Daily Report | Sequoia Capital reduces the size of its cryptocurrency investment fund to $200 million; The U.S. House Financial Services Committee has passed the "Payment Stablecoin Transparency Act"; The crypto data platform RootData has undergone a comprehensive upgrade, launching a points incentive system and three other new features

整理：Mia, ChainCatcher

"What Important Events Happened in the Last 24 Hours"

1. Sequoia Capital Reduces Its Cryptocurrency Investment Fund Size to $200 Million
According to ChainCatcher, the Wall Street Journal cites insiders saying that Sequoia Capital has reduced the size of its cryptocurrency investment fund from $585 million to $200 million, and its ecosystem fund from $900 million to $450 million. Sequoia stated that due to the ongoing market downturn, the company had to scale back and plans to focus its cryptocurrency fund on supporting early-stage startups rather than large institutions that are facing challenges in the current market environment. (Source Link)

2. The U.S. House Financial Services Committee Has Passed the "Payment Stablecoin Transparency Act"
According to ChainCatcher, the U.S. House Financial Services Committee tweeted that the committee has officially passed the "Payment Stablecoin Transparency Act." (Source Link)

3. Binance and Its Founder Changpeng Zhao Request U.S. Judge to Dismiss CFTC Lawsuit
According to ChainCatcher, Bloomberg reports that cryptocurrency exchange operator Binance and its co-founder Changpeng Zhao have requested a U.S. federal judge to dismiss the lawsuit filed by the Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC).

On Thursday, Binance and Zhao's lawyers submitted a motion to dismiss in a Chicago court, stating: "In this case, the Commodity Futures Trading Commission is attempting to regulate foreign individuals and companies that reside and operate outside the United States. This exceeds the limits of its statutory authority and tramples on the deeply rooted principle of comity between foreign sovereign nations."

Previous Report, the CFTC sued the company and Zhao in March this year, accusing them of deliberately taking measures to evade U.S. laws, including intentionally allowing U.S. residents to use the platform to trade cryptocurrency derivatives, despite Binance never being registered. (Source Link)

4. Over $2 Billion in BTC and $1.1 Billion in ETH Options Contracts Will Expire Today
According to ChainCatcher, data shows that options contracts with a nominal value of over $2 billion in BTC and $1.1 billion in ETH will expire today. The maximum pain price for BTC is $29,000; for ETH, it is $1,850.

The current BTC long-short ratio is: 0.57; the ETH long-short ratio is: 0.37. (Source Link)

5. The UK and Singapore Have Reached Cooperation to Jointly Develop and Implement Global Cryptocurrency Regulatory Standards
According to ChainCatcher, as part of their ongoing financial dialogue and partnership, the UK and Singapore have agreed to jointly develop and implement global regulatory standards for cryptocurrencies and digital assets. Both countries emphasized the necessity of these efforts as part of international standard-setting bodies such as the International Organization of Securities Commissions and the Financial Stability Board.

The UK and Singapore also agreed to continue dialogue and cooperation in areas such as cryptocurrency and digital asset regulation, sustainable finance, fintech, and innovation. (Source Link)

6. Cryptocurrency Data Platform RootData Completes Comprehensive Upgrade, Launching Four New Features Including Points Incentive System
According to ChainCatcher, the cryptocurrency data platform RootData announced the completion of a comprehensive upgrade, launching four new features including a points incentive system, wallet login, token price and economic model, and a Vietnamese language version. Additionally, RootData airdropped points to users who had previously collected or provided feedback, with the specific amount depending on the number of collections and feedback.

Specifically, the points incentive system allows users to earn platform points through content contributions and redeem corresponding benefits; the wallet login feature significantly enhances user convenience, laying the groundwork for more Web3 functionalities in the future; the token price and distribution model improves the platform's secondary market information, further helping users gain a comprehensive understanding of project information; the Vietnamese version aims to meet the rapidly growing localized reading needs of Vietnamese users.

It is reported that RootData is a visualized and structured data platform for cryptocurrency projects, providing information on various projects' financing, teams, news, etc., and connecting all projects through ecosystems, tags, and compilations, aiming to become a data entry point for users to discover quality cryptocurrency assets.

