Today's news tips:
Surinamese presidential candidate promises to make Bitcoin legal tender if elected
Trump family crypto project WLFI receives $30 million investment from Justin Sun
Binance HODLer Airdrop Launches Second Phase Project Thena(THE)
MicroStrategy purchased 55,500 Bitcoins last week, with a total value of $5.4 billion
Video Sharing Platform Rumble Announces Purchase of $20 Million in Bitcoin
Telegram auction platform Fragments introduces mandatory KYC
Pump.fun will suspend live streaming to strengthen content review
Ethereum Regains USDT Supply Dominance, Surpassing Tron for the First Time Since 2022
Regulatory News
Surinamese presidential candidate Maya Parbhoe promises to make Bitcoin legal tender if elected
According to Cointelegraph, Maya Parbhoe, a presidential candidate in Suriname, a South American country, said that once she takes office, she will make Bitcoin a legal tender. Within the first year, she plans to gradually replace the Surinamese dollar with satoshi (the smallest unit of Bitcoin) and ensure that all salaries are paid in BTC, aiming to build a Bitcoin country that is more deeply rooted in cryptocurrency than El Salvador. Maya Parbhoe's subsequent plans also include disbanding the central bank, cutting taxes, privatizing public services, issuing national Bitcoin bonds, and promoting widespread deregulation.
UK financial regulator plans to establish cryptocurrency regime by 2026
According to CoinDesk, the Financial Conduct Authority, the UK financial regulator, said it hopes to implement a cryptocurrency regime by 2026 to cope with the growing ownership of cryptocurrencies in the country. The roadmap released by the UK Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) stated that the agency plans to publish a discussion paper on market abuse and disclosure by the end of this year. It intends to publish documents on stablecoins, trading platforms, pledges, prudent cryptocurrency risk exposure and lending by early next year. The regime is scheduled to take effect after the final policy statement is released in 2026. A study commissioned by the FCA showed that the holdings of crypto assets have increased by 4% in the past two years, and about 7 million adults hold crypto assets out of the country's population of about 68 million. Earlier yesterday, it was reported that the UK will announce cryptocurrency and stablecoin regulatory rules in early 2025.
AXIOS: Trump is considering appointing a secretary of state for artificial intelligence
Trump is considering appointing a secretary of artificial intelligence to coordinate federal policy and government use of emerging technologies, Axios reported.
Sources from the Trump transition team said that President-elect Trump is considering appointing an artificial intelligence chief in the White House to coordinate federal policy and government use of emerging technologies. Sources said Elon Musk will not take the position, but he is expected to be closely involved in future debates and use cases. It is reported that the position will be responsible for focusing public and private resources to keep the United States at the forefront of artificial intelligence. The federal government has a huge demand for artificial intelligence technology, and the chief may work with the chief artificial intelligence officers of various agencies (these chief artificial intelligence officers were established in President Biden’s executive order on artificial intelligence and may be lucky enough to stay in office after Trump takes office).
Project News
Binance will delist GFT, IRIS, KEY, OAX, and REN
According to the official announcement, Binance decided to stop trading and delist the following currencies at 11:00 (ET) on December 10, 2024: Gifto (GFT), IRISnet (IRIS), SelfKey (KEY), OAX (OAX), Ren (REN). Binance emphasized that Binance will regularly review the digital assets listed to ensure high-level currency quality. When a token no longer meets the listing standards or there are major changes in the industry environment, an in-depth project review will be conducted and it may be delisted.
Binance HODLer Airdrop Launches Second Phase Project Thena(THE)
According to the official announcement, Binance HODLer Airdrop has launched the second phase of the project - Thena (THE), a DEX and liquidity network built on BNB Chain and opBNB. From 08:00 on November 6, 2024 to 07:59 on November 14, 2024 (GMT+8), users who use BNB to subscribe to the regular and/or current products of the coin earning platform will receive airdrop allocations. THE HODLer airdrop page is expected to be launched within twelve hours, and the new tokens will be distributed to users' spot wallets 1 hour before trading begins. Binance will list Thena (THE) at 18:00 on November 27, 2024 (GMT+8), and open THE/BTC, THE/USDT, THE/BNB, THE/FDUSD and THE/TRY trading pairs. Seed tag trading rules apply.
