Today's News Highlights:
FBI Creates Cryptocurrency Named "NexFundAI Token" to Combat Market Manipulators
Puffer Finance to Start Airdrop on October 15, Lasting Until January 15
Decentralized Network Project Delta Announces Completion of $11 Million Financing
Trump Rejects Fox News' Invitation for a Second Presidential Debate with Harris
Mt. Gox Extends Compensation Deadline by One Year to October 31, 2025
German Investment Firm Lennertz Raises $165 Million for Its Third Blockchain-Focused Fund
Regulatory News
According to CoinDesk, U.S. federal prosecutors have charged four cryptocurrency "market makers" and their employees with market manipulation and fraud. The companies involved include Gotbit, CLS Global, MyTrade, and ZM Quant, which allegedly provided wash trading services to crypto projects, inflated trading volumes, and sold tokens at artificially high prices. These actions allowed them to profit and benefit from persuading exchanges to lower trading fees. The list of defendants also includes several crypto asset promoters, involving tokens such as Robo Inu, VZZN, and Saitama. The U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) and the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) are also involved in the investigation, which is expected to recover $25 million in illegal profits.
Rumor: "Central Bank Digital Currency Platform Will Distribute Digital Asset Dividends" is False
According to Tencent News' "Frontline," there have been recent reports of criminals impersonating the People's Bank of China's Digital Currency Research Institute to issue false announcements claiming that "after joint approval by the Ministry of Finance and the National Data Bureau, the digital yuan platform will distribute digital asset dividends to users who have received exclusive withdrawal channels" and "will open the second batch of asset registration reviews and subscription quotas." It is reported that such "announcements" and "platforms" are fabricated, and the related information is untrue.
Relevant individuals remind that the People's Bank of China's Digital Currency Research Institute has never issued the above information and has never organized the registration or subscription of "digital assets" or distributed "digital asset dividends." Relevant units, enterprises, and the general public are urged to remain vigilant, enhance identification, and guard against fraud.
FBI Creates Cryptocurrency Named "NexFundAI Token" to Combat Market Manipulators
Recently, the FBI has created a cryptocurrency named "NexFundAI Token" to combat market manipulators. It is reported that the FBI not only developed the token but also established a company to identify and combat suspected fraudulent activities. The NexFundAI Token operates on the Ethereum blockchain and is considered a security. Currently, trading of the token has been disabled. Industry insiders say this action indicates that cryptocurrency regulation is imminent and may help eliminate its gambling-like label.
Nigerian Regulators Commit to Combatting Cryptocurrency Fraud and Related Activities
The Nigerian Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) has committed to combating fraud, money laundering, and market manipulation in the cryptocurrency industry. SEC Director General Emomotimi Agama emphasized the importance of enhancing investor education to help the public avoid unlicensed crypto exchanges and illegal platforms. Additionally, Nigeria has approved its first batch of digital asset exchanges and revised the relevant rules for virtual asset service providers (VASPs). Lagos State Governor Babajide Sanwo-Olu also supports this initiative, highlighting the importance of regulation for ensuring the safety of the crypto market and protecting investors.
Thailand SEC Drafts New Rules Allowing Mutual Funds and Private Funds to Invest in Digital Assets
According to Decrypt, the Thai Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) has proposed a draft of new rules allowing mutual funds and private funds to invest in digital assets, aiming to align with the international trend of crypto investment and respond to the growing demand from institutional investors. The SEC plans to allow securities firms and asset management companies to provide crypto-related products, such as investment services for ETFs (exchange-traded funds), to large investors. The draft imposes limits on the crypto asset risk exposure for different types of funds, with retail funds' crypto investment ratio not exceeding 15%, while there is no limit for institutional and high-net-worth investor funds.
According to The Block, South Korea's top financial regulator has stated it will reassess the existing ban on local spot cryptocurrency ETFs and institutional accounts at cryptocurrency exchanges. The Financial Services Commission (FSC) indicated in its annual audit report on Thursday that its newly established cryptocurrency committee will review the current ban. This suggests a shift in the regulatory stance towards digital assets entering the traditional financial market.
