Arrangement: Fairy, ChainCatcher
Important Information:
Insider: Kennedy Jr. plans to withdraw from US presidential race by the end of this week
Vitalik: Ethereum's latest progress makes its fundamentals very strong
Decentralized biotech protocol BIO Protocol has completed $11.81 million in financing
Binance plans to hire 1,000 employees this year, and the company's annual compliance expenses have exceeded $200 million
Sources: Harris will support efforts to promote the cryptocurrency industry
Crypto Companies to Contribute Nearly 50% of Political Donations in 2024 Election Cycle, Totaling $119 Million
“What important events have occurred in the past 24 hours?”
Vitalik: Ethereum's latest progress makes its fundamentals very strong
Ethereum co-founder Vitalik Buterin posted on social media, speaking highly of the latest developments in the Ethereum ecosystem. Buterin noted that Ethereum has made significant progress in several key areas:
L2 network transaction fees dropped to less than $0.01;
Optimism and Arbitrum, two EVM-compatible L2 networks, have entered the first phase;
The cross-L2 wallet user experience has been greatly improved;
ZK tools become more powerful and mature, simplifying application development; second-generation privacy tools begin to emerge;
The identity, reputation and credential ecosystem is stronger and increasingly used;
STARK technology advances improve long-term security and decentralization prospects;
The roadmap for account abstraction and blockchain construction is clearer;
Staking decentralization remains stable, breaking the saying that "PoS is more centralized than PoW".
Buterin stressed that these developments make Ethereum’s fundamentals exceptionally strong.
NBA star Jimmy Butler and BitBoy agree to pay $340,000 to settle class action lawsuit against Binance
NBA All-Star Jimmy Butler and cryptocurrency YouTuber Ben 'BitBoy' Armstrong have agreed to pay a total of $340,000 to settle a class action lawsuit related to Binance, The Block reported. The settlement still needs court approval.
It is reported that the lawsuit accuses the two of being paid by Binance to illegally promote unregistered securities and recruit new customers, causing consumers to suffer losses. The lawsuit was filed in March 2023 and the allegations include promoting cryptocurrencies such as BNB and BUSD as securities. The two denied any wrongdoing.
Decentralized biotech protocol BIO Protocol has completed $11.81 million in financing
Decentralized biotech protocol BIO Protocol announced on August 20 that it had completed its first round of Genesis auction financing of US$6.22 million, exceeding the original target of approximately US$5 million.
Currently, investors who participated in the first round of financing can start claiming $BIO tokens, 50% of which are available immediately, and the other 50% will be unlocked linearly over a year (called vBIO).
It is worth noting that BIO's financing accounts for more than half of the total amount of all public sales in August this year (US$11.81 million). BIO Protocol also stated that it plans to launch a new round of financing.
Binance plans to hire 1,000 employees this year, and the company's annual compliance expenses have exceeded $200 million
According to Bloomberg, Binance plans to hire 1,000 employees this year, many of which will be focused on compliance. The move is in response to increased regulatory requirements, especially after the plea agreement reached with the U.S. Department of Justice, which has brought the company's annual compliance expenses to more than $200 million.
Binance CEO Richard Teng said the company plans to expand its compliance team to 700 people by the end of 2024, while the company continues to work toward establishing a global headquarters. Teng also mentioned that Binance is facing an increasing number of requests from law enforcement agencies around the world, having processed 63,000 requests this year, up from 58,000 last year.
Sources: Harris will support efforts to promote the cryptocurrency industry
According to Bloomberg reporter Hadriana Lowenkron, Kamala Harris' campaign aide said Harris will support efforts to promote the development of the cryptocurrency industry, "She will support policies that ensure emerging technologies and such industries can continue to develop.".
Harris’ team has said it remains interested in implementing safeguards in the industry, even though it has seen a number of high-profile companies fail. “Obviously, they’ve said what the industry needs is stable rules, rules of the road,” Nelson said, referring to a speech Harris gave last week laying out the initial pillars of her economic policy.
Crypto Companies to Contribute Nearly 50% of Political Donations in 2024 Election Cycle, Totaling $119 Million
Nearly half of all corporate political donations in the 2024 election cycle came from cryptocurrency companies, according to a report released Wednesday by corporate influence watchdog Public Citizen.
Public Citizen's report, based on data provided by government transparency group OpenSecrets, found that 48% of corporate election spending so far has come from crypto companies such as Ripple and Coinbase. The vast majority of these donations have flowed to pro-cryptocurrency super political action committees (PACs) such as Fairshake.
The report states that of the $203 million raised by Fairshake, $107.9 million came directly from crypto companies, with the rest coming from prominent figures in the tech and crypto industries, including large donations from the Winklevoss brothers and Coinbase CEO Brian Armstrong.
