Evening News | Azuki launches virtual city "Hilumia"; cryptocurrency market maker Cyber​​X raises $15 million in funding

整理：flowie，ChainCatcher

"What Important Events Happened in the Last 24 Hours"

1. Azuki Officially Launches Community-Built Virtual City "Hilumia"

Azuki announced on its official Twitter that it has officially launched the community-built virtual city "Hilumia." Azuki NFT holders or community participants can now participate in the exploration, which includes high-quality toy store Slowpoke's ToyHaven, design platform Ember Square, skateboard enthusiast community Golden SkatePark, and the opinion "collection box" Garden Express.

It is reported that Hilumia has not yet released an official roadmap, but the community believes that the project may be an immersive version of the Azuki Mindmap. (Source link)

2. Cryptocurrency Market Maker CyberX Completes $15 Million Series A Financing Led by Foresight Ventures
According to The Block, cryptocurrency market maker CyberX has completed $15 million in Series A financing, led by Foresight Ventures. Founder Zack Fan stated that the company's valuation has risen to "the range of hundreds of millions of dollars," and that there were no other investors involved in the deal, "although other investors were interested, the company ultimately chose a single investor." The funds will be used to improve its proprietary risk management framework, which monitors on-chain and off-chain data in real-time. (Source link)

3. Eight Media Outlets, Including Bloomberg and Reuters, Request Judge to Disclose Two Individuals Who Provided $250 Million Bail for SBF
Law firm Davis Wright Tremaine, representing eight major media companies including Bloomberg, Financial Times, Reuters, Associated Press, CNBC, Dow Jones, Washington Post, and Insider, wrote to the judge requesting the disclosure of the two individuals responsible for providing the $250 million bail for former FTX CEO Sam Bankman-Fried (SBF), stating that "the public's right to know the identity of SBF's guarantors outweighs the guarantors' rights to privacy and safety."
Earlier reports indicated that SBF requested the judge to keep the identities of the two individuals who would help him post bail confidential; SBF was released on $250 million bail in December last year. (Source link)

4. Crypto.com CEO: 20% Global Layoffs Planned

Crypto.com CEO Kris Marszalek stated on social media that Crypto.com will lay off about 20% of its global workforce. Kris Marszalek expressed, "I remain confident in the company's business and the future of cryptocurrency, but we have a lot of work to do to help restore trust in the industry." (Source link)

5. US SEC Charges Genesis and Gemini for Offering and Selling Unregistered Securities to Retail Investors
According to The Block, the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) has charged Genesis Global Capital and Gemini Trust Company for offering and selling unregistered securities to retail investors through a crypto lending program.

The SEC stated that Genesis entered into an agreement with Gemini in December 2020 and began offering the Gemini Earn program to retail investors in February 2021, allowing Gemini customers to earn interest by lending cryptocurrency to Genesis. Gemini also deducted agency fees from the returns paid to Gemini Earn investors by Genesis, sometimes as high as 4.29%. An SEC official stated that Genesis and Gemini participated in the issuance and sale of securities without registration, and both companies are liable.

Gemini co-founder Tyler Winklevoss responded, stating, "It is disappointing that the SEC has chosen to file a lawsuit while Gemini and other creditors are working together to recover funds. The SEC's actions do not help our further efforts to assist Earn users in getting their assets back and may be counterproductive. Gemini has always strived to comply with all relevant laws and regulations, and any contrary claims are unfounded." (Source link)

6. Cryptocurrency Payment Company Wyre Announces Emergency Financing, Will Resume Accepting Deposits and Lift Withdrawal Limits

Cryptocurrency payment company Wyre tweeted that it has received emergency financing from strategic partners, allowing it to continue normal operations, resume accepting deposits, and immediately lift 90% of withdrawal limits.

According to previous reports from ChainCatcher, Wyre announced last week that it would change its withdrawal rules, allowing customers to withdraw their funds but limiting the withdrawal amount to 90% of each customer account's funds, with customers required to adhere to current daily limit rules. (Source link)

7. Samsung Bitcoin Futures Actively Managed ETF Listed on Hong Kong Stock Exchange, Opening Price HKD 8.4
The "Samsung Bitcoin Futures Actively Managed ETF" launched by Samsung Asset Management has been listed on the Hong Kong Stock Exchange (code: 3135), with an opening price of HKD 8.4, and a price of HKD 8.36 at the time of publication. This ETF aims to invest in Bitcoin futures products listed on the Chicago Mercantile Exchange (CME) and will not directly invest in Bitcoin, adopting an actively managed investment strategy. (Source link)

8. SBF: Alameda Had $100 Billion in Net Assets During 2021, FTX US Can Repay All Customer Funds

In a recent blog post, SBF mentioned that FTX International was indeed insolvent in mid-November. Three factors combined to lead to the implosion:

a) During 2021, Alameda's balance sheet grew to approximately $100 billion in net assets, with $8 billion in net borrowings (leverage) and $7 billion in liquidity on hand. b) Alameda failed to adequately hedge its market risks. A series of large-scale market crashes in the stock and cryptocurrency sectors during 2022 led to a decline of about 80% in the market value of its assets. c) In November 2022, an extreme, rapid, targeted crash facilitated by Binance's CEO rendered Alameda insolvent.

Additionally, SBF stated that despite this, FTX still has the potential for recovery, and FTX US remains fully solvent and should be able to return all customer funds. FTX International has billions of dollars in assets, and he has devoted nearly all of his personal assets to the customers. (Source link)

"What Interesting Articles Are Worth Reading in the Last 24 Hours"

1. "SBF's Latest Account: The Real Reasons and Process Behind Alameda's Hundreds of Billions in Losses"

SBF elaborated on some key points and the real reasons behind how Alameda incurred hundreds of billions in losses. SBF stated that by the end of 2021, Alameda's balance sheet reached approximately $100 billion in net asset value, still valued at $50 billion excluding related assets like SRM, but due to inadequate market hedging, its assets depreciated by over 80% this year as the market crashed.

2. *"Delphi Digital: Why Are We Bullish on Sei Network?"

Delphi Digital's report also includes content on ecology, tokens, etc. This article will temporarily skip those aspects and only showcase Sei Network's innovations in technology and mechanisms.

It can be seen that Sei has made innovations in parallel processing and block broadcasting, improving the network's transaction confirmation speed; however, on the other hand, Sei requires validators with high-performance hardware configurations, and these validators need to be relatively geographically concentrated to further meet its support for order book model trading platforms. Delphi also acknowledged the centralization issue in the report but stated that the performance improvements are still significant.

3. "In the Layer2 Battlefield, Can Optimism Prevail?"**

The Layer2 star project Optimism's token OP saw a significant increase in the past week, rising from a low of $0.98 to a high of $1.39, an increase of over 40%. Although there were also tokens that doubled in the past week, most of these tokens are meme coins, primarily driven by institutional buying, lacking long-term investment value. In contrast, OP, as a token with long-term investment value, has outperformed most blue-chip coins.

This article outlines the impressive performance of the Optimism project over the past year and the positive expectations brought by the upcoming mainnet Bedrock upgrade in 2023.