Today's news tips:
US judge rules Zhao Changpeng must stay in US before sentencing
Wall Street Journal: Do Kwon to be extradited to the United States
Fidelity Spot Bitcoin ETF Added to DTCC’s Active ETF and Pre-launch List
Worldcoin developer TFH plans to raise up to $50 million through the sale of WLD tokens
Starknet Foundation plans to distribute 1.8 billion tokens as rewards, trading rebates
Bitcoin staking project Babylon completes $18 million in financing, led by Polychain Capital and Hack VC
Animoca Brands' NFT series Mocaverse has completed nearly US$11.89 million in financing, with Dapper Labs and others participating
Kazakhstan regulator blocks 980 unregistered crypto exchanges by 2023
Regulatory News
US judge rules Zhao Changpeng must stay in US before sentencing
According to Cointelegraph, Seattle District Court Judge Richard Jones ruled that Binance founder Zhao Changpeng must stay in the United States until his sentencing date in February next year because he is unlikely to return to the United States if he is allowed to go to the UAE. Judge Jones said that Zhao Changpeng has huge wealth and property overseas and has no connection with the United States. His family lives in the UAE and enjoys a preferential status in the UAE. In this case, the court believes that the defendant has no clear and convincing evidence to prove that there is no risk of absconding after he returns to the UAE. For the above reasons, the court approved the government's motion that the defendant should remain in the United States from the time of his guilty plea to sentencing.
Wall Street Journal: Do Kwon to be extradited to the United States
Montenegro’s top judicial official has privately said he plans to send TerraUSD-Luna founder Do Kwon to the United States instead of South Korea to face criminal charges, The Wall Street Journal reports.
The US National Defense Authorization Bill does not include any encryption provisions
According to The Block, the U.S. Congress released the final National Defense Authorization Act on Wednesday night, which authorizes funding for defense-related activities. The plan does not include any cryptocurrency or blockchain provisions, delaying crypto legislation until next year. A previous crypto amendment required regulators to establish review standards for financial institutions engaged in crypto activities, while requiring the Treasury Department to make recommendations to Congress on cryptocurrency mixers. Another bill proposed the establishment of an independent working group to "combat terrorism and illegal financing." However, the National Defense Authorization Act does not include the above two bills.
El Salvador Launches Freedom Visa Program, Investing $1 Million in BTC or USDT to Get Citizenship
According to Cointelegraph, El Salvador has launched a new "Citizenship by Investment" project, issuing residence visas and a path to citizenship to 1,000 people willing to invest $1 million in BTC or USDT in the country. Tether provides technical support for El Salvador's Freedom Visa Program. The process requires a non-refundable deposit of $999 in the form of Bitcoin or USDT. If all places are filled, it will raise $1 billion for El Salvador.
In nearby Caribbean countries, similar citizenship by investment programs start at $100,000, while a route to citizenship in an EU country costs just over $800,000. Alistair Milne, founder of crypto hedge fund Altana Digital Money, commented that El Salvador’s product is “not competitive in the global market” and stressed that EU citizenship can be purchased for much less money.
NFT&AI
Tonano inscription coin minting activity caused serious damage to the TON network, and multiple wallets on the network have suspended services
According to The Block, earlier this week, after the TON network introduced the Bitcoin Ordinals-inspired Tonado protocol and caused a surge in activity, the network's transaction processing experienced long delays. According to the blockchain status monitoring robot dTON monitoring data, the problem began to appear on Tuesday afternoon. As of Thursday afternoon, more than 2.5 million transactions were waiting to be processed, and the transaction processing speed of the TON blockchain dropped to less than 1 per second. The emergence of this situation forced the TON cryptocurrency wallet Wallet and Tonkeeper to suspend service.
It is reported that Tonano is a protocol that creates blockchain inscriptions using the TON-20 token standard on the TON blockchain, but the protocol has now had to stop minting activities.
Musk: Grok AI beta is now available to all Premium+ subscribers in the United States
Musk tweeted: "Grok AI (beta) now rolling out to all ? Premium+ subscribers in the US. A lot of bugs at first, but improving rapidly almost every day. Will expand to all English users in about a week or so. Japanese next priority (second largest user base), then hopefully all languages by early 2024."
