Today's news tips:
Juan Tacuri, the main promoter of crypto Ponzi scheme Forcount, is sentenced to 20 years in prison
TikTok faces charges of operating like a cryptocurrency exchange in the UK
Vitalik proposes key goals for the Surge phase of Ethereum's development roadmap
deBridge governance token DBR is now open for airdrop
African crypto startup Yellow Card completes $33 million Series C funding round led by Blockchain Capital
The U.S. Bitcoin spot ETF had a total net inflow of US$459 million yesterday, continuing its net inflow for 4 consecutive days
Ethereum staker income drops 30% since March peak as on-chain activity slows
a16z Crypto Report: Cryptocurrency Activity and Usage Reach All-Time Highs
Regulatory News
Juan Tacuri, the main promoter of crypto Ponzi scheme Forcount, is sentenced to 20 years in prison
Damian Williams, U.S. Attorney for the Southern District of New York, announced that Juan Tacuri, a key promoter involved in the cryptocurrency Ponzi scheme Forcount (later renamed Weltsys), has been sentenced to 240 months (20 years) in prison. The scam defrauded thousands of investors worldwide, primarily targeting Spanish-speaking communities in the United States. Tacuri, one of the most successful promoters of the scam, made millions of dollars from it and used the funds to purchase real estate and luxury goods in Florida. Tacuri and others lured victims into investing in so-called cryptocurrency products by hosting luxury events and community outreach, promising daily returns and doubling their investments within six months. However, Forcount did not trade or mine cryptocurrencies, and the funds were actually used to pay old investors through new investor funds while also being used for promotion and personal consumption. Ultimately, most investors were unable to withdraw their profits and lost all their funds. Tacuri was also sentenced to one year of supervised release and ordered to forfeit $3.61 million in funds and real estate purchased through the proceeds of the scam, and to pay corresponding restitution.
EU warns: Platform X fine may take into account revenues of several companies owned by Musk
The European Union has warned that revenue from Musk's other businesses, including SpaceX and Neuralink, may be included in the calculation of fines for social media platform "X". This practice will significantly increase potential penalties for violating content moderation rules. Under the EU's (Digital Services Act), the EU can fine online platforms up to 6% of their global annual revenue if they fail to address illegal content and false information, or fail to comply with transparency regulations. Regulators are considering whether sales from SpaceX, Neuralink, xAI and the Boring Company should be included in addition to revenue generated by social networks when determining potential fines for "X". One of the people familiar with the matter said Tesla's sales would not be affected by this calculation because it is a public company and not under Musk's full control. The amount of the potential fine is still under discussion. If "X" finds a way to address regulators' concerns, it may avoid penalties.
The head of the Financial Supervisory Service of South Korea: We are investigating various abnormal transactions including AVAIL tokens
According to Newsis, Lee Bok-hyun, director of the Financial Supervisory Service of South Korea, said in an audit of the National Assembly Political Committee on the 17th: "We will investigate the problem of AVAIL coins traded on Bithumb." After Avail went online at 263 won on July 23, it soared to 3,500 won within 15 minutes, but fell to 296 won less than a day later, raising suspicions of price manipulation. In this regard, Min Byoung-dug, a member of the Democratic Party of Korea, said: "This AVAIL token incident means that Bithumb's own abnormal trading system did not work at all. When I asked Bithumb what they were doing, they said that only transactions that accounted for more than 5% of the total issuance would be considered abnormal transactions." Director Lee Bok-hyun emphasized: "We are continuing to create and upgrade the abnormal transaction detection system and are handling various investigation cases as well as related cases, so we will work hard to build market trust."
