1. Wu Shuo Zhou’s Selections: Trump supports cryptocurrency, Vitalik proposes EIP-7720, Binance DWF Rashomon and News Top 10
Top 10 News of the Week
1. Hong Kong Bitcoin Spot ETF saw its first net redemption on May 6 link
On May 6, the Hong Kong Bitcoin Spot ETF saw its first net redemption, just one week after its listing. As of May 9, the Hong Kong Bitcoin Spot ETF held a total of 4,260 Bitcoins with a total net asset value of $261 million. The Hong Kong Ethereum Spot ETF held a total of 15,630 Ethereums with a total net asset value of approximately $46.71 million. The Hong Kong Ethereum Spot ETF has seen net redemptions for three consecutive days. In addition, crypto market maker Wintermute announced that it will provide liquidity for spot Bitcoin and Ethereum ETFs listed in Hong Kong.
In the previous discussion about the 20% deduction of funds for the subscription of Huaxia Bitcoin Spot ETF, Zhu Haokang of Huaxia Fund said in an interview that for customers who subscribe in kind, an additional 20% of the coins need to be collected to cope with the price fluctuations of the underlying digital assets within 5 days. If the fund does not collect (or does not collect enough) safety buffer funds, and the price of the underlying assets falls sharply within 5 days, the fund can only collect more coins from customers to make up for it after the ETF unit is created, so the fund bears huge counterparty risk. He said that the funds had been returned to the primary market investors during the initial public offering on April 30, the day of listing.
2. Federal Reserve officials do not rule out the possibility of raising interest rates link
Minneapolis Fed President Neel Kashkari said the Fed could keep interest rates unchanged “for an extended period of time” until officials are confident that inflation is on target. If inflation starts to retreat, or if they see clear slack in the labor market, that could lead to a rate cut. If they eventually become convinced that inflation is pegged at 3%, that’s not the most likely scenario — and the bar for a rate hike is pretty high — but it wouldn’t be ruled out.
3. Trump announces he will start accepting cryptocurrency donations for his presidential campaign link
FOX reporter Eleanor Terrett said that the two next presidential contenders expressed different views on cryptocurrencies, and the current President Biden made it clear that he would support the SEC's regulatory enforcement. Former US President Trump said he would stop his hostility to cryptocurrencies and "make sure" to start accepting campaign donations in cryptocurrencies.
Previously, Trump planned to have dinner on his day off with supporters who bought his Mugshot Edition NFT, a reference to a photo of him being arrested last year in Fulton County, Georgia, for plotting to overturn the state's 2020 election results. According to a copy of the dinner invitation seen by Axios, those invited to the dinner each purchased more than 47 NFTs, each priced at $99. According to previous financial disclosures, Trump made between $100,000 and $1 million from NFT sales in 2022.
At the party on Wednesday night, Trump said: "If you support cryptocurrency, you will vote for Trump because they want to end it." He said: If you go back to cryptocurrency a few years ago, people said it would not succeed, but now its number has reached a record level, and I support it more and more. He also criticized Biden for not even knowing what cryptocurrency is.
4. SEC Chairman: Investors Did Not Receive Important Disclosures After Notifications to Multiple Crypto Entities link
Gary Gensler, chairman of the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC), said in an interview that the SEC oversees $110 trillion in capital markets. About half of that is the stock market. Half is the bond market and other markets, and cryptocurrencies are only a small part of the entire market. But it is a huge part of the scams, frauds, and problems in the market because much of this space does not qualify for the protection of securities laws. After the SEC issued notices to multiple cryptocurrency entities and planned to take enforcement actions against them, investors did not receive important cryptocurrency disclosures. He did not respond directly to the question of whether Ethereum is a security or a commodity, but said that the fundamental issue is how to ensure that U.S. investors are protected, that they do not receive the required disclosures, and that the New York Stock Exchange is not allowed to trade with investors (seemingly implying that there are some illegal transactions in Ethereum).
5. Robinhood received the Wells Notice from the SEC on May 4 link
Robinhood received a Wells notice from the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) on May 4, as well as a recommendation by SEC staff to file a lawsuit against Robinhood, alleging possible actions that violated the Securities Exchange Act. Robinhood received a subpoena from the SEC after the collapse of FTX, covering topics such as Robinhood's cryptocurrency listing, cryptocurrency custody, and platform operations. Robinhood delisted MATIC, SOL, ADA, FIL, SAND and other tokens after the SEC sued Binance and Coinbase in June 2023.
