Chain Catcher Weekly | The U.S. Treasury includes crypto assets in sanctions guidance against Russia; The city of Lugano, Switzerland announces Bitcoin and USDT as legal tender
Important industry news not to be missed every week.Organized by: Linqi, Hu Tao, Chain Catcher
1. U.S. Treasury Department Officially Includes Crypto Assets in Russian Sanctions Guidance
The U.S. Treasury Department released the latest Russian sanctions guidance, prohibiting any support to certain Russian oligarchs and entities from accounts in the U.S. Specifically, transactions or dealings that evade U.S. sanctions for the benefit of the Russian government or interests, including those involving digital currencies or assets, will result in the freezing of all property and property interests owned or controlled by any U.S. person, whether currently or in the future, within the U.S. These regulations took effect on March 1.
Additionally, U.S. Treasury officials have requested Binance, FTX, and Coinbase to ban sanctioned account addresses. Notably, Binance and FTX are not headquartered in the U.S. (Coindesk)
2. Ukrainian Deputy Prime Minister: Decision to Cancel Airdrop, Will Launch NFTs
Ukrainian Deputy Prime Minister Mykhailo Fedorov announced on Twitter that after careful consideration, the decision was made to cancel the airdrop, and there are currently no plans to issue alternative tokens, but NFTs will be announced soon to support Ukraine.
According to Dune Analytics, the Ukrainian crypto fund raised $50 million in cryptocurrency within a week. (Source link)
3. OpenSea Confirms Blocking Users Based on U.S. Sanctions List, Community Questions Decentralization of Large Blockchain Companies
Chain Catcher reports that the NFT marketplace OpenSea has blocked Iranian users, with a spokesperson stating that OpenSea's terms of service explicitly prohibit sanctioned users or users from sanctioned regions from using OpenSea's services. They have a zero-tolerance policy for sanctioned individuals or entities and personnel located in sanctioned countries using OpenSea's services. If OpenSea discovers an individual violating its sanctions policy, it will quickly take action to ban the relevant accounts.
According to U.S. sanctions regulations, U.S. companies are prohibited from providing goods or services to any users from sanctioned countries, including Iran, North Korea, Syria, and Russia. OpenSea is a U.S.-based company located in New York. These actions by OpenSea have sparked a new debate about whether large blockchain-based companies and services are sufficiently decentralized. (Cointelegraph)
4. Swiss City of Lugano Announces Bitcoin and USDT Will Become Legal Tender
During an event called "Lugano's Plan ₿," the mayor of Lugano, Switzerland, announced alongside Tether's CTO that Bitcoin, USDT, and the Swiss franc stablecoin LVGA will become legal tender in the city, allowing citizens to use these cryptocurrencies to pay for public services or taxes. Currently, the city has partnered with over 200 merchants to promote the adoption of Bitcoin and Lightning payments.
Additionally, the city plans to establish an investment fund to promote the adoption of Bitcoin, USDT, and LVGA, as well as provide funding sources for blockchain startups looking to relocate and establish headquarters or bring personnel to Switzerland. (Source link)
5. BlueFocus Subsidiary Plans to Invest in a16z's Blockchain Seed Fund, Contributing No More Than $35 Million
The well-known advertising and marketing company BlueFocus announced today that its subsidiary, BlueFocus Investment in the U.S., plans to invest no more than $35 million of its own funds to subscribe to the blockchain seed fund Phase I (CNK Seed Fund I, aiming to raise $750 million to $1 billion) and Phase IV (CNK IV, aiming to raise $3 billion to $3.5 billion) being raised by Andreessen Horowitz (a16z), becoming its limited partner, with a proposed fund duration of ten years.
The announcement also disclosed the fund's management model, with a management fee of 2.5% per year, decreasing by 0.25% each year during the 8th to 10th years. The additional return/performance compensation (Carry Interest) is 25% on the portion of net investment returns of 1-2 times, and 30% on the portion above 2 times. (Source link)
Mining machine manufacturer Canaan Creative officially released its Q4 2021 financial report, showing total revenue for the quarter was 2.1846 billion yuan (approximately $340 million), compared to 38.2 million yuan in the same period of 2020, representing a year-on-year increase of 5636%; net profit was 1.1965 billion yuan (approximately $187.8 million), while the net loss in the same period of 2020 was 72 million yuan.
