Today's news tips:
Judge rejects SEC's motion to appeal Ripple case ruling
The U.S. Department of Justice reiterated that the existing legal framework is sufficient to accuse SBF of suspected fraud
StarkWare postpones first token unlock to April 2024
CZ refused to cooperate with SBF before acquiring 20% of FTX shares. SBF then bought back CZ's FTX shares at a price more than 27 times the price.
Foreign media: Singapore Whampoa Group and Saison Capital increase their attention to Web3 and encryption
CMCC Global's new fund raises $100 million and will invest in Hong Kong blockchain companies
MakerDAO has added $169 million in RWA assets in the past week, and the total RWA assets of the agreement are about $3.278 billion
Regulatory News
Hong Kong Security Bureau Deputy Secretary: Hong Kong Customs has no right to regulate virtual currency
According to Sing Tao Daily, the Hong Kong Legislative Council Security Affairs Committee discussed the latest developments of the Customs' participation in international activities yesterday, which mentioned the JPEX case and the issue of virtual currency supervision. Zhuo Xiaoye, Deputy Secretary for Security of Hong Kong, said that under the Anti-Money Laundering and Terrorist Financing Ordinance, anyone who operates a currency exchange must apply for a license from the Customs, and the Customs is responsible for supervising licensed money service operators. Since virtual currency is not a legal tender, the Customs has no right to regulate it; as for how virtual currency and virtual assets will be regulated in the future, the government and relevant regulatory agencies are continuously reviewing the development of the situation and continuing to improve the regulatory mechanism.
News came later today that the Hong Kong Securities and Futures Commission and the Police Force have jointly established a "Virtual Asset Trading Platform Special Working Group".
Judge rejects SEC's motion to appeal Ripple case ruling
PANews reported on October 4 that DB NEWSWIRE tweeted that District Judge Analisa Torres rejected the US SEC's motion to appeal the Ripple case ruling. Torres said in a brief ruling on Tuesday that the SEC failed to fulfill its legal responsibilities, failing to prove the existence of legal control issues or sufficient reasons for differences of opinion. After the decision was announced, XRP rose by about 5%.
Former Celsius CEO criminal trial date set for September 17, 2024
According to Bloomberg, the criminal trial of Alex Mashinsky, former CEO of Celsius, is scheduled for September 17, 2024. Mashinsky was arrested in July this year. The US SEC sued Celsius and Mashinsky, accusing them of raising billions of dollars through fraudulent and unregistered sales of "crypto securities" and repeatedly lying to investors about Celsius' financial situation and manipulating the price of Celsius' native token CEL. The Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC) has also filed fraud charges against Mashinsky and Celsius. Celsius Chief Revenue Officer Roni Cohen-Pavon has also been criminally charged and is reported to have pleaded guilty last month.
Crypto-Friendly Congressman Patrick Mchenry Appointed Pro Tempore Speaker of the U.S. House of Representatives
According to CoinDesk, the U.S. House of Representatives voted to remove McCarthy, the Speaker of the U.S. House of Representatives, today. McCarthy became the first Speaker of the House of Representatives to be removed in U.S. history. Patrick Mchenry, the cryptocurrency-friendly chairman of the House Financial Services Committee, was appointed as the interim Speaker of the House of Representatives. The House of Representatives will need to elect a new Speaker, and McCarthy can run for the position again. Patrick Mchenry has been working on a number of cryptocurrency bills since last year.
The U.S. Department of Justice reiterated that the existing legal framework is sufficient to accuse SBF of suspected fraud
According to The Block, U.S. prosecutors reiterated on Wednesday that the existing legal framework is sufficient to charge FTX founder Sam Bankman-Fried (SBF) with fraud-related violations. The Department of Justice rejected SBF's previous argument that "there is a clear lack of relevant laws or guidance directly related to whether the alleged use of customer deposits constitutes misappropriation rather than permitted business practices." The Department of Justice added that while the existence of laws may be relevant to establishing a statutory duty of care, the lack of supervision has nothing to do with whether the victim entrusted the defendant with his money for safekeeping.
