Weekly Highlights | Uniswap V3 to be deployed on BNB Chain; US SEC rumored to cancel retail crypto staking services

整理：润升，ChainCatcher

Important News

1. Zhao Changpeng Responds to "a16z On-Chain Governance Incident": On-Chain Voting Means Whales May Control the Blockchain

On February 6, Binance CEO Zhao Changpeng tweeted in response to the "a16z vote against deploying Uniswap V3 on BNB Chain," asking, "Is Uniswap controlled by a16z?"

Additionally, Zhao stated that voting by the people is completely different from voting by money, and that on-chain voting means whales may control the blockchain, similar to shareholders. Binance has already discussed this issue in meetings. (Source link)

2. ARK Invest: By 2030, the Price of One Bitcoin May Exceed $1 Million

On February 6, Cathie Wood's ARK Invest released the "Big Ideas 2023" research report, mentioning that events in 2022 such as Terra/LUNA, Three Arrows Capital, Celsius, and FTX/Alameda caused the crypto market to evaporate by about $1.5 trillion, while cryptocurrencies and smart contracts could create market values of $20 trillion and $5 trillion respectively over the next decade.

"We believe the long-term opportunity for Bitcoin is still growing, and Bitcoin's volatility masks its long-term returns," ARK predicts that the price of a single Bitcoin may exceed $1 million in the next decade, and Bitcoin is expected to expand into a multi-trillion dollar market. (Source link)

3. DCG Sells About a Quarter of Grayscale Ethereum Trust Shares at Half Price, Raising $22 Million

On February 7, according to the Financial Times citing U.S. securities filings, Digital Currency Group (DCG) began selling its shares in its subsidiary Grayscale Crypto Trust to raise funds to repay Genesis creditors.

The filings show that since January 24, DCG has primarily sold a quarter of the Ethereum Trust, raising up to $22 million, with a selling price of about $8 per share, far below the market price of $16 per share. Additionally, DCG has also begun selling smaller shares in its Litecoin Trust, Bitcoin Cash Trust, Ethereum Classic Trust, and Digital Large Cap Fund.

Earlier, ChainCatcher reported that DCG reached a preliminary agreement with Genesis creditors (holding or representing over $2 billion in claims) to exchange $1.1 billion in bonds maturing in 2032 for convertible preferred shares issued by DCG as part of Genesis's bankruptcy plan. (Source link)

4. a16z: Has Unconditionally Delegated About 40 Million UNI Voting Rights to External Groups

On February 7, a16z cryptocurrency investment team data science and engineering head Eddy Lazzarin tweeted that "a16z has fully delegated about 40 million UNI votes to external groups (with no conditions on how they vote), using 15 million UNI to vote (less than half of what was delegated to others)."

Eddy Lazzarin also stated that a16z has voted on 11 other proposals and is one of the most active members in the Uniswap community. He cited "A Brief Discussion on Cryptocurrency Protocol Governance" to explain that the reason for delegated voting is to achieve broader perspectives, less centralized voting power, and more community participation.

According to previous reports by ChainCatcher, a16z controls 41.5 million UNI through 11 wallet addresses, accounting for about 4.15% of the supply. (Source link)

5. U.S. SEC: Will Make Regulation of Emerging Technologies Like Crypto a Top Priority in 2023

On February 8, the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) announced on its official website that it will make the regulation of cryptocurrencies and other emerging technologies a top priority in 2023, investigating broker-dealers and investment advisors using emerging financial technologies (including crypto technologies) to determine whether they meet the "prudent standard" expected by investors and whether they regularly review and update their risk management procedures. (Source link)

6. Super Bowl This Year Bans Crypto Companies from Advertising

On February 8, the Associated Press reported that Fox Sports, the live streaming platform for the Super Bowl, announced that it has banned cryptocurrency advertisements for this year's Super Bowl following the collapse of the crypto exchange FTX. Fox Sports' advertising sales executive vice president Mark Evans stated that two cryptocurrency companies had already booked Super Bowl ads, and other companies were "close to finalizing deals," but these transactions stopped after news about FTX became public.

Statistics show that approximately 100 million viewers worldwide watch the Super Bowl each year, and last year's Super Bowl saw Coinbase, Crypto.com, and FTX spending heavily on advertisements. (Source link)

7. Sources: Binance is Forming a Crypto Alliance, Many Crypto Companies Have Signed Up

On February 9, CoinDesk reported that sources revealed Binance is forming a consortium of crypto companies to rebuild industry trust and play a positive role in upcoming regulations.

The sources stated that many crypto companies have signed up, including projects, exchanges, and blockchain analytics firms, but did not disclose any names; the organization will not be operated by Binance but will "operate in as decentralized a manner as possible across many different projects to ensure alignment with the community."

