Today's news highlights:
1. Jump Trading's subsidiary Tai Mo Shan agrees to pay approximately $123 million to settle with the U.S. SEC.
2. Binance Alpha announces the fourth batch of projects.
3. Bloomberg: EU crypto exchanges delisting USDT may cause Europe to miss out on Trump’s crypto boom.
4. IOST releases new tokenomics: 97% of newly issued tokens will be used for the community.
5. Sources say crypto 'czar' David Sacks has seen his role shift from leadership to a general advisory role, which he denies.
6. Crypto institutions like Coinbase, Kraken, and Ripple donate to Trump’s inauguration.
7. The Uniswap L2 network Unichain mainnet will launch early next year.
8. Tether will make a $775 million strategic investment in the video-sharing platform Rumble.
9. Tether CEO: Expected net profit of $10 billion in 2024.
Regulatory news.
French regulators approve French BPCE bank subsidiary Hexarq to conduct cryptocurrency business.
France's financial market regulator Autorité des Marchés Financiers (AMF) has approved French bank BPCE to conduct cryptocurrency business. According to an official notice released by the AMF on December 20, BPCE’s crypto subsidiary Hexarq has been authorized as a crypto asset service provider (CASP). With this approval, Hexarq is officially authorized to offer a range of crypto services, including crypto custody and buying, selling, and trading cryptocurrencies in euros.
Additionally, the official website shows that BPCE's Hexarq will begin offering cryptocurrency investment services within the Banque Populaire and Caisse d'Épargne networks starting in 2025.
Jump Trading's subsidiary Tai Mo Shan agrees to pay approximately $123 million to settle with the U.S. SEC.
The U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) has charged Jump Trading's wholly-owned subsidiary Tai Mo Shan with misleading investors regarding the stability of Terra USD (UST), the so-called 'algorithmic stablecoin' issued by Terraform Labs PTE Ltd. (Terraform). The commission also accused Tai Mo Shan of acting as a statutory underwriter in the issuance and sale of securities in unregistered transactions, with LUNA being the crypto asset issued and sold by Terraform.
As part of the settlement agreement, Tai Mo Shan agrees to pay $73,452,756 in illicit gains, $12,916,153 in pre-judgment interest, and $36,726,378 in civil penalties. Tai Mo Shan neither admits nor denies the findings of the SEC investigation and agrees to cease violations of registration and fraud regulations.
Google will require UK advertisers' crypto ads to be FCA registered in the UK starting January next year.
Google has released updates to its financial products and services policy, which will revise cryptocurrency and related product policies in January 2025, clarifying the scope and requirements for advertising cryptocurrency-related businesses and services. Starting January 15, 2025, advertisers of cryptocurrency exchanges targeting the UK can promote these products and services after meeting the following requirements and obtaining Google certification.
UK (cryptocurrency exchanges and software wallets): Google allows advertisers to run ads for cryptocurrency exchanges and cryptocurrency wallets targeting the UK, as long as advertisers are registered with the Financial Conduct Authority (FCA). Compliance with any other local legal requirements is also necessary.
UK (hardware wallets): Google allows advertisements promoting hardware wallets for storing cryptocurrency, NFTs, or other crypto assets' private keys but does not permit additional services such as buying, selling, exchanging, or trading assets. Compliance with any other local legal requirements is also necessary.
Advertisers must also obtain Google certification.
Project dynamics.
Binance Alpha has announced its fourth batch of projects.
According to official news, Binance Alpha has announced its fourth batch of projects, which include: $BANANA, KOGE, BOB, MGP, PSTAKE, GNON, Shoggoth, LUCE, ODOS. Below is a brief introduction to the projects.
$BANANA: A meme coin on the BNB chain inspired by the 'Banana for Scale' joke.
KOGE: 48 Club® is a DAO on the BNB chain.
BOB: A meme coin on the BNB chain.
MGP: Magpie is a platform built on the BNB chain aimed at providing liquidity providers and governance token holders with enhanced yields for quickly acquiring high veTokenomics protocols.
PSTAKE: pSTAKE Finance is a rapid purchase protocol for Bitcoin returns and liquidity.
GNON: An AI meme coin on the Solana chain, its culture exists wrapped in a narrative full of philosophical concepts.
Shoggoth: An AI concept meme coin on the Solana chain.
LUCE: A meme coin on the Solana chain, inspired by the Saint Year mascot 'Luce.'
ODOS: A DEX aggregator.
Bloomberg: EU crypto exchanges delisting USDT may cause Europe to miss out on Trump’s crypto boom.
