1. Wall Street Journal: SpaceX has sold $373 million worth of Bitcoin purchased between 2021 and 2022
According to the Wall Street Journal, SpaceX had revenue of $1.5 billion and a profit of $55 million in the first quarter of this year. In 2022, the company had revenue of $4.6 billion and a loss of $559 million. SpaceX CEO Musk publicly announced in 2021 that the company had purchased a certain amount of Bitcoin. Financial documents obtained by the Wall Street Journal show that SpaceX recorded $373 million worth of Bitcoin on its balance sheet in 2021 and 2022, but has since sold these assets, and the specific time of the sale is unclear. In addition, Tesla, another company owned by Musk, also sold more than 30,000 Bitcoins for $936 million in the second quarter of 2022, accounting for about 75% of its initial $1.5 billion in Bitcoin.
2. BTC and ETH plummeted, with $990 million liquidated across the network in 24 hours
The market shows that Bitcoin once fell to $25,409.11 in the short term, and is currently trading at $26,221.32, a 24-hour drop of 9.41%. Ethereum fell below $1,600 in the short term, with a low of $1,551.71, and is currently trading at $1,615.47, a 24-hour drop of 10.85%. In addition, the entire network liquidated $990 million in 24 hours, an increase of 737.87% from the previous trading day.
3. Bloomberg: SEC plans to approve Ethereum futures ETF, which may be listed before October
The U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) plans to approve the first Ethereum futures ETF, a major victory for several companies that have long sought to offer such products, according to Bloomberg. The SEC is unlikely to block the products from going public, according to people familiar with the matter. Several companies, including Volatility Shares, Bitwise, Roundhill and ProShares, have applied to launch Ethereum futures ETFs. It was not immediately clear which funds would be approved. Officials have hinted that several ETFs could be listed by October, said a person familiar with the matter who asked not to be named.
4. Federal Reserve Chairman Powell will deliver a speech at the Jackson Hole Global Central Bank Annual Meeting on August 25
According to Meike.com, the Federal Reserve schedule shows that Federal Reserve Chairman Powell will deliver a speech on the economic outlook at the annual central bank governors' meeting in Jackson Hole, Wyoming on August 25. The speech is scheduled to begin at 10:05 a.m. Eastern Time (10:05 p.m. Beijing Time).
The Jackson Hole global central bank annual symposium often serves as a window for the Federal Reserve to hint at important nodes in monetary policy. Powell will have the opportunity to express his latest views on whether further tightening of policy is needed to reduce inflation amid unexpectedly strong economic growth, or whether enough progress has been made in curbing inflation to keep interest rates stable.
5. Ripple case judge approves SEC's request for interlocutory appeal
According to The Block, a New York District Court judge approved the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission's (SEC) request for an interim appeal in its legal dispute with Ripple Labs, according to a document filed in court on Thursday. Judge Analisa Torres said the SEC can submit a motion by August 18 and Ripple must submit an opposition document by September 1. The SEC said last week that it plans to file an interim appeal. Ripple Chief Legal Officer Stuart Alderoty tweeted yesterday to oppose the SEC's request for an interim appeal, saying "there are no special circumstances that justify a deviation from the rule requiring the parties to resolve all issues before appeal."
6. FTX and Genesis reach a $175 million settlement
According to Fortune, FTX and Genesis reached an agreement on Thursday to settle claims related to the ongoing bankruptcy of the two companies, with Genesis agreeing to pay $175 million to FTX's trading unit Alameda Research. Genesis also agreed to waive all claims against FTX. The judge will hold a hearing on September 13 to approve the agreement.
