Today's news tips:
Hong Kong Monetary Authority announces list of participants in stablecoin issuer "sandbox"
US SEC approves Grayscale Ethereum Mini Trust and Proshares Spot Ethereum ETF to be traded on NYSE Arca
Basel Committee releases final disclosure framework for banks’ crypto asset exposure and targeted revisions to crypto asset standards
9 of 10 Ethereum spot ETFs have published fees, BlackRock's is 0.25%
Polygon plans to migrate MATIC to POL tokens on September 4
WazirX suspected to be hacked, loss exceeds $230 million
BlockFi will distribute crypto assets to users who have not withdrawn their coins through Coinbase in July
German law enforcement agencies sold nearly 50,000 bitcoins, netting about $2.88 billion
Regulatory News
Hong Kong Monetary Authority announces list of participants in stablecoin issuer "sandbox"
The Hong Kong Monetary Authority (HKMA) today announced the list of participants in the “Sandbox” for stablecoin issuers, including JD CoinChain Technology (Hong Kong) Co., Ltd., Yuanbi Innovation Technology Co., Ltd., Standard Chartered Bank (Hong Kong) Limited, Anmi Group Limited and Hong Kong Telecom Limited. The HKMA emphasized that entering the “Sandbox” is not a prerequisite for applying for a stablecoin issuer license in the future. Even if participating institutions that have entered the “Sandbox” intend to obtain a license in the future, they must submit a formal application after the regulatory system is implemented.
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.
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."
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.
Project News
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.
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.
Polygon plans to migrate MATIC to POL tokens on September 4
According to The Block, Polygon's mainnet upgrade is scheduled for September 4, 2024, and its native token will be converted from MATIC to POL after community approval. POL is expected to maintain MATIC's existing token economics, distribution, and total supply. Subsequent stages may see the expansion of POL functionality, especially within the AggLayer, depending on community opinion. The testnet migration launched on July 17 aims to identify and resolve potential issues before the mainnet upgrade. After the upgrade, POL will replace MATIC as the main token for gas fees and staking.
LayerZero Foundation: The provisional list of bounty hunters has been made public, and the final distribution will be carried out on July 23
The LayerZero Foundation stated on the X platform that the provisional list of bounty hunters and other details have been uploaded to the Commonwealth platform. Bounty hunters can review this provisional list until 00:00 UTC on July 21. The final distribution will be made before the end of the day on July 23 (Tuesday). The allocation is at the discretion of the LayerZero Foundation and is subject to change. This list should not be considered the final sybil list or reused intact. The list reflects a snapshot at the time of allocation, but does not take into account unreviewed reports or reports that were later determined to be false positives.
WazirX suspected to be hacked, loss exceeds $230 million
According to Lookonchain monitoring, more than $230 million in assets have been abnormally transferred from the WazirX (@WazirXIndia) wallet to the "0x04b2" wallet. Currently, the "0x04b2" wallet is selling these assets and has sold 64.027 billion PEPE (worth $7.6 million). It is reported that WazirX is an Indian crypto exchange, and the chain detective ZachXBT also issued a statement saying that WazirX was suspected of being hacked and the loss amount exceeded $230 million. The main theft address is 0x04b21735E93Fa3f8df70e2Da89e6922616891a88. At present, the attacker still holds more than $100 million worth of SHIB and more than $4.7 million worth of FLOKI for sale.
Later in the day, WazirX confirmed that its multi-signature wallet had a security vulnerability and planned to suspend withdrawals. WazirX said the security issue was related to the Liminal multi-signature wallet.
Elliptic: North Korea-linked hackers may be behind $235 million WazirX hack
ether.fi Foundation announces that Season 2 ETHFI claims are now live
The ether.fi Foundation announced on the X platform that Season 2 ETHFI claims are now online. Please apply through the official website.
