Today's news tips:
The seminar guided by the Supreme People's Procuratorate discussed "the attributes of virtual currency and the judicial disposal of virtual currency involved in cases"
Taiwan Financial Supervisory Commission draft guidelines: Businesses cannot issue stablecoins, and will not be allowed to advertise or solicit business before compliance
Coca-Cola launches NFT minting activity on Base chain, combining famous paintings with bottles
South Korean telecom giant SK Telecom invests an additional $100 million in AI company Anthropic
PayPal to launch cryptocurrency hub for select users, featuring cryptocurrency sales and purchases
The revenue aggregation protocol Zunami Protocol was attacked, and the loss has exceeded 2.1 million US dollars
Crypto exchange Txbit announced it will close on September 14
South Korean Crypto Exchange Upbit to List SEI, Support BTC and KRW Market Trading Pairs
Regulatory News
The seminar guided by the Supreme People's Procuratorate discussed "the attributes of virtual currency and the judicial disposal of virtual currency involved in cases"
According to the Inspection Daily, at the seminar on "Recovering Losses and Disposal of Property in Telecommunications and Internet Fraud" last month, which was guided by the Fourth Procuratorate of the Supreme People's Procuratorate, hosted by the Zhejiang Provincial Procuratorate and the Criminal Procuratorial Research Base of the Supreme People's Procuratorate, the participants conducted in-depth discussions on topics such as "the attributes of virtual currency and the judicial disposal of virtual currency involved in the case". Gao Yandong, associate professor of the Guanghua Law School of Zhejiang University, said that in recent years, virtual currency has become the main "money laundering" tool for telecommunications and Internet fraud crimes. There are different views on how to view the legal attributes of virtual currency, how to determine its value and conduct judicial disposal in practice, and it is urgent to unify and clarify.
Regarding the legal attributes of virtual currency, Wang Yutong of the Financial Market Department of the People's Bank of China pointed out that the "Notice on Further Preventing and Dealing with the Risks of Virtual Currency Trading Speculation" clearly stated that virtual currency is not legal tender and related business activities in China are illegal financial activities, but it did not stipulate that virtual currency is contraband. Because it has quasi-financial attributes, it cannot be denied that it has property attributes. Ren Suxian, the president of the Criminal Tribunal of the Second Intermediate People's Court of Shanghai, also believes that although the "Notice" denies the monetary attributes of virtual currency, starting from the functional attributes, virtual currency is used as the object of illegal financial activities such as illegal fundraising, which is equivalent to indirectly recognizing the property attributes of virtual currency. Che Hao, a professor at the Law School of Peking University, believes that the essential attribute of property lies in transferability and is not expressly prohibited by law. Although my country prohibits virtual currency investment and trading, it does not completely prohibit personal holding and transfer, and virtual currency still has property attributes.
Regarding how to determine the value of virtual currency in judicial practice, Wu Junjie, a fourth-level senior prosecutor of the Zhejiang Provincial Procuratorate, proposed two ideas: one is to have the price determined by the price certification center. The second is that if the virtual currency has been converted into RMB, it will be determined according to the RMB amount; if it has not been converted, it will be determined according to the international market transaction price on the date of the incident. Xie Hongyan, director of the security department of Taotian Group, suggested that the market transaction price when the victim purchased or was damaged should be used to better protect the property rights and interests of the victim. Regarding the disposal of the virtual currency involved in the case, Liu Daoqian, a professor at the China Criminal Police College, proposed that if it is traded on a centralized exchange, the account involved can be frozen through the exchange; for transactions using cold wallets, the cold wallet or key can be found through investigative measures and seized.
Shanxi cut off a criminal chain that used the sale of cigarettes and virtual currency to "launder money", involving a total of nearly 84 million yuan
According to the WeChat official account of the Shanxi Provincial Public Security Department, recently, the Xinghualing Branch of the Taiyuan Public Security Bureau of Shanxi Province cut off a criminal chain that provided "money laundering" services to online fraud criminal gangs by buying and selling cigarettes and using virtual currency transactions. 23 criminal suspects were arrested, involving 43 online fraud cases with a total transaction volume of nearly 84 million yuan.
