.

The report also pointed out that if Trump wins the election, his second-term government may promote a more supportive regulatory environment, which is positive for digital assets. Trump's return to the White House may accelerate the withdrawal of foreign official buyers from the U.S. Treasury market due to fiscal concerns. During Trump's first term, foreign investors sold an average of $207 billion in U.S. Treasuries each year, while the figure was only $55 billion during Biden's administration.

Standard Chartered Bank reiterated its target price of $150,000 for Bitcoin at the end of the year and $200,000 by the end of 2025. The report said that Bitcoin prices are positively correlated with the steepening of the U.S. Treasury yield curve, rising inflation expectations and increased term premiums.

BTC Eco-Lending Protocol Avalon Finance is launched on Bitlayer, TVL exceeds 200 million US dollars

On May 7, BTC Eco-Lending Protocol Avalon Finance was officially launched on the BTC public chain Bitlayer, and supports various Bitlayer native assets, including the stablecoin bitUSD issued by Bitsmiley.

It is reported that this move is the first step of Avalon Finance's multi-chain deployment. Avalon Finance was previously the largest lending protocol on Merlin Chain, and its TVL has exceeded 200 million US dollars.

Bitcoin options traders betting on a September price breakout above $100,000, analysts say

Bitcoin derivatives traders are betting on an optimistic price rally in September, breaking through the $100,000 mark, analysts said on May 7.

Analysts at QCP Capital said Bitcoin risk reversals have turned positive, with call options now more expensive than puts, meaning investor sentiment is bullish and they are willing to pay more for options that benefit from Bitcoin's gains. "We are seeing a resurgence in demand for September Bitcoin call options with a strike price of $75,000, and an increase in demand for $100,000 calls," the analysts added.

Data from the Deribit derivatives exchange also confirms this observation. According to its data, the current largest volume in the options market by instrument is a Bitcoin call option with a strike price of $110,000 expiring at the end of September.

However, Stocklytics analyst Neil Roarty believes that for Bitcoin to reach a price above $100,000, "it must show greater resilience in the face of increasing regulatory scrutiny and broader political and economic uncertainty."

Despite the bullish sentiment in the derivatives market, Bitfinex analysts have observed that the activity of Bitcoin whales may indicate further selling pressure in the short term. According to this week's Bitfinex Alpha report, the Bitcoin exchange whale ratio shows that selling pressure may increase. Such investors have been observed to be transferring more Bitcoin assets to exchanges, which increases the possibility that they may be ready to sell.

Surf Protocol's total transaction volume exceeded $200 million, and TVL exceeded $30 million

On May 7, Surf Protocol's total transaction volume exceeded $200 million, and TVL exceeded $30 million.

It is reported that Surf Protocol is the largest Bitcoin L2 derivatives trading platform. At the same time, Surf Protocol is the only decentralized derivatives protocol based on Bitcoin's second-layer Merlin Chain selected by Binance MVB7, supporting the addition of liquidity to native Bitcoin assets and trading with BTC as margin, aiming to provide users of the entire Bitcoin ecosystem with more convenient and better trading products.

Hedge fund tycoon Druckenmiller: Nvidia holdings have been significantly reduced in March, and AI may be over-hyped in the short term

On May 7, billionaire investor Stanley Druckenmiller revealed on Tuesday that he had significantly cut his bets on chipmaker Nvidia in late March this year. He believes that the rapid boom in artificial intelligence may be a bit overheated in the short term.

Druckenmiller said in an interview with CNBC: "We did cut Nvidia and many other positions in late March. I just need a break. We have achieved great results, and many of the things we recognized are now recognized by the market."

He said he reduced his bets after "Nvidia's stock price rose from $150 to $900." "I'm not Warren Buffett, I'm not going to hold it for 10 or 20 years. I wish I were Buffett," he added.

Druckenmiller said that while he has cut his position in Nvidia, he remains bullish on the power of artificial intelligence in the long run. "So AI may be a little overhyped now, but underestimated in the long run," he said. "AI may be similar to the Internet."

