Today's Headline Highlights:
- US judge rules that Zhao Changpeng must stay in the US before sentencing
- The Wall Street Journal: Do Kwon to be extradited to the US
- Fidelity's spot Bitcoin ETF included in DTCC active ETF and pre-issuance 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 and trading rebates
- Bitcoin staking project Babylon completes $18 million financing, led by Polychain Capital and Hack VC
- NFT series Mocaverse under Animoca Brands completes nearly $11.89 million financing, with participation from Dapper Labs, etc.
- Kazakhstan's regulatory agency blocked 980 unregistered cryptocurrency exchanges in 2023
Regulatory News
US judge rules that Zhao Changpeng must stay in the US before sentencing
According to Cointelegraph, Judge Richard Jones of the Seattle area court ruled that Binance founder Zhao Changpeng must stay in the US before his sentencing date in February next year, as he is unlikely to return to the US if allowed to go to the UAE. Judge Jones stated that Zhao Changpeng has substantial wealth and property overseas, unrelated to the US. His family resides in the UAE and enjoys preferential status there. In this situation, the court found that the defendant did not provide clear and convincing evidence that there is no risk of flight after returning to the UAE. Based on these reasons, the court approved the government's motion that the defendant should remain in the US during the plea to sentencing period.
The Wall Street Journal: Do Kwon to be extradited to the US
According to The Wall Street Journal, the highest judicial official in Montenegro privately stated that he plans to send TerraUSD-Luna founder Do Kwon to the US instead of South Korea to face criminal charges.
US National Defense Authorization Act does not include any crypto provisions
According to The Block, the US Congress released the final National Defense Authorization Act on Wednesday night, authorizing appropriations for defense-related activities. The bill does not include any cryptocurrency or blockchain provisions, delaying crypto legislation until next year. A previous crypto amendment required regulatory agencies to establish review standards for financial institutions engaged in crypto activities, and also required the Treasury Department to submit recommendations to Congress on crypto mixers. Another bill proposed the establishment of an independent task force to "combat terrorism and illegal financing." However, the National Defense Authorization Act did not include the above two bills.
El Salvador launches visa-free program, offering citizenship for investing $1 million in BTC or USDT
According to Cointelegraph, El Salvador has launched a new "investment for citizenship" program, offering residency visas and a path to citizenship for 1,000 individuals willing to invest $1 million in BTC or USDT in the country. Tether is providing technical support for El Salvador's visa-free program. The process requires a non-refundable deposit of $999 in the form of Bitcoin or USDT. If all slots are filled, it will raise $1 billion for El Salvador.
In a nearby Caribbean country, a similar citizenship by investment program starts at $100,000, while a pathway to citizenship in an EU country is priced slightly above $800,000. Alistair Milne, founder of the crypto hedge fund Altana Digital Money, commented that El Salvador's offering "is not competitive in the global market," emphasizing that EU citizenship can be obtained with less money.
NFT & AI
According to The Block, earlier this week, after the TON network introduced the Tonado protocol inspired by Bitcoin Ordinals and caused a surge in activity, the network's transaction processing experienced long delays. According to monitoring data from the blockchain status monitoring robot dTON, the issue began on Tuesday afternoon, and as of Thursday afternoon, there were over 2.5 million transactions waiting to be processed, reducing the transaction processing speed of the TON blockchain to less than 1 transaction per second. This situation has forced the TON cryptocurrency wallets Wallet and Tonkeeper to suspend services.
It is reported that Tonano is a protocol for creating blockchain inscriptions using the TON-20 token standard on the TON blockchain, but the protocol has had to stop minting activities.
Musk: Grok AI beta is now available to all ? Premium+ subscribers in the US
Musk tweeted, "Grok AI (beta) is now available to all ? Premium+ subscribers in the US. There will be many issues at first, but rapid improvements almost every day. It will expand to all English users in about a week. Japanese is the next priority (second largest user group), and then hopefully all languages by early 2024."
Project Updates
Binance's investment company withdraws Abu Dhabi license application
According to Reuters, a Binance spokesperson stated on Thursday that Binance's investment company BV Investment Management has withdrawn its license application from the Abu Dhabi financial regulatory authority. The regulatory agency's website shows that Binance submitted the application a year ago and withdrew it on November 7 this year. The license would have allowed a Binance subsidiary to manage a collective investment fund. The Binance spokesperson stated, "We determined that the application was unnecessary as we evaluate our global licensing needs. The decision to withdraw the license application is unrelated to the settlement with the US Department of Justice." They also mentioned that Binance will announce the location of its global headquarters "at the appropriate time," but declined to disclose further details. Additionally, Binance will continue to work with regulatory agencies to "provide world-class services and products in the Middle East and other regions."
