Organized by: Luan Peng, ChainCatcher
"What important events occurred this week (10.21-10.27)"
According to The Block, TechCrunch founder Michael Arrington posted on X that payment company Stripe has acquired stablecoin platform Bridge for $1.1 billion.
This is Stripe's largest acquisition to date and the biggest acquisition in the history of the crypto industry. Bridge previously raised $58 million, including a $40 million Series A round at a valuation of $200 million.
Bridge was founded by entrepreneurs Sean Yu and Zach Abrams, providing software tools to help businesses accept stablecoin payments. The two founders previously sold Evenly, a competitor to Venmo, to Block in 2013; Abrams is also a former senior employee at Coinbase.
Andy Ayrey, the founder of the AI robot Truth Terminal, posted on X:
- I hold 1.25 million GOAT, which was given to me by others; I have airdropped some to friends and AI researchers, and I haven't made any trades since it started to go crazy and attract hype (both good and bad) — I know too much about how it works internally, which is unfair;
- The wallet of truth_terminal is under my custody and will be transferred to a legal entity (trust or similar) designed to meet its needs; no adjustments will be made to its token holdings until a transparent governance process is in place;
- truth_terminal wrote all the tweets itself. I did not inject information into its prompts;
- There are many nuances in how language models work, the evolution of AI personalities, and how audience capture affects agency behavior that are difficult to communicate. Misunderstandings about this could lead to significant price fluctuations, and I will not adjust or liquidate any of my GOAT positions until I release the roadmap for ToT (entity) and related projects, along with a research paper that delves into this process and statements from artists regarding the broader project and narrative.
The token is a community meme generated around my work. While I certainly hope to benefit from it, trading for personal gain using my internal knowledge of how the token operates goes against my integrity and broader mission. I am making this disclosure to protect those who may follow the hype without fully understanding all the cross-system dynamics at play.
According to Coindesk, current US SEC Chair Gary Gensler's term is set to expire on January 5, 2026, but traditionally, if the opposition party takes the White House, the chair will choose to resign. However, if Trump successfully wins the next US presidential election, Gary Gensler could complete his commissioner term if he decides to stay.
Recently, when asked by a reporter if he would resign if Trump wins, Gary Gensler chuckled softly and stated that he would not comment on elections, but he added, "Elections have consequences."
4. US SEC Approves Multiple Bitcoin ETF Options Products for Trading
The US Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) has approved the listing of multiple Bitcoin ETF options products on the Cboe and NYSE American exchanges.
- Cboe has been approved to list options for the Fidelity Wise Origin Bitcoin Fund (FBTC) and ARK 21Shares Bitcoin ETF (ARKB);
- NYSE American has been approved to list options for the Grayscale Bitcoin Trust ETF (GBTC), Grayscale Bitcoin Mini Trust (BTC), and Bitwise Bitcoin ETF (BITB).
According to documents, both exchanges have set a single-side position limit of 25,000 contracts for each Bitcoin ETF option, lower than other ETF options products. (Crowdfundinsider)
5. Polymarket to Restrict US Users and Conduct Compliance Checks on High-Stakes Bettors
According to market news, Polymarket will restrict US users and conduct compliance checks on high-stakes bettors.
6. Bill Gates Privately Donates $50 Million to Harris
According to Jin10 data, the New York Times reported that Bill Gates, who has been stepping back from politics for decades, privately stated that he recently donated about $50 million to the nonprofit Future Forward, which supports Vice President Harris's campaign. This donation was originally intended to be secret.
According to someone familiar with Gates' thoughts, he expressed concern in private conversations with friends and others this year about the prospect of Trump being re-elected, although he emphasized that he could work with any candidate.
Gates praised the Biden-Harris administration's work on climate change. According to two sources, Gates' charity — the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation — is very concerned that funding for family planning and global health programs could be cut if Trump is elected.
7. a16z Founder Comments on the Birth of GOAT: The First True Fusion of AI and Cryptocurrency
Marc Andreessen, founder of a16z, discussed the origins of Truth Terminal and the creation of the meme coin GOAT on a podcast. Andreessen described it as the first true fusion of AI and cryptocurrency.
