Headlines
U.S. SEC officially appeals Ripple case ruling
The U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) has officially appealed the XRP ruling made by Judge Analisa Torres. On Thursday, the regulatory agency submitted Form C to the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit. This has reignited the legal debate over whether the sale of XRP by cryptocurrency trading platforms meets the criteria for securities. The agency has questioned key aspects of the court's ruling, including the acquittal of Ripple executives and the distribution of XRP in non-cash forms. The outcome of this case could have significant implications for future cryptocurrency regulation.
Morgan Stanley holds $272.1 million in Bitcoin spot ETF
According to Bitcoin Magazine, the latest documents from the SEC reveal that Morgan Stanley holds $272.1 million in Bitcoin spot ETF.
For the week ending October 12, initial jobless claims in the U.S. were 241,000, compared to an expected 260,000, with the previous value revised from 258,000 to 260,000.
The four-week moving average of initial jobless claims for the week ending October 12 was 236,250, revised from 231,000 to 231,500. Continuing claims for the week ending October 12 were 1.867 million, expected 1.865 million, with the previous value revised from 1.861 million to 1.858 million.
U.S. retail sales in September slightly exceeded expectations, supporting the view of strong economic growth in the third quarter. September retail sales month-on-month recorded 0.4%, while the unadjusted increase for August was 0.1%. Signs of economic recovery may not prevent the Fed from cutting rates again next month, but they will reinforce expectations for a 25 basis point cut.
European Central Bank cuts rates by 25 basis points again
The European Central Bank has lowered the deposit facility rate from 3.5% to 3.25%, in line with market expectations. It also adjusted the main refinancing rate and the marginal lending rate from 3.65% and 3.9% to 3.4% and 3.65%, respectively. Traders' bets on a rate cut by the ECB remain stable, with expectations for a 25 basis point cut in December.
Industry News
According to 8marketcap, Bitcoin has been surpassed by Meta, temporarily falling out of the top ten global asset market capitalization rankings, with Bitcoin's current market cap at approximately $1.327 trillion and Meta's market cap reaching $1.468 trillion.
BlackRock bought over 10,000 BTC in the past two days, current holdings exceed 380,000 BTC
According to monitoring by Lookonchain, BlackRock purchased 5,802 BTC yesterday, worth approximately $390.2 million. In the past two days, BlackRock has bought a total of 10,126 BTC, valued at $681 million, bringing its holdings to 380,972 BTC, worth approximately $25.62 billion.
The hacker involved in the previous attack on the SEC's X account has been arrested by the FBI
The U.S. Department of Justice announced that Eric Council Jr., the hacker involved in the attack on the SEC's X account, has been arrested by the FBI. The hacker, a man from Alabama, allegedly took over the SEC's X account without authorization in January 2024 and posted false information from the SEC chairman (claiming that the Bitcoin ETF had been approved), which caused Bitcoin's (BTC) price to spike by $1,000 temporarily. Shortly after the unauthorized content was published, the SEC regained control of its X account and confirmed that the information was unauthorized, stating that its X account had been compromised due to a security breach. Following this correction, BTC's price fell by over $2,000.
Eric Council Jr. has been charged with conspiracy to commit aggravated identity theft and access device fraud, with the indictment announced yesterday.
Total net inflow of Bitcoin ETFs exceeds $20 billion for the first time
According to Bloomberg ETF analyst Eric Balchunas, the total net inflow of Bitcoin ETFs has exceeded $20 billion for the first time (this is the most important number in the ETF space and the hardest to grow; in comparison, gold ETFs took about five years to reach the same figure), with the previous week's figure for Bitcoin ETFs at $1.5 billion.
CEX Bitcoin reserves hit all-time low, approximately 2.68 million BTC
Cointelegraph reported that the Bitcoin reserves held by cryptocurrency exchanges are currently approximately 2.68 million BTC, hitting an all-time low.
