Today's news tips:
Lens Protocol: Developing the blockchain network Lens Network
OpenAI chief scientist Ilya Sutskever to leave
Sonne Finance project was attacked, with losses exceeding $20 million
Lido co-founder and Paradigm secretly back EigenLayer competitor Symbiotic
MakerDAO to launch its first SubDAO Spark and unveil its SPK token economics
Crypto prediction market Polymarket has raised $70 million in two rounds of funding, with the latest round led by Founders Fund
Chengdu police cracked a major underground money laundering case using USDT as a medium, involving 13.8 billion yuan
Circle plans to move its legal headquarters from Ireland to the U.S.
Regulatory News
Tornado Cash Developer Alexey Pertsev Sentenced to 64 Months in Prison by Dutch Court
According to CoinDesk, on Tuesday, Tornado Cash developer Alexey Pertsev was sentenced to 64 months in prison after being found guilty of money laundering by a Dutch court. An indictment shared before the trial stated that between July 9, 2019 and August 10, 2022, Pertsev "developed a habit of money laundering" and that he should at least suspect the criminal roots of illegal transactions on the Tornado Cash platform.
Earlier news, a Dutch court found Tornado Cash developer Alexey Pertsev guilty of money laundering. Pertsev’s lawyers will have 14 days to appeal the judge’s decision.
Chengdu police cracked a major underground money laundering case using USDT as a medium, involving 13.8 billion yuan
The Chengdu Public Security Bureau recently cracked a major underground money laundering case involving a total amount of 13.8 billion yuan. The suspects used USDT Tether as a medium to evade national foreign exchange supervision and illegally provide foreign exchange settlement channels. The case involved 26 provinces (municipalities, autonomous regions) across the country. Now the public security organs have arrested 193 suspects across the country.
After investigation, it was found that since January 2021, the criminal gang headed by Lin, Weng, Chen and others used import and export business as the origin and USDT Tether as the medium to provide illegal currency exchange and payment settlement services to customers who need to transfer funds abroad. They mainly provided illegal foreign exchange trading services for smuggling medicines and cosmetics, purchasing assets overseas, etc., and cooperated with other companies to engage in criminal activities of defrauding retained tax refunds through fund settlement.
Fed Chairman: I don't think the next move may be a rate hike, it is more likely to keep the policy rate at the current level
According to Jinshi, Fed Chairman Powell said in a speech that the PPI data is actually quite mixed. We are not sure whether inflation will continue. We are not sure whether inflation will continue. Restrictive policies may take longer than expected to work to reduce inflation. But we will reduce the inflation rate back to 2%. In many ways, the policy rate is restrictive. It is not believed that the next move may be a rate hike, and it is more likely to maintain the policy rate at the current level.
AI&NFT
OpenAI chief scientist Ilya Sutskever to leave
According to Bloomberg, OpenAI Chief Scientist Ilya Sutskever will leave the company and research director Jakub Pachocki will take over the position. Sutskever tweeted that he is working on an as-yet-unnamed project that is "very meaningful" to him personally.
Project News
Lens Protocol: Developing the blockchain network Lens Network
Lens Lab, the development team of Lens Protocol, a Web3 social platform, announced that it is developing its own blockchain network, Lens Network. The new network will be built on Matter Labs' ZK Stack and powered by zkSync on Ethereum. Lens Network will be launched in three phases, first introducing Validium using ZK compression technology on Ethereum to ensure data accessibility. A separate Validium chain will be introduced in later stages to support various use cases for social networks. Eventually, the Volition network will be launched, combining rollup and Validium for ultimate security and flexibility.
Coinbase Adds Drift Protocol (DRIFT) to its Listing Roadmap
Coinbase Assets tweeted that it has added Drift Protocol (DRIFT) to its coin listing roadmap today.
Security company: Sonne Finance project was attacked, with losses exceeding $20 million
According to Beosin Alter monitoring and early warning, the Sonne Finance project was suspected to have been attacked, with losses exceeding 10 million US dollars. According to PeckShield, Sonne Finance has currently lost more than 20 million US dollars due to time-locked contracts. Sonne Finance, the non-custodial liquidity market protocol on the Optimism mainnet and Base, officially stated that all Optimism markets have been suspended. The market on Base is safe.
Later in the day, Sonne Finance confirmed that it had been attacked, but that approximately $6.5 million in funds were still retained.
Lido co-founder and Paradigm secretly back EigenLayer competitor Symbiotic
According to CoinDesk, the co-founder of the dominant liquid staking protocol Lido and venture capital firm Paradigm are secretly helping to fund a new company called Symbiotic, which will compete in the "re-staking" field. The Symbiotic project aims to provide a way for decentralized applications to earn rewards by assisting in the security of these "AVSs" by re-staking assets that have been deposited with other crypto protocols. The main difference between Symbiotic and EigenLayer is that users can directly deposit any asset based on the Ethereum ERC-20 standard, including Lido's staked ETH (stETH) tokens.
