According to Cointelegraph, the Bank for International Settlements (BIS) has developed a proof-of-concept (PoC) for a system that tracks on-chain and off-chain transactions from cryptocurrency exchanges and public blockchains, including Bitcoin. The BIS has collaborated with the Deutsche Bundesbank, De Nederlandsche Bank, the European Central Bank, and the Bank of France to create a successful PoC called Project Atlas, which aims to gauge the macroeconomic relevance of cryptocurrency markets and decentralized finance (DeFi) protocols. The BIS Innovation Hub published details of the concept, which aims to provide insights, information, and economic implications of the sector, citing a lack of transparency and potential risks to financial stability characterized by high-profile failings in the crypto-space like the Terra ecosystem collapse in 2022. Project Atlas combines off-chain data from cryptocurrency exchanges with on-chain data from public blockchains gathered by nodes. The first iteration of the proof-of-concept saw Project Atlas tracking cryptocurrency flows across geographical locations. The initial approach uses transactions attributed to centralized exchanges in the Bitcoin network, along with the location of those exchanges, as a proxy for cross-border capital flows. The methodology notes that flows are likely lower-bound estimates of actual transaction volumes, given that the country location of exchanges is not easily discernible. Nevertheless, Project Atlas’s initial pilot indicates that inter-exchange is “significant and substantial economically.” In its current iteration, Project Atlas features a front end showcasing dashboards that visualize the results of data aggregation and analysis, including on-chain transfers and the global movement of funds. The PoC is set to provide an overview of cross-border flows and will provide a means for central banks to evaluate the relative economic significance of the cryptocurrency ecosystem across different jurisdictions. The project will continue incorporating more data sources to move into the next development phase, and extracting and analyzing data from Ethereum network nodes and DeFi protocols is also in the pipeline.

According to Cointelegraph, the European Commission is conducting risk assessments and considering export controls on critical technology areas, including artificial intelligence (AI) and semiconductor technologies. On October 3, EU officials identified four areas that need assessment regarding technology risk and risk of technology leakage, including AI, advanced semiconductors technologies, quantum technologies, and biotechnologies. These technologies were chosen based on their transformative nature, the risk of civil or military fusion, and the risk that the technology could be used to violate human rights. Thierry Breton, the commissioner for the internal market at the EU Commission, called the move an important step for EU resilience. The risk assessments will be carried out by the end of the year, with any results or initiatives based on the risk assessments to be presented by spring 2024. The Commission's next steps include engaging with its 27 Member States to begin collective assessments of the mentioned areas. This development follows a move on June 20, when the EU Commission enacted the Joint Communication on European Economic Security Strategy, which included protection against risks and promoting European competitiveness in specific markets. The United States has also been focusing efforts on assessing export risks of its own technology in similar sectors, particularly banning the export of high-level AI semiconductor chips to China.

According to Foresight News, privacy computing network Oasis Protocol plans to launch a synthetic version of its native token ROSE, called syROSE, in the fourth quarter of 2023. Oasis is collaborating with SYNTHR to introduce ROSE to six blockchain networks, including Ethereum, Arbitrum, Avalanche, Polygon, and BNB Chain. The introduction of syROSE will enable Oasis users to conduct transactions, staking, and lending on various blockchain platforms. The collaboration with SYNTHR aims to expand the utility and reach of the ROSE token, allowing users to access multiple blockchain networks seamlessly. By offering a synthetic version of the token, Oasis Protocol aims to enhance its users' experience and facilitate cross-chain transactions. The launch of syROSE is expected to further strengthen the Oasis Protocol ecosystem and promote the adoption of its privacy computing solutions.

