• The SEC filed charges against Bittrex and its former CEO for operating without a license.
• Ethereum has declined 3.8% due to mass withdrawals of more than 1 million ETH in the past 24 hours.
• Coinbase CEO Brian Armstrong sold $1.8 million worth of stocks in April.
SEC Charges Against Bittrex
The U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) have filed charges against cryptocurrency exchange Bittrex, Inc., and its former Chief Executive Officer (CEO), Bill Shihara, for operating an unlicensed securities exchange from 2018 to 2020. This news has caused staked Ethereum to decline by 3.8%.
Ethereum Withdrawals
In the last 24 hours, over 1 million ETH have been withdrawn from staking services on Ethereum-based networks, worth around $1 billion at current prices. This is part of the second round of withdrawals following a similar spike in February 2021 when over $3 billion worth of ETH was taken out of DeFi protocols in one day.
Hundred Finance Hack
Hundred Finance recently experienced a hack on Optimism that resulted in losses totaling $7 million worth of Ethereum (ETH). This occurred after a malicious actor exploited loopholes within the protocol’s smart contracts which allowed them to withdraw funds stored in Hundred Finance’s liquidity pool without authorization or permission from the platform’s users or developers.
Elon Musk’s New Corporation XAI
Elon Musk announced plans to develop artificial intelligence technology through his new corporation XAI and will also be launching two startups called NewLimit and Research Hub with funding from his own pocket to support scientific research and development initiatives related to AI technologies such as machine learning and natural language processing (NLP).
Coinbase CEO Offloads Stocks
Coinbase CEO Brian Armstrong sold 29,730 shares — worth around $1,860,444 — in six separate transactions on April 12th according to data from Dataroma website. The sale comes after Armstrong previously sold 89,196 shares valued at $5.8 million back in March 2021 which raised some questions about the timing since it was made just days before the SEC issued warnings about cryptocurrency exchanges being unlicensed securities exchanges..