As of December 31, 2021, the company's cash and cash equivalents were 2.6843 billion yuan (approximately $421.2 million), holding 70.5 Bitcoin, with a book value of 20.3 million yuan (approximately $3.2 million). Canaan expects total net revenue in Q1 2022 to be between 1.5 billion and 1.6 billion yuan, representing a year-on-year increase of 275%-300%. (Source link)
7. Offchain Labs Announces Launch of AnyTrust Chains to Optimize Gaming and NFT Experience
Ethereum scaling solution developer Offchain Labs announced the launch of AnyTrust Chains, which will run alongside Arbitrum One, with specific details and a roadmap to be announced in the future.
Offchain Labs stated that to have viable blockchain-based businesses, especially in the gaming sector, some applications need to further reduce costs or withdraw NFT assets more quickly, hence the introduction of AnyTrust Chains, which allows for lower costs and faster withdrawals in exchange for minimal additional trust assumptions. Compared to sidechains, the main advantage of AnyTrust is that it is built on Ethereum, requiring much less trust. (Source link)
8. Mask Network Releases 2022 Roadmap, Plans to Launch DID System Next.ID and Ecological Fund
Web 3.0 portal project Mask Network officially released its 2022 roadmap, planning to integrate Instagram, launch its self-developed DID system Next.ID, jointly initiate the Mask Network ecological fund with strategic investors, improve and further discover social graphs, and add more chain support to create public products that respect people's privacy, protect their data and funds, and restore freedom to typical internet users. (Source link)
9. Compound to Launch on Aztec's Privacy Rollup Network zk.money in Q2 This Year
Decentralized lending market Compound will launch on Ethereum Layer 2 privacy protocol Aztec's privacy Rollup network zk.money in Q2 this year, allowing users to deposit and borrow on Compound using Aztec Connect, saving over 95% in gas fees compared to the mainnet, and having privacy by default.
Currently, Aztec has initiated a proposal in the Compound governance forum to apply for a $100,000 grant to subsidize users' gas fees related to deposits and borrowing on Compound to kickstart the network effect of this integration. (Source link)
10. a16z Invests $70 Million in Decentralized Staking Solution Lido Finance
a16z announced an investment of $70 million in the decentralized staking solution Lido Finance and plans to use Lido to stake a16z Crypto's undisclosed portion of ETH held on the Ethereum Beacon Chain.
Lido Finance, established in 2020, provides liquid staking solutions for Ethereum 2.0 and public chains such as Solana and Terra, allowing users to stake their ETH, SOL, and other tokens without lock-up or minimum deposit requirements. Lido completed a $73 million funding round led by Paradigm in May 2021, with participation from Three Arrows Capital, Alameda Research, DCG, and others. (Source link)
11. Crypto Financial Services Firm Blofin Completes $50 Million Series B Financing, Led by KuCoin
Crypto financial services firm Blofin has completed a $50 million Series B financing, led by KuCoin, with participation from SIG and Matrix Partners. Blofin provides asset management, trading execution, and other services for overseas compliant institutions and clients, and has obtained a U.S. federal MSB license, completed compliance fund registration with the Cayman Islands Monetary Authority, and is applying for relevant licenses in regions such as Hong Kong, Singapore, Canada, Switzerland, and Australia. (Source link)
12. Coinlist Announces 2022 Winter Batch Seed Projects, EthSign, Mesha Among the Selected
Coinlist announced on its official blog the 2022 winter batch seed projects, with a total of 7 projects selected from over 1,000 startups, including the Web 3 native protocol signing and execution platform EthSign, decentralized social investment platform Mesha, Web3 development tool Exorde Labs, P2E chess game Immortal Game, digital payment project Paychant, tokenized reward protocol Smoothie, and smart contract hosting platform t3rn. (Source link)
13. Zhao Changpeng: Unilateral Freezing of User Assets is Incorrect, We Do Not Have the Power to Do So
Binance founder Zhao Changpeng wrote about the international community's sanctions against Russia, stating that they will adopt the same sanction rules as banks based on international standards, but will not further sanction/freeze all Russian users' assets, "We believe we do not have the power to do so. Sanction decisions are made by the highest levels of government and supported by legislative bodies, law enforcement, and even military forces. We believe it is incorrect for a business or platform to unilaterally decide to freeze a large number of user assets."
Zhao also stated that Binance has closed approximately 20,000 accounts over the past three years because these accounts posed a high-risk type in terms of politically exposed persons (PEP) exposure or international sanction directives. "PEPs are intercepted at Binance before registration. Most newly sanctioned individuals are flagged as PEPs, so they are denied access to our platform long before they can trade, including agents, their lawyers, family members, etc." (Source link)
