Today's news tips:
Meitu executives: The company is no longer focusing on or buying cryptocurrencies, and may sell them at the right time
Grayscale: Ready to Convert GBTC into an ETF After SEC Approval
The US government holds $5 billion in Bitcoin, and the sale is not determined by market conditions but by legal procedures
Coinbase Report: Investor Demand for Ethereum Staking Yields Has Slowed
BC Technology plans to sell its crypto trading platform OSL at a valuation of $128 million: Insider
Tether has frozen a total of $835 million in assets so far
Data: AXS worth about $64.59 million and APE worth $16.6 million will be unlocked this week
Bitcoin mining difficulty increased by 6.47% to 61.03T, a record high
Regulatory News
Australia plans to regulate crypto exchanges
According to Bloomberg, the Australian Treasury said in a consultation paper titled "Regulating Digital Asset Platforms" released on Monday that digital asset platforms holding more than 5 million Australian dollars (3.2 million U.S. dollars) or individuals holding more than 1,500 Australian dollars must obtain a license from the Australian Securities and Investments Commission (ASIC). The consultation paper proposes to regulate crypto exchanges under existing financial services laws rather than formulate new cryptocurrency-specific rules. The obligations of crypto companies come from existing financial services laws, including submitting financial records, monitoring market misconduct, and meeting solvency and cash reserve requirements. In addition, crypto companies will need to assume more obligations in areas such as trading, staking, and token creation. The Australian government will consult on the proposal until December 1. The draft legislation is expected to be introduced next year, after which exchanges will have 12 months to ensure compliance.
The US government holds $5 billion in Bitcoin, and the sale is not determined by market conditions but by legal procedures
According to the Wall Street Journal, the U.S. government is one of the world's largest holders of Bitcoin, but unlike other crypto giants, it does not care whether the value of digital currencies rises or falls. This is because the approximately 200,000 Bitcoins held by the U.S. government were seized from cyber criminals and dark web markets. These Bitcoins are mainly stored in encrypted, password-protected hardware wallets controlled by the Department of Justice, the Internal Revenue Service or other agencies, and will not be traded online.
The U.S. has been very slow to convert bitcoin into dollars. It is not holding on to bitcoin for long periods of time, which is called "holding on to bitcoin" in the crypto community, but it has no intention of selling. It is not waiting for bitcoin to appreciate so that it can sell its holdings at a high price. That large amount of bitcoin is more like a byproduct of a long legal process than a strategic plan. Jarod Koopman, executive director of the IRS's Cyber and Forensic Services Division, said: "We don't participate in market transactions. Our actions are basically determined by the timing of the legal process."
According to an analysis of public documents by crypto firm 21.co, more than 200,000 bitcoins have entered government coffers in just three recent seizures. Even if the government has sold about 20,000 bitcoins, its holdings are still worth more than $5 billion. The legal process can take years from seizing illegal bitcoins to receiving a final order to liquidate the tokens. In some cases, this works in the government's favor as the value of cryptocurrencies rises dramatically.
NFT
The cross-chain bridge for y00ts to migrate back to Ethereum is now online, and a 33.3% royalty will be charged for transactions on Polygon starting October 22
NFT project y00ts announced on the X platform that the cross-chain bridge that migrates y00ts from Polygon back to Ethereum has been launched. The team will bear all gas fees on the first day and randomly distribute 10 y00ts to the wallet address that crosses the chain within 24 hours.
During the migration, cross-chain transactions will be verified on Polygon within seconds, but must first be verified on the Ethereum mainnet before NFTs can be minted. In addition, after October 22, trading y00ts on Polygon will be charged a 33.3% royalty, and the team recommends that users complete the migration within 7 days.
Project News
Grayscale: Ready to convert GBTC into an ETF after SEC approval
Fox Business reporter Eleanor Terrett tweeted that Grayscale issued a statement regarding the SEC's decision not to seek a retrial, saying: "The 45-day deadline for seeking a retrial under the Federal Rules of Appellate Procedure has expired. The court will issue a final authorization within seven days. The Grayscale team is ready to convert GBTC into an ETF once the SEC approves it." According to previous news, the SEC does not plan to appeal the Grayscale ruling, which is consistent with the predictions of many industry insiders about the situation, which will increase the possibility of GBTC being converted into an ETF.
Stars Arena has reopened but trading has not yet resumed
PANews reported on October 16 that Stars Arena, a social protocol based on the AVAX network, announced on Twitter that it has reopened, but trading has not yet resumed. Stars Arena previously stated that trading will only resume after a complete audit report is published and the contract is open source for community review.
ether.fi will launch the native re-staking token eETH on EigenLayer and plans to implement DAO governance in March next year
The non-custodial liquidity staking protocol ether.fi announced its decentralized roadmap on the X platform and announced that it would impose market share restrictions, promising to limit the number of validators and ETH of the protocol to less than 25% of the consensus layer.
