Today's news tips:
1. Hong Kong Securities and Futures Commission CEO: Only some "highly liquid" cryptocurrencies will be approved for retail trading
2. Bankruptcy lawyer: FTX has recovered "more than $5 billion" in assets
3. Bulgarian police raid Nexo office to investigate suspected money laundering and tax crimes
4. Bankruptcy judge terminates FTX's naming agreement with the Miami Heat's arena
5. BlockFi releases financial statements: FTX's loan reduces executives' equity by $800 million
6. US crypto bank Silvergate disclosed that it received $4.3 billion in liquidity after FTX went bankrupt
7. Venom Foundation and Iceberg Capital partner to launch $1 billion Web3 fund
8. Financial Times: Genesis owes creditors more than $3 billion
Regulatory News
Hong Kong Securities and Futures Commission CEO: Only some "highly liquid" cryptocurrencies will be approved for retail trading
According to the South China Morning Post, Julia Leung, the new CEO of the Hong Kong Securities and Futures Commission, said at the Asian Financial Forum that virtual asset trading for retail investors will be limited to some "highly liquid" cryptocurrency products after the new licensing rules for virtual asset service providers come into effect in June. The SFC will release a consultation document this quarter detailing the products and conditions for retail investors to trade virtual assets, as well as the licensing requirements for virtual asset trading platforms.
US court rules FTX can keep its customer and creditor lists secret for three months
According to AP News, John Dorsey, the judge in charge of FTX's bankruptcy case, ruled that FTX can continue to keep the names of its 9 million customers and creditors confidential for three months, and agreed with FTX's argument that the continued confidentiality of the customer list will have value.
John Dorsey said he will hold a meeting on January 20 to discuss whether FTX can separate the names of creditors who are not customers from those who are also customers.
Fed Governor Bowman: Fed does not want to hinder innovation in the crypto space
Federal Reserve Governor Michelle W. Bowman said at an event in Miami on Tuesday that while "cryptocurrency activities can pose significant risks," the Fed does not want to "hinder innovation." She added: "By inhibiting innovation, we could push growth in this area to the non-bank sector, resulting in significantly less transparency and potential financial stability risks." Bowman emphasized that she hopes some banks continue to explore "how to engage in cryptocurrency-related activities."
In addition, she said that although some inflation indicators have declined in recent months, the Federal Open Market Committee is expected to continue raising interest rates to tighten monetary policy.
El Salvador approves digital asset issuance law, paving the way for Bitcoin bonds
According to The Block, the Legislative Assembly of El Salvador approved a law on the issuance of digital assets, paving the way for the Bitcoin bonds advocated by President Nayib Bukele. The new law provides certainty for the transfer operations of publicly issued digital assets in El Salvador. It also establishes a new government agency to manage digital assets in El Salvador. It is reported that El Salvador has been preparing for Bitcoin bonds since at least early 2022. Digital asset service providers in El Salvador must complete the registration process and comply with the provisions in the proposed law. These entities must provide a list of digital assets they plan to issue, including the "benefits and restrictions" of these assets. They must also demonstrate cybersecurity precautions and customer service capabilities, and provide the names and titles of company employees. In addition, digital asset issuers must also disclose information about the jurisdiction or country in which they operate.
Bulgarian police raid Nexo offices to investigate suspected money laundering and tax crimes
According to Bulgarian media 24 Chasa, Bulgarian police raided the offices of crypto lending platform Nexo and will investigate Nexo for suspected money laundering and tax crimes. The main charges against the company are illegal operation and deceiving investors. The company's business is carried out in the Bulgarian capital and invites depositors to invest in Bitcoin and other types of cryptocurrencies with the promise of high returns.
NFT
BAYC to Launch Casting Game Dookey Dash via BAYC Sewer on January 18
Bored Ape Yacht Club (BAYC) announced on Twitter that it will launch the casting game Dookey Dash through BAYC Sewer on January 18. Users need to hold a Sewer Pass to participate, and Sewer Pass will be open for free application on January 17. Only BAYC/MAYC holders can apply for Sewer Pass. The collection of Sewer Pass and skill-based Dookey Dash will be closed on February 8 (the exact time will be announced later). Users can play the game unlimited times, but they must play at least once and score more than 0 to verify their personal Sewer Pass (associated with the wallet where it is located), and the verified Sewer Pass will be eligible for transformation into a mysterious new energy on February 15.
According to reports, Dookey Dash is a skill-based casting game that users play like a runner. It is a game in which players try to go as far as possible as the difficulty of the game increases. The task is to dodge and break through obstacles in the sewer and pick up items called fragments.
