Finishing: Cookies, ChainCatcher
“What important events happened this week (11.13-11.19)”
1. The U.S. SEC has postponed the date for making a decision on Global X and Franklin Templeton's spot Bitcoin ETF
According to The Block, the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) will postpone its decision on the Global X spot Bitcoin ETF to December 22 and set a comment period for the public to comment on the proposal within the next 35 days.
In addition, the SEC has postponed its decision on whether to approve the Franklin Templeton Bitcoin ETF until early 2024. (Source link)
2. Binance Labs Operations Manager: Currently we are more focused on supporting startups that already have actual products and revenue
Dana Hou, who is in charge of business strategy and operations at Binance Labs, told Bloomberg that the department is now more actively engaging with founders of crypto projects. Dana Hou said that despite the unfavorable regulatory environment this year, Binance Labs will continue to invest in more cryptocurrency projects, including those based in the United States, and Binance's recent layoffs have not affected Binance Labs, and the team is still running steadily. However, according to data analysis published on its official website, Binance Labs has reduced 10 team members since January, from 18 to 8.
When asked about the departure, Biannce Labs said it would continue to recruit and welcome new members to join the team. Dana Hou said that Binannce Labs and other venture investors are now more focused on supporting startups that already have actual products and revenue. There was a time in the past when projects were hyped just because they received venture capital investment, but recently in the crypto industry, hype is no longer so worrying.
This week, Binance Labs announced an investment in Arkham’s native token ARKM. Arkham is an AI-driven blockchain intelligence and data platform that provides sophisticated information and visualization tools for on-chain activities. (Source link)
3. Sam Altman has been removed from his position as CEO and board member of OpenAI and will decide on Saturday night whether to return to OpenAI
OpenAI announced that Sam Altman will no longer serve as CEO and will leave the board of directors, and Chief Technology Officer Mira Murati will serve as interim CEO, effective immediately. The announcement stated that the decision was made after careful review by the board of directors. Altman was not candid in his communications with the board of directors, which hindered the board's ability to perform its duties. The board no longer has confidence in his ability to continue to lead OpenAI. At the same time, OpenAI co-founder Greg Brockman will no longer serve as chairman of the board, but will continue to serve as president of OpenAI and report to the CEO.
According to Bloomberg, citing people familiar with the matter, Sam Altman had many disagreements with his board of directors before he was fired, especially with Ilya Sutskever, co-founder of OpenAI and the company's chief scientist. The disagreements included opinions on the safety of artificial intelligence, the speed of technological development, and the commercialization of the company. OpenAI's investors are pressuring the company's board of directors to revoke its decision to remove former CEO Sam Altman and remove him from his position as a director. Some investors are actively seeking help from Microsoft, OpenAI's largest shareholder.
Sam Altman may decide as early as Saturday night local time whether to return to OpenAI, according to The Information. In order to return, board members must be replaced, according to people familiar with the matter. Alternatively, Sam Altman will continue to plan to launch a new business. Investor group Tiger Global is pushing the OpenAI board to restore Altman's position. Another person said Sequoia Capital has been discussing the next steps with Altman, including potential returns.
4. Hong Kong-listed company Boyaa Interactive seeks shareholder authorization to purchase up to $100 million in cryptocurrency within one year
According to the announcement of the Hong Kong Stock Exchange, the board of directors of Boyaa Interactive, a Hong Kong-listed company, believes that the purchase and holding of cryptocurrencies is an important measure for the group to carry out business layout and development in the field of Web3 and an important part of the group's asset allocation strategy. After careful consideration, the board of directors recommends seeking prior approval from shareholders to grant a purchase authorization to grant the board of directors the right to make potential cryptocurrency purchases during the authorization period, that is, within 12 months from the date on which the special general meeting of shareholders formally passes the ordinary resolution on the authorization and potential cryptocurrency purchases, with the total purchase amount not exceeding US$100 million.
It is currently expected to purchase approximately $45 million in Bitcoin and $45 million in Ethereum, with up to $10 million to be spent on the purchase of USD stablecoins USDT and USDC. Potential cryptocurrency purchases will be made on the open market on regulated and licensed trading platforms, including but not limited to HashKey Exchange.