NFT
Project News
Canada's largest exchange TMX is about to launch Bitcoin futures trading
PANews reported on October 4 that according to CoinDesk, Canada's largest exchange TMX Group said on Tuesday that its derivatives trading platform will soon launch Bitcoin (BTC) futures contracts. These futures contracts will be traded on the Montreal Exchange, will be settled in cash, and will be denominated in US dollars. TMX Group is the operator of the Toronto Stock Exchange and the Montreal Derivatives Exchange.
StarkWare postpones first token unlock to April 2024
According to CoinDesk, Ethereum Layer2 developer StarkWare has postponed the first unlocking of its native StarkNet (STRK) tokens to April 2024. Etherscan shows that the new unlocking date has been postponed from the original November 29, 2023 to April 15, 2024. A StarkWare spokesperson said that the team is focusing on technical development and is updating the roadmap as needed, including updates to the lock. It is not clear how many tokens will be affected by the delay. The total supply of STRK tokens is 10 billion. The first unlocked tokens belong to core contributors, early supporters of the StarkWare ecosystem, and StarkWare employees, not the general public. The delay in the first unlocking does not necessarily mean that the next unlocking will also be delayed. Starkware deployed the STRK token on Ethereum in November 2022 after confirming in July 2022 that it would release its own token. At the time, the project said that the STRK tokens allocated to shareholders, employees and independent software developers would be locked for four years. In May 2022, StarkWare raised $100 million in a Series D round of financing co-led by Greenoaks Capital and Coatue, with a valuation of $8 billion.
Binance will add watch tags to BETA, BOND, WTC, and XEM, and may delist them if risks do not improve
According to the official announcement, based on the recent review, Binance will add more tokens to the existing watch list. Binance decided to add the following currencies on October 4, 2023: Beta Finance (BETA), BarnBridge (BOND), Waltonchain (WTC), NEM (XEM).
Observation-labeled tokens may have higher volatility and risk than other listed tokens. Binance will closely monitor and review them continuously. Please be aware that trading these tokens with observation labels is risky. These tokens no longer meet the standards when they were listed on the platform. If there is no improvement, they may be delisted. Users need to pass the corresponding test on Binance Spot and/or Binance Margin every 90 days and accept the terms of use to obtain trading rights for tokens with seed or observation labels.
Seed and Watch tags will appear on the corresponding Binance Spot and Binance Margin trading pages and the Market Overview page. Binance will also display a risk warning banner for all tokens with Seed and Watch tags.
CZ refused to cooperate with SBF before acquiring 20% of FTX shares. SBF then bought back CZ's FTX shares at a price more than 27 times the price.
Michael Lewis, author of The Big Short, revealed in his new book Going Infinite that FTX founder Sam Bankman-Fried (SBF) proposed cooperation to Binance founder Zhao Changpeng (CZ) in early 2019, hoping to introduce the cryptocurrency futures trading platform technology developed by his team to Binance at a price of US$40 million. In this proposal, Alameda Research is responsible for providing technical support, while Binance is responsible for bringing customer and market trust.
After detailed deliberation, Binance decided to reject SBF's proposal and chose to develop a futures trading platform in-house. To this end, SBF turned to in-house development, intending to build a futures trading platform that would cater not only to the cryptocurrency community but also to large professional trading firms such as Jane Street. FTX initially issued 350 million FTT tokens, some of which were offered to employees at 5 cents and some to key cryptocurrency figures, including Changpeng Zhao, at 10 cents. Although Changpeng Zhao and most FTX employees chose to reject the offer, strong demand from outside investors prompted SBF to increase the token price from 20 cents to 70 cents. On July 29, 2019, FTT was listed on FTX, opening at $1 and then rising to $1.5. A few weeks later, Changpeng Zhao contacted SBF and proposed to purchase 20% of FTX for $80 million.
