Compiled by: Luan Peng, ChainCatcher

“What important events happened this week (5.27-6.2)”

1. Trump was found guilty of all 34 felony charges

ChainCatcher reported that according to Cailian Press, a New York court jury responsible for the "hush money" case of former US President Trump made a ruling on May 30 local time, declaring that all 34 felony charges of falsifying business records in this case were established.

New York prosecutors alleged that during Trump's 2016 campaign for the US presidency, he commissioned Cohen to pay porn star Daniels (real name Stephanie Clifford) $130,000 in "hush money" to prevent the latter from claiming that she had an affair with Trump in 2006 and affecting her election campaign.

Trump subsequently falsified business records and returned Cohen's advances in installments under the name of "attorney fees" to cover up his violations of New York State and federal election laws. According to previous reports, the jury must make a unanimous decision in this case.

(Source link)

2. Vitalik released his views on the Bitcoin block size dispute, supporting the "big block" side

According to ChainCatcher, after reading two books about the Bitcoin block size dispute in the 2010s, "The Blocksize War" and "Hijacking Bitcoin", Vitalik published an article to put forward some of his own thoughts on the Bitcoin block size dispute. Vitalik said that when he personally experienced the Bitcoin block size dispute, he usually stood on the side of the big blockers, and his sympathy for the big blockers was mainly concentrated on the following key points:

• One of Bitcoin’s key original promises was digital cash, and high fees could kill that use case.

• It does not believe in the “meta-level” stories of the small block side.

• The Segregated Witness proposal by the small block party is intended to increase the block size slightly, which is overly complex and unnecessary compared to a simple hard fork block size increase.

• The small block party is indeed engaging in very inappropriate social media censorship to impose their views.

(Source link)

3. BitDeer completes $150 million in private equity financing

According to ChainCatcher, BitDeer announced on its official website that it has completed a $150 million private placement. BitDeer Technology Group has reached a subscription agreement with Tether International Limited ("Tether") to issue 18,587,360 Class A common shares and purchase warrants for up to 5,000,000 shares at a price of $10.00 per share. The private placement was completed on May 30, 2024.

The transaction generated $100 million in gross proceeds from the stock issuance, with the potential for an additional $50 million if the warrants are fully exercised. The warrants are subject to customary anti-dilution provisions reflecting stock dividends and spin-offs or other similar transactions, as well as weighted average anti-dilution protection from the issuance of common stock or common stock equivalents at a per share consideration that is less than the initial exercise price of the warrants. The warrants are exercisable at Tether’s discretion within 12 months of the closing of the transaction.

Bitdeer intends to use the net proceeds from the Private Placement to fund its data center expansion, ASIC-based mining equipment development, as well as for working capital and other general corporate purposes.

(Source link)

4. RootData: 33 projects with potential TGE expectations in the next quarter, involving a total valuation of US$8.47 billion

According to ChainCatcher, according to a study published by Web3 asset data platform RootData on the X platform, 33 projects in 7 popular sectors, including re-staking, Layer2, RWA, and Depin, may conduct TGE in the next quarter. The total financing of these projects is US$1.06 billion, and the total valuation is US$8.47 billion.

In addition, according to public data statistics, among the projects launched on Binance in the past year, MEME projects were launched most frequently, with 5 launches. The next most frequent projects were cross-chain, Layer2, re-staking, NFT, games, and artificial intelligence, each with 3 launches.

As the market enters the second half of the year, the expected interest rate cut will intensify market competition, and project owners and exchanges are making necessary strategic adjustments. Teams and investors of high FDV projects may pay special attention to whether the project can be successfully launched on large exchanges.

(Source link)

5. NYSE President: If the regulation is clearer, NYSE will consider providing cryptocurrency trading services

ChainCatcher reported that according to CoinDesk, at the Consensus 2024 conference, Lynn Martin, president of the New York Stock Exchange (NYSE), said that if the regulatory environment for cryptocurrency trading becomes clearer, the NYSE will consider providing cryptocurrency trading services.

She noted that U.S.-listed spot Bitcoin ETFs have accumulated $58 billion in assets, showing strong market demand for regulated crypto products.

Martin and Bullish crypto exchange CEO Tom Farley discussed cryptocurrency regulation, U.S. political changes, and the opportunities and limitations of blockchain technology. Farley mentioned that the U.S. attitude toward cryptocurrencies is changing rapidly, including the removal of the anti-crypto chairman of the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation (FDIC), the passage of the 21st Century Financial Innovation and Technology Act (FIT21) in the House of Representatives, and Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump's support for cryptocurrencies.