According to Bloomberg, the EU's crypto asset law is set to take full effect by the end of the year. In compliance with the Markets in Crypto-Assets Regulation (MiCA), several cryptocurrency exchanges within the EU have delisted the mainstream stablecoin USDT from Tether. This move is impacting the market for such tokens, with new issuers attempting to fill the gap, while investors default to using euros for cryptocurrency trading.
The EU's new regulations aim to give regulators a deeper understanding of cryptocurrency flows and help prevent crimes such as money laundering. Blockchain forensic experts say USDT is often used for such crimes. However, crypto executives warn that MiCA could ultimately drain market liquidity without achieving the EU's goals, thereby weakening the EU's appeal to digital asset traders at this critical moment. Usman Ahmad, CEO of Zodia Markets, a crypto trading company supported by Standard Chartered, stated, "I understand the reasons to some extent, but this is quite exclusionary and limiting for EU clients themselves, as USDT is the most liquid stablecoin, far surpassing other stablecoins."
Tether's main competitor Circle obtained such licenses in July. However, Tether has yet to obtain such a license and has not ruled out the possibility of attempting to obtain one in the future. In the absence of a license, regulated exchanges must delist the token by December 30. Tether has not commented on its own electronic money license plans.
MANTRA's new proposal suggests updating OM tokenomics to reduce the on-chain inflation rate to 3%.
Layer1 blockchain MANTRA, focusing on RWA assets, stated on X platform that the updated OM tokenomics proposal is now live, with Snapshot voting open and mainnet voting scheduled for next week.
Although the proposal suggests adjusting the token issuance timetable, the personal allocations obtained through various activities will remain unchanged. The specifics of the proposal include:
1. Adjust the vesting schedule for OM upgrade rewards, with the cliff period ending on March 18, 2025, followed by a linear vesting period that will continue until October 16, 2028.
2. 10% of the initial distribution of airdropped tokens will unlock on March 18, 2025, followed by a 6-month cliff period until September 18, 2025. From that date, the remaining rewards will begin to vest linearly and continue until March 18, 2027. Additionally, a proposal for a second stage of anti-witch checks for all wallets is suggested. After that, the vesting period for airdrop rewards will no longer be extended.
3. The cliff period and vesting period for team and core contributor incentives will be extended, with the cliff period ending on April 23, 2027, and the vesting period ending on October 22, 2029.
4. The cliff period for pre-seed round investors' tokens will end on October 23, 2025, with vesting ending on October 23, 2027; for seed round investors, the cliff period will end on April 23, 2025, with vesting ending on April 23, 2026.
5. The ecosystem allocation will remain unchanged, and the on-chain inflation rate will be reduced from 8% to 3% starting January 1, 2025.
The Stargate team stated that the outage issue was caused by a failure in DVN's Executors.
Web3 security company ExVul reported on X platform that Stargate has been down for nearly 6 hours. According to the Stargate team, the outage issue was caused by a failure in DVN's Executors, and the LayerZero team is currently working on a fix. According to data on layerscan, there are currently 25.6k transactions blocked.
The FTX-affiliated fund MNNC Group has raised over $100 million since rebranding from LedgerPrime.
According to DL News, the MNNC Group, which was rebranded from the FTX-affiliated crypto hedge fund LedgerPrime in February this year, has revealed that it has raised over $100 million. According to documents submitted to the Securities and Exchange Commission on Thursday, this Cayman Islands-based company raised $53 million through two funds. However, MNNC Group's Chief Operating Officer Ayesha Kiani stated, 'The amount is far more than this. This is just one of our onshore entities.' Kiani said on Friday that MNNC Group manages assets exceeding 'nine digits,' but declined to provide further details. This figure is an increase from the 'eight digits' the fund disclosed to Bloomberg in February.
Kiani stated that after the collapse of crypto exchange FTX in November 2022, LedgerPrime was liquidated and rebranded as MNNC Group. The company currently has about 10 investors but declined to disclose their names.
IOST releases new tokenomics: 97% of newly issued tokens will be used for the community.
IOST announced on its official blog that to establish itself as the payment infrastructure for Web3, it is officially launching a strategic token evolution plan that includes several key components: enhanced staking mechanisms, community-first allocation, multiple value protection measures, and a growth acceleration pool.
