Today's news tips:

1. Ripple CEO: Years-long lawsuit with SEC expected to be resolved "soon"

2. JPMorgan Chase: The cryptocurrency rebound is unlikely to continue, and Trump's presidency will benefit Bitcoin and gold

3. Aptos node v1.16.3 has been updated

4. A whale transferred 1,067,930 SNX to Binance and sold them about 4 hours ago, with an estimated loss of $300,000

5. Ethereum-based MEME coin FEAR NOT rose by more than 460% in a single day, setting a new all-time high

6. A BTC whale withdrew 213.8 BTC from Binance 7 hours ago, worth about 14.48 million US dollars

7. Meta’s AR/VR/Metaverse team Reality Labs’ budget was cut by about 20%

8. Animoca proposes to launch a new $10 million fund ApeCoin Ventures in partnership with ApeCoin

Regulatory News

Ripple CEO: Years-long lawsuit with SEC expected to be resolved "soon"

According to a recent interview with Bloomberg, Ripple CEO Brad Garlinghouse expects the company to settle its years-long lawsuit with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) "soon." XRP's price has risen in recent weeks amid speculation that the SEC may announce a settlement after a closed-door meeting next week. Data from analytics firm Santiment shows that the XRP ledger has also seen its highest level of activity and new address creation since March.

Trump: I like Musk very much. He is a great and smart person.

Speaking at a campaign rally in Michigan, Trump mentioned Musk, saying, "I like Elon Musk; I was watching TV three years ago and saw this rocket land. There were no wings, nothing; it landed on a barge in the middle of the ocean; I'd never seen that before. If that was the government, you wouldn't see that for another 50-100 years. Musk is a smart guy, and we need to make life easier for smart people."

Two members of the Lockbit ransomware group plead guilty and may face up to 25 and 45 years in prison respectively

The U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ) revealed that two foreign nationals pleaded guilty in federal court in Newark to participating in the Lockbit ransomware group. Russian citizen Ruslan Magomedovich Astamirov and Mikhail Vasiliev, who holds dual Canadian and Russian citizenship, were identified as members of the Lockbit group. The group has been active since January 2020 and has targeted more than 2,500 victims in 120 countries, extorting approximately $500 million in ransoms. Their victims include hospitals, educational institutions, and commercial enterprises. Astamirov and Vasiliev used the Lockbit ransomware to encrypt and steal data, demanding ransoms and threatening to publish information if their demands were not met. They were arrested in 2023 and 2022 and could face up to 25 and 45 years in prison, respectively.

Earlier news, the US authorities filed a lawsuit against the leader of the ransomware organization LockBit and offered a reward of 10 million US dollars for his capture.

AI

Meta's AR/VR/Metaverse team Reality Labs' budget has been cut by about 20%

According to a report from The Information cited by Cointelegraph, Meta will cut the budget of Reality Labs, the division responsible for developing the company's metaverse hardware and software, by about 20% between now and 2026. Since disclosing the financial status of Reality Labs in public documents in the fourth quarter of 2020, Meta has spent more than $50 billion on the division. If the total expenditure since the acquisition of Oculus in 2014 is taken into account, this figure may be close to $100 billion.

More than 50% of Reality Labs’ spending went toward AR glasses, a product line Meta has yet to launch, while the rest went toward the Quest headset and Horizon software platform, two technologies that are still relatively early and far from mature.

It is reported that Reality Labs has reorganized over the past year, eliminating mid- and senior-level management positions, including "more than a dozen directors and vice presidents." Meta also transferred some Reality Labs teams dedicated to AI to the company's broader generative AI team, including a 140-person AI voice development team.

Project News

Animoca proposes to launch a new $10 million fund ApeCoin Ventures in partnership with ApeCoin

According to Snapshot information, Animoca Brands' venture capital arm Animoca Ventures initiated a proposal in ApeCoin DAO to co-establish a joint venture fund ApeCoin Ventures with ApeCoin, which plans to invest in seed and A round Web3 projects, and give priority to projects that can integrate ApeCoin into its ecosystem, thereby enhancing the value, practicality, synergy, network effect and influence of ApeCoin.

The ApeCoin Ventures fund is worth $10 million, of which ApeCoin DAO needs to allocate $5 million worth of APE (which Animoca Ventures intends to sell for fiat currency), and Animoca Ventures will invest $5 million. The proposal is currently open for voting, with a current support rate of 83.49%, and voting will end on August 1.

