Today's news tips:
Trump family crypto project WLFI cuts fundraising goal by 90% to $30 million
Florida CFO says state holds $800 million worth of crypto investments
Paxos Partners with DBS Bank to Launch USDG, a US Dollar-Backed Stablecoin
ZetaChain mainnet has resumed block production after more than 6 hours of suspension today
bitSmiley announces token economics: Total supply of SMILE tokens is 210 million
Regulation and Policy
According to Decrypt, a spokesperson for Ethereum gaming company Immutable revealed on Thursday that the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) sent a Wells Notice to Immutable last month, warning the company that it may soon face enforcement action.
Immutable said in a statement that the regulator also sent a letter to the company's CEO James Ferguson and the Digital Worlds Foundation, which helped issue Immutable's IMX token, detailing alleged violations of securities laws. Although the company claims that the SEC did not fully explain the alleged misconduct, Immutable believes that the charges stem from the 2021 IMX sale. At the time, Immutable tweeted that the company quickly raised at least $12.5 million after the IMX token was listed on the CoinList platform. In addition, the SEC also accused Immutable of making false statements to the public about its token support. This included a "pre-IPO investment" in IMX.
An Immutable spokesperson said: “While the SEC indiscriminately claims that tokens across the industry are securities, we are confident that the IMX token is not, and the notice only cites statutory provisions and contains limited meaningful detail. With the latest action against Immutable, the SEC’s overreach has expanded to the gaming sector.”
US poll: Harris leads Trump by 1%
According to CCTV News, citing Forbes, a latest poll shows that US Vice President and Democratic presidential candidate Harris leads former US President and Republican presidential candidate Trump by only a slight margin of 1%, but 10% of voters may change their minds before the election. According to the poll, Harris currently leads Trump with 49% to 48%, but there is still room for change in the remaining days before the election, as about 10% of potential voters and 16% of registered voters said they are still weighing their options. In addition, in the seven key swing states that may determine the final winner of the election, Harris leads Trump with 49% to 48%, while a week ago, Trump led Harris with 50% to 46%. According to reports, the poll was conducted between October 27 and 29, with a total of 4,523 registered voters and 3,718 potential voters participating in the survey.
Trump celebrates Bitcoin white paper's 16th anniversary to win votes
Trump posted on the X platform to celebrate the 16th anniversary of the Bitcoin white paper, and wrote: "We will end Harris' war on cryptocurrency, Bitcoin will be made in the United States, and I hope to vote for Trump."
Project News
Trump family crypto project WLFI cuts fundraising goal by 90% to $30 million
According to a regulatory filing, the Trump family's crypto project World Liberty Financial (WLFI) has slashed its fundraising goal after its WLFI token sales fell far short of its initial target. The company currently plans to raise up to $30 million from investors, a 90% reduction from the $300 million that World Liberty Financial originally sought.
Florida CFO says state holds $800 million worth of crypto investments
According to The Block, Florida's Chief Financial Officer Jimmy Patronis said in an interview with CNBC on Thursday that the state's investment portfolio holds about $800 million in "crypto-related" investments. If former President Trump is re-elected next month, he would not be surprised by the growth of this number. Earlier on October 30, the CFO of Florida proposed using Bitcoin to diversify the state's pension fund.
Time.fun announces migration from Base to Solana, saying Ethereum ecosystem is exhausting
Time.fun, the original time tokenization platform based on Base, announced its migration to Solana. 0xKawz, co-founder of Time.fun, said: "In the past year or so, Solana has been absolutely dominant in most aspects. At the same time, the Ethereum ecosystem is exhausting. In most cases, they only care about technology and are self-righteous. Ethereum feels like a group of philosophers looking down on ordinary people. If Ethereum cannot solve its cultural problems, Solana will dominate as more builders like Time.fun choose to migrate." Earlier news, Time.fun completed a $3 million seed round of financing in August this year, with Coinbase Ventures and others participating.