Additionally, IOST has released a new token economic model, focusing on the following key points:
1. Token distribution is as follows: ① The supply of existing IOST tokens will be strategically adjusted: the current circulating supply is approximately 21.32 billion tokens, with a new allocation for growth being 21.32 billion tokens. ② 97% of newly issued tokens will be used for the community, including staking rewards, ecosystem growth, and merchant incentives; ③ 3% is reserved for operational costs and team expansion.
2. The allocation of newly issued tokens is as follows: PayPIN node rewards (60%), airdrops and staking airdrops (20%), PayFi community incentives (8%), community developer grants (5%), Nexus DAO (4%), team (3%).
3. Token burn mechanisms: Four interconnected token burn mechanisms have been implemented, including: transaction fee burns, node MEV burns, ecosystem-based burns, and DAO governance mechanism burns. The combination of these four burn mechanisms is expected to bring significant deflation as network adoption grows, with an estimated total annual burn of about $8 million by the end of 2025.
The official X account of the OpenSea Foundation has launched and published its first tweet.
The official X account of the OpenSea Foundation has registered and published its first tweet, "ocean enters the chat," which was retweeted by OpenSea's official X account.
Earlier news reported that OpenSea has registered the OpenSea Foundation in the Cayman Islands.
Binance will launch AIXBTUSDT, FARTCOINUSDT, KMNOUSDT, and CGPTUSDT with 1-75x USDT perpetual contracts.
According to official announcements, Binance's contract platform will launch perpetual contracts at the following times, with a maximum leverage of up to 75 times:
December 21, 2024, 02:30 (UTC+8): AIXBTUSDT perpetual contract.
December 21, 2024, 02:45 (UTC+8): FARTCOINUSDT perpetual contract.
December 21, 2024, 03:00 (UTC+8): KMNOUSDT perpetual contract.
December 21, 2024, 03:15 (UTC+8): CGPTUSDT perpetual contract.
Please note that AIXBT(LINK), FARTCOIN(LINK), and CGPT(LINK) have been launched on Binance Alpha market.
Sources: Crypto 'czar' David Sacks has seen his role shift from leadership to a general advisory role.
According to Fortune, David Sacks, who was originally set to serve as the 'AI and cryptocurrency czar' in the Trump administration, has seen a change in his role. Two individuals familiar with the transition team’s internal workings stated that while the 'czar' position was initially seen as a clear leadership role, it now resembles a general advisory position. David Sacks will reportedly be overseen by Michael Kratsios, an executive at Scale AI who served as CTO during Trump’s first term. A source indicated that Michael Kratsios is deeply involved in the current transition work and is expected to continue his role after Trump takes office, co-leading all tech policy work with Gale Slater, who will focus on telecom and tech antitrust issues.
A knowledgeable source explained that David Sacks's role has been reduced to a more general advisory position, partly because he is not divesting from the investment firm Craft Ventures and does not wish to be a full-time government employee, which would require a formal confirmation process. In past administrations, many so-called political and policy 'czars' held official positions in the government, in specific departments, and often had Senate approval. If David Sacks were to gain formal employment status, he would likely be classified as a 'special government employee,' which Congress describes as 'temporary or intermittent advisors' who are not bound by the same conflict of interest standards as regular government employees. In fact, there are virtually no restrictions on such individuals continuing to engage in outside work or receiving compensation, regardless of whether they are being compensated for government work.
Crypto 'czar' David Sacks denies changes in his role, expects to spend half his time in Washington guiding policy.
Crypto 'czar' David Sacks tweeted: "Some traditional media reported tonight that my role has changed, which is completely wrong. I expect to spend half my time in Washington guiding policy and the other half in Silicon Valley."
Crypto institutions like Coinbase, Kraken, and Ripple donate to Trump’s inauguration.
According to Fox Business, large cryptocurrency companies are donating millions of dollars to the inauguration of President-elect Trump, along with major tech firms and many other American businesses. Cryptocurrency exchanges Coinbase and Kraken each donated $1 million to the Trump-Vance inauguration committee to fund a three-day grand celebration, parade, and dinner. Blockchain payment company Ripple also plans to donate $5 million. All three companies confirmed the donations to FOX Business, with Coinbase stating it was one of the first crypto companies to contribute to the fund. Another crypto firm, digital asset payment provider MoonPay, will also donate to the fund but declined to specify the amount. A source from the Trump-Vance inauguration committee stated they are confident of raising $225 million before the inauguration.
The blind computing network Nillion's mainnet will launch in February 2025.
The blind computing network Nillion tweeted that its mainnet will launch in February 2025.
Related reading: Nillion completes $25 million financing, what is blind computing? How is it different from ZKP and FHE?
