Evening News | zkSync will release the token economic model announcement in early November; Hong Kong regulators are considering allowing retail investors to directly invest in crypto assets

整理：flowie，ChainCatcher

"What Important Events Happened in the Last 24 Hours"

1. zkSync to Release Token Economic Model Announcement in Early November

Steve Newcomb, Chief Product Officer of zkSync developer Matter Labs, stated in a Twitter Spaces discussion that zkSync will announce the details of its token economic model in the first week of November.

Additionally, previous reports about zkSync launching a token airdrop in November were rumors. (TheBlock)

2. Hong Kong Regulators Considering Allowing Retail Investors to Directly Invest in Crypto Assets

Elizabeth Wong, the licensing director and head of the fintech department at the Hong Kong Securities and Futures Commission (SFC), confirmed that regulators are considering allowing retail investors to directly invest in crypto assets. Elizabeth Wong stated that Hong Kong's crypto regulatory environment is different from that of the mainland, emphasizing that Hong Kong can introduce its own legislation to regulate cryptocurrencies. (Source Link)

3. Sun Yuchen: Rumors of "Cash Out" Are False; Transactions with USDC Circle Are Just Internal Fund Management

Sun Yuchen responded to recent rumors about "transferring 2.36 billion USDC to Circle for cashing out," stating: "The rumors of cashing out are false; the transactions with USDC Circle are merely internal fund management and allocation. The transfers involve a lot of duplicate calculations, and as the business continues to improve, the related fund management and allocation will increase, which is a good thing for the industry's development."
Previous reports indicated that, according to on-chain data, since the collapse of UST and LUNA on May 12, Sun Yuchen has transferred a total of 2.36 billion USDC to Circle from one address. (Source Link)

4. The Information: a16z's First Web3 Fund Has Partially Realized Gains, Yielding 300%

According to The Information, a16z's first crypto fund, established in 2018 with a size of $300 million, has realized some gains during last year's crypto bull market, returning three times the original size of the fund to LPs. The remaining portion of the fund has yet to be realized.

However, insiders revealed that theoretically, the fund's returns could reach up to 10 times (although if the current crypto bear market continues to be sluggish, it may reduce the returns). (Source Link)

5. Aptos Ecosystem Wallet Petra's Mnemonic Vulnerability Has Been Fixed, New Version to Be Released

Aptos ecosystem wallet Petra announced that the Aptos Labs team discovered a bug on October 20, which was related to account creation within the existing wallet, causing the displayed mnemonic phrases to potentially be inaccurate. The process to access the correct 12 mnemonic phrases is to set up, manage the account, enter the password, and then click to display the key recovery phrase. Petra stated that the bug has been fixed, and a new version will soon be released to the Google App Store. (Source Link)

6. Elon Musk Plans to Lay Off 75% of Twitter Staff in the Coming Months

According to the Washington Post, interviews and documents indicate that Twitter may undergo significant layoffs in the coming months. Insiders stated that Elon Musk told potential investors during the acquisition of Twitter that he plans to lay off nearly 75% of Twitter's 7,500 employees. In a Q&A with Twitter employees in June, Elon Musk mentioned the need to "streamline the workforce." Additionally, Twitter's management plans to cut its payroll expenses by $800 million by the end of 2023, which means nearly a quarter of the staff will be laid off. (Source Link)

7. Bitcoin Group Evaluating Acquisition of 268-Year-Old German Bank Bankhaus von der Heydt

According to Bloomberg, citing sources, German digital asset investment company Bitcoin Group SE is evaluating multiple acquisition targets, including the 268-year-old German bank Bankhaus von der Heydt, which has encountered difficulties in entering the cryptocurrency and digital asset space. Bankhaus von der Heydt is currently in talks with potential buyers. (Source Link)

8. Animoca Brands Co-Founder Yat Siu: Meta's $10 Billion Annual Investment in the Metaverse Is Insufficient

Animoca Brands co-founder Yat Siu shared his views on the metaverse and Meta in an interview with TechCrunch. Yat Siu believes that Meta's plan to invest $10 billion annually in the metaverse is not enough to ensure its success.
Yat Siu stated, "Billions of dollars are being traded in the open Metaverse space (especially considering alternative tokens), and most of the value belongs to the end users. If users have to give half of it to the platform, why would they trade on platforms like Meta, regardless of how visually appealing they are? Therefore, Meta will have to spend more to incentivize users to join its platform." (Source Link)

"What Are the Noteworthy Articles to Read in the Last 24 Hours"

1. “Messari: The Development History and Common Dilemmas of Social Tokens”

New token distribution mechanisms that attract retail investors can catalyze a bull market, and social tokens are such a distribution mechanism.

Currently, few projects can effectively capture the attention of the mainstream audience. Tokens like FWB, WHALE, and ALEX have paved the way for this new vertical, but they have also learned some painful lessons along the way. If social tokens are to lead another bull market, the next generation of projects needs to improve upon the shortcomings of these pioneers in terms of discoverability, user experience, and overall utility to succeed.

2. “Aptos, Solana, and the New Public Chain Cycle”

Top institutions like a16z, Binance, and FTX are very optimistic about new public chains like Aptos. Could these public chains challenge Ethereum's dominance?

This article attempts to position Aptos's future development as the next Solana. Because of the constraints of the blockchain trilemma, new public chains always exhibit cyclical development. The last cycle saw new public chains led by Solana rise rapidly with an aggressive low-fee, high-speed model, but they may be gradually surpassed by new public chains like Aptos due to some inherent flaws. Meanwhile, the established public chain Ethereum has already built a strong moat in the multi-chain future.

3. **"Rollup Era's Account Abstraction Solutions: Layering Up"

Since the first practical account abstraction proposal was put forward in 2015, more than seven years have passed, and under the gradual advancement of ZK-Rollup, achieving true account abstraction functionality will still take a long time. Account abstraction, as a significant foundational feature planned alongside PoS, Layer 2, and DankSharding, will see broader usage after the realization of PoS and ZK-rollup-based Layer 2.

With more and more Rollup-compatible account abstraction solutions emerging, it may not be long before we can discard mnemonic phrases and truly achieve a Web2-level user experience, along with the security and privacy features of Web3.