TikTok faces charges of operating like a cryptocurrency exchange in the UK
According to Cryptonews, the short video app TikTok is under scrutiny for allegedly operating in a similar manner to a cryptocurrency exchange in the UK. It is reported that a compliance expert has issued a warning to the UK Financial Conduct Authority (FCA), recommending that TikTok be checked for money laundering and terrorist financing. The expert highlighted that the virtual tokens on TikTok may be indirectly exchanged for real currency through its creator program, which is worrying. The review stems from TikTok's virtual currency system, TikTok tokens. Users can buy tokens with real money and give them away on the platform or in live broadcasts. They may also exchange these tokens back for cash. This process is similar to cryptocurrency trading. As cryptocurrency businesses face strict regulation, the system has raised regulatory concerns. Critics believe that TikTok's handling of virtual currencies may be subject to the same scrutiny as cryptocurrency platforms. In addition, this cryptocurrency-like transaction has also raised concerns about the security of users' financial data, especially given geopolitical sensitivities. The letter reportedly reads: "TikTok provides money transmission services to money service businesses through its rewards program and exchanges crypto assets for currency or currency for crypto assets, or makes arrangements for or enters into arrangements for such exchanges." As of press time, neither TikTok nor the FCA responded to Cryptonews' request for comment.
Project News
Robinhood launches desktop platform, adds futures and index options trading capabilities to app
According to Reuters, financial technology company Robinhood (HOOD.O) launched a desktop platform on Wednesday and added futures and index options trading features to its mobile application (APP) in an effort to grab market share from traditional brokerage firms. The company said its desktop trading platform, called "Robinhood Legend," will focus on active traders. The platform, which comes at no additional cost, will offer advanced trading tools, real-time data, and custom and preset layouts. At the same time, the app will allow users to trade futures products such as the benchmark S&P 500 index (.SPX), new tabs, oil and Bitcoin. Customers can also trade index options.
Vitalik proposes key goals for the Surge phase of Ethereum's development roadmap
Ethereum co-founder Vitalik Buterin published his latest article (Future Development of Ethereum Protocol (Part 2): The Surge), proposing the key goals of The Surge phase: reaching 100,000+TPS on L1+L2; maintaining the decentralization and robustness of L1; at least some L2s fully inherit the core properties of Ethereum (trustless, open, and censorship-resistant); maximum interoperability between L2s, Ethereum should be like an ecosystem, not 34 different blockchains. Previously, in December 2023, Vitalik Buterin announced an updated Ethereum development roadmap for 2023, which includes six parts: The Merge, The Surge, The Scourge, The Verge, The Purge, and The Splurge.
Vitalik: Ethereum should become a unified ecosystem in the future, and L2 will be used as a universal light client
At the "10th Blockchain Global Summit" held by Wanxiang Blockchain Lab, Ethereum co-founder Vitalik Buterin gave a speech saying: "Ethereum has made great improvements in L2, smart accounts, account abstraction, zero-knowledge proof applications, and wallet user experience. However, the current Ethereum is like 34 or more different chains. The future Ethereum should be a unified ecosystem, one through chain-specific addresses, and the other is ERC-7683 (universal cross-L2 protocol). In terms of light clients, today Helios is a light client of L1 without L2. In the future, L2 will formulate its own merkle proof function in the cross-chain contract, which can be used as a universal light client."
VanEck: Two long-term investments have been made in Web3 games, one of which is in Parallel
Asset management giant VanEck announced on the X platform that it has made two long-term investments in Web3 games, one in AI blockchain game Parallel and the other has not yet been announced. VanEck also added that VanEck holds an investment in Parallel's PRIME/PROMPT tokens.
Siam Commercial Bank becomes first bank in Thailand to use stablecoin for cross-border payments
Siam Commercial Bank (SCB), Thailand's fourth largest and oldest bank, has become the country's first financial institution to offer stablecoin-based cross-border payment and remittance services, Cryptoslate reported. The stablecoin remittance service will be provided in partnership with fintech company Lightnet. The move aims to reduce transaction fees and provide customers with faster international transfers. The introduction of stablecoin-based services will enable SCB customers to send and receive payments around the world 24 hours a day, 7 days a week. The service was trialed through the Bank of Thailand's digital asset sandbox to ensure that the system meets regulatory standards and has the flexibility to expand in the future. The move is expected to further promote the development of Thailand's digital economy and make SCB an important player in the future financial services sector.
