Scenius Sync (Issue #97)

Fourth Halving Drops Block Subsidy to 3.125 BTC, RFK Vows to Put Budget On The Blockchain, BlackRock’s IBIT Registers 70th Straight Day of Net Inflows, & Grayscale’s Low Fee Mini BTC Trust

Scenius: The intelligence and the intuition of a whole cultural scene. The communal form of the concept of genius.

Welcome to The Scenius Sync.

Our mission with this concise publication is twofold:

1. Share the essential stories driving the crypto industry and markets.

2. Highlight innovative applications and mainstream adoption of crypto and blockchain technology.

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Essential News 🗞

1. Bitcoin ushers in fourth halving as miners' block subsidy reward drops to 3.125 BTC

   • Bitcoin’s fourth halving event has completed, ushering in a new epoch for the network. Bitcoin’s block subsidy reward for miners has dropped from 6.25 BTC to 3.125 BTC. Bitcoin’s fourth halving occurred at block height 840,000, ushering in a new epoch for the network. Hopes of many in the community that the halving would land on the memeable date of 4/20 failed to materialize for the U.S. market as miners appeared to ramp up their hash rate on the network ahead of the subsidy drop. There have been three halving events in Bitcoin's history before today, reducing its block subsidy inflation from 50 BTC to 25 BTC in 2012, then to 12.5 BTC in 2016 and 6.25 BTC at the last halving on May 11, 2020.

   • More on post-halving, here from Coindesk: Bitcoin Transaction Fees Come Crashing Down Post Halving

2. Robert F. Kennedy Jr. Vows to Put the US Budget on Blockchain

   • Independent candidate for U.S. President Robert F. Kennedy Jr. said on Sunday that blockchain tech could play a key role in making the government more transparent—calling for a Web3 makeover of the federal budget. “I’m going to put the entire U.S. budget on [the] blockchain, so that […] every American can look at every budget item in the entire budget anytime they want 24 hours a day,” he said at a rally in Michigan, per The Hill.

     The facilitation of day-to-day payments on a publicly distributed ledger could hold the people in power more accountable, Kennedy suggested in a video shared on Twitter.

3. IRS releases draft form to report certain crypto transactions

   • The Internal Revenue Service released an early draft of a tax form for brokers and exchanges to report certain sales of digital assets, giving insight into how the IRS may categorize brokers.  In the Form 1099-DA draft posted on Thursday, the IRS lists broker types: kiosk operator, digital asset payment processor, hosted wallet provider, unhosted wallet provider and others. The form also asks for a "digital asset address" and whether the asset is a "noncovered security."  The form stems from rules proposed last year that say crypto brokers would be treated similarly to brokers for more traditional investments such as stocks and bonds. Currently, taxpayers owe tax on gains and can deduct losses on digital assets when sold, but the Treasury said it is hard for taxpayers to calculate those gains. 

   • Link to the IRS form here.

4. FTX investors move to settle with SBF in exchange for information to go after celebrity boosters

   • A group of investors have agreed to settle their civil case against former FTX CEO Sam Bankman-Fried in exchange for his cooperation in their case against celebrities who promoted the platform. In documents filed on Friday, the investors asked a Miami court to approve a settlement and said Bankman-Fried has knowledge that would be valuable to cases against other defendants including basketball player Shaquille O'Neal, businesswoman Gisele Bündchen, football star Tom Brady, and businessman Kevin O'Leary among a large list of others.

5. Ripple files opposition to SEC's proposed $2 billion in fines, calling it 'evidence of its ongoing intimidation'

   • Ripple Labs said it should pay closer to $10 million in fines compared to the proposed $2 billion lodged by the SEC last month.  Ripple Chief Legal Officer Stuart Alderoty said the SEC’s request was evidence of “its ongoing intimidation” against crypto. 

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Innovation & Adoption 💡📈

1. BlackRock's spot bitcoin ETF joins exclusive club after 70 straight days of growth

   • BlackRock's spot bitcoin ETF continued its hot streak on Monday, adding net inflows for the 70th straight day. That put the financial giant's ETF in the top 10 of exchange-traded funds with the longest daily streaks of inflows. Earlier on Monday, Bloomberg senior ETF analyst Eric Balchunas posted a graphic to X demonstrating that if BlackRock's fund, ticker IBIT, succeeded in registering a 70th consecutive day of net inflows it would rank the exchange-traded fund among some of the most successful in history.

2. Shiba Inu raises $12 million in token round for its new blockchain

   • Shiba Inu has raised $12 million via the TREAT token to develop its new privacy-focused Layer 3 blockchain. Investors include Polygon Ventures, Mechanism Capital, Big Brain Holdings and Shima Capital.

3. Bitcoin experiencing 'DeFi summer' moment as miners rake in record $100 million post-halving: Bernstein

   • Bitcoin is experiencing a “DeFi summer” moment akin to Ethereum’s in 2020 amid the launch of a new token protocol called Runes, analysts at Bernstein said. Bitcoin miners generated over $100 million in rewards on April 20, with around $80 million just from transaction fees alone.

4. Swiss Bitcoiners renew efforts to orange-pill the country’s central bank

   • Several Swiss-based Bitcoiners are renewing attempts to get the Swiss National Bank to hold Bitcoin in its reserves by holding a referendum to change the country’s constitution — but they will need to convince more than 100,000 locals to sign a petition first. Adding Bitcoin to the central bank’s reserves would help protect the country’s “sovereignty and neutrality” in an increasingly uncertain world, said Yves Bennaïm, founder and chairman of 2B4CH, a nonprofit think tank leading the charge. 

5. Grayscale plans industry-low 0.15% fee for Bitcoin Mini Trust spinoff fund, under ticker BTC

   • Grayscale's latest financial filing has revealed new details about its new fund, the Bitcoin Mini Trust, which the company says will be listed on NYSE Arca under the ticker BTC and charge a competitive fee rate of .15%.  First announced in March, the spinoff trust provides a way for Grayscale to contribute some of the coins in Bitcoin's oldest exchange-traded product to a smaller trust that charges less in fees without incurring a taxable event on existing holders. Shares will be distributed automatically to holders as of the record date, which has yet to be revealed.