Evening News | Zhao Changpeng claims Binance has over 120 million users; OpenSea announces 20% layoffs

Organizer: Cookies, Chain Catcher

"What important events have occurred in the past 24 hours?"

1. Zhao Changpeng releases a five-year open letter: User base exceeds 120 million, hopes to become the gateway to Web3

Binance founder Zhao Changpeng recently released a five-year open letter, stating that Binance has become an ecosystem serving over 120 million users and hopes to become the gateway to Web3, as well as a toolkit for billions of people to take their first step into this new world.

In terms of specific products, Binance Card has issued over 1.7 million cards in two years, Binance Pay has a total transaction volume exceeding $12 billion, involving 17 million transactions, over 7,000 merchants, and millions of users; Binance NFT has over 600,000 weekly active users, with a total transaction volume of $1 billion for IGO; Binance Earn's active user count has grown to 4.9 million; Binance Labs has invested in and incubated over 200 projects globally. (Source link)

2. OpenSea announces 20% layoffs to maintain normal operations for at least five years during the bear market

OpenSea co-founder and CEO Devin Finzer announced on Thursday that OpenSea will lay off about 20% of its staff, stating that they will provide "generous severance packages, full medical insurance for 2023, and accelerated vesting of equity" for the affected employees.

Devin stated, "Everyone who leaves has played a key role in OpenSea's journey. The reality is that we have entered an unprecedented crypto winter and macroeconomic instability, and the company needs to prepare for the possibility of a prolonged downturn." He mentioned that this round of layoffs would allow OpenSea to maintain normal operations for five years during the crypto bear market.

Previously, OpenSea co-founder Alex Atallah announced he would be leaving the company on July 30. (Source link)

3. Circle publishes reserve asset details: Holds $55.7 billion in cash and treasury reserves

Circle has published a complete monthly breakdown of USDC reserve assets as of June 30, 2022, in an official blog post. The unaudited monthly report shows that Circle currently holds $55.7 billion in cash and treasury reserves.

The reserves include $13.58 billion in cash, held at eight banks: Bank of New York Mellon, Citizens Trust Bank, Customers Bank, New York Community Bank, Signature Bank, Silicon Valley Bank, Silvergate Bank, and U.S. Bank.

Additionally, Circle disclosed that it holds $42.12 billion in three-month treasury bills, showing 19 bonds maturing between July 5 and September 29 of this year. (Source link)

4. DeFiance Capital issues statement claiming no association with Three Arrows Capital and operates independently

According to The Block, DeFiance Capital stated in a new announcement that it is an independent company from Three Arrows Capital. It had previously described itself as "a sub-fund and equity class of Three Arrows Capital." DeFiance Capital stated that its founder Arthur Cheong established the company in 2020, and it is completely separate from 3AC, which was founded by Kyle Davies and Zhu Su eight years later.

DeFiance also stated that the assets it manages were not raised from 3AC, its founders, or any affiliates. The company website now describes DeFiance Capital as being independent of Three Arrows Capital Pte and operates separately. (The Block)

5. Celo network experiences repeated outages for 24 hours, now restored

The Celo network experienced repeated outages lasting about 24 hours, marking the first such incident since its launch in April 2020. Celo announced on social media that the network was restored around 8:00 AM Beijing time today.

Celo stated that the network briefly resumed around 6:30 PM Beijing time yesterday but quickly halted block production again. Subsequently, Celo updated the validator node software to versions 1.5.7 and 1.5.8 on GitHub to resolve the issue, and once the nodes running version 1.5.8 reached the required number, the network officially resumed. Celo mentioned that it is currently conducting a technical analysis of the outage and will share detailed information. (cointelegraph)

6. Three Arrows liquidation firm Teneo applies for temporary relief and management rights over Three Arrows assets in Singapore

According to Coindesk, the liquidation consulting firm Teneo for Three Arrows Capital has hired WongPartnership LLP in Singapore to apply for temporary relief from the High Court, allowing Teneo to manage Three Arrows' assets in Singapore and summon co-founders Su Zhu and Kyle Davies.

It is reported that if Teneo's lawyers are successful, Teneo will be able to secure Three Arrows Capital's assets in Singapore for its creditors. It is currently unclear when the court will make a ruling. (Coindesk)

7. Hoo founder and employees blame each other, demanding the release of police report information

Regarding the issue of the Hoo crypto trading platform's domain being inaccessible, founder Wang Ruixi stated on social media that former Binance security head Fang Wenbin (online name: Top) privately deleted company systems using his position, preventing all company personnel from accessing the system, leading to a brief failure of the main domain. At the same time, Wang Ruixi stated that Fang Wenbin impersonated law enforcement without following legal procedures, stealing company information and assets, and should bear criminal responsibility to users and the company.

Fang Wenbin responded on social media that he has preserved all chat records from the Hoo office system as evidence according to criminal investigation requirements, and claimed that Wang Ruixi has transferred most of the assets out of the platform, making it impossible for employees and platform users to withdraw funds, with many people currently seeking to protect their rights. He stated that the platform's domain has nothing to do with the office system.

Wang Ruixi responded: "Please release the police report information, not under the guise of public security. Which economic investigation? Name? Badge number? Case filing information, etc."

Previously, there were rumors in the community that the Hoo platform was experiencing withdrawal difficulties, and the platform was suspected of facing a liquidity crisis. (Source link)

"What are some interesting articles worth reading in the past 24 hours?"

1. "Vitalik Buterin: My Views on Network States"

Balaji Srinivasan describes his vision of "network states" in his new book, which can be seen as an attempt to succeed the liberal ideology: Balaji repeatedly praises sovereign individuals as important readings and inspirations, but also deviates from its ideas in key aspects. Do network states really provide sufficiently exciting benefits? Regardless of the merits of network states, does it really make sense to link this idea with blockchain and cryptocurrency? On the other hand, does this worldview miss something crucial? In this article, Vitalik Buterin will discuss his understanding of network states.

2. "Global Web3 Ecosystem Innovation Observation Report"

This article compiles reports such as Messari's Crypto Theses for 2022, a16z's State of Crypto 2022, and McKinsey's "Value Creation in the Metaverse." It is a comprehensive report observing the industry from a Web3 perspective, starting from the ideas of Web3, which can be traced back to the early thoughts when the internet first emerged in the last century. It then covers the infrastructure at the technical level and current mainstream applications, as well as the hottest development areas in Web3, such as DeFi, NFTs, blockchain games, and DAOs.