Previous news reported that Marc Andreessen posted on X, stating: "This summer, I provided a $50,000 unconditional personal research grant to terminal of truths and its creators. This grant was intended to support independent AI research, and the results were outstanding, but I have no connection to the meme token GOAT, no financial interest, and do not hold any of its tokens."
8. Tesla's Q3 Financial Report Shows It Did Not Sell Any Bitcoin
According to Watcher.Guru, Tesla's third-quarter financial report shows that the company did not sell any Bitcoin during the quarter.
Additionally, Tesla (TSLA.O) reported Q3 2024 revenue of $25.18 billion, below market expectations of $25.4 billion, and up from $23.35 billion in the same period last year.
According to Decrypt, decentralized social platform Bluesky announced the completion of a $15 million Series A funding round, led by Blockchain Capital, with participation from SevenX, True Ventures, and Alumni Ventures.
Bluesky stated that it will not "over-financialize" Bluesky's "social experience" by integrating crypto tokens, NFTs, or other blockchain-based technologies into its platform.
According to RootData, Bluesky is building the AT Protocol, a new foundation for social networks that allows creators to be independent of the platform, developers to innovate freely, and users to make choices in their experiences. The project was initiated by the founder of Twitter.
10. Musk Increases Support for Trump with Additional $44 Million Donation
According to Jin10, Elon Musk donated approximately $44 million to a team supporting Trump in early October, increasing his support for Trump.
Previous reports indicated that Musk donated about $75 million to the organization between July and September.
Additionally, according to another document submitted to the Federal Election Commission, Trump's campaign team reported spending over $88 million on advertising in the first half of this month, with $36 million in the bank for the final stages of the campaign. Trump's campaign team raised $16 million during this period.
11. US Congressman: SEC Chair Should Resign in 2025
According to Decrypt, US Congressman French Hill (R-AR) stated in an interview with the Thinking Crypto podcast that the SEC should have new leadership next year, regardless of which party controls the White House.
Hill criticized SEC Chair Gary Gensler's regulatory policies, calling them unconstitutional and an abuse of power, and suggested implementing exemption policies for emerging industries such as cryptocurrency.
Ripple Labs CEO Brad Garlinghouse also predicted that Gensler would resign after the upcoming presidential election, regardless of the election outcome.
12. US Treasury Considers Sanctions Against Tether
The US Treasury is considering sanctions against Tether. According to informed sources, the federal government is investigating whether the cryptocurrency company Tether may have violated sanctions and anti-money laundering regulations.
Prosecutors from the Manhattan US Attorney's Office have launched a criminal investigation into whether Tether's cryptocurrency has been used by third parties to fund illegal activities such as drug trafficking, terrorism, and hacking, or to launder the proceeds from these activities.
13. Vitalik: Ethereum Foundation's Sale of ETH is to Pay Researchers in the Ecosystem
Vitalik Buterin clarified on X regarding the Ethereum Foundation's sale of ETH: "The foundation is paying researchers and developers responsible for the following:
- Ethereum will not spend 5 million ETH annually on proof of work;
- User fees are currently very low;
- Transactions can be completed in 30 seconds, rather than 1-30 minutes (EIP 1559)."
The RootData List 2024 is now open for nominations. This list is the second annual selection launched by the Web3 data platform RootData following its first release in 2023, aimed at showcasing influential and innovative participants in the Web3 space and assessing the key forces driving industry progress.
The 2024 list will continue and optimize the selection system, primarily including core lists such as Crypto 50, Crypto Investors 50, Crypto Projects 50, and The Best CEO. The selection criteria cover multi-dimensional indicators such as RootData's popularity index, token performance, portfolio quality, project valuation, financing performance, media popularity, and community development.
For reference, the first list in 2023 received widespread recognition in the industry, covering the TOP 50 projects, TOP 100 investment institutions, and the TOP 20 in eight sub-sectors, providing important references for industry development.
The final results will be announced on November 11 at the 'DeInsight 2024' summit held at Hotel Nikko Bangkok in Thailand. 'DeInsight 2024' is co-hosted by ChainCatcher and RootData, with Soso Value as a co-organizer, and is expected to attract over 1,000 industry insiders.
