Today's news tips:
Biden Administration Officials to Participate in Bitcoin Roundtable Hosted by U.S. Representatives
Vitalik endorses TiTok AI for on-chain image storage
Curve founder clarifies misinformation about UwU Lend hack and CRV destruction
Forbes: It is estimated that Zhao Changpeng personally holds 64% of the circulating supply of BNB
LayerZero CEO: A total of 594,641 participants will receive airdrops, and early traders will receive 3 times the reward
ZK Nation: ZK airdrop tokens will be available on June 17
Tether CEO: More than 300 million people use USDT worldwide, and Tether is the main buyer of US Treasury bonds
Hamster Kombat has surpassed 150 million users, a 50% increase from last week
Regulatory News
Biden Administration Officials to Participate in Bitcoin Roundtable Hosted by U.S. Representatives
According to Bitcoin Magazine, members of the Biden administration will attend a Bitcoin roundtable in early July with key congressional officials in Washington, D.C., and pro-crypto billionaire Mark Cuban. The meeting, hosted by Rep. Ro Khanna, will discuss how to keep Bitcoin and blockchain innovation within the United States. In recent weeks, Mark Cuban has also spoken directly to the Biden administration on cryptocurrency policy, speculating that Biden's stance on cryptocurrency could cost him the upcoming November election. Meanwhile, Trump also promised in his latest speech to "end Biden's cryptocurrency war."
Trump promises to end Biden's war on cryptocurrencies
According to Cointelegraph, on June 14, former US President Donald Trump delivered a special speech in West Palm Beach, Florida, saying: "I will end Joe Biden's war on cryptocurrencies. We will ensure that the future of cryptocurrencies and the future of Bitcoin are created in the United States. We will keep it here, and a lot of work will be done in Florida." This day is Trump's 78th birthday. This is not the first time Trump has criticized Biden's tough stance on cryptocurrencies recently. On May 26, he targeted Biden and argued that the United States must be content with the leading position in the cryptocurrency industry. Trump will face Biden in the 2024 presidential election, and the US election day is scheduled for November 5. At the same time, according to CoinLedger data, Florida was rated as the "best state" for crypto taxes in the United States, while New York was rated as the worst state.
Project News
Vitalik endorses TiTok AI for on-chain image storage
According to Cointelegraph, Ethereum co-founder Vitalik Buterin has endorsed the new Token for Image Tokenizer (TiTok) compression method for application on the blockchain. Not to be confused with social media platform TikTok, the new TikTok compression method significantly reduces image size, making it more suitable for storage on the blockchain. Buterin highlighted TiTok's blockchain potential on decentralized social media platform Farcaster, saying "320 bits is basically a hash. Small enough for every user to get on the chain." This development may have a significant impact on the blockchain. Personal profile pictures (PFPs) and NFTs have a major impact on digital image storage. Developed by researchers from ByteDance and the Technical University of Munich, TiTok compresses images into 32 small data chunks (bits) without losing quality. According to the TiTok research paper, advanced artificial intelligence (AI) image compression allows TikTok to compress a 256x256 pixel image into "32 discrete markers." TiTok is a one-dimensional (1D) image markup framework that "breaks the grid limitations present in 2D markup methods," resulting in more flexible and compact images. TiTok leverages machine learning and advanced artificial intelligence to convert images into tokenized representations using a transformer-based model. The method uses regional redundancy, which means it identifies and uses redundant information in different areas of the image to reduce the overall data size of the final product. According to the research paper, TiTok's "compact latent representation" can produce "more efficient and effective representations than traditional techniques." Despite its similar name, social media platform TikTok is not endorsed by Buterin. The Ethereum co-founder highlights TiTok’s blockchain potential, lending credibility to the new AI-driven image compression method.
Curve founder clarifies misinformation about UwU Lend hack and CRV destruction
According to Cointelegraph, Michael Egorov, founder and CEO of Curve Finance (CRV), recently expressed his views on the recent UwU Lend hack, making it clear that the incident did not exploit Curve Finance itself. Egorov clarified: "This is not a vulnerability exploited by Curve, but a vulnerability exploited by the UwU Lend project." He explained that the hacker deposited the CRV obtained from UwU into Curve's LlamaLend platform and disappeared, leaving debts in the system. Egorov suggested that UwU Lend re-verify all contracts and work with high-quality security auditors to prevent similar incidents in the future and recover losses. At the same time, he also clarified the misinformation about destroying CRV tokens to stabilize prices and increase APY, saying that this was false information released by fake accounts. Cointelegraph initially reported that Egorov proposed to destroy 10% of CRV tokens worth $37 million to stabilize token prices and provide voters with higher APY. In terms of liquidation risk management, Egorov said that Curve Finance has a borrowing limit for non-major cryptocurrencies (non-BTC or ETH collateral), and emphasized that Curve's specific market can be well parameterized to cope with market fluctuations. He also pointed out that there were shortcomings in the industry in handling liquidations, such as the failure to perform a partial hard liquidation of his Curve positions in a timely manner, which he eventually had to handle on his own. In addition, Egorov announced on June 15 that he had fully repaid the $10 million in bad debt caused by the soft liquidation triggered by the UwU exploit, emphasizing that this did not affect anyone. These actions show Egorov's emphasis on ensuring the stability of Curve Finance and safeguarding the rights of users.