SudoSwap has completed a snapshot of 0xmons NFT holders and will distribute 900,000 SUDOs proportionally
According to the official Twitter, the NFT trading platform SudoSwap has taken a snapshot of 0xmons NFT holders at block height 16410000. The addresses holding NFTs at the time of the snapshot will be allocated SUDO tokens in proportion, with a total of 900,000 (1.5%).
Earlier in September last year, Sudoswap announced the SUDO token distribution plan: the initial supply is 60 million, 41.9% will be allocated to XMON holders, and 1.5% will be allocated to 0xmons NFT holders.
original universe
Gala Games, a blockchain gaming studio, has deleted its tweet about its collaboration with Dwayne Johnson
According to The Block, blockchain game studio Gala Games has deleted a tweet about its collaboration with American actors Dwayne Johnson and Mark Wahlberg, and the original Discord message is still on the company's server. Discord members asked Gala Games to provide more details about the collaboration, but have not yet received a full response. One user reported that he was kicked out of the Gala Games Discord server for asking about the partnership.
The company has yet to address those questions, but did share a video on Twitter from Nov. 1 that features an interview with Archie Gips, president and partner at Los Angeles-based production company Unrealistic Ideas, where Mark Wahlberg is also a partner.
Earlier on January 9, Gala Games tweeted that it was co-producing a Web3 movie with Dwayne Johnson, and its film and music platforms would use GALA as the Gas token.
Project News
Financial Times: Genesis owes creditors more than $3 billion
Cryptocurrency broker Genesis owes more than $3 billion to creditors, prompting its owner Digital Currency Group to explore selling assets in its large venture portfolio to raise funds, the Financial Times reported, citing people familiar with the matter. Genesis' debts include $900 million owed to Gemini customers, 280 million euros owed to Dutch exchange Bitvavo, and money owed to customers of crypto savings company Donut. Genesis has hired investment bank Moelis to help explore options, but talks about external funding have so far failed to materialize. DCG declined to comment. Genesis did not respond to a request for comment.
As part of its efforts, DCG is considering selling some of its venture capital assets, which include 200 cryptocurrency-related projects such as exchanges, banks and custodians in at least 35 countries, worth about $500 million, according to people familiar with the matter.
Robinhood to delist Bitcoin SV (BSV)
Robinhood issued an announcement stating that based on the latest review, it will delist Bitcoin SV (BSV) at 18:59 Eastern Time on January 25 (7:59 Beijing Time on January 26). Users can continue to buy, sell, transfer and hold BSV before the delisting. After the delisting, the BSV saved in the user's Robinhood Crypto account will be automatically sold at the market price, and the proceeds will be automatically deposited into the account.
Samsung Asset Management will list the Samsung Bitcoin Futures Active ETF on the Hong Kong Stock Exchange on January 13
According to Edaily, Samsung Asset Management announced today that it will list the Samsung Bitcoin Futures Active ETF (Samsung Bitcoin Futures Active ETF) (code: 3135.HK) on the Hong Kong Stock Exchange on January 13. The ETF is a product that seeks to obtain investment performance as similar as possible to spot Bitcoin by investing in Bitcoin futures listed on the Chicago Mercantile Exchange (CME). The ETF mainly invests in CME Bitcoin futures and, in some cases, some CME micro Bitcoin futures.
Earlier news said that Southern Asset Management listed Bitcoin and Ethereum futures ETFs in Hong Kong in December last year.
Court documents reveal that Cai Chongxin's family office Blue Pool Capital participated in FTX's previous B-1 round of financing
According to CNBC, citing the latest document report released by the FTX bankruptcy court, the previously undisclosed Blue Pool was disclosed in the FTX investor list. It is reported that Blue Pool is the family office of Alibaba co-founder Joseph Tsai, and participated in the $420 million B-1 round of financing completed by FTX in October 2021.
In addition, Tudor Investment founder and billionaire Paul Tudor Jones was also revealed to be one of FTX's investors, who holds FTX shares through a series of family trusts.
Earlier yesterday, it was reported that court documents revealed that the list of FTX shareholders included well-known figures such as PayPal co-founder Peter Thiel.
