Today's News Highlights:
McDonald's Partners with NFT Brand Doodles to Launch Co-branded Coffee Cups Nationwide
Hong Kong Stock Exchange Officially Launches Virtual Asset Index Series
Goldman Sachs Discloses Bitcoin Spot ETF Holdings Valued Over $710 Million as of the End of Q3
Tether Launches Asset Tokenization Platform "Hadron by Tether"
Franklin Templeton Expands Its Money Market Fund FOBXX to the Ethereum Blockchain
A Bitcoin Whale Activates After 14.3 Years of Dormancy and Transfers 2,000 BTC
Regulation & Policy
Foreign Media: Gary Gensler's Statement Suggests He May Leave the SEC
According to Bitcoin Magazine, Gary Gensler made a statement suggesting he might leave the SEC. In two excerpts from Gensler's statement, he wrote: "Before I close, I want to talk about the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) and its staff." "I am honored to work day in and day out with my colleagues at the SEC to protect American families on the financial highway."
In this statement, Gary Gensler outlined how he believes the SEC should effectively regulate the crypto industry: "First, parties issuing or selling securities to the public need to register and provide appropriate disclosures to the public; second, intermediaries need to register and be appropriately regulated regarding conflicts, disclosures, and business conduct." He stated: "Before I joined the Commission, many applications for Bitcoin ETFs and ETPs had been rejected or withdrawn by SEC staff. Shortly after I joined in 2021, the first Bitcoin futures ETF became effective after negotiations with SEC staff. Earlier this year, the Commission approved ETPs for physical Bitcoin and Ethereum. Subsequently, compared to the non-compliant crypto asset market, investors in these products benefited from disclosures, oversight, lower fees, and more intense competition. Everything we do is to ensure compliance with the law."
Previously, news reported that Gensler Lobbied for Final Regulations on the U.S. Crypto Industry.
EU Regulators Set Guidelines for Restrictive Measures for Cryptocurrency Providers
According to Cointelegraph, the European Banking Authority (EBA) released new guidelines on November 14 for payment service providers (PSPs) and crypto asset service providers (CASPs), clarifying that these institutions must comply with the EU and member states' restrictive measures when transferring funds. The EBA noted that these guidelines will help financial institutions effectively implement restrictive measures within governance and risk management frameworks to avoid operational and legal risks.
The EBA emphasized that if financial institutions have gaps in their controls, internal policies, and procedures, it could lead to legal and reputational risks and undermine the effectiveness of EU restrictive measures, potentially impacting the stability of the EU financial system. The new guidelines require PSPs and CASPs to use reliable screening systems to prevent users or entities from circumventing restrictive measures. These guidelines will take effect on December 30, 2025.
Upbit Faces Fines of Up to $71,500 for Each KYC Violation
According to Aggr News, South Korea's leading crypto exchange Upbit is under scrutiny for allegedly violating KYC (Know Your Customer) requirements. During its license renewal period, reports indicated that Upbit accepted vague identification documents as verification materials, which could result in fines of up to $71,500 for each violation.
According to Fox Business reporter Eleanor Terrett, 18 states in the U.S. have filed a lawsuit against the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) and its commissioners, accusing them of unconstitutional overreach and unfair "persecution" of the crypto industry under SEC Chairman Gary Gensler's leadership. The lawsuit, signed by 18 Republican state attorneys general, details how the agency has engaged in "severe government overreach" through enforcement actions against the $3 trillion industry, infringing on states' rights to regulate their economies. The 18 Republican state attorneys general are asking the court to declare that "digital asset trading is not an investment contract" and to issue an order preventing the SEC from bringing future charges against "digital asset platforms that fail to register as exchanges, dealers, brokers, or clearing agencies." According to the complaint, many states have already established their own regulatory frameworks for the crypto industry and encouraged its development.
According to Nebraska Attorney General Mike Hilgers, Nebraska and Kentucky are jointly leading a coalition of 18 states challenging the Biden and Harris administration's illegal and broad regulation of cryptocurrencies. In a lawsuit filed in the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Kentucky, state attorneys general and other parties are suing the SEC for exceeding its authority. Despite the SEC and its chairman previously taking actions and making public statements, the agency has launched a regulatory offensive against crypto companies. The SEC has exceeded the authority granted by Congress, attempting to classify cryptocurrencies as investment contracts to bring them under SEC regulation. In addition to Nebraska and Kentucky, the participating states include Arkansas, Indiana, Iowa, Kansas, Louisiana, Mississippi, Missouri, Montana, Ohio, Oklahoma, South Carolina, Tennessee, Texas, Utah, and West Virginia.
According to Fox reporter Eleanor Terrett, the Pennsylvania House of Representatives submitted a legislative proposal today allowing the state to include Bitcoin (BTC) as a reserve asset on its balance sheet.
