Today's news tips:
Bloomberg: Russia tries to bypass Western sanctions by using Bitcoin for transactions within BRICS
Apple releases new AI preview, including ChatGPT-integrated features
Base mainnet will introduce fault proof on October 30
GOAT's market value exceeded $800 million, and its price rose 43.12% in 24 hours
Regulatory News
Bloomberg: Russia tries to bypass Western sanctions by using Bitcoin for transactions within BRICS
According to Bloomberg Terminal information, as the BRICS summit kicked off in Kazan, Russia, cryptocurrency became one of the topics. Russian lawmakers are promoting the idea that Russian miners can sell their tokens to international buyers, who can then use Bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies to pay for imports, effectively circumventing Western sanctions. Sanctions have hit Russia hard, but cryptocurrencies offer an alternative to the traditional financial system that relies on the dollar and banks.
Richard Wolf, an American economist and professor emeritus at the University of Massachusetts Amherst, commented on the situation, saying that the BRICS alliance is surpassing the United States, which has reached its peak; the United States is on a downward slope and trying to maintain its international dominance; and the BRICS countries are also gaining an economic advantage over the United States.
According to CNN, the U.S. Department of Justice recently warned Elon Musk's America PAC that its campaign to give away $1 million a day to registered voters in swing states may violate federal law. The Justice Department's Public Integrity Division has sent a letter to the political action committee, pointing out that its "cash giveaways" may constitute election-related violations.
Under federal law, it is illegal to pay people to register to vote, and Musk's event requires participants to be registered voters in the designated state and sign a petition in support of the First and Second Amendments. Although Musk emphasized on social media that the winners are not divided by party affiliation and voting is not even mandatory, experts believe that there are still legal risks in limiting the participation of registered voters.
After being criticized, America PAC described the prize money as "speaker compensation," but the terms on its website did not change substantially, still requiring winners to be registered voters. It is not clear whether the Justice Department's letter prompted changes to the campaign's content.
According to CoinDesk, U.S. government prosecutors trying the case of former FTX executive Nishad Singh have asked the sentencing judge to consider Singh's "substantial assistance" and "exemplary cooperation" in the government's investigation of FTX. In a document filed on October 23, prosecutors said Singh "showed sincere remorse and a desire to help." Singh assisted the government in understanding how FTX's code allowed the illegal use of customer funds and described in detail the transactions Sam Bankman-Fried conducted using the stolen money.
In February 2023, the former engineering executive pleaded guilty to six criminal charges, including fraud and conspiracy, related to FTX's collapse last November. Last week, his lawyers asked a federal judge to spare him prison in sentencing documents filed on Oct. 16. They described him as an "unusually selfless individual," claiming that he had a limited role at FTX and detailing his cooperation with authorities. Singh and FTX's former chief technology officer, Gary Wang, are both awaiting sentencing.
Bank of Canada cuts interest rates by 50 basis points, fourth consecutive rate cut
According to China Fund News, the Bank of Canada cut interest rates by 50 basis points on Wednesday, lowering the benchmark rate from 4.25% to 3.75%, the largest reduction in borrowing costs since the early days of the epidemic in March 2020. The Bank of Canada said this was a sign that the country was returning to an era of low inflation. In response to soaring prices, the Bank of Canada had previously raised interest rates to a 20-year high, but has cut interest rates four times in a row since June. Inflation fell to 1.6% in September, below the target of 2%.
AI
Apple releases new AI preview, including ChatGPT-integrated features
According to TechCrunch, on Wednesday, Apple Intelligence released the latest iOS 18.2, iPadOS 18.2, and macOS Sequoia15.2 updates, and developers will experience ChatGPT integration for the first time. At the same time, Apple also launched other intelligent features, including Genmoji, Image Playground, Visual Intelligence, and Image Wand. The public will also get Apple Intelligence features for the first time, such as integrated writing tools, image cleaning, article summaries, and a redesigned Siri input experience, which is provided by iOS 18.1, iPadOS 18.1, and 15.1 versions. However, they will have to wait for future updates to access OpenAI's platform. Users must select Apple Intelligence and ChatGPT separately during the setup process or later in the settings. They do not need to have a ChatGPT account or a standalone application. However, without a premium account, the number of queries they access will be limited, but everyone can access all OpenAI models, including GPT-4.
