Compiled by: Luan Peng, ChainCatcher
Important Information:
Circle to move global headquarters to New York, set to open in early 2025
China's Gansu "U Merchant" was convicted of aiding and abetting credit for trading USDT, and the illegal gains were recovered
ZachXBT Monitoring: Four stablecoin issuers have been blacklisted, including two addresses of Lazarus Group
First Digital CEO: Hong Kong should speed up cryptocurrency regulation
Data: 17 entities holding more than 1,000 BTC have sold or distributed their assets in the past two weeks
FINRA: 55% of Generation Z in the U.S. prefer to invest in cryptocurrencies
A team claiming to be fans of Flappy Bird plans to reboot the game into a crypto project, but users criticize it as a "crypto scam"
The ETF Store President: Under the current circumstances, there is no sign that Solana or XRP spot ETFs will be listed in the next one or two years
“What important events have occurred in the past 24 hours?”
Circle to move global headquarters to New York, set to open in early 2025
Circle co-founder and CEO Jeremy Allaire said that Circle announced that it would move its global headquarters to New York City and build a flagship space on the top floor of One World Trade Center, with plans to open the new headquarters to the world in early 2025. He also said that 2024 is a turning point for cryptocurrency, and stablecoins will begin to truly break through in scale, importance and usage this year, and 2025 will be the year when this concept becomes mainstream.
China's Gansu "U Merchant" was convicted of aiding and abetting credit for trading USDT, and the illegal gains were recovered
According to an article on the official WeChat account of the Jinchang Intermediate People's Court, recently, the Yongchang Court of Gansu Province, China, sentenced two cases involving cyber fraud and sentenced ten defendants to fixed-term imprisonment ranging from ten months to one year for the crime of assisting in information network criminal activities. The court actually recovered more than 1.19 million yuan in illegal gains.
According to reports, since 2022, Shen Moumou has raised funds to purchase computers, IoT cards and other equipment for illegal profit, and has lured four people including Li Mou and Chen Mou to join the gang. He has also recruited more than ten people to rent houses in Hefei, Anhui and other places to set up USDT (Tether) trading studios, and set up illegal over-the-counter trading groups through Telegram software, collecting low and selling high to make profits. During this period, the five people repeatedly took risks, knowing that the U coins they received came from online gambling, telecommunications fraud and other black and gray industries, but still helped the fraud criminals to pay and settle between Tether and RMB at a "high exchange rate" price. At the same time, Shen Moumou also contacted the downstream "currency dealer" Li Moumou and others to settle payments through Alipay, WeChat transfers, cash deposits and other methods according to the payment methods specified by the upstream criminals. As of the time of the incident, the defendants involved in the case had made a total profit of more than 880,000 yuan, including more than 5.9 million yuan in funds defrauded from more than 10 victims including Meng Mou, a resident of Chengguan Town, Yongchang County, when they participated in virtual currency investment and online order brushing. All the funds were transferred to an account related to Tether transactions used by Shen Moumou and others.
The court held that, in this case, the behavior of Shen and others using virtual currency transactions to help telecom fraud perpetrators transfer funds has deviated from simple virtual currency business operations. Such behavior should be included in the key links of the entire chain of combating telecom fraud crimes, and the criminals involved should be punished.
ZachXBT Monitoring: Four stablecoin issuers have been blacklisted, including two addresses of Lazarus Group
As of today, all four stablecoin issuers (Paxful, Tether, Techteryx, Circle) have blacklisted the following two addresses, where Lazarus Group holds $4.96 million, according to ZachXBT monitoring. Another $1.65 million has been frozen on various exchanges, bringing the total frozen in this investigation to $6.98 million.
First Digital CEO: Hong Kong should speed up cryptocurrency regulation
According to Cointelegraph, Hong Kong-based stablecoin issuer First Digital Trust said that Hong Kong should speed up regulation in the digital asset field to avoid falling behind in the rapidly developing industry. Although Hong Kong is committed to becoming a global cryptocurrency center, there are currently only two virtual asset trading platforms with full licenses, Hash Blockchain and OSL Digital Securities, and many other exchanges are still waiting for full operating licenses.
First Digital CEO Vincent Chok said in an interview that Hong Kong's current more conservative and slow approach to trading regulation is understandable because it prioritizes investor protection. However, he pointed out that he hopes to see regulation accelerate to ensure that it does not lag behind the development speed of the industry. First Digital Trust believes that Hong Kong is not yet ready to regulate dollar-backed stablecoins, while Dubai has taken a more global approach. Chok said he looks forward to Hong Kong launching dollar-backed stablecoin regulation in the near future.
