Hong Kong stablecoin regulation finalized: "Sandbox" participants to be announced; issuers must set up 100% reserves; interest payments to users prohibited

The Hong Kong Treasury Bureau and the HKMA will finalize the legislative proposals to implement the regulatory system in response to the opinions and suggestions of the respondents, and submit the draft bill to the Legislative Council as soon as possible; the HKMA is also processing the "sandbox" application of stablecoin issuers and will announce the list of participants in the near future. The authorities believe that the circulating fiat stablecoins must be fully backed by reserve assets at all times. In the future, fiat stablecoin licensees will need to prove to the Monetary Authority that they have measures (such as excess reserves) in place to comply with the requirements.

In addition, the consultation paper proposes that the issuer's minimum paid-up share capital should be at least 2% of the total amount of fiat stablecoins in circulation, or HK$25 million, whichever is higher. Some respondents believe that it is difficult to maintain sufficient capital in a timely manner based on the circulation of fiat stablecoins. The authorities will change the minimum paid-up share capital requirement to HK$25 million, or 1% of the circulation of its stablecoins, whichever is higher. The Monetary Authority still retains the flexibility and power to impose additional capital requirements when necessary.

In addition, if other jurisdictions have established equivalent systems, the authorities will consider establishing a formal regulatory cooperation mechanism, such as mutual recognition or "passporting" arrangements. In addition, the authorities still prefer to maintain the establishment of a physical company in Hong Kong as one of the licensing criteria. The HKMA also pointed out that there is no prohibition on issuers from providing promotional offers, but issuers are not allowed to arrange with third parties to provide interest to users of fiat stablecoins.

Trump: JPMorgan CEO "suddenly changed" stance against Bitcoin

Bitcoin Magazine tweeted that Trump said that JPMorgan Chase CEO Jamie Dimon suddenly changed his position against Bitcoin. According to previous news, Trump said in an interview with Bloomberg that if he wins the election, he will consider appointing Jamie Dimon as Treasury Secretary.

Biden tested positive for COVID-19, and the probability of Biden withdrawing from the election rose to 64% on Polymarket

According to CCTV News, on July 17 local time, the White House said that US President Biden tested positive for the new crown. According to a White House statement, Biden tested positive for the new crown after his first event in Las Vegas that day. The statement said that Biden has received a booster shot and currently has mild symptoms. Biden will return to his home in Delaware for isolation and continue to work from home. According to the financial sector, Biden said in an interview that if the doctor told him directly that there was a problem with his physical condition, he would re-evaluate whether to continue to participate in the presidential campaign. In addition, Polymarket data shows that Biden's probability of withdrawing from the election has soared to 64%.

US SEC Commissioner: The possibility of Ethereum ETF participating in staking can be reconsidered

Coinage founder Zack Guzmán posted on the X platform that Peirce, a member of the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC), said that the possibility of Ethereum ETFs participating in staking could be reconsidered. Peirce pointed out that “any features like staking or products can be reconsidered.”

US SEC approves Grayscale Ethereum Mini Trust and Proshares Spot Ethereum ETF to be traded on NYSE Arca

According to Cointelegraph, according to the July 17 document, the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) approved two spot Ethereum ETFs - Grayscale Ethereum Mini Trust and ProShares Ethereum ETF - to be listed on the Arca electronic trading platform of the New York Stock Exchange (NYSE). After the relevant 19b-4 form application is approved, the NYSE has the right to promote trading in these funds. However, before the spot products actually begin to be listed, the issuer must still wait for the final opinion of the ETF's respective S-1 application. A Grayscale spokesperson said in a statement: "Grayscale is pleased to announce that the SEC has approved the 19b-4 form for the Grayscale Ethereum Mini Trust. The Grayscale team will continue to have constructive exchanges with SEC staff as we seek full regulatory approval for the U.S. spot Ethereum ETP."

9 of 10 Ethereum spot ETFs have published fees, BlackRock's is 0.25%

US Ethereum spot ETF issuers have successively submitted S-1/A documents to the SEC. Currently, 9 out of 10 ETFs have announced their fees, and only Proshares ETF has not announced them. The specific data is as follows:

The BlackRock iShares Ethereum ETF has a fee of 0.25% (0.12% for the first $250 million) and is ETHA.

The Fidelity Ethereum ETF has a fee of 0.25% (no management fee in 2024), and the ticker is FETH;

The Bitwise Ethereum ETF has a fee of 0.20% (0% for the first $500 million), and the ticker is ETHW;

The 21Shares Ethereum ETF has a fee of 0.21% (0% for the first $500 million) and the ticker is GETH;

The VanEck Ethereum ETF has a fee of 0.20% (0% for the first $150 million) and the ticker is ETHV;

The Invesco Galaxy Ethereum ETF has a fee of 0.25% and the ticker is QETH;

Franklin Ethereum ETF has a fee of 0.19% (0% for the first $1 billion) and is coded EZET;

Grayscale Ethereum ETF fee is 2.50%, the code is ETHE;

The Grayscale Ethereum Mini ETF has a fee of 0.25% (0.12% for the first $2 billion) and the ticker is ETH.

