Today's news tips:
US court rules OFAC exceeded its authority in sanctioning Tornado Cash smart contract
Trump administration considers letting CFTC take the lead in digital asset regulation
Brazilian lawmakers propose Bitcoin reserve bill, intending to allocate 5% of treasury reserves to Bitcoin
OpenAI gets $1.5 billion in new investment from SoftBank
Movement Network Foundation announces MoveDrop, airdropping 10% of MOVE tokens to the community
Uniswap Labs launches $15 million bug bounty program
Banzai's board of directors approves purchase of Bitcoin as reserve asset
Japanese social giant Line plans to launch 30 blockchain-based mini Dapps early next year
Regulation & Policy
US court rules OFAC exceeded its authority in sanctioning Tornado Cash smart contract
The U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit overturned a lower court ruling, finding that the Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC) exceeded its authority when it sanctioned Tornado Cash’s immutable smart contracts, a major victory for the protocol and its users. In its opinion, the three-judge panel noted that while the Treasury Department has the authority to take action against “property,” Tornado Cash’s smart contracts are immutable and cannot be controlled or owned, and therefore do not constitute property under the International Emergency Economic Powers Act (IEEPA). Coinbase Chief Legal Officer Paul Grewal said the smart contracts must now be removed from the sanctions list and U.S. users will once again be allowed to use the privacy-preserving protocol. The appeals court has directed the Texas District Court to grant a partial motion for summary judgment filed by plaintiff-appellant Joseph Van Loon et al.
Later in the day, news broke that Tornado Cash (TORN) broke through $34, up more than 900% in 24 hours.
The Central Bank and seven other departments jointly issued the (Action Plan for Promoting High-quality Development of Digital Finance)
The People's Bank of China and seven other departments jointly issued the "Action Plan for Promoting High-Quality Development of Digital Finance", which clearly stated that we will accelerate the digital transformation of financial institutions, improve the digital financial governance system, promote the development of key areas such as science and technology finance, green finance and inclusive finance, support the pilot of digital RMB, and improve the quality and efficiency of financial services. At the same time, we will strengthen risk prevention and data security, optimize the payment environment, and strive to basically build a modern financial system that adapts to the development of the digital economy by the end of 2027.
In terms of creating an efficient and secure payment environment, it is mentioned that we should steadily promote the digital RMB pilot, continuously improve the digital RMB acceptance environment, and enrich the digital RMB usage scenarios. We should also strengthen anti-money laundering supervision of digital financial services.
Trump administration considers letting CFTC take the lead in digital asset regulation
The incoming Trump administration wants to expand the Commodity Futures Trading Commission’s (CFTC) powers, giving it the authority to regulate a large portion of the digital asset market, according to Fox Business News. The move is part of a broader effort by President-elect Donald Trump and the Republican majority in Congress to weaken some of the Securities and Exchange Commission’s regulatory powers over the digital asset industry under President Biden and outgoing SEC Chairman Gary Gensler. With Trump in office and the crypto industry’s growing influence in Republican politics, the CFTC’s responsibilities may soon expand to regulate the spot market for digital assets that are considered commodities, such as Bitcoin and Ethereum, and the exchanges that facilitate their trading, according to sources with direct knowledge of the Trump team’s thinking. Key figures in the incoming Trump administration believe that deregulation is needed to spur innovation in the crypto business, including the potentially transformative blockchain technology. “With adequate funding and the right leadership, I think the CFTC could start looking at regulating digital commodities on Day One of the Trump presidency,” said former CFTC Chairman Chris Giancarlo.
Brazilian lawmakers propose Bitcoin reserve bill, intending to allocate 5% of treasury reserves to Bitcoin
According to Crypto.news, members of the Brazilian Chamber of Deputies have proposed allocating 5% of the country's $370 billion treasury to a strategic Bitcoin reserve. The proposed Bitcoin bill would limit Brazil's Bitcoin reserves to approximately $18.5 billion. The Brazilian Chamber of Deputies (the lower house of the national congress) must first pass the bill before it can be submitted to the Federal Senate (the upper house). If members of the Federal Senate support the proposal, it will be submitted to the Brazilian president for approval to become law.
