1. Vitalik: Making Ethereum as Simple as Bitcoin in 5 Years
Ethereum co-founder Vitalik Buterin published an article titled "Simplifying the L1," calling for a significant simplification of the Ethereum protocol over the next five years. He suggests drawing inspiration from Bitcoin's minimalist design to reduce the development costs and security risks caused by complexity. He proposes focusing on areas such as the consensus layer, execution layer, virtual machine compatibility strategies, and shared protocol components. Additionally, he recommends setting a maximum line of code limit to make the Ethereum core protocol closer to Bitcoin's simplicity and long-term resilience.
2. Galaxy: Crypto Financing Reaches 4.90 Billion USD in Q1 2025
The Galaxy Digital report shows that the total venture capital investment in the crypto industry reached 4.90 billion USD in the first quarter of 2025, marking a 40% quarter-on-quarter increase and the highest since Q3 2022. More than 40% of the funds (approximately 2 billion USD) came from a single investment by Abu Dhabi sovereign wealth fund MGX into Binance. US companies continue to lead with 38.6% of the total number of deals, with financing mainly concentrated in trading platforms, DeFi, and infrastructure sectors.
3. EU Announces Complete Ban on Anonymous Crypto Accounts and Privacy Coin Transactions Starting 2027
The European Union officially passed the Anti-Money Laundering Regulation (AMLR), which will prohibit all financial institutions and crypto service providers from offering anonymous crypto accounts or wallets starting July 1, 2027. The regulation also fully bans transactions of privacy coins such as Monero, Zcash, and Dash. The new rules require mandatory identity verification for crypto transactions exceeding 1,000 euros and establish a new regulatory body, AMLA, to directly oversee large crypto platforms.
4. ZachXBT: Approximately 7 Million USD of Assets Frozen in OG Bitcoin User Theft Case
ZachXBT reported that in the recent theft of about 330 million USD worth of $BTC from an "OG Bitcoin holder" in the US earlier this week, approximately 7 million USD of funds have been frozen with the assistance of Binance's security department and other investigators. The case has been identified as a "social engineering scam," with the victim being an elderly user. The stolen 3,520 $BTC were laundered through multiple exchanges and partially converted into Monero (XMR).
5. Guangdong Golden Key Group Collapse: Nearly 69 Million RMB Lost in Virtual Currency
The Guangdong Golden Key Group collapsed in mid-April, involving approximately 1.34 billion RMB in total. Chairman Lin Chunhao announced he had fled to the UK and admitted in a "farewell letter" that all funds were exhausted. The group recruited investors through financial seminars, promising annual returns of 6%-9%. The funds were used for P2P lending, stock trading, and virtual currency investments, with losses in virtual currencies reaching 68.98 million RMB. Currently, the Shenzhen Public Security Economic Investigation Department has filed a case for investigation.
6. Wu Shuo Weekly Selections: US Q1 GDP Negative Growth, OKX Launches Payment Wallet, US Government Accelerates Support for Bitcoin Mining & Top 10 News
In April, US ADP employment increase was 62 thousand, the smallest since July 2024, significantly below expectations of 115 thousand and previous 155 thousand. The US Q1 real GDP annualized quarterly rate preliminary value was -0.3%, a new low since Q2 2022, against an expectation of 0.3% and previous 2.40%. The risk of US economic recession has surged, with Kalshi predicting a 74% chance of recession this year.
US Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick stated that the US will accelerate Bitcoin mining development, support miners in building their own power infrastructure to reduce reliance on public grids, and allow miners to build power plants and data centers near natural gas fields to improve energy efficiency. The Commerce Department is considering including Bitcoin in the national economic accounts and creating a "Bitcoin Strategic Reserve."
The Arizona House of Representatives passed two Bitcoin reserve bills allowing the state's treasury and pension systems to invest in Bitcoin and establish a digital asset strategic reserve fund.
The Cryptocurrency Innovation Committee (CCI) called on the SEC to ease staking regulations, emphasizing staking's critical role in network security and decentralization, and requested clear regulatory guidelines.
The UK released a draft regulation for crypto assets, aiming to include crypto exchanges and others under the regulatory system, requiring adherence to transparency, consumer protection, and operational resilience standards.
Tether's CEO stated plans to launch a new stablecoin product in the US by the end of this year or early next year, actively seeking regulatory support.
Strategy announced its Q1 2025 financial report, holding 553,555 $BTC with a book valuation of approximately 52 billion USD and adjusted its 2025 $BTC Yield target to 25%.
Morgan Stanley plans to launch crypto spot trading on E*Trade next year, with Charles Schwab having similar plans.
The Ethereum Foundation released its development priorities for the coming year, focusing on scaling and application ecosystem building, with Vitalik focusing on foundational Ethereum development and accelerating decentralization.
OKX officially launched the payment tool OKX Pay, supporting seamless global payments and daily automatic rewards with zero transaction fees, using private key sharding management, initially supporting USDT and USDC.
Key Financing Events
For more industry financing events, please refer to crypto-fundraising.info.