In addition, the Chicago Mercantile Exchange (CME) plans to launch spot cryptocurrency trading. Farley said that although blockchain technology is expected to improve the efficiency of financial processes, regulators' skepticism of public blockchains may drive traditional financial companies to develop private blockchains.

(Source link)

6. Report: The number of cryptocurrency holders worldwide has reached 562 million, accounting for 6.8% of the total population

According to ChainCatcher, fintech company Triple A recently released a report titled "The State of Global Cryptocurrency Ownership in 2024", which deeply studies the global cryptocurrency ownership trends and its evolving role in the financial ecosystem.

“Today, 562 million people around the world own some or other form of digital currency, up from 420 million in 2023,” Triple A founder and CEO Eric Barbier wrote in the report’s foreword. “In other words, 6.8% of the world’s population owns and uses digital currency.”

The report states that Asia is leading the trend, with the number of people owning cryptocurrencies increasing by 21.8% from 268.2 million to 326.8 million. North America follows closely behind, with the number rising by 38.6% from 52.1 million to 72.2 million.

Additionally, the number of cryptocurrency holders in South America surged from 25.5 million to 55.2 million, an increase of 116.5%. Europe also saw significant growth, with numbers rising from 30.7 million to 49.2 million, a 60.3% increase. Africa experienced modest growth of 8.5% from 40.1 million to 43.5 million. In Oceania, the number of cryptocurrency holders increased by 114.3% from 1.4 million to 3 million.

(Source link)

7. The Hong Kong government has communicated with the Securities and Futures Commission to process all virtual asset platform applications as soon as possible

ChainCatcher reported that according to Hong Kong media Wen Wei Po, the Hong Kong government will maintain close communication with the SFC to allow the SFC to process all platform applications as soon as possible, so that citizens and investors have more secure investment options. Looking ahead, Hong Kong will further improve the regulatory framework, including regulating virtual asset OTC service providers, to build a stable ecosystem for the virtual asset industry and promote its responsible and sustainable development.

The Hong Kong Securities and Futures Commission emphasized yesterday that although those virtual asset trading platforms that are deemed to have been licensed have promised to strengthen their policies, procedures, systems and control measures to comply with the regulatory requirements of the Securities and Futures Commission, they still need to demonstrate the actual implementation and effectiveness of these measures to be satisfied by the Hong Kong Securities and Futures Commission. Before these platforms are officially licensed, the Securities and Futures Commission does not expect them to actively promote their services or establish business relationships with new retail customers.

(Source link)

8. Biden vetoes resolution to repeal SEC crypto asset accounting standard SAB 121

According to ChainCatcher, US President Joe Biden vetoed a resolution that would have overturned the US SEC’s controversial crypto asset accounting standard SAB 121. He said in an official statement on May 31: “Overturning the SEC staff’s considered judgment in this way could undermine the SEC’s broader authority in accounting practices.”

“My administration will not support measures that jeopardize the well-being of consumers and investors,” Biden said.

SAB 121 goes into effect on April 11, 2024, but has been met with strong opposition from the crypto community and lawmakers.

According to previous news, the bill to overturn SAB 121 was passed by the House of Representatives on May 8 and the Senate on May 17, respectively.

(Source link)

9. Canada is expected to adopt the International Crypto-Asset Reporting Framework (CARF) for taxation by 2026

According to ChainCatcher, according to a supplementary document to the 2024 budget, Canada is expected to adopt the international crypto-asset reporting framework (CARF) for taxation by 2026. CARF will impose new reporting requirements on crypto-asset service providers (CASPs), such as cryptocurrency exchanges, crypto-asset brokers and traders, and crypto-asset ATM operators, whether individuals or corporate entities.

(Source link)

10. Grayscale Survey: 47% of US voters surveyed want to include cryptocurrency in their investment portfolio

ChainCatcher reported that according to The Block, Grayscale's latest survey shows that driven by macroeconomic developments and its maturity as an asset, American voters are increasingly attracted to Bitcoin. About 47% of American voters want to include cryptocurrency as part of their investment portfolio, highlighting the importance of the topic in the upcoming November election.

According to the survey, about 32% of voters said they would prefer to learn about cryptocurrency as an investment. This choice may be supported by the fact that 28% of voters believe that inflation is the most pressing issue in the upcoming US election.