OpenAI launches simplified consistency model sCM, which will greatly improve sampling speed
According to the OpenAI announcement, it has launched a new sCM (simplified consistency model), which is based on a simplified continuous-time consistency model and provides higher training stability and scalability.
Project News
dYdX releases dYdX v3 sunset process reminder, all trading will stop on October 28
dYdX posted on the X platform: "dYdX v3 Sunset process reminder, all transactions, oracle price updates and fund payments are scheduled to stop at 20:05 Beijing time on October 28. We encourage users to make plans to close their positions and withdraw USDC from the dYdX v3 smart contract." According to the previous announcement, this change only affects dYdX v3 users, and users of dYdX Chain, dydx.trade or v4 API are not affected by this change.
According to the official announcement of the Tapioca Foundation, on October 19, Tapioca DAO suffered a social engineering attack, resulting in the theft of funds worth $4.7 million. The team had offered a $1 million bounty to the hacker in exchange for the remaining $3.7 million, and set a deadline of 4 pm UTC on October 22. As the deadline has passed and no response has been received, the proposal is now invalid.
The Tapioca Foundation is currently working with law enforcement agencies and multiple security teams, including ZeroShadow, Seal911, and the BNB Smart Chain team, as most of the stolen funds are still on the chain. Tapioca is now offering a 10% reward for any individual who can provide clues or take actions to help recover the funds. Relevant information can be sent to tapiocaahack@protonmail.com.
According to Lookonchain monitoring, an insider sold 500 million $SHAR in a single transaction, accounting for 50% of the total supply, in exchange for 19,620 $SOL (about US$3.38 million), causing the price of $SHAR to plummet by 96%.
The insider previously used 5,710 $SOL (about $948,000) through 16 wallets to snap up 665.6 million $SHAR (66.56% of the total supply) and dispersed these tokens to more than 100 wallets. 4 hours ago, he collected 500 million $SHAR from 104 wallets and sold them all at once, making a profit of 13,910 $SOL (about $2.4 million).
zkLink Core DAO announces six-month delay in unlocking over 40% of ZKL tokens
According to The Block, zkLink Core DAO announced the postponement of its ZKL token unlocking plan, delaying the token unlocking originally scheduled for October 22 by six months. This decision involves 40.5% of the total ZKL token supply, affecting the token allocation of early private round investors, teams and consultants, and the unlocking will be postponed to April 22, 2025.
Crypto sleuth ZachXBT revealed on the X platform: “A Chinese OTC trader named ‘Wang Yicong’ has helped Lazarus Group convert tens of millions of dollars of cryptocurrencies stolen from various hacker attacks into cash through bank transfers since 2022. A few months ago, a follower Wang (an OTC trader who has used pseudonyms such as Seawang, Greatdtrader, and BestRhea977) contacted me after his trading account was frozen after completing a P2P trade. They then shared with me a Tron wallet address of Wang Yicong from a screenshot of the WeChat conversation: THsSCBGazjjho7u2BQQsmrpbDv1Q237FL4. Recently, Wang Yicong contacted them to place a larger USDT to CNY order involving approximately $1.5 million on August 13, 2024, at an exchange rate far below the market rate. The address in question is THjaAygUNkzoXufwEoKCzbUZHpsehL9rAZ. When reviewing the blockchain data associated with Wang Yicong, you will notice the integration of large amounts of illicit funds from the Irys co-founder, Alex Labs, and other hacks involving EasyFi, Bondly, Maverick co-founders, etc. ”
Michael Saylor's comments on "regulated Bitcoin custody" criticized by Vitalik
According to The Block, Ethereum co-founder Vitalik Buterin recently criticized the views of MicroStrategy founder Michael Saylor. In a recent interview with the New Zealand Herald, Saylor said that concerns about using regulated entities to custody Bitcoin mainly come from "paranoid cryptocurrency anarchists." He elaborated on the case for Bitcoin as a better digital asset and a means of storing value, and advocated that it should be regarded as "a digital currency that is essential to human progress." However, his views on regulated custody have caused a strong reaction within the Bitcoin community, especially from advocates of self-custody, who have harshly criticized it, and some even questioned whether Saylor really understands the essence of Bitcoin.