Project News
Binance's investment company withdraws application for Abu Dhabi license
According to Reuters, a Binance spokesperson said on Thursday that Binance's investment company BV Investment Management has withdrawn its license application from the Abu Dhabi Financial Regulator. The regulator's website shows that Binance submitted an application a year ago and withdrew the application on November 7 this year. The license allows Binance subsidiaries to manage a collective investment fund. A Binance spokesperson said, "In evaluating our global licensing needs, we believe that this application is unnecessary. The decision to revoke the license application has nothing to do with the settlement with the U.S. Department of Justice." He said that Binance will announce the location of its global headquarters "in due course", but declined to disclose further details. In addition, Binance will continue to work with regulators to "provide world-class services and products in the Middle East and beyond."
Ethereum latest meeting: Goerli fork date expected to be set early next year, Dencun activated in January
Ethereum core developer timbeiko.eth tweeted a summary of the 176th ACDE meeting. Developers discussed the status of Dencun, the testnet schedule, and how to plan the next network upgrade. According to the meeting discussion, Devnet#12was launched last week, and almost all clients are running on it. Bugs were found and fixed in several clients, including Reth and Lighthouse. At the same time, the development team is ready to fork the testnet, and plans to conduct a large Goerli shadow fork in the coming weeks. The developers unanimously agreed that if things go well, the Goerli fork date will be set in early 2024, with the goal of activating Dencun on the network in January. In addition, the meeting briefly discussed the planning of the Prague/Electra network upgrade. The two potential topics for the next upgrade are Verkle Tries on EL and DAS on CL, both of which still need to be "deepened". It is reported that the last ACDE meeting in 2023 will be held at 22:00 on December 21, Beijing time.
LayerZero: Native token expected to be launched in the first half of 2024
LayerZero Labs tweeted that LayerZero has always had the ability to use native tokens in the protocol. In the past few months, we have heard discussions in the community about this matter, and now it is clearly stated that the LayerZero token will be launched, which is expected to be realized in the first half of 2024.
Sam Altman-backed crypto firm Meanwhile launches Bitcoin private credit fund, plans to raise $100 million
According to The Block, Sam Altman-backed crypto startup Meanwhile Group has launched a Bitcoin private credit fund through its investment management subsidiary Meanwhile Advisors, providing institutional investors with access to Bitcoin investment. The fund seeks to raise $100 million and is expected to complete fundraising by the end of the first quarter of 2024. The fund is a closed-end fund that will generate income by lending Bitcoin, with a target yield of 5%. The minimum investment amount is $250,000, with no upper limit. The investment period is three years, the harvest period is four years, and the total period is seven years. Capital will be returned to investors during the harvest period, so most of the capital may be returned before 7 years. The fund will charge a 2% management fee and a 20% carried interest, which will be collected in the form of Bitcoin. Anchorage Digital will serve as the fund custodian.
Pando Asset has submitted an updated version of its Bitcoin spot ETF application to the SEC
According to a public document, Swiss asset management company Pando Asset has submitted an updated version of the Bitcoin spot ETF S-1 form to the US SEC. According to previous news, Pando Asset submitted a Bitcoin spot ETF application to the SEC last week. The ETF will be traded on the Cboe BZX exchange, and Coinbase will serve as a custodian. Bitcoin pricing will be based on CME's CF Bitcoin reference rate.
Fidelity Spot Bitcoin ETF Added to DTCC’s Active ETF and Pre-launch List
Fidelity's spot Bitcoin ETF "FIDELITY WISE ORIGIN BITCOIN FD SHS" has been included in the active ETF and pre-launch list of the Depository Trust and Clearing Corporation (DTCC) with the trading code FBTC.
Earlier in October, a DTCC spokesperson said that BlackRock's iShares Bitcoin Trust ETF was added to DTCC's qualified files in August, but this was a "standard process" to prepare for the launch of a new ETF. This move does not mean that the ETF has obtained any regulatory approval or other approval process results.