DAXA, formed by South Korea's five largest crypto exchanges, will develop common standards for delisting crypto assets
According to Yonhap News Agency, the Digital Asset Exchange Association (DAXA), a group of South Korea's five largest crypto exchanges, will develop common standards for terminating support for crypto asset trading (delisting). DAXA Secretary General Kim announced the news at a policy seminar on "The Current State and Challenges of Self-Regulation of Digital Assets" held in a small conference room for digital assets. Secretary General Kim said, "This will become a self-regulatory restriction measure to prevent unhealthy assets that do not meet the minimum conditions from circulating in the market, without restricting the competitiveness of individual practitioners, just like the exchange listing review standards, thereby avoiding losses to investors. We have prepared various detailed assessment items for each risk, and we are verifying them by applying them to past problem cases. Currently, we are continuing to develop and apply risk indicators and monitoring methods, and are reviewing the development of programs that can detect indicators technically." DAXA is also developing a system to provide alert notifications when the price, trading volume, and deposit amount of a specific project fluctuate suddenly.
In addition, according to news1, DAXA stated that it will implement self-regulatory regulations in the field of digital assets through close consultation with Congress and financial authorities. It has currently appointed 8 external consultants and established 4 subcommittees, including transaction support, market supervision, compliance supervision, and education. The subcommittees are mainly composed of consultants, and a joint self-regulatory plan is being formulated.
Earlier in October last year, it was reported that DAXA officially implemented the general guidelines for coin listing review starting from October 10.
Twitter responds to user data being sold: It was not leaked through a Twitter system vulnerability
Twitter's privacy center released an update yesterday on "the incident of Twitter user data being sold online", saying that Twitter has conducted a thorough investigation into the recent media reports of Twitter user data being sold online, and there is no evidence that the recently sold data was obtained by exploiting Twitter's system loopholes. These data may be collected public data, which comes from different information sources.
The announcement stated that in August 2022, Twitter informed users that it had learned of a vulnerability through the "Bug Bounty Program" in January 2022. The vulnerability leaked Twitter user accounts and the user's email address and mobile phone number were stolen. The vulnerability has now been fixed. However, Twitter confirmed that bad actors had exploited the vulnerability before the problem was resolved, and promptly notified the affected users and relevant departments.
Earlier on January 5, a security company said that the data of more than 200 million Twitter accounts had been posted on a hacker forum and could be downloaded for free. This was the same as the data leak that affected more than 400 million accounts reported in December 2022, which was caused by deleting duplicates.
Waves founder: Power tokens will be airdropped from January to February, and the Waves 2.0 white paper will be released
Sasha Ivanov, founder of the public chain project Waves, tweeted today that Waves will release a simplified version of the Waves 2.0 white paper from January to February this year, conduct an airdrop of Power DAO's Power tokens, and create a new token cross-chain bridge.
Earlier on December 20 last year, Sasha Ivanov said that a new stablecoin would be launched, and before that there would be a USDN de-anchor.
On December 27, it released the Waves 2.0 plan: including new stablecoins, SafeFi models, etc.
Binance Announces Registration with the Swedish Financial Supervisory Authority (FSA)
Binance announced that Binance Nordics AB has been registered by the Swedish Financial Supervisory Authority (Swedish FSA) on January 10, 2023 (registration number 66822) as a financial institution for the management and trading of virtual currencies. This registration means that Swedish residents can now use Binance's extensive crypto and Web3 services, including popular euro deposits and withdrawals, purchases of cryptocurrencies with euros, trading, staking, and Binance Visa cards. So far, Binance has been authorized in seven EU member states and fifteen jurisdictions around the world.
Venom Foundation and Iceberg Capital Partner to Launch $1 Billion Web3 Fund
According to The Block, Abu Dhabi-based Venom Foundation and Iceberg Capital are collaborating to invest $1 billion in a range of web3 applications. The two Middle Eastern investment groups said in a statement that the "blockchain-agnostic" Venom Ventures Fund aims to invest in "innovative protocols and Web3 dApps... DeFi, banking services and GameFi." Former BlackRock executive Peter Knez and experienced investor Mustafa Kheriba will join the fund's leadership team, the statement said.
In addition to the fund’s announcement, VVF also made its first investment, leading a $20 million round in digital world-focused Nümi Metaverse, Techcrunch reported.
South Korean antivirus software AhnLab launches cryptocurrency wallet 'ABC Wallet'
According to iNews24, AhnLab Blockchain Company (ABC), a blockchain subsidiary of South Korean antivirus software company AhnLab, has released a crypto wallet and named it "ABC Wallet". So far, the wallet is only available for mobile devices, and the Android and iOS versions have been released on the market this week. The characteristics of ABC Wallet are enhanced security and convenience by introducing the "Secure MPC" technology.
Blockchain.com will lay off 28% of its employees (about 110 people)
According to CoinDesk, crypto wallet and trading platform Blockchain.com said it will lay off 28% of its staff, or about 110 employees. The company said all affected employees will receive severance packages, with specific details varying by country.
