Headlines
▌The U.S. government issued a notice to sell $130 million worth of Bitcoin related to Silk Road
The United States has published a notice to sell more than $130 million worth of Bitcoin associated with the Silk Road.
The announcement lists two batches of Bitcoin that the government plans to sell. The first batch is approximately 2,800 BTC, worth approximately $129 million. The second batch is approximately 58 BTC, worth approximately $3 million. The notice states: "The United States hereby gives notice of its intention to dispose of the forfeited property in the manner directed by the Attorney General of the United States."
The bitcoins were linked to Ryan Farace, who was sentenced to 54 months in prison in Maryland last year for conspiracy to launder money, and former Secret Service agent Shaun Bridges, a member of the Silk Road Task Force who was sentenced to six years in prison in 2015 during the U.S. government's investigation of Silk Road.
▌JPMorgan Chase: GBTC profit-taking is basically over, and Bitcoin's downward pressure is limited
JPMorgan analysts expect that Bitcoin has limited further downside as profit-taking on GBTC has largely ended. Bitcoin prices have fallen more than 20% in the past two weeks after the United States approved a spot Bitcoin ETF. Analysts said that GBTC investors' profit taking led to a drop in Bitcoin prices, but the worst seems to be over.
Despite the positive outlook, analysts warned that if GBTC’s 1.5% fee is not reduced soon, the fund could see continued outflows and lose market share to competitors.
Quotes
As of press time, according to coinmarketcap data:
BTC's latest transaction price is $39,956.1, with a daily change of +0.38%;
ETH's latest transaction price is $2217.49, with a daily change of +1.34%;
BNB's latest transaction price is $291.9, with a daily change of -0.21%;
XRP's latest transaction price is $0.5135, with a daily change of +1.22%;
DOGE’s latest trading price is $0.0779, with a daily change of +0.66%;
ADA’s latest trading price is $0.4659, with a daily change of -0.17%;
SOL's most recent trading price is $86.91, with a daily change of +0.56%.
policy
▌The US SEC postpones its decision on Grayscale’s Ethereum ETF proposal
According to The Block Pro, the U.S. SEC has again postponed its decision on the proposal to convert the Grayscale Ethereum Trust into a spot Ethereum ETF and is soliciting new public comments. The agency also raised questions about Ethereum futures products in its filings, especially whether Ethereum’s proof-of-stake mechanism and “concentrated control or influence by a few individuals or entities” will bring unique concerns, making the fund vulnerable to fraud and manipulation. The SEC said the public can submit comments within 21 days and the rebuttal period will last 35 days.
The SEC postponed its decision on the proposal on December 5.
▌OneCoin lawyer sentenced to 10 years in prison for fraud and money laundering
According to Bloomberg, U.S. District Court Judge Edgardo Ramos of the Southern District of New York sentenced OneCoin lawyer Mark Scott to 10 years in prison for laundering millions of dollars through OneCoin. The lawyer was convicted of conspiracy to commit bank fraud and conspiracy to launder money in November 2019 and is currently awaiting sentencing.
Craig Wright's final appeal against Peter McCormack was rejected by the Supreme Court
Podcast host Peter McCormack said on the X platform that Craig Wright’s final appeal against him for defamation was rejected by the Supreme Court, and the five-year legal battle ended with Peter McCormack’s victory.
Golden Finance previously reported that the legal battle between the two stemmed from a discussion in 2019 in which Peter McCormack called Wright a liar and fraudster and said he was not Satoshi Nakamoto. Wright claimed that such remarks caused him financial losses after he was disqualified from speaking at various events and conferences.
Blockchain Applications
OP Labs plans to introduce protocol upgrades to improve Superchain security
OP Labs announced that it is introducing a proposed protocol upgrade to enhance Superchain’s security incident response capabilities. The upgrade is based on insights collected through comprehensive simulated incident responses and opinions from industry experts, and aims to enhance the resilience of Superchain after it goes online.
OP Labs said that this is a security upgrade specifically for L1 smart contracts, it should not affect nodes or executing client software, node operators should not be required to upgrade their nodes or take any action in response to this upgrade, and users should not be affected either.
▌Base and OP Labs have successfully activated the Ecotone hard fork on the Goerli network
Base developer Roberto Bayardo said that Base and OP Labs have successfully activated the Ecotone hard fork on their respective Goerli development networks and enabled the function of publishing batches through EIP-4844 blobs today. The transaction type of the Base goerli-devnet batcher is displayed as "type 3" (equivalent to the Blob type).
▌Celo: Non-technical evaluation of L2 stack solutions will be conducted
cLabs CEO Tim Moreton published a blog post saying that a lot of work has been done on the selection of solutions for Celo to migrate to Ethereum L2, but there is still more work to be done. The technical evaluation of Optimism, Polygon, zkSync, and Arbitrum has been basically completed, and the evaluation of the non-technical dimensions described in the framework will begin.
“This is different from evaluating released software,” said Tim Moreton. “It is difficult to predict exactly how quickly we can reach conclusions, particularly when candidates are actively working on economic terms and incentive plans.”
Espresso System Integrates Its Gibraltar Testnet with Arbitrum
Blockchain infrastructure company Espresso System has integrated its fourth testnet, Gibraltar, with Arbitrum. The testnet is now open to Arbitrum developers, enabling users to submit transactions between different networks for rollups using the Espresso sequencer.