Mike Dudas, the former founder of The Block, resigns from his advisory role at Aptos effective immediately.
Mike Dudas, the former founder of The Block, tweeted that he is resigning from his advisory role at Aptos effective immediately. Dudas stated that he has been an advisor at Aptos since 2022, the only crypto project he has advised.
Earlier news reported that Aptos Labs co-founder Mo Shaikh announced his resignation as CEO, with co-founder Avery Ching set to take over.
The Uniswap L2 network Unichain mainnet will launch early next year.
The Uniswap L2 network Unichain has announced its mainnet development roadmap, with the mainnet set to officially launch early next year. Since the launch of the Unichain Sepolia testnet in October, there have been 50 million test transactions and over 4 million test contracts deployed on the network. The Sepolia testnet is open to the public, and infrastructure providers are actively testing the mainnet. After the mainnet launch, new features will continue to be driven by decentralization and performance enhancements. These features will first be deployed on the experimental testnet for stability and performance testing, then moved to Sepolia for broader testing, and finally launched on the mainnet. The first feature to go live on the public experimental testnet is Flashblocks, which will reduce effective block time to 250 milliseconds, allowing transactions to be completed instantaneously. The Unichain verification network will also be launched on the experimental testnet, and the community will be invited to run test verification nodes.
Tether CEO: Expected net profit of $10 billion in 2024.
According to Bloomberg, Tether Holdings Ltd. CEO Paolo Ardoino stated in an interview that the company's net profit is expected to exceed $10 billion this year. According to data tracking agency CoinMarketCap, USDT's market capitalization has increased by nearly $50 billion this year, currently exceeding $140 billion. Most of Tether's revenue comes from investing the reserves backing its stablecoins (including USDT) in U.S. Treasury bonds, gold, and other securities.
Ardoino stated that Tether will invest more than half of its net profit this year. This morning, Tether agreed to invest $775 million in the video-sharing network Rumble, including an initial commitment of $250 million in cash. Tether also supports Rumble's acquisition of up to 70 million shares at a price of $7.50 per share. Ardoino said, 'Next year we plan to use at least half of our profits for investments,' including in artificial intelligence. 'Our investments are just beginning.' He mentioned that Tether plans to launch its AI platform in the first quarter, allowing people to interact with AI using their smartphones.
Tether CEO: Tether AI platform website expected to launch by the end of Q1 2025.
Tether CEO Paolo Ardoino tweeted that the Tether AI platform website has completed its preliminary design and is expected to launch by the end of Q1 2025.
Financing news.
Tether will make a $775 million strategic investment in the video-sharing platform Rumble.
According to The Block, the stablecoin issuer Tether has made a $775 million strategic investment in the video-sharing platform Rumble. This move seems to indicate that Rumble is deepening its focus on the cryptocurrency industry, as the company announced last month that it will allocate up to $20 million from its excess cash reserves to Bitcoin.
Rumble stated that it will use $250 million of it to 'support growth plans'. The remaining funds will be used to buy up to 70 million shares of Class A common stock at a price of $7.50 per share, which is the same price as Tether's investment. Rumble’s chairman and CEO Chris Pavlovski will retain his controlling stake in the company and has stated he will not sell more than 10 million shares. Tether will purchase a total of 103,333,333 shares.
Important data.
Of the 11.25 million LINK that unlocked about 3 hours ago, 10.625 million LINK were transferred to Binance.
According to on-chain analyst Yu Jin's monitoring, the quarterly Chainlink unlock took place 3 hours ago: 11.25 million LINK ($258.14 million) was unlocked from three non-circulating supply addresses. Of these, 10.625 million LINK ($243.82 million) were transferred to Binance, and 625,000 LINK ($1.432 million) were transferred to the 0xD50...8Af multi-signature address.
In November, DEX trading volume surpassed $300 billion, setting a new historical high.
According to The Block Research, in November, the trading volume of decentralized exchanges reached $300 billion, surpassing the previous cycle high of $260 billion set in May 2021. The ratio of DEX to CEX continues to rise, reaching 11% in November, up from 9.3% at the beginning of 2024 and 0.04% at the beginning of 2020.
10 new wallets withdrew 17,698 ETH from Binance, worth about $61.66 million.
Ethereum spot ETF saw a net outflow of $75.1159 million yesterday, with an ETF net asset ratio of 2.93%.
Bitcoin spot ETF saw a net outflow of $277 million yesterday, with an ETF net asset ratio of 5.75%.