Vlad Tenev, co-founder and CEO of Robinhood, said in an interview with CNBC that as crypto assets become "more and more important," Americans should be able to access them. Although Robinhood's cryptocurrency trading grew 224% in the first quarter of this year, Tenev said that after the company met with the SEC 16 times, the dialogue fell through and the SEC issued a Wells Notice. He said it was disappointing that the SEC did not seem to intend to change the rules to allow brokers to accommodate crypto assets, but chose to regulate through law enforcement.
6. Ethereum founder Vitalik proposed the concept of multi-dimensional gas pricing this week and proposed EIP-7702 link
The multi-dimensional gas pricing concept article believes that pricing different resources separately can effectively manage the utilization of Ethereum network resources and improve efficiency and scalability. He pointed out that Ethereum currently simplifies all resource pricing and limits into a single dimension of Gas, resulting in significant efficiency losses. In addition, EIP-4844 introduces multi-dimensional pricing for the first time, adds a new Blob data area, reduces rollup costs, and increases transaction volume, while the maximum block size only increases slightly.
EIP-7702 aims to optimize Ethereum's account abstraction function. This proposal allows externally owned accounts (EOA) to temporarily act as smart contract wallets during transactions and restore their original state after the transaction is completed. In addition, EIP-7702 also proposes a new transaction type that contains contract code and signature fields, which are similar to batch and sponsored transactions proposed by EIP-3074.
7. Binance investigators accused DWF of market manipulation and were fired for colluding with DWF competitors link
In late September 2023, the Binance monitoring team submitted a report recommending the removal of DWF, WSI reported. In the following days, the head of Binance’s VIP client department and its employees questioned the findings and complained to the company’s leadership. Another Binance department responsible for evaluating employee compliance also launched its own investigation — — this time targeting the market monitoring team and the evidence it had collected about DWF. Binance executives said the new investigation determined that there was insufficient evidence to show that DWF had engaged in market abuse.
In response to the WSJ report, Binance co-founder He Yi said that they have been monitoring the market of market makers, and they are very strict; there is competition among market makers, and the means are very shady, buying PR to attack each other; they will ensure their own fairness and will not participate, but will also report truthfully to Monitor and other regulatory authorities.
8. FTX and Alameda continue to liquidate positions, FTX plans to compensate users for 118% of the claim amount link
In the past month, the marked FTX and Alameda Research wallets have collectively transferred and liquidated $97.35 million worth of crypto assets. Currently, FTX still holds $33.85 million worth of BOBA and $11.22 million worth of ETH, as well as more than 78% of the FTT token supply. Alameda's major holdings include $140 million worth of WLD, $102 million worth of BIT, $93 million worth of BTC, and $48 million worth of STG.
On May 8, FTX and its affiliated debtors filed a reorganization plan and disclosure statement with the U.S. Bankruptcy Court in Delaware. The plan is expected to distribute almost all of FTX's assets at the time of its collapse in November 2022 to customers and other creditors around the world. FTX estimates that the total value of the property collected, converted into cash and available for distribution will be between $14.5 billion and $16.3 billion. If the plan is approved by the bankruptcy court, 98% of FTX's creditors will receive approximately 118% of their allowed claims within 60 days of the plan taking effect.
Sunil Kavuri, a representative of the FTX creditor group, called for opposition to the bankrupt cryptocurrency exchange's compensation plan. Kavuri wrote on X that the plan should be voted against. He advocated that debts should be paid in the form of cryptocurrency rather than the dollar value at the time of bankruptcy, and he believed that creditors' losses far exceeded the price at the time of bankruptcy filing, estimating losses of more than $10 billion.
9. Cartier jewelry heir arrested for allegedly using USDT to launder money link
The U.S. Department of Justice (DoJ) has charged and arrested the heirs of jewelry brand Cartier for allegedly using USDT to launder funds from drug trafficking. In Miami, law enforcement arrested Maximilien de Hoop Cartier, a direct descendant of Cartier founder Louis Cartier, for colluding with Colombian drug cartels. Cartier, along with five Colombian nationals, attempted to import 100 kilograms of cocaine and launder hundreds of millions of dollars, mostly through over-the-counter (OTC) USDT transactions, and they had successfully laundered $14.5 million before their arrest.