IntoTheBlock: Currently, 95% of Bitcoin addresses are profitable
According to IntoTheBlock, market sentiment is high, with currently 95% of Bitcoin addresses being profitable.
According to a new report from Galaxy Digital, venture capital firms invested $2.4 billion in cryptocurrency startups across 478 deals in Q3. The funding amount decreased by 20% compared to Q2, and the number of deals fell by 17%.
In the first three quarters of this year, the industry received $8 billion in investments, which is far from the over $30 billion received annually in 2021 and 2022, when the industry had over 3,000 deals each year. Alex Thorn, head of research at Galaxy Digital, stated, “(Institutional) investor interest in crypto venture capital and broader venture capital has declined compared to previous years.”
Project News
Worldcoin rebranded to World Network and announced that World Chain has launched its mainnet
Worldcoin, supported by Sam Altman, has officially rebranded to World Network (abbreviated as World), and its Layer 2 network World Chain has launched its mainnet. Optimism, Alchemy, Uniswap, Safe, Dune, and Etherscan will support the release of this blockchain. The blockchain is built using the OP Stack, and World Network states that user transactions account for approximately 44% of OP Mainnet activity, making it the largest application on the network.
Polymarket betting amount on the U.S. presidential election surpasses $2 billion
On Polymarket, the betting amount on whether Harris or Trump will win the 2024 presidential election has exceeded $2 billion. Historical data shows that this figure reached $1 billion on September 24 and increased by another $1 billion in just 24 days.
As of October 17, the betting amount for Trump on Polymarket is nearly $608 million, with a win probability of 62.3%; Harris's betting amount is approximately $405 million, with a win probability of 37.5%.
Avalon Labs announces deployment on DePIN modular platform IoTeX
According to official news, the BTC ecosystem lending protocol Avalon Labs announced yesterday that it will officially deploy on the DePIN modular platform IoTeX, expanding support for DePIN assets. Avalon Labs has previously received investments from institutions such as SNZ Capital and Martrixport, and the current TVL within the Avalon protocol has exceeded $700 million.
ZKsync releases first governance proposal ZKsync Ignite
ZKsync has released its first governance proposal, named ZKsync Ignite, which aims to transform ZKsync Era into a liquidity hub for Elastic Chain. To this end, 300 million ZK tokens will be distributed to DeFi users over the next nine months. The proposal has been announced on the ZK Nation forum, aiming to promote further development and expansion of the ZKsync ecosystem.
Decentralized storage and data availability protocol Walrus launches public testnet
Mysten Labs has launched the decentralized storage and data availability protocol Walrus, announcing the release of its public testnet. Walrus is designed for blockchain applications and autonomous agents, and a developer preview has been released to gather feedback. The main advantages of the protocol include economically efficient Blob storage, as well as high availability and robustness.
Orderly Network has announced its integration with Solana and the deployment of a treasury, becoming the first full-chain order book platform to support both EVM and non-EVM chains, allowing users from different public chains to trade perpetual contracts through Orderly Network's unified cross-chain shared order book. Orderly Network recently surpassed a total trading volume of $83 billion. It currently covers multiple mainstream blockchains, including Arbitrum, Base, Mantle, Ethereum mainnet, Optimism, and Polygon, providing over 50 trading markets for traders and decentralized exchanges, achieving integrated liquidity and trading infrastructure across chains.
Following the successful deployment of the treasury on Solana, Solana users can now deposit assets on the Orderly platform and trade with counterparties on other supported chains without cross-chain transactions. The integration of the testnet is already in place, with plans to integrate the mainnet in November.
Renzo Protocol: First EigenLayer restaking reward distribution completed
Restaking protocol Renzo Protocol announced that the first EigenLayer restaking reward distribution has been completed, with Renzo automatically compounding staking rewards, including:
- ezETH generated 769.01 ETH (593,727.31 EIGEN) from August 15 to October 8;
- ezEIGEN generated 1,731.05 EIGEN from October 1 to October 8.
