Headlines
Judge rules Ripple did not violate federal securities laws by selling XRP to retail investors, only fined about $125 million
Odaily Planet Daily News: Analisa Torres, a district judge in the Southern District of New York, ruled that Ripple did not violate federal securities laws by conducting programmatic sales of XRP to retail customers through a trading platform. However, Ripple's 1,278 institutional sales transactions violated securities laws and fined it $125.035 million, far less than the $1 billion in disgorgement and prejudgment interest and $900 million in civil penalties required by the SEC. While the case was still under trial, the SEC tried to appeal this part of the ruling but failed. On Wednesday, Judge Torres also banned Ripple from violating federal securities laws in the future. She said that although she did not judge that Ripple had violated any laws after the SEC filed a lawsuit, it was likely that it had "crossed the line" in terms of its "On-Demand Liquidity (ODL)" product. The injunction document requires that if Ripple intends to sell any securities, it must submit a registration statement. (CoinDesk)
Grayscale launches two new crypto trusts: SUI and TAO
Odaily Planet Daily News Grayscale announced the launch of two new crypto investment products, Grayscale Bittensor Trust and Grayscale Sui Trust. The former invests in Bittensor's native token TAO, while the latter only focuses on investing in Sui Protocol's SUI token. (TheBlock)
Montenegro's prosecutor's office questions Do Kwon's extradition to South Korea, plans to decide by the end of the week whether to postpone the decision
Odaily Planet Daily News According to local media in Montenegro, the Montenegrin Supreme Court Committee will decide by the end of this week whether to postpone the extradition of Terraform Labs co-founder Do Kwon to South Korea. The Office of the Supreme Prosecutor of Montenegro has requested the Supreme Court to review the legality of the decision made by the Montenegrin Court of Appeal and proposed to postpone the execution of the decision. The Prosecutor's Office believes that the decision of the Court of Appeal violates the Law on International Legal Assistance in Criminal Matters. (vijesti)
Industry News
Japanese listed company Metaplanet receives 1 billion yen loan, plans to increase BTC holdings
Odaily Planet Daily News: Metaplanet Inc., a Japanese listed company, announced that it had obtained a 1 billion yen (0.1% APR) loan, and the proceeds will be used to purchase additional BTC. A few days ago, Metaplanet Inc. announced that it would issue 10.08 billion yen (69.5 million US dollars) of stock acquisition rights free of charge, and the proceeds will be used to purchase additional Bitcoin.
Grayscale, Bitwise, and NYSE Seek SEC Approval for Options Trading on Three Spot Ethereum ETFs
Odaily Planet Daily News Grayscale and Bitwise, together with the New York Stock Exchange, submitted a rule change proposal to the US SEC, seeking to list and trade options for the Bitwise Ethereum ETF, Grayscale Ethereum Trust, and Grayscale Ethereum Mini Trust. The document states that these options will provide investors with an additional, relatively low-cost investment tool, while serving as a hedging tool to meet investors' investment needs for Ethereum products and positions. The public comment period for the proposal is 21 days. (The Block) Yesterday, BlackRock and Nasdaq submitted an application for spot Ethereum ETF options to the SEC.
Bloomberg analyst: BlackRock will abandon its own brand in its active ETFs and use the iShares brand instead
Odaily Planet Daily News: Eric Balchunas, senior ETF analyst at Bloomberg, wrote in an article on X: "BlackRock will abandon the BlackRock brand in its active ETFs and switch to the iShares brand. This makes sense. The brand influence must be used."