According to The Block, stablecoin issuer Tether said on Thursday that according to its latest audit report, the company achieved a profit of $2.5 billion in the third quarter, bringing its total profit for the nine months to $7.7 billion, up from $5.2 billion in the first half of 2024. The company said in a statement: "A highlight of this quarter is that Tether's stablecoin issuance company's circulation reached a new high of nearly $120 billion USDT, which represents a 30% increase in USDT tokens issued so far in 2024, or $27.8 billion, almost equivalent to the entire market value of its closest competitor." In its quarterly audit report, Tether stated that its reserves consisted of more than $105 billion in cash and cash equivalents, including direct and indirect holdings of U.S. Treasuries of up to $102.5 billion. The company's CEO Paolo Ardoino said: "By increasing our reserve buffer to more than $6 billion and continuing to focus on strategic investments, Tether once again set the standard for stability in the financial sector."
Later news came out that Tether’s Q3 financial report revealed that it held 75,353.56 BTC, having reduced its holdings by 187.71 BTC .
Digital asset exchange Archax acquires Spanish brokerage firm KSCM
According to CoinDesk, Archax, a British crypto exchange and custody platform, announced the acquisition of Spanish brokerage King & Shaxson Capital Markets (KSCM) to expand its business in the European Union. The acquisition still needs to be approved by Spanish regulators. KSCM was founded in 2019 and mainly serves pan-European institutional clients. After this acquisition, it will become a wholly-owned subsidiary of Archax, enabling it to expand brokerage, trading and custody services in the European Union and increase its crypto derivatives business.
Kraken Launches Kraken Desktop Trading Application
According to The Block, the cryptocurrency exchange Kraken has launched Kraken Desktop, a fully customizable desktop trading application designed for active traders. Inspired by the popular Cryptowatch tool that was discontinued last year, Kraken Desktop aims to provide a more efficient trading experience through proprietary charting and technical analysis tools. Kraken said that Kraken Desktop was officially launched after a successful private beta, providing full access to all spot and futures markets, and adding a variety of new tools to enhance trading capabilities and performance. The application is developed using the Rust technology stack, supports low-latency trading, and provides advanced features such as ladder trading and automatic orders. In addition, Kraken recently launched kBTC (its wrapped Bitcoin on Ethereum and OP Mainnet) and plans to launch Ink, an Ethereum Layer 2 solution based on OP Stack in early 2025.
According to CoinDesk, asset management giant Franklin Templeton has expanded its on-chain U.S. Treasury Money Market Fund (FOBXX) to Coinbase's Layer 2 blockchain Base, becoming the first asset management company to establish a business on the platform. The fund has a market value of US$410 million and can be traded on five blockchains including Stellar, Aptos, Avalanche, Arbitrum and Polygon, with Stellar as the main network. Base has developed rapidly since its launch in 2022, and its total locked volume (TVL) now exceeds US$8 billion, second only to Arbitrum. Launched in 2021, FOBXX is the first money market fund to record transactions and ownership on a public chain, and is currently the second largest tokenized fund by market value.
Coinbase Derivatives to launch Silver (SLR) and Stellar (XLM) futures contracts on November 11
According to the Coinbase announcement, Coinbase Derivatives will launch retail-scale futures contracts for Silver (SLR) and Stellar (XLM) on November 11, further expanding its derivatives product line regulated by the Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC), including previously launched contracts such as BTC, ETH, BCH, LTC, DOGE, SHIB, AVAX, DOT, LINK, Gold and Oil. The Silver and Stellar futures launched this time are in units of 50 ounces of silver and 5,000 Stellar, respectively, aiming to provide traders at all levels with more convenient market access opportunities while meeting the needs of price discovery and risk management. Coinbase said that combining traditional commodities with innovative cryptocurrencies will help create a more comprehensive trading experience and provide investors with diversified risk management and portfolio options.
TON Foundation announces new governance model Society DAO
According to the official blog, the TON Foundation announced the launch of a new governance model, Society DAO, which aims to promote decentralization and enhance its growing ecosystem. Society DAO will become the organization for core ecosystem functions, and its founding members include: TON Core (core development, upgrades and maintenance of the blockchain), TON Studio (developer experience), TON Society (community operations), and wallets in Telegram (payment methods).