VanEck releases 15 predictions for the crypto industry in 2024, Bitcoin will hit a record high in the fourth quarter
Asset management company VanEck tweeted 15 predictions for the crypto industry in 2024. Specifically, they include: 1. The U.S. recession is coming, but the first batch of Bitcoin spot ETFs will also be approved. In the first quarter of 2024, more than $2.4 billion may flow into these ETFs to support the price of Bitcoin. 2. The fourth Bitcoin halving in 2024 will have minimal disruption to the market. After the halving, the price of Bitcoin will rise, and some low-cost miners will make huge profits. 3. Bitcoin prices will hit an all-time high in the fourth quarter of 2024, which may be driven by political events and regulatory changes after the U.S. presidential election. 4. Ethereum will not surpass Bitcoin, but will still outperform major technology stocks. Ethereum's market share will be challenged by other smart contract platforms. 5. After the implementation of EIP-4844, Ethereum L2 will capture most of the TVL and transaction volume compatible with EVM. 6. NFT activity will rebound to a record high, Ethereum will continue to lead, and Bitcoin will gain traction through the Ordinals protocol. By the end of 2024, the NFT issuance ratio of ETH to BTC will reach 3:1.7. Binance will lose its first spot trading position, and competitors such as OKX, Bybit, Coinbase and Bitget will compete for the leading position. Coinbase's futures market daily trading volume may exceed $1 billion. 8. The market value of stablecoins will reach more than $200 billion, a record high. 9. DEX's share of the spot trading market will reach a record high. 10. Remittances will promote the use of blockchain, and "Bitcoin staking" on the Lightning Network provides income opportunities through new, user-friendly staking tools. 11. A breakthrough blockchain game may have more than 1 million daily players. 12. Solana is expected to become the top 3 blockchains in market value, TVL and number of users. 13. DePin networks, especially Hivemapper and Helium, will be more adopted. 14. New accounting standards will increase corporate cryptocurrency holdings. 15. KYC-compliant DeFi applications, led by Uniswap, may outpace non-KYC-compliant applications, attracting institutional trading volume and increasing protocol fees.
Jack Dorsey takes further step into Bitcoin with new hardware wallet called Bitkey
According to Bloomberg, Jack Dorsey's company Block Inc. is offering a new Bitcoin hardware wallet called Bitkey, which allows users to self-custody their cryptocurrency on a hardware device similar to a USB thumb drive. Users of the wallet can connect to cryptocurrency exchanges and payment services, including Block's Cash App, allowing them to transfer tokens between platforms. Block is also working on developing new mining software.
As previously reported in June, Coinbase Pay will be integrated into Block’s self-custodial Bitcoin wallet Bitkey.
The Thirdweb vulnerability was caused by a problem integrating two separate OpenZeppelin libraries
Security firm Dedaub said on the X platform that the root cause of the Thirdweb vulnerability was that two independent OpenZeppelin libraries, ERC2771 and Multicall, interacted poorly when used in combination. This allowed _msgSender() to be spoofed, causing various access control issues, including loss of funds.
OpenZeppelin also disclosed the matter: "We publicly disclosed a serious vulnerability that is caused by a problem in the integration of standard ERC-2771 and self-delegated calls with user input data (including but not limited to multi-calls). For projects that combine these modes, this problem poses a significant risk of address spoofing attacks. This problem is caused by a problematic integration mode and is not unique to the implementation included in the OpenZeppelin Contracts library. Despite this, our team has been working hard with the white hat community to identify and notify potentially vulnerable projects."
Earlier on December 5, Thirdweb said that a commonly used open source library had a security vulnerability, and contracts created on the platform before November 23 must take mitigation measures. Later today, Scam Sniffer said that 515 tokens were suspected to be affected by Thirdweb-related vulnerabilities, 3 of which had been exploited, and the attackers made a profit of about $218,000; attackers could use Thirdweb-related vulnerabilities to call any function of ERC20 tokens; Velodrome said that the Relay contract was temporarily suspended due to Thirdweb-related vulnerabilities, and the core contracts were not affected.
Kava 15 mainnet is now online, and the KAVA inflation rate will be permanently reduced to zero on January 1 next year
According to official news, the Kava 15 mainnet has been successfully launched, and the KAVA token inflation rate will be permanently reduced to zero from 8:00 am Beijing time on January 1, 2024.