In response to this controversy, Vitalik expressed his views on the X platform. He bluntly stated: "I am happy to say that I think Michael Saylor's comments are simply ridiculous. He seems to explicitly support the approach of protecting cryptocurrencies through regulatory capture, but there are many precedents for the failure of this approach. I think this is completely contrary to the core principles of cryptocurrency." Vitalik's remarks were in response to Jameson Lopp, co-founder and chief technology officer of Casa. Lopp previously warned: "Bitcoin self-custody is not an exclusive option for paranoid people. Convincing people to trust third-party custodians actually brings many long-term negative effects." He emphasized that self-custody is not only crucial for individual Bitcoin holders, but also the key to maintaining decentralization, enhancing network security, maintaining governance participation, and promoting continuous innovation and expansion without relying on third parties.
Unlike Lopp, Saylor advocates holding Bitcoin through regulated entities such as BlackRock, Fidelity, JPMorgan Chase and State Street. He believes that doing so is not only safer, but also reduces volatility and reduces the risk of loss. Because the government and lawmakers have investments in these institutions, these institutions are less likely to be targeted by the government than unregulated private entities.
MANTRA, a Layer1 blockchain focused on RWA assets, has launched its mainnet
MANTRA, a Layer1 blockchain focused on RWA assets, announced on the X platform that its mainnet is now live, and users will be able to perform several important activities, including: bridging OM tokens from ERC-20 to MANTRA mainnet tokens to gain access to future RWA tokens; users can stake OM to help secure the network and receive on-chain staking rewards; OM will become an important part of the RWA ledger; earn KARMA by completing new tasks on the mainnet.
According to CoinDesk, Ripple CEO Brad Garlinghouse revealed at DC Fintech Week in Washington that his long-term partner Citibank has terminated his personal banking relationship due to his background in the cryptocurrency industry. Garlinghouse said this was the result of the U.S. government's pressure on banking institutions to be cautious in getting involved in crypto assets. He mentioned that Citi gave him five days to process the account funds and made it clear that the move had led to more scrutiny pressure from federal regulators due to its "prominent position in the crypto industry."
Garlinghouse criticized the Biden administration's regulatory attitude toward the crypto industry, especially accusing Gary Gensler, chairman of the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC), of a tough approach, and said that regardless of the outcome of the presidential election in November, U.S. crypto policy will improve in the future. In addition, he also mentioned that an ETF linked to XRP is "inevitable" and suggested that crypto startups register overseas to avoid the uncertainty of U.S. regulation.
Upbit to launch SAFE’s KRW, BTC and USDT trading pairs
According to the Upbit announcement, the platform will support the trading of the new digital asset SAFE and open the Korean won, BTC, and USDT markets. SAFE is based on the Ethereum network and is expected to start trading at 18:00 (KST) on October 24, and recharge will be open within 2 hours after the announcement.
Safe (SAFE) is a project dedicated to providing users with flexible and complete control over their crypto assets, aiming to enable users to truly "own" various digital assets such as digital identity, financial assets, and digital art. Safe realizes its vision through the smart contract-based multi-signature wallet Safe{Wallet} and the open source modular account abstraction framework Safe{Core}, and promotes future realization through the ecosystem participation reward system Safe{Pass}.
Binance Completes Worldcoin (WLD) Mainnet Integration
Binance announced that it has completed the integration of the Worldcoin (WLD) mainnet and opened deposit and withdrawal services.
According to the Q3 Crypto Market Report released by Bitwise, stablecoins are becoming an important application of crypto technology, and their influence is gradually penetrating into multiple trillion-dollar markets. Bitwise pointed out that the total amount of U.S. Treasury bonds held by the top five stablecoins has exceeded that of some G20 countries such as Germany. In addition, many listed companies such as Visa have begun to adopt stablecoins, and Tether's profits last year even surpassed BlackRock.
The business model of stablecoins earns interest by holding income assets such as government bonds, which makes it a bridge between traditional finance and the digital economy. Despite the price stability, investment opportunities still exist. Bitwise believes that with clear regulation and the participation of payment giants, stablecoins may become a substitute for money market funds. In addition, blockchains such as Ethereum have also benefited from the growth of stablecoins.
The report believes that stablecoins have great potential and investors should pay close attention to their development. At present, the total amount of liquid deposits in the United States is about 18 trillion US dollars, and the size of stablecoins is only 1% of this market. If stablecoins that pay interest are approved on a large scale in the future or the regulatory framework is clearer, the market share of stablecoins may increase significantly.