10. US Crypto Super PAC Raises Over $100 Million for 2024 Elections link
The U.S. super political action committee (PAC) supported by the cryptocurrency industry has now raised more than $102 million, ranking third among all super PACs participating in the 2024 election. More than half of the cryptocurrency super PAC's political funds (about $54 million) came from direct corporate spending, mainly Coinbase and Ripple Labs. The rest came from $11 million from the founder of a16z, $5 million from the Winklevoss twins, and $1 million from Brian Armstrong, etc.
Key financing events
Spiderchain developer Botanix Labs announces $11.5 million funding round link
Web3 platform Galaxis announces $10 million in funding link
Lava Foundation completes $11 million financing, Animoca Brands and others participate in investment link
Crypto trading platform Arbelos completes $28 million in financing link
Web3 game developer Seeds Labs announces $12 million seed round of funding link
Multi-chain trading platform UXUY announced the completion of $7 million Pre-A round of financing in Hong Kong link
Solana Ecosystem Tokenized Marketplace AgriDex Completes $5 Million Seed Round Link
Arcium, the zero-knowledge privacy protocol for the Solana ecosystem, announced the completion of a $5.5 million strategic financing link
Bitcoin native application platform Arch Labs announces $7 million in funding link
OKX Ventures announces strategic investment in four products of Web3 venture studio EVG link
OKX Ventures announces investment in Wild Forest link
Lagrange announces $13.2 million in seed funding link
Web3 infrastructure startup Hemera announces $2.6 million seed round link
Solana Ecosystem DePIN Project Ambient Announces $2 Million Seed Round Financing link
Bitcoin second-layer network ZKM completes $5 million financing, led by OKX Ventures link
Void Labs' Blade of God X announces multi-million dollar funding link
Farcaster Ecosystem SocialFi Company Airstack Announces $4 Million Seed Round of Funding link
For more industry funding events, visit crypto-fundraising.info.
2. Hot project news of the week: Notcoin is listed on Binance, Bybit is integrated with Ethena, Eigenlayer opens airdrop application, etc. (0505-0511)
1. Binance launches the 54th Launchpool project Notcoin (NOT) link
Binance released the 54th Launchpool project Notcoin (NOT), where users can deposit BNB and FDUSD into different pools and mine NOT tokens within three days. Mining will start at 00:00 (UTC) on May 13, 2024. NOT will be launched at 12:00 (UTC) on May 16, 2024, and will open NOT/BTC, NOT/USDT, NOT/BNB, NOT/FDUSD and NOT/TRY trading pairs. It is worth noting that Notcoin is one of the few projects that is listed on Binance Launchpool and OKX Jumpstart at the same time. Notcoin is a TON ecosystem project that has been widely spread through viral games on Telegram.
The initial circulation of Notcoin (NOT) is 100% of the total amount, which is 102,719,221,714 NOT, of which Launchpool accounts for 3% of the total amount (3,081,576,651 NOT). Or due to full circulation, the FDUSD premium this time is not as significant as before.
2. Berachain co-founder Smokey The Bera commented that Cosmos does not understand GTM at all link
Berachain co-founder Smokey The Bera commented that Cosmos does not understand GTM (Go-To-Market) at all, and said that Bera v2 is more like ETH than Cosmos, and believes that Cosmos needs a new community or rebranding. In addition, it stated that Berachain will not be labeled as Cosmos Chain. This also caused dissatisfaction among some members of the Cosmos community. Subsequently, Smokey The Bera responded that he never denied that Berachain was using Cosmos SDK, but it did not mean that it had to be called Cosmos Chain; in fact, being called Cosmos Chain has harmed us in many ways in terms of developer adoption, brand awareness and overall image; in addition, Cosmos as a whole will benefit most by helping to implement good technology behind the scenes rather than being the protagonist.
3. The next zkSync upgrade will be launched on May 13th link
Ramon, head of product delivery at Matter Labs, announced on Twitter that the next upgrade of zkSync will be launched on May 13, including new features and improvements. This upgrade introduces P256Verify precompilation to support secp256r1 elliptic curve signature verification, and adds ecAdd, ecMul, and ecPairing precompilations. At the same time, the Bridgehub component will enable interoperability of ZK Stack chains. In addition, support for ZK Stack's Validiums, custom data availability layers, and custom base tokens has also been completed and will be officially available with the upcoming server update. The new upgrade will also support .transfer/.send calls without Gas fees, solving some contract deployment issues.
