The Wisconsin State Investment Board (SWIB) disclosed that it holds $99 million in BlackRock Spot Bitcoin ETF (IBIT) and $64 million in Grayscale Bitcoin Trust (GBTC). SWIB manages more than $156 billion in assets, and its significant investment in Bitcoin shows that institutional investors are increasingly confident in Bitcoin. This move will not only bring more capital inflows to the Bitcoin market, but may also further promote the legalization and popularity of Bitcoin.
Bloomberg analyst James Seyffart pointed out that the possibility of the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) rejecting spot ETFs by saying "Ethereum is a security" is increasing. Well-known financial lawyer Scott Johnsson said that the SEC is considering security issues in Ethereum spot ETF applications, which have never been involved in Bitcoin ETF applications. Although there is no guarantee that the SEC will do so, analysts believe that the SEC is at least seriously considering this strategy. This attitude of the SEC may have a significant impact on Ethereum and its market.
Stablecoin issuer Paxos announced that J. Christopher Giancarlo, former chairman of the U.S. Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC), has joined its board of directors. Giancarlo said he will bring expertise and knowledge to Paxos to help the company continue to lead digital asset innovation. This appointment shows that Paxos is strengthening its leadership team to promote its influence in the digital asset field. Giancarlo's joining is expected to provide Paxos with valuable regulatory experience and strategic guidance, further enhancing its competitiveness in stablecoins and blockchain technology.
Alexey Pertsev, the developer of the currency mixing protocol Tornado Cash, was sentenced to 64 months in prison by a Dutch court for money laundering. The court found that Pertsev habitually engaged in money laundering between 2019 and 2022, involving illegal transactions on the Tornado Cash platform. Pertsev's lawyers have 14 days to appeal, and the eight months he was previously imprisoned will be deducted from his sentence. The case may have an impact on the trials of other Tornado Cash developers, including Roman Storm and Roman Semenov, who face similar charges.
Fed Chairman Powell said in a speech on May 14 that the U.S. economy is performing well and the labor market is strong. Although inflation did not make further progress in the first quarter, he is less confident than before that inflation will fall. Powell stressed that the Fed needs to be patient and wait for policies to work, and expects GDP to continue to grow at a rate of 2% or higher.
Galaxy Digital's first-quarter net profit increased to US$421.7 million, a year-on-year increase of approximately 214%. This was mainly due to significant growth in its mining business, which brought in $31.5 million in revenue during the first quarter. The company's overall revenue increased to $259.7 million from $146.7 million in the same period last year, with earnings per share reaching $1.23. This shows that Galaxy Digital’s strategy and business operations in the field of digital assets have achieved remarkable results.
Coinbase announced that it will include Drift Protocol (DRIFT) in its coin listing roadmap. This means that DRIFT will soon be traded on the Coinbase platform, allowing it to gain more attention and participation from investors. This move reflects Coinbase's recognition of the potential of Drift Protocol, which is expected to bring it greater market liquidity and user base.
Ripple and Evmos have partnered to develop the XRP Ledger EVM sidechain, which is built with evmOS technology. evmOS is a modular and customizable technology stack provided by Evmos, which leverages Cosmos SDK, IBC, and CometBFT to bring EVM compatibility to Web3 enterprises. This collaboration aims to enhance the functionality of XRP Ledger, provide a wider range of application scenarios and compatibility, and promote the further development of blockchain technology.
Maple Finance has partnered with Figment, a staking infrastructure provider, to provide institutional-grade Solana and Ethereum staking services. Through this partnership, Maple Finance will integrate Solana and Ethereum staking capabilities into its platform, leveraging Figment's institutional-grade staking services to increase lender rewards and improve capital efficiency. This will provide borrowers with more competitive borrowing rates, further consolidating Maple Finance's position in the digital asset lending market.
LayerZero announced that the witch bounty event will start at 10:00 on May 18. Participants can get 10% of their expected token allocation by reporting witches. The witch self-reporting deadline is May 17 at 23:59, and successful reports will receive 15% of the token allocation. The event deadline is May 31 at 23:59, and at least 20 addresses must be included. The witch addresses that do not self-report will not be allocated tokens.
The Lens Protocol team announced that it is developing its own blockchain network, Lens Network, which will be built on Matter Labs' ZK Stack and powered by zkSync on Ethereum. Lens Lab is a project team led by Stani Kulechov, which previously developed Lens Protocol, a Web3 social platform based on Polygon PoS. The new Lens Network will further expand the capabilities of its Web3 social platform and enhance user experience and network performance.
According to Paidun monitoring, Sonne Finance, the native lending protocol based on Compound's Optimism, was hacked, resulting in losses of more than $20 million. The attack involved its time-lock contract, which needs to be carefully inspected and repaired. This attack highlights the vulnerability of decentralized financial platforms in security, which may have an adverse impact on user confidence and platform operations.
Ilya Sutskever, co-founder of OpenAI, announced that he will leave the company. According to market sources, his position will be taken over by Jakub Pachocki as the new chief scientist of OpenAI. This change may have an impact on OpenAI's future research direction and strategy.
See original
Daily Hot Topics (2024-05-15)
Disclaimer: Includes thrid-party opinions. No financial advice. May include sponsored content. See T&Cs.
XAI
0.2633
-4.77%
Replies 4