Stars Arena changes its name to The Arena and will move its domain name
Jason Desimone, the new CEO of Avalanche's ecological social protocol Stars Arena, announced that "Stars Arena" has officially changed its name to "The Arena". In the next few days, the UI and products will be slightly changed, and the domain name will be migrated. Before the official announcement, the official website will still be "starsarena.com". At present, the project's X account has been changed to "The Arena". Please avoid fake accounts and phishing links.
Binance to resume AEUR spot trading tonight
Binance will resume trading of AEUR/USDT, BTC/AEUR, ETH/AEUR, EUR/AEUR spot trading pairs at 22:00 (ET) on December 8, 2023.
According to previous news, Binance suspended the trading of related spot trading pairs due to the deviation of AEUR price, and disclosed that this was because some users did not realize that AEUR was a stable currency when they purchased it, and the demand surged in the short term. Subsequently, a compensation plan was released for users affected by the suspension of trading.
Binance will launch JTO 1-50x U-standard perpetual contracts
According to the official announcement, Binance will launch the JTO 1-50x U-based perpetual contract at 18:00 on December 8, 2023 (Eastern Time Zone 8).
Worldcoin developer TFH plans to raise up to $50 million through the sale of WLD tokens
San Francisco investment bank FT Partners is assisting with the financing. Two people familiar with the process said WLD could be priced at $1 per token, a significant discount to the current spot price of $2.50. However, another person familiar with the matter stressed that no terms have been finalized yet.
Starknet Foundation plans to distribute 1.8 billion tokens as rewards, trading rebates
The Starknet Foundation plans to distribute 1.8 billion tokens as user rewards and transaction rebates, with specific details still being worked out. The foundation will engage various groups or "committees" to oversee the broader distribution of these tokens. A specific committee, the "Provision Committee," will be responsible for rewarding users, including rewarding community members with tokens. The committee will distribute 900 million Starknet (STRK) tokens in phases to reward users and community members for past and future contributions. In addition to rewards, the foundation also plans "user rebates" to subsidize or refund transaction fees. According to the foundation, a second committee will distribute 900 million tokens to pay transaction fees for network users. In addition, a third organization, the "DeFi Committee," will initially allocate $50 million to encourage activity in DeFi protocols within the network, with the goal of "increasing liquidity."
Financing News
Bitcoin staking project Babylon completes $18 million in financing, led by Polychain Capital and Hack VC
Bitcoin-focused project Babylon has raised $18 million in a round led by Polychain Capital and Hack VC, CoinDesk reported. Framework Ventures, Polygon Ventures, Castle Island Ventures, OKX Ventures, Finality Capital, Breyer Capital, and Symbolic Capital also participated in the financing. Babylon said the project aims to "build a decentralized world secured by Bitcoin" by converting all 21 million BTC that will eventually exist into decentralized staking assets. There are currently nearly 19.6 million bitcoins in circulation. Babylon will be launched on the testnet in January 2024. Ideally, the protocol hopes to enter the mainnet when Bitcoin is "halved."
Bitcoin financial services company Swan has raised $40 million to develop institutional products such as Bitcoin loans
According to Fortune, Bitcoin financial services company Swan announced today that it will expand its service scope, including entering institutional products such as Bitcoin-backed loans, and raised $40 million in funds for expansion in 2023, and raised $125 million in funds for its own venture capital and private equity investments. A total of about $165 million. Although Klippsten declined to disclose spending details, he said Swan's investment is mainly focused on the Bitcoin ecosystem.
Founder Cory Klippsten said Swan plans to raise another $150 million in 2024 for expansion. Swan's revenue sources are also expanding rapidly, driven by other institutional products such as advisory services and investor asset management. According to Klippsten, Swan's annualized revenue in November was $125 million and is expected to exceed the $200 million mark in the first quarter of next year.
ZK infrastructure platform Sindri completes $5 million seed round of financing, led by Coinfund
According to The Block, zero-knowledge proof infrastructure platform Sindri has completed a $5 million seed round led by Coinfund. Sindri will use the latest funds to expand its team, expand its developer network, and build a comprehensive zero-knowledge-based developer stack. Previously, the project received $2 million in pre-seed round financing in June 2022.