CoinShares: Digital asset investment products saw outflows for the fourth consecutive week last week, reaching $251 million

On May 7, the latest data from CoinShares showed that global digital asset investment products saw outflows for the fourth consecutive week last week, reaching $251 million. This is the first time that the newly issued Bitcoin ETF in the United States has seen a significant outflow of funds, with a scale of $156 million.

The highlight was the successful launch of spot Bitcoin and Ethereum ETFs in Hong Kong, with $307 million in inflows in the first week of trading.

Bitcoin remained the main target of capital outflows, reaching $284 million. It is worth mentioning that Ethereum ended 7 consecutive weeks of capital outflows, with an inflow of $30 million last week. Avalanche, Cardano, Polkadot and other altcoins also saw capital inflows.

Financing Express

Solana Ecosystem DePin Project Ambient Completes $2 Million in Financing, Led by Borderless Capital

On May 8, Ambient, a decentralized environmental data network project based on Solana, announced the completion of a $2 million seed round of financing, led by Borderless Capital, with participation from Solana Ventures, Parami Investors, Sonic Boom Ventures, and Primal Capital. Ambient was founded in January this year, acquired PlanetWatch, an environmental data project based on Algorand, in March, and decided to migrate to Solana.

Ambient plans to go live on the Solana testnet this summer, and then launch its own tokens to incentivize users to contribute data. Ambient has deployed more than 25,000 sensors in more than 20 countries around the world, collecting data every 5 minutes, and generating more than 10.7 billion data streams.

Lava Foundation Completes $11 Million in Token Financing, Animoca Brands and Others Participate

On May 7, the Lava Foundation, a non-profit development organization for the modular blockchain project Lava, announced that it had completed $11 million in token financing before its mainnet and token airdrop.

Investors in this round of financing include Animoca Brands, Gate.io Ventures, Coingecko Ventures, Polygon co-founder Sandeep Nailwal, and others. This is the first public appearance of the Lava Foundation, after Lava development company MagmaDevs completed a $15 million seed round in February.

As a modular blockchain focused on providing data access through RPC, Lava has now entered the testnet stage and has provided over 20 billion RPC request services for multiple blockchains. Many projects such as NEAR, Evmos, and Axelar are using Lava's services.

The Lava mainnet is expected to be launched in the first half of 2024, when the native token LAVA will also be issued. The total amount of LAVA tokens is set at 1 billion, part of which will be airdropped to users. The Lava Foundation stated that LAVA tokens are essential to the function of the mainnet, and nodes and validators need to stake LAVA tokens to join the network.

In the future, in addition to RPC services, Lava also plans to support other data infrastructure such as indexing, subgraphs, and sorting.

ZKM Completes $5 Million Pre-A Round of Financing, Led by OKX Ventures

On May 7, Ethereum scaling solution ZKM completed a $5 million Pre-A round of financing, led by OKX Ventures, with participation from Amber, Metis Foundation, Crypto.com, etc.

ZKM plans to launch a Layer 2 network based on Bitcoin.

OKX Ventures Announces Investment in Blade of God X

On May 7, OKX Ventures announced an investment in Blade of God X, a dark-style cross-platform 3A action game.

Blade of God X is developed by Void Labs. Void Labs regards games as the best medium and way for humans to interact with the virtual world, and launched the innovative concept of Play ARPG to train AI Agent. This concept not only introduces the innovative integration of AI Agent and blockchain technology, but also allows players to easily train their own AI Agent through games. Blade of God is a popular IP series with 6 million downloads worldwide. Currently, Blade of God X has invested a total of 6 million US dollars in game development.

Bitcoin development startup Botanix Labs received a total of 11.5 million US dollars in financing, with participation from Polychain Capital, Placeholder Capital, etc.