7. Connext will airdrop its native token “Next” on September 5
According to The Block, blockchain interoperability project Connext will launch its native token called Next on September 5. The Connext team also plans to airdrop Next tokens to early users of Polygon, Arbitrum, Optimism, and Gnosis Chain, and claims will begin on September 5. The airdrop claiming service utilizes Connext's recently released xERC20 token standard, allowing assets to be transferred across chains without slippage. Connext is working with Tokensoft to launch "Cross-Chain Airdrop as a Service" to allow users to claim their tokens on any chain without bridging or incurring additional gas fees. The total number of NEXT tokens is 1 billion, of which 30% is allocated to the DAO, 10.8% to the Connext Foundation, 10% for airdrops, 22.34% to early supporters, 11.24% to ecosystem and strategic supporters, 11.68% to early teams and advisors, and 3.90% to Proxima Labs.
Arjun Bhuptani, founder and CEO of Connext, said the Next token will be used as a governance tool for the Connext DAO ecosystem, which has further utility. Depending on DAO approval and community development, the token can also be used to incorporate common governance operations directly into the protocol itself through activities such as Next token staking.
8. OpenSea disables royalty enforcement tools and will implement an optional creator fee model
According to official news, OpenSea will shut down the royalty enforcement tool "Operator Filter" on August 31, and will move to an optional creator fee model. For collections that enable Operator Filter before August 31, and existing collections on all non-Ethereum blockchains, OpenSea will enforce creator royalties until February 29, 2024, after which the fees become optional. OpenSea said, "The launch of Operator Filter is intended to give creators more control, but it requires the support of everyone in the Web3 ecosystem, which is unfortunately not feasible."
9. Ethereum's latest ACDE meeting: Holesky testnet's Genesis supply is expected to be 1.6 billion HETH, and Devnet 8 is fixing errors in some clients
Ethereum core developer Tim Beiko summarized the latest Ethereum Core Developer Executive Meeting (ACDE), including the progress of Devnet 8, ElP-4788, Holesky testnet, updates on EIP editing, and the newly proposed EIP-7212 (secp256r1 precompilation). Tim Beiko also said that the next ACDE is scheduled for 22:00 on August 31, Beijing time.
Regarding the recently launched Devnet 8, bugs were found in some clients, but most have been fixed and other fixes are in progress, and the network is being finalized. In addition, basic infrastructure has been established for Devnet 8 to support it. Regarding ElP-4788, developers agreed to use regular smart contracts instead of precompilation to store historical beacon block roots, which means that errors in the contract will not cause consensus failures. Developers ultimately chose to deploy this contract with regular transactions. If they feel that this is a wrong decision later, they may reconsider it. This is currently the fastest option.
Regarding the Holesky testnet update, the new testnet is scheduled to launch on September 15. There is already a public process to request a genesis allocation, providing a total supply of 1.6 billion HETH.
Regarding the update on EIP editors, the ERC/EIP repository split has been confirmed and is progressing, that is, the ERC specification is split from the EIP repository to a new repository so that only the core protocol EIP is retained. Editors are working to standardize their governance process to manage multiple repository protocols in the future. There are some draft documents that will be discussed at the next EIPIP call. Developers agreed to renumber the EL split specification files and add numbers in front of them to make the sequence clearer.
For the newly proposed EIP-7212, that is, precompiling for secp256r1 curve support, it is the same curve used by Ethereum on EL, but the input parameters are different. This may be the ElP adopted by L2 before L1, and this ElP still needs to be discussed.
10. The Federal Reserve takes enforcement action against Farmington State Bank for its association with FTX
According to the Federal Reserve's official website, the Federal Reserve announced enforcement action against Farmington State Bank and its holding company FBH Corporation, which are associated with the cryptocurrency exchange FTX. The Federal Reserve said that in 2022, Farmington improperly changed its business plan without notifying banking regulators and obtaining prior approval for these changes. The committee's actions ensure that the (Farmington State) Bank ends its business in a way that protects depositors and the Deposit Insurance Fund. The action was taken jointly with Farmington's state regulator, the Washington State Department of Financial Institutions. The action also prohibits Farmington and FBH from paying dividends or capital distributions, consuming cash assets, and engaging in certain activities without regulatory approval. Farmington State Bank subsequently stated that it agreed to the order of the Federal Reserve Committee.
