Daily Report | Trump’s personal website homepage banner caption “FEAR NOT”; LI.FI protocol has fully resumed operation and will continue to track and recover funds; Google Trends shows a significant increase in “Ethereum” search volume, rising from 57 points last week to 82 points
July 17 News OverviewOrganizer: Luan Peng, ChainCatcher
Important News:
- RootData: Eight projects announced cessation of operations in the first half of this year, including well-known venture capital projects involving Vitalik, Coinbase, Animoca, etc.
- LI.FI: The protocol has fully resumed operations and will continue to track and recover funds
- Trump's Treasury Secretary candidate: The Federal Reserve should be patient with interest rate cuts
- Federal Reserve's Williams: The Federal Reserve is closer to cutting rates but is not ready to implement it yet
- Hong Kong's Financial Secretary and Monetary Authority: We will continue to cooperate with other regulatory bodies to build a consistent regulatory framework for virtual assets in Hong Kong
- Chinese businessman Guo Wengui (Miles Guo) sentenced for fraud in the U.S., facing decades in prison
- Trump's personal website homepage banner caption "FEAR NOT"
- Google Trends shows a significant increase in searches for "Ethereum," rising from 57 to 82 points since last week
What important events happened in the past 24 hours?
According to incomplete statistics from RootData, a total of eight projects announced cessation of operations in the first half of 2024, primarily distributed across DeFi (ClayStack, Gridex Protocol, Hector Network, CeFi (Yield App, HKVAEX, CommEX, GameFi (Eternal Dragons/Trailblazer Games and privacy track (Nocturne).
Notably, the GameFi project Eternal Dragons/Trailblazer Games had previously raised $8.2 million, the privacy protocol Nocturne supported by Vitalik had raised $6 million in seed funding, and the liquid staking project ClayStack had raised $5.2 million in seed funding led by CoinFund and ParaFi Capital, with support from Coinbase Ventures, Animoca Brands, The Spartan Group, etc.
The main reasons for the cessation of these projects are quite diverse, primarily driven by non-systemic risks. ClayStack ceased operations due to a lack of product-market fit over more than three years of operation; Gridex Protocol stated it failed to secure additional funding from private investors and faced liquidity issues; Eternal Dragons pointed out that Web3 has brought additional challenges to game design, user experience, and development, increasing costs and risks; while Yield App suffered losses because its assets were previously held at the now-defunct FTX exchange.
LI.FI: The protocol has fully resumed operations and will continue to track and recover funds
Cross-chain trading aggregator LI.FI announced an update stating that the protocol has fully resumed operations, and most of its partner protocols' bridging and exchange services have been restored.
LI.FI will continue to work with law enforcement and industry participants to track and recover funds.
Trump's Treasury Secretary candidate: The Federal Reserve should be patient with interest rate cuts
JPMorgan CEO Jamie Dimon stated that the Federal Reserve should be patient in its next interest rate adjustment, considering the possibility of inflation rising again in a turbulent world. "Inflation is moving in the right direction. But if the Federal Reserve waits a bit longer, that would be better," Dimon said.
He mentioned, "I believe there are many reasons why inflation might rise again in the future: increased government spending, the re-militarization of the world, significant investments in the green economy, and adjustments in trade structures." At the Federal Reserve's July meeting, policymakers are expected to maintain interest rates at 5.25-5.5%, but given the new progress in alleviating price pressures, including an unexpected drop in inflation in June, they may set a timeline for rate cuts. Presidential candidate Trump previously stated that if elected, he would consider inviting Dimon to serve as Treasury Secretary. (Jin Shi)
According to "Federal Reserve mouthpiece" Nick Timiraos, Federal Reserve's Williams hinted that if inflation continues to ease in the near term, there may be reason to cut rates in the coming months, but it will not happen at the Federal Reserve meeting in two weeks.
Williams also stated that there are signs showing that the U.S. labor market is gradually cooling, and the inflation data from the past three months "brings the Federal Reserve closer to the inflation decline trend we expect." These are all positive signs. He hopes to see more data to gain further confidence that inflation is moving toward our 2% target. His remarks suggest that the central bank may consider lowering rates at the mid-September meeting, provided there are no major surprises in the economic situation.
Hong Kong's Financial Secretary and Monetary Authority jointly published a consultation summary regarding the legislative proposal for implementing a regulatory system for fiat-backed stablecoin issuers in Hong Kong.
It mentioned that considering the nascent stage of the stablecoin category, a significant portion of respondents agreed to establish new legislation for the regulatory system for fiat-backed stablecoin issuers and to exclude fiat-backed stablecoin issuance from the regulatory framework for relevant securities and stored value payment instruments. The Hong Kong Monetary Authority will continue to collaborate with other regulatory bodies to build a consistent regulatory framework for virtual assets in Hong Kong to avoid regulatory arbitrage. Most respondents support the requirement that the total value of reserve assets for fiat-backed stablecoins must always maintain full reserves and agree that this is a core element supporting the stability mechanism of stablecoins.
Chinese businessman Guo Wengui (Miles Guo) sentenced for fraud in the U.S., facing decades in prison
According to CoinDesk, exiled Chinese businessman Guo Wengui (Miles Guo) was found guilty of defrauding his supporters and engaging in a $1 billion fraud scheme with his company GTV Media Group.