Radiant Capital suspends its loan marketplace due to breach, estimated losses of $58 million
According to Cointelegraph, Radiant Capital and two cybersecurity companies disclosed that Radiant Capital has suspended its lending market after a cybersecurity breach of more than $50 million occurred on BNB Chain and Arbitrum.
Web3 cybersecurity company De.Fi Antivirus said on the X platform: "Using the 'transferFrom' function on the BSC and ARB chains, the attacker attacked the Radiant Capital contract and stole users' funds, including USDC, WBNB, ETH, etc. The attack resulted in the theft of approximately $58 million in funds." This is similar to the estimate of another cybersecurity company Ancilia Inc., which estimated the loss to be approximately $50 million. Radiant is controlled by a multi-signature wallet, and the attacker controlled the private keys of multiple signers and then controlled multiple smart contracts.
“We are aware of issues with the Radiant lending markets on BNB Chain and Arbitrum,” Radiant said in a post on the X platform. “We are working with SEAL911, Hypernative, ZeroShadow, and Chainalysis and will provide updates as soon as possible. Markets on Base and Mainnet are temporarily suspended until further notice.”
Chainalysis goes to court for $650 million defamation lawsuit, YieldNodes says it was wrongly labeled a “scam”
According to Cointelegraph, the legal representative of blockchain analysis company Chainalysis has been scheduled to attend a hearing in the New York State Supreme Court on October 16, involving a defamation lawsuit filed by Exceptional Media Ltd. (the company behind the YieldNodes blockchain investment project) in January 2024. According to documents published on the legal analysis website Trellis, the presiding judge in this case will weigh the dismissal motion recently filed by the Chainalysis legal team. Chainalysis is being sued by Exceptional Media Ltd. Exceptional Media Ltd. claims that Chainalysis mistakenly labeled its YieldNodes project as an "investment scam." Exceptional Media is seeking at least $650 million in damages on the grounds that Chainalysis has damaged its reputation and customer base and accused it of malicious intent. Since the initial lawsuit was filed, Chainalysis' legal team has filed multiple dismissal motions. Chainalysis claims that Exceptional Media and YieldNodes have failed to prove that the YieldNodes project is not a scam, nor have they made any rebuttals to Chainalysis' allegations.
Game developer FractureLabs files lawsuit against Jump Trading, accusing it of manipulating DIO token price
Video game developer FractureLabs has filed a lawsuit against Jump Trading, accusing one of the cryptocurrency industry’s largest market makers of “fraud and deception” by manipulating the price of tokens used in an online game, Bloomberg reported.
According to the lawsuit, FractureLabs planned to raise funds through an initial offering of DIO tokens through the Huobi (now rebranded HTX) exchange in 2021. It hired Jump to act as a market maker for DIO, a token used in its online game (Decimated) and also traded on the cryptocurrency market. As part of the agreement, it loaned 10 million tokens to a subsidiary of Jump, while sending another 6 million DIO tokens to Huobi to be sold in the offering. Huobi (now HTX) invited online influencers to promote the DIO token, causing its price to surge to a high of $0.98, meaning that the tokens borrowed by Jump were worth $9.8 million at the time. As the sale of DIO tokens caused its price to fall to about 0.5 cents, Jump then systematically liquidated its holdings of DIO tokens, generating millions of dollars in revenue for itself. Jump then repurchased the heavily discounted tokens, which were then worth about $53,000, and returned them to FractureLabs, and then canceled its agreement to act as a market maker for the tokens. The lawsuit alleges that “Jump concealed its true intention to exploit DIO’s initial offering to ‘pump and dump’ the token alongside HTX.” Jump also told FractureLabs that it would keep the price of DIO within certain parameters required by Huobi (now HTX) in its exchange listing agreement, but Jump’s sale of DIO caused the token price to fall outside of those parameters, so Huobi (now HTX) refused to return most of the $1.5 million deposit of Tether USDT stablecoins that FractureLabs paid under the agreement, the lawsuit alleges.
A Jump spokesperson said in a statement: "These allegations are factually flawed and completely without merit. Jump intends to vigorously defend itself." HTX is not named as a defendant in the case, and when asked for comment, the exchange said: "HTX is committed to full compliance with all applicable laws and regulations. Because this matter is currently under litigation and HTX is not named as a defendant, we are unable to comment further at this time."
