Cardano had a strong first quarter, with notable improvements in ecosystem and financial metrics. The network overview section showed a decline in new addresses and daily average transactions, but a $0.01 increase in average transaction fees. The price of ADA increased by 54%, and the treasury balance increased to 1.21 billion ADA, according to the financial overview section. The adoption of new stablecoins led to a 172% QoQ increase in the TVL’s USD value. In Q1, the top DEXs on Cardano were Minswap, SundaeSwap, WingRiders, and MuesliSwap. Emerging DeFi applications like Djed, Liqwid, Indigo, and Hydra Head helped to boost the value of all stablecoins by 261% QoQ. In its most recent Annual Report, the Cardano Foundation outlined its work in three key areas: operational resilience, education, and adoption. News Sorce

After Gary Gensler, the head of the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission, was criticized for his stance on cryptocurrencies, Bitcoin and Ether gained ground on Wednesday morning in Asia. With a gain of 3.38% to US$6.89 and 7.11% for the week, Polkadot was the top gainer. When Patrick McHenry questioned Gensler about whether Ether is a security or a commodity, Gensler ducked the question. Republicans on the committee have criticised the SEC’s approach to digital assets. XRP increased 3.17% to US$0.5285 for a 2.80% weekly gain. Regulators and Ripple Labs are at odds. In the previous day, the total market value of cryptocurrencies increased by 2.29% to US$1.28 trillion. The Forkast 500 NFT index increased marginally over the previous day to 4,061.33 in the early morning. The Forkast 500 NFT index increased marginally over the previous day to 4,061.33 in Hong Kong, up 0.32%. Due to a general uptick in cryptocurrency prices, the average selling price of NFTs has increased in April. News Sorce

Tether’s (USDT) value increased by 22% this year, from 66 billion to 80.9 billion. Stablecoin market volume has decreased and is currently hovering at $131.94 billion. This year, USDT supply has climbed by more than 22%, from 66 billion to 80.93 billion. All of the increase in USDT over the last 30 days was 6.3%. Tether has the third-largest market capitalization among all cryptocurrencies, representing $29 billion of the $52.2 billion in 24-hour global trades and 6.213% of the $1.2 trillion in total value. It has 4,266,498 unique holders, with the top 100 wallets controlling 37.3% of it, and 480,388 holders, with the top 10 wallets controlling 49.15%. News Sorce

Bittrex Global and the CEO of the company have been accused by the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) of running an unlicensed national securities exchange, broker, and clearing agency. According to the SEC, Bittrex marketed digital assets that were “offered and sold as securities” since 2014 and was in violation of the exchange, broker-dealer, and clearing agency registration requirements. The lack of regulatory compliance, rather than a lack of regulatory clarity, is what the cryptocurrency markets struggle with, according to SEC head Gary Gensler. In the SEC’s case, a “jury trial” is required because no settlement is offered. News Sorce

On April 12, 2023, the Shapella hard fork led to the withdrawal of 332,368 ether, worth $699 million. Over the past 30 days, deposits into Lido, Rocketpool, and other liquid staking protocols have increased, with Lido’s TVL accounting for 23.74% of defi’s locked value. As of April 15, there are multiple decentralized finance (defi) protocols with a total value locked (TVL) of $53.68 billion, with Lido’s TVL making up 23.74% of the defi’s locked value. The most withdrawals are made through Kraken, Binance, and Coinbase as a result of problems with American regulators over liquid staking mechanisms. News Sorce