Later news came out that THE's one-hour increase exceeded 430%, possibly driven by Binance's announcement.
Changpeng Zhao: I am not against Meme coin, but I hope that blockchain technology can be used to build practical applications
Changpeng Zhao, former CEO of Binance, posted on the X platform: “I am not against Meme coins, but Meme coins are now ‘a bit’ weird. Let’s use blockchain technology to build practical applications.”
The owner of the internet celebrity squirrel Peanut launched a new token "JUSTICE" and threatened to sue the crypto community
According to Decrypt, Mark Longo, the owner of the internet celebrity squirrel Peanut and raccoon Fred, told the story of how he dealt with Peanut and Fred in a Twitter video and decided to launch a new token called "Justice for Pnut and Fred" (JUSTICE for short) on the Solana blockchain to commemorate his pets. Longo said: "The government will not get away with this. Justice will be served, not only for Peanut and Fred... We will show the world that crossing the line is unacceptable." He also accused the crypto community of profiting from his personal trauma. Longo insisted: "The cryptocurrency world has taken advantage of my tragedy and made every possible profit from it." He described it as "one of the most painful things" in his life. He claimed: "People want to make money from this." After condemning the cryptocurrency community for allegedly profiting from the incident, Longo went on to announce that he would launch a new token. Longo said: "This is the only token I will be associated with forever." PNUT community members countered that they had donated about $50,000 to Longo, but Longo immediately sold it. At the time of writing, JUSTICE has a market cap of approximately $42.1 million and over 15,800 holders, according to Solscan data. The token was minted using the Pump.fun platform.
Later news came out that 80% of the supply of JUSTICE tokens issued by the owner of the internet celebrity squirrel Peanut was suspected to be controlled by an internal team.
ai16z founder: We are discussing with a16z to establish an entity organization, and will launch the ai16z DAO autonomous trading function next week
Crypto KOL Mark summarized the project information updated by ai16z founder Shaw on the X platform. These include: plans to launch the ai16z Dao autonomous trading function next week, and promised not to tweet until everything is completed; a first-line CEX hopes to list ai16z, but ai16z needs to establish a legal entity first; a call is being made with the actual a16z to discuss the launch of DUNA (decentralized non-profit organization: a legal DAO formation in Wyoming); potential cooperation is being discussed with the Ethereum Foundation, Magic Eden, Jupiter and other companies; Ai16z Open Committee will be established together with Nous Research (a top open source artificial intelligence company) and Loot Realms.
Farcaster founder: Frames v2 will be fully launched in early 2025
As reported by Cointelegraph, Dan Romero, founder of the decentralized Web3 social protocol Farcaster, detailed an update to Frames that saw the number of protocol users surge by 400% in a week. When Romero introduced the Frames v2 specification on "We've significantly improved the reliability and speed of transactions and signed messages on mobile devices using the Mobile Wallet Protocol and Rainbow," said a link to the Frames v2 developer preview. The new Frames specification, highlighted by Romero, will be available on November 27 Launching on web and mobile devices, a feature-rich update will be available on December 6th. According to the full specs on GitHub, a full stable version is expected to be released in January or February next year.
MicroStrategy purchased 55,500 Bitcoins last week, with a total value of $5.4 billion
According to MicroStrategy's latest 8-K filing, the company purchased 55,500 bitcoins between November 18 and 24, 2024, with a total value of approximately US$5.4 billion and an average price of US$97,862 per bitcoin. The purchase was made using funds from convertible bond issuance and stock sales. As of November 24, MicroStrategy held a total of 386,700 bitcoins, with a total purchase cost of approximately US$21.9 billion and an average cost of US$56,761 per bitcoin. The company said that the quarterly return on its Bitcoin holdings reached 35.2%, and the annual return reached 59.3%.