The police reminded that this is a new type of money laundering method for online fraud funds, which launders illegal funds by buying and selling cigarettes and other easily convertible goods offline, and then launders them again by exchanging virtual currency and transferring the funds overseas. The police reminded cigarette retailers to be vigilant when encountering people with the following behavioral characteristics: foreign accents, ordinary clothes and disguises such as masks or hats; most cigarettes are easy to sell and have good circulation; they usually check the location first, confirm that there are a large number of stocks, and then return to buy them after a few hours; when buying, they will ask the tobacco shop to provide a bank account first, send it to the superior, and frequently check the phone to wait for instructions; after the money is transferred from the fraudulent card to the tobacco shop by the superior, they will leave quickly with the cigarettes.
Taiwan Financial Supervisory Commission draft guidelines: Businesses cannot issue stablecoins, and will not be allowed to advertise or solicit business before compliance
According to Chain News, the draft guidelines of the Taiwan Financial Supervisory Commission (not the final version) obtained from multiple sources show that there are 13 principles and related annexes. The guidelines to be announced in September this year (2023) will allow local operators to have a clearer understanding of legal behavior and penalties; if overseas operators do not comply with regulations in Taiwan, they will not be allowed to advertise and solicit business.
According to the guidelines of the Financial Supervisory Commission, overseas exchanges and other foreign operators are not allowed to advertise to Taiwanese people or provide NT dollar deposits and withdrawals if they have not entered the anti-washing statement. Operators regulated by the guidelines can issue virtual assets, but they must have a white paper with sufficient information disclosure (this is based on the EU's "Crypto Asset Market Supervision Law"), such as: issuer information, issuance quantity, subscription conditions, etc. It is even necessary to disclose whether the consensus mechanism adopted will have a significant impact on the climate. However, operators cannot issue stablecoins.
The Financial Supervisory Commission has explicitly stated that it is not allowed to illegally operate virtual asset derivative financial product trading business or virtual asset business with securities nature. In the absence of mature international laws, the Futures Trading Act will be used to regulate illegal operators, who will be sentenced to a prison term of up to 7 years and a fine of up to NT$3 million.
NFT
Coca-Cola launches NFT minting activity on Base chain, combining famous paintings with bottles
Coinbase L2 network Base said in a tweet that Coca-Cola launched the "Global Masterpiece" NFT minting event on the Base chain, which includes works by emerging artists Aket, WonderBuhle, Fatma Ramadan, Vikram Kushwah, Stefania Tejada, and timeless artists such as Munch, Vermeer and Van Gogh. These NFTs combine famous paintings with Coca-Cola bottles and are now open for minting.
AI
South Korean telecom giant SK Telecom invests an additional $100 million in AI company Anthropic
South Korean telecom operator SK Telecom (SKT) announced that it will invest an additional $100 million in Anthropic, a San Francisco-based artificial intelligence security and research company. SKT’s Silicon Valley venture capital arm SK Telecom Venture Capital (SKTVC) previously invested in the company. SKT has signed a partnership agreement with Anthropic to jointly build a large language model (LLM) customized for telecom companies.
Project News
PayPal to launch cryptocurrency hub for select users, featuring cryptocurrency sales and purchases
As Cointelegraph reported, shortly after launching the dollar-backed stablecoin PayPal USD (PYUSD), payment giant PayPal updated its terms to introduce the "Crypto Center", a feature that allows users to hold and interact with Bitcoin. According to the terms, to be eligible to use the Cryptocurrency Center, PayPal users must have a "personal PayPal account and a balance account in good standing." In addition, PayPal will verify the necessary identity information provided by the user, including name, physical address, date of birth, and taxpayer identification number. After the launch of the feature, the Cryptocurrency Center will be directly linked to the user's PayPal account and can be accessed using existing credentials.
According to the company, the service will allow the sale and purchase of cryptocurrencies. In addition, it will facilitate the use of funds stored after the sale of cryptocurrencies for purchase payments through PayPal. The cryptocurrency center is also essential for the conversion between PYUSD and other crypto assets. However, PayPal further explained: "The user's balance in the cryptocurrency center represents their ownership of each crypto asset. Users will not hold digital crypto assets themselves in their crypto asset balances."
Earlier today, it was reported that PayPal plans to make PYUSD adopted on major trading platforms, but has no plans for international expansion.