7. Bitdeer is Selling an Eco-Friendly Bitcoin Mining Private Fund BGB
According to ChainCatcher, Bitdeer is selling an eco-friendly Bitcoin mining private fund BGB (Bitdeer Green Bitcoin Fund), which aims to generate returns by owning and operating the Bitcoin mining industry in Bhutan, with a construction target of 600 MWs and an estimated total computing power close to 20 EH/s.

The BGB fund operates as a closed-end fund with a duration of 6 years (unless extended according to fund documents), with a minimum investment of $5 million, and the first phase is expected to raise $80 million. Earlier, Bitdeer was collaborating with the investment department of the Bhutanese government on the construction of Bitcoin mining facilities. (Source Link)

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

1. "RootData: The Top 10 Most Active Crypto VCs in Asia-Pacific, Led by Animoca Brands and Hashed"

The Asia-Pacific region is one of the most vibrant areas in the Web3 industry. Since the beginning of this year, governments in regions such as Hong Kong and Japan have introduced proactive policies to support the development of the local Web3 industry, competing for the status of a Web3 hub, while mainland China, South Korea, and Vietnam are also the origins of many well-known Web3 projects.

Currently, more and more Web3 projects are shifting their business focus to the Asia-Pacific region, which has also attracted the attention and investment of many venture capital institutions. In a recent article titled "Top 10 Emerging Crypto VC Institutions" released by RootData, half of the institutions such as No Limit Holdings, IOBC Capital, and Arcane Group are located in the Asia-Pacific region. Additionally, many established Asia-Pacific institutions like HashKey Capital, IOSG Ventures, and Fenbushi Capital have also remained active recently.

In this article, RootData combines its investment and financing data statistics to analyze the venture capital institutions primarily located in the Asia-Pacific region based on investment frequency in the past year, number of leading investments, and fund size, ultimately identifying the ten most representative active venture capital institutions, with specific introductions to these institutions.

2. "When the Post-2000s Who Entered the Scene in 2020 Are Called OGs—A Review of the Crypto Industry's Ten-Year Three-Round Cycle"

From 2013 to 2023, a decade is very short in the context of technology or business history, but this open drama called "crypto" (or Web3, blockchain, cryptocurrency) continues to see people entering and leaving, playing out countless stories of achieving financial freedom (like the richest person in the Chinese world) or losing their fortunes and lives (like dying in Bali).

As a practitioner in the crypto industry who entered the scene in 2018, I could easily write 12 issues of "Story Club" based on personal experiences and hearsay, but I want to skip the stories and directly discuss the reflections based on those stories.

You can think of it as an industry analysis model built over five years, and the parameter model is still being continuously calibrated.

3. "African Gold Diggers: I Helped Chinese People Do Worldcoin KYC, Earning 20,000 Yuan a Day"

Recently, Zhao Zhao (a pseudonym), who had been in a certain East African country helping locals do Worldcoin KYC and then reselling the accounts to domestic users, has returned home. The products that users see on Xianyu that have undergone Worldcoin KYC originate from third parties like Zhao Zhao in Africa.

However, this business is now difficult to conduct. With Worldcoin officially launched and cryptocurrency prices becoming transparent, the gray area has disappeared. Additionally, due to recent political instability in a certain East African country, he has paused the KYC business and returned to China.

This business lasted for more than three months, and at its peak, at a location where iris verification could be done, he could earn 20,000 yuan in a single day. However, the most profitable days only lasted for two weeks, which was in May when Worldcoin was at its most popular in China. At that time, the growth of new users locally exceeded normal expectations, and soon the operators discovered the irregularities.

4. "Bybit Sues Payroll Head for Abuse of Power in Secretly Transferring USDT, Singapore Court Explains the Property Attributes of Cryptocurrency"

Cryptocurrency exchange Bybit has sued Ms. Ho, who is responsible for the company's payroll, for abusing her power to transfer a large amount of USDT to an address she secretly owns and controls. The Singapore High Court maintained a ruling on July 25, stating that cryptocurrencies are widely recognized as property, and holders of crypto assets generally possess intangible property rights recognized by common law, making them enforceable in court. The court ordered Ms. Ho to immediately pay Bybit all transferred amounts and interest.