Video Sharing Platform Rumble Announces Bitcoin Financial Strategy, Including Purchasing $20 Million in Bitcoin
According to official news, video sharing platform and cloud service provider Rumble (NASDAQ: RUM) announced that its board of directors has approved a corporate financial diversification strategy to allocate part of the company's excess cash reserves to Bitcoin. Rumble's Bitcoin allocation strategy will include the purchase of up to $20 million in Bitcoin at the company's discretion. According to the allocation strategy, the actual timing and value of Bitcoin purchases will be determined by management at its discretion and will depend on a variety of factors, including but not limited to general market and business conditions, Bitcoin trading prices, and Rumble's expected cash needs. The allocation strategy may be suspended, terminated or modified at any time for any reason. Chris Pavlovski, chairman and CEO of Rumble, said: "We believe that the world is still in the early stages of Bitcoin adoption, and the pace of Bitcoin adoption has recently accelerated with the election of a cryptocurrency-friendly presidential administration in the United States and increased institutional adoption. Unlike any government-issued currency, Bitcoin will not be diluted by endless money printing, making it a valuable inflation hedge and an excellent addition to our treasury."
Fox Business reporter: WisdomTree registers XRP ETF in Delaware
Fox Business reporter Eleanor Terrett posted on X platform that global ETF provider WisdomTree has registered XRP ETF in Delaware, and she has confirmed with the company that this is a legal application. It is worth noting that WisdomTree currently manages more than $100 billion in assets.
Semler Scientific purchased 297 Bitcoins, bringing its total holdings to 1,570
Semler Scientific purchased 297 bitcoins between November 18 and 22, with a total cost of approximately $29.1 million and an average price of $97,995 per bitcoin. As of November 22, the company held a total of 1,570 bitcoins, with a total investment of approximately $117.8 million and an average purchase cost of $75,039 per bitcoin. In addition, Semler Scientific announced that its quarterly bitcoin yield (BTC Yield) reached 37.4%, and its year-to-date yield reached 58.4%. The company stated that Bitcoin has been included as a major financial reserve asset and has achieved asset appreciation through its fund management strategy.
Robinhood US Lists WIF Token
According to Aggr News, Robinhood’s US platform has officially launched the WIF token.
Telegram auction platform Fragment introduces mandatory KYC, using Sumsub’s third-party certification service
According to the announcement of Telegram Info (@tginfo), Fragment, a dedicated auction platform for Telegram, has begun to enforce the real-name authentication (KYC) procedure. Users need to pass identity verification before they can purchase services such as "Star Coins", Telegram Premium or anonymous numbers. The verification process is provided by the third-party service Sumsub, requiring users to submit emails, phone numbers, scanned copies of ID cards and facial photos. Users can view the authentication status of their Telegram accounts and TON wallets on the Fragment profile page. Currently, the purchase of Telegram Premium and Star Coins through @PremiumBot or the App Store is not affected. Decentralized markets such as Getgems.io still support the purchase of anonymous numbers and usernames using cryptocurrencies without KYC, but it is uncertain whether these NFTs can be used in Telegram in the long term. Telegram officials have not yet responded to this change.
Avalanche announces the launch of the Avalanche9000 testnet and launches $40 million in retroactive rewards
Avalanche announced that the Avalanche9000 testnet is officially online, and at the same time launched a retroactive reward program called Retro9000, with a total reward amount of up to 40 million US dollars, including a 2 million US dollar referral reward. The program will specifically reward developers who develop L1 blockchains and related key development tools on the Avalanche9000 testnet. Avalanche9000 includes technical updates such as Etna upgrades, ACP-77, and ACP-125, which will reduce deployment costs by 99.9%, simplify customization, and enhance maintenance performance. Currently, more than 500 L1 projects are being developed on the testnet and mainnet, covering a variety of fields such as community games, small business payment solutions, and institutional research.