Morocco may officially lift 2017 cryptocurrency ban and re-legalize
According to Reuters, Morocco's central bank governor Abdellatif Jouahri said at an international conference that Morocco is promoting a cryptocurrency-related bill, which has now entered the approval process. Morocco has imposed a ban on cryptocurrencies since 2017, but underground trading activities are still active. Jouahri revealed that the Moroccan Central Bank (Bank Al Maghrib) has drafted a law to regulate crypto assets and is studying the feasibility of central bank digital currencies (CBDCs). He emphasized that CBDCs, as a digital currency controlled by the central bank, are different from decentralized cryptocurrencies and may play a role in promoting public policy goals such as financial inclusion.
NFT&AI
Kraken to shut down NFT marketplace, shift focus to other projects
According to The Block, the crypto exchange Kraken said in a statement that the company will close its NFT market to free up resources for upcoming projects. After November 27, 2024, users will no longer be able to list, bid, or sell items on Kraken's NFT market; they can only withdraw assets. The market will be completely closed on February 27, 2025. A representative from Kraken said: "We have decided to close our NFT market in order to shift more resources to new products and services, including unannounced plans under development. Customers have been informed of these changes, and our team will support them in transferring their NFTs to their Kraken wallets or self-custodial wallets of their choice."
OpenAI gets $1.5 billion in new investment from SoftBank
According to CNBC, OpenAI is allowing employees to sell about $1.5 billion worth of stock in a new acquisition offer to SoftBank. People familiar with the matter said the new financing will allow SoftBank to obtain a larger share of the OpenAI, while also enabling current and former employees of OpenAI to cash out their shares. The new tender offer, which is scheduled to end this week, is driven by SoftBank founder and CEO Masayoshi Son, who has been asking for a larger stake after investing $500 million in OpenAI's last round of financing. The tender offer has nothing to do with OpenAI's plan to potentially restructure the company into a for-profit business. Even without SoftBank's strong financial support, OpenAI has had no problems raising billions of dollars in cash, according to reports. In the two years since ChatGPT was launched, its valuation has climbed to $157 billion. OpenAI has raised about $13 billion from Microsoft and completed its latest round of $6.6 billion in financing in October, led by Thrive Capital, with participation from chipmaker Nvidia, SoftBank and other investors. The company also obtained a $4 billion revolving credit line, bringing its total liquidity to more than $10 billion.
Project News
Movement Network Foundation announces MoveDrop, airdropping 10% of MOVE tokens to the community
The Movement Network Foundation announced the MoveDrop airdrop program, which aims to reward early users and community members of Movement. MoveDrop will allocate 1,000,000,000 $MOVE (10% of the total supply) to the community, and eligible users include: Road to Parthenon participants, Battle of Olympus winners, Gmovers, designated communities, and Movement testnet builders. Users can visit the MoveDrop website and register until 2pm UTC on December 2, 2024. After the TGE (coming soon), you can check MoveDrop qualifications and claim the airdrop. Failure to register on time will result in loss of MoveDrop eligibility. Users can choose to claim $MOVE on the Ethereum mainnet or after the Movement Network mainnet (coming soon), which will generate a 1.25x reward multiplier. The Movement Network Foundation also stated that it plans to distribute more $MOVE tokens in future events. Earlier yesterday, the Movement Network Foundation announced the MOVE token economics, with 60% allocated to the community.
WalletConnect launches WCT token qualification check page
Crypto wallet protocol WalletConnect announced the launch of a token eligibility check function, allowing eligible users to claim WCT tokens and stake them.