4. Templated blockchain Sophon announces raising $60 million in wETH through its node sale link
Sophon, a modular blockchain on zkSync, announced that it has raised $60 million in wETH through its node sales. The funds will be used to launch the Sophon ecosystem, which focuses on artificial intelligence and games, is built on modular rollups, and uses zero-knowledge (ZK) technology, and is expected to be launched in the third quarter of 2024. Previously, Sophon completed a $10 million financing, with participation from OKX Ventures and Huobi Ventures.
5. Dragonfly partner: gave up investment due to hearing sexual harassment rumors about Eclipse founder link
Dragonfly managing partner Haseeb Qureshi tweeted that Dragonfly heard rumors that the project's founder Neel Somani had a history of sexual harassment when it initially conducted due diligence on the Eclipse project, so it quickly decided not to invest. Haseeb questioned that if Dragonfly heard the rumor with only minimal due diligence, then it was impossible for actual investors not to have heard of it. Haseeb was disgusted that the Eclipse project was able to obtain financing and that Neel was able to cash out millions of dollars through the secondary market during the pre-release stage of the project. In addition, Haseeb said in a comment that several people he knew were considering this investment, and we told them about the rumors. They didn't invest in the end. But they were just rumors, and we didn't dig deeper. Modular blockchain Eclipse announced on March 11 this year that it had completed a $50 million Series A financing round, led by Placeholder and Hack VC, with participation from Polychain Capital, Delphi Digital, etc. Eclipse is built on the Solana virtual machine for execution, Celestia for data availability, and Ethereum for settlement and consensus. Eclipse said it will launch its mainnet in the second quarter of 2024, and several DApps have tested its infrastructure.
6. NFT L2 network Zora announced that it has acquired the Mint Fun platform link
NFT L2 network Zora announced that it has acquired the Mint Fun platform. Zora said it will continue to build and develop Mint fun, and it is recruiting new employees to develop the product. Previously, in 2022, Zora completed a $50 million financing led by Haun Ventures at a valuation of $600 million, with participating investors including Coinbase Ventures, Kindred Ventures, etc.
7. The third distribution of Blast Gold Points is now online link
Blast officially tweeted that the third distribution of Blast gold points is now online, and 15 million gold coins will be sent to Dapps this week. New categories (RWA) and new Dapp weights (Platinum) were introduced in this release. In addition, Blast native DEX Thruster tweeted that it was honored to be the protocol that received the most Blast gold points again. It will distribute the 2.7 million Blast gold points it received to its loyal users in stages. At the same time, Blast native social project Fantasy received 2.16 million Blast gold points, and SocialFi application DistrictOne (D1) received 1.44 million Blast gold points.
8. Puffer Finance launched its mainnet on May 8 link
Puffer Finance, an Ethereum liquidity re-pledge protocol, launched its mainnet on May 8, and the 5x Puffer Points event is about to end. Previously, Puffer Finance received $5 million in seed round financing in August last year, received strategic investment from Binance Labs in January this year, and received $18 million in Series A financing in April this year. It is an Ethereum liquidity re-pledge protocol built on EigenLayer. Puffer Finance TVL is $1.409 billion.
9. Bybit integrates with Ethena, USDe can be used as collateral to trade perpetual futures link
Ethena announced a new partnership with cryptocurrency exchange Bybit to use USDe as collateral to trade perpetual futures on all assets in the exchange’s UTA. The integration will also add spot trading pairs for Bitcoin and Ethereum with USDe. Additionally, USDe will be available on the exchange’s Earn platform, and users will be able to use USDe for Bybit startup pool mining.
In addition, Ethena announced its 2024 roadmap, which aims to integrate DeFi, CeFi, and TradFi through USDe. Ethena's endgame covers three categories: currency, network, and exchange. The Ethena network will serve as a unified currency layer, integrating with applications with USDe as a fulcrum asset; at the same time, it will serve as an aggregated liquidity layer to link DEXs and CEXs.
10. EIGEN airdrop claim and staking are now open link
The EigenLayer Foundation announced that the EIGEN airdrop claim and pledge went live at 1:00 a.m. on May 11 and will remain open until September 7. 15% of the initial EIGEN token supply is reserved for the community, and 6.05% of the initial supply is available. The second phase of the first season will increase to 6.75% in mid-June, totaling approximately 113 million EIGEN tokens.