Today's News Highlights:
U.S. Treasury Says CBDC Should Replace Stablecoins
Former FTX Engineering Director Nishad Singh Sentenced to Avoid Prison
MicroStrategy Plans to Raise $42 Billion Over the Next 3 Years to Buy More Bitcoin
Coinbase Commits an Additional $25 Million in Political Support for the U.S. Crypto Industry
Robinhood's Q3 Cryptocurrency Trading Volume Rises to $14.4 Billion, More Than Double Last Year
Coinbase's Q3 Performance Falls Short of Expectations, Announces $1 Billion Stock Buyback Plan
Meta's Metaverse Division Reports a $4.4 Billion Loss in Q3, Total Loss Exceeds $58 Billion
U.S. Bitcoin Spot ETF Sees $893 Million Net Inflow Yesterday, Continuing Six Days of Inflows
Regulatory News
Nate Geraci, president of The ETF Store, posted on X that the U.S. SEC has officially confirmed receipt of the application to convert the Grayscale Digital Large Cap Fund (GDLC) into an ETF, and the SEC is seeking public opinion. Previously, Grayscale applied to the SEC to convert its mixed crypto fund, which includes BTC, ETH, and SOL, into an ETF.
PANews reported on October 31 that at the "Financial New Ecology - Web 3.0 Navigation: High-End Dialogue in the Hong Kong Market" event, Hong Kong legislator Kenneth Leung stated that the scale of stablecoins globally has reached hundreds of billions of dollars, and the application scenarios for stablecoins in Hong Kong are key, such as whether it is possible to expand more scenarios beyond international payments. Additionally, Leung mentioned that issuing a renminbi stablecoin is also a direction worth exploring.
U.S. Treasury Says CBDC Should Replace Stablecoins
According to Decrypt, a report released by the U.S. Treasury on Wednesday expressed concerns about the growth of the stablecoin market and suggested that privately issued stablecoins should ultimately be replaced by state-backed central bank digital currencies (CBDCs). The report, written by the Treasury's Office of Debt Management, stated: "Similar to how privately issued 'wildcat' currencies from the late 19th century were replaced by government-backed central currencies, CBDCs may need to replace stablecoins as the primary form of digital currency supporting tokenized transactions." The 132-page report on the Treasury's financial situation for Q4 2024 devoted significant space to stablecoins, mentioning the substantial purchases of U.S. Treasury bonds by stablecoin issuers like Tether and Circle. The Treasury estimated that $120 billion worth of U.S. Treasury bonds have been purchased as collateral for yield-generating stablecoins, with nearly $81 billion purchased by Tether, the company behind the largest stablecoin USDT in the crypto market. While many stablecoin supporters argue that dollar-backed stablecoins enhance the dollar's strong position by increasing demand for U.S. Treasury bonds, the Treasury does not seem convinced. The report highlighted the "common phenomenon" of stablecoins frequently decoupling or completely collapsing in recent years, and the Treasury believes that if the integration of U.S. Treasury bonds and the stablecoin industry continues to deepen, it could lead to disaster.
Former FTX Engineering Director Nishad Singh Sentenced to Avoid Prison
According to Bloomberg, a New York federal court judge, Lewis A. Kaplan, sentenced former FTX engineering director Nishad Singh to avoid prison due to his role in the multi-billion dollar fraud case involving the crypto exchange FTX. Singh, as a key witness, provided testimony that helped convict the mastermind of the fraud case, FTX founder SBF. Singh's lawyer attempted to distinguish him from Gary Wang and Caroline Ellison, arguing that he was not part of the core conspiracy of the case. Singh first learned in September 2022—two months before FTX's collapse—that the sister hedge fund Alameda Research had been misappropriating billions of dollars in customer funds. Judge Kaplan agreed with this view, stating: "Your situation is different from Caroline Ellison's, who has known what was happening for years. She has received a lot of recognition for her cooperation, but you deserve it more." Singh also agreed to forfeit his property in Washington State, shares in Anthropic PBC, and other crypto assets. FTX co-founder Gary Wang is set to be sentenced on November 20, making him the last of the U.S. government's key cooperating witnesses awaiting trial.
