Weekly Highlights | Tether's net profit for the first quarter is $1.48 billion; Binance NFT market will support the Ordinals protocol

Organizer: Cookies, ChainCatcher

1. Tether: Q1 net profit of $1.48 billion, excess reserves reach $2.44 billion

According to ChainCatcher, Tether announced the completion of an audit conducted by independent accounting firm BDO Italia, revealing that Tether's net profit for the first quarter of 2023 reached $1.48 billion, more than doubling from the previous quarter, resulting in excess reserves of $2.44 billion, far exceeding the $960 million reported in Q4 2022.

Tether stated that as of May 9, Tether's total assets were at least $81.8 billion, with liabilities of $79.4 billion. Of the reserve assets, 85% are held in cash, cash equivalents, and other short-term deposits. The value of precious metals and Bitcoin accounts for approximately 4% and 2% of total reserves, respectively. (Source link)

2. Crypto exchange Bittrex files for bankruptcy, operations outside the U.S. unaffected

According to CoinDesk, cryptocurrency exchange Bittrex filed for bankruptcy in Delaware on Monday. Bittrex Global's operations will not be affected, and Bittrex will continue to serve customers outside the U.S. A court document provided by bankruptcy tracking agency Chapter 11 Dockets shows that Bittrex has over 100,000 creditors, with estimated liabilities and assets between $500 million and $1 billion.

In February, Bittrex's U.S. subsidiary laid off 80 employees and announced in March that it would cease all operations by the end of April. In mid-April, the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) filed a lawsuit against Bittrex and its CEO, accusing them of operating a national securities exchange, broker, and clearing agency without registration. (Source link)

3. Binance NFT marketplace to support Bitcoin NFT protocol Ordinals in late May

According to The Block, the Binance NFT marketplace will begin supporting Ordinals trading in late May to further develop Binance's "multi-chain ecosystem." Binance's product head Mayur Kamat stated that Binance users will be able to buy and sell Ordinals without using a "separate Bitcoin wallet." (Source link)

4. Bank of America: Predicts the Fed will pause rate hikes in June and keep rates steady before cutting in early next year

Bank of America stated that overall, the series of data since the May FOMC meeting has left them satisfied with their Fed expectations. To some extent, the strong employment report for April raised the likelihood of a rate hike in June, while this week's Senior Loan Officer Opinion Survey (SLOOS) report, inflation, and initial jobless claims all support the Fed's pause in rate hikes in June.

Therefore, our baseline scenario remains that the Fed will pause rate hikes in June and keep rates steady before starting to cut in early next year. (Source link)

5. MakerDAO officially launches lending protocol Spark Protocol and unveils Endgame roadmap

MakerDAO has officially launched the lending protocol Spark Protocol, open to all DeFi users, centered around DAI, with lending features for ETH, stETH, DAI, and sDAI.

Additionally, MakerDAO co-founders announced the Endgame roadmap: the first product release of Endgame will focus on establishing a new unified brand for the ecosystem and will launch a beta version in the coming months. The second phase involves launching the first six Maker SubDAOs and their NewStable token pools. The third phase will release governance AI tools. The fourth phase will initiate governance participation incentives. The fifth phase will launch NewChain (a new blockchain closely coupled with Ethereum), and once deployed, MakerDAO will permanently enter Endgame status. (Source link)

6. Polygon co-founder hints at possible airdrop for zkEVM

According to ChainCatcher, Polygon co-founder Sandeep Nailwal responded to a Twitter user stating, "The Layer 2 boom is entirely based on airdrop expectations," saying, "Good things take time. The Polygon zkEVM ecosystem is preparing for a significant boost through key infrastructure deployments (such as security), the arrival of oracles (like Chainlink), improving user experience based on early developer feedback, cost optimization using data compression, and more. If there's one thing you can't doubt about Polygon, it's adoption. Moreover, there's no rule that existing tokens cannot have large-scale airdrops."

7. Paraspace internal team supporting Yubo creates new Twitter account, claims original account is illegally controlled by advisors

According to ChainCatcher, the "ParaspaceOfficial" Twitter account was created less than an hour ago, stating, "ParaSpace NFT community, we are the core development team currently run by smart contract engineering lead @0xJC.

The current Paraspace Twitter account has been illegally controlled by the following advisors: Jay, Jenn Duong, and Thomas Schmidt. We condemn their false claims of an attempted takeover. Our core team of 30 engineers stands united in support of founder Yubo, protecting the protocol and its users. In the next four hours, we will address the community with complete transparency."

Earlier, several KOLs warned that internal conflicts had arisen within the NFT lending protocol ParaSpace team and advised users to withdraw their investments as soon as possible. (Source link)

8. NFT fragmentation protocol Tessera founder announces gradual shutdown of all operations, previously raised two rounds led by Paradigm

Andy Chorlian, founder of the NFT fragmentation protocol Tessera (formerly Fractional), announced that Tessera and the NFT marketplace "Escher" will cease all operations in the coming weeks.

According to crypto data platform RootData, Tessera announced in August 2021 the completion of a $7.9 million seed round led by Paradigm, with participation from Robot Ventures and others; last August, it announced the completion of a $20 million Series A round, also led by Paradigm, with participation from Uniswap Ventures and others. (Source link)

9. Coinbase CEO: Coinbase headquarters will remain in the U.S., will increase international investments

According to CNBC, Coinbase CEO Brian Armstrong stated in an interview with CNBC in Dubai that the dispute with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission is an opportunity for clearer regulatory policies. Furthermore, Coinbase's headquarters will not move overseas, but it will increase international investments and is "very interested" in the UAE. Brian Armstrong mentioned that he met with relevant regulatory agencies in Abu Dhabi and Dubai. (Source link)

10. Huang Licheng criticizes Blur points system: Protocol and community cannot capture any value

Twitter KOL "@machibigbrother" Huang Licheng criticized the Blur points system on social media, stating that the current BLUR points system is no longer what it used to be, and the protocol/community cannot obtain any value from transactions, while some risk-free bidding trades are earning points, leading to feelings of "super pessimism." (Source link)