Nomination link: https://forms.gle/yqGmxLSXGDYSCnK88
Binance CEO Richard Teng posted on X: "We are deeply relieved and grateful that Tigran Gambaryan has finally been released after nearly eight months in detention in Nigeria. During this difficult time, Tigran has shown tremendous strength, and we commend his resilience in such severe adversity. We are very thankful to everyone who has dedicated countless hours to support Tigran's release. Tigran's health and well-being remain our top priority, and we are glad he can now receive the medical care and rest he urgently needs with his family. Binance remains committed to working with global regulators to ensure compliance and transparency in the ever-evolving digital asset space. We look forward to putting this incident behind us and continuing to work towards a brighter future for the global blockchain industry. Nigeria has a young, tech-savvy population with a strong interest in digital finance, fully capable of leveraging blockchain technology to address economic and social challenges. We look forward to playing a constructive role in this effort."
Previous news reported that Nigerian prosecutors withdrew criminal charges against Binance executive Tigran Gambaryan on Wednesday. Tigran Gambaryan had been detained in the African country since February.
"What Exciting Articles Are Worth Reading This Week (10.21-10.27)"
The value of L1 tokens is more akin to sovereign assets, existing at a premium due to being "productive assets"; DApp and L2 tokens resemble equity assets, seemingly lacking more value beyond generating cash flow.
2. Kraken to Launch Layer 2, Overview of Its DeFi Dedicated Chain Ink
Ink is a Layer 2 blockchain based on the Optimism Superchain launched by Kraken. As a natural evolution of our mission, Ink will serve as a seamless bridge to DeFi, enabling users to confidently and easily make on-chain payments.
Going on-chain can feel complex and daunting. As a single, integrated ecosystem, Ink simplifies user interactions with top DeFi applications (dApps), protocols, and communities. All of this is driven by one goal: to make it easier for people to access exciting new opportunities on-chain.
Ink is built on the open-source, MIT-licensed OP Stack codebase from Optimism, joining the broader Ethereum ecosystem. In addition to benefiting from the security of Ethereum (the world's largest blockchain platform), Ink will also be part of the superchain. This unified blockchain network shares security, governance, and values, adopting a common standard codebase to help scale Ethereum.
"Growing from zero to a $6,000 market cap in just one hour, but dropping from a $400 billion market cap to $3 million in just one minute, ending in FUD after seven hours online" summarizes the brief life of the new meme project Sharpei (token SHAR, abbreviated as "SHAR") on the Solana chain from skyrocketing to crashing.
As a new meme project, the SHAR team leveraged endorsements claiming "over 50 top crypto KOLs support and endorse us, and the team has successfully manipulated other meme projects like MEW and MANEKI…" to gain widespread attention and market heat in a short time, but ultimately ended in a crash, once again revealing the opacity and manipulation in the meme coin market and the collusion between KOLs and project teams.
This year's trend of launching dog coins across all chains echoes last year's inscription craze, with Pump.fun becoming a catalyst for this wave. The simplified token issuance process has allowed more participants to join at low costs, exacerbating market speculation.
5. Vitalik's New Article: Possible Future of the Ethereum Protocol - The Verge
Special thanks to Justin Drake, Hsia-wei Wanp, Guillaume Ballet, Icinacio, Rosh Rudolf, Lev Soukhanoy, Ryan Sean Adams, and Uma Roy for their feedback and reviews.
One of the most powerful features of blockchain is that anyone can run a node on their own computer and verify the correctness of the blockchain. Even if 95, 96 nodes running chain consensus (PoW, PoS) immediately agree to change the rules and start producing blocks according to the new rules, every fully validating node operator will refuse to accept the chain. Miners not belonging to this conspiracy group will automatically converge onto a chain that continues to follow the old rules and will continue to build on that chain, while fully validated users will follow that chain.