On May 7, Botanix Labs, a startup dedicated to Bitcoin development, announced today that it has completed a total of $11.5 million in financing. This round of financing was participated in by Polychain Capital, Placeholder Capital, Valor Equity Partners, ABCDE, well-known angel investors Andrew Kang, Fiskantes, Dan Held, The Crypto Dog, Charlie Spears, Altcoin Sherpa, Dovey Wan, Jebus, Icebergy, Crypto ISO, Davis (aka "KarbonBased") Walt Smith, and Domo, the creator of the BRC-20 token standard, which participated in the $8.5 million seed round that ended in April.

Edessa Capital, Curiosity Capital, UTXO Management, XBTO Ventures, Blocmates, Eric Wall and other investors participated in last year's pre-seed round of financing.

The funds will be used to build Spiderchain, the first Layer2 network on Bitcoin with full EVM equivalent. Since 2022, Botanix Labs has been working on building a decentralized financial system native to Bitcoin. They launched an early testnet version of the EVM second-layer protocol in November 2023, attracting more than 200,000 active addresses and 10,000 experimental token launches. The first mainnet version of Spiderchain is expected to be released in early summer 2024.

Galaxis completes $10 million in financing, with Chainlink, Rarestone Capital and others participating

On May 7, Singapore Web3 platform Galaxis announced that it had completed $10 million in financing before its token issuance. Participants in this round of financing include Chainlink, ENS, Rarestone Capital, Taisu Ventures, and ENS co-founder Nick Johnson.

Galaxis calls itself a "post-hype NFT utility platform" and has previously launched NFT series for celebrities such as DJ Steve Aoki and actor Val Kilmer. The platform has sold more than 225,000 NFTs, generating more than 32,000 ETH (about $100 million) in sales in the secondary market, and is currently preparing for "large-scale distribution."

Regulatory News

FTX predicts that the total value of property that can be distributed to creditors will be between $14.5 billion and $16.3 billion

On May 8, FTX and its affiliated debtors filed a reorganization plan and disclosure statement with the U.S. Bankruptcy Court in Delaware. The plan is expected to centrally distribute to customers and other creditors around the world substantially all of FTX's assets at the time of bankruptcy in November 2022. FTX estimates that the total value of property that has been collected, converted into cash and available for distribution will be between $14.5 billion and $16.3 billion. The amount includes assets controlled by the Chapter 11 debtor and assets controlled by the Joint Official Liquidators of FTX Digital Markets, Ltd. (Bahamas), the Securities Commission of the Bahamas, and the Joint Official Liquidators of FTX Australia.

If the plan is approved by the bankruptcy court, 98% of FTX creditors will receive approximately 118% of their allowed claims within 60 days of the plan taking effect. The remaining creditors will receive all their claims, "plus billions of dollars in compensation for the time value of their investments."

Grayscale withdraws 19b-4 application for Ethereum futures ETF

On May 8, Cointelegraph reported that Grayscale withdrew its 19b-4 application for Ethereum (ETH) futures exchange-traded fund (ETF), just three weeks after the securities regulator made a decision. Grayscale submitted a notice to the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission on May 7 to withdraw the Grayscale Ethereum Futures ETF. The SEC is scheduled to make a final decision on Grayscale's Ethereum Futures ETF on May 30.

The U.S. Department of Justice charges the leader of the ransomware LockBit gang and offers a $10 million reward for his arrest

On May 8, the U.S. Department of Justice announced a 26-count indictment accusing 31-year-old Russian citizen Dmitry Khoroshev of being the mastermind behind the notorious LockBit ransomware organization. Khoroshev is accused of developing and managing the LockBit software and recruiting "affiliates" on cybercrime forums to carry out ransomware attacks. Since its inception in 2019, LockBit has become one of the most rampant ransomware in the world, with about 2,500 victims, 1,800 of which are in the United States, and an estimated ransom of $500 million. The Department of Justice said Khoroshev made $100 million in Bitcoin from it and has now been sanctioned by the U.S. Treasury Department's Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC). U.S. authorities have offered a $10 million reward for the capture of Khoroshev, who is still at large. He faces charges including conspiracy to commit fraud, extortion and multiple counts, with a maximum sentence of 185 years in prison.

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