According to Cointelegraph, the Bank of Korea (BOK) is set to launch a pilot project exploring the technical infrastructure for a central bank digital currency (CBDC). The project, announced jointly by the BOK, the Financial Services Commission (FSC), and the Financial Supervisory Service (FSS), will assess the viability of a future monetary system based on wholesale CBDCs. The pilot will involve private banks and public institutions, with the Bank for International Settlements providing technical expertise. The BOK will test both retail and wholesale types of CBDC, with live testing of the retail CBDC expected to begin in Q4 2024. While the pilot does not guarantee implementation, FSS First Deputy Governor Lee Myung-soon called it a significant step towards creating a prototype for the future monetary system. This sentiment echoes a statement made by Banque de France First Deputy Governor Denis Beau, who referred to CBDCs as catalysts for improving cross-border payments and enabling the development of a new international monetary system.

According to CoinDesk: As the judicial process kicks off in earnest, crypto founder Sam Bankman-Fried appeared in court on Tuesday to face a range of federal fraud and conspiracy charges related to the collapse of his businesses - FTX, a crypto and futures exchange, and Alameda Research, a crypto trading firm. Clad in a black suit, Bankman-Fried seemed poised to defend himself after months of anticipation. Day one of the trial focused on voir dire - the reduction of 80-plus potential jurors to a final pool of 12 jurors and six alternates. Judge Lewis Kaplan, overseeing the case, aimed to pick an impartial jury despite the landmark nature of Bankman-Fried’s case. The pool of potential jurors included people with professional ties to Alameda and FTX. One juror used to work at Signature, a crypto-friendly bank associated with Alameda and FTX. Another's employer had invested in Alameda and FTX directly. Judge Kaplan questioned the potential jurors to assess impartiality, probing into their understanding of the case and ensuring no prevue bias due to financial losses from investing in Alameda or FTX. Seven jurors reportedly raised their hands when asked if they had seen a recent 60 Minutes segment featuring an interview with author Michael Lewis about his newest book detailing Bankman-Fried's rise and fall. The trial is expected to progress with jury selection concluding on Wednesday, and opening statements commencing immediately afterwards. The defense anticipates their opening statement to last up to 40 minutes, followed by the prosecution, who expect to take no more than half an hour. Bankman-Fried's legal future hangs in the balance – a landmark case for the crypto world setting the stage for the intersection of digital currencies and legal regulation.          

According to Foresight News, blockchain-based game Axie Infinity has announced the launch of Origins Season 6, which will last for 49 days. Significant updates for this season include a reduction in round time to 45 seconds and a total of 112,000 AXS rewards, worth over $500,000.

According to Foresight News, two projects by Worldcoin have won awards at the ETHGlobal New York event. The smart contract ownership recovery scheme A.S.R. won the 'Best Overall' award for its use of World ID to recover smart contract ownership in case of lost EOA owner keys. The decentralized petition platform C3 won the 'Best Governance Application' award for using World ID to ensure that each petition signature comes from a verified unique human.

According to CoinDesk, decentralized finance (DeFi) lending project Yield Protocol is set to wind down by the end of this year due to a lack of demand and regulatory challenges. The project's December 2023 series will mature on Dec. 29, ending all borrowing and lending on the protocol, according to an announcement on Wednesday. Yield said that the decision was necessary because there is currently not sustainable demand for fixed-rate borrowing on Yield Protocol. Additionally, the current regulatory environment in the U.S., combined with increasing regulatory requirements in Europe and the U.K., make it challenging for the project to continue to support the Yield Protocol. At its peak in April 2022, Yield Protocol had over $22 million in total value locked, but this figure has since dwindled to around $2 million.