According to CoinDesk, the U.S. Department of Justice announced that the operator of the cryptocurrency market maker MyTrade has pleaded guilty, one of the targets of a large-scale crackdown earlier this month that charged multiple companies and individuals with market manipulation. According to the Department of Justice, 39-year-old Liu Zhou will stand trial in federal court early next year for "wash trading" cryptocurrencies on multiple exchanges for clients. Liu Zhou had told others, "We conduct self-buy and sell transactions—completing buys and sells in the same second," and his trading volume bots could perform "pump and dump" operations. Liu Zhou also allegedly stated that his company's purpose was to find "other buyers in the community, those you don't know or care about," because for the tokens to profit, these buyers must lose money.
According to federal indictment documents released weeks ago, companies like Gotbit, CLS Global, and ZM Quant were also accused of wash trading various tokens to create a facade of more legitimate trading activity than actually existed and selling portions of these tokens to others at "artificially inflated prices." Meanwhile, another company, CLS Global, stated that it has contacted U.S. authorities for cooperation.
AI
OpenAI Launches Chat History Search Feature for ChatGPT Web Version
OpenAI announced the gradual rollout of a chat history search feature for the ChatGPT web version, allowing users to easily retrieve past conversations or continue unfinished discussions. Plus and Team users will receive this feature today, Enterprise and Edu users will gain access within a week, and free users will gradually receive the feature over the next month.
Project Updates
MicroStrategy Plans to Raise $42 Billion Over the Next 3 Years to Buy More Bitcoin
According to CoinDesk, MicroStrategy announced its Q3 2024 financial results, stating that as of the end of Q3, the company holds 252,220 BTC, with a year-to-date BTC return of 17.8%. The company also announced a $42 billion capital plan. The announcement stated that under the leadership of Executive Chairman Michael Saylor, the company will raise $21 billion in equity and issue $21 billion in bonds over the next three years, using the additional capital to purchase more Bitcoin as a financial reserve asset to achieve higher BTC returns. MicroStrategy's last disclosure was in mid-September when the company announced it had purchased 7,420 Bitcoin for $458.2 million, bringing its total Bitcoin holdings to 252,220. As of the end of this quarter, the company had $891.3 million remaining from its last financing. MicroStrategy also raised its target range for "BTC returns" from the previous 4%-8% to 6%-10%.
U.S. Government Sold ANT Tokens Seized from Alameda Before Destruction
According to The Block, the U.S. government has sold tokens seized from the now-defunct hedge fund Alameda Research, marking the first fund transfer from this wallet in nearly two years, which holds approximately $974,000 worth of cryptocurrency. On-chain data from Arkham shows that government officials used the AragonDAO's ANT token redemption address to sell over 82,000 ANT tokens seized from the company. In November 2023, the Swiss non-profit Aragon Association decided to dissolve and sold 86,343 ETH (valued at $155 million at the time) in exchange for ANT tokens. Users must redeem their ANT tokens by November 2, 2024. After redemption, all ANT tokens will be destroyed. This action began with a wallet address starting with 0xb0692 providing funds to the U.S. government's wallet, which is used to isolate funds transferred from Alameda. So far, the U.S. government has received 209.199 ETH worth $556,000 from AragonDAO. Prior to this transaction, the U.S. government address received 0.003 ETH ($7.03) from Coinbase, possibly for gas fees.
According to Bitcoin News on X, Microsoft shareholders have begun preliminary voting on whether the company should invest in Bitcoin. Previously, on October 25, it was reported that Microsoft's December shareholder meeting would consider a Bitcoin investment proposal, with the board recommending a vote against it.
Reddit Sells Most of Its Bitcoin and Ethereum Holdings in Q3
According to Cointelegraph, social media platform Reddit disclosed in a recent filing with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) that the company sold most of its cryptocurrency holdings in the third quarter of 2024, with the majority of the sold cryptocurrencies coming from its Bitcoin and Ethereum reserves, generating $6.869 million in proceeds. However, Reddit added that the book net value of its cryptocurrencies and the confirmed gains from the sales were negligible during this reporting period. The filing also revealed that Reddit's advertising demand has declined since the pandemic due to global economic concerns, rising interest rates, and geopolitical uncertainties.