According to The Block, Ilya Lichtenstein was sentenced to five years in prison for his involvement in the 2016 Bitfinex exchange hack and money laundering activities. The sentence was based on Lichtenstein's cooperation with investigators, and the prosecution recommended a reduced sentence. Lichtenstein and his wife Heather Morgan conspired to launder the stolen approximately 120,000 Bitcoins, which were once valued at $72 million and have now reached $10.7 billion, using crypto mixers, layered transactions, and the dark web. Lichtenstein and Morgan pleaded guilty to related money laundering charges in August 2023. Morgan's sentencing is scheduled for November 18, with the prosecution recommending an 18-month sentence.
According to official news, the Hong Kong Monetary Authority urges citizens to be vigilant and cautious of certain overseas crypto asset institutions that are not licensed banks in Hong Kong. They claim to be "banks" in Hong Kong or use the term "bank" when describing their products or services. Such actions may violate the Banking Ordinance. The Monetary Authority noted that two overseas crypto asset institutions, which are not licensed banks in Hong Kong, held activities in Hong Kong, during which one was reported to have referred to itself as a "bank," while the other described its card products as "bank cards" on its website. The Monetary Authority is concerned that the statements of these institutions may lead consumers to mistakenly believe they are licensed banks in Hong Kong and regulated by the Monetary Authority, or that such products and services are provided by licensed banks in Hong Kong. The Monetary Authority reminds citizens that crypto asset institutions not recognized in Hong Kong are not regulated by the Monetary Authority. Overseas crypto asset institutions that include the term "bank" in their name or overseas "crypto banks" claiming to have obtained licenses elsewhere do not necessarily mean they are licensed banks in Hong Kong. Additionally, products or services with the term "bank" in their name are not necessarily provided by licensed banks in Hong Kong.
NFT & Metaverse
Meta Fined Nearly €800 Million for Violating EU Antitrust Rules
According to Jinshi, Meta Platforms (META.O) has been fined nearly €800 million for violating EU antitrust rules. Meta Platforms (META.O) plans to appeal the fine imposed by the EU.
McDonald's Partners with NFT Brand Doodles to Launch Co-branded Coffee Cups Nationwide
Fast food giant McDonald's has partnered with NFT brand Doodles to launch a co-branded coffee and collectibles series on November 18, including limited edition Doodles cups. U.S. customers can participate at 13,500 McDonald's locations nationwide.
Project Updates
According to PR Newswire, U.S. battery materials supplier Solidion Technolog (stock code: STI) has announced the implementation of a Bitcoin corporate finance strategy, planning to allocate its excess cash reserves to Bitcoin. The company stated it plans to use 60% of the excess cash generated from operations to purchase Bitcoin and will convert cash interest income held in its money market accounts into Bitcoin. It also committed to raising funds in the future to acquire more Bitcoin, expecting to designate a certain percentage of funds for long-term Bitcoin acquisitions.
Michael Saylor: Bitcoin Will Not Retrace to $60,000, No Threats in the Short Term
According to Cointelegraph, MicroStrategy founder Michael Saylor has ruled out the possibility of Bitcoin retracing to $60,000, a critical price point for much of 2024. In an interview with CNBC on November 14, Saylor stated, "I don't think it will drop to $60,000 or $30,000; I think it will continue to rise from its current price." He noted that Trump's victory "clearly" determined the future of cryptocurrencies and Bitcoin in the U.S., adding, "I really don't see any threats in the short term." Saylor mentioned, "I am planning a celebration party for Bitcoin reaching the $100,000 target, which I think might be held at my home on New Year's Eve, so I would be surprised if Bitcoin doesn't break $100,000 in November or December." Saylor also commented on speculation that SEC Chairman Gary Gensler might resign after Trump takes office next year, stating that whoever takes over will play a "critical role" in the cryptocurrency industry.
Former NFL Player Russell Okung's New Football League Aims to Pay Players in Bitcoin
According to Decrypt, retired NFL Carolina Panthers player Russell Okung announced on Thursday that he hopes to ensure that his newly established flag football league, Bitball, can pay its players in Bitcoin. Okung revealed in an interview that he envisions a league where players can earn Bitcoin, fans can have real stakes, and the community can accumulate wealth. Okung added, "There are no more middlemen taking cuts or backroom deals; now, it's pure sports and pure Bitcoin, which means pure opportunity. That's what I'm building—a new league." According to Okung, the idea for Bitball came after he left the NFL when he tried to convince league owners of the benefits of Bitcoin but was unsuccessful. In December 2020, when Okung announced he would convert half of his $13 million salary (about $6.5 million) into Bitcoin, he made headlines. He still holds all the Bitcoin he has never sold and continues to accumulate, which he confirmed to the media. Although Okung did not disclose how much Bitcoin he currently owns, the 240 Bitcoins he received in 2020 are now worth about $21 million.