Binance will support Harmony (ONE) and VITE (VITE) network upgrades and hard forks
Binance will support network upgrades and hard forks for Harmony (ONE) and VITE (VITE). The Harmony (ONE) project plans to upgrade at block height 64,847,872, which is expected to be 21:00 on October 31, 2024, Beijing time. Binance will suspend ONE deposits and withdrawals at 20:00 on the same day. In addition, the VITE (VITE) project will upgrade the network at block height 166,869,900, which is expected to be 22:30 on October 31, 2024, Beijing time. Binance will suspend VITE deposits and withdrawals at 21:30 on the same day.
According to PeckShieldAlert, the hacker address in the Radiant Capital attack has bridged almost all of the stolen funds from the Arbitrum and BNB chains to the Ethereum network, totaling approximately 20,500 ETH, worth approximately US$52 million.
Base mainnet will introduce fault proof on October 30
According to the official announcement of Base, the Base mainnet will introduce fault proofs on October 30, marking an important step towards decentralization. After the introduction of this mechanism, anyone can monitor and challenge invalid withdrawal transactions without permission, eliminating the need for third-party trust. The Base team said that they have been working closely with Optimism to ensure that the fault proofs are successfully launched and upgraded safely. During the upgrade, all pending withdrawal transactions will need to be re-verified.
Financing News
According to The Block, Variational, a crypto derivatives trading protocol built on Ethereum Layer2 network Arbitrum, has raised $10.3 million in a seed round of financing. Bain Capital Crypto and Peak XV Partners (formerly Sequoia India and Southeast Asia) co-led the investment, with participation from Coinbase Ventures, Dragonfly Capital, North Island Ventures, Hack VC and other investors.
Web3 data and AI company Validation Cloud completes $10 million in new round of financing
According to PR Newswire, Web3 data and AI company Validation Cloud announced that it has received $10 million in financing from True Global Ventures. The company plans to use the funds to expand its AI products and achieve seamless access to Web3 data. According to reports, the company's product platform consists of three parts: staking, node API, and data and AI. In terms of staking, Validation Cloud's staked assets have exceeded $1 billion. Some of Validation Cloud's customers include Chainlink, Aptos, Consensys, Stellar, and Hedera. Earlier in February, Validation Cloud completed a $5.8 million financing led by Cadenza Ventures.
Web3 mobile gaming platform Party Icon completes $9 million seed round led by Bitkraft Ventures
According to The Block, Bitkraft Ventures led a $9 million seed round for Web3 mobile gaming platform Party Icons. This round of financing also included participation from IDG Capital and Sebastien Borget, co-founder of The Sandbox. The funds will be used to promote the development of Party Icons' games and social experiences and strengthen its Web3 infrastructure.
Jonathan Huang, partner at Bitkraft, said that the goal of Party Icons is to combine the social elements of party games with the tension of shooting games. Party Icons currently offers three different modes and hopes to become a platform for players to not only play games, but also a space for social interaction. Although crypto games have had difficulty entering the mainstream market in the past, investors continue to support Web3 game projects.
Shuttle Labs, a self-custodial digital trading company, announced that it has completed a $6 million seed round of financing, with participation from Anthony Scaramucci, CMCC Global, SALT Fund, Flow Traders and several former FTX employees. Shuttle Labs also announced the launch of the beta version of the self-custodial digital trading platform Genius, which aims to solve a series of problems that led to FTX's bankruptcy, such as security, user control and decentralization, and explore the use of the self-custodial model to eliminate the risks of third-party custody and ensure that users always hold their own private keys.
European digital asset platform STOKR completes $7.98 million in financing, led by Fulgur Ventures
According to The Block, European digital asset platform STOKR has completed a $7.98 million financing, and plans to use most of the funds to establish one of the first corporate Bitcoin reserves in Europe. This round of financing was led by Fulgur Ventures and included 100 bitcoins (about $6.78 million) and 1.2 million euros in cash (a total of 7.4 million euros).
STOKR said it will follow MicroStrategy's strategy and actively expand its Bitcoin reserve in the next few years. In addition, the company also plans to launch Bitcoin-based tokenized assets and develop institutional tokenization infrastructure on native Bitcoin Layer 2 technologies such as Liquid Network.