Anthropic and Menlo Ventures launch $100 million AI fund

According to CNBC, artificial intelligence startup Anthropic has launched a $100 million artificial intelligence fund with venture capital firm Menlo Ventures. This move will intensify competition with OpenAI.

Grayscale launches new decentralized artificial intelligence fund, with Near, Filecoin and Render as the highest weighted assets

According to The Block, Grayscale has launched Grayscale Decentralized AI Fund LLC, a new fund focused on decentralized artificial intelligence. The fund aims to promote AI investment in the cryptocurrency industry, with quarterly reorganizations, and will fund three key areas: AI services, solving problems with the use of centralized AI, and developing AI-related infrastructure. The fund's first projects include Bittensor (TAO), Filecoin (FIL), Livepeer (LPT), Near (NEAR), and Render (RNDR), of which Near, Filecoin, and Render are the highest-weighted assets in the fund. Rayhaneh Sharif-Askary, head of product and research at Grayscale, said the fund provides an early opportunity to invest in decentralized AI and helps mitigate the fundamental risks associated with the popularization of AI technology.

Gnosis Pay and other crypto projects affected by Fractal ID data breach

According to The Block, the decentralized payment network Gnosis Pay warned users on Wednesday that there was a data leak in Fractal ID. Fractal ID is a customer verification service used by the company since 2019. Gnosis may not be the only Web3 company affected. Fractal co-founder Julian Leitloff told the media: "An operator account was compromised, so we noticed suspicious activity last Sunday morning. We immediately stopped access and found out the reason, which was subsequently verified by external support." Leitloff said that about 0.5% of Fractal ID's 1 million users were affected.

Fractal ID provides compliance assistance to at least eight crypto protocols, including Polygon, Ripple and Near, and more than 250 companies, according to its website. The project saves personally identifiable information, including user names, proof of residence and ID cards. Leitloff added: "The attack was not targeted at Gnosis, but at the operator's account access. The system itself was not affected, but this account was affected, which means every user who accessed the account was affected."

In a screenshot of an email Fractal ID posted to X, the company said one of its engineers discovered that an attacker had gained access to a Fractal ID carrier account, allowing it to run an API script to access user data. Fractal ID said it blocked the breach in just over two hours. "It's not clear how the attacker gained access to the carrier account, but the company suspects it was related to "passwords obtained from other hackers." Leitloff also stressed that the breach only affected a small number of Fractal ID users.

V God: I am against voting based on whether a politician supports cryptocurrency

Ethereum co-founder Vitalik Buterin has written an article opposing making political voting choices based on "whether or not to support encryption." He said that in the past few years, cryptocurrency has become an increasingly important topic in political policy, and various jurisdictions are considering passing bills to regulate participants in blockchain activities. The cryptocurrency field is becoming more and more active in politics, and many people support them almost entirely based on whether parties and candidates are willing to be friendly to cryptocurrencies. Buterin opposes this trend and believes that making decisions in this way is highly risky and violates the values ​​that people originally entered the crypto field. He said that in the crypto field, people tend to pay too much attention to the centrality of money and the freedom to hold and spend money (which can also be tokens). Bitcoin is seen as an extension of the spirit of libertarianism in the field of Internet payments. Vitalik believes that freedom is important, and decentralized networks are good at protecting freedom. Money is an important area where such networks can be applied, but it is only one of several important areas. And being friendly to cryptocurrencies now does not mean that they will still be friendly to cryptocurrencies five years later. Supporting a politician should be because of their entire platform and views, not just because they support cryptocurrencies.

BlockFi will distribute crypto assets to users who have not withdrawn their coins through Coinbase in July

According to official news, BlockFi announced that it will start the first temporary distribution of crypto assets through Coinbase in July. Asset allocation will be processed in batches in the next few months, and eligible customers will receive email notifications from BlockFi accounts. Due to regulatory requirements, non-US customers are currently unable to receive funds. According to previous news, BlockFi closed and stopped withdrawals in May this year. Assets that failed to be withdrawn in time will not be liquidated into cash, but will be funded in kind. Coinbase will serve as a partner to support its customers' cryptocurrency withdrawals.