Ethereum core developer timbeiko.eth summarized the 176th ACDE meeting in a tweet. Developers discussed the status of Dencun, the testnet timeline, and plans for the upcoming network upgrade. According to the meeting discussions, Devnet #12 was launched last week, with almost all clients running on it. Errors were found and fixed in several clients, including Reth and Lighthouse. Meanwhile, the development team is ready for a fork testnet and plans to conduct a large-scale Goerli shadow fork in the coming weeks. Developers unanimously agreed to set a Goerli fork date in early 2024 if things progress smoothly, with the goal of activating Dencun on the network in January. Additionally, the meeting briefly discussed the planning for the Prague/Electra network upgrade, with the two potential themes for the next upgrade being Verkle Tries on EL and DAS on CL, both of which require further "in-depth research." The last ACDE meeting of 2023 will be held on December 21 at 22:00 Beijing time.
LayerZero: Expected to Launch Native Token in the First Half of 2024
LayerZero Labs tweeted that LayerZero has always had the capability to use a native token in the protocol. After hearing community discussions on the matter over the past few months, it is now explicitly stated that the LayerZero token will be launched, expected to be realized in the first half of 2024.
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 a channel for 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 returns by lending out Bitcoin, targeting a return rate of 5%. The minimum investment amount is $250,000 with no upper limit. The investment term is three years, with a harvest period of four years and a total term of seven years. Capital will be returned to investors during the harvest period, so most capital may be returned before the seven years. The fund will charge a 2% management fee and a 20% carried interest, collected in Bitcoin. Anchorage Digital will serve as the fund's custodian.
Pando Asset Submits Updated Version of Bitcoin Spot ETF Application to 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. Earlier reports indicated that Pando Asset submitted a Bitcoin spot ETF application to the SEC last week. The ETF will trade on the Cboe BZX exchange, with Coinbase serving as the custodian. Bitcoin pricing will be based on CME's CF Bitcoin Reference Rate.
Fidelity's Spot Bitcoin ETF Included in DTCC Active ETF and Pre-Issuance List
Fidelity's spot Bitcoin ETF "FIDELITY WISE ORIGIN BITCOIN FD SHS" has been included in the Depository Trust & Clearing Corporation (DTCC) active ETF and pre-issuance list, with the trading code FBTC.
Asset management company VanEck tweeted 15 major predictions for the crypto industry in 2024. Specific predictions include: 1. The arrival of a US economic recession, but the first batch of Bitcoin spot ETFs will also be approved. In the first quarter of 2024, over $2.4 billion may flow into these ETFs to support the price of Bitcoin. 2. The fourth Bitcoin halving in 2024 will have minimal market disruption, with Bitcoin price rising after the halving, and some low-cost miners will profit significantly. 3. Bitcoin price will hit an all-time high in the fourth quarter of 2024, possibly driven by political events and regulatory changes after the US presidential election. 4. Ethereum will not surpass Bitcoin but will still outperform major tech stocks. Ethereum's market share will face challenges from other smart contract platforms. 5. After the implementation of EIP-4844, Ethereum L2 will capture most of the EVM-compatible TVL and transaction volume. 6. NFT activity will rebound to an all-time high, with Ethereum continuing to lead, and Bitcoin gaining appeal 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 position as the top spot trading platform, with competitors like OKX, Bybit, Coinbase, and Bitget vying for the lead, and Coinbase's futures market daily trading volume may exceed $1 billion. 8. The market value of stablecoins will exceed $200 billion, reaching a historical high. 9. DEX's market share in spot trading will reach a historical high. 10. Remittances will drive blockchain usage, and "Bitcoin staking" on the Lightning Network will provide yield opportunities through new, user-friendly staking tools. 11. A breakthrough blockchain game may have over 1 million daily players. 12. Solana is expected to rank in the top 3 in market value, TVL, and number of users. 13. DePin networks, especially Hivemapper and Helium, will see increased adoption. 14. New accounting standards will increase companies' cryptocurrency holdings. 15. KYC-compliant DeFi applications led by Uniswap may surpass non-KYC-compliant applications, attracting institutional trading volume and increasing protocol fees.
Jack Dorsey Further Ventures into Bitcoin with New Hardware Wallet Named 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 cryptocurrencies on a hardware device similar to a USB thumb drive. Wallet users 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.
Previously in June, Coinbase Pay will be integrated into Block's self-custody Bitcoin wallet Bitkey.
