1. Tether will allocate up to 15% of realized net operating profits to purchase Bitcoin
Tether announced today that starting this month, Tether will regularly distribute up to 15% of realized net operating profits to purchase Bitcoin (BTC). Tether expects that current and future BTC holdings in its reserves will not exceed shareholder capital buffers, and will further strengthen and diversify its reserves. In addition, as of the end of March 2023, Tether already held approximately $1.5 billion in BTC in its reserves. It was previously reported that Tether's net profit in Q1 2023 was $1.48 billion.
2. DeFi protocol Bancor was sued in a class action lawsuit, claiming violations of federal securities laws and state laws
A new class action lawsuit led by Hoppin Grinsell has been filed against the BProtocol Foundation and Bancor DAO. The lawsuit alleges that the defendant (Bancor) violated federal securities laws and state laws by offering and selling investment contracts to Bancor liquidity providers without registering as an exchange or broker-dealer under applicable federal securities laws and without making a declaration of effective registration for the securities it was offering. The lawsuit also alleges: "Bancor does not hold enough crypto assets to meet its obligations to its LPs. If enough limited partners withdraw their investments at the same time, the protocol will collapse, just like a bank run."
3. SignalPlus: Borrowing costs could soar due to US debt ceiling impasse
Stronger economic data, Pfizer's massive issuance of $31 billion in bonds, and the FDIC's sale of $12 billion in MBS (as part of SVB's liquidation) have shifted the U.S. Treasury yield curve up by about 5 basis points overall; Pfizer's new bond issuance is the first since 2021 and is the fourth largest corporate bond transaction in U.S. history. Even at current yield levels, investors continue to flock to fixed income, so it still managed to attract more than $85 billion in orders. As the U.S. debt ceiling deadlock may cause borrowing costs to soar, bond issuers are expected to continue to meet issuance needs ahead of schedule in the coming weeks, providing some bottom support for U.S. Treasury yields in the short term.
4. ApeCoin DAO opens applications for special committee members to serve in July
ApeCoin Foundation has started accepting applications for the Special Committee and has published a Google form for applicants to submit information. ApeCoin said that the deadline for the application for the Special Committee is 9:00 on May 21, Beijing time, after which two members of the Special Committee will be selected from the applicants. Nominations and elections will be conducted in May and June, and the elected Special Committee members will take office in July.
5. Ronin Network launches Mavis Market, where NFT creators can set their own royalties
Ronin Network, an EVM-compatible Ethereum sidechain, announced the launch of Mavis Market, a universal NFT market, to support NFT transactions on Ronin. Users can purchase NFTs using AXS, WETH, USDC, and RON. NFT creators can set their own royalties, and Mavis Market will charge a fixed fee of 2.5%, of which 2% will be allocated to Sky Mavis and 0.5% to the Ronin Treasury. Currently, whitelist access is required to deploy contracts on Ronin, and Axie DoLL and Axie Chat are the creators of the first series of Mavis Market.
6. Starknet Foundation announces the first batch of 67 project teams funded by EAG
The Starknet Foundation announced the first batch of EAG (Early Adopter Grants) funding projects, with a total of 67 teams receiving funding, covering NFT, infrastructure, DeFi, DID and other fields. The total budget of EAG is 10 million STRK, which will be allocated to ecological project parties through multiple rounds of selection, with the aim of providing early impetus for the Starknet ecosystem through actual on-chain deployment.
7. Foreign media: It is still difficult for crypto companies to open bank accounts in Hong Kong, and licensed companies are no exception
According to CoinDesk, applications from crypto companies to do business in Hong Kong are increasing after the city strives to restore its status as a cryptocurrency center, but these companies find it difficult to open bank accounts in Hong Kong. Companies applying for licenses revealed that the Hong Kong Securities and Futures Commission (SFC) has only 8 officials to handle about 80 applications, and even licensed companies have encountered difficulties in bank accounts. Although the Hong Kong Monetary Authority (HKMA) has reminded banks that there is no prohibition on providing accounts to crypto companies, it also organized a roundtable attended by banks and crypto companies last month, focusing on easing access for companies that already hold or are applying for licenses. Participants said: "This is more like a wish list from the regulator, and whether the bank fully accepts it is another matter." An executive of a crypto company holding a Hong Kong Type 9 license said that the company is still unable to open a bank account in Hong Kong and relies on overseas banking partners. "We are not clear about what additional information the bank needs, and the bank does not seem to be sure what they want from us." The interviewee said that opening a bank account is currently a "sharp issue" and the bank's approach may be "sensitive and strict." Even if the company manages to get an account, "six months later, the account will be closed for no reason." Kevin Kang, co-founder of corporate credit card issuer Reap, said even companies that have successfully opened bank accounts "have a lot of uncertainty about whether they can continue to have the account," and this uncertainty means they are constantly looking for new options and opportunities to open bank accounts.
8. Waves Labs suffered "financial losses" in a six-month hack last year
According to DLNews, Waves founder Sasha Ivanov (Aleksandr Ivanov) said in an interview that hackers hacked into Waves Labs last year, destroyed internal data and caused "financial losses." Hackers "sneaked into" Waves' management software system and tried to extort money from the troubled blockchain company. The hacker told Ivanov: "We have been lurking in your system for half a year. So we know everything, you have to pay us." Ivanov refused to disclose the specific economic losses caused by the hacker attack, nor did he provide details about the stolen data. "The situation is very bad, and we may suffer greater financial losses," Ivanov said. The hacker attack on Wave's internal system also has the potential to leak user data. When asked why the hacker attack was not disclosed to the Waves community after it was exposed in December last year, Ivanov avoided the question. "I didn't cry because we have encountered similar situations before," Ivanov said. He did not elaborate on what "similar situations" meant. Ivanov hinted that the hacker had tried to cash out the stolen funds through a centralized exchange, but he refused to specify which exchange it was.