Uniswap Labs launches $15 million bug bounty program
Uniswap Labs announced a $15.5 million bug bounty program, the largest in history, to discover and fix critical vulnerabilities in Uniswap v4 core contracts. Uniswap v4 is the latest iteration of the Uniswap protocol, adding a new "hooks" feature that allows developers to customize pools, transactions, fees, and liquidity providers (LP) position interactions. This version aims to significantly save user costs, reduce pool creation fees by 99.99%, and optimize the cost of multi-hop transactions. The Uniswap v4 code has been independently audited by 9 institutions including OpenZeppelin and Trail of Bits, and has undergone multiple rounds of community security competitions, with no major vulnerabilities found.
Starknet Becomes the First Ethereum Layer-2 Network to Support Crypto Staking
According to CoinDesk, Ethereum's Layer-2 expansion plan Starknet has officially launched a crypto staking function, becoming the first Ethereum L2 network that supports users to earn income by staking tokens. Users holding at least 20,000 STRK (about $12,000) can become validators, and the pledged assets are used as collateral to verify transactions and receive rewards; users holding less than 20,000 STRK can entrust tokens to validators for staking. Users need to wait 21 days to stake and retrieve tokens, including rewards generated during the staking period. At the same time, Bitwise Asset Management announced that it will operate a public validator node for STRK holders to entrust staking, and provide independent validator services to institutional clients.
Banzai's board of directors approves purchase of Bitcoin as reserve asset
According to Globenewswire, Banzai International, Inc. (NASDAQ: BNZI), a US listed company, announced that its board of directors has approved the purchase of Bitcoin as a fiscal reserve asset. The company's board of directors has authorized Banzai to use company funds to purchase and hold a certain amount of Bitcoin, up to 10% of the company's corporate financial account, to diversify financial assets and hedge against inflation. Banzai founder and CEO Joe Davy said: "We believe that Bitcoin will diversify our assets and enable us to benefit from the potential long-term value of Bitcoin." According to reports, Banzai is a marketing technology company that provides basic marketing and sales solutions.
NYSE Arca Files 19b-4 Filing for Bitwise Bitcoin and Ethereum ETPs
According to official news, crypto asset management company Bitwise Asset Management announced that NYSE Arca, a subsidiary of the New York Stock Exchange, has submitted a 19b-4 application document to list a Bitwise exchange-traded product (ETP), which will hold both Bitcoin and Ethereum spot weighted by market value, providing exposure to both assets. According to the submitted documents, the ETP will directly hold both assets. The launch of the ETP still needs to wait for the approval of the Form 19b-4 document and the effectiveness of the Form S-1 registration statement.
MetaMask co-founders use Clanker and pump.fun to issue the same-named Meme coin CONSENT for comparison
Dan Finlay, co-founder of MetaMask, disclosed on Warpcast that he had Clanker release a token called "CONSENT" on the Base network on Farcaster this morning, and a coin with the same name later appeared on the Solana network. Dan Finlay later posted: "We are comparing the Meme coin experience of WC (Warpcast) and SOL. There are two tokens called CONSENT, and only one will win in the end. So far, the obvious result is: on Clanker, there will be a lot of people rushing and Rugging; on Pump.fun, at least the developers are the real founding members. For example, it is impossible to crowdfund for an organization using Clanker's model. So far, even though the amount I invested in Pump.fun is only a small part of Clanker, the income has been several times what I lost on Clanker."
In this regard, Base ecosystem AI Agent Clanker said on the X platform: "MetaMask co-founder Dan Finlay used Clanker and pump.fun to issue Meme coins. He gave us some good feedback and will use this feedback to improve our products. Dan Finlay said his experience was not good, but he made more than $26,000 through ETH alone."
Swell has opened Wavedrop 1 airdrop application
Swell, the re-staking protocol, said on the X platform that it has opened the Wavedrop 1 airdrop claim, that is, the SWELL tokens earned in Wavedrop 1 are now supported for claiming. Continuing to hold Swell assets or using them in supported DeFi integrations can increase the user's next Wavedrop.
Supra, the integrated public chain, announced that the Supra MoveVM mainnet is now live
According to official news, the integrated L1 public chain Supra announced that the Supra MoveVM Layer1 mainnet is now online, and more products will be launched in the next few months. Supra said: "Today we have started the next stage of realizing our vision, which is to use Supra's IntraLayer to connect all blockchains and even the Web2 world: IntraLayer is a unified layer designed to connect the entire digital financial field." In addition, the TGE of its SUPRA token will start at 21:00 on November 27, Beijing time.
