● The overall US CPI remained unchanged, while the core CPI continued to decline
According to Jinshi, the U.S. unadjusted CPI annual rate in September was 3.7%, and the U.S. unadjusted core CPI annual rate in September was 4.1%, the smallest increase since September 2021, and has declined for six consecutive months; the U.S. seasonally adjusted CPI monthly rate in September was 0.3%, which was also a decline from the previous month.
● UK Financial Conduct Authority develops blueprint for fund tokenization
According to the Daily Planet, Ashley Alder, chairman of the UK Financial Conduct Authority (FCA), said that he has been working with a technical working group to develop a blueprint for fund tokenization, which will be released later this year.
The FCA published a discussion paper in February on updating and improving the country’s asset management regime, covering “how fund managers can adopt distributed ledger technology to offer fully digital funds to the public.”
● Deputy Chief Executive of the Hong Kong Monetary Authority: The stablecoin regulatory system will be formally legislated after consulting the market
According to Sing Tao Daily, Hong Kong Monetary Authority Deputy Chief Executive Ruan Guoheng said that the relevant design work on the stablecoin regulatory system is still in progress. After completion, market opinions will be sought and then formal legislation will be enacted.
Speaking of the recent suspected fraud incident on the virtual asset platform JPEX, Ruan Guoheng said that when developing the crypto asset business in Hong Kong, we should focus on the possibilities brought by the technology platform, emphasizing that distributed ledger technology (DLT) and tokenization technology are beneficial to the operation of the entire financial market. New technologies bring risks as well as opportunities. Recent events highlight that Hong Kong needs an effective regulatory system. People with ulterior motives may package some transactions into unregulated products through technology, and the operation of the relevant transactions may not be illegal. Investors should be particularly careful when conducting related investment activities.
● Binance Labs announces investment in Layer 1 Initia
According to the official blog, Binance Labs announced its investment in Initia. The funds have not been disclosed yet. The funds raised will be used to support the development of Initia infrastructure and developer tools.
It is reported that Initia is L1 on Cosmos, using OP Rollup's application-specific L2. Through Initia's architecture, including L1, L2, and communication layers, developers can easily launch application-specific blockchains based on Initia L2 without having to understand complex chain-level infrastructure or run a validator set.
● Binance Feed officially renamed Binance Square
Binance announced that its content aggregation platform Binance Feed will be officially renamed Binance Square. The platform is a one-stop content aggregation platform and social center for cryptocurrency enthusiasts. Currently, all users can share their crypto experiences, track hot trends, participate in topic discussions, etc. on Binance Square.
Previously, Binance CEO Changpeng Zhao (CZ) also made his debut on Binance Square and said in his first Binance Square post: "Welcome to the 'Binance Square' for discussions on global cryptocurrencies."
● Financial Times: Crypto broker Genesis halts withdrawals
Crypto broker Genesis has halted withdrawals, the Financial Times reported.
● Mastercard releases CBDC tokenized blockchain solution
According to Finextra, payment giant Mastercard announced that it has launched a new functional solution that can support the tokenization (or packaging) of central bank digital currencies (CBDCs) on different blockchains to provide consumers with more payment options.
It is reported that the solution is part of the Australian central bank's digital currency project. In a live verification environment, Mastercard also demonstrated how the solution enables holders of the pilot CBDC to purchase NFTs listed on the Ethereum public blockchain by "locking" the required amount of pilot central bank digital currency on the Australian central bank's pilot CBDC platform and minting an equal amount of pilot CBDC package tokens on Ethereum, and then completing the transaction.
● JPMorgan predicts: Network computing power may drop by 20% after BTC halving in April 2024
According to Crypto News, JPMorgan predicts that the BTC network computing power may drop by 20% after the next halving event, which is estimated to be in April 2024.
The report estimates that the next halving could eliminate up to 80EH/s (or 20% of the network's hashrate) as less efficient hardware is retired.
The report also mentioned that based on Bitcoin’s current price, the total block reward opportunity over a four-year period is approximately $20 billion. However, it noted that this is a significant drop of approximately 72% compared to more than two years ago. For context, this figure peaked at approximately $73 billion in April 2021 and has fluctuated between $14 billion and $25 billion over the past year.
