Today's news tips:
U.S. prosecutors charge four cryptocurrency “market makers” and their employees with market manipulation and fraud
FBI Creates Cryptocurrency Called 'NexFundAI Token' to Fight Market Manipulators
US prosecutors temporarily believe that the only person eligible for compensation in the 2016 Bitfinex hacking case is Bitfinex
Puffer Finance will start airdropping on October 15th and last until January 15th
Stripe launches “Pay with Crypto” feature in the United States, supporting stablecoins including USDC and USDP
Decentralized network project delta announced that it has completed $11 million in financing
Trump declines Fox News' invitation to second presidential debate with Harris
Mt.Gox extends compensation deadline by one year to October 31, 2025
German investment firm Lennertz raises $165 million for its third blockchain-focused fund
Regulatory News
U.S. prosecutors charge four cryptocurrency “market makers” and their employees with market manipulation and fraud
According to CoinDesk, U.S. federal prosecutors have filed market manipulation and fraud charges against four cryptocurrency "market makers" and their employees. These companies include Gotbit, CLS Global, MyTrade, and ZM Quant. Prosecutors claim that they secretly provide wash trading services to crypto projects, exaggerate trading volumes, and sell tokens at inflated prices. These actions have enabled them to profit from them and benefit from persuading exchanges to lower trading fees. The list of defendants also includes several crypto asset promoters, involving tokens such as Robo Inu, VZZN, and Saitama. The U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) and the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) are also involved in the investigation and are expected to recover $25 million in illegal gains.
Rumor: "The central bank's digital RMB platform will issue digital asset dividends" is a rumor
According to Tencent News (First Line), recently, it was reported online that some criminals used the name of the Digital Currency Research Institute of the People's Bank of China to issue a false announcement, saying that "after joint approval by the Ministry of Finance and the National Data Bureau, the digital RMB platform will issue digital asset dividends to users who have received exclusive withdrawal channels", "will start the second batch of asset registration review and green channel quota subscription", etc. It is reported that such "announcements" and "platforms" are forged, and the relevant information is not true.
Relevant people reminded that the Digital Currency Research Institute of the People's Bank of China has never released the above information, and has never organized the registration or subscription of "digital assets" or issued "digital asset dividends", etc. Relevant units, enterprises and the general public are requested to be vigilant, strengthen identification, and guard against being deceived.
FBI Creates Cryptocurrency Called 'NexFundAI Token' to Fight Market Manipulators
The FBI recently cracked down on market manipulators by creating a cryptocurrency called "NexFundAI Token." The FBI allegedly not only developed the token, but also set up a company to identify and combat suspected fraud. NexFundAI Token runs on the Ethereum blockchain and is considered a security. Currently, trading in the token has been disabled. Industry insiders said the move shows that cryptocurrency regulation is coming and may help eliminate its gambling label.
Nigerian regulator pledges to crack down on cryptocurrency fraud, more
The Nigerian Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) has pledged to combat fraud, money laundering and market manipulation in the cryptocurrency industry. SEC Director General Emomotimi Agama stressed the need to strengthen investor education to help the public stay away from unlicensed crypto exchanges and illegal platforms. In addition, Nigeria has approved the first batch of digital asset exchanges and revised the rules for virtual asset service providers (VASPs). Lagos State Governor Babajide Sanwo-Olu also supported the move, emphasizing the importance of regulation to ensure the security of the crypto market and investor protection.
Thailand SEC drafts new rules to allow mutual funds and private funds to invest in digital assets
According to Decrypt, the Securities and Exchange Commission of Thailand (SEC) has proposed a new draft regulation to allow mutual funds and private funds to invest in digital assets, aiming to keep pace with the development trend of international crypto investment and respond to the growing demand of institutional investors. The SEC plans to allow securities companies and asset management companies to provide crypto-related products such as ETF (Exchange Traded Fund) investment services to large investors. The draft restricts the risk exposure of crypto assets of different fund types, among which the proportion of retail fund crypto investment shall not exceed 15%, while there is no upper limit for institutional and high net worth investor funds.