Boyaa Interactive may also continue to explore and make potential cryptocurrency purchases on other regulated and licensed trading platforms within the scope of the purchase authorization. In addition, the Group has established a dedicated regulatory team to regularly monitor the licensing and regulatory environment of the trading platform and ensure that the platform used by the Group is safe and recognized.
Previously, ChainCatcher reported in August that Boyaa Interactive’s board of directors had approved a $5 million budget to purchase cryptocurrencies such as BTC and ETH. (Source link)
5. Pantera Capital: Less than 5% of the portfolio was affected by the FTX crash. Crypto companies should reduce the time that assets stay on exchanges or third parties.
Pantera Capital tweeted a summary and review of how it dealt with the FTX crash a year ago. It said that after the news of FTX and Alameda's poor financial situation, it formed a war room to assess the impact on the portfolio to identify all potential risks and provide assistance to high-risk teams. After identifying all potential risks (custody, counterparties, investments, etc.), work with affected teams to mitigate further risks and develop a plan to move forward. Because it regularly emphasizes proactive risk management practices to founders, less than 5% of portfolio teams are significantly affected.
Pantera recommends that crypto companies should establish a process within the organization to minimize the time any asset stays on any exchange or third party; avoid single-point control of any asset transfer by implementing a multi-signature process for all asset transfers; disperse the risks of on-chain and off-chain counterparties by ensuring that they deal with as many custodians, exchanges, and banks as possible; maintain the liquidity and cash value of financial assets as much as possible to avoid any unnecessary principal risk to the company's financial assets; take measures to ensure that bank accounts are protected by FDIC insurance limits; and transfer assets from co-mixed total wallets (such as exchanges or any medium where funds are mixed with other funds) to on-chain isolated wallets (such as custody, self-custody, or anywhere where funds are isolated from other third-party funds). (Source link)
6. FTX plans to sell $100 million in cryptocurrency every week to repay debts, but regulators are still waiting for the plan to be confirmed
According to finbold, FTX plans to sell about $100 million in cryptocurrencies per week. This plan has not yet been finalized because the SEC or other regulators may intervene.
FTX currently holds about 10% of the total supply of SOL, worth more than $3.3 billion. In addition, it also holds BTC worth $742 million, ETH worth about $226 million, APT worth about $180 million, and XRP worth about $143 million. (Source link)
7. The Financial Supervisory Service of Korea has established a virtual asset listing working group and started planning guidelines for the listing and delisting of cryptocurrencies
According to ETNews, the Financial Supervisory Service of Korea recently established a working group (TF) for the listing of virtual assets and began discussing the "regulatory standards (guidelines) for listing, maintaining listing, and delisting."
A person related to the Financial Supervisory Service said that it plans to draw conclusions and report to the National Assembly a few months before the implementation of the "Law on Protection of Large Asset Users" in July next year, and will study how to take measures to improve the effectiveness of the standards and ensure that the industry can protect it through self-regulation. (Source link)
8. Pyth Network: Retroactive airdrop application will be open at 22:00 on November 20
Pyth Network announced on social media that its retrospective airdrop application will be open at 22:00 (ET on November 20) and will be valid for 90 days. The airdrop claim page will be valid until February 18, 2024.
Earlier news, the decentralized oracle Pyth Network announced that it will launch a retroactive airdrop plan for PATH tokens, airdropping PYTH tokens to more than 75,000 wallets. Pyth community members who have contributed to the Pyth network, applications on 27 blockchains that use Pyth data, and individual users of these applications will be eligible for this airdrop. (Source link)
9. Data
Bitcoin network transaction fees reach $11.6 million in a single day, surpassing Ethereum for the first time since 2020
The total issuance of crvUSD exceeds 150 million, setting a new record
CoinShares Weekly Report: Digital asset investment products saw a net inflow of $293 million last week
The number of Bitcoin millionaire addresses has increased by 215% since the beginning of the year, exceeding 80,000
Upbit's October trading volume reached $59.8 billion, up 82% from the previous month
The Ethereum Foundation transferred 1065.7 ETH to a multi-signature address, possibly as a funding act
dYdX adopts $9 million dYdX v3 insurance fund to fill YFI market liquidation gap
“What are some interesting articles worth reading this week (11.13-11.19)”
1. "a16z 10,000-word annual report: Web3 development status, business boundaries and regulatory innovation"
Andreessen Horowitz's annual "State of Crypto" report shares data on Web3 activity and innovation. The November 2023 "Policy Spotlight" collates insights from the report for U.S. policymakers and others interested in the state of crypto policy today. The report includes: Why Web3 is so important? The state of the crypto industry and policy principles and frameworks.