Following the U.S. approval of spot Bitcoin ETFs in January, the country's regulators reiterated their decision to maintain the ban on local cryptocurrency ETF listings, citing potential risks to financial market stability. Legislators in the country have been calling for change. Both the winning Democratic Party and the opposition pledged to approve local spot Bitcoin ETFs during earlier elections this year. Reports indicate that the winning leftist party announced in May that it would request the FSC to review the ban.
Since 2018, under the strict guidance of the Financial Supervisory Service, institutional investors in South Korea have effectively been prohibited from opening cryptocurrency trading accounts at exchanges.
Project Updates
Binance CEO Richard Teng stated on the X platform: "I previously received a question about Launchpool quotas during X Spaces. I hope this explanation clarifies things. The project quotas in Launchpool are strictly for Binance users, and Binance will not profit from these quotas intended for users. The final allocation of project quotas is determined by the project parties themselves. We have implemented strict control measures, including setting a maximum holding limit for tokens for each Launchpool and Pre-Market user, which allows projects to reach users widely while providing protective measures. Of course, this also includes our strict token review process and a dedicated market monitoring team to oversee trading activities on Binance."
According to a motion filed by U.S. prosecutors regarding the 2016 Bitfinex hack case, prosecutor MATTHEW M. GRAVES stated that the government wishes to notify the public about the crimes to which the defendants have pleaded guilty, so that any individuals claiming to be potential victims of the crime can assert their rights under the Crime Victims' Rights Act (CVRA). The government does not know of any other victims that meet the CVRA criteria or are eligible for compensation under the Mandatory Victims Restitution Act (MVRA) besides Bitfinex (the affected virtual currency exchange), but out of extreme caution, the government still seeks such relief to notify public members, especially former account holders of VICTIM VCE, and to give them the opportunity to assert potential victim rights and/or compensation claims under the CVRA, MVRA, and related regulations. The defendants' lawyers have negotiated this motion. Defendants Ilya Lichtenstein and Heather Rhiannon Morgan do not oppose the motion and maintain that if there are any potential victims under the CVRA or MVRA, only Bitfinex qualifies as such.
Sky: Users Can Now Earn SKY Token Rewards
The decentralized finance lending platform Sky (formerly MakerDAO) announced on the X platform that users can now earn SKY token rewards. Users can visit the Sky Token rewards page to choose between SKY tokens and Chronicle Protocol points. After selecting a reward, users can provide their USDS to immediately receive rewards, which accumulate every second and can be claimed at any time, all while retaining control over their assets and without any minimum requirements. If users joined the early bird program of Sky.money and chose to receive SKY, they will automatically receive a 100% SKY bonus from the wallet used during the event. These bonus rewards will be credited to the same wallet at a later date. In certain jurisdictions (including the U.S.), Sky.money cannot access certain features of the Sky Protocol, such as Sky Token rewards and Sky savings rates.
VanEck Launches $30 Million Venture Fund VanEck Ventures to Support Crypto and AI Industries
According to The Information, asset management firm VanEck has launched VanEck Ventures, a $30 million fund focused on investing in early-stage cryptocurrency and artificial intelligence startups, expanding its existing lineup of cryptocurrency exchange-traded funds and private equity funds. The fund is managed by Wyatt Lonergan and Juan Lopez, both from the venture capital arm of stablecoin issuer Circle, Circle Ventures. They will primarily invest in projects related to stablecoins.
Animoca Brands: Will Acquire More PROS Tokens from the Open Market
According to official news, Animoca Brands disclosed today that it intends to acquire more PROS tokens from the open market. PROS is the utility token of Prosper, redesigned to bring institutional-grade Bitcoin mining capabilities on-chain and seeks to provide comprehensive exposure to Bitcoin hash rates and the broader Bitcoin ecosystem.
Animoca Brands stated that this acquisition demonstrates the company's support for Prosper's new strategic direction, which will bring new utility to the PROS token and reflects its commitment to the Bitcoin ecosystem.
