Unofficial Gamestop memecoin, Gamestop.Finance, based on GameStop (NYSE:GME), briefly reached a $100 million market cap due to a trading frenzy, hitting a peak of $0.01449. Currently, GME has increased by 2,109% in a week, trading at $0.01234 with a market cap of $89.263 million. The surge in interest was driven by a 157% increase in GameStop shares, with listings on centralized exchanges like Bitget and BingX further boosting the momentum.
Ethereum co-founder Vitalik Buterin proposed EIP-7706, a new Ethereum Improvement Proposal introducing a third type of gas fee specifically for transaction call data. The aim is to reduce costs for data-heavy transactions by adopting a dynamic model that adjusts all three fees simultaneously, potentially making call data cheaper.
Bitcoin saw increased volatility, dropping to $61,000 on May 14 following the release of US inflation data. Currently trading at $61,219.34, a decrease of 2.7%, the Producer Price Index (PPI) rose by 2.2% in April, indicating ongoing inflationary pressures. Speculation about the Federal Reserve (Fed) not cutting interest rates persists, with expectations for a muted market impact from Fed Chairman Jerome Powell’s upcoming speech.
Wisconsin purchased shares in BlackRock’s iShares Bitcoin Trust and Grayscale’s Bitcoin Trust in the first quarter, totaling nearly $100 million and $64 million, respectively. Additionally, US Bitcoin ETFs recorded their highest inflow since May 6, totaling $66 million on the previous Monday, with Fidelity’s ETF leading the way.
Bitcoin’s hash rate fell after the fourth halving, dropping to 575 exahash per second before slightly recovering to 586 EH/s. US President Joe Biden ordered the shutdown of a Chinese crypto mining operation near an Air Force base in Wyoming due to espionage risks.
Bitfarms fired its interim CEO after a $27 million lawsuit for breach of contract and “wrongful termination.” Ether call options for June show confidence in ether’s appreciation, with over 617,000 options expiring at the end of June. Coinbase faced a system outage, and OKX launched a cryptocurrency trading platform in Australia.
Former CFTC Chairman J. Christopher Giancarlo joined Paxos’ board, and Tether froze $5.2 million in USDT linked to phishing scams. Tornado Cash developer was sentenced to 64 months for money laundering. CoinShares reported record performance in Q1 2024, and Deutsche Bank collaborated with Singapore’s central bank on asset tokenization.
New EU regulations challenge DeFi protocols, and the Degamefi WEB3 Conference in Tbilisi will be a hub for blockchain discussions. Polymarket raised $70 million in funding led by Peter Thiel and Vitalik Buterin.