Today's Headlines:
- US Appeals Court Officially Seizes Bitcoin Related to Silk Road Dark Web Market
- British Virgin Islands Court Orders Freeze of Three Arrows Capital Co-Founder's $1.144 Billion in Global Assets
- BlackRock's Spot Bitcoin ETF Approval Seen as Key Priority for the Company
- Teneo Expects 3AC Creditors to Recover 45.74% of Their Claims, Plans First Distribution in Q1 Next Year
- Ledger: Blind Signing with Ledger Devices No Longer Allowed Before June 2024
- Solana Surpasses XRP as the Fifth Largest Cryptocurrency by Market Cap Driven by MEME Token
- Sources: Anthropic in Talks to Raise $750 Million in a Round of Financing Led by Menlo Ventures
- Data: Over the Past Few Weeks, 95% of the Transaction Activity on Major EVM Chains is for Inscriptions
Regulatory News
US Appeals Court Officially Seizes Bitcoin Related to Silk Road Dark Web Market
According to The Block, the US Appeals Court on Wednesday officially confirmed an authorization to seize 69,370 bitcoins and other cryptocurrencies related to the Silk Road dark web market. The judgment was originally made in August, but according to a document from the US Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals, the judgment will now take effect. The Wednesday filing lists Silk Road founder Ross Ulbricht as the defendant, with two claimants and the US government as plaintiffs.
According to Bloomberg, Teneo, the liquidator of Three Arrows Capital, stated in an email that the British Virgin Islands court issued an order freezing about $1 billion in assets belonging to the company's co-founder. The order prohibits co-founders Su Zhu and Kyle Davies, as well as Davies's wife Kelly Chen, from transferring or selling assets worth up to $1.144 billion. Teneo added that creditors are owed about $3.3 billion.
The US Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC) recently proposed strengthening reporting requirements for swap dealers (SD) in commodity swap transactions to obtain high-quality swap data to identify granular risks. Specific measures include: requiring unique product identifiers for commodity swaps; requiring reporting of specific customer data for products and risk exposures; and requiring reporting of cryptocurrency-related data. CFTC Commissioner Christy Goldsmith Romero stated that accurate, timely, and high-quality swap data is crucial for enhancing market transparency and avoiding systemic risks, and this move helps prevent financial risks and promote financial stability.
Grayscale Meets Again with US SEC on Details of Converting Bitcoin Spot ETF
According to Bloomberg analyst James Seyffart's tweet, based on publicly available regulatory memorandum documents, Grayscale met again with the US Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) Market Surveillance and Trading and Markets divisions on December 19 to discuss the details of converting GBTC to a Bitcoin spot ETF.
According to CoinDesk, US Federal Judge Lewis Kaplan rejected SBF's request to extend the sentencing process and postpone the meeting with the US Probation and Pretrial Services for four to six weeks. SBF's lawyers requested the extension this Wednesday, stating that the US Department of Justice may have a retrial on March 11 for bank fraud and conspiracy charges related to overseas corruption. The judge rejected the motion, stating that the defense did not raise objections when the sentencing hearing date was initially set. If the Department of Justice does decide to have a retrial on additional charges, the sentencing may be postponed.
AI
Sources: Anthropic in Talks to Raise $750 Million in a Round of Financing Led by Menlo Ventures According to The Information, two sources revealed that artificial intelligence company Anthropic is in talks to raise $750 million in a round of venture capital financing led by Menlo Ventures. Excluding this investment, the two-year-old AI startup is valued at $15 billion, more than triple its valuation in the spring of this year. The final terms of this round of investment have not been confirmed. According to a third source, the final price may reach as high as $18 billion.
Project Updates
Teneo Expects 3AC Creditors to Recover 45.74% of Their Claims, Plans First Distribution in Q1 Next Year According to The Block, Teneo, the liquidator of Three Arrows Capital, expects creditors to recover 45.74% of their claims and plans to make the first distribution in the first quarter of next year. Teneo's joint liquidators Russell Crumpler and Christopher Farmer stated that as of December 18, the company's assets were valued at $1.16 billion, and the estimated value of claims to be recognized for distribution is $2.7 billion.