This is the key difference between blockchain and centralized systems. However, for this feature to hold, running a fully validated node must be feasible for a sufficient number of people. This applies to both miners (because if miners do not validate the chain, they are not contributing to the enforcement of protocol rules) and ordinary users. Nowadays, it is possible to run a node on consumer-grade laptops (including the one used to write this article), but doing so is quite challenging. The Verge aims to change this situation by making the computational costs of fully validating chains inexpensive, so that every mobile wallet, browser wallet, and even smart watch will default to validating.
6. Bitcoin ETF Options Approved, Will Bitcoin Experience Explosive Growth?
On October 18, the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission approved applications from the New York Stock Exchange (NYSE) and the Chicago Board Options Exchange (CBOE), allowing 11 approved Bitcoin ETF providers to engage in options trading. Currently, Bitcoin continues to rise, with highs surpassing $69,000.
ETF analyst Seyffart stated at the Permissionless conference that Bitcoin ETF options may be launched by the end of the year; however, the CFTC and OCC do not have strict deadlines, so further delays are possible, with a more likely launch in Q1 2025.
At the same time, the SEC has postponed the approval of Bitwise and Grayscale's Ethereum ETF options, with the market speculating that this is due to the anticipated inflow of funds being less than expected after the Ethereum ETF is approved. The SEC wants to further examine the impact of this proposal on market stability and will make a ruling on November 10.
On October 21, payment unicorn Stripe finalized an $1.1 billion acquisition of the stablecoin platform Bridge, marking the largest acquisition in the history of the crypto industry and Stripe's largest acquisition to date.
As a beneficiary of this acquisition, Bridge aims to provide a platform that integrates stablecoin payment technology support for businesses. Just in August of this year, it announced the completion of a $54 million financing round, with a valuation of only $200 million at that time. However, in just two months, Bridge's market value skyrocketed nearly sixfold, ultimately being acquired by Stripe for a high price of $1.1 billion, making it one of the fastest-growing projects in the crypto world.
As the funding party for this acquisition, Stripe recently resumed support for USDC crypto asset payments on Ethereum, Solana, and Polygon at the beginning of this month. This acquisition of Bridge will undoubtedly add a sharp edge to Stripe in the field of crypto payments. What remarkable new changes can we expect from the strong collaboration between the two in the crypto payment space?
8. After a 110% Pump Storm, the Leading Meme Coin Halves, Is ApeChain Still Worth Expecting?
Yesterday, Yuga Labs, the parent company of the long-silent Bored Ape Yacht Club, initiated a series of major moves.
Yuga Labs officially announced the launch of the Layer 2 public chain ApeChain. Following that, the on-chain version of "pump.fun" and the one-click token issuance platform Ape Express were also launched.
To attract users to participate in the ApeChain ecosystem, ApeChain introduced the cross-chain bridge Ape Portal and provided an automatic yield model for stablecoin holders on the chain. Stablecoins crossing to ApeChain will be converted to DAI and deposited into sDAI, accumulating yields based on MakerDAO's savings rate.
Additionally, ApeChain has reached a strategic partnership with Wire Network, a general infrastructure designed for the AI agency economy, to explore new areas where AI agents can perform complex tasks on behalf of humans in the future.
With the issuance of the first batch of meme coins like CURTIS and DOOKEY on ApeChain, it quickly sparked FOMO sentiment within the community.
9. Interview with Mossfire Capital Co-Founder: A Bull Market is Coming, How to See Through Market Fog?
In today's rapidly changing cryptocurrency market, insight and experience are crucial. Raymond, co-founder of Mossfire Capital, shared his unique insights on cryptocurrency market volatility, investment strategies, and predictions for future market trends in this in-depth interview. His transition from Web2 to Web3 and his strategies for navigating market downturns provide valuable insights. Let's explore how Raymond seeks opportunities amid the fluctuations of the crypto market and learn about his advice for new investors and his optimistic view of the overall crypto market outlook.
As the U.S. election approaches its conclusion, the future direction of the crypto market, which is greatly influenced by U.S. political and economic factors, has become a focal point of recent market attention.
Will Bitcoin's price break new highs as hoped? Will Ethereum's price continue to show weakness? Will the meme coin craze in the Solana ecosystem continue? Can altcoin markets gradually recover? Planet Daily will organize and analyze the current views on the U.S. election and the crypto market in this article for readers' reference.
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