South Korea to consider lifting ban on spot cryptocurrency ETFs and institutional accounts on crypto exchanges
South Korea’s top financial regulator said it would reevaluate lifting the existing ban on local spot cryptocurrency ETFs and institutional accounts on cryptocurrency exchanges, The Block reported. The Financial Services Commission (FSC) said in its annual audit report on Thursday that its newly established cryptocurrency committee will review the current ban. This indicates a shift in the regulator’s strict opposition to digital assets entering the traditional financial market.
Following the approval of a spot Bitcoin ETF in the United States in January, the country's regulator reiterated its decision to maintain a ban on local cryptocurrency ETFs, citing the risks it could pose to financial market stability. Lawmakers in the country have been calling for change. Both the winning Democratic Party and the opposition party promised to approve a local spot Bitcoin ETF in the general election earlier this year. The winning left-wing party reportedly announced in May that it would ask the FSC to review the ban.
Since 2018, South Korean institutional investors have been effectively banned from opening cryptocurrency trading accounts on exchanges under strict guidance from the Financial Supervisory Commission.
Project News
Binance CEO: The project quota in Launchpool is strictly for Binance users, and Binance will not make profits from it
Richard Teng, CEO of Binance, wrote on the X platform: "I received a question about Launchpool quotas on X Spaces before. I hope this explanation will make everyone clear. The project quotas in Launchpool are strictly for Binance users. Binance will not make profits from these quotas that are supposed to be used for users, and the final allocation of project quotas is determined by the project party. We have implemented strict control measures, including setting a maximum holding limit for each Launchpool and Pre-Market user, which allows projects to reach users widely while providing protection measures. Of course, this also includes our strict token review process and a dedicated market monitoring team to monitor trading activities on Binance."
US prosecutors temporarily believe that the only person eligible for compensation in the 2016 Bitfinex hacking case is Bitfinex
According to a motion document filed by the U.S. prosecutors in the 2016 Bitfinex hacking case, prosecutor MATTHEW M. GRAVES stated that the government hopes to provide notice to the public of the crimes to which the defendant has pleaded guilty so that any individual claiming to be a potential crime victim can assert their rights under the Crime Victims Rights Act (CVRA). The government does not know of any other victims who meet the CVRA or compensation requirements under the Mandatory Victims Compensation Act (MVRA) other than Bitfinex (the victimized virtual currency exchange), but out of extreme caution, the government still seeks such relief to provide notice to members of the public, especially former account holders of VICTIM VCE, and give them the opportunity to file potential victim rights claims and/or compensation claims under the CVRA, MVRA and related regulations. The defendant's lawyer has negotiated this motion. Defendant Ilya Lichtenstein and Defendant Heather Rhiannon Morgan did not oppose the motion and maintained that if there were any potential victims under the CVRA or MVRA, only Bitfinex met that status.
Sky: Users can now get SKY token rewards
Decentralized financial lending platform Sky (formerly MakerDAO) said on the X platform that users can now get SKY token rewards. Go to the Sky Token rewards page and choose between SKY tokens and Chronicle Protocol points. After selecting the reward, users can provide their USDS to get the reward immediately. The reward accumulates every second and can be claimed at any time. At the same time, you don’t need to lose control of your assets or meet any minimum requirements. If users join Sky.money’s early bird program and choose to receive SKY, they will automatically receive 100% SKY bonus rewards from the wallet used during the event. These bonus rewards will be collected in the same wallet at a later date. In some jurisdictions (including the United States), Sky.money cannot access certain features of the Sky Protocol, such as Sky Token rewards and Sky savings rates.
VanEck Launches $30 Million VC Fund VanEck Ventures to Support Crypto and AI Industries
According to The Information, asset management company VanEck has launched VanEck Ventures, a $30 million fund focused on investing in early-stage cryptocurrency and artificial intelligence startups to expand its existing cryptocurrency exchange-traded funds and private equity funds. The fund is managed by Wyatt Lonergan and Juan Lopez, both of whom are from Circle Ventures, the venture capital arm of stablecoin issuer Circle. They will mainly invest in projects related to stablecoins.
Animoca Brands: Will acquire more PROS tokens from the open market
According to official news, Animoca Brands disclosed today that it intends to acquire more PROS tokens from the open market. PROS is Prosper’s utility token, which has been redesigned to bring institutional-grade Bitcoin mining power on-chain and seeks to provide comprehensive exposure to Bitcoin hash rate and the broader Bitcoin ecosystem.