Later, in the face of increasing regulatory scrutiny, especially the regulator's strict requirements for FTX investor lists and their personal details, SBF believed that maintaining Zhao Changpeng as FTX's second largest shareholder was no longer in the company's long-term interests. A former Binance employee revealed: "When asked about Zhao Changpeng's private information such as his family and place of residence, Zhao Changpeng was reluctant to provide it." In order to avoid this regulatory pressure, SBF took the initiative to propose to Zhao Changpeng in mid-2021 to repurchase the FTX shares it purchased for US$80 million at the end of 2019. Zhao Changpeng offered a price of US$2.2 billion. Despite the high price, SBF agreed to pay. But when the two parties were about to sign a formal agreement, Zhao Changpeng suddenly asked for an additional US$75 million. SBF agreed to this additional fee and eventually completed the equity repurchase.
Coinbase will remove 80 non-USD trading pairs including ACH-USDT and AGLD-USDT
Coinbase announced on its Status page that in order to improve the overall market health and consolidate liquidity, it will remove 80 non-USD trading pairs at 03:30 Beijing time on October 17, including ACH-USDT, AGLD-USDT, ARPA-EUR, ARPA-USDT, AUCTION-EUR, AUCTION-USDT, BADGER-EUR, BADGER-USDT, BAND-BTC, BAND-EUR, BAND-GBP, BNT-BTC, BNT-EUR, BTRST-BTC, BTRST-EUR, BTRST-USDT, C98-USDT, CTSI-BTC, DESO-USDT, ELA-USDT, ERN-USDT, FORTH-BTC, FORTH-EUR, GAL-USDT, HFT-USDT, IDEX-USDT, IOTX-EUR, KNC-BTC, KSM-USDT, LCX-EUR, LCX-USDT, LQTY-EUR, LQTY-USDT, METIS-USDT, NKN-BTC, NKN-EUR, NKN-GBP, NMR-BTC, NMR-EUR, NMR-GBP, OGN-BTC, PERP-EUR, PERP-USDT, POND-USDT, POWR-EUR, POWR-USDT, RAD-BTC, RAD-EUR, RAD-GBP, RAD-USDT, REN-BTC, REQ-BTC, REQ-EUR, REQ-GBP, REQ-USDT, RLC-BTC, SKL-BTC, SKL-EU R, SKL-GBP, SPELL-USDT, STORJ-BTC, SUPER-USDT, SUSHI-BTC, SUSHI-ETH, SUSHI-EUR, SUSHI-GBP, TRAC-EUR, TRAC-USDT, TRU-BTC, TRU-EUR, TRU-USDT, UMA-BTC, UMA-EUR, UMA-GBP, XYO-EUR, XYO-USDT, ZEN-BTC, ZEN-USDT, ZRX-BTC, ZRX-EUR.
Foreign media: Singapore Whampoa Group and Saison Capital increase their attention to Web3 and encryption
According to Nikkei Asian Review, citing people familiar with the matter, as global crypto trading volume gradually recovers, Singapore-based Whampoa Group will launch a $100 million venture fund by the end of this year. Whampoa Group is a multi-family office that invests in global technology companies. The venture fund may invest in Web3 and digital asset Series A financing, and it was previously reported that the fund will be launched in the fourth quarter of 2022.
Meanwhile, Credit Saison's venture capital arm Saison Capital is also doubling down on blockchain and cryptocurrency, having set aside $100 million for venture investments, including Web2 and Web3. So far, it has completed 42 deals in the blockchain space. The Singapore-based investment firm said its average first check is between $200,000 and $500,000, with follow-up support throughout the development of portfolio companies. Some of the companies in its portfolio include crypto lending platform Helix, multi-party computing protection wallet Krayon, and Web3 gaming company Avium.
SBF almost lost all its initial funding when it founded Alameda, and once lost $500,000 a day for a month.
According to CoinDesk, Michael Lewis, author of "The Big Short", revealed in his new book "Going Infinite" that since the establishment of Alameda Research in 2017, the 26-year-old FTX founder Sam Bankman-Fried (SBF) has raised nearly $170 million from the "effective altruism community". SBF invested the funds in the growing and inefficient cryptocurrency market, capturing price differences between markets and creating high-frequency trading (HFT) strategies. However, it lost millions of dollars in the first few months, with more than $500,000 lost every day in one month, and some trading funds "simply disappeared" due to poor fund management.