It is reported that Espresso Systems has previously cooperated with Offchain Labs, the infrastructure team behind Arbitrum, to develop a roadmap for the transaction sorting technology Timeboost.
▌STP launches AWNS and its ERC-6551 functionality on Base
STP announced the launch of AWNS and its ERC-6551 functionality on Base. AWNS is said to have one of the largest ERC-6551 user bases on Ethereum, and after launching on Base, users can create AWNS on Base and benefit from ERC-6551 functionality at a very low cost.
It is reported that AWNS redefines the concept of usernames or domain names by converting them into token-bound accounts. It is an NFT integrated with ERC-6551-driven wallets. This digital identity method is suitable for any on-chain activities and can unlock new use cases on Base across NFT, DeFi and games.
▌Programmable privacy network Aleo mainnet will be launched in the coming weeks
Alex Pruden, executive director of the Aleo Foundation, said that the Aleo mainnet will be launched in the next few weeks in an effort to bring privacy to cryptocurrency transactions. Alex Pruden said: "The network has just completed the third phase of testnet three and has obtained a list of bugs from six completed audits and two bounty programs. We are in the final stages of this journey and we are preparing to launch immediately."
Pruden said the motivation for launching Aleo was to bring privacy to cryptocurrencies, with the goal of unlocking use cases around confidential payments (such as paying salaries) and identity solutions.
Cryptocurrency
▌Swan Bitcoin has mined more than 750 bitcoins and plans to list them in the next 12 months
Swan Bitcoin, an investment platform focused on BTC, said it has been operating a mining unit since July 2023 and has mined more than 750 bitcoins. CEO Cory Klippsten said the seven mining farms have a power of 160 megawatts and can generate 4.5 exahashes of mining power, and another three will come online in March, increasing the overall computing power to 8 exahashes.
In addition, according to Klippsten, Swan is working towards a public listing within the next 12 months. In December, Swan announced that it would deploy $205 million of capital across its equity, credit and hedge funds. Swan said the company currently has annual revenue of $125 million and plans to raise a Series C round of financing in the coming months.
▌Report: AI Crypto Trading Robot Market Size Will Reach $145 Million in 2029
According to a report released by Valuates Reports, the global AI cryptocurrency trading robot market was valued at $21.69 million in 2022 and is expected to reach $145.27 million by 2029, growing at a CAGR of 37.2% during the forecast period 2023-2029. In addition, North America has generally become a major focus of financial and technological innovation, and AI cryptocurrency trading robots are likely to develop into a sizeable market due to the presence of a mature financial sector and widespread use of technology.
▌Report: Cryptocurrency will gain 62 million users on 8 chains in 2023
Blockchain users and activity have been growing throughout 2023, according to a report from Flipside Crypto. The analytics firm wrote: “Cryptocurrency has been extremely volatile recently, with on-chain activity and user sentiment swinging wildly over the last year… but ultimately, the past few months ended on a high note, with a surge in user growth and activity across nearly all major chains. Notably, there has been growth in acquired users, defined as users who have made at least two transactions on a blockchain.
The report shows that the number of users of the eight major blockchains reached 62 million. Ethereum and Polygon gained the most users, each gaining about 15 million users last year. Meanwhile, Bitcoin gained 10.7 million users in 2023. The growth of other chains was much less.
Flipside noted that user acquisition peaked in May 2023, when 5.8 million users executed a second on-chain transaction across various chains.
▌Bitcoin spot ETF day 10: GBTC outflow of $394 million
According to BitMEX Research data, on the 10th day of the Bitcoin spot ETF, GBTC saw an outflow of US$394 million, GBTC saw an outflow of US$4.8 billion in 10 days, and Bitwise saw an inflow of US$20 million.
▌PowerLoom is launching node minting on Polygon’s PoS network
Decentralized data startup PowerLoom is launching node mint on Polygon’s Proof-of-Stake (PoS) network. PowerLoom aims to enable protocols to index and query blockchain data in a decentralized manner. The protocol is designed for developers building DEX aggregators or any other Web3 application that requires reliable data.
Participants who meet the necessary criteria will have access to an initial pre-mint of 5,000 nodes. These participants, if selected, will receive a SoulBound token that will enable them to operate a PowerLoom Snapshotter Lite node.
Important economic developments
▌Many places have introduced supporting policies, and listed companies are scrambling to seize the new outlet of low-altitude economy
On January 26, the low-altitude economy ushered in a good opportunity for development. Sichuan recently proposed that it will accelerate the development of the low-altitude economy in 2024. At the same time, Shenzhen, Hefei and other places have clearly proposed to vigorously develop the low-altitude economy. Against this background, the low-altitude economy has become a new outlet for listed companies to compete for layout. Industry insiders said that from the perspective of policy environment, technological innovation, market demand and other aspects, 2024 will be a key year for the low-altitude economy to accelerate its launch. (China Securities Journal)
Golden Encyclopedia
What are cryptocurrency hedge funds?
Cryptocurrency hedge funds were created in response to the complexity of cryptocurrency investing, pooling funds from different investors to strategically trade digital assets with the goal of generating positive returns.
Unlike their traditional counterparts, cryptocurrency hedge funds focus on cryptocurrency fund management, investing in cryptocurrencies and employing various strategies to generate good returns for investors. This includes buying and selling cryptocurrencies, as well as engaging in cryptocurrency derivatives and futures trading. In particular, cryptocurrency hedge funds act as intermediaries between contributing investors and sponsoring traders who are investors looking to gain exposure to digital assets.
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.