Sources revealed that Renzo, a liquidity re-staking protocol, is already in discussions to integrate with Symbiotic after launch. The Symbiotic platform is expected to be released in some form by the end of this year.
MakerDAO to launch its first SubDAO Spark and unveil its SPK token economics
MakerDAO announced the upcoming launch of its first SubDAO, Spark. Spark will bring its native token SPK and a variety of SPK token mining plans. Spark's main products include SparkLend, which allows users to borrow DAI, and Cash & Savings, which provides services similar to on-chain banks and is linked to the Dai Savings Rate (DSR). Currently, users can participate in the pre-mining of SPK tokens on spark.fi, which will last until May 20, 2024, and the mined SPK tokens will be distributed when Spark is launched. In addition, the total number of SPK tokens is 4 billion, which is planned to be distributed within 10 years, with 1 billion distributed each year in the first two years. NewStable users and Lockstake Engine users will receive 70% and 30% of the SPK tokens, respectively. SPK token holders will also have the opportunity to start mining the new governance token NGT immediately.
Bloomberg ETF Analyst: MSCI has decided to add 42 securities including Microstrategy to the MSCI Global Investable Market Index
Eric Balchunas, an ETF analyst at Bloomberg, said on Twitter that MSCI has decided to add 42 securities including Microstrategy, Pure Storage and Emcor Group to the MSCI Global Investable Market Index (MSCI ACWI) early this morning (Beijing time). This change is seen as a major event because the index compiled by Morgan Stanley Capital International (MSCI Inc.) has more than $4 trillion in benchmark assets worldwide and is favored by institutional investors. The MSCI ACWI index includes stock markets in 23 developed markets and 27 emerging markets around the world, covering a total of approximately 3,000 stocks.
DeFi protocol Alex Lab said it is willing to provide 10% of the total stolen amount as a bounty, valid until 16:00 on May 18
Bitcoin decentralized finance (DeFi) tool Alex Lab was recently hacked and lost $4.3 million. In order to recover the stolen funds as soon as possible, Alex Lab offered a bounty of 10% of the total stolen amount to those who assisted in recovering the funds, valid until 16:00 on May 18 (Beijing time). DeFi protocol Alex Lab said it has identified the identity of the attacker. The stolen funds have been frozen by major exchanges.
Earlier, security firm CertiK said that attackers may have gained control of the private keys that control ALEX's XLink bridge, a service that allows users to transfer tokens between different blockchains. The hackers moved more than $300,000 worth of Bitcoin (BTC), $3.3 million worth of stablecoins, and $75,000 worth of Sugar Kingdom (SKO) tokens.
FTX extends deadline for creditors to submit claims to late July or early August
Cryptocurrency exchange FTX sent an email to its customers announcing an extension of the deadline for filing claims. The claim filing date, originally scheduled for May 15, has now been extended to the end of July or early August (the specific date is yet to be determined), coinciding with the voting deadline for creditors to approve the Chapter 11 reorganization plan in the US proceeding. This will give FTX's customers an additional 10 to 12 weeks to submit their proof of debt. In addition, FTX's customers can choose to participate in litigation in the Bahamas or the United States, or in both places at the same time. The company also revealed that in June 2024, users will receive information about the results of choosing to participate in one or the other of the lawsuits, and will have 6 to 8 weeks to make a final decision.
Robinhood Crypto Launches Staking Service in Europe, Will Launch Localized App
Robinhood Crypto announced that starting today, Robinhood Crypto will launch its first cryptocurrency staking product, which will be exclusively available to customers in Europe. Customers can now stake their Solana (SOL) holdings directly through the app, enjoying flexible unstaking options at any time to earn rewards. In addition, new customers will receive a 10% bonus on net buys within the first 30 days on the platform, which will be paid in USDC. To better serve customers, Robinhood Crypto will begin rolling out local language versions of the app in the coming weeks, starting with users in Italy, Poland, and Lithuania. Robinhood Crypto has also launched a series of Learn & Earn modules focused on AVAX, BTC, and USDC, designed to help customers learn about different cryptocurrencies while earning rewards. These educational modules will soon be available in multiple languages, including Italian, Polish, and Lithuanian.
Binance will remove CFX/TUSD, CHESS/BTC, and ORDI/TUSD spot trading pairs on May 17
Binance announced that it will remove the three spot trading pairs CFX/TUSD, CHESS/BTC and ORDI/TUSD at 11:00 (ET) on May 17, 2024, and stop related transactions.
Former FTX executive Ryan Salame seeks 18-month prison sentence
Former FTX executive Ryan Salame recently asked the court for leniency, hoping to be sentenced to 18 months in prison on the grounds that he cooperated with the authorities and was remorseful. Salame is facing legal action for his involvement in the FTX collapse, and this request is part of his legal team's strategy to seek a lighter sentence. His lawyers argued that Salame did not participate in the core fraud committed by Sam Bankman-Fried and that his entire net worth was almost destroyed by the collapse of FTX.