Aptos Node v1.16.3 has been updated

Aptos node v1.16.3 has been updated, and users need to upgrade to the latest version within the next 5 days. This update aims to improve system stability and security and ensure smooth network operation. It includes adding a procedural macro bytecode_spec so that inline specifications for Move bytecode instructions can be defined in Rust; adding a runtime environment outside of the VM. This environment can be used for caching and may be shared between VM instances.

Bitcoin Magazine CEO: “Raising $1 billion for Trump” was just a joke

Bitcoin Magazine CEO David Bailey clarified on the X platform that the statement of "raising $1 billion for Trump" was just a joke and that he would not raise $1 billion. Earlier, Bitcoin News reported that David Bailey raised $1 billion for Trump at the Bitcoin 2024 conference. The report has now been deleted.

JPMorgan: Cryptocurrency rally unlikely to last, Trump presidency would benefit Bitcoin and gold

JPMorgan analysts said any rebound in cryptocurrency prices would likely be tactical (temporary and strategic) rather than the start of a durable uptrend. They noted that Bitcoin’s current price of around $67,500 is high compared to its production cost of around $43,000 and the volatility-adjusted price of gold, which is around $53,000.

The divergence between Bitcoin’s price and JPMorgan’s volatility-adjusted gold price “suggests mean reversion to around the zero line, limiting the long-term upside potential for Bitcoin prices,” JPMorgan analysts wrote in a note Thursday.

Analysts reiterated that cryptocurrencies are expected to rebound starting in August as liquidations decrease after July. They pointed out that Bitcoin futures have recently been weak due to the liquidations of Gemini and Mt. Gox creditors and the sale of seized Bitcoin by the German government. Analysts said these liquidations are likely to subside after July and expect Bitcoin futures to rebound starting in August, in line with the recent rise in gold futures.

"We believe momentum traders such as commodity trading advisors played a major role in the move in gold futures. Gold's momentum signal surged in July to overbought territory last April," the analysts said.

Gold is expected to benefit from the potential re-election of Donald Trump, according to analysts at JPMorgan. Some investors see Trump as more favorable to cryptocurrency companies and regulation than the current Biden administration, the analysts said. They added that Trump's potential trade policies could lead to more diversified investments in gold by emerging market central banks, especially the Chinese central bank.

The Ethereum chain's MEME coin FEAR NOT rose by more than 460% in one day, setting a new record high

The market shows that the MEME token FEAR NOT on the Ethereum chain broke through $0.0001 and then fell back to $0.00008906, with a 24-hour increase of 464%, a record high. The Meme coin RETARDIO on the Solana chain broke through $0.13 and is now at $0.134, with a 24-hour increase of 24.9%, a record high.

WazirX: Impersonators are sending emails, please be vigilant and do not click on suspicious links

Indian crypto exchange WazirX said on the X platform that it has noticed that there are emails sent by imposters. Although the team is actively monitoring and dealing with these fraudulent activities, user vigilance is key. Please be sure to check the email ID carefully and avoid clicking on suspicious links.

According to previous news, the WazirX team plans to launch a bounty program to freeze/recover stolen assets.

Important data

A BTC whale withdrew 213.8 BTC from Binance 7 hours ago, worth about $14.48 million

According to on-chain analyst Ember, a whale that has made a profit of $31.06 million through two BTC swing investments in the past 11 months continued to withdraw 213.8 BTC (14.48 million USD) from Binance 7 hours ago. The whale started the third round of BTC investment on July 7, and has accumulated 677 BTC (44.63 million USD) in 4 days, with an average price of $65,923.

President of The ETF Store: US-listed spot Bitcoin ETFs hold over 900,000 Bitcoins

Nate Geraci, president of The ETF Store, said on the X platform that currently, the spot Bitcoin ETF listed in the United States holds 900,000 Bitcoins, accounting for 4.3% of the total supply of Bitcoin. The assets are about 60 billion US dollars. Since its launch in January, the net inflow of funds has been 17 billion US dollars.

A whale transferred 1,067,930 SNX to Binance and sold them about 4 hours ago, with an estimated loss of $300,000

On-chain analyst Ember monitored that a whale transferred 1,067,930 SNX (US$2.1 million) to Binance 4 hours ago and sold it, causing the SNX price to fall by 7.4%. These SNX were withdrawn from Binance at an average price of $2.173 between January 31, 2023 and July 12, 2023. All of them were transferred to Binance today and sold at a price of $1.891. This SNX investment resulted in a loss of $300,000 (-13%).

Data: So far this month, US Bitcoin ETF purchases are 41,158

According to HODL15Capital data, U.S. Bitcoin ETF purchases have totaled 41,158 bitcoins so far this month.

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