In addition, SBF once used a robot program called Modelbot to trade nearly 500 tokens on about 30 exchanges, but the program did not distinguish between highly liquid cryptocurrencies such as Bitcoin and Ethereum and memecoin with sparse trading volume, which aroused concerns among Alameda's early employees. The situation did not improve until Gary Wang and Nishad Singh joined the company. It is said that Wang wrote a quantitative trading system and started to make money for Alameda, while Singh integrated various parts to manage the company.
Highlights of the first day of SBF trial: SBF is noticeably thinner and his iconic hairstyle is gone. The trial is expected to last six weeks.
PANews reported on October 4 that Cointelegraph published an article reporting several highlights of the first day of the trial of FTX founder Sam Bankman-Fried (SBF). 1. SBF was obviously thinner, and his iconic messy hairstyle was replaced with a shorter hairstyle; 2. The media conference room was packed with reporters, crypto KOLs and skeptics. 3. The judge said: "There is now a sufficient group of qualified jurors, that is, 50. A total of 18 jurors will be selected, including 12 jurors and 6 alternate jurors." 4. Prosecution witnesses: A US assistant prosecutor read out a list of witnesses who may testify in court, including Caroline Ellison, Gary Wang, Nishad Singh, Ryne Miller, Constance Wang, SBF's parents Joseph Bankman and Barbara Fried, and Anthony Scaramucci, founder of Skybridge Capital. Several institutions are also on the list, including Jane Street Capital, Sequoia Capital, BlockFi, Genesis, Ontario Teachers' Pension Plan, Binance, Nexo, Guarding Against Pandemics and Voyager Digital. 5. The judge said the trial is expected to last about six weeks, but the trial may end in a shorter time. The judge has not yet finalized the jury, and he expects this to be completed on the morning of October 4th local time, after which the two sides are expected to conduct opening arguments totaling about 90 minutes.
Financing News
Blockchain product development company Trinetix completes $10 million strategic financing
According to Alexa Blockchain, blockchain product development company Trinetix announced that it has received a $10 million strategic investment from investment fund Hypra. The new funds will enable Trinetix to further expand into Latin America, enhance its operations for North American customers, and expand its Latin American market.
It is reported that Trinetix mainly provides blockchain engineering solutions, intelligent automation services, cloud support and other products to global enterprises. Its customers include Coca-Cola, Procter & Gamble and ExxonMobil. Currently, the team is distributed in Ukraine, the European Union and the United States.
CMCC Global's new fund raises $100 million and will invest in Hong Kong blockchain companies
According to the South China Morning Post, CMCC Global, a Hong Kong venture capital firm focusing on cryptocurrencies, announced that its newly established fund "Titan Fund" has completed the first round of fundraising of US$100 million, with more than 30 investors including Block.one, Yingke Group, Winklevoss Capital, Jebsen Capital and Animoca Brands founder Yat Siu participating in the investment.
Martin Baumann, co-founder of CMCC Global, said that Titan Fund is CMCC Global's fourth fund and will provide equity investment in early blockchain startups, with a focus on Hong Kong. Of the five investments made so far, two are in Hong Kong companies.
Important data
MakerDAO has added $169 million in RWA assets in the past week, and the total RWA assets of the agreement are about $3.278 billion
Data from makerburn.com shows that MakerDAO has added another $169 million in RWA assets since September 28, including more than $127 million in RWA assets through BlockTower Andromeda, $38 million in RWA assets through Monetalis Clydesdale, $3.61 million in RWA assets through BlockTower S3, and $130,000 in RWA assets through New Silver. In addition, the total RWA assets of the current agreement are approximately $3.278 billion.
PANews APP Points Mall is officially launched
Free redemption of hardcore prizes: imKeyPro hardware wallet, first-class research report monthly card, Ballet REAL series wallet, AICoin membership, various peripherals and hundreds of selected research reports collection, first come first served, experience it now!
PANews launches the global LEAP journey!
South Korea, Singapore, Shanghai, Taipei, many places will gather from September to December to witness the new chapter of globalization!
?Activities are being jointly organized in multiple locations, welcome to communicate!
