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Pre-seed crypto startup deals have grown 767% since 2021: Report

The number of pre-seed funding rounds for Bitcoin (BTC) startup companies has grown by 767% since 2021, according to a report from venture capital firm Trammell Venture Partners (TVP).

Bitcoin pre-seed transactions increased 50% year-over-year in 2024, with a 27.5% year-over-year increase in the number of startup companies funded.

Christopher Calicott, TVP’s managing director, attributed the increased deals to the robust security of the BTC network:

“Many entrepreneurs across crypto are revisiting the Bitcoin stack as the long-term place to build their companies. It makes perfect sense: The objectively most secure, reliable, and decentralized blockchain is the obvious platform of choice.”

However, the capital raised in Bitcoin pre-seed funding rounds declined by over 22% in 2024, with the median funding round size and the median startup valuation steadily declining from 2021 to 2023.

Median valuations for pre-seed Bitcoin startups fail to reclaim 2021 levels. Source: Trammell Venture Partners

The value

US lawmakers vote to advance anti-CBDC bill

The US House Financial Services Committee has advanced a bill aimed at preventing federal banks from using or issuing central bank digital currencies, or CBDCs, paving the way for a vote in the chamber.

In an April 2 committee session, lawmakers voted 27-22 in favor of passing the CBDC Anti-Surveillance State Act. The bill was one of five the committee considered in a markup hearing discussing possible amendments. Lawmakers also approved a bill regulating payment stablecoins, setting up the legislation for a full House vote.

“Last Congress, this bill passed out of the House of Representatives by a 216-192 vote,” said Minnesota Representative Tom Emmer, the anti-CBDC bill’s sponsor. “So far this Congress, this bill has 114 cosponsors and support from groups ranging from the Independent Community Bankers Association and the American Bankers Association to Club for

Bitcoin drops 8%, US markets shed $2T in value — Should traders expect an oversold bounce?

Bitcoin (BTC) and US stock markets all sold off sharply after US President Donald Trump shook up financial markets by announcing a list of reciprocal tariffs on several countries.

On April 3, the S&P 500 saw a 4.2% drop at market open, its most significant single-day decline since June 2020. The Dow Jones Industrial Average fell 3.41%, to 40,785.41 from 42,225.32, while the Nasdaq Composite dropped 5.23%. Overall, $1.6 trillion in value was wiped out from US stock at the market open.

Bitcoin’s value dropped by 8%, but a positive is bulls seem capable of defending the $80,000 support level. These steep declines essentially stem from uncertainty surrounding the new tariffs and amplify investors’ concerns about impending recession.

Source: X

Data from CoinGecko suggests that the total crypto market has dropped 6.8% over the past 24 hours and it seems unlikely that

Bitcoin falls toward $80K and prints ‘death cross’ as US stocks mimic 2020 COVID-19 crash

Bitcoin (BTC) hit new monthly lows at the April 3 Wall Street open as US unemployment data added to pressure on risk assets.

BTC/USD 4-hour chart. Source: Cointelegraph/TradingView

Bitcoin gives early April gains as stocks plummet

Data from Cointelegraph Markets Pro and TradingView confirmed the first trip below $82,000 for BTC/USD since the start of the month.

After initially surging as high as $88,580 as the US government unveiled reciprocal trade tariffs, Bitcoin soon ran out of steam as the reality of the stronger-than-expected measures hit home.

US stocks then followed, with the S&P 500 down over 4% on the day at the time of writing.

“Today’s -3.7% drop puts the S&P 500 on track for its largest daily decline since the 2020 pandemic lockdowns,” trading resource The Kobeissi Letter wrote in part of a <a

ParaSwap rebrands to Velora, introduces intent-based DEX trading feature

Decentralized exchange (DEX) aggregator ParaSwap announced its rebrand to Velora and is moving on to a new intents-based trading feature.

According to an announcement shared with Cointelegraph, Velora’s just introduced its Delta v.2.5 upgrade. This supposedly results in improved flexibility and agility in trade execution on the DEX.

Paraswap has seen 18,000 monthly active users over the last month with 4.3 million smart contract interactions over the past 365 days, according to TokenTerminal data. The platform first introduced intents-based trading back in the summer of 2024, with hopes that it would mitigate the negative impact of maximum extractable value (MEV) bots.