Ripple Announces Launch of Crypto Custody Service Ripple Custody
According to CNBC, Ripple announced the launch of a crypto custody service aimed at helping banks and fintech companies store digital assets. These new features include integration with Ripple's XRP Ledger blockchain platform, anti-money laundering risk monitoring, and a user-friendly interface. Ripple hopes to expand its business beyond its core payment settlement platform, RippleNet, through this initiative.
The Ripple Custody brand will provide clients with services for tokenized real assets and allow for fast, low-fee transactions using the XRP Ledger. Ripple has also acquired Metaco and Standard Custody & Trust to further advance its custody business.
Binance Launches BNSOL Staking, Flash Exchange, and Leverage Trading
Binance will launch the BNSOL flexible savings product on its platform today at 16:00 (UTC+8), allowing users to participate in subscriptions. Additionally, within one hour of BNSOL's listing on Binance spot, users can exchange BNSOL for tokens like BTC and USDT on the flash exchange platform, with no transaction fees. Starting from October 14 at 16:00, Binance leverage trading will add BNSOL as a collateral asset, supporting full and isolated margin trading pairs for BNSOL/SOL.
Puffer Finance to Start Airdrop on October 15, Lasting Until January 15
Re-staking protocol Puffer Finance announced that its native token $PUFFER will begin an airdrop on October 15, 2024, at 07:00 (UTC+8), lasting until January 15, 2025, at 07:00 (UTC+8).
The total supply of PUFFER tokens is 1 billion, of which 7.5% will be used for the first season airdrop of Crunchy Carrot Quest, allowing community users to participate and vote on the future direction of the protocol. Additionally, Puffer will allocate 1% of the token supply to the Ethereum core development team to support its four-year development plan. PUFFER is the core of all products in the project, including the world's first permissionless LRT and UniFi-based rapid Rollup solution.
Ethereum Layer 2 network Optimism announced the opening of claims for the fifth season airdrop, distributing over 10 million OP tokens to more than 54,000 unique addresses. This airdrop targets users who interacted with at least 20 independent contracts on the superchain between March and September 2024, with a contract-to-transaction ratio of 10%. Rewards will be matched with different multipliers based on interaction. Optimism stated that approximately 550 million OP tokens remain for future airdrops.
Circle CEO Jeremy Allaire announced on social media that Stripe has officially launched and supports USDC payment functionality for businesses in the U.S.
The official documentation shows that Stripe has launched a public beta feature called "Pay with Crypto," allowing U.S. businesses to accept stablecoin payments and automatically convert them to fiat currency deposited into their Stripe accounts. Supported stablecoins include USDC and USDP, covering Ethereum, Solana, and Polygon chains. Global customers can use this payment method, with transaction fees set at 1.5%, a per-transaction limit of $10,000, and a monthly limit of $100,000. Businesses can easily integrate crypto payments through Checkout, Elements, or Payment Intents API, without assuming dispute liability.
Trump Rejects Fox News' Invitation for a Second Presidential Debate with Harris
According to Reuters, former U.S. President Donald Trump has rejected Fox News' invitation for a second presidential debate with Vice President Kamala Harris on October 24 or 27. Trump stated that there would be no more debates before the election on November 5. Previously, Harris accepted CNN's invitation for a debate on October 23, which Trump also declined. Following their first debate on September 10, current polls show a tight race. Trump stated on Truth Social: "There will be no rematch, so there is nothing to debate."
Swell Network: Users Can Now Check Eligibility for SWELL Token Rewards
Swell Network announced that users can check their eligibility for $SWELL token rewards through its platform and encouraged users to collect "White Pearls." Users can visit Swell's DAO page for specific details. Additionally, Swell introduced the re-staking feature for $SWELL tokens, allowing users to stake them as $rSWELL to help secure the Swell L2 network.
