PA Daily | Valkyrie has resubmitted its Bitcoin ETF application; Fed Chairman Powell says cryptocurrency has staying power as an asset class

Today's news tips:
1. Federal Reserve Chairman Powell: Cryptocurrency has staying power as an asset class
2. Binance.US and its legal team accuse the SEC of making misleading statements in the lawsuit
3. Valkyrie has resubmitted its Bitcoin ETF application
4. Report: More than half of Fortune 100 companies have implemented blockchain plans
5. Circle has repurchased U.S. Treasury bonds as USDC reserve assets
6. AI-driven encrypted search engine Kaito completes $5.5 million Series A financing, led by Superscrypt and Spartan
7. South Korean crypto platform Haru Invest has laid off more than 100 employees
8. Algorand has upgraded its protocol to shorten the average block time
Regulatory News
Fed Chairman Powell: Cryptocurrency has staying power as an asset class
Federal Reserve Chairman Jerome Powell said that as an asset class, cryptocurrencies appear to have staying power.
Binance Brazil directors asked to testify before Congress to assist in investigation into pyramid schemes using its platform to transfer assets
Brazilian congressman Alfredo Gaspar has requested that Binance Brazil director Guilherme Haddad be subpoenaed to appear before the Brazilian Congress. The request was issued on June 21 as part of an ongoing investigation into alleged pyramid schemes operating in Brazil. The request made by Alfredo Gaspar still needs to be voted on. The vote on the subpoena will take place on June 27. If the vote is passed, Guilherme Haddad will testify before the Brazilian House of Representatives. In addition, Alfredo Gaspar stressed that pyramid schemes such as Ever Operations and Investments and Braiscompany use Binance for asset transfers.
CACEIS, a subsidiary of Crédit Agricole, obtains cryptocurrency custody service qualification
CACEIS, the asset servicing arm of banking giants Crédit Agricole and Santander, registered with the French Financial Markets Authority (AMF) on June 20 to provide cryptocurrency custody services. CACEIS, which custody 4.6 trillion euros ($5.1 trillion) in assets, has been rumored to be seeking a cryptocurrency regulatory license since 2021. As the European Union prepares to implement new cryptocurrency licensing rules called MiCA from 2024, CACEIS joins other traditional financial companies such as Societe Generale's Forge and AXA Investment Managers in being the first to obtain a license under Europe's most advanced cryptocurrency regulatory framework.
Binance.US and its legal team accuse the SEC of making misleading statements in lawsuit
In a June 21 filing with the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia, Binance and its legal team claim that the SEC issued misleading statements regarding the “treatment of customer assets.” Binance and its legal team stressed that the SEC has no evidence that the exchange commingled customer assets or moved assets at will. If approved by a judge, the motion could prevent the SEC from publicly making certain statements that Binance claims will cause market confusion. “The SEC’s press release also appears to be designed to cause unnecessary confusion in the market, which could harm customers rather than protect them. It also runs the risk of tainting the jury with misleading descriptions of the evidence regarding the defendants,” Binance noted.
Singapore's Monetary Authority has approved in principle Ripple's major payment institution license
Ripple announced that the Monetary Authority of Singapore (MAS) has approved in principle its major payment institution license. Ripple said the license will allow its Singapore branch to provide regulated digital payment token products and services. Ripple's Singapore office currently has a total of 50 full-time employees, a year-on-year increase of 50%. So far, MAS has approved 190 major payment institution licenses and 11 digital payment token service licenses.
 NFT
Huang Licheng announced that he would initiate ApeCoin proposal to acquire blue-chip NFTs such as BAYC and MAYC
Huang Licheng, the "Big Brother of Machi", announced on social media that he would initiate the ApeCoin AIP proposal, intending to acquire 1,000 "Bored Ape" BAYC, 2,000 "Mutated Ape" MAYC, and some CryptoPunks blue-chip NFTs. Huang Licheng said that he would donate these NFTs to museums around the world and asked the community whether they would like to purchase other NFT projects. It is reported that the proposal will be written by Bored Ape G, a member of the ApeCoin Special Committee. Huang Licheng previously wrote that there were certain problems with the structure of ApeCoin DAO, which was too centralized, making the investment vision of DAO impossible to achieve.