Japanese listed company Remixpoint plans to buy another $3.27 million worth of Bitcoin
According to Coinpost, Japanese listed company Remixpoint announced that it has purchased another 500 million yen (about 3.27 million U.S. dollars) worth of Bitcoin, bringing its total investment in crypto assets to about 3.5 billion yen (about 22.92 million U.S. dollars). The company plans to complete the acquisition by the end of this year while monitoring the market environment. The company said that if the new purchase has a significant impact on the combined performance, it will disclose the information in a timely manner. Earlier in September, Remixpoint purchased about 5.27 million U.S. dollars worth of crypto assets, including BTC, ETH, SOL and AVAX.
Web3 distribution platform Portal announced that it will launch three new products in December
Web3 distribution platform Portal announced that it will launch three new products in December 2024, through which users can use Hyperway's functions on any blockchain.
CZ suggests using blockchain technology to achieve AI data annotation and advocates decentralized tool development
Binance founder Changpeng Zhao (CZ) said on social media that tasks such as AI data annotation are very suitable for completion through blockchain, which can make use of low-cost global labor and make instant payments through cryptocurrency to break geographical restrictions. He also mentioned that BNB Chain's Greenfield provides storage support, but more tools are still needed, calling on developers to jointly build a decentralized AI data processing ecosystem.
Japanese social giant Line plans to launch 30 blockchain-based mini Dapps early next year
According to CoinDesk, Japanese social media giant Line plans to launch 30 blockchain-based mini Dapps (decentralized applications) early next year, covering games, social networking, DeFi and AI chat functions, and plans to expand the total to 150 by the end of the first quarter. The move aims to provide more blockchain services to its 196 million active users, drawing on Telegram's successful experience in Web3 games. Line has previously dabbled in NFTs, but failed to popularize them due to user experience and interface design issues. This time, it will re-focus on blockchain games and practical functions.
Binance Finance, One-click Coin Purchase, Flash Exchange, Leverage, Contract Launch Thena (THE)
According to the Binance announcement, the Binance platform will launch Thena (THE) related functions in stages:
1. Binance Finance: THE principal-guaranteed coin-earning product will be launched and open for subscription at 18:00 (ET) today; users can purchase THE through the fixed investment platform starting at 18:00 on November 28.
2. One-click buying and selling of coins: THE can be bought and sold through the "One-click buying coin" page one hour after the spot trading is launched using a credit card, Google Pay, Apple Pay or wallet balance.
3. Flash Exchange Trading Platform: Within one hour after the launch, users can exchange THE for BTC, USDT or other supported tokens on the Flash Exchange Platform without any exchange fee.
4. Margin trading: Starting from 20:00 today, CoinSafe and Isolated Margin trading will add THE borrowable assets and THE/USDT margin trading pairs. Please refer to the margin page for relevant data.
5. Contract trading: Starting from 20:15 today, Binance will launch THE 1-75x U-based perpetual contract.
Financing News
Deutsche Bank Joins Partior’s $80 Million Series B Round as a Strategic Investor
Partior, a Singapore-based blockchain fintech company, announced that Deutsche Bank has joined its Series B financing as a strategic investor, with a total financing of US$80 million. Previously, the Series B financing was led by Peak XV Partners, with participation from J.P. Morgan, Jump Trading, Standard Chartered Bank, Temasek, and Valor Capital Group.
Partior plans to expand its cross-border settlement capabilities and develop features such as instant foreign exchange swaps and multi-bank payments with the support of Deutsche Bank. Deutsche Bank will join its platform as a settlement bank for euros and dollars and strengthen the capabilities of its recently launched dbX cross-border payment ecosystem. Since its establishment in 2021, Partior has processed more than $1 billion in transactions. Its blockchain-based network provides real-time clearing and settlement services, simplifies global payment processes and improves transparency and efficiency.