Teneo has indicated that it has resolved lawsuits against multiple parties such as DCG, Genesis, and BlockFi, resulting in an increase of approximately $292 million in the company's reported assets. The settlement with BlockFi is still pending approval. The report states that 154 claims have been filed against the 3AC estate, with a total value of $3.4 billion. It notes that $200 million in claims have not been approved for distribution, while $322 million in claims have been rejected or are expected to be rejected. There are disputed claims worth $76 million.
According to the asset details, the majority of the assets controlled by the liquidator are illiquid tokens, accounting for 82% of the assets, and these assets will unlock over the next three years. Illiquid tokens include 13 different tokens, with a total value of $563 million at current prices. The liquidator typically converts liquid tokens and NFTs into fiat currency. So far, in addition to NFTs worth $15 million, liquid tokens worth $34.5 million have been sold. Combined with other asset sales, the liquidator has realized $66 million. Additionally, a British Virgin Islands court has frozen assets worth up to $1.1 billion involving 3AC co-founders Su Zhu and Kyle Davies, as well as Davies's wife Kelly Chen. Legal fees during the bankruptcy proceedings amount to $49.7 million.
Trustless Labs Launches $10 Million Bitcoin Ecosystem Phase One Fund
Research-driven Web3 incubator Trustless Labs has announced the launch of a $10 million Bitcoin ecosystem phase one fund. This is a significant incubator program dedicated to promoting innovation and development within the Bitcoin ecosystem. The fund will focus on supporting projects such as BRC20, Atomicals, inscriptions, and Runes, further strengthening and enriching the applications and functionalities of the Bitcoin network.
Pantera Capital Partner Releases 6 Major Predictions for the Crypto Industry in 2024
According to Coindesk, Pantera Capital partner Paul Veradettakit has released 6 major predictions for the crypto industry in 2024, including: 1. The revival of Bitcoin and "DeFi Summer 2.0"; 2. Tokenization of new consumer use cases for social experiences; 3. Increased bridges between stablecoins, mirrored assets, and TradFi-DeFi; 4. Integration of modular blockchains with zero-knowledge proofs; 5. More compute-intensive applications on-chain, such as AI and DePIN; 6. Integration of public chain ecosystems and the "central radiation" model of application chains.
BlackRock's Spot Bitcoin ETF Approval Seen as Key Priority for the Company
According to Fox Business, the world's largest asset management company, BlackRock, has obtained SEC approval for its spot Bitcoin ETF as a key priority for the company. BlackRock's founder and CEO Larry Fink referred to Bitcoin as an "international asset" and a "store of value" comparable to the long-term status of gold.
It is reported that BlackRock has over 400 traditional ETFs in the market and has met with the SEC five times regarding its spot Bitcoin ETF application, with the most recent meeting taking place on Tuesday.
Ledger: Blind Signing with Ledger Devices No Longer Allowed Before June 2024
Ledger announced on Twitter the follow-up actions from last week's security incident. Ledger stated that approximately $600,000 in assets were affected due to users' blind signing incidents on EVM DApps. Ledger pledged to ensure that affected victims are compensated and is collaborating with the DApp ecosystem to promote Clear Signing, which is expected to no longer allow blind signing through Ledger devices by June 2024.
In addition, Ledger's CEO and Chairman pledged to ensure full compensation for the assets of victims of the attack on December 14, 2023, including non-Ledger customers. The company plans to achieve this goal by the end of February 2024 through various possible means, including goodwill gestures. Ledger also reminded users that the best security practice is to revoke any authorized transactions on DApps affected on December 14, 2023, to further reduce the impact of malicious code.
To prevent front-end attacks, Ledger will work with the community and the DApp ecosystem to promote Clear Signing, allowing users to verify all transactions on Ledger devices before signing. The company also invited DApp developers to support the Clear Signing security module and collaborate with Ledger to add Clear Signing to their DApps through their developer portal or Discord. Ledger also published a Ledger Connect Kit incident report on its technical and security blog, detailing the reasons for the hack and the security team's response.