Stripe in advanced talks to acquire stablecoin-focused fintech platform Bridge
According to Bloomberg, people familiar with the matter revealed that payment company Stripe Inc. is in deep negotiations to acquire fintech platform Bridge. No final decision has been made yet, and either party may still withdraw from the transaction. The Bridge platform is designed to allow companies to create, store, send and accept stablecoins such as Tether's USDT and Circle's UDSC. In August this year, it was reported that Bridge had raised a total of US$58 million in funds, with investors including Sequoia, Ribbit Capital, Index and Haun Ventures. Sequoia Capital led Bridge's latest round of financing, a US$40 million Series A financing.
Meme coin Kabosu prototype owner's Instagram account hacked and published fake content
According to AggrNews, the Instagram of Kabosumama, the prototype owner of the DOG project "Doge" emoji (Shiba Inu Kabosu), was hacked. She had previously posted a message on her blog saying that she could not log in. In addition, BWEnews added that Kabosumama's Instagram hacker was quite cunning and posted a fake post about a new member of the family. The hacker launched a memecoin in advance to lure victims to follow suit and invest, and then quickly withdrew the funds and ran away.
CoinDesk acquires crypto data provider CCData and its retail business CryptoCompare
According to CoinDesk, CoinDesk has acquired crypto data provider CCData and its retail business CryptoCompare. CCData is a UK-regulated benchmark management agency that provides leading digital asset data and index solutions. CoinDesk plans to integrate CCData's high-quality data platform into its existing products to enhance data services including the CoinDesk Index and CD20 Index.
Upbit will list Injective(INJ) in KRW and USDT markets
According to the official announcement, South Korean cryptocurrency exchange Upbit will launch Injective (INJ) in the KRW and USDT markets, and trading support will start at 18:15 local time on October 17.
deBridge governance token DBR is now open for airdrop
The deBridge Foundation posted on the X platform that the DBR token has been launched, and now DBR can be claimed directly on the chain through official channels, and all claims on CEX have been distributed.
Related reading: deBridge officially issues governance token DBR, is your wallet included in the nearly 500,000 airdrops?
Google has restored Bitcoin and Ethereum price charts in search results
According to Decrypt, Google has restored the display of Bitcoin and Ethereum price charts in search results. Previously, due to inaccurate data, Google temporarily removed the price charts of these cryptocurrencies, which prevented users from viewing real-time price information directly in search. A Google spokesperson said that the data came from a third party and the reason for the removal was that inaccurate data was received. After the problem was resolved, the price chart function has now returned to normal.
Animoca Brands to buy more WATCoin from the open market
Animoca Brands disclosed in an official blog that it intends to acquire more WATCoin from the open market. WATCoin is the utility token of WatBird, a Telegram Mini App developed by Animoca Brands subsidiary GAMEE. Animoca Brands said that by purchasing the tokens, it strengthens its commitment to WatBird's role in supporting the broader TON ecosystem.
Ord.io: Rumor has it that Coinbase is conducting an internal security audit and regulatory compliance assessment of the Runes protocol
Ord.io, a Bitcoin Ordinals browser, said on the X platform: “There are rumors that Coinbase insiders revealed that they are conducting an internal security audit and regulatory compliance assessment of the Runes protocol. We have not independently confirmed these claims.”
Financing News
African crypto startup Yellow Card completes $33 million Series C investment, led by Blockchain Capital
According to Techcrunch, African crypto startup Yellow Card has completed a $33 million Series C investment, led by Blockchain Capital, with participation from Coinbase, Kraken, OpenSea, Worldcoin, Polychain Capital, Block, Inc., Winklevoss Capital, Third Prime Ventures, Castle Island Ventures, Galaxy Ventures, Blockchain Coinvestors, and Hutt Capital. This brings Yellow Card's total funding to at least $88 million. The new funds will enable it to develop new products, strengthen its team and systems, and continue to lead engagement with regulators across the continent. Yellow Card was valued at $200 million in its $40 million Series B round in 2022, and Chris Maurice, the company's co-founder and CEO, said the current valuation of its crypto platform is a significant improvement over the Series B round. According to reports, Yellow Card is a US cryptocurrency platform launched in Nigeria in 2019 and has since become the highest-funded cryptocurrency exchange on the African continent. Yellow Card served retail customers in the first few years after its launch, but has now turned to B2C, working with about 30,000 businesses in Africa and internationally to help them with payments and fund management, mainly through stablecoins. Yellow Card has two main products: the core on-off-ramp and the API suite.
