PA Daily | US SEC and other institutions issued warnings on crypto investments, Volatility Shares withdrew its Ethereum futures ETF application

Today's news tips:
The US SEC and five other regulators have issued warnings about crypto investments
Volatility Shares Withdraws Ethereum Futures ETF Application
Moonbirds parent company PROOF reduces team size to 22 in restructuring
Chainalysis cuts 15% of its staff to focus on government contracts
Celsius asks court to begin repaying customer funds by year end
The FTX attacker’s address has transferred 37,500 ETH in the past three days, equivalent to about 63.2 million US dollars
The Big Short author: FTX owes $4 billion to the top 50 accounts, including $280 million from Jump
Bitcoin mining difficulty increased by 0.35% to 57.32T, a record high
Regulatory News
Fed report: Examiners failed to quickly detect Silvergate Bank problems and bank managers were "ineffective"
A report from the Federal Reserve's Office of Inspector General (OIG) shows that Federal Reserve examiners did not sound the alarm and allowed Silvergate Bank to take potentially fatal risks during its transformation from a community bank to a crypto bank. Given the bank's unfettered growth, regulators should have taken more aggressive and decisive supervisory actions to escalate several issues. In addition, Silvergate's problems also include its "ineffective" senior management, which was plagued by nepotism. "The bank's corporate governance and risk management capabilities have not kept pace with its rapid growth and increasingly complex and changing risk profile," the report concluded.
The US SEC and five other regulators have issued warnings about crypto investments
The U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC), the Financial Industry Regulatory Authority (FINRA), the Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC), the National Futures Association (NFA), the Securities Investor Protection Corporation (SIPC) and the North American Securities Administrators Association (NASAA) have jointly issued multiple warnings on crypto asset investments, stating that crypto asset investments may be abnormally volatile and speculative, and that platforms where investors buy, sell, borrow or lend these assets may lack protection.
The regulator warned that those offering crypto asset investments or services may not comply with applicable laws, including federal securities laws. In addition, the announcement detailed that crypto asset investors face a number of risks, including unregistered offerings, lack of protection from the Securities Investor Protection Corporation (SIPC), and fraud.
NFT
Moonbirds parent company PROOF reduces team size to 22 in restructuring
According to official news, Moonbirds' parent company PROOF announced that in order to ensure long-term survival, the PROOF team has been reorganized and the team size has been reduced to 22 people. PROOF said: "Despite the changes in the team, we are still confident in the future development and commitment, and the financial situation remains strong. Reducing the size of the team is a proactive measure."
PROOF also said that it will release new fall and winter products: Talons, Grails V and PROOF Collective artworks.
Project News
Chainalysis cuts 15% of its staff to focus on government contracts
According to Forbes, Michael Gronager, CEO of blockchain analysis company Chainalysis, notified employees via email that it would lay off about 150 employees, accounting for 15% of the total number of employees (900). The reason for the layoffs is that the company is continuing to withdraw from the commercial market and turn to a more stable government contract business. The current government business accounts for 70% of Chainalysis' revenue. Chainalysis said it is looking at the future needs of the government and expanding the investigative capabilities of its core products. According to previous news, Chainalysis laid off about 44 employees in February this year, accounting for 4.8% of its total employees.
Volatility Shares Withdraws Ethereum Futures ETF Application
According to Cointelegraph, Volatility Shares has withdrawn its application for an Ethereum futures ETF. Justin Young, co-founder of Volatility Shares, said that "there is no opportunity at this point in time." When asked if the company still plans to launch an Ethereum futures ETF later, Young said that it will continue to apply, but the application time is subject to re-determination. According to previous news, Volatility Shares announced plans to launch Ethereum futures ETF trading on October 12. In a filing with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) on July 28, Volatility Shares detailed its proposed "Ethereum Strategic ETF," which will invest in cash-settled Ethereum futures contracts traded on the Chicago Mercantile Exchange (CME).
SlowMist Cosine: friend.tech accounts have been hacked repeatedly, posing a risk of information leakage
SlowMist Yuxian tweeted that recently, friend.tech accounts have been hacked and their assets have been stolen. Because FT is centralized and there is always a risk of information leakage, friend.tech accounts are either registered with a mobile phone number, or are Gmail or Apple accounts, and do not have 2FA, making them the main attack path for attackers.
Starknet Ecosystem Derivatives Protocol ZKX Launches Phase 1 Airdrop
Starknet ecological derivatives protocol ZKX announced the launch of the first phase of token airdrops, which will be collected from October 2 to October 16. The token ZKX will become the governance token of the protocol, with a supply cap of 100 million. The first phase of airdrops will issue 4% of the total, and the second phase will issue about 11%. The tokens of the two phases of airdrops will be locked and will be available for trading when the tokens go online in early 2024. The first phase will be airdropped to Yakuza participants of SZN1 and 2, and the second phase will be airdropped to DeFi members and traders participating in Yakuza SZN 3 and 4.
Celsius asks court to begin repaying customer funds by year end
According to Cointelegraph, crypto lending company Celsius Network told the judge at a hearing seeking approval of its restructuring plan on October 2 that the company plans to start repaying customers by the end of the year. Celsius's legal counsel Christopher Koenig said in his opening statement that the new company, called "NewCo," will receive $450 million in seed funding from the proceedings. In addition, a document dated September 29 showed that Celsius plans to use $2.03 billion in Bitcoin and Ethereum and shares of the new company to partially repay creditors.
