Last week in crypto, we saw Bitcoin rise to $35k, and that trend continued with another year-to-date all-time-high this week, at the time of recording bitcoin is trading at over $36,000, passing the $36k mark.

Along with other altcoins, Toncoin saw a price rise as well - to it’s highest point in nearly a year. Right now, Toncoin is trading at $2.63, up over 20% from its price 30 days ago. It’s suggested that this spike can be attributed to Pavel Durov, the founder of Telegram who announced last week they would give away 10,000 premium subscriptions for the Telegram App. Durov specified in his announcement that he procured the premium accounts with TON tokens, totalling around $200k.

Attendees at ApeFest, a convention based on the Bored Ape Yacht Club NFT, returned for the event in Hong Kong this week. However, some attendees reported extreme eye pain after attending, with a small handful hospitalized. Yuga Labs, the digital assets company behind the event, shared a post on X, addressing the concerns and concluding this was likely the result of UVA emitting lights that were used at the event.

London’s City Minister, Andrew Griffith, is championing the role of crypto in London’s financial portfolio. In a recent conversation with David Merritt, Griffith shared he perceives London as a potential hub for emerging domains such as cryptocurrency and AI, capitalizing on London’s reputation for quality and trust. Griffith stated: “I think it builds naturally on our strengths in terms of things like tech and payments”.