● South Africa’s Financial Conduct Authority has received 20 applications for crypto exchange licenses
According to Bloomberg, South Africa’s Financial Sector Conduct Authority (FSCA) Commissioner Unathi Kamlana said in an interview that since applications for cryptocurrency exchange licenses were opened on June 1, the Financial Sector Conduct Authority has received about 20 applications and is expected to Additional applications will be received before the November 30 deadline.
● The UK’s Economic Crime and Corporate Transparency Bill passed the House of Lords, which may enable law enforcement agencies to seize and freeze cryptocurrencies used for criminal purposes.
According to CoinDesk, the UK's Economic Crime and Corporate Transparency Bill was recently passed by the House of Lords, enabling law enforcement agencies to seize and freeze cryptocurrencies used for criminal purposes, and the bill is one step closer to becoming law.
While the House of Lords did not amend the cryptocurrency aspects of the bill, during previous deliberations, the bill was amended to ensure that the measures apply to terrorism cases and to add measures to help law enforcement agencies seize property that can help identify cryptocurrencies linked to crimes. In addition, an amendment was added to ensure that the courts can require law enforcement agencies to seize and freeze cryptocurrencies used for criminal purposes.
In March, the UK government said combating the criminal misuse of cryptocurrencies was part of its three-year economic crime agenda. The country has introduced cryptocurrency tactical advisors to police forces nationwide to help identify and seize digital assets linked to crime.
Graeme Biggle, director general of the UK National Crime Agency, said when the bill was introduced last September: "Domestic and international criminals have for years abused UK corporate structures to launder the proceeds of crime and corruption, and increasingly use cryptocurrencies. These long-awaited reforms will help us combat both."
Approval from the House of Lords means the bill will go back to the House of Commons for the final stages of deliberation before it can become law. Once both houses agree on the document, the King will then need to sign the bill into law. The bill can be passed back and forth between the two houses of Parliament until they reach agreement.
● UK Financial Conduct Authority: Companies that do not comply with the financial promotion system to market crypto assets will face criminal charges
According to Foresight News, the UK Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) sent letters to companies marketing crypto assets to UK customers, requiring them to comply with the upcoming financial promotion system, otherwise they will face criminal charges with a maximum sentence of 2 years in prison, an unlimited fine, or both. The FCA's order took effect on October 8 and includes overseas companies that sell their products to UK customers.
Firms seeking to register with the Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) must be prepared to undergo a rigorous application process, pay a registration fee and wait up to three months.
● ProShares Bitcoin Futures ETF BITO's asset management scale exceeds US$1 billion
According to The Block, the ProShares Bitcoin Futures ETF (BITO) fund received inflows of $14.9 million and $11.9 million on June 29 and July 3, respectively, bringing its total assets under management to $1.04 billion.
● Report: The total financing of Metaverse projects in H1 2023 was approximately US$707 million, less than 10% of the total financing in 2022
According to a recent report released by Dappradar, the total financing of Metaverse projects from the beginning of 2023 to the end of June was approximately US$707 million. Although this figure accounts for 43.68% of the total financing of crypto projects in 2023, it is still less than 10% of the total financing of Metaverse projects in 2022 (approximately US$7.6 billion).
Furthermore, Dappradar describes Asia in its report as a region where the metaverse will flourish, as the region's governments and businesses are strongly supporting and investing in the industry and its development. Hong Kong is considered an international metaverse hotspot as the government is committed to creating an environment conducive to innovation, with the real estate and luxury goods industries being important components of this emerging metaverse industry. On the other hand, Dappradar points out that China is one of the few countries that has developed a metaverse plan, including initiatives in the fields of education and tourism. In addition, Chinese companies such as ByteDance, Alibaba, Baidu, and Tencent have also invested in the development of metaverse hardware and software.
● Federal Reserve economists' paper: US interest rate cuts may not start until 2026
According to the Wall Street Journal, a paper written by two economists from the Federal Reserve Bank of Kansas City has attracted market attention, pointing out that US interest rates may remain above 5% for much longer than investors expect, perhaps until 2026.
These economists say that while the Fed has tightened policy over the past year at perhaps the fastest pace since the 1980s, rapidly rising inflation is pushing the equilibrium interest rate in the U.S. economy up even faster. Because the pace of economic growth remains so strong (U.S. GDP grew at a 2% annualized rate in the first quarter, according to the latest estimates), the Fed may need to keep interest rates at or above current levels for more than three years before the Fed's preferred inflation measure, the PCE index, returns to its 2% target.
● Data: The total locked value of Solana's ecosystem liquidity pledge agreement increased by 91% in the first half of the year
According to The Block Research, Solana ecosystem Marinade Finance, Lido, Jito, JPool and Socean liquidity staking protocols have accumulated $187 million worth of staked Solana (SOL) tokens, a 91% increase from the initial $98 million invested at the beginning of the year. Currently, these protocols account for 69% of the total value locked in the network, estimated at about $270 million. Among them, Marinade accounts for 62% of the market share in Solana ecosystem liquidity staking, Lido Finance accounts for 27%, and Jito Labs accounts for 6.9%.
● Several developers proposed the creation of ERC-7265 to solve the problem of DeFi’s slow response to attacks
Ethereum developer Diyahir, Fluid Protocol community member Meir Bank and others jointly proposed the creation of the ERC-7265 standard, which aims to introduce a smart contract interface similar to a "circuit breaker" to the DeFi ecosystem to solve the general lack of response time when DeFi faces hacker attacks.
The effectiveness logic of ERC-7265 is that by integrating with this standard, the "circuit breaker" will monitor the flow rate of each asset in the DeFi system in real time. When the rate exceeds the preset parameter threshold, the smart contract will be triggered, thereby immediately suspending the outflow of tokens from the protocol.
The proposers of this standard believe that through ERC-7265, hackers will no longer be able to drain the funds in the entire contract within a few seconds after executing an attack, thereby ensuring the security of most funds in the DeFi protocol.
● TrueUSD: As of June 30, the total circulation of TUSD exceeded 3.05 billion, and the reserve assets exceeded US$3.06 billion
The US dollar stablecoin TrueUSD released a monthly report stating that as of June 30, the total circulation of TUSD was 3,059,838,623, and the reserve assets totaled US$3,066,535,481.
● USDC circulating supply has decreased by 38% this year
According to Blockworks, as of June 30, USDC circulation was $27.9 billion.
Data shows that this amount has dropped to $27.3 billion in less than 48 hours. The total supply of USDC has been declining since the beginning of the year, and has decreased by more than 38% since January 1. According to official data, as of June 29, Circle has issued a total of $500 million USDC in the past 7 days, redeemed $1 billion USDC, and reduced the circulation by $500 million. The total circulation of USDC is $27.9 billion, and the reserve is $28.1 billion, of which $3.2 billion is in cash and $24.9 billion is held by the government money market fund Circle Reserve Fund.
● Google updates privacy policy to allow scraping data for AI training
According to Cointelegraph, Google recently released an update to its privacy policy, which now allows it to obtain any publicly available data and use it for artificial intelligence (AI) training purposes. The policy update shows that Google is now making it clear to the public and its users that any content uploaded publicly online can be used in the training process of its current and future developed artificial intelligence systems.