Headlines
▌Apple and Google were fined in Europe at the same time, involving a total of 15 billion euros
The European Court of Justice ruled on the 10th that Apple Inc. must pay Ireland 13 billion euros in back taxes. At the same time, it upheld the 2.4 billion euro fine imposed on Google Inc. for abusing its monopoly to suppress competitors. The European Court of Justice's statement confirmed the European Commission's 2016 ruling that Apple Inc. must pay Ireland 13 billion euros in back taxes. The European Court of Justice also rejected Google's appeal on the same day, upholding the European Commission's 2017 ruling that it abused its dominant position and favored its own shopping service "Google Shopping", and imposed a fine of 2.4 billion euros.
▌US Democratic Congresswoman Maxine Waters criticizes Trump's cryptocurrency project
At a congressional hearing, U.S. Democratic Congressman Maxine Waters used World Liberty Financial, a cryptocurrency lending platform promoted by Trump and his sons, as an example to highlight the higher risks consumers face in the DeFi field.
Last week, the Twitter accounts of Trump's daughter Tiffany Trump and Republican National Committee Chairwoman Lara Trump (Trump's daughter-in-law) were hacked. Under the hackers' control, the accounts promoted fake tokens issued with World Liberty Financial in an attempt to defraud potential buyers. "Due to the high profile of the people behind the project, bad actors are taking advantage of this opportunity to defraud potential users," Waters said. "It is incumbent on lawmakers to consider enacting strong protections to prevent these types of scams from occurring."
According to Trump's son Eric Trump, Twitter blocked the social media accounts controlled by hackers "within minutes." But Waters pointed out that many people were still actually harmed by buying about $1.8 million worth of fake tokens that were not actually related to the project.
Quotes
As of press time, according to Coingecko data:
BTC’s latest transaction price is $57,648.67, with a daily change of +1.2%;
ETH's latest transaction price is 2,389.79, with a daily change of +1.4%;
BNB's latest transaction price is $517.47, with a daily change of -0.1%;
SOL's latest trading price is $135.75, with a daily change of +0.7%;
DOGE’s latest trading price is $0.1028, with a daily change of -0.7%;
XPR recently traded at $0.5414, with a daily change of +0.5%.
policy
▌Blockchain advocacy organization Digital Chamber calls on the U.S. Congress to legislate to clarify NFT regulation
The Digital Chamber, a cryptocurrency and blockchain advocacy group, called on the U.S. Congress to introduce legislation that would define certain NFTs (non-fungible tokens) as consumer products and exempt them from federal securities laws. The move is in response to possible enforcement actions by the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) against the OpenSea platform. OpenSea CEO Devin Finzer said the Wells notice received on August 28 indicated that the SEC was entering "unknown territory." The Digital Chamber criticized SEC Chairman Gary Gensler's approach to regulation through enforcement, saying the lack of a clear legal definition would put the NFT industry at risk. The organization stressed that NFTs should not be considered securities, but should be classified as consumer products.
▌The US SEC has fined the cryptocurrency industry $7.4 billion since 2013
According to a study published by Social Capital Markets, the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) has imposed $7.4 billion in fines on the cryptocurrency industry since 2013.
The report states that with Terraform Labs agreeing to pay $4.47 billion earlier this year, total fines in 2024 have surpassed previous years at $4.7 billion. However, the report also states that the total number of fines issued fell to 11 from 30 last year, when the SEC imposed fines totaling $150 million on the crypto industry.
“The overall increase in fines suggests a strategic shift toward fewer, higher-impact cases,” Social Capital Markets said in its report. “This change underscores the need for cryptocurrency companies to prioritize regulatory compliance as the financial risks associated with noncompliance have escalated.”
Blockchain Applications
Crypto yield protocol Ethena has seen nearly $1 billion in outflows since July
Crypto yield farming protocol Ethena has seen nearly $1 billion in outflows since July, according to DefiLlama data. This represents a 27% reduction in the token’s supply. The protocol’s governance token, ethena (ENA), has fallen 85% from its April highs.