Robinhood Q2 financial report: Cryptocurrency revenue reached US$81 million, a year-on-year increase of 161%
Odaily Planet Daily News: The financial report released by Robinhood, a stock and cryptocurrency trading brokerage platform, shows that the company's net revenue in the second quarter was US$682 million, while analysts expected US$641.5 million; the number of monthly active users in the second quarter was 11.8 million, while analysts expected 13.2 million; the transaction-based revenue in the second quarter was US$327 million, while analysts expected US$296 million. Cryptocurrency revenue in the second quarter reached US$81 million (market expectations were US$84.3 million), a year-on-year increase of 161%, which is twice the company's stock trading revenue this quarter. Cryptocurrency trading volume reached US$21.5 billion, a year-on-year increase of 137%. The financial report shows that the company's largest source of revenue in the quarter was options, which generated a total of US$327 million in revenue. (The Block)
Virtual bank Mox Bank launches cryptocurrency ETF trading service for retail investors
Odaily Planet Daily News Virtual Bank Mox Bank has begun to provide spot cryptocurrency ETF trading services. Mox stated in a press release on August 7 that Mox has become the first virtual bank in Hong Kong to provide such investment options for retail investors, and will launch various cryptocurrency ETFs permitted by Hong Kong regulations, including spot and derivative futures ETFs listed on Hong Kong and US exchanges, such as BTC and ETH. In order to attract customers, the bank will charge 0.12% of the transaction value as a transaction fee for Hong Kong-listed ETFs and US-listed ETFs. Mox added that it will not charge any additional custody fees or management fees in addition to the fees charged by the asset management company that manages the specific ETF. (crypto.news)
Crypto mining company Core Scientific signs new hosting agreement with CoreWeave, expected to increase revenue by $2 billion
Odaily Planet Daily News Bitcoin mining company Core Scientific (CORZ) said in a statement that it has exercised options in a previous contract to host approximately 112 megawatts (MW) of additional GPUs for "AI hyperscale" company CoreWeave. The new contract will take effect in the first half of 2026 and is expected to add approximately $2 billion in additional revenue, bringing total revenue to $6.7 billion. The statement added that CoreWeave will bear all capital investment costs required to prepare Core Scientific's existing mining infrastructure for HPC. Core Scientific shares soared 17% on Tuesday, outperforming other cryptocurrency-related stocks. (CoinDesk)
Paris Olympics venues hit by cyberattack, hackers demand cryptocurrency ransom
Odaily Planet Daily News: Hackers recently launched cyber attacks on the venues of the 2024 Paris Olympics and dozens of museum shops in France, and allegedly demanded ransoms in cryptocurrency. According to Le Parisien, last weekend, cyber attackers attacked the data processing systems of about 40 French tourist attractions and stole sensitive financial data. The attacked tourist attractions include the Grand Palais Museum, which hosts the martial arts and fencing competitions for the 2024 Paris Olympics. The hackers threatened that they would disclose the financial data of the tourism website unless a cryptocurrency ransom was paid. The French Anti-Cybercrime Brigade (B L2 C) is investigating the attack and ransom demands. According to Paris authorities, the attack had no impact on the Olympic program. Meanwhile, as of press time, the attacked museum tourist shops are still open. (Decrypt)
Project News
Gitcoin Grants 21 is now live
According to official news, Gitcoin Grants 21 has been officially launched and will last until 23:59 UTC on August 21. The theme of this round of grants is to work with partners and empower external communities. This round includes Celo and Arbitrum ecosystem rounds and 9 community rounds. Users no longer need to collect Passport stamps, and Gitcoin Grants Stack provides technical support.
Ethena and Solana Integration Expands USDe Access and Adds SOL as Supported Asset
Odaily Planet Daily News Ethena Labs announced its integration with Solana, allowing users to buy and sell its USDe stablecoin on Solana. In addition, Ethena has added SOL as a supporting asset. In addition to enhancing the strength and security of USDe support, Ethena said in a statement that it will unlock an additional $2 billion to $3 billion in open contracts in the SOL futures market, enabling USDe to continue to scale. (TheBlock)
Blast will distribute 11 million Gold to DApps in the second round of Gold distribution in Phase 2
Odaily Planet Daily News According to official news, Blast announced that the second round of Gold (gold points) distribution has been launched, with a total of 11 million Gold distributed to DApps. For this distribution, officials have reserved 10 million Gold for existing DApps on the Blast mainnet and 1 million Gold for newly launched DApps. More details about the next Big Bang competition will be announced in the coming weeks. Starting this month, DApps can allocate Gold directly to assets, with the exact mechanism subject to approval by the Blast Foundation on a case-by-case basis. The distribution mechanism must be in the best interest of users and DApp development. In order to further develop the Blast native asset ecosystem, a new Culture category has been officially introduced. Projects that significantly promote Blast’s native culture and community are included in this category, with tokens receiving 50,000 Gold and NFT projects receiving 25,000 Gold. Note: This is a new experimental category and is subject to change.
Scroll will conduct a Darwin proof recursive upgrade on August 21, reducing gas fees by about 34%
Odaily Planet Daily News Scroll announced on X that it will upgrade Darwin Proof Recursion on August 21, which will reduce gas fees by about 34%. Through the Darwin hard fork, multiple batches of proofs will be bundled into one validity proof, thereby reducing verification costs. Scroll will deploy the upgrade on the Scroll Sepolia testnet on August 14, and then deploy this upgrade on the mainnet.