Kraken launches Kraken Wrapped Bitcoin (kBTC)
According to official news, cryptocurrency exchange Kraken has launched Kraken Wrapped Bitcoin (kBTC), aimed at unlocking Bitcoin's potential in the network.
kBTC is a fully supported, cross-network compatible ERC-20 token, with each kBTC token fully backed by an equivalent amount of Bitcoin at a 1:1 ratio, securely held by Kraken.
Ethereum stakers earned $174 million in September, down 30% from March peak
Ethereum stakers' total earnings in September were $174 million, a 30% decrease from the March peak of $247 million.
Despite the decline in earnings, the validator community continues to grow. Ethereum currently has 1.09 million validators, indicating increasing participation in network security. Although individual rewards have decreased, the number of validators is still rising, reflecting confidence in Ethereum's long-term prospects.
Investment and Financing
Drop Protocol completes $4 million seed round financing, led by CoinFund
Liquid staking protocol Drop Protocol announced the completion of a $4 million seed round financing, led by CoinFund, with participation from CMS Holdings, Anagram, Interop Ventures, Cosmostation, and angel investors including Lido DAO co-founder Vasiliy Shapovalov, Celestia Labs co-founder Mustafa Al-Bassam, and Jon Kol, CEO of Abacus Labs and core contributor to Hyperlane. The new funds are intended to drive new economic possibilities in the Interchain.
zkPass completes $12.5 million Series A financing, with participation from Animoca Brands
Privacy-preserving data verification protocol zkPass has completed $12.5 million in Series A financing, achieving a valuation of $100 million, with participation from dao5, Animoca Brands, Flow Traders, Amber Group, IOBC Capital, Signum Capital, MH Ventures, and WAGMI Ventures. zkPass plans to launch its token in the first quarter of next year.
Bitcoin protocol layer Surge announced the completion of $1.8 million in Pre-Seed round financing, with participation from Autonomy, Gerstenbrot Capital, Double Peak Group, Sats Ventures, Vamient Capital, Samara AG, and angel investors including Rushi Manche from Movement Labs, CoinGecko co-founders Bobby Ong and TM Lee. The new funds will support the development of its MetaLayer to fully realize Bitcoin's potential as a global monetary base layer, with plans to launch its testnet soon.
On-chain DA project Hyve completes $1.85 million seed round financing, led by Lemniscap
On-chain data availability (DA) project Hyve announced the completion of $1.85 million in seed round financing, led by Lemniscap, with participation from Paper Ventures, Frachtis, and others. Hyve's solution, HyveDA, is a fully permissionless data availability layer currently supporting a throughput of 1 GB per second.
Financial services company Euroclear invests in Singapore blockchain company Marketnode
According to official news, financial services company Euroclear has announced an investment in Singapore blockchain company Marketnode, specifically acquiring a strategic stake in Marketnode, with the acquisition amount undisclosed. Euroclear's investment aims to modernize financial market infrastructure using blockchain, focusing on simplifying fund management and reducing settlement times through distributed ledger technology. Marketnode was founded in 2021 by the Singapore Exchange Group and Temasek.
Regulatory Trends
Tennessee reaches multi-million dollar settlement with GS Partners
Tennessee has reached a multi-million dollar settlement with GS Partners regarding misleading cryptocurrency and metaverse investments. Affected investors can submit claims within 90 days starting in November, with expectations to refund all deposited funds or cryptocurrencies. Previously, multiple states in the U.S. ordered GS Partners to cease operations and accused it of deceiving investors in several cryptocurrency schemes.
Chainalysis: Stablecoin adoption in the U.S. slows compared to global markets in 2024
In its latest report on cryptocurrency adoption trends in North America, Chainalysis stated that stablecoin adoption in the U.S. is slowing compared to global markets in 2024. This year, there has been a significant shift in stablecoin activity in the U.S. market, with the share of stablecoin trading on U.S.-regulated exchanges dropping from about 50% in 2023 to below 40% in 2024. In contrast, the share of stablecoin trading on non-U.S. regulated platforms has surged significantly since 2023, expected to exceed 60% in 2024.
