Daily Report | Over 30 large projects expected for TGE in Q3; Partior completes $60 million financing; Three executives from Compound leave to establish Legend; Biden's campaign is facing a decline in donations
July 12 News OverviewOrganizer: Fairy, ChainCatcher
Important News:
- Compound CEO, CTO, and two other executives leave to establish a new DeFi protocol, Legend
- Blockchain payment and settlement technology company Partior completes $60 million financing, led by Peak XV Partners (formerly Sequoia India)
- RootData: Competition for Binance List Token intensifies, with over 30 large projects expected to conduct TGE in Q3
- Morgan Creek Digital plans to raise $500 million for a new venture capital fund focused on AI, blockchain, and other fields
- DOGS launches fiat purchase function for Stars, raising community concerns
- Insiders: The U.S. SEC allows certain companies to bypass controversial cryptocurrency accounting announcements
- Insiders: Biden's campaign is facing a dangerous decline in donations
What important events happened in the past 24 hours?
Compound CEO, CTO, and two other executives leave to establish a new DeFi protocol, Legend
Compound CEO, CTO, and two other executives have left to establish a new DeFi protocol, Legend, which aims to bring the next 100 million users on-chain by building the best DeFi interface in the world.
According to reports, its founder Jayson Hobby previously served as Compound CEO; Geoffery Hayes was the founder and CTO of Compound; Mykel Pereira served as the Vice President of Product at Compound.
Additionally, Web3 asset data platform RootData shows that Legend is a mobile-first decentralized finance protocol. Users can trade, earn, and borrow digital assets instantly and seamlessly without a centralized party.
Blockchain payment and settlement technology company Partior completes $60 million financing, led by Peak XV Partners (formerly Sequoia India)
According to Bloomberg, Singapore-based cross-border payment and settlement company Partior has completed a $60 million Series B financing round, led by Peak XV Partners (formerly Sequoia India), with other investors including Jump Trading, Valor Capital, and existing shareholders Temasek Holdings, JPMorgan Chase, and Standard Chartered.
RootData: Competition for Binance List Token intensifies, with over 30 large projects expected to conduct TGE in Q3
Web3 asset data platform RootData released the “2024 Q2 Web3 Industry Investment Research Report”, which predicts that the TGE project list for Q3 will include 30 high-funding, high-FDV star projects, with a high probability of listing on Binance.
Statistics from 288 investors' portfolios show that the average number of Binance Launchpool projects in their portfolios does not exceed 2%, with 21 out of nearly 30 Binance Launchpool projects receiving investment from Binance Labs, accounting for over 11% of their portfolios.
Due to Binance's trading depth and slippage advantages, as well as competitive contract rates, the highly competitive listing environment on Binance has a profound impact on the market. Project teams choosing to conduct TGE on Binance can effectively leverage its market advantages and platform resources, laying a solid market foundation for the long-term development of their projects.
RootData: Animoca Brands becomes the most active investment institution in Q2 with 36 investments, top ten institutions increase GameFi investments by 71%
Web3 asset data platform RootData released the “2024 Q2 Web3 Industry Investment Research Report”, which shows that the top ten investment institutions with the most investments in Q2 participated in a total of 202 investments, an increase of about 2% compared to the previous quarter; among them, Animoca Brands made 36 investments, becoming the most active investment institution in Q2; OKX Ventures, which made 30 investments in Q1, dropped to 25 in Q2 but remained active.
Meanwhile, infrastructure remains the most popular sector, with the top ten institutions making 81 investments in this sector, accounting for about 40% of their total investments in Q2. Additionally, the top ten investment institutions made a total of 53 investments in the GameFi sector in Q2, an increase of 71% compared to Q1.
Morgan Creek Digital plans to raise $500 million for a new venture capital fund focused on AI, blockchain, and other fields
According to Coindesk, Morgan Creek Digital plans to raise up to $500 million for a new fund focused on early opportunities in artificial intelligence (AI), blockchain technology, chips, and data.
Morgan Creek Digital stated that the company is in discussions with sovereign and institutional investors, corporate executives, and industry experts in Europe, the Middle East, and Africa (EMEA) as well as the Asia-Pacific region (APC) to expand its regional influence. Additionally, the company is also in talks with U.S. investors and partners.
Justin Sun: I did not go long on BTC at the $69,000 price level
Justin Sun posted on social media, "I am very optimistic about the development of Bitcoin and confident about its future. However, I want to clarify that I did not go long on Bitcoin at the $69,000 price level."
DOGS launches fiat purchase function for Stars, raising community concerns
The Telegram-native meme project DOGS has integrated a feature to purchase Telegram Stars directly with fiat currency. This move has sparked widespread discussion in the crypto community, suggesting it may be an official sell-off of tokens, with the total supply being potentially unlimited, raising concerns within the community.