Ronin: Received the last 2 million USDC returned by white hat hackers
Odaily Planet Daily News: Ronin posted on X this morning that it has received the last 2 million USDC returned by the white hat hacker. Last night, Ronin announced on the X platform that the white hat hacker has returned about $10 million in ETH, and the USDC is expected to be returned later, thanking the white hat for their vigilance and integrity. The bug bounty program will reward the white hat with a bounty of $500,000. The Ronin bridge will be audited before reopening, and will provide updates as the audit progresses.
Immutable to shut down Immutable X marketplace on August 13
Odaily Planet Daily News Immutable recently announced that it will close its Immutable X market on August 13 and cease operations on September 27. The Immutable X market was originally launched to demonstrate the capabilities of the Immutable SDK, and now it will focus on supporting third-party markets rather than maintaining its own trading platform. However, users of the Immutable market do not need to take any additional steps for their assets. All NFTs and tokens are stored on the blockchain, tied to the user's wallet address, and can be accessed in different markets using the Immutable global order book. (NFT Plazas)
Symbiotic: There is a temporary problem with the domain name registrar. The front end of the website cannot be opened temporarily. Funds are safe.
Odaily Planet Daily News: Symbiotic, a re-pledge protocol invested by Paradigm and Lido, posted on X that due to a temporary problem with the domain name registrar, the Symbiotic website frontend is currently unavailable. All funds are safe, the problem should be resolved soon, and users who need to interact immediately can execute directly through the contract.
gm.ai: The second season airdrop activity will be launched within 24 hours
Odaily Planet Daily News gm.ai posted on the X platform that it will launch the second season airdrop event within 24 hours, including three on-chain tasks: · Deposit SOL to the GM wallet; · Trade Solana tokens; · Trade GMCAT in the GM wallet.
Pacmoon: 50% of the project supply has been destroyed
Odaily Planet Daily News: Pacmoon, a meme project in the Blast ecosystem, announced on the X platform that it has destroyed 50% of the project supply, which means that the PAC shares held by users have increased by 100%. In addition, Pacmoon also stated that an announcement will be released soon.
Cyvers Alerts: Nexera suspected of being attacked, losses of approximately $1.5 million
Odaily Planet Daily News Cyvers Alerts system detected suspicious transactions involving Nexera's proxy contract. An address took ownership of Nexera's proxy contract and upgraded it. The address then transferred all NXRA tokens using the withdrawal function. The address is currently exchanging tokens for ETH, and some funds have been cross-bridged to the BNB chain. The total loss is estimated to be about $1.5 million.
Regulatory trends
Japan's financial regulator: Will not completely rule out the possibility of approving a cryptocurrency ETF
Odaily Planet Daily News: The head of Japan's financial regulator said that "careful consideration" is needed when deciding whether to follow Hong Kong and the United States in approving cryptocurrency-linked exchange-traded funds. Hideki Ito, director of the Financial Services Agency of Japan, said that many people believe that crypto assets may not necessarily contribute to the creation of wealth for the Japanese people in a stable and long-term manner, and other countries are currently taking a more "conservative stance" on cryptocurrency investments by retail investors. Ito said that the agency hopes to maintain a "pro-technology stance" and will not completely rule out the possibility of cryptocurrency ETFs, but may need to consider some things in terms of whether the public should be encouraged to invest in these products. (Bloomberg)
India's finance minister says no plans to regulate sale and purchase of cryptocurrencies
Odaily Planet Daily News: Indian Finance Minister Pankaj Chaudhary said that India has not conducted any research or survey to understand the extent of its citizens' adoption of cryptocurrencies, and said: "Crypto assets or virtual digital assets (VDA) are not regulated in India, and India does not collect data on these assets." (Cointelegraph)
Investment and Financing
Binance Labs announces investment in Solana ecosystem re-staking protocol Solayer
Odaily Planet Daily News Binance Labs, the venture capital and incubation department of Binance, announced its investment in Solayer, a Solana ecosystem restaking market that aims to support the development of on-chain Dapps by increasing network bandwidth while ensuring the security of Layer 1. Solayer uses the economic principles of staking to expand the security of Solana's base layer. Through this innovative method, users can participate in a decentralized validator network, thereby contributing to the security and decentralization of the Solana ecosystem. Users can strengthen the decentralization of the Solana network by staking assets, while earning native income through MEV-boost and earning an annualized rate of return (APY) from delegated assets. Currently, Solayer's total locked value (TVL) has exceeded US$150 million.