According to its decentralized roadmap, ether.fi will launch the native re-staking token eETH on EigenLayer within a month. In addition, the team plans to open source the entire protocol in December this year, and implement DAO governance, the second phase of distributed validator technology (DVT) integration (single staking without permission), and contract ossification in March next year.
Coinbase Report: Investor Demand for Ethereum Staking Yields Has Slowed
The Ethereum blockchain validator queue emptied out for the first time since the Shanghai upgrade in May, suggesting that investor demand for Ethereum (ETH) staking is stabilizing, Coinbase (COIN) said in a research note on Friday.
The report states that as validators have entered a peak in recent months, the staking yield has dropped from over 5% to 3.5%. If the underlying activity and transaction fees on the network remain consistent, the staking yield is expected to remain stable due to the slowdown in validator growth. In addition, the report states that activity on the Ethereum mainnet remained stable in the third quarter, while total transaction volume increased.
“Since there are no major Ethereum protocol upgrades before Dencun (most likely to occur in the first half of 2024), we believe there are no major technical drivers that will have a meaningful impact on on-chain activity, barring a major new protocol or a serious hack,” the report added.
Uniswap V4’s KYC hook sparks community controversy, could allow DeFi to be whitelisted by regulators
According to Cointelegraph, the new hook provided in the Uniswap V4 hook open source directory, namely the "KYC hook", has caused controversy within the crypto community. The hook allows users to conduct KYC checks before trading pools. A certain X platform user criticized the hook, pointing out that it opens the possibility of decentralized finance (DeFi) protocols being whitelisted by regulators.
Hooks are tools that allow developers to customize code without changing the main structure of the program. In Uniswap V4, this hook will allow developers to use KYC verification in decentralized financial protocols. The KYC hook was launched as an optional feature by community developers on the Uniswap V4 directory, and the KYC verification is performed by NFT. According to another X user, this NFT is specifically for liquidity providers and may be useful for projects that must comply with regulatory requirements in certain jurisdictions.
It is reported that Uniswap V4 introduces a customizable hook function, which is expected to be launched in early 2024 and will be accessible only to entities approved by governance.
SBF requested to increase the dosage of drugs during the trial to ensure his ability to testify
The attorney for FTX founder Sam Bankman-Fried (SBF) filed an application with the court on Sunday evening local time, expressing the hope that SBF would be allowed to increase the dosage of Adderall during the trial, and pointed out that this might affect SBF's ability to testify.
It is reported that Adderall is a neurostimulant drug that can increase a person's alertness, temporarily relieve fatigue and increase aggressiveness. It is mostly used to treat attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) and narcolepsy.
Meitu executives: The company is no longer focusing on or buying cryptocurrencies, and may sell them at the right time
According to Sing Tao Daily, Meitu announced earlier that it had turned from a loss to a profit. Kang Yicong, senior investor relations manager of Meitu, pointed out that the profit was largely due to the company's subscription system, which prevented the company's earnings from fluctuating sharply due to macroeconomic changes. The AI business, which has been popular recently, is also a growth driver for Meitu. It not only helps promote subscriptions, but its profit contribution is also expected to continue to increase. As for the cryptocurrency investment that the market is concerned about, she revealed that the company is no longer focusing on and buying such assets, and may sell them at the right time.
Kang Yicong believes that AI has greatly promoted the company's development, especially the conversion of subscription members. She said that AI's contribution to the company's profits will continue to increase from the second half of this year to next year. The company has basically not bought cryptocurrencies since 2021. She said that the purchase was a strategic consideration at the time, but no operation was carried out afterwards. She emphasized that the company's current strategic focus is on image production.
ZepetoX: ZTX tokens have been officially launched and airdrops have been completed
ZepetoX, a metaverse project built by Zepeto, a metaverse platform under South Korean Internet giant Naver, in cooperation with Jump Crypto, announced that the token airdrop has been completed and ZTX has been officially launched and listed on Bybit, Gate.io, Bithumb, Coinone and SushiSwap.
BC Technology plans to sell its crypto trading platform OSL at a valuation of $128 million: Insider
Hong Kong's BC Technology Group is considering selling its cryptocurrency trading platform OSL, Bloomberg reported, citing people familiar with the matter. People familiar with the matter said BC Technology Group has assessed the interest of possible buyers such as industry participants and funds in OSL and has proposed a valuation of HK$1 billion (US$128 million). OSL is one of only two exchanges that have obtained a virtual asset trading license in Hong Kong.
