Bitcoin ETFs pull in nearly $1B, Worldcoin tanks 13%: Hodler’s Digest, April 12 – 18

Top Stories of the Week

Russia introduces bill to criminalize unregistered crypto services

Russia’s government submitted a bill to its parliament’s lower house to amend the country’s legal code and impose criminal liability on crypto services offered without regulatory approval or licensing.

In a draft law sent to the State Duma on Friday, Russian lawmakers proposed that entities “carrying out activities related to the organization of digital currency circulation,” that operate without a license from Russia’s central bank, could be subject to criminal liability.

Without registration with the Bank of Russia, individuals could face up to $4,000 in fines and up to four years in prison, or more severe penalties if part of an organized group.

Spot Bitcoin ETFs attract nearly $1B in weekly inflows as risk sentiment improves

Spot Bitcoin exchange-traded funds (ETFs) recorded nearly $1 billion in net inflows over the past week, marking their strongest performance in more than three months as market sentiment shifts toward risk assets.

Data from SoSoValue shows that spot Bitcoin ETFs attracted $996 muillion in total net inflows last week, the highest weekly intake since early January, when inflows reached about $1.4 billion.

Friday saw $663.9 million in inflows, the week’s strongest single-day performance. Earlier gains included $411.5 million on Tuesday and $186 million on Wednesday, followed by a more modest $26 million on Thursday. The period began with a $291 million outflow on Monday.

Worldcoin tanks 13% as World’s iris-scanning tech expands to Zoom, Docusign

Worldcoin fell 13.4% to roughly $0.28 on Friday as World, the identity-focused company led by OpenAI CEO Sam Altman, unveiled several new integrations for its “proof of human” stack, which uses iris-scanning technology to verify identities.

Video conferencing tool Zoom is integrating World’s Deep Face authentication to prevent deepfakes, while electronic signature platform Docusign is adding World’s ID verification tech to digital agreements, World said on Friday. Dating app Tinder is also expanding its World ID verification to US users.

“As AI agents increasingly act on behalf of real people, the infrastructure to prove a human stands behind each agent becomes critical,” World said.

Polymarket odds of Hormuz Strait traffic normalizing by end of May spike to 73%

Polymarket prediction market odds of the Strait of Hormuz “returning to normal” by the end of May spiked to 73% on Friday, following news that Iranian officials have temporarily opened up the Strait of Hormuz as part of a ceasefire deal.

The odds climbed to a high of 82% on Friday, after Iranian Foreign Minister Seyed Abbas Araghchi announced that the Strait of Hormuz is open. Since that time, the odds have fallen back down to 73%. He said in an X post:

“The passage for all commercial vessels through the Strait of Hormuz is declared completely open for the remaining period of the ceasefire, on the coordinated route as already announced by the Ports and Maritime Organization of the Islamic Republic of Iran.”

Telegram CEO Durov warns EU age-verification app could enable wider tracking

Telegram CEO Pavel Durov warned Friday that the European Union’s new age-verification app could become a stepping stone toward broader online identity tracking, days after the European Commission said the system was technically ready for rollout.

In a Telegram post on Friday, Durov cited analysis from security consultant Paul Moore, who said the app is hackable in “under two minutes” after examining its technical design.

“This product will be the catalyst for an enormous breach at some point,” Moore said in an X post on Thursday, adding that the system could be tricked so the age check isn’t properly tied to the actual user or their device.

Durov argued that the security concerns went beyond age checks and could, over time, be used to justify broader identity verification across online services in Europe.

Winners and Losers

At the end of the week, Bitcoin (BTC) is at $75,525, Ether (ETH) at $2,328 and XRP (XRP) at $1.42. The total market cap is at $2.55 trillion, according to CoinMarketCap.

Among the biggest 100 cryptocurrencies, the top three altcoin winners of the week are 币安人生 (币安人生) at 186.58%, DeXe (DEXE) at 62.75% and Celestia (TIA) at 35.52%. The top three altcoin losers of the week are siren (SIREN) at 20.03%, Dash (DASH) at 18.72% and LayerZero (ZRO) at 12.46%.