As previously reported, Farmington State Bank in the United States has withdrawn from the cryptocurrency business and will stop using the name "Moonstone Bank". Prosecutors seized $50 million from SBF's account at Farmington State Bank.
11. US judge allows SEC to question Daniel Shin about Terraform and collect evidence from payment company Chai
According to Bloomberg, U.S. District Judge Jed Rakoff ruled that the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) can seek assistance from the South Korean government to question Terraform Labs co-founder Daniel Shin and collect evidence from payment company Chai Corp. The SEC hopes to question Shin and obtain documents from Chai to help prove its allegations against Terraform and its former CEO Do Kwon. Do Kwon is currently serving a four-month sentence in Montenegro for using a fake passport. He faces criminal charges in both the United States and South Korea, as well as a lawsuit from the SEC. Daniel Shin was indicted by South Korean prosecutors in April this year. His lawyer said at the time that he had nothing to do with Terra's collapse.
Do Kwon and Daniel Shin co-founded Chai, which initially shared offices and employees with Terraform. The two companies split in 2020, with Do Kwon becoming Terraform CEO and Shin remaining at Chai as CEO. In its lawsuit, the SEC accused Kwon of falsely claiming that Chai used Terraform's blockchain and its TerraKRW stablecoin to process millions of retail transactions for Korean consumers. In a filing last month, the SEC said it was seeking testimony and documents about how Chai processes payments and uses Terraform's blockchain and stablecoins, communications between the two companies, and how the relationship was disclosed to Chai investors.
12.CoinDesk confirmed that it had laid off employees this week, including a reporter who won the Polk Journalism Award for the FTX breaking news
Marc Hochstein, an event planner for crypto media CoinDesk, revealed on X platform (original Twitter) that CoinDesk had laid off employees this week. The layoff list included Tracy Wang, who won the Polk Journalism Award for reporting the explosive news of FTX, namely "the luxurious lifestyle of the SBF inner circle", and other editors and reporters. Hochstein listed the contributions of these former employees to journalism and called on other companies to recruit them. CoinDesk officials also confirmed the matter by forwarding the post.
Earlier on August 14, The Block quoted people familiar with the matter as saying that due to the parent company DCG's plan to introduce strategic investors, the crypto media company CoinDesk will lay off 20 employees, accounting for 45% of its editorial team.
13.Scroll launches Beta testnet on Sepolia, with improvements including enhanced EVM compatibility, improved Gas efficiency, etc.
According to the official blog, Ethereum scaling project Scroll announced the launch of the Scroll Beta testnet on the Sepolia testnet for developers and users. Improvements in this version include zkEVM upgrades, bridge upgrades, and infrastructure upgrades. Scroll's testnet on Sepolia will run alongside the future mainnet as the primary testing platform for users and developers. Scroll Goerli will cease to be used after the mainnet is launched.
In terms of zkEVM upgrades, EVM compatibility is improved through precompilation upgrades, efficient on-chain verification is performed through proof compression and aggregation, and circuit integrity is enhanced. In terms of bridge upgrades, Gas costs can be reduced by up to 50%, and a trustless message relay function is introduced between L1 and L2, eliminating the reliance on trusted relayers. In terms of infrastructure upgrades, by introducing the EIP-2718 transaction type L1MessageTx for trustless messaging, trusted centralized relayers are eliminated. In addition, a simplified circuit capacity checker prevents proof overflow and enhances the coordinator function.
14.Coinbase will suspend trading of USDT, DAI and RAI for Canadian users
According to official news, Coinbase will suspend trading of USDT, DAI and RAI in Canada on August 31. Coinbase said in an email to users: "We regularly monitor the assets on the exchange to ensure that they meet our listing standards. Based on our recent review, Coinbase will suspend trading of RAI, Dai and USDT in Canada at 12:00 local time on August 31." After the suspension of trading, Canadian users can still access the above stablecoins. According to previous news, Coinbase announced this week that it will officially enter the Canadian market. Canadian users can use Coinbase for transactions and can complete deposits and withdrawals through Interac electronic transfers.