NFT Trading Marketplace Zora Launches L2 Network ZORA NETWORK
NFT trading market Zora announced the launch of the scalable L2 network ZORA NETWORK. The network is built on OP Stack and directly integrated with existing Zora tools, providing artists, creators and communities with faster and more efficient Ethereum expansion.
 original universe
Luxury giant LVMH announces the launch of the Metaverse project "The Journey"
Luxury giant LVMH announced the launch of the Metaverse project "The Journey", which allows its users to enter a new virtual world with exclusive products and experiences. The official website currently shows that the Metaverse project includes four sections: The Showroom, The Tech Playground, OpenLands, and Job Offers. There are two other sections that have not yet been made public. Previously, LVMH also announced a partnership with Epic Games, the developer of the game "Fortnite". According to Toni Belloni, managing director of the LVMH Group, they will use Epic Games technology to accelerate the development of its 3D tools and Metaverse ecosystem.
Project News
Algorand has upgraded its protocol to reduce average block time
Algorand upgraded its protocol on Thursday to shorten the average block time, making application development on the network faster and more cost-effective. Paul Riegle, Algorand's chief product officer, said the upgrade will reduce block times from 3.8 seconds to 3.3 seconds. Other improvements include a simulator that allows developers to test and simulate problems before deploying the codebase to the mainnet, and a new plugin framework that allows people to create simple, customizable data
South Korean crypto platform Haru Invest has laid off more than 100 employees
Digital asset management platform Haru Invest has laid off more than 100 employees, and its CEO Hugo Lee, on behalf of parent company Block Crafters, notified the laid-off employees that their contracts will be terminated on Friday. According to previous news, crypto asset management platform Haru Invest suspended deposits and withdrawals on June 13 due to partner issues. Haru Invest's office in Seoul was empty, and the company said that employees were working from home for their own safety.
South Korea’s virtual asset industry is preparing for institutional market entry
Currently, the South Korean authorities prohibit financial companies from storing and investing in virtual assets through shadow regulation, but the strategy is to continue when the market opens in the future. Industry insiders revealed on June 22 that KB Kookmin Bank has partnered with Haechi Labs and Hashed to establish a joint venture company, Korea Digital Asset (KODA). Shinhan Bank and NH Nonghyup Bank have made strategic investments in KDAC and Cardo, respectively. Consignment business is a service for financial institutions to store and manage customer financial assets in the traditional financial field. Institutions that handle large amounts of funds hold their assets in custody to prevent risks such as theft. When institutions officially enter the virtual asset market, consignment work is expected to become an indispensable service. Cho Jin-seok, director of KODA, said that all companies, including general companies for investment purposes, foundations that have listed or are preparing to list virtual assets on exchanges, P2E games or NFTs, can be customers.
French investment company Melanion Capital's Bitcoin stock ETF is listed on the Amsterdam Euronext
French investment firm Melanion Capital's Bitcoin Equity ETF began trading on Euronext Amsterdam on June 22, introducing an equity-based approach to investing in the Bitcoin ecosystem. BTC NA is designed to track the Melanion Bitcoin Exposure Index, a customized basket of European and U.S. stocks that is closely tied to the market price of BTC and includes stocks of companies with large investments in Bitcoin holdings, cryptocurrency exchanges and mining operations, such as MicroStrategy, Coinbase, Robinhood, Riot, Marathon Digital and Hut8. The ETF complies with the European Commission's Undertakings for Collective Investment in Transferable Securities (UCITS) regulatory framework for managed and traded mutual funds. UCITS funds allow investment firms to register and sell trading products across the European Union by providing regulation and investor protection.
Offchain Labs Releases Arbitrum Orbit Development Tools
Arbitrum development team Offchain Labs released the Arbitrum Orbit development tool, which aims to help developers develop more easily on the L3 blockchain Arbitrum Orbit and manage their own Arbitrum Rollup and AnyTrust chain. In addition, Offchain Labs also provides a quick start guide and Orbit DevNet chain tool, and will release test network and main network guides later.
Valkyrie has resubmitted its Bitcoin ETF application
According to the latest Bitcoin ETF application submitted by crypto fund company Valkyrie yesterday, they have changed the exchange to Nasdaq (the same as BlackRock), with the code $BRRR. According to previous news, asset management companies WisdomTree and Invesco have also resubmitted their application documents for spot Bitcoin ETFs.
Circle has resumed purchasing US Treasuries as USDC reserve assets
Stablecoin issuer Circle Internet Financial has begun buying U.S. Treasuries as part of its USDC reserve assets. The company sold all of its Treasuries during the U.S. debt ceiling standoff last month. The Circle Reserve Fund (USDXX), managed by asset management giant BlackRock, has begun "holding U.S. Treasuries directly," Chief Financial Officer Jeremy Fox-Geen said on a conference call on Wednesday. Fox-Geen added that the fund will also hold repurchase agreements (repos) as part of its USDC reserves.