Telegram’s digital assets valued at $1.3 billion in H1 2024
According to unaudited financial statements, Telegram reported a huge increase in the value of its digital assets in the first half of 2024, from nearly $400 million at the end of last year to $1.3 billion, according to the Financial Times. The documents show that this growth, combined with its gains from the sale of its closely related cryptocurrency Toncoin and another Toncoin-related transaction, provided the Dubai-based company with a financial cushion after its founder Durov ran into legal trouble; Durov is still on bail in France awaiting trial. According to the financial statements, Telegram generated $525 million in revenue in the six months to the end of June, an increase of 190% from the same period in 2023. According to the documents, nearly half of the revenue, or $225 million, came from a one-time transaction with an unnamed company. Under the terms of the deal, Telegram allowed the cryptocurrency Toncoin to be the only way for small businesses to buy advertising on the app in exchange for "remuneration." The exclusive agreement was terminated on October 1, the documents said. Telegram said in its disclosure that it "holds a large amount of Toncoin and is exposed to changes in the market value of Toncoin," and acknowledged that its price has been volatile since Durov was detained. The company earned $353 million from the sale of digital assets in the first half of the year to June, and has since sold another $348 million of Toncoin. The company also achieved a post-tax profit of $335 million in the first half of this year. These figures far exceed the $342 million in revenue and $173 million in losses for the full year 2023, indicating that Telegram was on track to achieve its first annual profit before Durov was detained.
Pump.fun will suspend live streaming to strengthen content review
Meme coin launch platform Pump.fun announced that it will suspend the live broadcast function of the platform indefinitely until the content review infrastructure can cope with the increased activity. Pump.fun said that in the future, it will increase the transparency of the rules by issuing guidelines and provide creators and users with clearer review decision information.
Investment and Financing
BNB Chain Ecosystem Re-mortgage Infrastructure Kernel has raised a total of US$10 million in financing from investors including Binance Labs
According to official news, BNB Chain ecosystem re-pledge infrastructure Kernel announced that it has raised a total of US$10 million in multiple rounds of financing. Investors include Binance Labs, SCB Limited, Laser Digital, Bankless Ventures, Hypersphere, Draper Dragon, DACM, CYPHER, ArkStream Capital, HTX Ventures, Avid VC, GSR, Cluster Capital, Longhash Ventures, Via BTC, Side Door Ventures, NOIA and DWF Labs. According to reports, Kernel is a core re-pledge infrastructure project focused on BNB Chain. Kernel is about to launch the mainnet and will introduce KERNEL tokens to unify the governance and incentives of Kelp, Kernel and Gain, reward early supporters and promote the development of the ecosystem.
Earlier news, Binance Labs announced its investment in BNB Chain re-hypothecation infrastructure Kernel.
Trump family crypto project WLFI receives $30 million investment from Justin Sun
According to Bloomberg, Tron founder Justin Sun invested $30 million in World Liberty Financial (WLFI), the DeFi project of US President-elect Trump, becoming the largest investor in the project. Sun wrote on the X platform: "The United States is becoming a blockchain center, and the rise of Bitcoin is thanks to Trump." A WLFI spokesperson said in a statement: "There have been several major purchases in recent weeks, and we are confident of future success. More such developments are expected in the coming weeks and months."
Schuman Financial launches MiCA-compliant Euro stablecoin EURØP
According to The Block, Schuman Financial has launched the Euro stablecoin EURØP, which complies with MiCA regulations. The currency is pegged to the euro at a 1:1 ratio and is backed by cash and equivalents. It aims to simplify the application of global digital payments, on-chain foreign exchange transactions, and tokenized physical assets. Schuman Financial has been granted a stablecoin issuance license by the French regulator ACPR, and can issue electronic currency tokens pegged to any currency in accordance with MiCA regulations.