In addition, Chok does not think banks will rush to provide digital asset custody services because it is beyond their risk tolerance. Many companies have established trust structures to provide cryptocurrency custody services.
Data: 17 entities holding more than 1,000 BTC have sold or distributed their assets in the past two weeks
According to on-chain analyst Ali, 17 entities holding more than 1,000 BTC have sold or distributed their assets in the past two weeks.
FINRA: 55% of Generation Z in the U.S. prefer to invest in cryptocurrencies
A survey by the U.S. Financial Industry Regulatory Authority (FINRA) shows that 55% of American Generation Z prefer to invest in cryptocurrencies. Generation Z prefers finances on-chain rather than online. They believe that digital banking platforms are clumsy and opaque. Generation Z prefers to manage their finances on-chain through decentralized financial applications and digital dollar stablecoins.
It is reported that Generation Z refers to those born between 1997 and 2012 and are now aged 12 to 27.
A team claiming to be fans of Flappy Bird plans to reboot the game into a crypto project, but users criticize it as a "crypto scam"
A team calling themselves Flappy Bird fans are planning to relaunch the classic game as a crypto project, but the move has been met with strong opposition from users, Protos reported.
The new version makes Flappy Bird a Web3 game based on Solana, claiming it to be "the world's first open source, community-owned Web 2 and Web 3 game." The project also mentioned FLAP tokens, which are planned to be issued on the Telegram blockchain, providing staking options and free airdrops.
However, it is unclear whether the token will be launched on Solana or Telegram, or whether these crypto plans have been abandoned. Users criticized the project as a "crypto scam" and expressed dissatisfaction with the way the team obtained the rights to Flappy Bird.
It is reported that Flappy Bird is a bird-flying game in 2013. In January 2014, this game became the most popular free application software on iTunes in the United States and China, and was described as "the new Angry Birds" by the UK App Store in the same month. This game also became the most downloaded free application software in January.
The ETF Store President: Under the current circumstances, there is no sign that Solana or XRP spot ETFs will be listed in the next one or two years
Nate Geraci, president of The ETF Store, said on X: “Putting politics aside, it’s hard to imagine any new spot cryptocurrency ETFs coming to market under the current administration. Given the current situation, there is no indication that a Solana or XRP spot ETF is likely to come to market in the next year or two. Whether that’s good or bad may depend on the November election.”
CFTC and SEC team up to combat cryptocurrency scams
The U.S. Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC) has partnered with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) and other agencies to launch a public education program focused on combating cryptocurrency-related scams, especially the "pig killing" scam that is carried out through fake romantic relationships.
The CFTC, in collaboration with the American Bankers Association Foundation and federal agencies such as the FBI and IRS, has released infographics to help consumers identify scams. In collaboration with the SEC, FINRA and NASAA, the CFTC has issued investor alerts reminding the public not to respond to unsolicited messages and encouraging reporting of suspicious text messages.
Nigeria Indicts Four People and Companies for Illegal Crypto Trading and Money Laundering
The Nigerian government has filed criminal charges against four individuals and several companies for illegally conducting crypto transactions without holding a banking license, including converting USDT into naira.
The four defendants, identified as Ejiogu A. Chinedu, Nnamdi F. Okereke, Oty Ugochukwu Stanley and Chukwuebuka F. Ogumba, were charged with violating the Banks and Other Financial Institutions Act and the Foreign Exchange Act.
The case stems from an investigation by Nigeria’s Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) into alleged manipulation of the naira exchange rate and money laundering through virtual cryptocurrency trading platforms.
Earlier news, Nigeria's Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) has obtained court approval to freeze more than US$330,000 (S$548.6 million) of suspicious funds deposited in the bank accounts of cryptocurrency users.
Ethereum Foundation researcher Danny Ryan resigns
Ethereum Foundation researcher Danny Ryan is exiting the Ethereum ecosystem after seven years of contributing to it, The Block reported.
According to a post on GitHub, Ryan is leaving for personal reasons not related to Ethereum, core development, or any aspect of cryptocurrency, and said he wants to make room for other opportunities. Ryan said: "It is an all-consuming experience to helm the complex ship of Ethereum, and although it is one of the greatest experiences of my life, I am ready to give it up and make room for other things."
Ryan served as the lead coordinator of Ethereum’s transition to The Merge, a proof-of-stake consensus system, and oversaw the launch of the beacon chain in 2021, contributing to the Ethereum Foundation’s blog, including progress updates on Ethereum Improvement Proposals.