Bloomberg: State Street explores creating stablecoins and deposit tokens

According to Bloomberg, citing people familiar with the matter, US financial services giant State Street is exploring ways to participate in blockchain payment settlements. The company is exploring the creation of its own stablecoin and considering creating its own deposit tokens. In addition, State Street is looking for new settlement methods by investing in blockchain payment startup Finality. It is reported that State Street needs to obtain approval from US banking regulators to launch deposit tokens. State Street is one of the world's largest asset management companies, with an asset management scale of over US$4 trillion.

Coinbase to List Ancient8 (A8)

Coinbase has announced that it will support Ancient8 (A8) on the Ethereum network (ERC-20 token). Transfers of the asset are open in regions where Coinbase and Coinbase Exchange support trading. Trading will begin later today (US time) if liquidity conditions are met. Once the asset is in sufficient supply, the A8-USD trading pair will be launched in phases. Some supported jurisdictions may have restrictions on support for A8. The Ethereum network (ERC-20 token) contract address of Ancient8 (A8) is 0x3E5A19c91266aD8cE2477B91585d1856B84062dF.

Binance will launch BNX/TRY and ETH/ARS spot trading pairs on July 18

According to Binance's announcement, Binance will launch BNX/TRY and ETH/ARS spot trading pairs at 22:00 (ET on July 18, 2024). In addition, due to user demand, the zero order fee promotion for the ETH/ARS trading pair will be extended until further notice. Binance will also open trading robot services for the following trading pairs at the same time: spot grid and spot DCA (cost averaging) support BNB/USDC, PEPE/USDC, SOL/USDC, and spot algorithmic orders support BNX/TRY and ETH/ARS.

Putin: Cryptocurrency mining accounts for 1.6% of Russia's electricity consumption

According to Jinshi, Russian President Vladimir Putin said that cryptocurrency mining accounts for 1.6% of Russia's electricity consumption.

Basel Committee releases final disclosure framework for banks’ crypto asset exposure and targeted revisions to crypto asset standards

According to the official website of the Bank for International Settlements (BIS), the Basel Committee has released the final disclosure framework for banks' exposure to crypto assets and targeted revisions to crypto asset standards, which will be implemented on January 1, 2026. The disclosure framework includes standardized forms and templates, requiring banks to disclose qualitative information on crypto-asset-related activities and quantitative information on capital and liquidity requirements, aiming to enhance information availability and support market discipline. The revisions further clarify the criteria for certain stablecoins to receive priority "Group 1b" regulatory treatment and clarify other technical aspects. The Basel Committee will continue to monitor the development of the crypto asset market and the new risks it brings.

Aethir announces $50 million community rewards program, and the originally agreed io.net token swap has been suspended

Aethir, a decentralized cloud computing infrastructure project, announced the launch of a $50 million community reward program. Due to the failure to reach an agreement on the token exchange with io.net, Aethir decided to distribute the $50 million ATH tokens originally planned for the exchange as community rewards to loyal and active community members.

German law enforcement agencies sold nearly 50,000 bitcoins, netting about $2.88 billion

According to Decrypt, German law enforcement agencies netted approximately US$2.88 billion (€2.639 billion) through an "emergency sale" of nearly 50,000 Bitcoins. The bitcoins, worth about $2.1 billion at the time, were initially seized in January during an investigation into German and Polish nationals suspected of operating piracy websites and money laundering. The relevant trials are currently ongoing and the proceeds will be held by the Free State of Saxony until the criminal proceedings are finally concluded. The sale, which took place between June 19 and July 12, was a collaboration between the Saxony Police Department, the Dresden Prosecutor's Office and German trading house Bankhaus Scheich. As required by law, law enforcement agencies must conduct emergency sales when they determine that Bitcoin may depreciate significantly (more than 10%). On-chain data from blockchain analysis company Arkham Intelligence shows that these Bitcoins were sold through centralized exchanges such as Kraken and Coinbase, as well as over-the-counter trading companies such as Flow Traders and Cumberland DRW.

24 suspected insider wallets purchased 37.8% of the total supply of FIGHT before the opening of trading

On-chain data shows that 24 wallets (suspected to be insiders or developers) spent 1.5 ETH (about $4,864) to purchase 378.45 million $FIGHT before the opening of $FIGHT trading, accounting for 37.8% of the total supply. Currently, these 24 wallets have sold 261.6 million $FIGHT, leaving 116.8 million $FIGHT (about $7.36 million), accounting for 11.68% of the total supply.

CryptoQuant Analyst: 36% of Mt. Gox Bitcoin Has Been Distributed to Creditors

CryptoQuant analyst Maartunn wrote that 36% of Mt. Gox's bitcoins have been distributed to creditors. Yesterday, the Mt. Gox custodian transferred 48,641 BTC from the relevant wallet to the Kraken exchange address. Subsequently, Kraken notified some users by email that they had received bitcoins from the Mt. Gox custodian. As of yesterday, the custodian still held 141,686 BTC, which will be gradually distributed in the future.

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