Coin Market

Privacy Pools launch on Ethereum, with Vitalik demoing the feature

Published

2 weeks ago

April 1, 2025

A new semi-permissionless privacy tool, Privacy Pools, has launched on Ethereum, allowing users to transact privately while proving their funds aren’t linked to illicit activities.

The privacy tool, launched by Ethereum builders 0xbow.io on March 31, earned support from the likes of Ethereum co-founder Vitalik Buterin, who not only backed the privacy project but made one of the first deposits on the platform.

0xbow.io said that it implements “Association Sets” to batch transactions into the anonymous Privacy Pools and that a screening test is conducted to ensure that those transactions aren’t linked to illicit actors, such as hackers, phishers and scammers.

gm Ethereum

It is our great honor to announce the mainnet launch of Privacy Pools!

ETH users can now achieve on-chain privacy, while still dissociating from illicit funds

It is now up to all of us to Make Privacy Normal Again

More info in this thread pic.twitter.com/3nJO0AxoD1

— 0xbow.io (@0xbowio) March 31, 2025

The Association Sets are “dynamic” — meaning that if a transaction is admitted but later found to be illicit, it can be removed from the set without disrupting any other deposits, 0xbow.io said.

If a deposit is disqualified, the user can click the “ragequit” function to return the funds to their original deposit address.

The innovation is part of 0xbow.io’s vision to “Make Privacy Normal Again” while also attempting to achieve regulatory compliance.

Privacy protocols have received considerable backlash from regulators in recent years due to their increasing use by illicit actors to launder funds.

One of those privacy tools, Tornado Cash, was sanctioned by the US Treasury’s Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC) between August 2022 and March 2025 after it was linked to around $7 billion laundered by the North Korean state-backed Lazarus Group.

Tornado Cash has since been removed from OFAC’s blacklist after a US appeals court said the sanctions were unlawful in January 2025.

0xbow.io noted that initial deposits are limited to 1 Ether (ETH) but that the limit would be raised once the privacy protocol is more battle-tested.

Privacy Pools inspired by Buterin and others

Over 21 ETH has already been transferred into Privacy Pools from 69 deposits, including at least one from Buterin, 0xbow.io noted.

Source: Vitalik Buterin

In addition to Buterin, 0xbow.io said it also received investment support from Number Group, BanklessVC, Public Works and several angel investors.

0xbow.io also praised Buterin, Chainalysis Chief Scientist Jacob Illum, and two academics at the University of Basel in Switzerland for crafting a September 2023 white paper outlining how Privacy Pools could be built.

0xbow.io strategic adviser Ameen Soleimani also contributed to the paper, which has seen over 12,000 downloads and has been cited in nine other papers.

The Privacy Pool code also passed a successful audit from Audit Wizard. a smart contract auditing firm co-founded by former Apple engineer Joe van Loon.

More than $41 billion worth of illicit transfers were made in 2024, which made up 0.14% of total onchain volume for the year, according to the Chainalysis 2025 Crypto Crime report published on Jan. 15.

While it marked around an 11% fall from 2023, Chainalysis said that figure could climb to around $51 billion as more criminal-tied addresses are found.

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Coin Market

Circle’s EURC grows as trade war pushes euro higher — Analyst

Published

17 minutes ago

April 14, 2025

The market cap of Circle’s Euro Coin (EURC), a euro-pegged stablecoin, is growing quickly as the ongoing trade war pushes the US dollar price lower.

“In recent weeks, interest in the euro has grown tremendously” and “this interest has not escaped the Circle EURC stablecoin,” Obchakevich Research founder Alex Obchakevich wrote in a recent X post.

The euro has risen by 2.2%, reaching its highest price since February 2022 at its current price of $1.13.

Obchakevich said that amid this happening, decentralized finance (DeFi) protocol Aave saw €2.3 million of Euro Coin inflows in April alone. He further highlighted that EURC’s capitalization is growing at a rapid pace.

Source: Obchakevich’s

CoinMarketCap data shows EURC’s market cap rose from under $84 million at the end of 2024 to more than $198 million as of mid-April — a 136% increase year to date.

The euro grows amid an increasingly harsh trade war

The euro’s recent rally comes as the US dollar weakens on the back of escalating trade tensions. Since Dec. 31, 2024, the dollar has dropped from 0.97 euro to 0.88 euro, a 9.3% decline against the euro.

The US and European Union “are likely to reach an agreement on a trade deal that will stabilize the euro at $1.11 to the dollar,” Obchakevich said. Still, he expects the Euro Coin to keep growing:

“EURC will continue to grow through integration with various payment systems and blockchains.“

The analyst said that after launching on Ethereum, Euro Coin was also deployed on Avalanche, Base, Stellar, Sonic and Solana, leading to a growing supply. He shared his outlook on future market developments:

“I predict EURC to grow to 400 million euros by the end of this year. This will be further impacted by MiCa regulatory support and economic challenges.“

MiCA works in Circle’s favor

Euro Coin and USDC (USDC) issuer Circle is reaping the rewards of its regulatory-friendly strategy. The firm’s products are the top euro and US dollar-pegged stablecoins that comply with the European Union’s Markets in Crypto-Assets (MiCA) regulation.

The current stablecoin market leader is Tether, with its USDt (USDT) stablecoin currently having a market cap of $144 billion according to CoinMarketCap data. This is significantly higher than leading stablecoin USDC’s $60 billion market cap.