DMM Bitcoin completes Bitcoin purchase to compensate users, the cause of the theft is still under investigation
DMM Bitcoin, a crypto exchange under the Japanese DMM.com Group, announced that in response to the illegal outflow of crypto assets on May 31, 2024, three types of financing, namely, debt financing of 5 billion yen, debt financing of 5 billion yen, and subordinated debt financing of 2 billion yen, have been completed, raising a total of 55 billion yen (about 354 million US dollars). Bitcoins equivalent to the amount stolen to compensate users were purchased on June 14. The cause of the theft is still under investigation. Earlier on May 31, it was reported that about 300 million US dollars worth of bitcoins were stolen from DMMBitcoin's wallet.
Forbes: It is estimated that Zhao Changpeng personally holds 64% of the circulating supply of BNB
According to Forbes, the latest estimate puts Binance founder Zhao Changpeng's wealth at $61 billion, making him the 24th richest person in the world, just behind Julia Koch and her family. The second richest person in the cryptocurrency space is Coinbase founder Brian Armstrong, with a fortune of $11 billion. There are two factors behind Zhao Changpeng's growth in wealth. First, he holds a 90% stake in Binance, which is still worth $33 billion despite his resignation as CEO in November 2023 as part of a settlement with the U.S. Department of Justice and admitting to anti-money laundering and sanctions violations. His company also paid a $4.9 billion fine to the U.S. government. However, this had a smaller impact on Zhao Changpeng's personal wealth, as he only had to pay a $50 million fine. In addition, Forbes said that the significant change in Zhao Changpeng's net worth came from his personal holdings of BNB, a token issued by the exchange, with an estimated 94 million tokens, accounting for 64% of the 147.5 million BNB tokens in circulation. Forbes estimates that Binance owns 71% of the BNB supply.
Farcaster co-founder: Warpcast has no international expansion plans, the core is still English users
In response to a user saying "I hope Warpcast will become an international community and don't want its core to remain English users", Farcaster co-founder Dan Romero responded: "Warpcast is an American team and has no international expansion plans. We think we can build an excellent client for English users, but we don't have enough bandwidth to serve international users well."
Tether CEO: More than 300 million people use USDT worldwide, and Tether is the main buyer of US Treasury bonds
As reported by Be In Crypto, Tether CEO Paolo Ardoino recently highlighted the important role of USDT in driving demand for the U.S. dollar in emerging markets. Ardoino revealed that more than 300 million people around the world use USDT as a digital dollar to provide basic financial services to communities in developing countries. This stablecoin improves the efficiency of money transfer and storage, bypassing the traditional financial system that often excludes the underbanked. This means that if Tether's USDT usage scale is equivalent to a country, its economy will be larger than countries like Indonesia, Pakistan, and Nigeria. Therefore, the high acceptance of USDT has a significant impact on the global financial system. Ardoino pointed out that Tether is one of the top three buyers of short-term U.S. Treasuries in the world, and is also among the top twenty buyers overall. This reflects Tether's growing influence in the financial sector and the increasing integration of virtual assets with the traditional financial system. Ardoino's comments were in response to an article that pointed out that dollar-backed stablecoins have fueled demand for U.S. public debt.
LayerZero CEO: A total of 594,641 participants will receive airdrops, and early traders will receive 3 times the reward
LayerZero Labs CEO Bryan Pellegrino announced the final airdrop rules on Twitter. Early transactions will receive 3 times the reward, and if 3 transactions are made in the later stage, an additional 50 tokens will be awarded (84,000 people are eligible, and this part is about 4.2 million tokens). He stated that a total of 594,641 participants will receive airdrops, of which: - 364,628 participants will receive 50-100 tokens (total: 24,964,176.99); - 184,177 participants will receive 100-250 tokens (total: 27,135,924.07); - 34,647 participants will receive 250-500 tokens (total: 11,606,358.46); - 8,814 participants will receive 500-1000 tokens (total: 5,821,043.59); - 2,217 participants will receive 1000-5000 tokens (total: 3,633,074.70); - 158 participants will receive 5000 tokens (total: 792,823.21).
Later in the day, LayerZero released a temporary witch list and provided 24 hours to receive false positive feedback; LayerZero CEO stated that bounty hunter clusters that failed the Nansen and Chaos Labs checks would be removed.