According to Cointelegraph, the United States District Court for the Southern District of New York has sentenced three key individuals involved in the AirBit Club cryptocurrency Ponzi scheme. Scott Hughes, Cecilia Millan, and Karina Chairez were sentenced on October 3, after pleading guilty to money laundering and other charges in early 2023. Hughes, who allegedly laundered approximately $18 million in AirBit Club fraud proceeds, received an 18-month prison sentence. Millan and Chairez, both senior-level promoters of AirBit Club, were sentenced to five years and one year and one day in prison, respectively. Additionally, Hughes was sentenced to three years of supervised release, while Millan and Chairez received three years and three months of supervised release, respectively. The AirBit Club scheme, launched in late 2015, was promoted as a multi-level marketing club in the cryptocurrency industry. The defendants provided presentations to trick investors into believing that AirBit Club had guaranteed daily returns from crypto mining and trading. However, $100 million of investors' money went to the pockets of its founders and promoters instead of funding the promoted crypto operations. U.S. attorney Damian Williams emphasized that Hughes, Millan, and Chairez each played a key role in perpetuating the AirBit Club pyramid scheme. He stated that the sentences send a message that anyone who facilitates cryptocurrency investment schemes will face serious consequences for such crimes. This comes after AirBit Club co-founder Pablo Rodriguez was sentenced to 12 years in prison in late September 2023. Another co-founder, Dos Santos, who has pleaded guilty to charges including wire fraud conspiracy, money laundering, and bank fraud conspiracy, is scheduled to be sentenced on October 4, 2023. Santos will be the last defendant to be sentenced out of a total of six defendants behind AirBit Club. Jackie Aguilar, who pled guilty in February 2023, reportedly passed away in May, a few weeks prior to sentencing.

The global cryptocurrency market cap now stands at $1.09T, down by -2.53% over the last day, according to CoinMarketCap data. Bitcoin (BTC) has been trading between $27,161 and $27,636 over the past 24 hours. As of 09:30 AM (UTC) today, BTC is trading at $27,542, down by -0.08%. Most major cryptocurrencies by market cap are trading mixed. Market outperformers include RAY, MULTI, and SLP, up by 15%, 11%, and 11%, respectively. Top stories of the day: Orbiter Finance Addresses Rug Pull Accusations, Claims Discord Account Blocked Without Reason Solana Attracts Institutional Investment for 27 Consecutive Weeks, Outperforming Altcoin Space: CoinShares Federal Reserve's Mester Predicts No Interest Rate Cut in Near Future US 30-year Treasury Yield Soars to a 16-year High of 4.856% Market movers: ETH: $1646.48 (-1.00%) BNB: $212.6 (-1.30%) XRP: $0.5294 (+4.15%) SOL: $23.6 (-2.40%) ADA: $0.2572 (-1.94%) DOGE: $0.06114 (-1.32%) TRX: $0.08913 (+1.60%) MATIC: $0.5929 (+4.07%) DOT: $4.047 (-2.20%) LTC: $64.48 (-2.55%) Top gainers on Binance: RAY/BUSD (+15%) MULTI/BUSD (+11%) SLP/BUSD (+11%)

According to Foresight News, US prosecutors reiterated on Wednesday that the existing legal framework is sufficient to charge Sam Bankman-Fried with fraud-related offenses. The US Department of Justice dismissed SBF's claim of 'lack of evidence of cryptocurrency regulation' in the documents submitted on Wednesday, stating that the prohibition of misappropriation of customer assets is the law that the defendant is accused of violating. The lack of regulation has nothing to do with whether the victim entrusted the money to the defendant for custody, and the evidence or argument about the lack of regulation would only confuse the jury. Furthermore, the US Department of Justice responded that it does not oppose SBF providing acceptable evidence of charitable activities, as long as the evidence is for a proper purpose, including not for the purpose of inclination or character.