Mento Labs, the development team of Celo Ecosystem EVM platform Mento, completes $10 million financing
According to CoinDesk, Mento Labs, the development team of Mento, a decentralized EVM platform on the Celo network, announced the completion of a $10 million financing. This round of financing was supported by T-Capital, HashKey Capital, Richard Parsons, Flori Ventures, No Limit Holdings, Verda Ventures and w3.fund. MentoLabs also announced a stablecoin roadmap, planning to add three new local digital currencies to its expanding decentralized stablecoin lineup: Philippine Peso (PUSO), Colombian Peso (cCOP) and Ghana Cedi (cGHS).
According to reports, Mento Labs is the development team of Mento, an EVM platform for issuing and operating new stable assets. Currently, Mento supports a growing portfolio of decentralized stable assets, including cUSD, cEUR, cREAL, eXOF, cKES and PUSO, with more assets coming soon. In order to realize the actual use cases of digital assets, Mento Labs develops customized solutions and provides partners with a set of tools to issue and operate digital assets around the world.
Binance Labs has invested approximately $1 million in Bitcoin liquidity staking platform Lombard
According to The Block, Binance Labs has invested approximately $1 million in Lombard, a Bitcoin liquidity staking platform. Lombard is currently the largest Bitcoin liquidity staking platform with a total locked value (TVL) of more than $640 million. Lombard has developed the LBTC token, which represents Bitcoin staked to the Babylon platform, through which users can maintain the value of the original asset and earn returns while participating in DeFi. Lombard's LBTC has been used for collateralized lending, yield farming, and trading in a variety of DeFi protocols. This investment by Binance Labs will further promote the application and growth of Bitcoin in the DeFi field.
Important data
The U.S. Bitcoin spot ETF had a total net inflow of US$459 million yesterday, continuing its net inflow for 4 consecutive days
According to SoSoValue data, yesterday (October 16, Eastern Time), the total net inflow of Bitcoin spot ETFs was $459 million. Yesterday, Grayscale ETF GBTC had a net outflow of $0.00 per day, and the current historical net outflow of GBTC is $20.142 billion. Grayscale Bitcoin Mini Trust ETF BTC had a net outflow of $0.00 per day, and the current historical total net inflow of Grayscale Bitcoin Mini Trust BTC is $419 million. The Bitcoin spot ETF with the largest net inflow on a single day yesterday was BlackRock ETF IBIT, with a net inflow of $393 million per day, and the current historical total net inflow of IBIT is $22.461 billion. The second largest was Fidelity ETF FBTC, with a net inflow of $14.8103 million per day, and the current historical total net inflow of FBTC is $10.275 billion. As of press time, the total net asset value of the Bitcoin spot ETF was US$64.459 billion, the ETF net asset ratio (market value as a percentage of the total market value of Bitcoin) reached 4.82%, and the historical cumulative net inflow has reached US$20.193 billion.