Since then, ParaSwap submitted orders in three steps. First the order is preprocessed defining the expected trade price, then this is submitted to an auction to determine the most efficient execution strategy considering liquidity and timing. The winning agent executes the trade while taking the

How zero-knowledge proofs can make AI fairer

Opinion by: Rob Viglione, co-founder and CEO of Horizen Labs

Can you trust your AI to be unbiased? A recent research paper suggests it’s a little more complicated. Unfortunately, bias isn’t just a bug — it’s a persistent feature without proper cryptographic guardrails.

A September 2024 study from Imperial College London shows how zero-knowledge proofs (ZKPs) can help companies verify that their machine learning (ML) models treat all demographic groups equally while still keeping model details and user data private.

Zero-knowledge proofs are cryptographic methods that enable one party to prove to another that a statement is true without revealing any additional information beyond the statement’s validity. When defining “fairness,” however, we open up a whole new can of worms.

Machine learning bias

With machine learning models, bias manifests in dramatically different ways. It can cause a credit scoring service to rate a person differently

Trump’s pick for SEC chair makes it out of committee

Lawmakers in the US Senate Banking Committee voted to advance the nomination of Paul Atkins to be a member of Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC), paving the way for a full floor vote in the chamber.

In an April 3 executive session of the banking committee, lawmakers voted 13-11 for Atkins to serve two consecutive terms as an SEC commissioner, taking over former Chair Gary Gensler’s term and another term ending in 2031.

Atkins’ nomination will soon go to the Republican-controlled Senate for a full floor vote, where many experts suggest he is likely to be confirmed.

Senator Tim Scott addressing lawmakers on April 3. Source: US Senate Banking Committee

Before calling for a vote, committee chair Tim Scott said Atkins would bring “much-needed clarity for digital assets.” Ranking member Elizabeth Warren reiterated earlier concerns about Trump’s

Beyond the hype: How Bitcoin stays true to its values

Bitcoin’s (BTC) journey from a radical experiment to a trillion-dollar asset has been fueled by grand narratives: Digital gold, decentralized money and an alternative financial system. Beyond the hype, how does Bitcoin remain true to its core values?

That’s the central theme of the latest episode of The Clear Crypto Podcast, where hosts Nathan Jeffay and Gareth Jenkinson are joined by Charlie Spears, co-founder of Blockspace Media, to unpack Bitcoin’s evolving role in the global financial system.

Bitcoin’s evolution

From the outset, Bitcoin was designed as a decentralized alternative to traditional money.

But as adoption has surged, so too has the debate over its scalability and usability. Jenkinson began the conversation by explaining the origins of the original cryptocurrency and how that has shifted over time:

“It started out as digital gold and electronic money, and it was supposed to be that. And this is

Trump 'Liberation Day' tariffs create chaos in markets, recession concerns

US President Donald Trump introduced a slew of tariffs on April 2, sending markets into a tailspin and dividing crypto observers as to their possible long-term effects.

At a special event at the White House, Trump signed an executive order and claimed emergency powers, leveling reciprocal tariffs at every country that has a tariff on US goods, starting at a 10% minimum.

The long-term effect that this swathe of new taxes could have on global markets is unknown. The uncertainty is compounded by the ambiguous methodology the Trump administration used to determine the tariff rates.

Some believe that the crypto market is due for a boom as investors seek an alternative for traditional investments. Others note the effect tariffs could have on mining equipment, hampering profitability. More still are concerned about the broader impact of tariffs and a possible recession.

Trump’s tariffs

Wintermute transfers $75M FDUSD since depegs, in $3M arbitrage opportunity

Market makers’ blockchain transactions point to a potential $3 million arbitrage opportunity related to the depegging of the FDUSD stablecoin.

The First Digital US dollar-pegged stablecoin (FDUSD) depegged on April 2, after Tron founder Justin Sun claimed that the stablecoin issuer was insolvent.

Market marker Wintermute transferred over 75 million FDUSD tokens back to First Digital within a day since the stablecoin depegged to $0.87.

Source: Lookonchain

“Since $FDUSD depegged, #Wintermute has transferred 75M $FDUSD to First Digital Labs,” wrote blockchain intelligence platform Lookonchain, in an April 3 X post, adding:

“They likely bought $FDUSD at a discount during the depeg and redeemed it 1:1 through First Digital—making a solid profit.”

Source: Lookonchain

Wintermute with over 31 million FDUSD tokens from Binance right after the depegging occurred. “Assuming they bought $FDUSD near the bottom at $0.90,