The revenue aggregation protocol Zunami Protocol was attacked, and the loss has exceeded $2.1 million
Yield aggregation protocol Zunami Protocol tweeted: “zStables appears to have been attacked. Collateral remains safe, continuing to investigate further.”
Paidun analyzed that the hacker attack on Zunami Protocol resulted in a loss of more than $2.1 million, involving two hacker transactions; this was a price manipulation issue, and prices could be miscalculated through donations.
Later today, SlowMist founder Yu Xian said that Zunami Protocol could have avoided the attack and that the project party had already been informed of the relevant risks but was ignored.
Justin Sun says he currently holds more than 100,000 Bitcoins
Justin Sun, the founder of TRON, said in a tweet that he is a supporter of Bitcoin and currently holds more than 100,000 bitcoins. He believes that "TRON as a stablecoin network may have a positive impact on the value of BTC."
FedNow Adds Hedera-Powered Micropayments Platform Dropp as Service Provider
According to a message from Generation Infinity forwarded by Santiment, the Federal Reserve's instant payment system FedNow has added the Hedera-backed micropayment platform Dropp to its list of service providers. Dropp supports micropayments in HBAR, US dollars, and USDC.
Reuters: SBF is currently being held at the Metropolitan Detention Center in Brooklyn, New York
Reuters reporter Luc Cohen tweeted that Bureau of Prisons records show that former FTX CEO Sam Bankman-Fried (SBF) is currently being held at the Metropolitan Detention Center in Sunset Park. The day before, Judge Lewis Kaplan admitted in ordering SBF's detention that the prison "is not on anyone's list of five-star facilities."
It is reported that the Brooklyn Metropolitan Detention Center is located in New York City, USA, and currently holds more than 1,600 prisoners. The detention center is controversial due to poor supervision conditions and medical and health issues. Decrypt reported that most of the cells in the prison do not have single rooms and toilets, and the cells are full of rats, maggots and insects.
Earlier on August 12, it was reported that a US judge revoked SBF's bail; SBF's legal team has appealed.
Wintermute is applying for a YFI loan from the Yearn community and plans to purchase up to 3 million yCRV
The governance page shows that Wintermute Trading initiated a new proposal in the Yearn Finance community, requesting Yearn Finance to approve a YFI loan to Wintermute Trading and authorizing the transfer of 350 YFI (US$2.18 million) from the DAO treasury to Wintermute Trading for a period of 12 months at an interest rate of 0.1%, with payment in kind at the end of the loan period.
In addition, Wintermute plans to use up to 3 million CRV (US$1.73 million) to purchase yCRV and add its assets to the yCRV-CRV Curve pool (lp-yCRV V2) deployed on Yearn for at least 6 months. Wintermute hopes that this move will rebalance the current 69%/31% yCRV/CRV pool, improve the yCRV peg, and increase the liquidity of the pool. The proposal states that after 7 days of community discussion and feedback, a snapshot vote will be launched.
Wintermute is applying for a YFI loan from the Yearn community and plans to purchase up to 3 million yCRV
The governance page shows that Wintermute Trading initiated a new proposal in the Yearn Finance community, requesting Yearn Finance to approve a YFI loan to Wintermute Trading and authorizing the transfer of 350 YFI (US$2.18 million) from the DAO treasury to Wintermute Trading for a period of 12 months at an interest rate of 0.1%, with payment in kind at the end of the loan period.
In addition, Wintermute plans to use up to 3 million CRV (US$1.73 million) to purchase yCRV and add its assets to the yCRV-CRV Curve pool (lp-yCRV V2) deployed on Yearn for at least 6 months. Wintermute hopes that this move will rebalance the current 69%/31% yCRV/CRV pool, improve the yCRV peg, and increase the liquidity of the pool. The proposal states that after 7 days of community discussion and feedback, a snapshot vote will be launched.
Crypto exchange Txbit announced it will close on September 14
Cryptocurrency exchange Txbit has announced that it will shut down on September 14, 2023. All customers should withdraw their funds before 20:00 Beijing time on September 14, 2023. Any funds remaining after September 14, 2023 will not be recoverable. On August 14, it will be offline for about an hour. During this period, all open orders will be canceled. At the same time, the trading function will be closed. After this process is completed, it will return to online status and resume withdrawal services.