Thirdweb Vulnerability Due to Integration Issues with Two Independent OpenZeppelin Libraries
Security company Dedaub stated on X platform that the root cause of the Thirdweb vulnerability is the interaction issues that occurred when two independent OpenZeppelin libraries, ERC2771 and Multicall, were used together. This allowed for the deception of _msgSender(), leading to various access control issues, including fund loss.
Meanwhile, OpenZeppelin also disclosed the issue: "We publicly disclosed a critical vulnerability that arose from the integration of the standard ERC-2771 and self-delegation calls with user input data (including but not limited to multicalls). This issue poses significant risks of address deception attacks for projects that combine these patterns. The issue is caused by problematic integration patterns and is not specific to the implementation included in the OpenZeppelin Contracts library. Nevertheless, our team has been working diligently with the white-hat community to identify and notify potentially vulnerable projects."
Earlier on December 5th, Thirdweb stated that a commonly used open-source library had a security vulnerability, and contracts created on the platform before November 23rd must take mitigating measures. Later in the day, Scam Sniffer stated that 515 tokens were suspected to be affected by the Thirdweb-related vulnerability, with 3 tokens already exploited, resulting in approximately $218,000 in profits for the attackers. Attackers can utilize the Thirdweb-related vulnerability to call any function of ERC20 tokens. Velodrome stated that they temporarily disabled the Relay contract due to the Thirdweb-related vulnerability, but the core contracts were not affected.
According to official sources, the Kava 15 mainnet has been successfully launched, and starting from 8:00 on January 1, 2024, Beijing time, the inflation rate of the KAVA token will be permanently reduced to zero.
Social Protocol Stars Arena Renamed to The Arena, Domain Migration to Follow
Jason Desimone, the new CEO of Avalanche's social protocol Stars Arena, announced that "Stars Arena" has officially been renamed to "The Arena," and minor UI and product changes will be made in the coming days, along with a domain migration. Until the official announcement, the official website will still be "starsarena.com," and the project's X account has been changed to "The Arena," so users are advised to avoid fake accounts and phishing links.
Binance to Resume AEUR Spot Trading Tonight
Binance will resume AEUR/USDT, BTC/AEUR, ETH/AEUR, and EUR/AEUR spot trading pairs at 22:00 on December 8, 2023 (GMT+8).
Previously, Binance suspended related spot trading pairs due to a deviation in AEUR prices and disclosed that this was caused by some users not realizing that AEUR is a stablecoin, leading to a surge in short-term demand. They subsequently released a compensation plan for affected users due to the trading suspension.
Binance to Launch JTO 1-50x U-based Perpetual Contracts
According to the official announcement, Binance will launch JTO 1-50x U-based perpetual contracts at 18:00 on December 8, 2023 (GMT+8).
Worldcoin Developer TFH Plans to Raise Up to $50 Million by Selling WLD Tokens
San Francisco investment bank FT Partners is assisting with the fundraising. Two individuals familiar with the process indicated that the price of WLD tokens may be $1 per token, which is a significant discount from the current spot price of $2.50. However, another source emphasized that no terms have been finalized at this time.
Starknet Foundation Plans to Distribute 1.8 Billion Tokens as Rewards and Trading Rebates
The Starknet Foundation plans to distribute 1.8 billion tokens as user rewards and trading rebates, with specific details still being formulated. The foundation will hire various groups or "committees" to oversee the broader distribution of these tokens. A specific committee, the "Reserve Committee," will be responsible for rewarding users, including rewarding community members with tokens for their past and future contributions. In addition to rewards, the foundation also plans to provide "user rebates" to subsidize or refund trading fees. According to the foundation, a second committee will distribute 900 million tokens to pay for network users' transaction fees. Additionally, the 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."
Funding News
Bitcoin Staking Project Babylon Raises $18 Million, Led by Polychain Capital and Hack VC
According to CoinDesk, the Bitcoin-focused project Babylon raised $18 million in a round of funding led by Polychain Capital and Hack VC. Framework Ventures, Polygon Ventures, Castle Island Ventures, OKX Ventures, Finality Capital, Breyer Capital, and Symbolic Capital also participated in this funding round. Babylon stated that the project's goal is to convert all of the remaining 21 million BTC into decentralized staking assets, "building a decentralized world protected by Bitcoin." Currently, nearly 19.6 million BTC are in circulation. Babylon is set to launch its testnet in January 2024, with the protocol aiming to go live ideally during the next Bitcoin "halving."