OSL's platform covers the main brokerage, trading and custody services of the cryptocurrency market, as well as the business of providing infrastructure to financial institutions so that they can provide virtual asset trading. People familiar with the matter said BC Technology Group may sell parts of OSL's business rather than the entire business. Deliberations are still ongoing and there is no guarantee that a deal will be reached.
BC Technology's interim report shows that in the six months ending June, BC Technology's net loss narrowed to HK$95 million from more than HK$300 million in the same period last year. OSL's digital asset and blockchain platform business is BC Technology's main source of income. The volume of digital asset transactions on OSL in the first six months of 2023 was almost halved from the same period last year to HK$112.6 billion.
In response, OSL insiders said that the Bloomberg report was not entirely true.
TrueUSD discloses third-party security vulnerability, resulting in the leakage of some customer information
According to The Block, stablecoin issuer TrueUSD disclosed that it had suffered a third-party security breach, which resulted in the leakage of personal identification information of some customers. This information includes the customer's first and last name, email address and phone number (for customers who joined in 2018-2019). Customer address, date of birth, bank name, transaction history and blockchain account public address are also included. The leak involved TrueUSD's former bank, customer onboarding and product management service provider TrueCoin.
Web3 Foundation announces 19th batch of Grant funding, 33 projects shortlisted
The Web3 Foundation announced the 19th batch of Grant funding, providing a total of approximately US$1.1 million in grants to 33 projects.
Financing News
MyShell, an AI platform based on opBNB, completes $5.6 million seed round of financing, led by INCE Capital
According to The Block, MyShell, a platform that provides artificial intelligence tools based on opBNB, has completed a $5.6 million seed round of financing, led by INCE Capital, with participation from Hashkey Capital, Folius Ventures, SevenX Ventures, OP Crypto, etc. Co-founder Ethan Sun said that this is a round of equity with token warrants, which brings MyShell's valuation to $57 million. MyShell also raised $200,000 in pre-seed financing from friends and the crypto community earlier this year.
Important data
Data: AXS worth about $64.59 million and APE worth $16.6 million will be unlocked this week
Token Unlocks data shows that four projects will unlock tokens this week, with a total release value of more than US$87.8 million.
Flow (FLOW) will unlock approximately 7.29 million tokens at 8:00 am on October 16, worth approximately $3.23 million;
ApeCoin (APE) will unlock approximately 15.6 million tokens at 8:00 am on October 17, worth approximately $16.6 million;
Axie Infinity (AXS) will unlock approximately 1,513 tokens at 9:10 pm on October 20, worth approximately $64.59 million;
SPACE ID (ID) will unlock approximately 18.49 million tokens, worth approximately US$3.41 million, at 8:00 a.m. on October 22.
Tether has frozen a total of $835 million in assets so far
Tether said in a statement that to date, Tether has assisted 31 institutions around the world in investigations in 19 jurisdictions, freezing a total of $835 million in assets, which are mainly related to theft (blockchain and exchange hacking), and a small part is related to other crimes. Among them, Tether froze 32 addresses worth $873,118.34, which were found to be related to illegal activities in Israel and Ukraine.
Bitcoin mining difficulty increased by 6.47% to 61.03T, a record high
Mempool data shows that the difficulty of Bitcoin mining has been adjusted at 19:32 today (block height 812448), with the mining difficulty increased by 6.47% to 61.03T, setting a new historical high.
Grayscale GBTC negative premium rate has narrowed to 15.87%, close to a two-year low
According to CoinDesk, as of last Friday, Grayscale GBTC's negative premium rate has narrowed to 15.87%, reaching its lowest level since the end of December 2021. Grayscale GBTC's negative premium rate has been steadily shrinking since it hit a record low of nearly 50% during the peak of the bear market in December last year.
The SEC may now come up with new reasons to reject Grayscale’s proposal to convert GBTC into an ETF, or request a full-court appeal. Nevertheless, given that the regulator has been actively involved in other spot ETF applications, this possibility seems low.
Binance Completes 25th Quarterly BNB Burn, Destroying $453 Million in BNB
PANews reported on October 16 that Binance completed the 25th BNB quarterly destruction, with a total of 2,139,182 BNB destroyed, with a value of approximately US$453 million.
CoinShares: Digital asset investment products saw a net inflow of $15.2 million last week
According to CoinShares weekly data, digital asset investment products had a net inflow of $15.2 million last week, marking the third consecutive week of net inflows. Bitcoin investment products had a net inflow of $16.4 million last week, bringing the year-to-date inflow to $260 million. Ethereum investment products had a net outflow of $7.4 million, and investment products that shorted Bitcoin had a net inflow of $1.7 million. In addition, Solana investment products had an inflow of $3.7 million.
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