The operating model of Society DAO is as follows: Society DAO will publish TON ecosystem goals; DAO members can propose relevant strategies, expected time limits and specific key results for achieving ecosystem goals; relevant DAO members will evaluate the proposals of each special working group; after DAO approval, the Foundation will provide funding for the plan, and the community team will be responsible for progress and performance.
Society DAO’s initial goals include: positioning TON as a gateway to real-world cryptocurrency use cases; building TON into the most stable and scalable blockchain; and developing a community of developers and users in a super app marketplace.
Paxos Partners with DBS Bank to Launch USDG, a US Dollar-Backed Stablecoin
According to Cointelegraph, Paxos announced the launch of its second localized stablecoin product USDG in Singapore, a stablecoin that complies with Singapore regulations and whose US dollar reserves are managed and reserved by DBS Bank. USDG complies with the upcoming stablecoin framework set by MAS in August 2023. Therefore, USDG is currently available on the Ethereum blockchain and will be launched on other blockchains as regulation evolves. This move comes only five months after it established the UAE-regulated interest-paying stablecoin Lift Dollar (USDL). It is reported that Paxos's branch in Singapore, Paxos Digital Singapore, obtained approval for USDG from the Monetary Authority of Singapore (MAS) in July.
BNB Chain Completes 29th BNB Quarterly Burn, Totaling $1.07 Billion in BNB
According to official news, BNB Chain completed the 29th BNB quarterly destruction, destroying a total of 1,772,712.363 BNB, with a USD value of approximately US$1.07 billion at the time of destruction.
ZetaChain mainnet has resumed block production after more than 6 hours of suspension
The ZetaChain status page shows that the ZetaChain mainnet network interruption problem has been resolved and all systems are operating normally. Previously, the ZetaChain mainnet was interrupted for more than 6 blocks.
ZachXBT: Crypto exchange M2 was hacked yesterday, and about $13 million was stolen
According to ZachXBT, a blockchain detective, the crypto exchange M2 was hacked yesterday, and about $13 million was stolen from hot wallets on multiple chains. The addresses to which the stolen funds flowed include: Ethereum address 0x968b6984cba14444f23ee51be90652408155e142, Bitcoin address bc1qu4kh7wa38xpkrp8frgxl4sak88wx0jug8n3vfj, and Solana address EKko14NvgqdvNttUb8JjXkVGuUs6BTikjfN3hqW4LQoL.
bitSmiley announces token economics: Total supply of SMILE tokens is 210 million
Bitcoin DeFi infrastructure bitSmiley is about to launch its governance token $SMILE, based on the ERC-20 standard, with a total supply of 210 million. $SMILE tokens are distributed as follows: bitSmiley DAO accounts for 26%, user incentives account for 21.5%, the team and consultants account for 12.5%, staking and liquidity account for 12.5% and 7.5% respectively, and the rest are allocated to investors, airdrops and launchpads. The release rules include linear release after investors lock up for 150-180 days, linear release for 48 months after the team locks up for 2 years, etc. $SMILE holders can participate in decentralized governance, participate in surplus auctions, enjoy fee discounts, priority liquidation rights and bitUniverse staking income and other rights.
Investment and Financing
According to Fortune magazine, Ethereum-based blockchain solar company Glow has completed a $30 million financing round led by Framework and Union Square Ventures. Glow operates a decentralized physical infrastructure network (DePIN) consisting of solar power plants in the United States and India, aiming to promote the development and management of clean energy through blockchain technology.