According to Fortune, Bitcoin financial services company Swan announced today an expansion of its services, including venturing into Bitcoin-backed loans and other institutional products. In 2023, they raised $40 million for expansion efforts and an additional $125 million for their proprietary venture capital and private equity investments, totaling approximately $165 million. While Klippsten refused to disclose expenditure details, he stated that Swan's investments are primarily focused on the Bitcoin ecosystem.
Founder Cory Klippsten stated that Swan plans to raise another $150 million for expansion in 2024. With the push from advisory services and institutional asset management, Swan's revenue sources are rapidly expanding. According to Klippsten, Swan's annualized revenue in November was $125 million, and it is expected to surpass $200 million in the first quarter of next year.
ZK Infrastructure Platform Sindri Completes $5 Million Seed Round Financing, Led by Coinfund
According to The Block, the zero-knowledge proof infrastructure platform Sindri completed a $5 million seed round financing led by Coinfund. Sindri will use the new funds to expand its team, grow its developer network, and build a comprehensive zero-knowledge-based developer stack. Previously, the project raised $2 million in pre-seed financing in June 2022.
According to the official blog, Animoca Brands' NFT series Mocaverse announced the completion of a new round of financing totaling $11,888,888, with participation from Block 1, OKX Ventures, Foresight Ventures, Polygon Ventures, Dapper Labs, and others. The total amount raised by Mocaverse now stands at $31.88 million (the previous round was $20 million). In these two rounds of financing, Animoca Brands raised funds by issuing new common shares at a price of $4.50 Australian dollars per share. The new funds will be used to drive Mocaverse in establishing digital identities and scoring systems for Web3 games, culture, and entertainment.
Key Data
TVL of L2 Network Blast Surpasses $800 Million
Data from DeBank shows that the address of the Layer 2 network Blast, launched by Blur founder Pacman, currently holds assets worth over $800 million, reaching $809 million. This includes approximately $716 million worth of ETH deposited in the Lido protocol and $93.13 million of assets deposited in the Maker protocol, with around $160,000 in the wallet.
Binance Research released a report summarizing the "10 Most Notable Narratives": 1. The total market value of cryptocurrencies has increased by approximately 110% year-to-date, indicating a capital increase of over $870 billion. So far, the market has risen by 55% in the fourth quarter (approximately $59.6 billion). 2. Stablecoin supply is recovering, with the net change in the supply of the top five stablecoins turning positive for the first time since the first quarter of 2022. 3. NFT trading volume has broken an 8-month downtrend, with a nearly 200% month-over-month increase in November. Bitcoin is the most popular chain, with NFT trading volume exceeding $375 million, even surpassing Ethereum NFTs ($348 million). 4. In November, fees for the top 20 crypto projects increased by approximately 84% compared to October and about 100% compared to September. DeFi TVL also increased, with a month-over-month increase of 18% in DeFi dominance. 5. Bitcoin Ordinals and BRC-20 sparked interest again in November, and the news about a Bitcoin spot ETF looks optimistic, with market expectations for approval in January, and the Bitcoin halving in April is another important milestone to watch. 6. Recently, the performance of Layer 1 on many other chains has surpassed Ethereum, with notable progress in Solana and Toncoin. 7. SocialFi has seen new protocols such as friend.tech, as well as updates from Farcaster, Lens, and Binance Square. 8. Real-world assets (RWA) are becoming increasingly important, currently accounting for over 49% of assets on the MakerDAO balance sheet; Chainlink also hopes to establish closer connections between TradFi, RWA, and cryptocurrencies through its new CCIP solution. 9. Zero-knowledge technology is taking off, with various ZK-rollup releases and increased work and discussions around ZK processors. 10. U.S. interest rates are at their highest in 22 years, with market expectations for a rate cut next year.
A Whale Deposits 1449 BTC, Equivalent to $62.9 Million, into Binance
According to Lookonchain monitoring, a whale deposited 1449 BTC (approximately $62.9 million) into Binance 50 minutes ago. They currently hold 1455 BTC (approximately $63.16 million), with an estimated total profit of $65 million. The last time this whale sold BTC was on April 16, during a peak in prices.
Kazakhstan Regulatory Agency Blocks 980 Unregistered Cryptocurrency Exchanges in 2023
Ruslan Ostroumov, Chairman of the Kazakhstan Financial Monitoring Agency (AFM), stated at the Eurasian Group on Combating Money Laundering and Financing of Terrorism that the AFM blocked 980 unregistered cryptocurrency exchanges that were providing services to the country's citizens without proper registration in 2023. It also initiated 9 investigations into "illegal trading operations" and money laundering activities.
PANews APP Points Mall Officially Launched
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