Animoca Brands said the acquisition demonstrates the company’s support for Prosper’s new strategic direction, which will bring new utility to the PROS token and also demonstrates its commitment to the Bitcoin ecosystem.
Ripple announces launch of crypto custody service Ripple Custody
According to CNBC, Ripple announced the launch of a crypto custody service designed to help banks and fintech companies store digital assets. These new features include integration with Ripple's XRP Ledger blockchain platform, anti-money laundering risk monitoring, and a user-friendly interface. Ripple hopes to expand its business beyond its core payment settlement platform RippleNet through this move.
The company’s Ripple Custody brand will provide customers with services to tokenize real-world assets and allow fast and low-fee transactions using the XRP Ledger. Ripple has also acquired Metaco and Standard Custody & Trust to further develop its custody business.
Binance Finance, Flash Swap, and Leverage Launch Binance Staking SOL (BNSOL)
Binance will launch BNSOL current wealth management products on the principal-guaranteed earning platform at 16:00 today (Eastern Time 8), and users can participate in the purchase. In addition, within one hour of BNSOL being listed on Binance spot, users can exchange BNSOL for BTC, USDT and other tokens on the flash exchange trading platform, and the exchange process is free of handling fees. Starting from 16:00 on October 14, Binance leveraged trading will add BNSOL as a collateralized asset, supporting full-position and single-position leveraged trading pairs of BNSOL/SOL.
Puffer Finance will start airdropping on October 15th and last until January 15th
The re-staking protocol Puffer Finance announced that its native token $PUFFER will begin airdropping at 07:00 (UTC+8) on October 15, 2024, and the airdrop activity will last until 07:00 (UTC+8) on January 15, 2025.
There are 1 billion PUFFER tokens in total, of which 7.5% will be used for the first season of Crunchy Carrot Quest airdrops, where community users can participate and vote on the future direction of the protocol. In addition, Puffer will allocate 1% of the token supply to the Ethereum core development team to support its 4-year development plan. PUFFER is at the core of all products of the project, including the world's first permissionless LRT and a fast Rollup solution based on UniFi.
Optimism opens airdrop for Season 5, distributing over 10 million OP tokens to over 54,000 addresses
Ethereum Layer 2 network Optimism announced the opening of the fifth season airdrop application, distributing more than 10 million OP tokens to more than 54,000 independent addresses. This airdrop is aimed at users who interact with at least 20 independent contracts on the hyperchain and have a contract-to-transaction ratio of 10% from March to September 2024. The rewards are matched with different multipliers based on the interaction situation. Optimism said that there are still about 550 million OPs left for future airdrops.
Stripe launches “Pay with Crypto” feature in the United States, supporting stablecoins including USDC and USDP
Circle CEO Jeremy Allaire announced on social media that Stripe has officially launched and supports USDC payment functions for use by US businesses.
The official documentation page shows that Stripe has launched the "Pay with Crypto" public beta function, which allows US companies to accept stablecoin payments and automatically convert them into fiat currency and deposit them into Stripe accounts. Supported stablecoins include USDC and USDP, covering Ethereum, Solana and Polygon chains. Global customers can use this payment method with a transaction fee of 1.5%, a limit of $10,000 per transaction, and a monthly limit of $100,000. Through the Checkout, Elements or Payment Intents API, companies can easily integrate crypto payments without assuming dispute liability.
Trump declines Fox News invitation to second presidential debate with Harris
According to Reuters, former US President Donald Trump has rejected Fox News' invitation to a second presidential debate with Vice President Kamala Harris on October 24 or 27. Trump said there will be no more debates before the November 5 election. Harris had previously accepted CNN's invitation to debate on October 23, which Trump had also rejected. After the first debate between the two on September 10, the current polls show that the election is tight. Trump stated through Truth Social: "There will be no rematch, so there is nothing to debate."
Swell Network: Users can now check their eligibility to claim SWELL tokens
Swell Network announced that users can check the eligibility of $SWELL tokens through its platform and encourage users to collect "White Pearls". Users can visit Swell's DAO page for specific details. In addition, Swell also introduced the re-staking function of $SWELL tokens, which users can stake as $rSWELL to help protect the Swell L2 network.