Mining News
According to The Block, Bitcoin mining company TeraWulf plans to raise $350 million by issuing convertible senior notes to support a $200 million stock repurchase plan. The company said that initial purchasers can choose to increase $75 million within 13 days after the issuance of the notes, which will expire on February 1, 2030, and the specific interest rate has not yet been disclosed. TeraWulf's board of directors has approved the repurchase of up to $200 million of common stock by December 31, 2025.
Earlier this month, TeraWulf announced that it had sold a 25% stake in the Nautilus facility for approximately $92 million . According to the latest operating data, the company mined a total of 176 bitcoins in September, 8 fewer than in August. Currently, TeraWulf is the world's fifth largest listed bitcoin mining company with a total market value of $2.44 billion.
Important data
Tesla (TSLA) did not sell its $763 million worth of Bitcoin holdings in the third quarter of 2024. According to the latest financial report, the company neither increased nor decreased its holdings. However, Tesla transferred its Bitcoin assets from public wallets for the first time this quarter, involving a total of $760 million. According to Arkham Intelligence data, Tesla made multiple large transfers, including the transfer of $75.18 million, $76.08 million and $77.16 million to anonymous wallets, respectively, without selling or converting to other crypto assets. Tesla has not further sold Bitcoin since reducing its holdings by 75% in the second quarter of 2022. In addition, Elon Musk's SpaceX also holds about $560 million in Bitcoin. The two companies have a total of about 19,788 Bitcoins with a total market value of about $1.3 billion.
According to Tesla's third-quarter 2024 financial report, the company's quarterly profit exceeded analysts' expectations, and it is expected that car deliveries this year will "increase slightly", causing the stock price of the world's largest electric car manufacturer to surge by more than 9% after the market. The financial report shows that Tesla's net profit in the third quarter was US$2.167 billion, which was expected to be US$1.78 billion, and the gross profit margin was 19.8%, higher than the expectation of 17.3%. Revenue increased by 8% to US$25.2 billion, slightly lower than the average expectation of US$25.4 billion. Tesla said: "Despite the continued deterioration of macroeconomic conditions, we expect car deliveries to increase slightly in 2024." In addition, Tesla's cost of sales per vehicle has dropped to an all-time low of about US$35,100. Tesla still expects cheap models to start production in the first half of 2025.
According to Arkham monitoring, last night, an address suspected to be related to the Ethereum Foundation (0xd7...c1f4) transferred 100 ETH to the CoW Protocol. Subsequently, the address received about 257,400 DAI from the CoW Protocol and transferred these DAI to the address starting with 0x9eE marked as "Ethereum Foundation" on the chain.
It is reported that since the beginning of this year, the suspected Ethereum Foundation address (0xd7...c1f4) has sold ETH for DAI through Cow Protocol almost every week or every two weeks, and the amount is generally 50, 100 and 200 ETH.
According to The Data Nerd, 5 hours ago, a whale (boby1337eth) deposited 1,000 ETH (about $2.55 million) into Binance. Within a week, the whale deposited a total of 11,320 ETH (about $29.57 million) into Binance. 2 hours ago, a wallet (likely belonging to imToken) also deposited 5,000 ETH (about $12.76 million) into HTX.
An address holding 150 Bitcoins was activated after being dormant for 13.3 years
According to Whale Alert monitoring, a Bitcoin address that has been dormant for 13.3 years has just been activated. The address holds 150 bitcoins, currently worth approximately US$10.03 million, while its value in 2011 was only US$2,540.
Nate Geraci, president of The ETF Store, posted on the X platform: “575 exchange-traded funds (ETFs) have been launched in the United States since 2024. 14 of the top 30 by inflows are Bitcoin or Ethereum spot ETFs, including 6 of the top 10. There are also 2 ETFs related to MSTR (a company that holds a large amount of Bitcoin) in the top 30. The traditional financial industry’s interest in cryptocurrencies is real.”
GOAT's market value exceeded $800 million, and its price rose 43.12% in 24 hours
The market data shows that the market value of AI concept Meme coin GOAT has exceeded US$800 million. The token price is currently at US$0.8021, with a 24-hour increase of 43.12%.
Data: Bitcoin spot ETFs had a total net inflow of $192 million yesterday
Data: Ethereum spot ETF had a total net inflow of $1.2663 million yesterday
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