Evening News | Cryptocurrency exchange Hotbit announces suspension of deposit, withdrawal, and trading functions; Conflux plans to change PoW mining algorithm to Ethash
LongHash Ventures has launched a new $100 million fund for Web3.Organizer: Runsheng, Chain Catcher
"What Important Events Happened in the Last 24 Hours"
1. The Sandbox will unlock approximately 370 million SAND on August 13, accounting for about 12% of the total supply
According to TokenUnlocks data, The Sandbox's SAND tokens will unlock 372,715,715 tokens at 16:00 Beijing time on August 13, accounting for 12.424% of the total supply (3 billion tokens).
Among them, 83,785,715 tokens will be unlocked from the company reserve, 50,400,000 tokens from advisors, 71,250,000 tokens from the team, 40,200,000 tokens from the foundation, 24,000,000 tokens from strategic sales, and 103,080,000 tokens from seed round sales. (TokenUnlocks)
2. Conflux initiates community proposal CIP-102 to change its PoW mining algorithm to Ethash
The public chain Conflux launched community proposal CIP-102 on August 10, planning to change its PoW mining algorithm to Ethash to make it easier for Ethereum miners to switch their computing power to Conflux. (Source link)
3. LongHash Ventures will launch a second fund of $100 million to invest in Web3 infrastructure
According to TechCrunch, LongHash Ventures CEO Emma Cui announced the launch of a second fund of $100 million to support Web3 infrastructure. Cui stated that LongHash Ventures is still raising funds and plans to raise $100 million for its Fund II by the end of this year, investing in Web3 infrastructure projects from Pre-Seed to Series A, covering sectors such as DeFi, NFT, GameFi, and the metaverse.
It is reported that LongHash Ventures has invested in over 60 crypto projects to date, including Polkadot, Astar, Acala, and Balancer. (Source link)
4. SBF: Voyager has used $70 million of the credit line provided by Alameda
According to Decrypt, FTX founder SBF stated that Voyager has used $70 million of the credit line provided by Alameda so far.
Previously, Chain Catcher reported on June 18 that crypto broker Voyager Digital signed a $200 million cash/USDC-based credit line and a revolving credit line of 15,000 bitcoins, with the funds intended to protect customer assets and used only when necessary. The credit line will expire on December 31, 2024, with an annual interest rate of 5% due at maturity. (Source link)
5. Vitalik: Ethereum's PoS merger could reduce Gas fees to $0.002
According to Blockworks, Ethereum founder Vitalik Buterin stated that after Ethereum's PoS merger combined with Rollup, Gas fees could drop to as low as $0.002 - $0.05. Vitalik previously mentioned that the cost of sending ETH and swapping tokens needs to be below $0.05 to be truly accepted. (Source link)
6. U.S. regulators propose requiring large hedge funds to report their cryptocurrency risk exposure via PF forms
According to The Wall Street Journal, a joint proposal released by the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) and the Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC) on Wednesday requires large hedge funds to report their cryptocurrency risk exposure through a confidential document called the PF form.
Under the proposal, hedge funds with over $500 million in net assets must provide more information about their investment risks, portfolio concentration, and borrowing arrangements. The PF form was created after the 2008 financial crisis to help regulators identify bubbles and other potential stability risks in the opaque private fund network.
Cryptocurrency data may be added to hedge funds' reporting requirements, reflecting regulators' concerns that extreme volatility in cryptocurrencies could ultimately affect the prices of other assets, especially if more traditional financial institutions begin investing in cryptocurrencies. (Source link)
7. Crypto trading platform Hotbit announces suspension of deposit, withdrawal, and trading functions; law enforcement has frozen some of Hotbit's funds
Crypto trading platform Hotbit announced the suspension of deposit, withdrawal, and trading functions, with no specific timeline for restoration. The reason is that former Hotbit management participated in a project last year that law enforcement now believes may have violated criminal law. Since the end of July, several senior Hotbit executives have been summoned by law enforcement and are assisting in the investigation.
Additionally, law enforcement has frozen some of Hotbit's funds, preventing Hotbit from operating normally. Hotbit stated that all user assets on Hotbit are safe and will resume normal services immediately after the assets are unfrozen. Hotbit is working to continue cooperating with and following up on the progress of the law enforcement investigation and will announce the investigation results as soon as possible. (Source link)
"What Interesting Articles Are Worth Reading in the Last 24 Hours"
On August 8, the U.S. Treasury's Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC) added Ethereum addresses associated with Tornado Cash to the list of sanctioned entities. This is the first time the U.S. government has sanctioned a smart contract application, raising philosophical debates about online privacy, but the more immediate impact concerns the resilience of the Ethereum decentralized finance ecosystem.
The author of this article believes that the effects of OFAC sanctions are evident, particularly as they can be applied to DeFi protocols, but the larger issue lies in the potential problems within the DeFi system, which is centered around stablecoins backed by centralized fiat currencies. The Tornado Cash incident has truly highlighted this longstanding issue.
2. "Interview with Matters Founder: Web3 Will Open a Brighter Era for Creators"
This article features a conversation between the podcast Web3 Revolution and Matters founder Zhang Jieping, discussing whether "Web3 can grow alongside the Chinese creator economy." Zhang Jieping, a seasoned media professional, is dedicated to building a Chinese content ecosystem. In this dialogue, based on her experience with Matters, she shares her understanding of Web3 and content creation. She states that the property rights revolution will not happen in a short time, but Web3 will become an important complementary scenario to Web2. She expresses uncertainty about reaching the end goal but believes that this direction is correct.
3. "Confronting OpenSea: The Growth Journey of Crypto Unicorn Magic Eden"
Magic Eden has impressive achievements, being the fastest-growing project in the Web3 space over the past year, going from zero to one in nine months; it has attracted investment from star capitals like Sequoia, Paradigm, and Lightspeed; it holds over 90% market share in the Solana ecosystem and is now directly competing with the dominant player OpenSea, aiming to become the largest, safest, and most liquid NFT marketplace in the crypto world with low fees.
However, behind the glamour, there are untold struggles. This article details the opportunities and challenges Magic Eden has faced in less than a year of development.
4. "A Turning Point in Crypto Finance: USDCs are Backfiring on DeFi"
While the Ethereum testnet announced the successful merger, the crypto world also faced another historical turning point: due to the issuer Circle freezing access to funds in certain USDC addresses, mainstream DEX protocol dYdX experienced user account restrictions, passively following the Tornado Cash sanctions.
The author expresses concern that as more "decentralized protocols" passively follow sanctions, we may find that the foundational pillars that once supported the entire decentralized world are now being used as regulatory tools, becoming a lethal weapon against the industry. Is there still decentralization in the industry? How strong is crypto's ability to resist censorship and regulation? What is the future path for privacy in the crypto world?