Chainalysis emphasized that this shift does not necessarily indicate a sharp decline in U.S. stablecoin activity but reflects the rapidly expanding role of stablecoins in emerging markets and non-U.S. jurisdictions. As more countries develop regulatory frameworks encouraging stablecoin adoption, U.S. policymakers face increasing pressure to take action.
Voices
MARA CEO: Current AI development environment resembles early 2000s internet bubble
Fred Thiel, CEO of Bitcoin mining company MARA (formerly Marathon Digital), warned that the current AI development environment resembles the internet bubble of the early 2000s, with many companies potentially overbuilding infrastructure amid insufficient demand. Successful Bitcoin mining companies will integrate AI components in the long term, leveraging low-cost energy to service AI data centers.
MARA plans to expand its Bitcoin mining capacity while acquiring custom chip technology through a partnership with Auradine, aiming for 50% of its revenue to come from non-Bitcoin mining operations within the next four years.
Lawyer: India's harsh crypto taxes stem from a lack of understanding of the technology
At the 2024 Peer-to-Peer Financial Systems Symposium, legal practitioner Amit Kumar Gupta presented a research paper on India's crypto taxes. Gupta stated that India's heavy taxation on the crypto industry and blockchain sector, which is unregulated, reflects a lack of understanding of the technology, as they perceive these technologies as being used solely for illegal purposes such as money laundering and terrorist financing.
In response to Zhu Su's previous post involving Arthur Hayes, Hayes stated: "The only true information in your post is that both of us worked at Deutsche Bank. When you are ready to cooperate with the BVI liquidators, please do so as soon as possible and stop making creditors pay legal fees. BitMEX will accept the court's decision as deemed appropriate, but I will not engage in behind-the-scenes dealings as you did with CoinFlex, Hodlenaught, Ox, etc."
It is reported that Zhu Su previously stated that most of the work he did was for Arthur Hayes, and that they worked together at the same bank counter at Deutsche Bank in Hong Kong, possibly having two or three dozen close mutual friends. Zhu Su claimed to have provided many collaboration opportunities to Arthur Hayes, leading many affected creditors to seize these opportunities. Earlier this year, after Arthur Hayes indicated that this affected his ability to conduct business, Zhu Su withdrew the expedited protection order against Hayes.
Data from Arkham Intelligence shows that Tesla has transferred its Bitcoin reserves for the first time in over two years, causing panic among some Bitcoin traders. CryptoQuant community analyst Maartunn speculated that Tesla's transfer of BTC may have several reasons:
- Compliance or internal audit: Tesla may transfer Bitcoin to fulfill accounting or legal obligations related to reporting or internal audits;
- Wallet management: Tesla may use multiple wallets for operational purposes, although this seems less likely;
- Restructuring funds: Restructuring Bitcoin holdings as part of a strategy to prepare for future sales or loans.
It is reported that the relevant Bitcoin has not yet been transferred to exchange wallets, and there are no signs of sale.
European Central Bank President Christine Lagarde stated that the decision to cut interest rates was unanimous, and inflation may fall to target levels next year. Currently, inflation forecasts still carry two-way risks, with the downside risks to inflation being greater than the upside risks.
ING: The Federal Reserve may cut interest rates by 50 basis points for the remainder of the year
James Knightley, Chief International Economist at ING, stated that the Federal Reserve may cut interest rates by 50 basis points for the remainder of the year. Knightley explained that the Fed's current approach focuses on risk management. Unlike most central banks, which have a single goal of bringing inflation down to 2%, the Fed has two main goals: price stability and full employment. If the Fed is confident in achieving its inflation target, it may shift its focus to supporting employment. Knightley stated that a 25 basis point cut in November, followed by another cut in December, is very appropriate. He also predicted that the Fed might lower rates to around 3%-3.5% by the summer of 2025.
