BIT Mining reaches settlement with US SEC over bribery of Japanese officials
According to Bloomberg, crypto mining company BIT Mining Ltd. (formerly 500.com Limited) was accused by the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) of bribing Japanese officials to bid for a casino resort project and agreed to pay a $4 million fine to reach a settlement. According to the SEC, the company paid $2.5 million in cash and gift bribes between 2017 and 2019, including bribes to Japanese lawmakers.
The U.S. Department of Justice said BIT Mining will also pay a $10 million criminal fine, of which $4 million will be offset by a fine paid to the SEC. 500.com recorded bribes with false consulting contracts and management consulting fees to cover up illegal activities, and company executives, including the then CEO, were accused of directly participating in directing and covering up this illegal behavior.
Heather Morgan, money launderer in Bitfinex hack, sentenced to 18 months in prison
According to Cointelegraph, Heather Morgan, known as "Razzlekhan", was sentenced to 18 months in prison in a Bitcoin money laundering case related to the 2016 Bitfinex exchange hack . Colleen Kollar-Kotelly, a judge in the District Court for the District of Columbia, announced the verdict at a hearing on November 18. Morgan pleaded guilty in August 2023 to conspiracy to commit money laundering and defraud the United States.
Trump to meet privately with Coinbase CEO on Monday to discuss appointments
IBIT options are expected to be officially launched on November 19
According to The Block, the U.S. Options Clearing Corporation (OCC) announced that it is ready to clear options transactions related to spot Bitcoin ETFs. IBIT options are expected to be officially launched on November 19 (Tuesday), becoming the first option trading product linked to spot Bitcoin ETFs.
The OCC said it will be responsible for clearing and risk management, and these options will be listed on exchanges regulated by the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) and will not fall under the jurisdiction of the Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC). In January this year, the SEC approved 11 spot Bitcoin ETFs, and BlackRock's iShares Bitcoin Trust (IBIT) was approved in September to become the first spot ETF to launch options.
According to the Magic Eden Foundation, the token economic model of its token $ME has been officially announced, with a total supply of 1 billion, of which more than half will be allocated to the community. The first token generation event (TGE) will distribute 12.5% of $ME, which will be fully unlocked and distributed to Bitcoin, Solana and EVM ecosystem users through the Magic Eden mobile app. Unclaimed tokens will flow back to the community staking reward pool.
Distribution details: 37.7% is allocated to the community and ecosystem, of which 22.5% is used to reward active users of the protocol, and 15.2% supports ecological development; 26.2% is allocated to contributors, including core developers and consultants; 23.6% is used for strategic participants, and is locked for at least 12 months. All tokens will be fully circulated within 4 years. To ensure the security of the protocol, a 5-member security committee will be established to supervise the multi-signature wallet. The ME Foundation will serve as the management body of $ME, promote the development of the on-chain economy, and provide staking rewards to token holders.
Musk: I still hold a lot of Dogecoin, and SpaceX holds a lot of Bitcoin
Dogecoin UI designer DogeDesigner shared an audio clip of Musk, in which Musk said "I still hold a lot of Dogecoin, and SpaceX holds a lot of Bitcoin." However, DogeDesigner did not indicate the time when Musk made this statement.
Trump Media and Technology Group in advanced talks to acquire cryptocurrency trading platform Bakkt
According to the Financial Times, Trump Media and Technology Group (TMTG), owned by US President-elect Donald Trump, is in talks with Intercontinental Exchange (ICE) to acquire its cryptocurrency trading platform Bakkt, which is expected to be completed in an all-stock manner. Bakkt's current market value is approximately US$150 million, while TMTG's equity valuation is as high as US$6 billion, providing sufficient capital support for its business expansion.
According to official news, MARA, a listed Bitcoin mining company, announced that it plans to raise US$700 million by issuing convertible senior notes to purchase more BTC. The notes will be MARA's unsecured senior debt and will bear interest, payable semi-annually on March 1 and September 1 each year starting from March 1, 2025.
MicroStrategy to issue $1.75 billion of zero-coupon convertible senior notes
According to an announcement on MicroStrategy's official website, MicroStrategy announced that it plans to issue $1.75 billion in zero-interest convertible senior notes, which are expected to mature in 2029. This private placement will be open to qualified institutional investors and some non-US investors, and the size of the offering may increase to $2 billion if market conditions permit. The notes can be converted into cash, MicroStrategy Class A common stock, or a combination of the two, and the final terms of the offering will be determined at pricing. MicroStrategy plans to use the proceeds to purchase more Bitcoin and for other corporate purposes.
According to Bloomberg, Goldman Sachs Group is in talks with potential partners to spin off its digital asset platform into a new company for large financial companies to create, trade and settle financial instruments through blockchain technology.
Semler Scientific, a US listed company, spent $17.7 million to increase its holdings of 215 bitcoins
According to PR Newswire, Semler Scientific (SMLR), a US medical technology listed company, announced that between November 6, 2024 and November 15, 2024, it purchased 215 bitcoins for US$17.7 million in cash, at an average price of US$82,502 per bitcoin, including fees and expenses.
As of November 15, 2024, Semler Scientific holds a total of 1,273 bitcoins with a total purchase price of $88.7 million and an average purchase price of $69,682 per bitcoin (including fees and expenses). From October 1, 2024 to November 15, 2024, Semler Scientific's BTC yield was 18.9%.
Genius Group announced that it has purchased 110 Bitcoins for $10 million
According to GlobeNewswire, Genius Group (NYSE American: GNS) announced that it has completed its first Bitcoin purchase, purchasing 110 Bitcoins for $10 million, with an average price of $90,932 per Bitcoin. This is the first step of the company's "Bitcoin First" strategy, which plans to invest more than 90% of existing and future reserves in Bitcoin, with a total target of $120 million .
pump.fun sold another 105,000 SOL 7 hours ago, worth about 25.23 million US dollars
According to on-chain analyst Yu Jin’s monitoring, pump.fun sold another 105,000 SOL ($25.23M) 7 hours ago after 8 days. Now pump.fun earns about 15,000 SOL ($3.6M) a day. So far, pump.fun has received a total of 1.308 million SOL in fees. Among them, 971,400 SOL ($168.49M) were sold at an average price of $173.
Lido and other crypto people plan to launch "Y" project to compete with Sam Altman's World Network
MicroStrategy spends $4.6 billion to increase its holdings of 51,780 bitcoins
According to official news, MicroStrategy used the proceeds from stock sales to purchase an additional 51,780 bitcoins for a total price of US$4.6 billion (average purchase price of US$88,627) between November 11 and 17, 2024.
As of November 17, 2024, the total amount of bitcoins held by MicroStrategy reached 331,200, with an average purchase price of approximately US$49,874 per coin, and a total cost of approximately US$16.5 billion.
Bitcoin mining difficulty increased by 0.63% to 102.29 T this morning
CloverPool data shows that the difficulty of Bitcoin mining has been adjusted at block height 870,912 (2024-11-19 04:42:12), with the difficulty of mining increased by 0.63% to 102.29 T, setting a new record high. The current average computing power of the entire network is 1.08 ZH/s.
