Evening News | SBF accused of bribing Chinese officials to unfreeze Alameda Research accounts; Musk and others call for a pause on training AI stronger than GPT-4
The Ethereum re-staking protocol EigenLayer has completed a $50 million Series A funding; the DeFi protocol SafeMoon suffered a hack resulting in a loss of approximately $8.9 million.Organizer: Xi Angxiang, ChainCatcher
"What Important Events Happened in the Last 24 Hours"
1. SBF Accused of Bribing Chinese Government Officials with $40 Million in Cryptocurrency to Unfreeze Alameda Research Accounts
FTX founder SBF is accused of authorizing the payment of $40 million in cryptocurrency to one or more Chinese government officials to unfreeze accounts related to his cryptocurrency business.
The indictment states that Chinese law enforcement froze accounts at two of China's largest cryptocurrency exchanges in early 2021, including certain cryptocurrency trading accounts of Alameda Research, which contained approximately $1 billion worth of cryptocurrency.
After multiple attempts to unfreeze the accounts through lawyers and lobbying failed, SBF directed and authorized the bribery of one or more Chinese officials to entice them to unfreeze some of the accounts. The bribe, worth approximately $40 million in cryptocurrency, was transferred from Alameda Research's main trading account to a private cryptocurrency wallet in November 2021, around the same time the frozen accounts were unfrozen. (Source link)
2. Musk and Over a Thousand Tech Leaders Sign Open Letter Calling for a Pause on Training AI More Powerful than GPT-4
Elon Musk and over 1,000 AI experts and industry executives signed an open letter calling for a pause on training AI systems more powerful than GPT-4 for at least six months, citing potential risks to society and humanity.
The letter states, "Powerful AI systems should only be developed when we are confident that their effects will be positive and that the risks are manageable." Musk has previously expressed concerns about AI, stating in a video speech in February this year that AI is one of the greatest risks to human civilization in the future. (Source link)
3. Ethereum Restaking Protocol EigenLayer Completes $50 Million Series A Financing, Led by Blockchain Capital
The developer of the Ethereum restaking protocol EigenLayer, EigenLabs, has completed a $50 million Series A financing round, led by Blockchain Capital, with participation from Electric Capital, Polychain Capital, Bixin Ventures, Hack VC, Finality Capital Partners, and Coinbase Ventures.
According to the crypto data platform RootData, EigenLabs previously completed a $14.5 million seed round, co-led by Polychain Capital and Ethereal Ventures. (Source link)
4. DeFi Protocol SafeMoon on BNB Chain Hacked, Liquidity Pool Loses Approximately $8.9 Million
The DeFi protocol SafeMoon on the BNB Chain was hacked, resulting in a loss of approximately $8.9 million from its liquidity pool. The SafeMoon team stated that its LP had been stolen and that they were taking swift action to address the issue. According to BscScan data, nearly $8.9 million in assets were transferred out of the liquidity pool.
Peckshield reported that a recent update to SafeMoon introduced a "public burn vulnerability," allowing hackers to artificially inflate the price of SFM tokens using code, and then sell enough tokens back to the liquidity pool in the same transaction, effectively draining WBNB from the contract. (Source link)
5. Chinese Foreign Ministry Spokesperson Responds to "SBF Directed Bribery of Chinese Officials" by Saying They Are Unaware of the Situation
According to Global Times, Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesperson Mao Ning responded to questions regarding "U.S. federal prosecutors accusing SBF of directing the transfer of at least $40 million in cryptocurrency to bribe Chinese government officials to unfreeze Alameda Research accounts" by stating that they are unaware of the situation. (Source link)
6. Iron Fish Announces Tokenomics Model, with Development Team, Investors, and Foundation Holding 37%, 30%, and 18% Respectively, and 4.5% Allocated for Airdrops
Iron Fish's official website has announced the tokenomics model for the project. The genesis block will contain 42 million tokens, distributed as follows: Iron Fish Foundation: 18%; Airdrop to testnet participants: 2.25%; Future airdrops: 2.25%; Pre-seed round investors: 5.1%; Seed round investors: 9.9%; Series A investors: 14.5%; Advisors: 0.6%; Core development team: 37.4%; IF Labs: 5%; Donation fund: 5%.
The mainnet is expected to launch on April 30. For investors, advisors, and employees, the lock-up period will be one year after the mainnet goes live.
Previously reported, in November last year, privacy crypto startup Iron Fish completed a $27.6 million Series A financing round, led by a16z. Other investors included Sequoia Capital, LinkedIn executive chairman Jeff Weiner, and others. (Source link)
7. Galaxy Digital CEO: Regulation is Completely Upside Down Regarding AI and Cryptocurrency
Galaxy Digital CEO Mike Novogratz told investors that he is shocked by regulators' focus on cryptocurrency rather than AI, believing that AI will trigger a "deep fake" identity crisis.
Mike Novogratz also stated, "When I think of AI, we talk so much about cryptocurrency regulation, yet say nothing about AI regulation. I think the government is completely upside down. In many ways, one of the best use cases for crypto technology will be around identity verification for AI." However, he believes that blockchain-based applications will play a "huge role" in addressing some of the issues posed by AI. (Source link)
8. Web3 Social Platform SO-COL Announces Completion of $4.5 Million Financing
According to The Block, the Web3 social platform So-Col, created by Irene Zhao, has secured $4.5 million in investment.
Additionally, crypto data platform RootData shows that SO-COL completed a $1.75 million financing round in February last year, co-led by DeFiance Capital and Animoca Brands, with participation from Three Arrows Capital, Mechanism Capital, Global Founders Capital, Double Peak Group, Antifund, Genblock Capital, and Kronos Research. Subsequently, SO-COL announced in May last year that it was seeking to raise funds at a valuation of $100 million, but did not disclose the progress.
It is reported that SO-COL aims to become a decentralized alternative to Discord, Snapshot, and OnlyFans. (Source link)
"What Excellent Articles Are Worth Reading in the Last 24 Hours"
1. "Bixin Ventures: Why We Invested in EigenLayer"
Bixin Ventures, an investor in EigenLayer, believes that what EigenLayer is building is beneficial not only for the entire Ethereum ecosystem but also for ecosystems outside of Ethereum. Its positioning is to fundamentally change the current block limit model, utilizing the surplus resource pool of nodes to become a new testing ground that breaks the trade-off between democracy and flexibility in Ethereum, thereby injecting more possibilities for new business models.
2. "IOBC Capital: Why RWA is the Next Engine for DeFi?"
The most popular RWAs currently include the following categories: cash (USD), metals (gold, silver, etc.), real estate, bonds (mainly U.S. Treasury bonds), insurance, consumer goods, commercial paper, royalties, etc., with asset scales far exceeding Crypto Native Assets. If a small portion of these RWAs is introduced into the DeFi space, the total scale of DeFi will see a significant increase. This article provides a detailed analysis of the current development status, cases, opportunities, and risks of the RWA track.
Recently, according to relevant court documents, Mysten Labs reached an agreement with FTX debtors on March 22 to repurchase FTX's equity investment and SUI token warrants for $96.3 million in cash.
The 123-page document details the situation of FTX's investment in Mysten Labs in August 2022. Combining the court documents and a series of recent actions by Sui, Sui World has conducted some summaries and analyses.