The launch comes on the heels of its $7.36 million seed round in September, led by RockawayX, with participation from Lightspeed Faction, Kraken Ventures, Nexo Ventures, Gnosis VC, Delta Blockchain Fund and Bankless Ventures. EURØP will be issued on Ethereum and Polygon chains first, with plans to integrate more blockchains and DeFi protocols in the future, while also being listed on major European crypto exchanges. The company will also build an ecosystem including SEPA integration, banking channels and custody partnerships with top global banks such as Societe Generale.
Important data
The U.S. Bitcoin spot ETF had a total net outflow of US$438 million yesterday, the first net outflow after net inflows in the past five days
South Korea’s cryptocurrency trading volume surges, with DOGE and XRP surpassing Bitcoin in terms of volume
According to Bitcoin.com, the trading volume of Upbit, the largest cryptocurrency exchange in South Korea, has increased by more than 100% in the past seven days, from $5.4 million on November 21 to $11.9 million on November 25. It is worth noting that the trading volumes of DOGE and XRP in the fourth quarter reached $58.2 billion and $38.6 billion, respectively, far exceeding Bitcoin's $30.1 billion. Tiger Research's fourth quarter report shows that about 7.78 million Koreans (15% of the total population) are active in cryptocurrency trading. According to a SamarinHR survey, 49.8% of Korean employees aged 30-39 invest in cryptocurrencies, and the investment ratio of employees in their 20s is 37.1%.
Analysis: 64% of Wintermute’s TOP25 Meme Coins are listed on Binance
According to the analysis of on-chain analyst @ai_9684xtpa, currently 64% of the tokens in the top 25 Meme currency holdings of Wintermute have been listed on Binance. Only 6 of them have listed spot and futures at the same time, and the rest have only listed contracts. For market makers, the hit rate of this proportion is already very high; and for projects that have recently added market making or projects with a high proportion of positions, the proportion will be even higher. Meme coins that participate in market making but have not yet been listed on Binance include: PEPECOIN, APU, SPX, COQ, MANEKI, michi, MOTHER, REKT (a new market making project three days ago), BENJI (the project with the lowest market value among the TOP25 holdings) ). The common features of projects that Wintermute participates in market making and are listed on Binance include: 1. Community popularity is high enough; 2. The market value before listing on Binance is greater than 10 million US dollars and less than 500 million US dollars; 3. Wintermute's initial holding ratio is not less than 1 %. The recent notable data changes in Wintermute's holdings are as follows: 1. NEIRO (uppercase)'s holdings surged by 13.57%, making it the token with the highest holdings; 2. GOAT surpassed MOODENG to become the top Meme coin in holdings; 3. The value of POPCAT positions has increased to US$18.1 million, ranking 3rd; 4.REKT is its latest market-making project.
Base hits 106 TPS record and its TVL exceeds $10 billion
According to Cointelegraph, Ethereum Layer2 network Base has just set a record of 106 TPS, further surpassing Taiko to become the fastest Ethereum Layer2 solution, and its total locked value (TVL) has recently exceeded $10 billion. This marks that Base's TPS has increased by nearly 28% since November 23. According to Base founder Jesse Pollak, in January alone, Base's average TPS was only 4. L2BEAT data shows that Base's TVL value has also increased to $10.68 billion after breaking the $10 billion mark on November 15, becoming the second largest Ethereum Layer2 in terms of TVL, second only to Arbitrum One's $18.3 billion, after Arbitrum One surpassed OP Mainnet in June to take second place. L2BEAT said that this brings the total locked value of Ethereum Layer2 solutions to $49.3 billion.
Ethereum Regains USDT Supply Dominance, Surpassing Tron for the First Time Since 2022
According to The Block, Ethereum has regained its dominance in USDT supply, surpassing Tron for the first time since 2022. As of press time, the circulating supply of USDT on Ethereum is 66.936 billion, while the circulating supply of USDT on Tron is 61.77 billion. So far this year, the supply of USDT on Ethereum has increased by nearly 62%, while Tron has seen a smaller increase of 24.4% over the same period.