Cross-Chain Liquidity Protocol Chainge Finance Acquired by Coded Fi, Trading Valued at $47 Million
According to Coinpedia, Coded Fi Ltd has successfully acquired the cross-chain liquidity protocol Chainge Finance, with the trading valued at $47 million. Subsequently, Dejun Qian, Najam Kidway, and Mike Lempres have joined the board of Coded Fi Ltd. Najam Kidwai is the managing partner of C1 Holdings for Crypto 1 ETF, which focuses on company investments in the global digital asset space and has investment layouts in Silicon Valley and the UAE. Mike Lempres has served as the chairman of Silvergate Bank's board, an executive at A16Z, and as Chief Legal and Risk Officer at Coinbase. Dejun Qian is a well-known figure in the decentralized finance industry, and the addition of these three individuals will lay the foundation for the development and future achievements of Coded Fi.
Lending Protocol Solend to Expand Business to Public Chain Sui through Launching New Project
Solana's ecosystem lending protocol Solend announced on X platform that it is expanding its business to the public chain Sui through the launch of a new project called Suilend. The public chain Sui stated that this new integration marks the first deployment of Solend on a blockchain other than Solana.
Synthetix Officially Ends SNX Token Inflation
Decentralized derivatives protocol Synthetix stated on X platform that, according to SIP-2043, investors will no longer receive new inflation rewards starting today. However, users may still notice rolling SNX rewards that are claimable. These are just unclaimed rolling rewards.
According to reports, SIP-2043 aims to end SNX inflation, and the proposal to end inflation means a redistribution of rights between SNX stakers and regular holders. The inflation incentive for SNX staking will disappear, and the rights of regular holders will no longer be continuously weakened by inflation.
Web3 security firm Wallet Guard has stated that Google has released an emergency update for a new zero-day vulnerability (CVE-2023-7024), advising users to update the Chrome browser promptly (including Brave, Opera, and Edge).
Coinbase researchers: Launch of a US spot Bitcoin ETF may lead to two potential risks
According to Cointelegraph, Coinbase's Institutional Research Director David Duong and Senior Sales Trader Greg Sutton stated in a podcast on December 19 that the launch of a spot Bitcoin ETF in the US may lead to a "regulated" Bitcoin shortage. Once these ETFs start trading, two key risks may arise: the first risk is that the launch of a spot Bitcoin ETF may pose problems for institutions purchasing BTC, as issuers need to buy enough Bitcoin to hold in the ETF; the second risk involves a more popular institutional trading strategy, known as "basis trade," which refers to exploiting the price difference between Bitcoin spot prices and Bitcoin futures contracts.
According to Velo's data, the potential profit of basis trading has surged by 20% in the past two weeks due to a significant increase in trading volume for Bitcoin spot and futures contracts. However, as institutional investors increasingly directly invest in Bitcoin (through spot ETF products), the basis will narrow, significantly reducing the profitability of trading.
DWF Labs co-founder: Institutional OTC trading platform DWF Liquid Markets to launch in January 2024
DWF Labs co-founder Andrei Grachev posted that the institutional OTC/RFQ (over-the-counter/request for quote) trading platform DWF Liquid Markets will launch in January 2024. According to Grachev's previous introduction, DWF Liquid Markets is an institutional OTC/RFQ platform with no counterparty/platform risk and supports instant settlement.
Blockfence issued a reminder that due to actively exploited security vulnerabilities, Apple has released emergency updates for macOS, iOS, iPadOS, tvOS, and watchOS. Users are advised to update to the following versions as soon as possible: iOS 17.2.1, iPadOS 17.2, macOS 14.2.1, tvOS 17.2, watchOS 10.2.
Funding News
Web3 tax service company Tres Finance completes $11 million Series A funding
According to The Block, Tres Finance, which focuses on providing tax and other financial services to Web3 companies, raised $11 million in its Series A funding round. This round of funding was led by Lightspeed's new fund Faction, with participation from New Form, Boldstart Ventures, Cyber Fund, and Ambush Capital. This funding round brings Tres' total funding to $18.6 million.