Additionally, geopolitical tensions, polarized political discourse, and persistent inflation have led more U.S. voters to seek Bitcoin, but major developments surrounding Bitcoin, including the approval of a Bitcoin spot ETF, have also played an important role.

“It is clear that cryptocurrencies will increasingly be considered by policymakers and candidates for all offices as they prepare to run in the 2024 election,” Grayscale noted.

(Source link)

“What are some interesting articles worth reading this week (5.27-6.2)”

1. "People who are "witch hunted" by LayerZero: We are "tools" to create false prosperity on the chain"

In addition to his daily airdrops, Brother A’s other work focus during this period is to write appeal forms - more than 200 accounts and more than 100 premium accounts in his studio have all been identified as witch accounts by LayerZero.

“In order to increase the probability of a successful appeal, the team used chatgpt to write the appeal, filling in different reasons for each account, and even using different languages. The core idea is ‘I am a real user’,” Brother A told ChainCatcher.

Sister Hua also filled out the appeal form as required by LayerZero, stating that her "毛毛" account was personal, not the studio's witch account.

Prior to this, the 20 accounts that Sister Hua had worked hard on for half a year were identified as witch accounts by the project team, and became the target of the hunt in LayerZero's massive "witch hunt".
"I wanted to get rich by playing with fur, but it ended up in poverty." Sister Hua said to ChainCatcher with a wry smile.

2. "BlackRock Bitcoin Spot ETF Fund Size Exceeds GBTC, BITI Becomes a New Indicator for Judging BTC Price Fluctuations"

On May 29, the asset size of BlackRock's iShares Bitcoin Spot ETF IBIT has exceeded that of Grayscale's GBTC, becoming the world's largest Bitcoin spot ETF in terms of BTC holdings.

According to HODL15Capital data, on May 28, BlackRock's Bitcoin spot ETF IBIT received inflows of approximately US$102 million (1,503 BTC), and the number of BTC held has exceeded 288,670, with a value of approximately US$19.795 billion.

On the same day, funds managed by Grayscale's GBTC saw outflows of more than US$105 million (approximately 1,543 BTC), the largest single-day outflow in the past two weeks. GBTC holds approximately 287,450 BTC, valued at US$19.758 billion.

The scale of BTC managed by IBIT Asset Management has officially surpassed GBTC, and is more than US$30 million ahead of GBTC, becoming the world's largest Bitcoin spot ETF with the largest BTC holdings.

3. "1kx: How to estimate the cost of the DePIN project and better create a growth flywheel?"

Although the early DePIN project attracted a lot of attention by designing a token framework, token issuance may not be enough to guarantee the long-term participation of nodes in the network. If running nodes is unprofitable, node operators will no longer have the motivation to operate the DePIN infrastructure. Therefore, the DePIN founding team must help optimize the costs of node operators.

4. "Dialogue with Julian Peh, co-founder of KIP Protocol: How to break the data monopoly and promote the decentralized AI process under the closeAI crisis"

As technology giants such as OpenAI and Google have made breakthroughs in the field of AI, the world's attention to AI technology has reached an unprecedented level. However, in this wave of innovation, we also have to face a harsh reality: technology giants, with their strong capital and advanced hardware, have almost monopolized the development of AI technology, causing users to be increasingly subject to their power.

At the same time, the combination of AI and Web3 is seen as a new trend with great potential, which is expected to break the existing pattern and inject new vitality into the development of AI technology. However, how to ensure the security of creators' digital property rights while continuously improving AI's deep learning capabilities has become an urgent problem to be solved.

It is in this context that KIP Protocol, the first decentralized Web3 underlying protocol focusing on AI, came into being. It is committed to deeply integrating decentralization and AI technologies.

Recently, ChainCatcher invited Julian Peh, co-founder and CEO of KIP Protocol, to discuss with us how KIP Protocol can bring new possibilities to the development of "AI+Crypto".

5. "Growth of about 40% in 3 days, TVL exceeded 1.1 billion US dollars. How to participate in the Linea ecological incentive plan?"

Since the launch of the Linea Surge points incentive plan on May 17, the TVL of the Linea mainnet has entered a period of rapid growth. Within three days, the TVL has exceeded US$1.1 billion from around US$700 million, an increase of more than 40%.

According to L2beat data, the TVL on the Linea chain was US$1.13 billion on May 29, ranking sixth in the entire Layer2 market.

Linea is a zkEVM Layer2 expansion solution developed by MetaMask's parent company Consensys, and its every move has attracted the attention of the crypto community.