Circle plans to move its legal headquarters from Ireland to the U.S.
According to Bloomberg, USDC issuer Circle plans to move its legal headquarters from Ireland to the United States. A Circle spokesperson confirmed on Tuesday that the company had submitted relevant court documents to re-establish its registered place, but did not disclose the specific reason. Circle previously secretly submitted plans for an initial public offering (IPO) to US securities regulators in January. It is reported that this move may expose Circle to stricter US taxes.
Conduit: Degen Chain is back online, users can submit transactions through RPC links
DeFi API startup Conduit tweeted that Degen Chain is back online. Users can now submit transactions through the public RPC link (https://rpc.degen.tips). Although the block browser is still indexing and has not yet reflected the latest status, infrastructure providers should start reindexing from a specific block (https://explorer.degen.tips/block/0x060cc75778cc4fc4ac41ca56dac7fff4b5c891ef0e5a398e5f8a7d47fde33886) to ensure data consistency. In addition, in order to restore network services as soon as possible, less than 5 addresses were filtered during the replay process, which contained millions of failed transactions, delaying the replay process. Conduit plans to share a detailed analysis report of this incident in the next few days.
Crypto investment firm BlockTower Capital suffered a hacker attack and some assets were drained
According to Bloomberg, citing people familiar with the matter, the main hedge fund of crypto investment company BlockTower Capital was recently hacked and some funds were stolen. Currently, the company manages a total of $1.7 billion in assets. Although blockchain forensics analysts have been hired to investigate the specific way the funds were stolen and the theft has been notified to its limited partners, the stolen funds have not been recovered and the hackers have not been caught.
Binance starts migrating assets from BNB Beacon Chain to BNB Smart Chain today
Binance announced that it will begin migrating assets from the BNB Beacon Chain (BEP2) to the BNB Smart Chain (BSC) starting today. This migration process will continue in the next few weeks and is expected to be completed in June 2024.
Financing News
Crypto prediction market Polymarket has raised $70 million in two rounds of funding, with the latest round led by Founders Fund
Peter Thiel’s venture capital firm Founders Fund is betting on one of the largest cryptocurrency prediction markets, Polymarket, despite major U.S. regulators stepping up efforts to restrict activity on such platforms, according to Bloomberg. A Polymarket spokesperson said Polymarket has raised $70 million in two rounds of funding, the latest of which was led by Founders Fund, whose backers also include Ethereum co-founder Vitalik Buterin. The platform attracts users to predict the outcomes of various events, with bets on the 2024 U.S. presidential election becoming the most popular contract.
Polymarket's $45 million Series B round was led by Peter Thiel's Founders Fund and existing investors 1confirmation and ParaFi, with participation from Ethereum co-founder Vitalik Buterin and Dragonfly and Eventbrite co-founder Kevin Hartz. General Catalyst earlier helped the company raise $25 million in its Series A round, with participation from Airbnb's Joe Gebbia and Polychain. The new funds value the company at a lower level than previously discussed. Bloomberg previously reported that the company was valued at nearly $1 billion before the CFTC took action.
According to the Polymarket website, election betting drove the biggest increase in Polymarket activity, with more than $170 million in bets placed on U.S. election-related activities. Polymarket was previously fined by the U.S. CFTC, and as part of a settlement, Polymarket promised to reduce its services in the U.S. and continue to operate overseas.
Important data
Data: Grayscale GBTC net outflow of $51 million on May 14
According to HODL15Capital monitoring, Grayscale GBTC had a net outflow of US$51 million on May 14, and Franklin EZBC had an inflow of US$2 million.
The whale that made tens of millions of dollars from PEPE trading three months ago made another profit of $13.7 million
According to Spot On Chain, a cryptocurrency tycoon made a profit of $13.67 million from $PEPE in three months, with a return rate of 875%. From December 1, 2023 to February 12, 2024, the tycoon invested $1.56 million to purchase 1.40 trillion $PEPE. 14 hours ago, when $PEPE reached a new historical high, the tycoon sold 14.04 billion $PEPE and obtained $1.57 million $DAI, successfully recovering his principal. At present, the tycoon still holds 1.26 trillion $PEPE, worth about $13.7 million (pure profit).
Wintermute exchanged 2.5 million RBN for AEVO, losing $778,000
According to the on-chain analyst @ai_9684xtpa, the AEVO＜＞RBN exchange channel has been opened at 18:00 today. Wintermute is the address with the largest exchange amount so far: 2.5 million RBN has been exchanged for AEVO, with a loss of $778,000. During 2024.01.03 - 2024.05.13, Wintermute transferred 17.7 million RBN at an average price of $1.24 from multiple exchanges, and currently still holds 2.73 million RBN, with a floating loss of $1.14 million. AEVO fell 22% in the past 24 hours.
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