The sources added that the initial goal of the organization is to collaborate with global regulators and demonstrate the industry's advancements in combating criminals. "The establishment of this organization is also to ensure there is a mechanism to point out shortcomings and misconduct in the industry and help avoid broader contagion." (Source link)

8. Coinbase Co-Founder: Hopes Rumored "U.S. SEC to Cancel Retail Customer Crypto Staking Services" Will Not Come True

On February 9, Coinbase co-founder Brian Armstrong tweeted, "I heard rumors that the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission wants to cancel crypto staking for retail customers in the U.S. I hope this is not the case because I think allowing this to happen would be a terrible path for the U.S."

Brian Armstrong stated that staking is a very important innovation in the crypto space. We need to ensure that new technologies are encouraged to develop in the U.S. rather than being stifled due to a lack of clear rules. Regulatory enforcement does not work but encourages businesses to operate offshore, as was the case with FTX. (Source link)

9. Andre Cronje: Fantom Will Not Venture into AI, Blockchain and AI Cannot Combine

On February 9, Fantom founder Andre Cronje responded on Twitter that Fantom will not venture into AI, stating that blockchain and AI cannot combine.

Specifically addressing the question, "What role does the Fantom blockchain play in the AI industry?" he replied, "Blockchain = slow (by centralized standards) but transparent and secure, AI = high throughput, opaque, black box. These two things cannot be mixed. It's like asking, 'What role do you think Coca-Cola plays in the construction industry?' Blockchain and AI are not complementary. Currently, anyone who wants to ride the 'AI' wave is just trying to capitalize on it. If you see a project suddenly 'turning to AI,' it just means they might be 'dying fast'… Blockchain will not improve AI, and AI will not improve blockchain." (Source link)

10. Optimism Conducts Second Round Airdrop of 11.7 Million OP to Some Mainnet Users

On February 10, Optimism announced a second round of airdrops totaling 11.7 million OP to some users who participated in governance and actively used the Optimism mainnet. Eligible users include addresses that have delegated their OP token voting rights and those that have spent over $6.1 in Gas on Optimism since March 25, 2022, with a snapshot taken at 8:00 AM Beijing time on January 20, 2023.

Additionally, users who delegated a larger number of tokens or paid higher Gas fees will receive extra airdrop rewards. This airdrop does not require any claim and has been directly sent to eligible addresses. (Source link)

11. Uniswap DAO Votes to Approve Proposal to Deploy Uniswap V3 on BNB Chain

On February 10, the Uniswap DAO completed the final vote for the proposed deployment of Uniswap V3 on the BNB Chain. According to the Tally voting page, the vote ended on Friday, with 66% of DAO representatives supporting the move.

It is reported that representatives with significant voting power, including Ethereum software company ConsenSys and Compound Finance founder Robert Leshner, voted in favor of the proposal. Meanwhile, venture capital giant Andreessen Horowitz voted against the proposal, casting 15 million votes. (Source link)

12. Ethereum Foundation: Upcoming Shapella Upgrade to Support Withdrawals, Public Testnet Sepolia Scheduled for Upgrade on February 28

On February 10, the Ethereum Foundation stated in a recently released article that the Shanghai+Capella (Shapella) mainnet upgrade is entering the final pre-release sequence—public testnet.

Shapella includes many features, but the most important for stakers and the consensus layer is the support for withdrawals. Exiting validators can withdraw their full balance, while active validators with balances exceeding 32 ETH can make partial withdrawals. Additionally, the first long-standing public testnet Sepolia is scheduled for an upgrade on February 28.

On February 7, the Shanghai upgrade was successfully activated after the first public testnet Zhejiang reached the scheduled height. Developers previously stated that after the upgrade on the Sepolia testnet, they plan to release the Shanghai upgrade on the Ethereum Goerli testnet at the end of February or early March, and after a successful transition, they will turn to the mainnet. (Source link)

13. Security Company Unciphered Successfully Hacks Hardware Wallet OneKey, Which Has Updated Its Patch and Paid a Bounty

On February 11, The Block reported that security company Unciphered announced it successfully hacked the hardware wallet OneKey. It is reported that Unciphered demonstrated a so-called "man-in-the-middle" wallet hack in a YouTube video, which was able to extract recovery keys from the OneKey Mini hardware wallet by exploiting vulnerabilities. OneKey promptly fixed the vulnerability after contacting Unciphered.