Mango Labs accuses two Mango DAO leaders of embezzling $10 million during Avraham Eisenberg trial
Just weeks after settling a lawsuit with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission, Mango Labs, the company behind the Mango Markets protocol, has filed its own legal action, DLNews reported. The lawsuit, filed in Puerto Rico on October 7, accuses John Kramer and Max Schneider, senior contributors to Mango DAO, of stealing more than $10 million from the DAO at the expense of other members during the Avraham Eisenberg trial. The lawsuit states: "The defendants secretly purchased MNGO tokens (333 million) from FTX, manipulated the MNGO market, artificially increased the price of its tokens, and sold them to Mango DAO at a higher price through a proposal, in breach of their fiduciary duties." Kramer and Schneider deny any wrongdoing.
In addition to the lawsuit, on-chain evidence suggests that Kramer and Schneider's trading company CKS Systems was behind the acquisition of MNGO tokens. The lawsuit also claims that Kramer and Schneider tried to prevent Mango Labs from obtaining legal funds after being accused of misappropriating funds. "They threatened to prevent Mango Labs from providing funds to defend Mango DAO's legal rights, including those against Eisenberg," the lawsuit states. In addition, after Mango Labs reached a settlement with the SEC, Schneider proposed a DAO proposal to give himself 60 million MNGO tokens from the DAO treasury, which violated the terms of the SEC's settlement. Whether this move will affect the settlement agreement (which is subject to court approval) remains to be seen. Earlier yesterday, it was reported that Mango failed to pass a proposal to accept a settlement with the US SEC due to the withdrawal of the proposal.
DWF Labs co-founded: The company's income-generating synthetic stablecoin brand name has been determined to be Falcon Finance
DWF Labs co-founder Andrei Grachev said on the X platform that the brand of DWF Labs' yield-based synthetic stablecoin has been finalized. It will be called: Falcon Finance, and the stablecoin will have two versions, namely USDf and USDwf, and more updates will be released soon.
Mt.Gox extends compensation deadline by one year to October 31, 2025
Mt.Gox officially announced today that the bankruptcy administrator has basically completed the compensation work for the bankrupt creditors who have completed the procedures required to receive compensation and have not encountered any problems in the compensation process. However, many bankrupt creditors have not yet completed the procedures required to receive repayment, so they have not received repayment; in addition, due to various problems in the repayment process, a considerable number of bankrupt creditors have not received repayment for the time being. In order to compensate these bankrupt creditors as reasonably as possible, the bankruptcy administrator, after obtaining permission from the court, changed the compensation deadline from October 31, 2024 (Japan Standard Time) to October 31, 2025 (Japan Time).
Peter Todd: Being wrongly identified as "Satoshi Nakamoto" by HBO documentary will bring me security risks, and I have not yet decided whether to sue
According to the Daily Economic News, Cullen Hoback, the director of HBO's latest documentary (Electronic Currency: The Mystery of Bitcoin), identified the protagonist, Canadian software developer and currency expert Peter Todd, as "Satoshi Nakamoto" in the film, sparking heated discussions in the currency circle. In response to this, Peter Todd emphasized that he was not "Satoshi Nakamoto" when responding to the media, and Cullen Hoback's identification of him as "Satoshi Nakamoto" was just a way to attract attention to his Bitcoin documentary. "During the production of the documentary, Cullen interviewed me 4 to 5 times for many hours. Until the last interview, he did not give any impression that he was looking for Satoshi Nakamoto. He just introduced that he was trying to make a documentary about Bitcoin itself." Peter Todd further explained. In addition, Peter Todd also emphasized his personal safety, saying, "Being falsely accused of having billions of dollars by (Cullen Hoback) would bring risks to me." Peter Todd also said that he has not yet decided whether to take legal action to protect his own interests.
Investment and Financing
Web3 game studio Dragonz Lab announces $9 million in funding
Decentralized AI infrastructure platform OpenGradient completes $8.5 million seed round of financing
Settlements between crypto firms and U.S. regulators total $32 billion to date
According to Coingecko statistics, the amount of settlements between crypto companies and US regulators has reached US$32 billion so far, with the largest amounts being FTX and Alameda, with settlements of US$12.7 billion, followed by Celcius ($4.7 billion), Terraform Labs ($4.5 billion), Binance ($4.3 billion), Genesis ($2 billion), Voyager ($1.65 billion), Telegram ($1.24 billion), Coinbase ($100 million), BlockFi ($100 million), and BitMEX ($100 million).