U.S. Attorney Damian Williams stated in a press release: "Today, Guo Wengui's scheme has been exposed. Just now, the jury unanimously found Guo guilty of extortion and multiple counts of securities fraud, telecommunications fraud, and money laundering. He will face decades in prison."
In addition to the criminal trial, the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission has also charged Guo with raising $500 million from retail investors to establish a cryptocurrency company called H-Coin, falsely claiming that 20% of the company's assets were backed by gold.
Trump's personal website homepage banner caption "FEAR NOT"
Trump's personal website homepage banner caption reads "FEAR NOT." As of the time of publication, the Ethereum-based meme coin FEAR NOT is currently priced at $0.00005, up 450% in 24 hours, continuing to set a new historical high. The current total market value of FEAR NOT is reported to be $22.45 million.
Google Trends data shows that in the past 30 days, user interest in the term "Ethereum" has significantly increased, rising from 57 points (out of 100) on July 14 to 82 points on Monday. Similarly, search queries for "Bitcoin" have also risen, with scores increasing from 71 to 76 points over the past two days.
According to The Block, Canadian listed investment company Cypherpunk Holdings has significantly increased its holdings in Solana tokens. The number of SOL tokens in the company's wallet has exceeded 63,000, valued at nearly $14 million, far exceeding last month's 6,131 SOL.
In addition to purchasing SOL, Cypherpunk also announced that it will operate its own Solana validator and stake 49,917 tokens (worth about $11 million) using its own Solana node. It is also implementing SOL options trading strategies. Last month, Cypherpunk disclosed that it had begun investing in Solana, purchasing approximately $1 million worth of SOL at an average price of $163.11.
Around the same time, Cypherpunk sold nearly $1 million worth of shares in metaverse company Animoca Brands, which is its second-largest holding. According to the latest financial report, Cypherpunk's total assets have increased by $14.3 million over the past six months, reaching $31.3 million. It uses Coinbase as its custodian for BTC and SOL.
Putin: Cryptocurrency mining accounts for 1.5% of Russia's electricity consumption
Russian President Putin stated that cryptocurrency mining accounts for 1.5% of Russia's electricity consumption.
"What are the must-read articles from the past 24 hours?"
How do ETF issuers "buy" Bitcoin?
Bitcoin spot ETFs have emerged, but how do they actually work?
What happens when people "buy" an ETF? Who gets involved? How does this relate to the buying and selling of the underlying asset (BTC)?
Here is a simplified step-by-step process:
Recent Popular Meme Opportunities Overview: BODEN, MAGA, BONK, WIF, FLOKI & BABYDOGE
In recent days, the number of trading pairs involving Trump and Biden has surged, reaching the highest level since the end of May. Most of these trading pairs were created on Uniswap v2 rather than v3, possibly due to the simpler pool creation and management, simpler fee structure, and lower gas fees under certain operations. Note that this data does not include trading pairs created on Solana, only those on Ethereum and other EVM chains.
Founders of top Silicon Valley VC A16Z: Why we turned to support Trump
Marc and Ben attempted to meet with Biden but were rejected, while their recent meeting with Trump gave them a deeper understanding of his personality, leading them to believe that Trump is better suited than Biden to promote technology and startups in the current policy environment.
A few weeks ago, after Blast completed its airdrop, it seemed that people were not paying much attention to the project anymore.
However, as long as the community keeps its eyes open, all details can be captured.
Yesterday, sharp-eyed netizens noticed that Blast changed its official X account name from @Blast_L2 to @Blast.
Official accounts often represent their brand and positioning. A slight change in wording can have a significant difference in meaning.
Although this is just a minor account name change and does not require a corresponding official announcement; from a branding and perception perspective, it is very likely part of a "planned initiative."
At the same time, the official account's profile has also started to describe itself as "The Fullstack Chain" instead of an L2. This seems to deliberately downplay its general impression as an Ethereum L2.
However, whether this is merely a branding gimmick to highlight differentiated selling points or a technical move to establish independence from Ethereum remains to be seen.
From the cryptocurrency dealers that the Sa Jie team has encountered in practical cases, their behavior can generally be divided into two types: reliable and unreliable. Unreliable dealers are often bold and reckless, willing to accept cash from customers without scrutiny; reliable dealers tend to act cautiously, avoiding transactions with strangers, and often publicly issue multiple risk disclosures and disclaimers online (though many of these "disclaimers" may not truly absolve them of liability).
Recently, as China's public security agencies have intensified their crackdown on cybercrime and cryptocurrency-related offenses, many dealers (even reliable ones) have been caught up in this, leading to the question of whether to "go overseas" for business becoming a "must-answer question" for old friends. The Sa Jie team, as companions on the entrepreneurial journey of Web3 friends, will analyze the feasibility of moving business to Hong Kong in light of a series of OTC regulatory measures set to be implemented in Hong Kong in 2024 and recent regulatory trends.
Current state of the South Korean cryptocurrency market: Retail frenzy, lack of relevant regulation
Driven by a tech-savvy population, South Korea's cryptocurrency market is characterized by intense retail investment, leading to unique phenomena such as "kimchi premium" and "listing pumps."
South Korea's cryptocurrency history is filled with significant regulatory developments, primarily focused on enhancing market integrity and protecting investors.
However, despite high trading volumes and notable regulatory progress, the market still poses challenges for developers due to public perceptions of cryptocurrency and a lack of relevant regulation.