2. "Dialogue with Omni Network: Pantera and other institutions have invested heavily in Omni's Ethereum cross-chain interoperability innovation"
What was the initial opportunity that led Omni Network to discover the Rollup interoperability problem and other pain points? What significance will the team's six-year continuous efforts bring to the Cancun L2 upgrade? This time, ChainCatcher invited the Omni Network team to tell the story of Omni Network's journey as the "last piece of the puzzle" in the grand narrative of Ethereum expansion from the perspectives of Restaking, cross-chain operation technology, and long-term vision.
3. "TVL increases to 40 million US dollars, what opportunities are there for participation in the Layer2 newcomer Scroll ecosystem?"
Since the announcement of the launch of the mainnet on October 17, the value of locked crypto assets (TVL) on the Scroll chain has increased to US$39 million, and the total value of ETH bridged by the official cross-chain bridge Scroll Bridge has exceeded US$46.3 million. In just one month after the mainnet was launched, why has Scroll, as a newcomer in the Layer2 track, achieved such excellent results? What specific measures have been taken to develop the ecosystem? What opportunities are there to participate in its ecosystem?
4. "AllianceDAO founder: How to become an excellent cryptocurrency founder?"
But while writing this post, I realized that this isn’t just what we look for in teams applying to our program, it’s what it takes to be a good crypto founder. The difference between “what we look for” and “what it takes” is that the former is just an assumption, while the latter is based on empirical evidence.
5. "Dialogue with Blockstream Co-founder: Bitcoin's Road to $100,000"
In this article, Blockstream co-founder and CEO Adam Back shares his insights on the current macroeconomic environment, the future of Bitcoin, and industry dynamics.
6. "New PaaS Model: Decoding the Market Strategy of Top Players in Friend.Tech"
Friend.tech has been introduced in many details. It is an application that sells private room tickets with real names at the Twitter level. The ticket price is determined by mathematical formulas and supply and demand. After entering, you can directly communicate with KOLs. The key word of the core gameplay is (3,3). Back to Friend.tech, what role does (3,3) play in this new situation?
7. "Vitalik's new article proposes a new direction of "ZK+Plasma", will the L2 structure change again?"
After reading Vitalik Buterin’s new work on the return of Plasma, I was deeply attracted by Plasma’s “exit game” mechanism based on a UTXO-like ledger. Vitalik seems to be interested in guiding the market to explore the direction of ZK+Plasma to avoid the market staying in the Rollup stage. Next, I will give you a detailed scientific interpretation.
8. From third-tier exchanges to Binance contracts, the mining coin gold mining "production line" behind KAS
The concept of PoW has become another hot topic after the concept of Bitcoin ecology, and the term "mining coin sector" has become a recurring word in many community discussions. But in addition to the boost from Bitcoin-related concepts and market conditions, the sudden rise of the PoW concept does not seem to be accidental. Behind the "KAS myth", there seems to be a hidden "mythical mining coin production line" unknown to the mainstream market.
9. "Polygon founder Sandeep Nailwal: Thinking about my entrepreneurial experience"
With the launch of the Nailwal Fellowship last month, I spent a lot of time looking back at my roots and thinking about how a program like this could help me in my entrepreneurial journey. Today, I want to share my journey to founding the Nailwal Fellowship — from its humble origins in a rural village to Polygon, a leading blockchain network protocol.