Still, many expect this gap to shrink as the USDt keeps being pushed from the European Union’s market due to a lack of MiCA compliance. This trend culminated in the world’s leading crypto exchange, Binance, delisting USDt for its European Economic Area-based users to comply with the rules in March.

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Coin Market

Solana rallies 20% against Ethereum, but is $300 SOL price within reach?

Published

18 minutes ago

April 14, 2025

Solana’s SOL has rallied more than 20% against Ether (ETH) over the last seven days, and a trader is eyeing a potential breakout to $300, which would mark new all-time highs.

SOL/ETH ratio hits highest weekly close

The SOL/ETH ratio, which reflects the value of Solana in Ether, rose to 0.080 on April 13, marking the highest weekly close ever, according to data from Cointelegraph Markets Pro and Binance.

The SOL/ETH trading pair has been forming higher highs on the daily chart since April 4, suggesting an uptrend is underway.

SOL/ETH daily chart. Source: Cointelegraph/TradingView

The SOL/ETH pair gains follow a bullish week for Solana, which has increased by 35% over the last seven days, against a 13% increase in ETH price over the same timeframe.

“The SOL/ETH chart has just flashed a sign of strength,” said pseudonymous trader Bitcoinsensus in an April 14 post on X, adding:

“Solana has closed its highest weekly close against Ethereum in history, reflecting that we could see continued outperformance of the Solana Ecosystem.”

Previously, the SOL/ETH ratio reached as high as 0.093 in January during a rally in crypto prices fueled by US President Donald Trump’s inauguration, which saw the price briefly notch a new all-time high of $295.

Can Solana price reach $300 in April?

Popular crypto trader BitBull shared a CME futures chart on X that suggests SOL price could break out toward the $300 mark next.

The trader cited Ether’s price consolidation around $2,000 on the CME chart before breaking out to all-time highs in 2021.

“SOL is now showing a similar structure on the CME futures chart” as it trades with the $120 and $130 range, BitBull pointed out, adding that SOL could follow a similar breakout to all-time highs above $300.

“Just like Ethereum’s run in 2021, Solana is setting up for a massive move in 2025.”

SOL CME Futures chart vs. ETH CME futures chart. Source: BitBull

Chart technicals aside, several onchain metrics suggest that SOL’s path to new all-time highs faces significant hurdles.

For example, Solana’s network fees dropped more than 97% to $898,235 million on April 14, compared to $35.5 million on Jan. 20.

Solana network daily transaction fees, USD. Source: DefiLlama

The decline in Solana fees aligns with reduced trading activity on Raydium, Pump.fun, and Orca. At the same time, fees have stayed unchanged since mid-February on other decentralized applications, such as Jito, Moonshot.money, Meteora and Photon.

Similarly, the daily DEX volumes on Solana plummeted to $2.17 billion on April 14, 93% below its Jan. 20 peak of $35.9 billion.

Solana weekly DEX volumes, USD. Source: DefiLlama

Therefore, SOL’s journey toward new all-time highs will be a tough challenge unless there is a notable rise in network activity.

SOL’s price is up 3% during the past 24 hours to $133 and 54.5% below its Jan. 19 all-time record.

This article does not contain investment advice or recommendations. Every investment and trading move involves risk, and readers should conduct their own research when making a decision.

Coin Market

Bybit denies $1.4M listing fee, school promo accusations on X

Published

18 minutes ago

April 14, 2025

Crypto exchange Bybit has denied claims that it charges $1.4 million to list a token on its platform, following allegations made by a social media user with over 100,000 followers.

On April 14, X user “silverfang88” accused the exchange of demanding millions from projects in listing fees. The user also alleged that Bybit used key opinion leaders (KOLs) to silence students who were given trial contracts through the platform’s Campus Ambassador program.

Bybit CEO Ben Zhou denied the allegations, asking the social media user to provide evidence backing the claims. Zhou added that the crypto space has been chaotic because of rumors posted without evidence.

Source: Ben Zhou

Bybit denies $1.4-million listing fee accusation

In a statement sent to Cointelegraph, a Bybit representative clarified the requirements for listing on the crypto exchange.

According to Bybit, the exchange requires three things from projects: a promotion budget, a security deposit and an evaluation process.

“Projects are expected to allocate promotional funds for user engagement activities, though legal constraints prevent exchanges from holding tokens directly,” the representative told Cointelegraph.

Bybit said it asks for a deposit of $200,000–$300,000 in stablecoins to ensure promotional goals are met. Penalties may apply if the targets are not reached.

Apart from the promotional funds, the exchange said its listing process includes form submissions, internal voting, research and a listing review meeting. The representative told Cointelegraph:

“Evaluations focus on fundamentals and risk controls, including onchain data, address authenticity, use cases, user distribution, project value, token valuation, value capture mechanisms and team credentials.”

User claims Bybit provided trial contracts to students

In addition to the listing fee allegations, the X user claimed that Bybit had provided trial contracts to students under its 2024 Campus Ambassador program and used KOLs to suppress complaints.

The account shared a Campus Ambassador program run by the trading platform in 2024 and said the issue was related to the program.

Zhou responded to those claims as well, again calling for proof. “Please show evidence if Bybit has done anything wrong,” he wrote on X.

The exchange has not responded directly to the specific claims related to its ambassador program at the time of publication.

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