Last month, Circle adjusted the structure of USDC's reserve assets to protect USDC from the potential impact of a US debt default. CEO Jeremy Allaire said in early May that the company would not hold Treasury bonds that mature after the end of this month. As of June, the reserve fund transferred all assets to tri-party repo, involving systemically important banks such as Goldman Sachs, BNP Paribas, Bank of America, and Royal Bank of Canada.
Circle added $2.2 billion in U.S. Treasuries to the fund as of June 20, and repurchase agreements make up about 90% of the fund’s reserve assets, according to BlackRock’s website. The company also has $3.5 billion in bank deposits, with the “vast majority, more than 90%” of that at Bank of New York Mellon, Fox-Geen said.
Lido Opens Application for Ethereum Node Operators
Liquidity staking protocol Lido announced the opening of Ethereum node operator applications on its official Twitter account. At the same time, Lido reminded Ethereum node operator applicants that they must submit their applications before June 26 to be eligible for a fast assessment. If a fast assessment is not required, the application will remain open until 7:59 am, July 14, Beijing time.
Financing News
DEX platform Vertex Protocol receives strategic investment from Wintermute Ventures
Vertex Protocol, a decentralized trading platform based on Arbitrum, announced that it has received a strategic investment from Wintermute Ventures. The specific amount has not been disclosed. Vertex Protocol said that the total trading volume of spot and perpetual futures on the platform exceeded US$1 billion in less than 2 months.
AI-driven encrypted search engine Kaito completes $5.5 million Series A financing, led by Superscrypt and Spartan
Kaito, an AI-driven encrypted search engine, announced the completion of a $5.5 million Series A financing led by Superscrypt and Spartan, early-stage venture capital firms focused on blockchain under Temasek. Previously, Kaito announced a $5.3 million seed round of financing led by Dragonfly in February 2023, with participation from Sequoia China and Jane Street, bringing the total financing to more than $10 million to date. The financing will be used to develop the industry's first encrypted search engine based on LLM (Large Language Model), which will integrate Discord and Telegram information, as well as data on the blockchain.
Animoca Brands’ blockchain game Anichess completes $1.5 million in financing
Animoca Brands subsidiary Anichess has completed a $1.5 million seed round of financing, with GameFi Ventures, Coin Operated Group, Koda Capital, Bing Ventures, 708 Capital and Asymmetry Capital participating. This round of financing will be used for team expansion and game development. Anichess is a community-driven, free decentralized chess game developed in collaboration between Animoca Brands and Play Magnus Group under Chess.com, and plans to release an Alpha version in the first quarter of 2024.
Fashion metaverse game company DREST completes £15 million financing
Fashion metaverse game company DREST announced the completion of £15 million in financing, and the investor information has not been disclosed. DREST integrates fashion luxury brands with metaverse technology. Players can design brand digital clothing and participate in games on the metaverse Avatar. Its user-generated content platform can combine gamification and brand marketing, allowing brands to reach highly engaged audiences. Currently, DREST cooperates with fashion brands including Breitling, Cartier, Fendi, Gucci, Prada and Valentino. At this stage, DREST is exploring the development of games in the fields of Web3 and lifestyle, and is expected to enter the research and development stage within the next 18 months.
Shared sorter solution Radius completes $1.7 million in financing, led by Hashed
Radius, a shared sorter solution, has raised $1.7 million in a Pre-Seed round led by Hashed, with participation from Superscrypt, Lambdaclass, and Crypto.com. Radius prevents MEV from harming users by using a shared sorter that uses Practical Verifiable Delayed Encryption (PVDE). Radius also recently announced a partnership with Saga, or Rollup-as-a-Service, and joined the Celestia ecosystem.
Important data
Report: More than half of Fortune 100 companies have implemented blockchain initiatives
According to a new report conducted by crypto exchange Coinbase, more than 50% of Fortune 100 companies have had crypto projects in various stages of development since the beginning of 2020. Currently, about 60% of the Fortune 100's blockchain projects have been ongoing since the beginning of 2022. In addition, the report states that since 2017, Fortune 100 companies have made a total of 109 investments in 80 crypto blockchain startups, supporting funds worth more than $8 billion.