According to CoinDesk: Bitcoin, the largest cryptocurrency by market cap, is holding steady above the $27,400 level after a decline of 0.7%, signifying a return of low volatility in the wake of recent ETF decisions. The digital asset saw support recede at $28K earlier in the week, but seems to have stabilized around its current level. Meanwhile, other major cryptocurrencies demonstrated mixed performance. Ether (ETH) fell by 1.3%, while Solana’s SOL, among the leading losses in the major cryptocurrencies, decreased by 3.5%. Cardano's ADA and the BNB token from BNB Chain also slipped by 2% each in the last 24 hours. Conversely, XRP was one of the few major tokens that saw an uptick following two landmark incidents involving Ripple in the past day. A court case decision came out in favor of the payment company while its Asia subsidiary received a license to offer essential services in Singapore, leading to an increase in XRP prices. Elsewhere in the crypto market, Polygon's MATIC and the Tron network's TRX both saw a 2% increase, despite no clear catalyst for their positive performance. On the other hand, Aave (AAVE) took a substantial hit, suffering an 8% drop to record the most significant fall among the top hundred tokens by market capitalization.   The cryptocurrency market continues to demonstrate unique shifts, with various factors contributing to the volatile nature of digital asset values. As always, investors are encouraged to monitor market activities closely and make informed decisions based on robust research.  

According to Foresight News, in Michael Lewis' new book 'Going Infinite' about SBF, it is revealed that since the establishment of Alameda Research in 2017, the 26-year-old SBF raised nearly $170 million in funds from the effective altruism community. SBF invested these funds in the cryptocurrency market, experiencing losses of millions of dollars in the initial months, with one month seeing daily losses exceeding $500,000. Some trading funds even disappeared due to poor fund management. Additionally, SBF used a robot program called Modelbot to trade nearly 500 tokens on about 30 exchanges. However, the program did not differentiate between highly liquid cryptocurrencies like Bitcoin and Ethereum and meme coins with scarce trading volumes, causing concerns among Alameda's early employees. The situation began to improve after Gary Wang and Nishad Singh joined the company. Wang reportedly developed a quantitative trading system that eventually started making money for Alameda, while Singh integrated various parts to manage the company.

According to Foresight News, Singapore-based venture capital firm Saison Capital, a subsidiary of Credit Saison, has allocated $100 million for investments in the Web2 and Web3 sectors, including continued investments in the blockchain and cryptocurrency markets. So far, the firm has completed 42 investment deals in the blockchain sector, with its portfolio companies including cryptocurrency lending platform Helix, multi-party computation-protected wallet Krayon, and Web3 gaming company Avium. Saison Capital's head, Qin En Looi, stated that the firm is expanding its parent fund's authorization and seeking to shift its investment portfolio more from Web2 to Web3. This will not only include early-stage projects but also involve investing in more new funds focused on cryptocurrencies.

According to Foresight News, Singapore-based investment firm Whampoa Group is planning to launch a $100 million venture capital fund by the end of this year, as reported by Nikkei Asia citing informed sources. The fund is expected to invest in the Web3 and digital asset sectors, focusing on Series A financing deals. It was previously reported that the fund would be launched in the fourth quarter of 2022, but Whampoa Group's digital asset investment arm, Whampoa Digital, has not yet commented on the matter.

According to Foresight News, hardware wallet manufacturer Ledger has announced a partnership with Sotheby's to provide digital custody solutions for collectors. Starting in 2024, buyers of top auctioned digital artworks at Sotheby's will receive a limited edition Ledger Nano X wallet co-branded with Sotheby's. The collaboration also includes the launch of cross-brand educational content, with Ledger curating and publishing content from its digital asset education platform, Ledger Academy, on Sotheby's Metaverse.

According to Foresight News, the Sui Liquid Stake Hackathon has come to an end, with five teams winning awards and six teams receiving honorable mentions. The Sui Foundation will provide 25 million staked SUI, worth $125,000, to the winning teams. Additionally, two teams won bounties provided by Sui's DeFi protocol. The winning projects for the liquidity staking awards are Aftermath Finance, Haedal Protocol, and Volo. The projects that won the LST DeFi and tools awards are Aftermath Finance, Bucket Protocol, and Wisp Swap. The projects that received honorable mentions include Degenhive, Desig, Interest Protocol, Kana Labs, Legato, and Suisa. Furthermore, DeFi strategy aggregator SuiStrat won bounties provided by Sui DeFi applications Cetus, Scallop, and NAVI, while decentralized liquidity staking platform Volo won a bounty provided by Cetus.