As U.S. Election Fever Wanes, Users Leave X for Bluesky
According to Jinshi, the number of users on the decentralized social media platform Bluesky has surged as users flee X following Trump's election as the next U.S. president, and the upcoming changes to the terms of service may complicate the legal challenges facing the platform. Bluesky announced on Thursday that it gained about 2.5 million new users in the past week, bringing the total user count to over 16 million. According to data from analytics firm SimilarWeb, after the news of Trump's presidential election victory broke, X's traffic in the U.S. reached 46.5 million visits on November 6, the highest of any day in the past year and 38% higher than the daily visits in recent months. However, over 115,000 U.S. users deactivated their X accounts, the highest since Musk's acquisition of the platform, while Bluesky attracted about 1.2 million visitors on November 6, surpassing Meta's Threads platform, which had 950,000.
Movement Labs Co-founder: Movement Mainnet is Coming Soon
Rushi Manche, co-founder of Movement Labs, posted on X that the Movement mainnet is coming soon.
Italy's Intesa Sanpaolo Bank Expands Cryptocurrency Trading Desk to Include Spot Trading
According to Bloomberg, Italy's Intesa Sanpaolo SpA is expanding the scope of its digital assets division to handle spot trading of cryptocurrencies, marking the latest move by a traditional bank to delve into new markets. According to insiders, Italy's largest bank established a proprietary cryptocurrency trading desk within its corporate and investment banking division in 2023. Since then, the desk has only traded cryptocurrency options, futures, and exchange-traded funds. Although spot trading has not yet launched, the trading desk received the necessary internal approvals and technical systems about a month ago. Cassie Craddock, Managing Director of Ripple UK and Europe, confirmed that Intesa Sanpaolo is collaborating with Ripple Custody (formerly Metaco) to build custody functions for any type of tokenized asset.
Hong Kong Stock Exchange Officially Launches Virtual Asset Index Series
According to information from the Hong Kong Stock Exchange's official website, the virtual asset index has been launched, with the current Hong Kong Stock Exchange Bitcoin reference index at 87,984.14, the Bitcoin reference exchange rate index at 89,996.74, the Ethereum reference index at 3,063.82, and the Ethereum reference exchange rate index at 3,198.29. The reference exchange rate is calculated at 4 PM Hong Kong time, averaging the index values every five minutes during the hour before the end of the corresponding real-time reference index (i.e., from 3 PM to 4 PM Hong Kong time).
BlackRock CEO: Tokenization of Financial Assets Will Be the Next Step in Future Development
According to Cointelegraph, Larry Fink, CEO of the world's largest asset management company BlackRock, stated, "The tokenization of financial assets will be the next step in future development." He pointed out that in the future, every stock and bond will have a unique identifier (similar to CUSIP), and all transactions will be recorded on a unified ledger, with investors receiving exclusive identification. Fink stated that tokenization can effectively prevent illegal activities and, more importantly, enable instant settlement, significantly reducing the settlement costs of stocks and bonds. Additionally, tokenization will bring the possibility of personalized investment strategies and improve corporate governance efficiency, ensuring that every shareholder can exercise their voting rights in a timely and accurate manner. Tokenizing real-world assets such as real estate, commodities, wine, or art means creating blockchain tokens that represent ownership, making it easier to trade these traditionally hard-to-sell assets.
Goldman Sachs Discloses Bitcoin Spot ETF Holdings Valued Over $710 Million as of the End of Q3
According to the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) website, Goldman Sachs submitted a 13F filing disclosing that as of September 30, its Bitcoin spot ETF holdings were valued at over $710 million. This includes: $461 million in IBIT (12,769,510 shares, an increase of 83% from the last filing in August); $95.5 million in FBTC (1,720,291 shares, a 13% increase from the last filing); $71.8 million in GBTC (1,423,069 shares, a 116% increase from the last filing); $59.7 million in BTCO (940,443 shares, unchanged from the last filing); and $22.5 million in BITB (650,961 shares, a 156% increase from the last filing).