Animoca Brands' NFT series Mocaverse has completed nearly US$11.89 million in financing, with Dapper Labs and others participating
According to the official blog, Animoca Brands' NFT series Mocaverse announced the completion of a new round of financing of US$11,888,888, with participation from Block 1, OKX Ventures, Foresight Ventures, Polygon Ventures, Dapper Labs, etc. As of now, Mocaverse's total financing has reached US$31.88 million (the previous round was US$20 million). In these two rounds of financing, Animoca Brands raised funds by issuing new common shares at a price of A$4.50 per share. The new funds will be used to promote Mocaverse to establish a digital identity and points system for Web3 games, culture, and entertainment.
It is reported that the PFP NFT series Mocaverse was announced by Animoca Brands in December last year and released earlier this year. Mocaverse aims to establish stronger connections between Animoca Brands' group companies, partners, portfolios, cross-project collaborations and various forms of utility found in the Animoca Brands ecosystem.
Important data
L2 Network Blast’s TVL has exceeded $800 million
DeBank data shows that the total value of assets held by the Blast contract address of the Layer 2 network launched by Blur founder Pacman has exceeded US$809 million, of which about US$716 million worth of ETH is deposited in the Lido protocol, and US$93.13 million of assets are deposited in the Maker protocol, with about US$160,000 in assets in the wallet.
Binance Research: The total market value of cryptocurrencies has increased by about 110% so far this year, and NFT trading volume has broken the 8-month downward trend
Binance Research Institute released a report summarizing the "10 most noteworthy narratives": 1. The total market value of cryptocurrencies has increased by about 110% so far this year, which means that capital has increased by more than $870 billion. So far, the market has risen by 55% (about $596 billion) in the fourth quarter. 2. Stablecoin supply is recovering, and the quarterly net change in the supply of the top five stablecoins has turned positive for the first time since the first quarter of 2022. 3. NFT trading volume broke the 8-month downward trend, increasing by nearly 200% month-on-month in November; Bitcoin is the most popular chain, with NFT trading volume exceeding $375 million, even surpassing Ethereum NFT ($348 million). 4. In November, fees for the top 20 crypto projects rose, about 84% higher than in October and about 100% higher than in September. DeFi TVL also rose, while DeFi dominance rose 18% month-on-month. 5. Bitcoin Ordinals and BRC-20 sparked interest again in November, and the news of Bitcoin spot ETF looks optimistic. The market expects approval in January, and the Bitcoin halving in April is another important milestone to watch. 6. Recently, Layer 1 of many other chains has outperformed Ethereum, among which the progress of Solana and Toncoin is eye-catching. 7. SocialFi has seen the emergence of new protocols such as friend.tech, as well as updates from Farcaster, Lens and Binance Square. 8. RWA is beginning to become increasingly important, currently accounting for more than 49% of the assets on MakerDAO's balance sheet; Chainlink also hopes to establish a closer connection between TradFi, RWA and cryptocurrencies through its new CCIP solution. 9. Zero-knowledge technology is starting to take off, with various ZK-rollup releases recently and increased work and discussion around ZK coprocessors. 10. U.S. interest rates are at a 22-year high, and the market expects a rate cut next year.
A whale deposited 1,449 BTC into Binance, equivalent to about $62.9 million
According to Lookonchain monitoring, 50 minutes ago, a whale deposited 1,449 BTC (about 62.9 million US dollars) into Binance. It currently still holds 1,455 BTC (about 63.16 million US dollars), with an estimated total profit of 65 million US dollars. The last time the whale sold BTC was on April 16, when the price peaked.
Kazakhstan regulator blocks 980 unregistered crypto exchanges by 2023
Ruslan Ostroumov, chairman of Kazakhstan’s Financial Supervisory Authority (AFM), said at the Eurasian-China Anti-Money Laundering Group meeting that the AFM blocked 980 cryptocurrency exchanges that provided services to the country’s citizens without proper registration in 2023. It also launched nine investigations into “illegal trading operations” and money laundering.
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