CryptoQuant founder: The Bitcoin-Tether futures market is becoming overly leveraged
Ki Young Ju, founder and CEO of CryptoQuant, stated on the X platform: "The Bitcoin-Tether futures market is becoming overly leveraged. The calculation method is to divide the open contracts of BTC-USDT by the USDT reserves of major exchanges. This includes ETH and TRON-based USDT, which together account for 97% of the USDT market cap, making it quite accurate."
Shen Yu: The industry should adopt a delayed execution mechanism to ensure fund safety
In response to the recent security incident involving Radiant Capital, Shen Yu (@bitfish1) replied: "When it comes to sensitive permissions, especially those that can access funds, why hasn't the industry adopted a time lock (delayed execution mechanism) as a standard practice to ensure safety?"
Murad: Meme coins are a sign of maturity in the crypto industry
Meme coin KOL Murad stated that meme coins are a sign of maturity in the crypto industry. Over the past decade, altcoins have primarily been speculative tools (or gambling chips), and meme coins will absorb most of the speculative premium from altcoins.
CFTC Commissioner: The market can perform best when regulators do not intervene
CFTC Commissioner Summer Mersinger mentioned the SEC's regulatory style at the BlockTower investor conference alongside former CFTC Chairman Chris Giancarlo. Mersinger stated: "We don't necessarily say we know more than all of you, but we will tell you how things work. We recognize that the market can perform best when regulators do not intervene arbitrarily."
Ripple Chief Legal Officer: Only a change in leadership will lead to a shift in the SEC's stance
Ripple's Chief Legal Officer Stuart Alderoty believes that the U.S. Supreme Court's overturning of the Chevron USA Inc. v. Natural Resources Defense Council case in June 2024 will have little impact on the SEC's strategy of pursuing crypto compliance through enforcement.
Alderoty emphasized in an interview that only a change in leadership will lead to a shift in the SEC's stance, stating, "I believe that under this leadership, the SEC has caused significant institutional damage to what was once a highly respected agency."
Billionaire and American venture capitalist Tim Draper clarified on X: "I have donated to both Harris and Trump's campaign teams, and the amounts are roughly equal, allowing my wife and me to meet both candidates and make more informed decisions. Both candidates have the right starting points, and although they will set different paths for America, I optimistically believe that either path will be a positive step. I support both candidates."
Erica Khalili, co-founder of Lead Bank, stated at the Ripple Swell conference that banks need to invest heavily and maintain close relationships with regulators to enter the crypto space, which is not easy for the crypto banking industry.
Khalili noted that the number of new banks entering the industry makes regulatory transparency and inter-agency cooperation between banking regulators essential. While digital assets enhance capital market efficiency, banks must have strategies to cope with regulations and remain patient in adapting to changing rules. Khalili emphasized that entering the crypto banking space requires a deep understanding of products, technology, and talent, and that simply dipping a toe in is unlikely to succeed.
Zerocap Chief Investment Officer: Bitcoin will break $70,000 in the coming weeks
Jonathan de Wet, Chief Investment Officer at Zerocap, stated in an investor report on Wednesday that Bitcoin's upward momentum remains strong. De Wet said, "We expect Bitcoin to reach $70,000 in the coming weeks," noting that technical breakthroughs provide a solid foundation for further increases.
Intergovernmental blockchain expert Andy Lian stated that Trump's plan to create a Bitcoin reserve could mark a turning point in crypto regulation, saying, "This political support could lead to a more favorable regulatory environment, boosting investor confidence and demand." Lian believes that driven by global monetary policy, Bitcoin could reach a new historical high next week, with major central banks' significant interest rate cuts potentially boosting risk assets, including cryptocurrencies.
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