Meanwhile, the funding rate for cryptocurrency perpetual futures, USDe’s main source of yield, has fallen to near zero in the past few weeks. In March, the rate reached an annualized 40%-70%. DefiLlama said USDe’s yield fell to 4.4% from a high of more than 50% in March, which is lower than lower-risk investment products such as ordinary money market funds or other digital token products backed by the U.S. Treasury.
“Lower funding rates make holding and staking USDe less attractive,” said Julio Moreno, an analyst at CryptoQuant.
Web3 protocol ARPA Network plans to launch native re-staking rewards as early as September
ARPA Network, a Web3 protocol built on EigenLayer, plans to start issuing rewards to re-stakers in its native ARPA token as early as September. “If everything goes well, we will launch (ARPA rewards) at the end of September, and if not, then it will definitely be launched in October,” head of business development Jason Zhao told Cointelegraph in an interview.
In addition to native token rewards, ARPA CEO Felix Xu said in the statement that ARPA is also testing an "incentive program to provide additional EIGEN reward boosts to our stakeholders and operators." This will be the first time that EigenLayer's third-party Active Validation Service (AVS) will pay re-stakers for securing and validating its network. EigenLayer's internal AVS EigenDA already pays re-stakers fees in wETH.
Cryptocurrency
▌Macro factors push Bitcoin's correlation with the S&P 500 to a 23-month high
Affected by macroeconomic factors, the correlation between Bitcoin and the S&P 500 has risen to 0.67, a nearly two-year high. Recently, due to weak US employment data, the price of Bitcoin fell 10%, and then partially recovered, closing down 3% on a weekly basis. The upcoming US CPI data and the Federal Open Market Committee meeting on September 18 are expected to further affect the crypto market.
▌The transaction volume of stablecoins on Ethereum has reached a record high of $1.46 trillion
According to data from The Block, Ethereum’s on-chain stablecoin transaction volume has reached an all-time high of $1.46 trillion, more than doubling the $650 billion at the beginning of the year.
Among them, the decentralized stablecoin DAI leads with a transaction volume of 960 billion US dollars. However, after data cleaning and filtering, DAI's transaction volume lags behind USDT and USDC, indicating that there may be false transactions and large transfers.
The report said that the growth in the use of stablecoins is more likely to indicate that the ecosystem is maturing. The higher the stablecoin trading volume, the deeper the liquidity pool, the less slippage, and the higher the overall market efficiency.
▌US Democratic Congressman: Regulators or the crypto industry itself do not have a "consensus definition" of DeFi
The U.S. House of Representatives Financial Services Digital Assets Subcommittee discussed DeFi regulation at a hearing. Massachusetts Democratic Rep. Stephen Lynch said there is no "consensus definition" of DeFi among regulators or the industry itself. He also criticized the entire crypto industry, saying that the industry has been damaged by "implosion events" and called for legislation.
“The committee should have explored digital asset topics such as DeFi and tokenization long before legislation was introduced,” said Stephen Lynch. “The FIT Act, which I strongly oppose, excludes DeFi services. I urge the committee not to advance similar legislation that would raise the same consumer and investor protection risks by legitimizing the industry.”
Analysis: Uncertainty over Trump-Harris debate weighs on stocks and cryptocurrencies
QCP Capital analysts believe that the uncertainty surrounding Tuesday night’s debate between Donald Trump and Kamala Harris is affecting the U.S. stock market, and in turn, the cryptocurrency market. “Macroeconomic uncertainty is currently dominating the cryptocurrency market, with the 30-day correlation with the MSCI World Equity Index at 0.6, close to its highest level in 2 years,” the analysts noted.
The QCP Capital unit reported high activity in the derivatives markets, with investors anticipating heightened volatility around tonight’s Trump-Harris debate, which begins at 9pm ET. “We saw a significant influx of buying, with the number of Bitcoin options contracts expiring on September 11 reaching 400 at a strike price of $57,500,” the analyst added.