Coinbase Commits an Additional $25 Million in Political Support for the U.S. Crypto Industry
According to Bloomberg, cryptocurrency exchange Coinbase Global Inc. has added $25 million in funding support to the political action committee Fairshake, which has become a significant force in U.S. elections. Coinbase CEO Brian Armstrong posted on X on Wednesday, stating, "Fairshake will use this funding to prepare for the 2026 midterm elections to support candidates who back cryptocurrency. The U.S. election results will be revealed in six days, and this will be the most crypto-friendly Congress in history. Crypto voters are already a force to be reckoned with and will continue to grow." Fairshake is funded by major players in the digital asset industry, including Coinbase, Ripple Labs Inc., and Andreessen Horowitz, and has been pushing Republican and Democratic candidates to take cryptocurrency seriously. In the final weeks leading up to the 2024 U.S. elections, Fairshake plans to spend over $40 million on top of the $140 million already invested in dozens of congressional districts nationwide.
According to Scam Sniffer monitoring, Lottie Player experienced a supply chain attack earlier today, potentially affecting projects like 1inch and Movement. Additionally, SlowMist founder Yuxian commented, "Another supply chain poisoning attack, related to the phishing gang Ace Drainer, targeting frontend script modules relied upon by well-known Web3 projects. Fortunately, it was discovered in time, and the impact should be minimal. If your project uses the Lottie Player module, please check for any malicious code (currently known versions 2.0.4 and the latest 2.0.8 do not contain malicious code)."
Robinhood's Q3 Cryptocurrency Trading Volume Rises to $14.4 Billion, More Than Double Last Year
According to The Block, U.S. brokerage Robinhood reported its third-quarter results, showing that despite a slowdown in trading volume for the year, retail traders remain highly interested in cryptocurrencies. The cryptocurrency trading volume on the Robinhood platform grew 112% year-over-year to $14.4 billion in Q3 (though it declined compared to the previous two quarters), while stock trading volume increased 65% to $286.2 billion. Robinhood's trading revenue rose 72% year-over-year to $319 million, with cryptocurrency trading revenue at $61 million (up 165%), options trading revenue at $202 million (up 63%), and stock trading revenue at $37 million (up 37%). Despite the growth, cryptocurrency revenue decreased from $81 million in the previous quarter. The company's assets under custody (AUC) grew 76% year-over-year to $152.2 billion, driven by continued net deposits and rising valuations of stocks and cryptocurrencies. Robinhood reported Q3 earnings per share of $0.17, reversing a loss of $0.09 per share from the previous year. Quarterly revenue was $637 million, slightly below the expected $650.67 million.
According to CoinDesk, on Wednesday, cryptocurrency exchange Coinbase (COIN) reported third-quarter earnings and revenue that fell short of Wall Street analysts' expectations, leading to a significant drop in stock price during after-hours trading. The exchange stated that its total revenue for Q3 was $1.2 billion, below the average expectation of $1.26 billion. Additionally, earnings per share were $0.28, also below analysts' expectations of $0.45. Coinbase's adjusted EBITDA for Q3 was $449 million, also missing the expected $469.2 million. In a letter to shareholders, the company stated that the decline in performance was primarily due to a weak market, while also noting growth in certain areas. The company also announced a $1 billion stock buyback authorized in October. The buyback has no deadline, and the company will purchase shares based on market conditions. Gupta stated, "Our balance sheet has grown by over $400 million, allowing us to launch this new stock buyback plan." The company had $8.2 billion in cash, cash equivalents, and USDC at the end of Q3. Coinbase's primary source of revenue is trading fees, but as trading volumes on U.S. exchanges continue to decline, this revenue fell by 27% compared to Q2. Within minutes of the report's release, the exchange's stock price dropped nearly 7%. Year-to-date, the stock has risen about 22% due to the overall bullish sentiment in digital assets.
Canary Capital Submits Spot Solana ETF Application to U.S. SEC
According to Cointelegraph, cryptocurrency asset management firm Canary Capital has followed in the footsteps of VanEck and 21Shares by submitting an application for a spot Solana ETF to the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). In the S-1 registration statement submitted on October 30, Canary explained that the spot Solana ETF would track the price of SOL through the CF Solana Index on the Chicago Mercantile Exchange (CME). The proposed spot Solana ETF would allow investors to access the Solana market through traditional brokerage accounts without facing the entry barriers or risks associated with directly holding SOL. Canary did not disclose who the custodian of the spot SOL ETF would be or under which stock ticker the fund would be listed.
