- The fourth Bitcoin halving is expected to occur on April 20, 2024.
- Hong Kong may approve Bitcoin and Ethereum spot ETFs as early as April 15.
- Runes, the Rune cryptocurrency, will launch on the day of the Bitcoin halving.
- EigenLayer will reopen its deposit window on April 16.
- TOKEN2049 Dubai will be held in Dubai from April 18 to April 19.
Key Events
Hong Kong is expected to approve Bitcoin and Ethereum spot ETFs On April 15th. According to reports from Bloomberg citing sources familiar with the matter, a collaboration between China Asset Management Co., Ltd., Bosera Asset Management (International) Limited, and HashKey Capital may receive approval to offer two types of exchange-traded funds (ETFs) in Hong Kong. Regulators could approve as early as Monday, but the timeline is subject to change. Foresight News reports that Bitcoin spot ETFs in Hong Kong could trade as early as the end of April, while Ethereum spot ETFs could trade as early as May. The first batch of approved Bitcoin spot ETF institutions in Hong Kong will include three to four companies, each of which will be custodied by HashKey Exchange and OSL.
The fourth Bitcoin halving is expected to occur on April 20, 2024. During this event, the block reward will decrease from 6.25 BTC per block to 3.125 BTC. Bitcoin halvings occur approximately every four years, introducing a deflationary aspect to Bitcoin’s economic model, which is a key feature of its design. The first Bitcoin halving occurred on November 28, 2012, reducing the block reward from 50 BTC to 25 BTC. The second halving, on July 9, 2016, further reduced the reward to 12.5 BTC per block. The third halving, on May 11, 2020, decreased the reward to 6.25 BTC per block.
Additionally, Runes will launch on the day of the Bitcoin halving. Runes is a new protocol proposed by Casey Rodarmor, the creator of Bitcoin Ordinals, in September 2023. Unlike other asset issuance protocols on Bitcoin, Runes does not require off-chain data or native tokens for issuance or transfer. Its UTXO-based nature and unique data storage method result in a smaller on-chain footprint.
Project Updates
The Arbitrum Foundation funding program’s third phase application will commence on April 15th, with a focus on DApp projects such as gaming, NFTs, social, DAOs, and DeFi.
The BNB Beacon Chain is expected to initiate the mainnet Sunset hard fork upgrade on April 15th. Full node operators on the mainnet must upgrade to v0.10.20 by April 15th. BNB/BEP2 asset holders will need to transfer assets from BC to BSC.
The opBNB mainnet will undergo the Snow hard fork upgrade on April 15th at 14:00.
Illuvium’s Private Beta 4 pre-registration will start on April 15th, 2024. PB4 Madness will take place from April 30th to May 28th, 2024. The Open Beta testnet will open on May 28th via the Epic Games Launcher, with the end date to be determined. The Open Beta mainnet will be launched after testing and final adjustments, during which points will be accumulated in all stages for airdrops.
EigenLayer will reopen the deposit window on April 16th and remove all LST token deposit limits.
The deadline for Gitcoin GG20 applications is April 16th. GG20 will introduce four types of project rounds, including Web3 infrastructure, developer tools, dApps and applications, and hackathon alumni, with a total allocation of $100,000 in support funds. Additionally, GG20 will launch four types of community rounds, including ENS, token engineering commons, Open Civics, and Hypercerts ecosystems, with a funding pool of $230,000.
Solana ecosystem DEX Jupiter will launch the NFT lending protocol Sharky on April 16th. The next LFG vote will commence on April 17th.
The LBP platform Fjord Foundry will issue the token FJO on April 16th, with a total supply of 100 million tokens. The initial supply is expected to be 15%, with about half coming from Fjord LBP events. 4% of tokens will be distributed to the community via airdrops, with a snapshot taken on March 22nd. 1.5% of tokens will be airdropped to Copper Launch and Fjord Foundry’s V1 users, while 2.5% will be airdropped to Fjord Foundry V2 users.
Binance will list Omni Network (OMNI) on April 17th at 20:00. OMNI’s new coin mining began on Launchpool on April 13th at 8:00.
Upcoming Events
This week, Dubai will host a series of intensive blockchain events. TOKEN2049 Dubai will take place from April 18th to April 19th in Dubai. It is expected to attract over 10,000 attendees from more than 4,000 companies and over 100 countries.
Additionally, the 12th edition of Blockchain Life 2024 will be held in Dubai from April 15th to 16th. It is expected to draw over 8,000 participants from 120 countries. Forum topics include Web3, cryptocurrencies, investments, blockchain, mining, trading, Bitcoin halving, and more.
Token Unlocks
According to Token Unlocks, this week ARB, STRK, AXS, and others will experience significant one-time token unlocks, totaling over $370 million in value, including:
- Arbitrum (ARB) will unlock 92.65 million tokens on April 16th at 21:00, worth approximately $94.87 million, accounting for 3.49% of the circulating supply.
- Starknet (STRK) will unlock 64 million tokens on April 15th at 8:00, worth approximately $91.52 million, representing 8.79% of the circulating supply.
- Axie Infinity (AXS) will unlock 10.87 million tokens on April 17th at 21:10, worth approximately $76.74 million, accounting for 7.59% of the circulating supply.
- Immutable (IMX) will unlock 34.19 million tokens on April 19th at 8:00, worth approximately $69.07 million, representing 2.4% of the circulating supply.
- Manta Network (MANTA) will unlock 21.67 million tokens on April 18th at 17:30, worth approximately $40.52 million, accounting for 8.67% of the circulating supply.
Governance Voting
The SingularityNET community’s proposal to merge SingularityNET, Fetch.ai, and Ocean Protocol tokens is open for voting until April 16th at 20:00 UTC. It is open to AGIX token holders on both Cardano and Ethereum.
The Sushi DAO financial proposal is expected to complete its implementation vote on April 17th. The proposal suggests transferring over $40 million of DAO-controlled financial assets to a new treasury managed by Sushi Labs. This proposal has been controversial, with SushiSwap Compensation Committee member Naïm Boubziz claiming that the core development team created new wallets before the vote to increase the team’s voting power.