Compiled by: Luan Peng, ChainCatcher
“What important events happened this week (August 26-September 1)?”
1. The EU investigates Telegram on the number of users
Brussels is investigating whether Telegram broke EU digital rules by failing to provide accurate user numbers, the Financial Times reported, as officials push to bring the controversial messaging app under stricter regulation.
EU legal and data experts suspect the app has underreported its user numbers in the EU to stay below the 45 million threshold above which large online platforms become subject to a raft of Brussels regulations aimed at limiting their influence.
The EU investigation runs parallel to a broad French probe into alleged criminal activity on Telegram, which led to the arrest of its founder, Russian-born billionaire Pavel Durov, on Saturday. A magistrate will decide on Wednesday evening whether to bring charges or release him.
Telegram said Durov, who now holds French and Emirati citizenship, had "nothing to hide".
Telegram said in February that it had 41 million users in the EU. Under the EU’s Digital Services Act (DSA), Telegram was supposed to provide updated figures this month, but it did not, announcing only that its “average number of monthly active users in the EU is well below 45 million.”
Two EU officials said the failure to provide new data put Telegram in violation of the DSA, adding that an EU investigation might find the real figure was higher than the threshold set for "very large online platforms".
Such a designation brings with it greater compliance and content review obligations, third-party audits, and mandatory data sharing with the European Commission.
2. OKX Star responds to the issue of lending mechanism: When the loan amount exceeds the deposit amount, the platform's automatic currency exchange mechanism will be triggered
OKX CEO Star responded to questions about OKX's lending mechanism on the X platform.
It said:
1. OKX current mortgage loan is a C2C market between users. OKX only provides a platform to help users who need to borrow and earn coins match each other.
2. 100% reserve is a basic responsibility of OKX. When the loan amount exceeds the deposit amount, the platform's automatic currency exchange mechanism will be triggered due to the 100% reserve requirement.
3. OKX has set a limit on the maximum loan amount, which is not allowed to exceed 100%
4. Due to the market activity of Floki currency, a large number of depositors redeemed their currency, causing the loan amount to exceed 100%, which in turn triggered the automatic currency exchange.
5. The OKX team will review the underlying design mechanism of the mortgage lending platform to see if there are any optimization solutions. We welcome your comments.
3. Crypto fraud gang was arrested for defrauding 16 billion won. The suspect evaded tracking by plastic surgery and wigs
A South Korean criminal gang that defrauded about 16 billion won (about 11.96 million U.S. dollars) from more than 150 victims was arrested by police. To avoid police tracking, these people underwent plastic surgery such as facial contouring surgery and wore wigs.
From November 2021 to June 2022, the Financial Crime Investigation Team of the Urban Investigation Department of the Seoul Metropolitan Police Agency defrauded 158 victims and collected approximately 16 billion won from the victims. The leader of the gang, A, who embezzled approximately 4.5 billion won, was arrested on suspicion of fraud, violation of the Quasi-receipt Act, and violation of the Electronics Act.
A used a variety of means to escape. He had double eyelid, nose, and facial contour surgery worth about 21 million won and wore a wig. A also frequently changed his residence with the help of acquaintances and used a fake mobile phone and fake bank account. The police seized and confiscated 100 million won from the hiding place where A was arrested, and seized 1.3 billion won in assets from A and others before prosecution.
4. Trump: The U.S. Department of Justice violated its policies and interfered with the election
Trump tweeted: "DOJ policy states that the DOJ should not take any action that could affect the election within 60 days of the election - but they just did such an action. Voting begins on September 6th, so the DOJ violated its own policy, which is election interference. All of these Kamala or Biden's 'hoaxes' should be undone immediately."
5. US State Department: About 40% of North Korea’s weapons of mass destruction development funds were obtained through theft of virtual assets
Seth Bailey, the U.S. State Department's special deputy representative for North Korea, said at the "South Korea-U.S. Joint Civilian Seminar on Preventing North Korean Virtual Asset Money Laundering" that the theft of virtual currencies is a relatively new source of income for North Korea. It is estimated that more than 40% of the funds used by North Korea for weapons of mass destruction (WMD) and ballistic missile development projects are raised through virtual currencies.
Bailey cited a report from blockchain research firm TRM Labs, pointing out that about one-third of virtual asset thefts worldwide last year were carried out by North Korean hackers, and the amount of theft is expected to increase further this year.
“We are working closely with like-minded countries like South Korea and Japan to develop government policies and procedures that will have a direct impact on North Korean behavior,” Bailey stressed.
6. UAE Investment Company plans to launch a $500 million fund to invest in blockchain, DePIN and other fields
According to Bitcoin.com, UAE-based investment companies Hodler Investments and Gewan Holding plan to launch a $500 million Digital Energy Infrastructure (DEI) fund. The fund aims to invest in energy infrastructure projects that support the growth of the digital economy, including power generation, data mining, blockchain, decentralized physical infrastructure, and artificial intelligence. It will also support startups and software development related to these areas.