In a thought-provoking examination of Liquid Staking meets DeFi, or LSDFi, Binance Research delved into the latest development in the cryptocurrency space, presenting its key findings in a report published on June 16, 2023. Liquid staking protocols, although still emerging, have become the dominant sector within Decentralized Finance (DeFi) in terms of Total Value Locked (TVL). This suggests immense potential for the growth of LSDFi. Binance Research's findings present detailed insights into the evolving Web3 infrastructure. It's elaborated that following Ethereum's transition to Proof-of-Stake (PoS) in 2022, and the execution of the Shapella upgrade in April 2023, staking on the Ethereum blockchain has grown substantially. With the growth of staking, Liquid Staking Derivatives (LSDs)—tokens representing staked ETH positions that earn additional rewards—have also proliferated.  Source: Dune Analytics (@hildobby) (June 14, 2023) LSDFi refers to DeFi protocols that build on LSDs and offer additional yield-generation opportunities. The Binance Research report dissects the ecosystem of LSDs, carefully considering the broader market ecosystem and associated risks. Source: Etherscan (June 14, 2023) One of 2023's critical developments was the mushrooming of LSDs, signifying a rapid acceleration in total ETH staked throughout the year. By October 2023, liquid staking became the most significant protocol category within DeFi, with a collective TVL of $23.02 billion across 119 protocols. Lido emerged as the biggest player in the ETH staking scene, followed by centralized exchanges like Coinbase, Binance, and Kraken. The issuance of LSDs by liquid staking providers has enhanced liquidity and availed wider opportunities within the crypto ecosystem. Moreover, it has lowered the entry barriers, enabling more users to participate in staking and the broader crypto ecosystem. Source: Binance Research (June 14, 2023) However, users have been cautioned about the risks associated with interacting with emergent technologies like LSDFi. These risks include slashing risks (penalties for validators who fail to meet certain staking parameters), LSD price risks (fluctuations in LSD prices due to market forces), smart contract vulnerabilities, and third-party risks. The rise of LSDFi protocols brings new opportunities for LSD holders, incentivizing staking participation and potentially fostering the growth of liquid staking. As the sector remains in its infancy, observing innovations in the space and gauging the adoption of LSDFi will be key moving forward. The liquid staking ecosystem continues to expand, and this report illuminates just the beginning of this exciting evolution.        

Binance has issued a notice of the removal of a number of spot trading pairs on its platform. As part of maintaining the quality of its trading market and ensuring user protection, Binance conducts periodic reviews of all listed spot trading pairs. Trading pairs with poor liquidity and trading volumes may be delisted based on these reviews. Following the most recent review, Binance plans to remove and cease trading on several trading pairs, effective from October 6, 2023. At 05:00 UTC on October 6, 2023, Binance will be delisting the following pairs: 1INCH/BUSD, AERGO/BUSD, ANKR/BUSD, DATA/BUSD, DIA/BUSD, ERN/BUSD, IOST/BUSD, KP3R/BUSD, LOKA/BUSD, and LRC/BUSD. Subsequently, at 07:00 UTC on the same day, Binance will remove the following trading pairs: LTO/BUSD, MDX/BUSD, OM/BUSD, POLYX/BUSD, RARE/BUSD, SLP/BUSD, SUSHI/BUSD, THETA/BUSD, and YFI/BUSD. Traders should note that after these specified times, all open orders on these trading pairs will be automatically canceled, and trading will no longer be possible.          

According to Foresight News, decentralized exchange (DEX) QuickSwap has announced a partnership with decentralized data protocol Powerloom to launch an incentivized testnet on Polygon zkEVM. The collaboration aims to enhance the capabilities of the Polygon ecosystem and further develop the decentralized finance (DeFi) space.