Kraken Lays Off 15% of Its Workforce, Affecting About 400 Positions During Restructuring
According to Beincrypto, due to recent structural changes, cryptocurrency exchange Kraken announced layoffs affecting 15% of its employees, or about 400 positions. Additionally, Arjun Sethi will serve as co-CEO alongside Dave Ripley. Kraken mentioned the need for "organizational discipline" in a blog post, stating plans to streamline the management structure that expanded due to the company's revenue exceeding $1 billion. While specific affected positions were not disclosed, the company's statement and online discussions indicated that senior management and C-level positions were hit hardest by the layoffs. Kraken wrote in the blog, "Making organizational changes is never easy, and we understand the profound impact this has on people's lives. We sincerely thank those who have helped us get to where we are today and for their many contributions, and we will provide support for them during this transition."
Additionally, Kraken Launches Fully Customizable Desktop Trading Application Designed for Active Traders, Kraken Desktop.
He Yi: CZ's Resignation is Binance's Biggest Challenge, Binance Aims to Become Google
PANews reported live that Binance co-founder He Yi stated during a speech at Binance Blockchain Week 2024 that Binance's biggest challenge was the resignation of CZ last year. The resignation of a company founder is undoubtedly a significant challenge, but Binance has achieved great success through a mature management system and mutual support within the team. Startup teams often open up markets through the prominent performance of their founders, while a mature team with a good organizational culture can continue to grow even in the absence of the founder. The external challenge lies in regulation, as regulatory agencies have paid a lot of attention to the crypto industry. Different regulatory agencies have different understandings of the industry, so Binance collaborates with various regulatory bodies. When asked about industry skepticism regarding the need to cooperate with regulatory agencies, He Yi stated that Binance hopes to serve more users with the support of regulation, enabling billions of users to use cryptocurrency. "Binance wants to become Google and aims to create the future internet world, making Web3 more accessible," He Yi added.
Meta's Metaverse Division Reports $4.4 Billion Loss in Q3, Cumulative Loss Exceeds $58 Billion
According to Financial界, the latest financial report from U.S. tech giant Meta shows that its metaverse business continues to incur losses of billions of dollars each quarter. Meta announced its Q3 financial results on Wednesday, stating that its Reality Labs division, which develops augmented and virtual reality technologies, reported an operating loss of $4.43 billion. The loss was slightly smaller than the $4.68 billion expected by analysts surveyed by StreetAccount. Reality Labs' Q3 revenue grew 29% year-over-year to $270 million, below the analyst expectation of $310.4 million. Reality Labs primarily generates revenue through the sale of Meta's Quest VR headsets and Ray-Ban Meta smart glasses.
In 2014, Meta first entered the VR market when the company was still known as Facebook, acquiring the VR startup Oculus for $2 billion. Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg believes that developing VR and AR technologies can position the company as a leader in the next major personal computing platform. This investment has been costly for Meta, with Reality Labs' cumulative operating losses exceeding $58 billion since 2020.
Neo Smart Economy issued a warning on the X platform stating, "A suspicious third-party application has been detected accessing our X account's posting function. Due to a flaw in the X system, we are unable to revoke its permissions. While we have urged the X platform to address this issue, please remain vigilant: do not click on airdrop links or operation requests to send assets. Neo will never ask for money."
Meme Trading Tool ABOT Announces Gradual Shutdown of Operations
Meme trading tool ABOT announced the gradual shutdown of its operations, with the following arrangements: service fees will be reduced to 0; the meme function will be removed on January 1, 2025; non-meme functions will be removed and the website will be shut down on January 7, 2025; new feature development will continue until December 31, and real-time issue response will be maintained until the website closes.