SEC Chairman has received multiple death threats
Bloomberg reporters recently revealed through the Freedom of Information Act that Gary Gensler, chairman of the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC), has received multiple threatening emails and voice messages from the United States and internationally since 2022. These threats contain violent rhetoric, one of which claims to shoot and chop him up, and another threatening email with the subject line "Go to hell" came from Australia.
Some threats may even come from government employees. Although these threats are not explicitly related to Gensler's cryptocurrency regulatory policies, Gensler has long been ridiculed and criticized in the crypto community for his crackdown on the digital asset industry. Many crypto users have publicly expressed their dissatisfaction with him on social media. At the 2024 Bitcoin Conference, Donald Trump promised to fire Gensler as soon as he took office, which won a warm response from the audience.
Gensler’s term currently runs until 2026, but the election outcome could affect his stay.
"What are the interesting articles worth reading in the past 24 hours?"
Dialogue with Longhash founder: Lack of real innovation is the internal reason why this round of bull market has not started yet
LongHash Ventures was founded in 2017. According to Rootdata data, the fund has invested in hundreds of projects, including well-known projects such as Polkadot, Acala, ICP, Manta, and Safe. Benefiting from the DeFi Summer, LongHash Ventures ushered in a period of growth, growing from "on the verge of bankruptcy" to a fund manager worth hundreds of millions of dollars.
On the evening of September 10, Emma Cui, founder and CEO of Longhash, was a guest speaker at the "Dialogue with LongHash: Changes and Opportunities in Current Investment Logic" Space hosted by RootData. At the Space, she said that the cryptocurrency industry is becoming more mature, and Longhash has now completed the transformation from a scattershot investment style to a heavy betting style. The current market valuation is high, but the bull market has not yet begun.
"Q4 of this year and Q1 of next year are worth paying attention to, mainly focusing on whether there are truly innovative projects coming out. Secondly, we need to pay attention to the US election in November and the release of the Federal Reserve's interest rate cut signal, the market may change." Emma Cui said.
Before entering the cryptocurrency industry, Emma Cui worked at McKinsey. In 2016, she was inspired by a Netflix documentary and accidentally came into contact with the cryptocurrency industry. She joined full-time at the end of 2017 and received early investment from Hashkey and Distributed Capital in 2018 to establish LongHash Ventures.
When all coins are staked, what is guaranteed is not security but profit
It’s been a while since I shared this with you all. Lately, I’ve been thinking a lot about the future of restaking, as it’s been a major topic dominating the market over the past 18 months.
To simplify the discussion, I may refer to EigenLayer or AVS in this article to describe the broad concept of re-staking, but I use the term broadly to cover all re-staking protocols and the services built on top of them, not just EigenLayer.
The concept of EigenLayer and re-staking has opened Pandora's box.
Conceptually, it makes a lot of sense to scale the economic security of a highly liquid and globally accessible asset that allows developers to create applications on-chain without having to build an entirely new ecosystem for their project-specific tokens.
How will the US election, which everyone is talking about, affect the crypto market?
There is a proverb in the former Soviet Union: "You may not be interested in politics, but politics is very interested in you." Politics has an undeniable impact on individuals, institutions, companies, and business operations in the operation of the state machinery. The crypto market is no exception.
The Bitcoin halving event, which takes place every four years, has had little impact on the price of BTC. So, does the US election have any impact on the crypto market? First, let’s look at the impact of the election on the traditional financial market.
Dialogue with Initia Co-founder: Influenced by Apple’s design philosophy, simplifying the user experience on the chain
In this episode of the podcast, hosts Dave and Capital K invited Zon and Stan, two co-founders of Initia, to discuss their innovative work in the multi-chain world and modularity. Zon expressed his continued support for the show and mentioned that he and Dave had met at multiple conferences.
An article interpreting Binance RWA research report: Traditional institutions actively participate in the market, and asset returns may decline under the expectation of interest rate cuts
The RWA sector has been making a fortune in silence during this atypical bull market.
When everyone's emotions are easily driven by memes, if you look at the data carefully, you will find that the performance of tokens in the RWA track so far this year is probably better than that of tokens in most other tracks.
When U.S. Treasuries become the largest RWA, the trend of the track being affected by the macro economy will become more obvious.
Recently, Binance Research Institute released a long report titled "RWA: A safe haven for on-chain returns?", which provides a detailed analysis of the RWA track's landscape, projects, and revenue performance.