SwissBorg launches USDC Earn product based on Morpho
SwissBorg, a fintech platform focused on cryptocurrencies and serving the European market, has announced the launch of a USDC Earn product that leverages the Morpho protocol. This new product is now available to SwissBorg application users, providing Web2 audiences with access to custom Morpho Vaults, which are reportedly accessible to Morpho’s WBTC/USDC and wstETH/USDC markets, marking the first time Morpho’s Vaults have been used in a CeFi environment.
▌Paypal and Venmo integrate Ethereum domain name service ENS to support crypto payments
ENS Labs announced on Tuesday that Paypal and Venmo have integrated the Ethereum Name Service (ENS) into their payment platforms, meaning U.S. users of Paypal and Venmo can enter ENS domain names to send cryptocurrency without having to copy and paste wallet addresses.
ENS was founded in 2017 with funding from Ethereum. It has more than 2 million domain names registered on the chain and more than 4 million domain names registered off-chain. Paypal and Venmo began to support cryptocurrencies in 2021.
Important economic developments
▌Traders still expect the Fed to cut interest rates at least twice in the near future
Traders in the U.S. interest rate options market are still betting on at least one outsize rate cut from the Federal Reserve this year, though it may not come before the Nov. 5 presidential election. At first glance, Fed swaps reflect expectations for a 25 basis point cut ahead of next week’s Federal Open Market Committee meeting, with little chance of a bigger cut. But a closer look tells a different story. Recent activity in options tied to the secured overnight funding rate suggests traders are increasingly positioning for a rate cut of about 150 basis points before the Fed’s Jan. 29 policy decision. That’s the same as what’s currently priced in by the swaps market. To get there, policymakers would have to deliver at least a half-point cut at two of the four meetings through January, without an inter-meeting rate cut.
▌The probability of the Federal Reserve cutting interest rates by 25 basis points in September is 69%
According to CME's "Fed Watch", the probability of the Fed cutting interest rates by 25 basis points in September is 69%, and the probability of cutting interest rates by 50 basis points is 31%. The probability of the Fed cutting interest rates by 50 basis points by November is 26.1%, the probability of cutting interest rates by 75 basis points is 54.6%, and the probability of cutting interest rates by 100 basis points is 19.3%.
▌UBS strategist: S&P 500 expected to fall by at least 10%
UBS Group AG’s head of U.S. equity derivatives strategy said she expects the S&P 500 to fall at least 10% from its peak within a month. “I am tactically bearish over the next two months,” Rebecca Cheong wrote in a note to clients on Tuesday. “A single disappointment in the incoming economic data could trigger a massive pullback.” She recommends investors buy tail hedges in ETFs to protect against losses, and names the iShares Russell 2000 ETF (IWM), the Financial Select Sector SPDR Fund (XLF US) and the iShares iBoxx High Yield Corporate Bond ETF (HYG) as top picks.
▌Goldman Sachs: The global interest rate cut cycle is good for the US dollar
Goldman Sachs Group Inc. analysts said the upcoming Fed rate cuts pose limited downside risk to the dollar because other central banks are also easing policy. In fact, such synchronized rate cut cycles are usually accompanied by a stronger dollar, currency analyst Isabella Rosenberg wrote in a report to clients. She based her conclusion on an analysis of rate cut cycles since 1995 and the degree of policy coordination among developed countries.
Golden Encyclopedia
What is the Ethereum Prague-Electra (Pectra) upgrade?
Ethereum’s Pectra upgrade combines two separate upgrades: the Prague upgrade and the Electra upgrade. The Prague upgrade focused on changes to the network’s execution layer, while the Electra upgrade affects the consensus layer. These upgrades are collectively referred to as the “Pectra” upgrade when combined. The Pectra upgrade will follow “Dencun,” a merger of the Deneb and Cancun upgrades in March 2024. Technically, Dencun is an Ethereum hard fork designed to reduce transaction fees for Layer 2 solutions. Pectra is a new milestone on the Ethereum development roadmap and is scheduled to go live in Q1 2025. This timeline allows for the inclusion of additional features to improve the Ethereum user experience (UX).
Disclaimer: As a blockchain information platform, Golden Finance publishes articles for information reference only and is not intended as actual investment advice. Please establish a correct investment philosophy and be sure to raise your risk awareness.