Latin American payment giant Mercado Pago launches dollar-pegged stablecoin "Meli Dollar" in Brazil
According to CoinDesk, Mercado Pago, a digital bank under Latin American e-commerce giant Mercado Libre, announced the launch of the US dollar-pegged stablecoin "Meli Dollar" in Brazil. Users can buy and sell the stablecoin with Brazilian real balances without fees. This move aims to provide users with a practical and stable financial management tool.
Earlier news, Latin American e-commerce giant Mercado Libre launched cryptocurrency in Brazil.
On-chain private credit fund Credbull completes $5.2 million financing, led by GnosisVC
According to Coindesk, on-chain private credit fund Credbull announced the completion of a $5.2 million financing round led by GnosisVC, with participation from strategic investors including Outlier Ventures, HODL Ventures, XBTO, LucidBlue Ventures, CryptoHedge, and SingularityDAO’s Marcello Mari.
Credbull calls itself the "first permissioned on-chain private credit fund protocol" and was launched on the Polygon PoS blockchain in April this year. It aims to democratize private credit real-world asset (RWA) investment by connecting traditional finance and Web3. The goal of the project is to break down the barriers between traditional finance and Web3 and provide a wider range of investors with the opportunity to participate in the private credit market.
Insider: Kennedy Jr. plans to withdraw from US presidential race by the end of this week
U.S. presidential candidate Robert F. Kennedy Jr. plans to drop out of the race by the end of the week, ABC News reported, citing people familiar with the matter. But the decision has not yet been finalized and could still change.
One of the people familiar with the matter added that Kennedy wants to finalize things quickly to try to weaken the momentum of the Democratic National Convention. In addition, Kennedy Jr. will address the nation in Arizona on Friday to lay out his future path. At the same time, Trump will also hold a rally in Arizona on Friday.
"What are the interesting articles worth reading in the past 24 hours?"
Interview with Binance CEO Richard Teng: Binance’s global ambitions, IPO, He Yi, CZ
Richard Teng took over Binance last year under adverse circumstances as his predecessor, Changpeng Zhao, was forced to leave over a multi-billion dollar settlement with the U.S. government.
In the nine months since taking over, Teng, who previously worked as a regulator in Singapore and the United Arab Emirates, has worked to transform Binance from a founder-led organization to a board-led body. While the company remains silent on where its headquarters are and claims to be an “international company,” Teng is looking for a place to call home long-term.
A sharp rise in cryptocurrency prices since the collapse of Binance competitor FTX in late 2022, coupled with support for the space from traditional financial institutions and a potential more relaxed attitude toward crypto by U.S. regulators, has fueled speculation about an upcoming initial public offering.
However, in an interview in New York on Wednesday, Teng said the company is not considering going public. “We are in a very strong financial position and there is really no need to think about fundraising or an IPO right now,” he said. “Since Binance’s fifth month of operation, the company has been profitable and spending prudently, so [an IPO] is not a topic for discussion.”
Each major chain has its own "Pump.fun", where is the most profitable place to go?
The mainstream market has been volatile recently, but Memecoin has been gaining popularity. Pump.fun’s protocol revenue hit a new high on August 13, with cumulative revenue exceeding $100 million. Soon after Sun.pump went online, the market value of multiple Memecoins on the platform quickly exceeded $1 million, the gas on the Tron chain soared, and the price of TRX, which had been silent for a long time, also hit a three-year high. It can be said that Sun.pump almost "single-handedly" brought the entire Tron chain to "prosperity again."
In addition, Moonshot launched a new issuance mechanism, and BNB chain meme activities continued. Memecoin platforms on various chains flourished at the same time. Which one can compete with Pump.fun? Where can users play to make money? This article will take you through the Memecoin issuance platforms on various chains and analyze their competitive advantages.
Goldman Sachs' latest US election prediction: Harris wins, but will become a "lame duck president"
Wall Street investment bank Goldman Sachs said in a research report released this week that under current circumstances, this year's U.S. election may end with a "lame duck President Harris."
From an optimistic point of view, this situation successfully avoids the crazy prospect of Trump's random imposition of tariffs, while Harris' radical economic policies will also lose room for implementation.
Harris is on the upper hand
Goldman Sachs said that at the national poll level, Harris is currently leading Trump by about 1.5 percentage points and is leading in the key swing state of Pennsylvania. Overall, Harris's chances of winning in November are about 52%-54%. Since she took over the banner of fighting Trump from Biden, her election prospects have continued to rise over the past month.
Since August 1 this year, the probability of the Republicans winning the election has dropped by 10 percentage points, and the probability of the Democrats winning a "divided government" - meaning that Harris becomes the president of the United States, but the Republicans control both houses of the House or at least one of them - has increased by 11 percentage points.
Goldman Sachs also pointed out that although this is the most likely implied scenario at present, the outcome is still highly uncertain.
According to statistics, various US election polls generally believe that Harris is in the lead, but the lead is not large - at most 5-6 percentage points.