The judge presiding over the case is considering whether to approve Celsius' restructuring plan. The plan also needs to be approved by security regulators. It is reported that although the restructuring plan has the support of most creditors and has been passed, it is still opposed by some creditors.
Arbitrum has launched its second week of Odyssey activity, with tasks taking place on TofuNFT and Aboard Exchange
Arbitrum announced that the second week of the Odyssey event has been launched. This week's interactive tasks will be carried out on the NFT market TofuNFT and the order book perpetual DEX Aboard Exchange. After completing the tasks, users can receive the Galxe badge. The application will be open until 00:00 on October 8, Beijing time.
Brazilian investment bank BTG Pactual is acquiring crypto-friendly brokerage Orama for around $99 million
According to Cointelegraph, BTG Pactual, a major Brazilian investment bank, is acquiring cryptocurrency-friendly brokerage Orama as part of its strategy to expand the bank's digital platform. BTG Pactual has signed an agreement to purchase 100% of Orama's shares for 500 million Brazilian reals ($98.7 million). The acquisition is subject to the necessary regulatory approvals from authorities including the Brazilian Central Bank.
Founded in 2011, Orama is said to have custody of nearly 18 billion reais ($3.6 billion) in assets and serves about 360,000 clients. Orama focuses on the distribution of investment funds and fixed-income products, and has also been exploring cryptocurrency investments.
Financing News
GameFi platform NexGami completes $2 million seed round of financing, with a post-investment valuation of $20 million
According to GlobeNewswire, GameFi platform NexGami announced the completion of a $2 million seed round of financing, with participation from Polygon Ventures, Fundamental Labs and Ledger Capital, with a post-investment valuation of $20 million. It is reported that NexGami is committed to providing seamless integration solutions for game products and enhancing the gaming experience of users within the Polygon network, and introducing non-circle game users into the GameFi ecosystem.
AirDAO Announces $7.5 Million Investment from DWF Labs
AirDAO announced in its official blog that it has received a $7.5 million investment from DWF Labs (with a one-year lock-up period and a 36-month unlocking period) to promote wider adoption of the AirDAO ecosystem. This is a continuation and expansion of the partnership following the $2 million investment from DWF Labs in September 2022.
It is reported that AirDAO is a decentralized autonomous organization that manages the AMB-Net (Ambrosus Network) public chain. AMB-Net is a Layer 1 public chain. Currently, AMB-Net has established a series of ecological functions, including encrypted dashboards, cross-chain bridges, Swap trading platforms, etc.
Earlier today, it was reported that DWF Labs transferred 7.5 million USDT and received approximately 18.74 million US dollars in AMB.
Important data
Data: Ethereum futures ETF's trading volume in the first few hours was less than $2 million
Bloomberg EFT analyst Eric Balchunas tweeted that the volume of the Ethereum futures ETF in the first few hours was quite flat, less than $2 million. Compared with the trading volume of ProShares Bitcoin futures in the first 15 minutes, which was as high as $200 million, this number is very low. According to previous news, ProShares, VanEck and Bitwise launched the Ethereum futures ETF on Monday. Investors can purchase ProShares ETFs through brokerage accounts without the need for cryptocurrency custodians, exchange accounts or wallets.
Pudgy Penguins sales surge 241% after Walmart partnership
According to The Block, the weekly trading volume of blue-chip NFT project Pudgy Penguins soared after reaching a cooperation with retail giant Walmart. According to The Block, Pudgy Penguins' trading revenue between September 24 and October 1 was US$3.32 million, an increase of 241% from the previous week. This figure is also the highest record for Pudgy Penguins since July this year. Pudgy Penguins is an NFT series consisting of 8,888 cartoon penguins. According to OpenSea data, the total transaction volume of the project was 190,563 ETH (US$321.9 million) and the floor price was 4.9 ETH (US$8,270). According to previous news, Walmart announced last week that it will sell Pudgy Penguins-branded toys in 2,000 stores.
The FTX attacker’s address has transferred 37,500 ETH in the past three days, equivalent to about 63.2 million US dollars
According to Spot on Chain monitoring, a total of 37,500 Ethereum (about $63.2 million) was transferred from three FTX exploit addresses in the past three days, including: 35,000 Ethereum (about $59 million) was transferred to Thorchain and Railgun contracts, which may be used for money laundering; 2,500 Ethereum (about $4.19 million) was exchanged for 153.4 tBTC, with an average price of $27,281 per tBTC. The FTX exploit entity still holds 148,246 Ethereum (about $247 million) on 13 addresses.
Bitcoin mining difficulty increased by 0.35% to 57.32T, a record high
PANews reported on October 3rd that BTC.com data showed that the difficulty of Bitcoin mining has been adjusted at 15:58 today (block height 810432), with the difficulty of mining increased by 0.35% to 57.32T, a record high. The current average computing power of the entire network is 417.73 EH/s.
The Big Short author: FTX owes $4 billion to the top 50 accounts, including $280 million from Jump
According to a post on the X platform by Martin Shkreli, a pharmaceutical tycoon who was imprisoned for about four years for securities fraud, Michael Lewis, author of "The Big Short", said that of the $9 billion owed by FTX, $4 billion was held by the top 50 FTX accounts on the exchange.
The largest account is Jump Trading, which has $206 million on the exchange. Ranked 50th is Singapore-based market-making giant Virtu Financial, which has $10 million on the exchange. Adding another account, Jump Trading has a total of $280 million on the exchange.
Many of the funds locked in the exchange’s accounts are FTX employees, including former FTX COO Constance, who has $25 million locked in the exchange.
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