BlockFi releases financial statements: FTX's loan reduced executives' equity by $800 million
BlockFi, a cryptocurrency lender that has filed for bankruptcy, has released its financial statements. The financial report details the impact of a loan from FTX last June on 13 BlockFi executives, who saw their equity holdings reduced by $800 million, including founder and CEO Zac Prince, who saw his equity value reduced by $413 million and received a salary increase of $250,000 to $400,000, while other executives received a salary increase of up to $560,000.
The documents show that after October 14, no member of BlockFi's management team withdrew any cryptocurrency from the platform, and the management team accounted for only 0.15% of the $7.7 billion in retail withdrawals for the year. But the documents still show a large number of withdrawals by executives, including Zac Prince's withdrawal of more than $9 million from the platform in April, which the documents said was to pay U.S. federal and state taxes, and his withdrawal of more than $870,000 in August. Most of the transaction data is anonymous, and the court will consider whether to unseal the creditor information next week.
Financing News
Alkimiya, a hashrate structured protocol, completes $7.2 million in financing, with participation from Coinbase Ventures and others
According to The Block, the computing power structured protocol Alkimiya completed a $7.2 million financing in November last year, led by 1kx and Castle Island Ventures, with participation from Dragonfly, Circle Ventures and Coinbase Ventures. The funds will be mainly used to expand its team as it prepares to launch a complete product suite in the first quarter of this year, including Vault products and ETH staking contracts on the Ethereum mainnet.
Founded by former Itaú Unibanco engineer Ricardo Grobel and former Morgan Stanley employee Zhang, Alkimiya aims to provide hedging solutions for block space producers such as miners and staking validators. Alkimiya promises to enable blockchain producers to lock in upfront fixed returns on future production, with returns directly tied to block space production. This hedging solution enables them to manage risk, and DeFi users can take advantage of the value accumulated by blockchain producers.
Mining News
Oregon proposes bill to limit carbon emissions from crypto mining
According to Blockworks, Oregon lawmakers have submitted a bill aimed at curbing carbon emissions from "high-energy-consuming" facilities such as cryptocurrency mining, with the goal of reducing emissions by 60% by 2027. The proposed new baseline is set at 0.428 metric tons of carbon dioxide equivalent per MW, and crypto companies are required to reduce emissions according to the following schedule: 80% reduction by 2030, 90% by 2035, and zero emissions after 2040. Failure to comply will result in a civil fine of $12,000/MW. The bill has just been submitted to the legislature and has not yet been assigned to a committee or held a hearing. The process may take two to three weeks.
Important data
Bankruptcy lawyer: FTX has recovered “over $5 billion” in assets
Cryptocurrency exchange FTX has recovered more than $5 billion in different assets, not including another $425 million in crypto held by the Securities Commission of the Bahamas, a bankruptcy lawyer said at a hearing on Wednesday, CoinDesk reported.
At the hearing, a lawyer told the Delaware Bankruptcy Court that SBF provided Alameda with a $65 billion credit line from FTX, which was insufficient to repay customers’ debts. “The amount of the shortfall is unclear,” the lawyer said.
Delaware Judge John Dorsey said at a court hearing on Wednesday that a bipartisan letter from four U.S. senators was an "inappropriate" intervention in bankruptcy proceedings and would not affect the judicial decision. According to the Miami Herald, the bankruptcy judge terminated FTX's naming agreement with the Miami Heat arena.
US crypto bank Silvergate reveals it received $4.3 billion in liquidity after FTX bankruptcy
Silvergate Bank, a US crypto bank, recently announced some preliminary financial indicators for the fourth quarter of 2022, stating that it obtained $4.3 billion in liquidity (i.e., advance payments) from the San Francisco-based Federal Home Loan Bank after the bankruptcy of FTX. As of the end of the third quarter of 2022, the top 10 depositors of Silvergate Bank included Coinbase, Paxos, Crypto com, Gemini, Kraken, Bitstamp, and Circle, accounting for about half of the bank's deposits.
Earlier news, Silvergate claimed that their exposure to FTX was limited to deposits. As of September 30, the company's exposure to FTX was less than 10% of the bank's total deposits. In addition, BlockFi's deposit size was approximately US$20 million. On January 5, it was reported that Silvergate had processed US$8.1 billion in withdrawals after the collapse of FTX.
Ark Invest once again increased its holdings of Coinbase by approximately $3.28 million
According to CoinDesk, Ark Invest, an asset management company founded by Cathie Wood, increased its holdings of Coinbase by 74,792 shares, worth about $3.28 million. Coinbase shares rose about 3% to $44.7 in pre-market trading.