The fund, which has so far received soft commitments from anchor investors, in-kind contributions and offtake partners, seeks energy and connectivity for artificial intelligence (AI) and digital asset mining operations, according to a statement.
7. Yang Bin, once the second richest man in China, was sentenced to six years in prison in Singapore for a crypto Ponzi scheme
According to Bitcoinist, Yang Bin, once the second richest person in China, has been sentenced to six years in a Singapore prison for running a multi-million dollar Ponzi scheme disguised as a cryptocurrency investment business.
On August 26, Yang, a 61-year-old Chinese-Dutch national, pleaded guilty to eight charges, including conspiracy to engage in a fraudulent scheme and operating without a valid work permit, and was fined S$16,000 (US$12,200).
According to local media reports, Yang Bin carried out fraudulent activities under the name of A&A Blockchain Innovation, attracting more than 700 investors who invested S$6.7 million between May 2021 and February 2022 but lost about S$1.1 million.
The company claimed to have 300,000 cryptocurrency mining machines that could generate a 0.5% return to investors every day. However, no such machines actually existed. Instead, Yang Bin used funds from new investors to pay returns to early investors, a hallmark of a Ponzi scheme.
It is reported that in 2001, Yang Bin was ranked the second richest person in China by Forbes magazine in the United States, and was regarded as a trend-setter in the wave of China's economic take-off and a model of getting rich quickly. In 2003, he was sentenced to 18 years in prison by a Chinese court for tax evasion and was released in 2016 after serving his sentence.
8. South Korean crypto exchange Aprobit announced its closure and will stop trading on September 23
South Korean crypto exchange Aprobit has announced its closure and will stop trading on September 23, with withdrawals available until December 23.
Aprobit said: “Due to changes in the business environment, we have decided to terminate trading support, and we will do our best to ensure that all users will not experience any inconvenience in returning the assets they deposited on the exchange even after the trading support ends.”
It is reported that only half of the 22 crypto market exchanges registered as virtual asset operators in South Korea are currently operating.
9. Vitalik: Support RWA and hope to see them more diversified on the chain
Ethereum co-founder Vitalik said in a post on X: “I support RWAs, and I hope to see them more diversified on the chain so that applications can use them without being affected by the systemic risks of a single issuer or asset class.”
10. El Salvador’s president admits Bitcoin adoption is insufficient and the Bitcoin experiment did not go entirely as planned
According to Decrypt, El Salvador’s President Nayib Bukele has now admitted that his Bitcoin experiment didn’t go entirely as planned.
"Bitcoin has not yet achieved the widespread adoption we would like," said Nayib Bukele. "Many Salvadorans use it, and most of the big businesses in the country accept it. You can pay with Bitcoin at McDonalds, supermarkets or hotels. But it has not achieved the level of adoption we would like. The positive thing is that it is voluntary; we have never forced anyone to adopt it. We have offered it as a choice, and those who have chosen to use it have benefited from the rise in Bitcoin."
"What are some interesting articles worth reading this week (August 26-September 1)"
1. Interviews with 18 insiders, a 10,000-word article reveals the rise and fall of OpenSea and the SEC dispute
The rise and fall of NFTs tells the story of the rise and fall of OpenSea, once the largest NFT trading market. This article interviewed 18 company insiders before the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) issued a Wells notice to Opensea, and used 10,000 words to reveal OpenSea's chaotic working environment, internal and external troubles, and cat-and-mouse games with regulators. After reading this article, you will believe that NFTs will not die with OpenSea.
2. Why did SOON, invested by the Chairman of the Solana Foundation and others, choose to build SVM Rollup?
SOON (Solana Optimistic Network) is a general Ethereum Layer 2 that will be launched on the mainnet soon. It is worth mentioning that SOON will use tokens to incentivize new developers (especially those in the Asia-Pacific region) who develop on SVM.
3. Will BTCFi become the biggest outlet in the second half of the year? Detailed explanation of Babylon Ecosystem Re-Pledge Agreement Lombard
Currently, Lombard is implementing a phased launch strategy, LBTC will be launched on the Ethereum mainnet, and the next step is to expand LBTC to Ethereum L2, and eventually to the innovative Bitcoin L2 and next-generation blockchain networks.
4. A quick look at Sorella, the Ethereum MEV tool led by Paradigm
MEV (Maximum Extractable Value) refers to the additional value that miners or validators obtain by manipulating the order and selection of transactions. In simple terms, MEV reflects the additional profit that miners obtain by adjusting the order of transactions. With the increasing popularity of smart contract platforms such as Ethereum, MEV has gradually become an important research area, promoting the development of multiple new solutions and protocols aimed at reducing its negative impact on users.
