Musk hints at suing Microsoft, US Rep wants Gary Gensler fired…

Societe Generale-Forge, a regulated subsidiary of French banking firm Societe Generale, has launched a euro-pegged stablecoin for qualified institutional clients. Dubbed EUR CoinVertible, the stablecoin was designed in response to the growing demand for a new settlement asset for on-chain transactions, said Societe Generale-Forge. The stablecoin will offer new solutions for corporate treasury; cash management and cash pooling; on-chain liquidity funding and refinancing solutions.

Intel has reportedly announced plans to discontinue its line of Blockscale Bitcoin mining chips in an effort to reduce costs. The decision comes nearly one year after the company announced the hardware line. The chip-manufacturing company will stop taking orders for the Blockscale 1000 Series ASICs by October and is estimated to end shipping in April 2024. Mining firms Argo Blockchain, Block, Hive Blockchain Technologies and Griid Infrastructure were among the first companies to integrate the technology into their operations.

Winners and Losers

At the end of the week, Bitcoin (BTC) is at $27,331, Ether (ETH) at $1,845 and XRP at $0.44. The total market cap is at $1.15 trillion, according to CoinMarketCap.

Among the biggest 100 cryptocurrencies, the top three altcoin gainers of the week are Casper (CSPR) at 3.51%, OKB (OKB) at 3.33% and UNUS SED LEO (LEO) at 2.06%.   

The top three altcoin losers of the week are SingularityNET (AGIX) at -23.73%, Immutable (IMX) at -23.28% and Stacks (STX) at -22.94%.

For more info on crypto prices, make sure to read Cointelegraph’s market analysis.

“When I am asked to consult or advise for [stablecoin] projects […], my first advice has now become to avoid US operations and a US domicile. The jobs are going elsewhere.”

“I think we’re at the end of the era where it’s going to be these, like, giant, giant models. We’ll make them better in other ways.”

Sam Altman, CEO of OpenAI

“I’m going to start something which I call TruthGPT, or a maximum truth-seeking AI that tries to understand the nature of the universe.”

Elon Musk, tech entrepreneur

“I think we’re going to have to actually end up going to court [against the SEC] to get the clarity we need and create the case law.”

Brian Armstrong, CEO of Coinbase

“To correct a long series of abuses, I am introducing legislation that removes the Chairman of the Securities and Exchange Commission and replaces the role with an Executive Director that reports to the Board (where authority resides).”

Prediction of the Week 

Bitcoin pulls back from recent highs and loses support

Bitcoin and a number of altcoins have fallen below their respective support levels, in a worrying sign that the bulls could be losing their grip. On April 21, Bitcoin and most major cryptocurrencies pulled back from their recent local highs, signaling profit-booking by traders.

Bollinger Bands creator John Bollinger said in a recent tweet that Bitcoin had turned down from the upper Bollinger Band and reached the middle bank, near its breakout level. He said it was a “logical place” and advised traders to “pay attention.”

The BTC/USDT pair may next slip to $26,500 and, thereafter, to the neckline of the inverse head-and-shoulders pattern at $25,250. If the price rebounds off $25,250, it will indicate that the neckline is acting as a higher floor, according to Cointelegraph’s price analysis.

FUD of the Week 

MetaMask has denied claims that an exploit of its wallet is the cause of a “massive wallet draining operation” that claimed over $10.5 million in NFTs and coins since December 2022, including 5,000 Ether. According to MetaMask, the digital assets were stolen “from various addresses across 11 blockchains.” How the attack occurred is unclear. Experts speculate that there had been “some sort of private key or seed phrase leak.”

After nearly nine months in prison, Tornado Cash developer Alex Pertsev will be released from jail. Dutch authorities arrested Pertsev in August last year on suspicion of money laundering through the crypto mixing service Tornado Cash. Pertsev should be back home by April 26, which also happens to be his birthday. His suspended release under surveillance means the developer can await trial from home.

SafeMoon hacker agrees to return 80% of stolen funds, says development team

The attacker who drained $8.9 million of Binance Coin from SafeMoon has agreed to return 80% of the funds. As per the agreement between the DeFi protocol and the hacker, the remaining 20% will be kept as a bounty. SafeMoon has further agreed not to file any legal actions against them, claiming the decision is in the best interest of SafeMoon and its community. Boosting bug bounties and paying them more diligently could motivate hackers to report bugs instead of exploit them, according to some Web3 developers.

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Cointelegraph Magazine writers and reporters contributed to this article.