Hong Kong media: Li Lin rented and then bought a HK$1 billion mansion in Hong Kong, with a price of over HK$920,000 per square meter
According to Hong Kong media hk01, Kerry (0683)'s luxury residential project Ti Wai at 3 Lung Kui Road, Beacon Hill, launched a tender on July 13 for sale of the largest unit in the project, Courtyard Villa C, which is the largest first-hand unit in Kowloon. It is reported that the developer launched the project in the form of "rent first and then buy". The mansion has been leased by a mainland customer, Li Lin, with a lease term of 90 months, or about 7 and a half years, starting from August 1, 2023, and then there is a renewal period of 3 months before the end of the lease. However, the rental level is unknown. In addition, during the lease period, the tenant can choose to buy Ti Wai Courtyard Villa C for 1 billion yuan. If the transaction is completed, the transaction price per square foot will be as high as 85,529 yuan (920,625 yuan per square meter).
According to PANews, the mainland visitor Li Lin is the original founder of Huobi, Li Lin.
South Korean Crypto Exchange Upbit to List SEI, Support BTC and KRW Market Trading Pairs
According to the official announcement, South Korean crypto trading platform Upbit will launch SEI, supporting BTC market and Korean won market trading pairs. SEI only supports deposits from the Sei network (deposits through other networks such as BSC are not supported). SEI deposit and withdrawal support time is expected to be 2023-08-15 21:00 KST. The start time of trading support will be notified separately.
Investment and Financing
NoLimit Fund I, a venture capital fund led by former Binance strategy chief CVP, has raised $50 million
According to The Block, the venture capital fund CVP NoLimit Fund I, led by former Binance strategy director Gin Chao, announced that it has closed and raised $50 million to invest in crypto startups. According to today’s announcement, the cooperation between NoLimit Holdings and private equity firm ClearVue Partners CVP NoLimit Fund I ended on July 25.
NoLimit focuses on seed rounds and strategic investments, with investment sizes ranging from $250,000 to $3 million. The company has invested in more than 20 projects around the world and expects to invest in another 20 projects in the next 12 months.
Important data
Data: The amount of DAI deposited in DSR has exceeded 1.3 billion, of which Savings Dai (sDAI) has exceeded 550 million
Makerburn data shows that as the MakerDAO DAI deposit rate has been raised to 8%, the amount of DAI deposited in the DSR has exceeded 1.3 billion. Among them, Savings Dai (sDAI) has exceeded 550 million, which may be affected by the expected airdrop of Spark Protocol.
Data: A whale transferred more than 22,000 ETH to Binance 2 hours ago, equivalent to about 41.1 million US dollars
According to on-chain analyst Yu Jin's monitoring, a whale transferred 22,340 ETH (about 41.1 million US dollars) to Binance 2 hours ago, and withdrew 12.88 million USDT 20 minutes later. After the whale transferred ETH to Binance, the price of ETH fell from 1,844 US dollars to 1,834.5 US dollars, and there was a corresponding trading volume. The ETH of this whale should have been partially or completely sold.
Yu Jin pointed out that the whale had made profits in five ETH trades since May, but this time it may be its first defeat.
Data: SAND worth about $130 million and APE worth $31.05 million will be unlocked this week
Token Unlocks data shows that five crypto projects will unlock tokens this week, with a total release value of approximately US$174 million.
The Sandbox (SAND) will unlock approximately 330 million tokens at 16:00 on August 14, worth approximately $130 million;
Flow (FLOW) will unlock approximately 7.29 million tokens at 8:00 on August 16, worth approximately $4.07 million;
Euler (EUL) will unlock about 157,000 tokens at 17:00 on August 16, worth about $408,000;
ApeCoin (APE) will unlock approximately 15.6 million tokens at 8:00 on August 17, worth approximately US$31.05 million;
Oasis Network (ROSE) will unlock approximately 171 million tokens at 0:00 on August 19, worth approximately US$8.09 million.
BALD deployer bridges 7,000 ETH from Base network back to Ethereum and deposits 2,100 ETH into Kraken
According to Lookonchain monitoring, BALD deployers have bridged 7,000 ETH (about $12.9 million) from the Base network back to Ethereum and deposited 2,100 ETH (about $3.87 million) into Kraken. Currently, there are 2,000 ETH (about $3.7 million) in the bridge network and 2,237 ETH (about $4.13 million) in the Base network.
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!