NYSE Arca Applies to List Bitwise's Crypto Index Fund BITW as an ETP
According to official news, asset management company Bitwise has announced that the New York Stock Exchange Arca has submitted a 19b-4 form to apply for the listing of the Bitwise 10 Crypto Index Fund (BITW) as an ETP. This application is the latest effort by Bitwise to convert its publicly traded trust valued at $1.3 billion into an ETP structure. BITW shares are currently traded on the OTCQX Best Market. According to Bitwise, the ETP structure offers numerous benefits to shareholders, including greater efficiency and regulatory protection. Notably, ETPs continuously accept subscriptions and redemptions at net asset value (NAV), creating an arbitrage mechanism that allows the fund to trade on the secondary market in a manner more closely related to its NAV. The Bitwise 10 Crypto Index Fund holds the 10 largest cryptocurrency assets ranked and weighted by market capitalization. As of October 31, 2024, the fund holds the following assets: Bitcoin (75.1%), Ethereum (16.5%), Solana (4.3%), XRP (1.6%), Cardano (0.7%), Avalanche (0.6%), Bitcoin Cash (0.4%), Chainlink (0.4%), Uniswap (0.3%), Polkadot (0.3%).
Tether Launches Asset Tokenization Platform "Hadron by Tether"
According to the official blog, Tether has announced the launch of the asset tokenization platform Hadron by Tether, which simplifies the process of converting various assets into digital tokens. The platform allows users to easily tokenize stocks, bonds, commodities, funds, and reward points. This opens up new opportunities for individuals and businesses to raise funds using tokenized collateral. The platform offers a range of tools, including asset issuance and destruction, KYC compliance, blockchain reporting, capital market management, and regulatory guidance.
Web3 Infrastructure Platform Caldera Acquires Hook Team
According to The Block, the Web3 infrastructure platform Caldera, backed by Founders Fund, has acquired the Hook team to jointly develop the Ethereum Rollup infrastructure platform Metalayer. The acquisition amount was not disclosed, following Caldera's completion of a $15 million Series A funding round in July. The Hook team originally developed the Hook Odyssey protocol, which focused on the perpetual futures market for meme coins and NFTs, built on the Arbitrum Orbit framework, but the protocol has been discontinued to allow the team to focus on the development of Metalayer. Caldera is a Rollup-as-a-Service platform that has assisted over 50 projects in creating application-specific chains, including Manta Pacific, Injective, and ApeChain. The Metalayer platform aims to optimize the development experience of multiple Rollup applications and enhance the synergy between Optimistic and ZK Rollup frameworks to unify Ethereum's scaling ecosystem.
Franklin Templeton Expands Its Money Market Fund FOBXX to Ethereum Blockchain
According to CoinDesk, Franklin Templeton has expanded its U.S. government money market fund (FOBXX) to trade on the Ethereum blockchain. Launched in 2021, FOBXX is the first money market fund to use a public blockchain for trading and ownership tracking, currently valued at $410 million, making it the third-largest tokenized money market fund. This year, the fund has added support for multiple blockchains, including Base, Aptos, and Avalanche, with Ethereum being the latest addition. Ethereum is the preferred blockchain for issuing tokenized traditional assets, currently managing $1.6 billion in assets. Franklin Templeton uses Stellar as its primary public blockchain, while BlackRock and Ondo are the top two tokenized funds by market capitalization.
Trump Family Crypto Project WLFI to Adopt Chainlink Standards to Accelerate DeFi Adoption
The Trump family crypto project WLFI has announced that it will adopt Chainlink standards for on-chain data and cross-chain connectivity, serving as a secure way to bring DeFi into large-scale adoption.
Binance to Launch DEGENUSDT Perpetual Contract
Binance's contract platform will launch the DEGENUSDT perpetual contract on November 15, 2024, at 19:30 (UTC+8), with a maximum leverage of up to 75 times.
Financing News
Stablecoin Startup BVNK Seeks to Raise at Least $50 Million in New Funding Round
According to Bloomberg, sources revealed that stablecoin startup BVNK, backed by Tiger Global Management LLC, is in talks with potential backers to raise at least $50 million. The scale of the funding and BVNK's valuation may change in the early stages of negotiations. Previously, fintech giant Stripe announced in October that it would acquire stablecoin startup Bridge for $1.1 billion, sparking interest in the industry. Sources indicated that investors have shown strong interest in BVNK's funding as well as in stablecoin payment startups overall.
Important Data
Yesterday, U.S. Spot Bitcoin ETF Trading Volume Exceeded $5 Billion
Government Address of Bhutan Deposits 367.26 BTC to Binance, Worth $33.51 Million
According to Onchain Lens monitoring, the government of the Kingdom of Bhutan has just deposited 367.26 BTC to Binance, worth $33.51 million.
A Bitcoin Whale Activated After 14.3 Years of Dormancy and Transferred 2,000 BTC
According to Onchain Lens monitoring, a Bitcoin whale that had been dormant for 14.3 years was activated this morning. This miner accumulated 2,000 BTC when Bitcoin was only worth $0.067. After so many years of holding, this wallet finally took action, transferring the BTC to a new wallet, which was then dispersed into 50 different wallets. The total value of these BTC is now $176.2 million.
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