Protocol Village: Mayan Finance, Cross-Chain Swap Auction Protocol on Solana, Raises $3M

The latest in blockchain tech upgrades, funding announcements and deals. For the period of April 11-17.Source

Gold-Backed PAXG Token Spikes to $2.9K Amid Geopolitical Tensions

Bitcoin traded at a perfect negative correlation to PAXG in a sign of weak demand as a geopolitical hedge, according to one observer.Source

Bitcoin Falls 8%, Drops Below $62K Before Rebound

Bitcoin and the broader cryptocurrency market fell nearly 10% on Saturday.Source

Coinbase Seeks to Take Core Question in U.S. SEC Case to Higher Court

Coinbase is seeking to rip the bandage off of a legal impasse at the center of the crypto industry’s fight with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC), filing an interim appeal on Friday that would ask a higher federal court to drill into the heart of the regulator’s stance on digital assets, even as the broader SEC case proceeds through the judicial system.Source

Bitcoin Plunges to $66K, Altcoins Tumble 10-15% on Ugly Day for Risk Assets

Investors may expect market weakness due to the tax season, Ryze Labs said in a report.Source

Why Bitcoin Halving Calculators Are Out of Sync

The famously pre-planned, programmatic event, currently predicted for April 19, is surprisingly hard to predict at minute scales.Source

Avail, Blockchain Data Availability Project, Sketches Out Eligibility for Token Airdrop

A screenshot of a document describing the eligibility criteria for the airdrop was posted on the social-media platform X by the user @Bitcoineo, and Avail’s public-relations team flagged the to tweet to CoinDesk, describing it as a “leak.”Source

Hacker Sentenced to 3 Years in Prison for Stealing Over $12M From Crypto Exchanges

Shakeeb Ahmed, a security engineer who stole over $12 million from two different decentralized cryptocurrency exchanges built on Solana, was sentenced to three years in prison and three years of supervised release by a federal judge on Friday.Source

The Halving Highlights Why Bitcoin Needs to Upgrade

Higher fees from Ordinals and BRC-20 may be good for miners but they risk pushing activity to the fragmented world of L2s and harming adoption of Bitcoin around the world. Proposals for “OP_CAT” and CTV would upgrade the network and allow more innovation at the chain-level, says Bob Bodily, CEO of Bioniq, an Ordinals marketplace.Source