German investment firm Lennertz raises $165 million for its third blockchain-focused fund
According to Fortune, German investment firm Lennertz & Co. is raising $165 million for its third blockchain-focused fund. Lennertz & Co. is a multi-family office founded in 2015 that recently completed its first round of financing, but the exact amount was not disclosed. The company has been involved in the blockchain field since 2016 and has launched $35 million and $65 million funds. Lennertz adopts a "fund of funds" model and invests in other well-known crypto venture capital funds such as Multicoin, Polychain, etc.
Decentralized network project delta announced that it has completed $11 million in financing
The blockchain network interoperability project delta announced the completion of $11 million in financing. The financing was divided into two stages, including the pre-seed round led by Figment Capital and Maven 11, and the seed round led by Variant and DBA. Other participants include Reverie, Castle Island Ventures, Credibly Neutral, Ambush Capital, Robot Ventures, Delphi Ventures, Public Works, Komorebi Collective, etc. delta aims to create a network system with global state sharing, providing developers with a balanced solution of sovereignty and interoperability by separating execution and data availability. The system also introduces a zero-knowledge proof settlement method to achieve seamless multi-domain interoperability.
Important data
Chiliz, the CHZ project owner, has withdrawn 1.473 billion tokens from Binance since yesterday afternoon, accounting for 16% of the total number of tokens in circulation.
According to on-chain analyst @ai_9684xtpa, since yesterday afternoon, the CHZ project Chiliz has withdrawn a total of 1.473 billion tokens from Binance, worth $103 million, accounting for 16% of the total number of circulating tokens. The withdrawal may be related to the PEPPER airdrop, but it is not clear why it was withdrawn to the chain; CHZ is the token of the club platform Socios.com developed by Chiliz, and has risen 38% in the past month.
Solana's monthly active addresses exceed 100 million, a new high, but most addresses do not hold SOL
According to Cointelegraph, according to data from blockchain data platform Artemis Terminal, Solana's monthly active addresses have soared to more than 100 million, setting a new record high for the network. This is a big leap compared to the 509,000 monthly active addresses recorded by Artemis in early 2024.
However, supporting indicators show that most active wallets on the Solana network do not hold any SOL tokens, and skeptics attribute this explosive growth to bots artificially inflating the indicators. According to data from Solana data provider Hello Moon, over 86 million users held 0 SOL in their wallets in the past month, about 15.5 million users held less than 1 SOL, and about 1.5 million users held less than 10 SOL.
Justin d'Anethan, head of business development for Asia Pacific at market maker Keyrock, said: "Most Solana addresses have a lifetime value of less than $10, which shows that although the ecosystem is indeed very active and the token is performing very well, this is not entirely legitimate or natural." Dan Hughes, founder of decentralized financial platform Radix DLT, believes that interaction with centralized exchanges (CEX) or decentralized financial applications (DeFi) may be a possible reason for the existence of a large number of active wallets with zero balances.
Bitcoin mining difficulty increased by 4.12% to 92.05 T yesterday
CloverPool data shows that the difficulty of Bitcoin mining has been adjusted at block height 864,864 (2024-10-09 14:46:39), with the mining difficulty increased by 4.12% to 92.05 T. The current average computing power of the entire network is 596.30 EH/s.
Ethereum Foundation sold another 100 ETH in exchange for about 240,000 DAI
According to Spot On Chain, the Ethereum Foundation sold another 100 ETH last night for 242,828 DAI. This was its first ETH sale in October. In September, the Ethereum Foundation sold 1,250 ETH (about $3.06 million).
Settlements between crypto firms and U.S. regulators total $32 billion to date
According to Coingecko statistics, the amount of settlements between crypto companies and US regulators has reached US$32 billion so far, with the largest amounts being FTX and Alameda, with settlements of US$12.7 billion, followed by Celcius ($4.7 billion), Terraform Labs ($4.5 billion), Binance ($4.3 billion), Genesis ($2 billion), Voyager ($1.65 billion), Telegram ($1.24 billion), Coinbase ($100 million), BlockFi ($100 million), and BitMEX ($100 million).
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