According to DLNews, just weeks after reaching a settlement with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission, Mango Labs, the company behind the Mango Markets protocol, has filed its own legal lawsuit. The lawsuit was filed on October 7 in Puerto Rico, accusing senior contributors of Mango DAO, John Kramer and Max Schneider, of stealing over $10 million from the DAO at the expense of other members during the Avraham Eisenberg trial. The lawsuit states: "The defendants secretly purchased MNGO tokens (333 million) from FTX, manipulated the MNGO market, artificially inflated its token price, and sold it to Mango DAO at a higher price through proposals, violating their fiduciary duties." Kramer and Schneider deny any wrongdoing.
In addition to the lawsuit, on-chain evidence indicates that Kramer and Schneider's trading company, CKS Systems, was the mastermind behind the acquisition of MNGO tokens. The lawsuit also claims that after being accused of misappropriating funds, Kramer and Schneider attempted to prevent Mango Labs from obtaining legitimate funding. The lawsuit states: "They threatened to stop Mango Labs from funding the protection of Mango DAO's legal rights (including rights against Eisenberg)." Furthermore, after Mango Labs reached a settlement with the SEC, Schneider proposed a DAO proposal to grant himself 60 million MNGO tokens from the DAO treasury, which violated the terms of the SEC settlement. It remains to be seen whether this action will affect the settlement agreement (which requires court approval). Previously, it was reported that Mango failed to pass a proposal to accept the settlement with the SEC due to someone withdrawing the proposal.
DWF Labs co-founder Andrei Grachev stated on the X platform that the brand for DWF Labs' yield-generating synthetic stablecoin has been finalized. It will be called Falcon Finance, and the stablecoin will have two versions: USDf and USDwf, with more updates to be released soon.
Mt. Gox Extends Compensation Deadline by One Year to October 31, 2025
Mt. Gox officially announced today that the bankruptcy administrator has nearly completed the compensation work for bankruptcy creditors who have completed the necessary procedures for receiving compensation and encountered no issues during the compensation process. However, many bankruptcy creditors have not yet completed the necessary procedures to receive repayment and thus have not received compensation; additionally, due to various issues during the repayment process, a significant number of bankruptcy creditors have temporarily not received compensation. To reasonably compensate these bankruptcy creditors as much as possible, the bankruptcy administrator, with court permission, has changed the compensation deadline from October 31, 2024 (Japan Standard Time) to October 31, 2025 (Japan Time).
According to Daily Economic News, Cullen Hoback, the director of HBO's latest documentary "Cryptocurrency: The Bitcoin Mystery," identified Canadian software developer and cryptocurrency expert Peter Todd as "Satoshi Nakamoto," sparking heated discussions in the crypto community. In response, Peter Todd emphasized to the media that he is not "Satoshi Nakamoto," and that Hoback's identification was merely a way to attract attention to his Bitcoin documentary. "During the documentary production, Cullen interviewed me 4 to 5 times, lasting several hours. Until the last interview, he gave no impression that he was looking for Satoshi Nakamoto. He just introduced that he was trying to make a documentary about Bitcoin itself," Peter Todd further explained. Additionally, Peter Todd highlighted his personal safety, stating, "Being falsely accused by Cullen Hoback of having billions of dollars poses risks for me." He also mentioned that he has not yet decided whether to take legal action to protect his interests.
Investment and Financing
Web3 Game Studio Dragonz Lab Announces $9 Million Funding Round
Decentralized AI Infrastructure Platform OpenGradient Completes $8.5 Million Seed Round Financing
Settlement Amounts Between Crypto Companies and U.S. Regulators Have Reached $32 Billion
According to CoinGecko, the total settlement amounts between crypto companies and U.S. regulators have reached $32 billion so far, with the largest amounts being FTX and Alameda at $12.7 billion, followed by Celsius ($4.7 billion), Terraform Labs ($4.5 billion), Binance ($4.3 billion), Genesis ($2 billion), Voyager ($1.65 billion), Telegram ($1.24 billion), Coinbase ($100 million), BlockFi ($100 million), and BitMEX ($100 million).