9. NEAR chooses Wormhole as its official cross-chain bridge and will jointly develop ZK light client
According to the official blog, cross-chain bridge Wormhole announced that NEAR Protocol has selected it as the new official cross-chain bridge. Wormhole will enable all NEAR assets to be seamlessly bridged to more than 20 connected chains and bring hundreds of Wormhole-supported applications and communities into the NEAR ecosystem. In addition, Wormhole's core contributors will join Zpoken and NEAR to develop a ZK light client that can prove and verify Ethereum and NEAR status without the same trust assumptions required today.
10. Toy manufacturer Mattel will launch a series of NFTs related to the "Fast and Furious" movie on May 22
According to Decrypt, with the release of the "Fast & Furious 10" movie, American toy manufacturer Mattel will launch the latest version of the "Hot Wheels NFT Garage" series based on the "Fast & Furious" series on May 22. The "Hot Wheels NFT Garage" and "Fast & Furious" series will be launched on the Flow blockchain and will be themed with cars from the movie, including Dominic Toretto's 1970 Dodge Charger, Brian O'Conner's 1969 Camero, and Suki's Honda S2000. The limited edition NFT is priced at $20 per pack.
11. Lookonchain: 86 suspicious addresses deposited a total of 12.4 trillion LADYS into the exchange again
On-chain analyst Lookonchain released an update on 86 suspicious addresses related to LADYS, saying that these suspicious addresses deposited a total of 12.4 trillion LADYS (about $1.2 million) into the exchange again 8 hours ago. Currently, these addresses hold 118.6 trillion LADYS (about $11 million) and have deposited a total of 102.5 trillion LADYS (about $9.5 million) into the exchange.
12. Optimism Collective will conduct the fourth season of community governance experiments, introducing new concepts such as "collective intention"
Optimism, the second-layer solution of Ethereum, tweeted that Optimism Collective is establishing community governance through experiments. In Season 4, Collective will conduct several key experiments aimed at increasing community participation in the gradual decentralization of Optimism. This quarter's experiments introduced some new concepts: collective intention, mission and alliance, and collective trust level. According to reports, collective intention is a directional goal aimed at adjusting and focusing the collective, which will have a specific budget. In tasks and alliances, tasks are proposals for initiatives to achieve intentions, and there are two types: 1. Proposed tasks support a wide range of initiatives through governance funds, 2. Foundation tasks are similar to public requests for proposals for partner funds; alliances are a group of contributors with the goal of completing tasks, which can be pre-established organizations or contributors specially gathered together. The collective trust layer allows for setting funding limits based on contributions, reputation, and influence, and alliances can submit proposals based on trust levels.
13.Lightning Labs launches Taproot Assets v0.2, which has been launched on the test network
According to the official blog, Lightning Labs, the developer of Bitcoin Lightning Network, announced the launch of Taproot Assets v0.2 (formerly Taro), a scalable protocol for issuing assets on Bitcoin and Lightning Network. This version provides a set of core functions for developers who want to publish, send, receive and discover assets on the Bitcoin blockchain. These functions are currently on the test network, and main network support is coming soon. After that, Lightning Labs will submit the finalized Taproot asset specification to the community as a formal BIP series, merge Taproot channels, release BLIPs that describe the addition of interactions to Lightning Network functions, and finally launch the first testnet Taproot asset payment channel on the Lightning Network.
14. Data: There are less than 78 days until the next Litecoin halving, which is expected to be on August 3
According to Litecoin Halving data, the Litecoin (LTC) block reward halving is expected to take place on August 3, 2023. There are 44,948 blocks left, and less than 78 days are left. At that time, the block reward will drop from 12.5 LTC to 6.25 LTC.
15. Progress of the US SEC v. Ripple case: Judge rules that the SEC cannot seal Hinman-related documents
According to Coindesk, in the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) v. Ripple case, U.S. Judge Analisa Torres ruled that the SEC could not seal documents related to former SEC senior staff William Hinman. It is reported that a speech by former SEC senior staff Bill Hinman in 2018 was a major point of contention, when he explained why he did not think that cryptocurrencies Bitcoin and Ethereum were securities. Analisa Torres said that the SEC would be allowed to redact the names and personal information of people mentioned in the documents, but the SEC could not seal the so-called "Hinman speech documents", which are "judicial documents" and require strict presumption of public access.
16. Data: Celsius has unpledged over $800 million worth of stETH in Lido Finance
According to CryptoSlate, Arkham Intelligence data shows that Celsius Network has transferred approximately 428,083.6 stETH (worth more than $800 million) to a wallet used to cancel pledges from Lido Finance since 00:45 this morning. This is all the stETH held by Celsius. The wallet processed approximately 429 transactions in about 40 minutes and extracted all stETH. It is reported that Celsius owes creditors about $4.7 billion. The media analyzed that Celsius may use the proceeds from the withdrawals to help fund its restructuring and creditor repayments, or it may re-pledge through different platforms.