Cumberland DRW responds to SEC lawsuit: Will not change business operations, ready to defend itself again
The U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) sued Cumberland DRW, alleging that it operated as an unregistered securities dealer. According to the SEC's indictment, Cumberland has been operating as an unregistered dealer to buy and sell crypto assets as securities for its proprietary accounts since March 2018.
In response, Cumberland DRW issued an announcement on the X platform stating that the SEC believes that some of our transactions involving certain crypto assets are securities transactions. We took this step in 2019 and acquired a registered broker-dealer. It was not until then - despite Chairman Gensler's call to "come in and register" - that we were told that we could only use our broker-dealer to trade BTC or ETH (both commodities, not subject to SEC jurisdiction).
Cumberland DRW said that the SEC's action would not make any changes to its business operations or the assets it provides liquidity for. The court's charges against DRW "are based solely on a 'flat earth' type conviction. This time, the SEC's approach seems to be a game of 'Catch-22', and the ability to 'come in and register' is just a mirage. We are ready to defend ourselves again.
Ripple Labs plans to file a cross-appeal in the US SEC case
Ripple Labs announced Thursday that it will appeal an ongoing case with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) as part of its efforts to maintain its legal defense while the SEC’s appeal of the case is pending before the Court of Appeals.
Earlier this month, the SEC filed a notice of appeal in its long-running case against Ripple, which the regulator first sued in December 2020. Chief Legal Officer Stuart Alderoty said Ripple's appeal is intended to ensure that the company preserves its views and arguments in the case, but he did not elaborate on what the company might argue in its motion. He said: "We did this really to make sure that we leave nothing open, including the argument that there can be no investment contract without the fundamental rights and obligations in the contract."
Like the SEC filing last week, Ripple’s initial filing is just a notice that a more comprehensive argument will be submitted in the future. Alderoty said both sides will fill out a form in the coming weeks with a “fairly high-level description” of their arguments, but neither the regulator nor the company will reveal specific details until after they file their opening statements. He said the SEC’s brief will likely be released around the end of January, and Ripple’s opening brief (which will be combined with its opposition to the SEC brief) will be released sometime after that.
OKX announces it has become the world’s first crypto exchange to receive a full UAE operating license
According to official news, on October 10, 2024, OKX Middle East General Manager Rifad announced that OKX became the world's first crypto trading platform to obtain a full operating license from the UAE. Rifad said that in the future, OKX will continue to invest more, grow and expand in the region. Dubai has become one of the global virtual asset centers, and the region is increasingly recognized for its technological innovation and development strategy. We are eager to participate in technological innovation and community building in the growing digital asset field.
Zhao Changpeng: Will attend Binance Blockchain Week in Dubai at the end of October as an individual
Changpeng Zhao, former CEO of Binance, posted on X platform: “I will attend the Binance Blockchain Week in Dubai from October 30th to 31st in my personal capacity. This is one of the largest Web3 events this year. See you then.”
Uniswap developers launch their own Layer2 network Unichain built on Optimism technology
According to CoinDesk, the main developer of decentralized cryptocurrency exchange Uniswap plans to launch its own blockchain Unichain as a Layer2 network on top of Ethereum, which is part of the efforts to make transactions faster, cheaper and improve liquidity. According to the press release, the new network "Unichain" will be launched on a private test network on Thursday. The technical development of the project is led by Uniswap Labs and relies on technology borrowed from the OP Stack of Ethereum Layer2 team Optimism. Therefore, Unichain will become part of the alliance Superchain of Optimism's affiliated networks.
As part of the launch, the Uniswap Labs team plans to bring unique technical features to the chain, which was co-built by the Ethereum R&D team Flashbots, including a trusted execution environment (TEE) for block construction and a secure computing area to ensure that transactions and code cannot be tampered with, as well as a community verification network. The team said in a press release that TEE is designed to bring transparency to transaction ordering, with block generation times between 200-250 milliseconds. The Ethereum mainnet is currently 12 seconds, and most Layer2 networks are 2 seconds.
The Uniswap team wrote in a press release that the community validation network will be launched in 2025 and is intended to help achieve decentralization "by allowing full nodes to help validate blocks by staking UNI."