Three separate groups, including FTX debtors, filed competing claims against SBF’s seized assets
According to The Block, after the criminal conviction of SBF, the former CEO of FTX, more than $11 billion of property (including crypto tokens, private jets, funds in bank accounts, etc.) was confiscated. Now three separate groups - FTX debtors, creditor groups, and an offshore entity founded by SBF have made competing claims for these seized assets, claiming that these properties legally belong to them. The debtor claimed in the document that although SBF was ordered to confiscate the relevant assets, these assets did not belong to him from the beginning because they originated from his criminal behavior. According to the trial results, all specific properties are held in the name of the debtor entity or FTX Digital and/or are fully funded by the debtor's assets. At the same time, Emergent, an offshore company founded by SBF, its liquidator, and lawyers who filed a class action lawsuit on behalf of FTX creditors in the Southern District of Florida also filed claims for some of the relevant assets. Emergent claims that the company retains ownership of hundreds of millions of dollars worth of Robinhood stocks, including proceeds from stocks that have been seized and sold by the government. In addition, lawyers hired by Sunil Kavuri, the largest FTX creditor group representative, also made several claims. “The jury found that the $8 billion in seized FTX customer assets came from SBF’s fraud against FTX customers, not FTX the company,” the filing from law firms Boies Schiller Flexner and The Moskowitz said. “As a result, the seized assets, including Robinhood shares, bank account funds, confiscated crypto tokens, etc., should be returned to customers, not debtors.”
ZK Nation stated in its latest FAQ document that even if a user meets all 7 criteria, it is possible that they will not be eligible for airdrops. ZKsync user airdrop allocation is based on a combination of the following: 1. How many of the seven eligibility criteria are met; 2. The amount bridged and held on ZKsync Era (either in the user's wallet or in DeFi protocols) based on the time-weighted average balance (TWAB) over the 12 months ending on the snapshot date; 3. Bonus multiplier: If the wallet is part of a predefined group, such as early ETH adopters, holders of top ZKsync native NFTs/tokens, or holders of airdrops such as ARB, OP, ENS, etc., it will receive an allocation multiplier. Therefore, the transaction volume itself has no effect on the size of the allocation. This means that even if a user meets all seven criteria, the user may not be eligible for a distribution if the average amount held over a period of time is small, or if they are not eligible for any other bonus multipliers.
ZK Nation: ZK airdrop tokens will be available on June 17
ZK Nation posted on the X platform that it has updated its FAQ document to explain 15 airdrop-related questions. The ZK airdrop token collection time will start at 7:00 am UTC on Monday, June 17 (15:00 Beijing time).
Later in the news, ZK Nation stated that even if a user meets all seven criteria, he or she may not be eligible for airdrops.
Fidelity Digital Assets releases 60-second video introducing Runes
Max Wadington, a research analyst at Fidelity Digital Assets, a subsidiary of Fidelity Investments, released a 60-second video on Youtube to introduce Runes. He briefly introduced the development history, protocol mechanism and impact of Runes on the Bitcoin network, and finally pointed out that he would continue to pay attention to its development.
Arthur Hayes believes Dogecoin ETF may be launched at the end of this cycle
According to Bitcoinist, BitMEX co-founder Arthur Hayes and Real Vision CEO and co-founder Raoul Pal recently shared insights into the potential of Dogecoin ETFs in Coin Bureau's YouTube podcast. Arthur Hayes said that the Dogecoin ETF may be launched at the end of this cycle, and said that his prediction is based on the substantial growth rate of doge-themed meme coins over the years, highlighting Dogecoin's status as the oldest meme coin in the cryptocurrency field, giving it an advantage over other meme-based cryptocurrencies. Raoul Pal also agreed with the BitMEX founder's prediction that a Dogecoin ETF will appear at the end of the market cycle. He expressed strong support for the Dogecoin ETF and discussed the possibility with Jan van Eck, CEO of VanEck, an investment management company and spot Bitcoin ETF provider.
Important data
Hamster Kombat has surpassed 150 million users, a 50% increase from last week
According to Decrypt, TON ecosystem game Hamster Kombat claimed on Friday that its current player base is larger than the population of Russia, with more than 150 million players, a 50% increase from last week. Last week, members of the Hamster Kombat team hinted that the airdrop is currently scheduled for July. It is reported that the game has attracted a lot of attention in Telegram. Hamster Kombat's announcement channel on Telegram is the most popular channel on the app, with more than 35 million subscribers. The game's YouTube channel currently has about 23 million subscribers, and its Twitter account has 7.7 million followers. The number of followers of each account has increased significantly in the past week.
Arthur Hayes deposited 3,000 ETH, equivalent to $10.66 million, to ether.fi 16 minutes ago
According to Arkham monitoring, 16 minutes ago, BitMEX co-founder Arthur Hayes deposited 3,000 ETH to ether.fi, worth approximately US$10.66 million.
Ethereum Foundation-associated addresses transferred out 18,000 ETH in the past hour, worth $64.48 million
According to the monitoring of on-chain data analyst @ai_9684xtpa, the Ethereum Foundation-related addresses are transferring large amounts of ETH. On November 20, 2015, the Ethereum Foundation transferred 44,167 ETH to the address starting with 0x8e2 (the ETH price was only $0.9268 at the time). This ETH was transferred three times in nine years, and each time it was partially sold or recharged to the trading platform; the last 18,089 ETH of this address has been transferred to the address starting with 0x2f7 in the past hour, with a value of $64.48 million.
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