Unciphered stated that the FPGA used in the hack is a high-speed processor that allows it to iterate through different algorithms, bypass the wallet's security measures, and extract recovery phrases. OneKey stated that it has promptly fixed the vulnerability and that no users were harmed in this incident. The attack method demonstrated by Unciphered cannot be executed remotely and requires the user's crypto hardware wallet and a specialized FPGA device. OneKey has paid Unciphered a bounty for the vulnerability disclosure. (Source link)

Important Financing/Venture Capital News

1. Crypto Intermediary Service Provider Capitual Completes Approximately $16.2 Million Financing, Azimut Participates

On February 6, Bitcoin.com reported that Brazilian fintech company Capitual, which provides cryptocurrency intermediary services, completed a financing round of €15 million (approximately $16.2 million), with asset management company Azimut participating. It is reported that Capitual can use Brazil's traditional banking system for payments and withdrawals, with clients including several cryptocurrency exchanges such as Kucoin, Huobi, and Bitget. (Source link)

2. Blockchain Data Analytics Company Elementus Raises $10 Million in A-2 Round Financing, ParaFi Capital Leads

On February 7, blockchain data analytics company Elementus raised $10 million in A-2 round financing, led by ParaFi Capital. The funds will be used to accelerate the development of its web3 data intelligence tools.

Elementus enables financial institutions, government organizations, and creditors to easily access on-chain data needed to establish credit limits in cases of bankruptcy and creditworthiness. The company is building a Web3 data intelligence tool to make it easier for mainstream companies to access on-chain data. According to RootData data, Elementus previously raised $12 million in A-1 round financing with participation from Alameda Research, Gemini, BlockFi, and others, and raised $5 million in seed and pre-seed rounds. (NFTGators)

3. SPACE ID Completes $10 Million Strategic Round Financing, Polychain Capital and dao5 Lead

On February 7, decentralized identity protocol SPACE ID completed a $10 million strategic round of financing, led by Polychain Capital and dao5.

Last September, SPACE ID completed a seed round of financing led by Binance Labs and launched .bnb domain services. To date, over 360,000 domain names have been registered, and more than 100 applications have announced integration with the SPACE ID protocol, including BscScan, Trust Wallet, and more. SPACE ID recently announced a 2.0 upgrade, providing a one-stop Web3 domain and identity platform to discover, register, trade, and manage Web3 domain names, and launched multi-chain domain services.

The second supported top-level domain, .arb, will open for pre-registration next week. Earlier on February 3, the ARB ID team announced its entry into the SPACE ID 2.0 ecosystem to jointly create a universal naming service network. (Source link)

4. Crypto Lending Platform SALT Completes $64.4 Million Financing to Resume Operations

On February 8, CoinDesk reported that the crypto lending platform Salt, which was significantly affected by FTX, completed a $64.4 million Series A financing by selling shares to accredited investors. This funding will be used for its new products and growth strategy. It is reported that SALT is working to resume full operations in the first quarter of this year after obtaining regulatory approval.

Previously, in November 2022, Salt announced that it had suspended deposits and withdrawals due to the impact of FTX's collapse, but did not disclose the specific amount of exposure to FTX. The online investment platform Bnk To The Future subsequently terminated its acquisition plan for Salt. (Source link)

5. Crypto Insurance Company Coincover Completes $30 Million Financing, Foundation Capital Leads

On February 9, digital asset protection and insurance provider Coincover completed $30 million in financing, led by Silicon Valley investment firm Foundation Capital. The funds will be used for talent recruitment, product iteration, and seeking new partnerships. Coincover provides asset protection-related products for businesses, infrastructure providers, and consumers to avoid losses from hacks or human errors.

The company collaborates with over 300 businesses, including cryptocurrency custodians Fireblocks and cryptocurrency exchange Bitso. In July 2021, Coincover completed a $9.2 million Series A financing, led by Element Ventures, with participation from DRW Venture Capital and Susquehanna Private Equity Investments. (Source link)

6. Mino Games Completes $15 Million Financing to Build Web3 Games, Standard Crypto Leads

On February 9, according to VentureBeat, mobile game company Mino Games completed $15 million in financing, led by Standard Crypto, with participation from Boost VC, Collab Currency, Earl Gray Capital, and Konvoy Ventures. The funds will be used to build a Dimensionals collectible character game with Web3 features. Mino Games is transitioning to Web3 game development with its new Dimensionals series.

It is reported that Mino Games has raised a total of $25 million to date, with investors including Sybo Games and Andreessen Horowitz. (Source link)

7. Blockchain Payment Technology Company Partior Raises $31 Million in Series A Financing

On February 11, DealStreetAsia cited regulatory documents stating that blockchain payment technology company Partior completed $31 million in Series A financing.

ChainCatcher previously reported that on November 3, 2022, according to Ledger Insights, Partior completed Series A financing led by Standard Chartered Bank, with founding shareholders JPMorgan, DBS Bank, and Temasek participating, although the transaction amount was not disclosed. (Source link)