German Investment Firm Lennertz Raises $165 Million for Its Third Blockchain-Focused Fund
According to Fortune, German investment firm Lennertz & Co. is raising $165 million for its third blockchain-focused fund. Lennertz & Co. is a multi-family office established in 2015 and has recently completed its first round of financing, although the specific amount has not been disclosed. The company has been involved in the blockchain space since 2016 and has launched funds of $35 million and $65 million. Lennertz adopts a "fund of funds" model, investing in other well-known crypto venture capital funds such as Multicoin and Polychain.
Decentralized Network Project Delta Announces Completion of $11 Million Financing
The blockchain network interoperability project Delta announced the completion of $11 million in financing. This financing was divided into two phases, including a pre-seed round led by Figment Capital and Maven 11, and a seed round led by Variant and DBA. Other participants included Reverie, Castle Island Ventures, Credibly Neutral, Ambush Capital, Robot Ventures, Delphi Ventures, Public Works, and Komorebi Collective. Delta aims to create a network system with global state sharing, providing developers with a balanced solution for sovereignty and interoperability through the separation of execution and data availability. The system also introduces zero-knowledge proof settlement methods to achieve seamless multi-domain interoperability.
Important Data
According to on-chain analyst @ai_9684xtpa, since yesterday afternoon, the CHZ project party Chiliz has withdrawn a total of 1.473 billion tokens from Binance, valued at $103 million, accounting for 16% of the total circulating tokens. The withdrawal may be related to the PEPPER airdrop, but it is unclear why it was withdrawn to the chain; CHZ is the token for Socios.com, the club platform developed by Chiliz, which has risen 38% in the past month.
Solana Monthly Active Addresses Exceed 100 Million, a New High, but Most Addresses Do Not Hold SOL
According to Cointelegraph, data from blockchain data platform Artemis Terminal shows that the number of monthly active addresses on Solana has surged to over 100 million, setting a new historical high for the network. This is a significant leap compared to the 509,000 active addresses recorded by Artemis at the beginning of 2024.
However, supporting indicators show that most active wallets on the Solana network do not hold any SOL tokens, leading skeptics to attribute this explosive growth to artificially inflated metrics by bots. According to Solana data provider Hello Moon, over 86 million user wallets held 0 SOL in the past month, about 15.5 million users held less than 1 SOL, and about 1.5 million users held less than 10 SOL.
Justin d'Anethan, Head of Business Development for Keyrock in the Asia-Pacific region, stated, "The lifetime value of most Solana addresses is below $10, indicating that while the ecosystem is indeed very active and the tokens are performing well, it is not entirely legitimate or naturally generated." Dan Hughes, founder of the decentralized finance platform Radix DLT, believes that interactions with centralized exchanges (CEX) or decentralized finance applications (DeFi) may be a possible reason for the existence of a large number of zero-balance active wallets.
Bitcoin Mining Difficulty Increased by 4.12% to 92.05 T Yesterday
CloverPool data shows that Bitcoin mining difficulty underwent an adjustment at block height 864,864 (2024-10-09 14:46:39), increasing by 4.12% to 92.05 T, with the current average network hash rate at 596.30 EH/s.
Ethereum Foundation Sells 100 ETH Again, Exchanging for Approximately 242,000 DAI
According to Spot On Chain monitoring, the Ethereum Foundation sold 100 ETH again last night, exchanging for 242,828 DAI. This is its first ETH sale in October. In September, the Ethereum Foundation sold 1,250 ETH (approximately $3.06 million).
Settlement Amounts Between Crypto Companies and U.S. Regulators Have Reached $32 Billion
According to CoinGecko, the total settlement amounts between crypto companies and U.S. regulators have reached $32 billion so far, with the largest amounts being FTX and Alameda at $12.7 billion, followed by Celsius ($4.7 billion), Terraform Labs ($4.5 billion), Binance ($4.3 billion), Genesis ($2 billion), Voyager ($1.65 billion), Telegram ($1.24 billion), Coinbase ($100 million), BlockFi ($100 million), and BitMEX ($100 million).
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