Tres provides accounting, auditing, reporting, and other financial services, supporting over 100 first and second-layer blockchains, including Bitcoin, Ethereum, Solana, and Avalanche, with plans to add support for more blockchains in the future. Tres plans to use this funding to drive the company's growth, aiming to expand its customer base in the US, EU, and Asia-Pacific by 300% within a year.
According to DailyPharm, blockchain-based decentralized patient network Humanscape has completed a 20 billion Korean won (approximately $15.34 million) Series C extension funding, with participation from the Korea Development Bank, Hanwha Investment & Securities, and Hanwha Investment & Securities Ventures. With this completed funding round, Humanscape's total amount raised in the Series C funding has reached 40 billion Korean won (approximately $30.69 million), increasing the total funding to 75 billion Korean won (approximately $57.54 million). Earlier this year in May, Humanscape completed a 20 billion Korean won Series C funding.
It is reported that Humanscape is a blockchain-based decentralized patient network. Humanscape can help patients overcome diseases through community-based intellectual and emotional interactions. The ownership of patient-generated health data (PGHD) on the platform belongs entirely to the patients.
Key Data
According to CoinDesk, data shows that Solana (SOL) has surpassed XRP to become the fifth largest cryptocurrency by market cap, reaching $35.1 billion, hitting a 20-month high. This week, driven by asset price increases and continued inflows into DeFi protocols, Solana's total value locked (TVL) has surpassed $1 billion for the first time since the FTX crash in November last year.
Trading volume on Solana's DEX has increased. On December 15, Orca's trading volume reached $746 million, surpassing $100 million only before November. Most of the increased activity can be attributed to MEME tokens such as Bonk, which currently has a market cap of over $1.2 billion. SOL's current trading price is $82.56, with a 24-hour increase of 11.8%.
Earlier news, Solana's DEX daily trading volume exceeds $1.2 billion, the second time in history surpassing Ethereum; later news, SOL's trading volume on Upbit has been higher than ETH's for 55 consecutive days.
Etherscan tweeted that 95% of the transaction activity on major EVM chains in the past few weeks is related to Inscription activities. Since mid-November, Inscription has been frequently created on EVM chains, leading to a significant increase in daily transaction volume, soaring gas fees, and longer transaction processing times. To some extent, the Inscription phenomenon can be seen as a good stress test for blockchain and infrastructure providers to evaluate their limitations.
Market: BTC breaks $44,000 again
Market data shows that after ten days, the price of BTC has once again broken through $44,000, currently at $44,060 per coin, with a daily increase of 3.8%.
According to Bloomberg, data from the US Senate Public Records Office shows that lobbying activities related to stablecoins surged in the first three quarters of 2023, with 161 lobbying disclosure reports mentioning stablecoin legislation or regulation, a 79% increase from the first three quarters of 2022 (90 reports). Tether's lobbying expenses have risen to $760,000, roughly double the amount from the same period last year. Circle's lobbying expenses amount to $300,000. A spokesperson for Tether stated that the company is focused on shaping future digital asset policies through education and ongoing discussions with policymakers and regulators. In addition, a significant portion of Coinbase's lobbying expenses of over $2 million in the first 9 months of this year was allocated to stablecoins. Traditional financial companies such as US Bank and Visa have also lobbied on this issue, as has the US Chamber of Commerce.
PANews APP Points Mall Officially Launched
Free exchange for hardcore prizes: imKeyPro hardware wallet, First Class Cabin Research Report Monthly Card, Ballet REAL series wallet, AICoin membership, various peripherals, and hundreds of selected research report collections. First come, first served, experience now!
免责声明：本文章仅代表作者个人观点，不代表本平台的立场和观点。本文章仅供信息分享，不构成对任何人的任何投资建议。用户与作者之间的任何争议，与本平台无关。如网页中刊载的文章或图片涉及侵权，请提供相关的权利证明和身份证明发送邮件到support@aicoin.com，本平台相关工作人员将会进行核查。