It is reported that Telegram Stars are virtual items that allow users to purchase digital goods and services from bots and mini-programs within the Telegram ecosystem, as well as to gift content creators on the Telegram platform.
137th Ethereum ACDC Meeting: Pectra Devnet 1 to release a new version of the testnet next week
According to Christine Kim's summary of the 137th Ethereum Consensus Layer Core Developers Meeting (ACDC), this ACDC discussed the progress of Pectra Devnet 1 and PeerDAS Devnet 1, as well as the fork choice testing generation research led by the Consensys research team TxRx.
Regarding Pectra Devnet 1, the CL and EL clients are ready, and the testnet is expected to launch next week. The EF development operations team is testing various client combinations, and the EthereumJS client is ready for testing.
For PeerDAS Devnet 1, EF DevOps engineer Barnabas Busa stated that the CL client team is fixing bugs and plans to restart this weekend. Stokes updated the pull request regarding modifying the hardcoded blob gas limit on EL and CL and plans to formalize it as an Ethereum Improvement Proposal (EIP).
The TxRx research team has implemented the initial version of the fork choice testing generator, aimed at identifying client software bugs that could lead to chain splits and requesting feedback to refine the testing suite.
Full-chain AI aggregator Aidatify completes $8.3 million seed round financing at a valuation of $150 million, with participation from STIX and others
According to official news, full-chain AI aggregator Aidatify has completed a total of $8.3 million in seed round financing at a valuation of $150 million, with investments from STIX, oilinvest, Alter Global, Spencer, and others.
It is reported that Aidatify is built by the full-chain and DeFi infrastructure VGESS team, and the funds raised will be used to expand investment in the Aidatify ecosystem and products.
Data: U.S. tech giants lose nearly $60 billion in market value overnight, about 4.35 trillion RMB
According to Jin10, after positive U.S. CPI data, traders chose to withdraw from recently strong-performing tech giants, with heavyweight stocks like Nvidia down 5.57%, Tesla down 8.44%, Meta down over 4%, and Apple, Microsoft, Google, and Amazon all down over 2%. In contrast, the small-cap Russell 2000 index rose over 3.5%. The total market value of the "seven giants" of U.S. tech stocks evaporated by nearly $60 billion in a single day (approximately 4.35 trillion RMB), equivalent to losing one JPMorgan Chase (market value $595.46 billion).
AI startup Fireworks AI completes $52 million financing, led by Sequoia Capital
According to Bloomberg, AI startup Fireworks AI has completed $52 million in financing, led by Sequoia Capital, with participation from Nvidia, Advanced Micro Devices Inc., and MongoDB Inc. The company's total financing has reached $77 million, with a valuation of $552 million.
It is reported that Fireworks plans to use the new funds to expand its team and intends to broaden its partnerships with AI companies. Fireworks aims to help businesses adopt generative AI, allowing them to access over 100 models through its platform.
Data: German government addresses sell off $376 million worth of BTC in the past 16 hours
According to Spot On Chain monitoring, in the past 16 hours, the German government address has sold off $376 million worth of Bitcoin, including:
- Selling 10,627 BTC (worth $616 million) at an average price of $57,976;
- Recovering 4,169 BTC (worth $240 million) at an average price of $57,469.
Currently, the German government address has only 9,094 BTC (worth $520 million) left, about 18% of the initial amount. At this rate, it may sell off all its Bitcoin in the next 1-2 days.
Insiders: The U.S. SEC allows certain companies to bypass controversial cryptocurrency accounting announcements
According to The Block, insiders revealed that some companies and financial institutions have made certain business requests, and U.S. SEC staff agreed that these requests would allow them to be exempt from the controversial cryptocurrency accounting guidance.
Since the release of SAB 121 in March 2022, following numerous bankruptcies in the cryptocurrency industry, companies have been seeking advice from the SEC to develop new policies and procedures related to cryptocurrencies. Insiders added that SAB 121 itself has not changed.
SEC insiders stated, "In April 2022, there were many unresolved issues regarding how the law would be enacted on these matters, and we saw many participants in the crypto industry being reckless in providing these services, harming many customers."
Insiders added that companies have now demonstrated that certain procedures and technologies they have set up allow customers to retrieve their cryptocurrencies in bankruptcy just like any other asset (e.g., U.S. dollars), thus not bearing the obligations set forth in SAB 121.
Biden admits to making a mistake in the debate with Trump, emphasizes he will not withdraw from the race
According to Jin10, U.S. President Biden stated at a press conference, "I made a stupid mistake in the debate (with Trump), and my schedule has been very tight. I said it would be better if I could control my pace more wisely. I won't go to places 15 time zones away before the next debate." Biden also emphasized that he is the best candidate to defeat Trump, and there are currently no signs that he cannot complete the (campaign) task. Biden praised Harris as qualified to be president, stating that he would not have chosen her as vice president if she were not qualified.