Unichain White Paper: To become a validator in UVN, you must stake UNI tokens on the Ethereum mainnet
Unichain, the Layer2 network launched by Uniswap developers, states in its white paper that to become a validator in UVN (Unichain Virtual Machine), node operators must stake UNI tokens on the Ethereum mainnet. The stake is tracked in Unichain's smart contract, which receives notifications of stake and withdrawal operations through native bridges. Unichain's blocks are divided into Epochs of fixed length. At the beginning of each Epoch, the current staked balance is snapshotted, Unichain chain fees are collected and the reward value of each staked token is calculated.
Participants can also stake and vote for a validator, thereby increasing the stake weight of that validator. A limited number of validators with the highest stake weight will be considered the active set and will be eligible to issue proofs and receive the designated rewards for that Epoch.
Ubisoft to launch its first Web3 game (Championship Tactics: Grimorian Chronicles) on the Oasys blockchain
According to Cointelegraph, French video game company Ubisoft announced that its first game using Web3 technology (Champions Tactics: Grimoria Chronicles) will be launched on October 23 and will be deployed on the Oasys Layer2 network Home Verse, a blockchain-driven Web3 game ecosystem.
The game is described as a tactical role-playing game (RPG) where players can assemble teams of champions and engage in player-versus-player (PvP) battles. Set in a dark fantasy world, the game centers around team-building, strategy, and combat. Players can own, trade, and use 75,000 unique digital collectible champions to build their own battle teams. Ubisoft's new Web3-enhanced game will feature a "Forge" system that allows players to customize their champions to create new ones.
dYdX founder Antonio Juliano returns to the company as CEO
According to official news, dYdX founder Antonio Juliano announced that he has returned to the position of CEO and will enter the founder mode to run the company personally. Previously, Juliano announced his resignation as dYdX CEO in May.
Aethir launches $100 million ecosystem fund to accelerate AI and gaming innovation
According to Cointelegraph, decentralized GPU cloud computing provider Aethir announced the launch of the $100 million Aethir Ecosystem Fund to accelerate innovation in artificial intelligence and gaming. The program includes the Aethir Catalyst program, which aims to provide high-performance GPU resources to startups and enterprises. The Aethir Catalyst program is the foundation of the fund, allocating $20 million to support more than 100 projects through grants and subsidies.
336 million ATH tokens will be evenly distributed between AI and gaming projects to build strategic partnerships and support innovation in each field. The fund's allocation model is designed to reduce computing costs for companies integrating AI, machine learning or high-attraction gaming applications. In addition to grants, the fund also includes a subsidy program that covers up to 35% of the cost of off-platform GPU services, allowing companies to obtain high-performance computing without upfront costs.
U.S. Senators release draft legislation on stablecoin regulation, echoing the House’s stablecoin bill framework
According to The Block, U.S. Senator Bill Hagerty has released a draft legislation on stablecoin regulation, aiming to create a clear regulatory framework for stablecoins. The draft is similar to the (Payment Stablecoin Transparency Act) jointly formulated by House members Patrick McHenry and Maxine Waters, which aims to balance federal supervision of banks and non-bank institutions. Hagerty pointed out that the draft legislation allows stablecoin issuers to apply for exemptions after reaching the $10 billion threshold and continue to follow state supervision. At the same time, the draft stipulates that stablecoins must be anchored 1:1 with reserve assets such as the US dollar.
Crypto derivatives exchange Bitnomial sues SEC, challenging its oversight of XRP futures
According to FOX Business, crypto derivatives exchange Bitnomial sued the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC), questioning its regulatory authority over XRP futures. Since Bitnomial certified the XRP dollar futures contract, the SEC claimed that XRP is a security and required the exchange to comply with additional regulations. Bitnomial believes that XRP futures should not be classified as security futures and seeks a court statement to prevent the SEC from asserting jurisdiction over it. The lawsuit intensifies the battle between the SEC and the Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC) over the regulatory power of crypto assets.
Fidelity is planning to launch its first money market fund traded on blockchain
According to The Information, Fidelity Investments is paving the way for the future launch of a money market fund that may be traded on the blockchain. This is the latest attempt by the traditional financial giant to accelerate financial transactions and expand the product audience. Fidelity has submitted relevant documents to US securities regulators on September 26, detailing its plans. By launching this fund, Fidelity will compete with BlackRock, the world's largest asset management company with a similar fund, which has attracted more than $500 million in investor funds.
Coinbase International will launch Big Time perpetual futures contracts
According to the official announcement, Coinbase International Exchange and Coinbase Advanced will add support for Big Time perpetual futures contracts. The BIGTIME-PERP market will be open at or after 17:30 Beijing time on October 17, 2024.