Recently, Sorella Labs, a crypto startup that aims to solve the Ethereum MEV problem, announced a $7.5 million seed financing led by Paradigm, with participation from Uniswap Ventures, Bankless Ventures, Robot Ventures and Nascent. However, this round of financing was completed in September last year. At the same time as announcing the financing, Sorella Labs also announced the launch of its product Brontes. In addition, another tool under development, Angstrom, is expected to be released later this year after Uniswap V4 goes online on the mainnet.
5. Behind MakerDAO’s name change to Sky, is scale more important than decentralization?
Yesterday, the Maker Protocol announced that its brand name would be upgraded to Sky, and the Maker ecosystem also ushered in a major change.
The decentralized stablecoin Dai (DAI) will be upgraded to USDS at a ratio of 1:1, and the native governance token MKR will be upgraded to SKY at a ratio of 1:24,000. Maker SubDAO will be renamed Sky Stars.
This is not a simple name change, but a major change of strategic direction.
Rune Christensen, co-founder of Sky (formerly Maker), said that the rebranding is an important step in leading the "next evolution of DeFi", aiming to increase access to the protocol, focus more on building ease of use, and help attract more mainstream users from centralized exchanges.
But after the upgrade, Spark Protocol CEO Sam MacPherson said that USDS introduced a freezing function. Sky's official website also added a new function to prohibit the use of VPN login.
Many crypto users question whether Sky is deviating from its decentralization goal.
@Lumbergdoteth of PleasrDAO posted on X: “DAI is currently migrating to USDS, a censorable stablecoin that goes against its original vision. RIP DAI, 2017-2024.”
@Oxngmi of DefiLlama also posted: “Rip, looks like the rebranding maker introduced a vpn blocker (which makerdao.com won’t block).
6. Supporting the founder of Telegram, Musk’s long-term and short-term concerns
The arrest of Telegram founder Pavel Duro in Paris on the evening of August 24 (local time in France) has attracted widespread attention from the market in recent days, triggering discussions among many well-known figures from the investment, business and political circles, including Tesla founder Elon Musk, Sequoia Capital partner Shaun Maguire, Ethereum founder Vitalik Buterin and other celebrities who have expressed their support.
The keywords of the support are mostly focused on "EU" and "freedom of speech". Elon Musk has made several statements on X about the arrest of Pavel Durov. Nigel Farage, leader of the British Reform Party and MP for Clacton, commented on X: "The arrest of Pavel Durov is worrying. Telegram is a safe application for free speech. Maybe there are some bad guys on it, but there are bad guys on any platform. What will happen next...Elon Musk's arrest?"
Elon Musk's support for Pavel Duro may be a manifestation of the fact that the lips and teeth are in danger. When Elon Musk first acquired Twitter (the predecessor of X) for $44 billion, he claimed to be a "free speech" advocate and criticized the US government and the European Union for "non-free speech" on many occasions.
In December 2023, the Commission initiated formal proceedings against X to assess whether X may have violated the Digital Services Act (DSA) in areas related to risk management, content review, dark mode, advertising transparency, and researcher data access, and notified X of its violation of the DSA on July 12 this year.
With the arrest of Telegram's founder, a new debate has begun among all parties regarding freedom of speech on the Internet.
As the owner of X, Musk, who is unwilling to cooperate with EU regulation, obviously has greater concerns.
Arrests like this one set a dangerous precedent for social media leaders. The European Union and U.S. governments have subpoenaed and questioned leaders of other social media companies, but few leaders of big tech companies have been arrested over what happens on those sites.
7. Gavin Wood: How to prevent witch attacks and conduct effective airdrops?
Gavin has been paying attention to the issue of civil resistance recently. PolkaWorld reviewed Dr. Gavin Wood’s keynote speech at Polkadot Decoded 2024 and wanted to explore some of Gavin’s insights on how to prevent civil resistance.
8. Vitalik’s thoughts on the DeFi debate: The communication gap between 1% developers and 90% traders
This post is divided into three parts:
1. The importance of proper communication, both with regular users and partners. The introduction uses a general example and sets the context for the topic.
2. 1-9-90: The second part discusses the 1-9-90 guidelines and my interpretation of them. This can be widely applied to any community self-starter.
3. The difficulty of maintaining consistent communication in large groups, and the potential situation where it may no longer be needed at a later stage (today’s Ethereum). You can think of the third section as a compelling overview of the Ethereum debates of the past week, which are part of the same question. Does 1-9-90 apply to Ethereum? is one of the questions discussed in this section.
9. Matt Levine, former vice president of Goldman Sachs: How can stablecoins solve the problem of bank runs?
In the future, as financial markets become more digital and transparent, traditional banks may face similar challenges. Banks’ asset risks and market confidence may be more directly reflected in market prices than they are now, rather than relying on the guarantee mechanism within the banking system.
10. Analysis of on-chain data at the end of August: Is a big fluctuation coming?
Currently, market speculation in Bitcoin is relatively low—not only have investors been able to lock in only slim margins in recent days, but the perpetual swap market has also returned to a state of calm. But historically, such calms are temporary and often portend greater volatility in the future.