PayPal’s stablecoin PYUSD market cap drops to $618 million, down 40% from August high
According to The Block, PayPal's stablecoin PYUSD has been losing market share since reaching a high of more than $1 billion in market value at the end of August (the fourth largest stablecoin at the time). The token currently has a market value of $618 million, down 40% in the past month and a half. The market value of Solana-based PYUSD is currently about $267 million, down from a high of more than $600 million in August. At the same time, more than $350 million of PYUSD tokens are circulating on Ethereum. The growth of the stablecoin has been largely due to PayPal's partnership with Solana's lending market Kamino Finance, which has agreed to pay PYUSD holders high returns subsidized by the payment giant. In recent weeks, the yield on PYUSD deposits on the lending protocol Kamino has fallen from about 17% to less than 7%. The double-digit annualized rewards offered to PYUSD holders by Solana-based protocols Drift and Marginfi have also been hit. However, this trend may be reversed. On Tuesday, Kamino added PYUSD to its "altcoin market," enabling users to borrow and lend against their meme coin positions such as WIF, POPCAT and BONK. The arrangement will pay depositors an additional PYUSD reward totaling $10,000 per week. By comparison, PYUSD lenders on Aave, an Ethereum-based decentralized exchange, currently earn about 4.3%. Over a similar six-week period, the market capitalizations of the two major stablecoins, USDT and USDC, remained largely stable. Since August 31, Tether's stablecoin market capitalization has increased by $1 billion, while Circle's token market capitalization has first increased by $2 billion and then decreased by $2 billion.
Ethereum staker income drops 30% since March peak as on-chain activity slows
According to The Block, Ethereum stakers’ income is slowly declining, totaling $174 million in September, down from a peak of $247 million in March, reflecting a decrease in on-chain activity and overall market enthusiasm. The $174 million in staker income in September is much higher than the $35.5 million in transaction fee income, highlighting the heavy reliance on block subsidies. Despite the decline in income, the number of validators continues to grow. Ethereum now has 1.09 million validators, showing an increase in participation in network security. The increase in the number of validators even as individual rewards decrease shows continued confidence in Ethereum’s long-term prospects. Since the merger, Ethereum’s annual supply destruction rate has remained at -0.06%, effectively removing 861,000 ETH from circulation each year. However, since April, Ethereum supply growth has been observed as fewer people are using the main chain, an observation that could lead to supply inflation. The highest annualized destruction rate was recorded on April 5, at -0.38%, and has been steadily rising since then. In fact, the number of active addresses on Ethereum has also decreased, further indicating a decrease in on-chain activity.
Tether: 330 million on-chain wallets have received USDT, with 36.25 million new users in Q3
Tether released the latest data, saying that as of the end of the third quarter of 2024, 330 million on-chain wallets and accounts (user agents) have received USDT, and the number of new users has continued to grow every quarter, with an average increase of 9% in the past four quarters. The third quarter of 2024 was its fastest growing quarter, with 36.25 million new users. Tether pointed out that USDT is most used on Tron, Binance Smart Chain and Ethereum, while the fastest growing chains come from Ethereum Layer 2 (such as Optimism, Arbitrum and Polygon), as well as Avalanche and Solana. In addition, USDT has experienced explosive growth on the TON chain, with 3.3 million new users in six months, accounting for 1% of all USDT on-chain users.
a16z Crypto Report: Cryptocurrency Activity and Usage Reach All-Time Highs
According to The Block, a study released by a16z Crypto on Wednesday found that cryptocurrency activity and usage reached an all-time high this year. The report estimates that as of September, there are about 617 million cryptocurrency holders worldwide, of which 60 million are monthly active users. By 2024, monthly active crypto addresses climbed to more than 220 million, among which Base topped the list with 22 million addresses in the Ethereum Virtual Machine (EVM) chain, while Solana dominated the non-EVM chain with more than 100 million addresses. The number of mobile wallet users also reached its highest level this year, with the United States accounting for 12% of global users. In addition, the report also pointed out that Ethereum's Dencun upgrade and the inclusion of EIP-4844 in March this year helped the value of ETH on Layer 2 increase by 36%, while Layer 2 payments accounted for 94% of Layer 1 fees.
Daren Matsuoka, data scientist at a16z crypto, said: "We appear to be at an inflection point in crypto infrastructure, which is rapidly driving blockchain scaling and will unlock new possibilities for applications and user activity. The sharp decline in user transaction fees is helping stablecoins find product-market fit. We are also observing an emerging shift in behavior in the NFT space, which is very interesting, with an increase in low-cost, social collection activity and a decrease in high-priced, speculative secondary market activity."