Security Company: SUNRAY Private Key Leaked, Attackers Have Stolen $2.855 Million
According to security company CertiK Alert, the private key of SUNRAY FINANCE has been leaked; attackers gained ownership of SUN and ARC tokens, minted a large number of tokens, and then sold them off to drain the trading pair. Currently, attackers have stolen $2.855 million. Previously, SUNRAY FINANCE announced, "Regarding the transfer of SUN and ARC token treasury assets, we are working hard to recover. Do not worry, all user assets are available on-chain."
A new investigation by Loock Advising reveals that YouTube influencer MrBeast, with 320 million followers, has been involved in long-term insider trading, misleading investors, and using his influence to promote tokens before selling them on the market. MrBeast has made a total profit exceeding $23 million across over 50 crypto wallets. The investigation found projects associated with MrBeast, including: SuperFarm, ERN, AIOZ, Refinable, CryptoPunks, VeeFriends, SHOPX, XCAD, Jigstak (STAK), Polychain Monsters (PMON), Boson Protocol (BOSON), Standard Protocol (STND), Ally Direct (DRCT), Ternoa (CAPS), METIS L2 (METIS), PlayMetaGods, MetaWars, and more.
FDUSD Stablecoin to Expand to Solana Blockchain
First Digital Labs announced that its stablecoin FDUSD will expand to the Solana blockchain, providing users with a faster and more efficient trading experience. This integration leverages Solana's high-performance blockchain, allowing FDUSD transactions to be completed in seconds, suitable for real-time payments and settlements. Additionally, Solana's low transaction fees will significantly reduce user costs. FDUSD previously supported Ethereum, BNB Chain, and Sui, and this expansion to Solana marks a further enhancement of its global liquidity and accessibility.
Financing News
Privacy-preserving computing network Nillion announced the completion of a new round of financing totaling $25 million, led by Hack VC, with participation from a group of venture capitalists and angel investors. To date, its total financing has exceeded $50 million. Nillion was founded three years ago with the aim of creating a privacy-preserving computing network through decentralized and privacy-enhancing technologies such as secure multi-party computation and homomorphic encryption, providing better protection services for high-value data. Nillion has built the world's first blind computing infrastructure, capable of providing private data storage and computing capabilities for AI agents, data markets, private DeFi, healthcare analytics, and more.
AI Data Collection Company Sapien Completes $10.5 Million Seed Round Financing, Led by Variant
AI data collection startup Sapien announced the completion of a $10.5 million seed round financing, led by venture capital firm Variant, with participation from Primitive Ventures, Animoca, Yield Game Guild, and HF0. Angel investors including YGG founder Gabby Dizon and SoftBank Vision Fund alumnus Kevin Jiang also participated in this round of financing. Sapien is led by Rowan Stone, co-founder of Coinbase Layer 2 network Base, and Trevor Koverko, founder of Polymath, incentivizing global data providers through USDC stablecoins or reward points. Users must stake funds to participate in work, and those who perform well can receive additional rewards, while any cheating behavior will result in the forfeiture of the stake. Sapien currently provides data support for 17 large enterprises, including Alibaba and Baidu, and has attracted over 100,000 AI data annotators to join.
Important Data
Bitcoin's Total Network Hash Rate Briefly Surpasses 800 EH/s, Setting a New All-Time High
Cloverpool data shows that Bitcoin's total network hash rate briefly surpassed 800 EH/s, reaching a peak of 803.75 EH/s, setting a new all-time high. The current total network hash rate for Bitcoin is 749.52 EH/s.
According to a report from the Korea Daily, a report from the South Korean Financial Services Commission shows that in the first half of 2024, the number of cryptocurrency investors in the country reached 7.78 million, a 21% increase from 6.45 million in the second half of 2023. During the same period, the average daily trading volume of cryptocurrencies grew by 67%, increasing from 3.6 trillion won to 6 trillion won. Additionally, the total market capitalization of cryptocurrencies in the country grew by 27%, reaching 55.3 trillion won. The profits of 21 local cryptocurrency exchanges also surged by 106%, reaching 590 billion won.
免责声明：本文章仅代表作者个人观点，不代表本平台的立场和观点。本文章仅供信息分享，不构成对任何人的任何投资建议。用户与作者之间的任何争议，与本平台无关。如网页中刊载的文章或图片涉及侵权，请提供相关的权利证明和身份证明发送邮件到support@aicoin.com，本平台相关工作人员将会进行核查。