Upbit will restrict employees and their immediate family members from trading on the platform
According to Decenter, Dunamu, the operator of the Korean crypto exchange Upbit, announced that in order to cooperate with the implementation of the Virtual Asset User Protection Act, the company has released the first transparency report of the Korean cryptocurrency industry. According to the report, Dunamu will restrict employees and their immediate family members from selling and exchanging crypto assets on Upbit to maintain the fairness of the trading order and enhance investor confidence, and has established the Upbit Market Monitoring System (UMO) to prohibit price manipulation on Upbit. In addition, Dunamu plans to publish a transparency report on the Upbit website every year.
Multiple Mt. Gox creditors report multiple unauthorized login attempts to their accounts
According to Cointelegraph, in the Reddit platform Mt. Gox creditor sub-forum "r/mtgoxinsolvency", some users reported problems logging into their accounts on the Mt. Gox website, while other users shared screenshots showing a large number of unauthorized login attempts to their accounts. Some users are worried that this may be a "brute force" attack on Mt. Gox creditors, but others believe that this may just be a website malfunction. The Mt. Gox website has entered maintenance mode after the relevant incident.
IoTeX releases 2.0 white paper, new economics will drive IOTX to become the base currency in the DePIN field
IoTeX announced the launch of the IoTeX 2.0 white paper on the X platform. IoTeX 2.0 is developing a new roadmap, aiming to connect 100 million devices and release trillions of dollars of real value on the chain in the next 3-5 years, and is supported by a new token economics design. The 2.0 token economics balances inflationary staking rewards and usage-based deflationary destruction, while incentivizing DePIN dApps and L2 to utilize its modular infrastructure, and will expand the utility of IOTX, reward stakeholders based on their contributions, and promote IOTX to become the base currency in the DePIN field.
ether.fi Foundation: ETHFI token staking function is now online, and the repurchase plan has been implemented since last month
The ether.fi Foundation has written an explanation of current and future features in its official blog, aiming to enhance the utility, market dynamics and user engagement of the ETHFI token. The following measures have been implemented: 1. ETHFI token repurchase plan: Starting last month, the ether.fi Foundation announced that it would allocate 50% of the protocol's monthly income to repurchase ETHFI tokens and provide liquidity (LP); 2. Stake ETHFI to get more rewards: Users can now stake their ETHFI tokens to earn additional project rewards while supporting the stability and security of the ether.fi protocol; 3. Enhanced liquidity pool; 4. Governance proposal voting; 5. Introducing ETHFI cross-chain functionality through Wormhole to enable L2 claims on Arbitrum.
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 in five years. 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.
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.
Important data
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.
The total net inflow of the US Bitcoin spot ETF yesterday was US$53.3475 million, continuing the net inflow for 9 consecutive days
According to SoSoValue data, yesterday (July 17, Eastern Time), the total net inflow of Bitcoin spot ETFs was $53.3475 million. Yesterday, Grayscale ETF GBTC had a net outflow of $53.8612 million, and the current historical net outflow of GBTC is $18.692 billion. The Bitcoin spot ETF with the largest net inflow in a single day yesterday was BlackRock ETF IBIT, with a net inflow of $110 million in a single day, and the current total net inflow of IBIT is $18.750 billion. The second is Fidelity ETF FBTC, with a net inflow of $2.8259 million in a single day, and the current total net inflow of FBTC is $9.819 billion. As of press time, the total net asset value of the Bitcoin spot ETF was US$58.148 billion, the ETF net asset ratio (market value as a percentage of the total market value of Bitcoin) reached 4.57%, and the historical cumulative net inflow has reached US$16.588 billion.
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.
A BTC band whale added another 215.49 BTC to its position, and this round of position building has accumulated 463.16 BTC
According to the monitoring of on-chain analyst @ai_9684xtpa, the "giant whale with a 100% winning rate in two BTC waves in the past 11 months" has increased its BTC holdings again. 10 minutes ago, the giant whale withdrew 215.49 BTC from Binance, worth $14 million; since yesterday, this round of position building has accumulated 463.16 BTC (total value of $30.15 million), with an average withdrawal price of $65,100.
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.
PANews APP has updated its functions, download and experience it now!
【Comment】Speak freely and exchange views
【Floating window】Reading interrupted, return at any time
【Search within the article】Quickly locate and get to the core