Trump family crypto project WLFI reveals in roadmap that it plans to raise $300 million at a $1.5 billion valuation
According to The Block, according to a roadmap shared with potential investors, the token sale of the Trump family cryptocurrency project World Liberty Financial (WLFI) is scheduled to start next week. The roadmap shows that WLFI's "first sale" will raise $300 million, and it will sell 20% of the token supply at a fully diluted valuation of $1.5 billion. This indicates that there may be more token sales next. At X Spaces last month, Folkman said that 63% of the token supply will be sold to the public, of which 17% will be used to reward users and 20% will be used to reward the team.
The roadmap clearly states that WLFI will be a governance token used to vote on decisions regarding the future development of the WLFI platform. These tokens are non-transferable during the first 12 months. Even if the community decides to vote on whether the tokens are transferable during this period, it can only be implemented after one year. Governance functions will take effect immediately, regardless of whether they are transferable.
The first phase of World Liberty Financial is to launch a version of DeFi lending platform Aave on Ethereum Layer 2 network Scroll, allowing users to lend and borrow tokens, starting with Bitcoin, Ether and stablecoins. This part of the plan has already begun. The second phase is to integrate with exchanges to let users trade through proof of on-chain know-your-customer agreements. The project intends to create a stablecoin-centric credit card that allows people to use their tokens in the real world. The final stage of the project is to segment real-world assets and obtain regulatory licenses. This may include hotels and sports clubs. At the same time, the project hopes to build a settlement platform for stablecoins.
Web3 gaming and education technology ecosystem PiP World completes $10 million seed round
According to CoinDesk, Web3 gaming and education technology ecosystem PiP World said it has completed a $10 million seed round of financing from fintech company Exinity to build the so-called "Duolingo of the cryptocurrency field."
According to reports, PiP World combines gameplay with personalized learning. Its game ecosystem includes: PiP Trader, a AAA strategy management simulator game for building trading portfolios, PiP World's Gold Rush, a Telegram click-to-earn game, PiP Academy, a gamified application that simplifies financial concepts, and StockRise, a stock simulator.
Stablecoin developer Yala completes $8 million seed round of financing, led by Polychain Capital and others
According to The Block, Yala, a cryptocurrency startup dedicated to developing a stablecoin backed by Bitcoin, has raised $8 million in a seed round co-led by Polychain Capital and Ethereal Ventures. Other investors include Galaxy, Anagram, ABCDE, Amber Group, HashKey Capital, Satoshi Lab, and UTXO Management. Yala co-founder and COO Kaitai Chang said this was an oversubscribed seed round of financing, and the company's initial goal was to raise $5 million. Yala began raising funds for the seed round in March and ended last month.
According to reports, Yala was founded in January this year by former Binance Labs employee Chang, Alchemy Pay co-founder Bin Liu, and Vicky Fu, former engineering director of Circle. The goal of the three is to promote the development and expansion of Bitcoin decentralized finance. Yala is developing a Bitcoin-backed, yield-earning stablecoin called YU. Users will soon be able to mint YU by depositing Bitcoin into any target blockchain through MetaMint. Yala claims that investors have deposited more than 2,000 BTC in margin for its protocol. Although Yala currently accepts BTC as collateral, the protocol plans to accept Bitcoin liquidity pledge tokens in the future. The Yala protocol is currently under development, with the testnet expected to be launched this month and the mainnet expected to be launched in the first quarter of next year. The protocol's governance token YALA is also expected to be launched with the mainnet.
18,000 BTC options and 212,000 ETH options will expire today, with a total notional value of over $1.6 billion
Greeks.live macro researcher Adam posted on the X platform that 18,000 BTC options expired, the Put Call Ratio was 0.91, the maximum pain point was $62,000, and the notional value was $1.1 billion. 212,000 ETH options expired, the Put Call Ratio was 0.4, the maximum pain point was $2,450, and the notional value was $510 million.
Japanese listed company Metaplanet purchased nearly 109 Bitcoins again
Metaplanet, a Japanese listed company, announced that it has purchased an additional 10 billion yen worth of bitcoins, with the purchase amount being 108,999 pieces at an average purchase price of 9,174,396 yen per piece. This purchase brings its total bitcoin holdings to 748,502 pieces, with a total investment amount of approximately 6.965 billion yen and an average holding cost of 9,304,655 yen per piece.