Although it is a star project representative of the Layer2 network, compared with StarkNet and zkySnc of the zkEVM system, the development of Linea chain has been unstable and unpopular. There are no explosive applications and no well-known native projects. The TVL has been maintained at around US$100 million for a long time, and user attention is also average.

The recent points incentive activities have driven the TVL data to explode, causing community users to begin to re-examine this Layer 2 network.

6. "Behind the Friend.tech founder's "escape plan": coin prices and active users fell together"

Amid the turbulence of Web3 social networks, an announcement from the Friend.tech protocol has caused a stir in the market. Recently, its co-founder (alias Racer) posted on social media, hinting at the intention to migrate the Friend.tech protocol from the current Base platform, and this news immediately caused the price of the protocol's native token FRIEND to fall sharply. According to Coingecko data, on the day of the announcement, the price of FRIEND fell to $1.01, a 24-hour drop of 32.2%.

According to the data on the chain, the address of "Big Brother Maji" Huang Licheng has used a total of 4873 ETH (about 15.35 million US dollars) to buy FRIEND, with an average price of 1.9 US dollars, and has currently suffered a floating loss of 7.54 million US dollars. Even Maji's "big cut" is still a minority of projects that are at risk of being cut, and the crypto community has also heard that Friend.tech is "cooling down", so what happened to Friend.tech, which once dominated SocialFi?

7. "Mt.Gox transfers nearly 10 billion US dollars of BTC. Is the market crash really coming?"

On May 28, Mt.Gox's continuous large-value BTC transfers caused a certain amount of market panic.

According to Whale Alert, as of 14:11:04 Beijing time, Mt.Gox has transferred a total of 141,658 BTC (about 9.6 billion US dollars). This is the first time since 2018 that a large amount of assets have changed in the Mt.Gox wallet address.

Axler Adler Jr, a researcher at CryptoQuant, said on X that “all funds in the Mt. Gox cold wallet have been transferred to a new wallet: the current balance of the address starting with 1JbezD is 141,000 BTC.

According to Mt. Gox's creditor compensation plan, Mt. Gox needs to distribute its 142,000 BTC and 143,000 BCH to creditors before October 31, 2024.

As the Mt.Gox compensation deadline approaches, large BTC transfers to its wallet address may be seen as a prelude to a sell-off, and BTC briefly fell below $68,000.

According to the official announcement of Mt. Gox, Mt. Gox confirmed that the transfer of Bitcoin was in preparation for the creditor repayment deadline on October 31.

8. "Interpreting the FIT21 Act: Impact on the Crypto World in the Next 10 Years"

This article mainly explains how to define digital assets in the regulatory framework proposed by FIT21, and how to divide the boundaries between commodities and securities. On May 22, 2024, the FIT21 bill was passed by the House of Representatives with 279 votes to 136. The bill establishes a regulatory framework for digital assets and may become one of the most far-reaching bills on Crypto.

9. Which tokens may launch ETFs after ETH? SOL has the highest popularity, and Doge has a higher probability.

In the early morning of May 24, Ethereum ETF reached a milestone in the United States, with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission approving the issuer's 19b-4 filing. As a result, discussions about whether other tokens can launch ETFs have also become popular. What challenges will be encountered in approving ETFs for other tokens? If this is possible, which tokens will be launched first? SOL, PEPE, or DOGE?

From the perspective of industry experts, consensus on tokens and whether they are defined as securities are two hard thresholds. At present, if there is no major change in the US regulatory framework, the next ETF may not be created until two or three years later.

10. "Why did the Mentougou address transfer 140,000 bitcoins?"

Today, a large amount of transfer records suddenly appeared in the account address of Mt.Gox, an exchange that has been bankrupt for ten years. In the following 6 hours, Mt.Gox transferred 141,685 bitcoins in 10 transactions, with the amount of each transaction ranging from US$200 million to US$2.3 billion, with a value of approximately US$9.8 billion.

This is the first action of Mt. Gox's cold wallet address in five years. The transfer of 140,000 bitcoins worth nearly $10 billion has attracted great attention from the community. Compared with the total increase in the value of Bitcoin ETF today, which is 3,028, Wall Street ETF giants such as BlackRock and Grayscale each hold a total of about $20 billion in bitcoins. The number of bitcoins transferred from the Mt. Gox address today accounts for nearly half of the number of bitcoins held by BlackRock and Grayscale respectively.

This huge transfer indicates that one of the most important news in the history of encryption, the Mt. Gox theft and bankruptcy incident, is about to come to an end, and the 10-year compensation process is coming to the final step.