Notably, during a NATO summit press conference, President Biden made a slip of the tongue, mistakenly referring to U.S. Vice President Harris as Trump.
DefiLlama updates the list of domains at risk of attack due to Square Space, including Litecoin, Aptos Labs official website, etc.
DefiLlama's founder updated the list of projects facing attack risks related to the domain registrar Square Space, adding new domains such as syncbond.com, gyro.money, rvrs.app, tempus.finance, rare.fyi, ferrum.network, looksrare.org, ratio.finance, opulous.org, nftearth.exchange, pxswap.xyz, aptoslabs.com, unifiprotocol.com, foundation.app, florence.finance, near.org, safe.global, mantadao.app, meowl.xyz, aftermath.finance, litecoin.org, flare.network, tna-btc.com to the previously listed 103 domains.
Previously reported, the founder of DefiLlama announced a list of projects facing attack risks due to their association with the domain registrar Square Space.
Insiders: Biden's campaign is facing a dangerous decline in donations
According to the Global Times citing NBC News, insiders have stated that President Biden's campaign is facing a dangerous decline in donations.
Several insiders said, "The situation is catastrophic. Funding sources have dried up. This month, Biden's campaign fundraising from major donors may be cut in half or even more."
Another insider stated, "Donors are very passive. They had a call with the president. This call seemed unnatural to people, and I think they do not believe in him."
Reports suggest that Biden may receive the presidential candidate nomination as early as July 21, without having to wait for the Democratic convention in August, thus ending the debate over whether he should run. The second debate between Biden and Trump is scheduled for September 10, and the U.S. presidential election will be held on November 5.
"What are the exciting articles worth reading in the past 24 hours?"
Retail Investors vs. VCs: Will DeFi be the Savior?
Retail investors are awakening, "Anti-VC, Embrace Meme"
This round of bull market narratives is macro-driven, lacking innovation and breakthroughs. Although Bitcoin's price has surged from $20,000 to $70,000 (currently fluctuating between $50,000 and $60,000), the altcoin season has yet to arrive, leaving the entire market in despair.
Retail investors have erupted in an "anti-VC" trend, believing that VCs and projects collude, inflating project FDV to astronomical levels, leading to "launching tokens at peak," followed by a waterfall decline, leaving retail investors to pick up the pieces.
To resist "VC tokens," many KOLs have begun to speak out against VCs, embracing fairer meme coins (how they actually adjust their positions remains to be seen).
Platforms like Pump.fun have seen meme coin issuance revenues exceed $57 million, with stablecoins like $Pepe ranking in the top 30 by market cap, along with $pizza, $Wif, and many other meme coins experiencing significant volatility.
Key Insights You Must Know in the Crypto Space
- MEV is the foundation of long-term value: In the long run, MEV (Maximum Extractable Value) is a key indicator of a chain's development prospects. It reflects the scalability, security, and attractiveness of the blockchain to developers and users.
- TVL is a misleading metric: Total Value Locked (TVL) is often an exaggerated metric because it can be easily manipulated. By inflating L1 token prices, TVL data can be artificially increased.
- FDV is significant: Fully Diluted Valuation (FDV) is an important metric as it reflects the potential market value of a blockchain project. Although it is not perfect, it can provide a rough estimate of the project's scale.
- Economic security is not reliable: Relying solely on economic security to ensure the stability of the blockchain is insufficient, as evidenced by the cases of LUNA and ATOM. Other security mechanisms, such as consensus mechanisms and governance models, are also needed.
U.S. SEC Finally Lets Paxos Off the Hook: Has BUSD Become a Sacrifice in Policy Struggles?
On July 11, local U.S. time, after a year-long investigation, the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) decided to end its investigation into Paxos Trust Company and the Binance USD (BUSD) stablecoin. Paxos received a formal termination notice from the SEC, stating that it would not recommend enforcement action against the company. This news marks a significant victory for Paxos in its legal dispute related to the Binance USD (BUSD) stablecoin.
Background: The SEC's Wells notice has gradually pushed the $20 billion market cap BUSD into the background.
What is Paxos?
Paxos is a blockchain infrastructure and tokenization platform that collaborates with major global enterprises for asset tokenization, custody, and trading. Partners include PayPal, Interactive Brokers, Mastercard, Mercado Libre, and Nubank, among others. It has issued numerous regulated digital assets, including PayPal USD (PYUSD), Pax Dollar (USDP), and Pax Gold (PAXG). Its affiliate, Paxos International, issues the yield-bearing regulated stablecoin Lift Dollar (USDL).