Ellipsis Labs Completes $21 Million in New Funding to Launch L2 Blockchain Atlas
According to CoinDesk, Ellipsis Labs, the team behind Solana's DEX Phoenix, has completed a new round of financing of $21 million, including $20 million from Haun Ventures and $1 million from other investors to accelerate the launch of Atlas, a Layer2 blockchain focused on verifiable finance. Ellipsis aims to solve key problems in DeFi, such as inefficient price discovery and high transaction costs, which make it difficult for decentralized financial platforms to compete with traditional financial systems. Ellipsis said it plans to apply the experience of building Phoenix to Atlas, which was originally launched as a Layer2 solution on Ethereum and aims to access the liquidity pools of Ethereum and Solana; the main features will include low-latency transaction processing, reliable oracle updates, and sorting of non-custodial on-chain price discovery. Earlier news, Ellipsis completed a $20 million Series A financing led by Paradigm in April.
Bitcoin rollup project Citrea completes $14 million Series A financing, led by Founders Fund
According to CoinDesk, Bitcoin rollup project Citrea announced the completion of a $14 million Series A financing round, led by Peter Thiel's Founders Fund, with participation from angel investors such as Erik Voorhees and Balaji Srinivasan. Citrea aims to use zero-knowledge (ZK) technology to transform Bitcoin into a programmable asset, introducing smart contract functions similar to Ethereum. Citrea uses the BitVM computing model to make it compatible with the Ethereum Virtual Machine (EVM), allowing applications on Ethereum to be deployed on Citrea without modification. Citrea said that Bitcoin lacks scalability solutions in the DeFi field, and if its practicality is not enhanced, it may gradually be marginalized. Through ZK technology, Citrea expands the capacity of Bitcoin's block space, providing a foundation for it to support a variety of on-chain applications and avoiding the impact on Bitcoin's position in decentralized finance.
Important data
According to the latest report from Immunefi, the crypto industry has lost more than $1.4 billion in 2024 due to hacking and scams, involving 179 incidents. Although the loss in October was $55.1 million, down 56.6% from $126.9 million in September, the cumulative losses are still significant. The losses in October were mainly due to two incidents, including a $50 million hack on the decentralized finance (DeFi) protocol Radiant Capital and a $4.4 million vulnerability exploit on Tapioca DAO. Gonçalo Magalhães, head of security at Immunefi, pointed out that project parties have generally strengthened security measures, including audits and vulnerability reward programs, making attacks more difficult. The report also shows that BNB Chain was the most attacked network in October, accounting for 50%, followed by Ethereum and Arbitrum, each accounting for 25%. So far, Immunefi has paid more than $100 million in rewards to white hat hackers, saving more than $25 billion in user assets.
According to The Block, the Blockchain Association released data showing that since Gary Gensler became chairman of the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC), the U.S. crypto industry has spent more than $400 million to respond to the agency's enforcement actions. This figure is based on self-reporting by members of the Blockchain Association, reflecting the huge compliance costs and potential damage to industry innovation and employment caused by SEC enforcement. The association's members include companies such as Ripple, Coinbase, Crypto.com, Grayscale and Kraken. In addition, a survey conducted jointly by the association and HarrisX showed that about two-thirds of voters surveyed believed that the SEC should wait for Congress to provide clearer regulatory guidance. Voters are also divided on party support for crypto innovation, with 34% believing that Republicans are more supportive of crypto innovation and 32% believing that Democrats are more supportive.
MicroStrategy's market value surpasses Coinbase
According to Cointelegraph, MicroStrategy's market value surpassed Coinbase. The market value of Microstrategy's stock MSTR is currently US$49.54 billion, and the market value of Coinbase's stock COIN is currently US$44.87 billion.
According to on-chain analyst @ai_9684xtpa, a whale address that has longed the ETH/BTC exchange rate sold 3,987 WETH (about $10.05 million) at an average price of $2,519 in the past four hours to exchange for WBTC to repay Aave loans, completely clearing out the position and ending a year-long "long exchange rate operation". Since 2024, the address has accumulated losses of more than $22.45 million due to long exchange rates.
According to on-chain analyst Ember’s monitoring, two months later, the Mt. Gox address transferred out 500 BTC again 2 hours ago, worth about $35.04 million. It is worth noting that there are still 44,900 BTC (about $3.11 billion) in the Mt. Gox address waiting for subsequent compensation.