RWA L2 Project Lumia Completes $25 Million in RWA Node Sales
Odaily Planet Daily News: RWA Layer 2 project Lumia (formerly known as Orion) announced the completion of RWA node sales, raising $25 million in less than 20 days. It said that this achievement is expected to make Lumia a leader in the RWA chain field. The Lumia team said they are excited about the growing interest from major institutional investors and the community in their disruptive technology. The project said that more details about this round of financing will be announced soon.
Solana Ecosystem DePIN Project Andrena Completes $18 Million in Financing, Dragonfly Leads the Investment
Odaily Planet Daily News: Solana Ecosystem DePIN Project Andrena has completed $18 million in financing, led by Dragonfly, with participation from CMT Digital, Castle Island Ventures, Wintermute Ventures, 6th Man Ventures and ParaFi. According to its co-founder Neil Chatterjee, this round of financing is an extension of the Series A financing, and the structure is a simple future equity agreement (SAFE) with token warrants. (TheBlock)
On-chain AI aggregator Aidatify completes $17.5 million Series A funding round at $150 million valuation, led by SM Capital
Odaily Planet Daily News: Aidatify has completed a total of $17.5 million in Series A financing at a valuation of $150 million, led by SM Capital. Aidatif was built by the full-chain and DeFi infrastructure VGESS team, and the funds raised will be used to expand investment in the Aidatify ecosystem and products.
Web3 AI network DeAgentAI completes $6 million seed round
Odaily Planet Daily News According to official news, Web3 AI network DeAgentAI announced that it has successfully completed a $6 million seed round of financing. This round of financing was led by Web3.com Ventures and Vertex Capital, and Higgs Capital, Kernel Labs, Waterdrip Capital, Tido Capital, PANONY, Chaincatcher, Goplus, UXLINK and others participated. DeAgentAI is committed to building the world's first AI agent intelligent neural network in the Web3 field, relying on its self-developed LLM model and AGI system to solve the problem that the existing agent system cannot meet the endogenous needs of users. Through its neural network, DeAgentAI can efficiently analyze user intentions and meet user needs with the highest intelligence.
Open-source block browser Blockscout completes $3 million seed round of financing, led by 1kx
Odaily Planet Daily News: The open source block browser Blockscout announced the completion of a $3 million seed round of financing, led by 1kx, with participation from Primitive Ventures and Gnosis, and angel investors including Evan Van Ness, Alex Svanevik, Kartik Talwar, Anton Bukov and Stefan George. Blockscout plans to use the funds to further build its product suite and improve the user experience, such as integrating social elements and AI-enabled tools directly into the dashboard. (Chainwire)
Character*Voice
Vitalik: Farcaster, Lens and Polymarket have performed amazingly over the past year
Odaily Planet Daily News: Vitalik replied to netizens on X: "From my point of view, both L1 and L2 confirm transactions within seconds, and the cost of each L2 transaction is less than $0.01. Farcaster, Lens, and Polymarket have performed amazingly over the past year. We are beginning to enter the ZK ID and ZK voting stage."
Matrixport: Bitcoin appears to be oversold, which usually indicates that Bitcoin has reached a bottom
Odaily Planet Daily News Matrixport released today's chart saying that due to the continued existence of macroeconomic and geopolitical risks and the less optimistic earnings of US technology stocks, it is still crucial to remain cautious. However, Bitcoin appears to be oversold, and its relative strength index (RSI) has dropped to 30%. Historical data shows that such low RSI levels usually indicate the bottom of Bitcoin. While this does not guarantee that prices will not fall further, it indicates that the current pace of decline may slow down. It is worth noting that the recent few times when the RSI fell to this low point, buying opportunities usually appeared within a few days.
CoinShares Research Director: Investors Are Selling Bitcoin and Buying Ethereum
Odaily Planet Daily News: James Butterfill, head of research at CoinShares, posted on the X platform that Bitcoin had a net outflow of $165 million this week and a monthly net outflow of $544 million, while Ethereum had a net inflow of $175.5 million this week and a monthly net inflow of $170.6 million. The first two days of trading after the market fell showed that investors were selling Bitcoin and buying Ethereum instead. Overall, there was an inflow of $8 million this week and a monthly net outflow of $377 million.