Talus Network Completes $6 Million Funding Led by Polychain Capital, Valuing $150 Million
According to The Block, the high-throughput blockchain protocol Talus Network has completed a $6 million strategic financing led by Polychain Capital, with a valuation of $150 million. This round of financing also attracted investors such as Foresight Ventures, Animoca, Geek Cartel and Echo, as well as several well-known angel investors. The funds will be used to expand the Talus ecosystem, including Protochain, Nexus framework and "AI dating experience" applications. Talus' total financing has reached $9 million. Talus is committed to providing support for decentralized AI agents. The Talus Agents it developed can manage DeFi portfolios, DAO governance fund allocations, and in-game NPCs and other tasks. Users can jointly own and trade these on-chain assets. In addition, the platform plans to launch TAI tokens to pay transaction fees and resource allocation. As an ecological case, Talus will launch the "AI Bae" application by the end of the year to provide users with personalized AI companions, generate exclusive virtual images by connecting to TikTok, and support chat, social gambling and tokenized interactions.
Important data
The total net outflow of the US Bitcoin spot ETF yesterday was US$123 million, and the ETF net asset ratio reached 5.45%
Pump.fun accounts for 62% of Solana DEX trading volume in November
According to Dune data, Pump.fun accounted for 62.3% of Solana's decentralized exchange (DEX) trading volume in November, while its transaction value accounted for 42.3%. In the past three months, the platform has contributed an average of more than 60% of Solana's DEX trading volume. Pump.fun was launched in January 2024, allowing users to create tokens for free and spawning a variety of popular meme coins. However, the platform has been controversial for live broadcasts of inappropriate content and legal compliance issues, including animal abuse, fake suicide performances, and inappropriate video uploads. Despite this, Pump.fun has made a huge contribution to Solana's trading ecology, and its future development will directly affect the health and stability of the Solana network. Some analysts believe that Solana's over-reliance on Pump.fun may lead to potential risks, and it is necessary to be vigilant about the long-term sustainability of the network.
Pantera Bitcoin Fund's return has reached 1,000 times, with a cumulative return rate of over 131,000%
Pantera Capital's Bitcoin Fund has achieved a return rate of more than 1,000 times since its establishment in 2013, with a cumulative return rate of 131,165%. This landmark achievement reflects its forward-looking strategy for Bitcoin investment. Fund manager Dan Morehead reviewed the background of the fund's inception and mentioned that the team purchased 2% of the world's Bitcoins when the price of Bitcoin was low in 2013. He said that the long-term growth potential of Bitcoin is still huge. Although only 5% of global financial wealth is currently involved in blockchain assets, this proportion is expected to increase significantly as U.S. regulations become clearer and institutional investors enter. Morehead predicts that Bitcoin may reach a market value of US$740,000 per coin in the next few years, and it is expected that the long-term growth of the blockchain industry will continue to bring generous returns to investors. He also emphasized that although the road to investing in Bitcoin is full of twists and turns, its potential asymmetric returns have made it one of the most attractive investment opportunities in the past 40 years.
CryptoQuant: Long-term Bitcoin holders have sold more than 728,000 BTC in the past 30 days
According to The Block, long-term Bitcoin holders have sold more than 728,000 Bitcoins in the past 30 days, according to CryptoQuant data. CryptoQuant wrote in an X post: "This is the biggest sell-off since April." This also reversed the trend of large buyers absorbing Bitcoin in October, when the positive inflow of Bitcoin was close to 250,000. According to TradingView data, Bitcoin's market share (a measure of its share of the total market value of the entire cryptocurrency) is currently about 58.78%, lower than the recent high of more than 60%.
Vitalik received 22.89 ETH from the sale of Meme coins and donated 320 ETH to CoinCenter
According to Lookonchain monitoring, vitalik.eth once again sold some of the free Meme coins (including DOG reported earlier) and received 22.89 ETH ($76,500). He then donated 320 ETH ($1.07 million) to CoinCenter.
