Daily Report | Cryptocurrency exchange OKX exits Nigeria due to regulatory issues; XRP surpasses Bitcoin in 24H trading volume on the five major exchanges in South Korea; The probability of Biden withdrawing from the election on Polymarket once rose to 68%, nearing a historical high
July 18 News OverviewOrganizer: Luan Peng, ChainCatcher
Important News:
- Data: The market value of the seven giants in the US stock market evaporated by about $580 billion overnight, equivalent to approximately 4.21 trillion RMB
- Vitalik: Opposes making political voting choices based on whether "politicians support cryptocurrency"
- US SEC approves Grayscale Ethereum Mini Trust and Proshares spot Ethereum ETF to be listed on NYSE Arca
- Biden tests positive for COVID-19, says he will reassess whether to continue his presidential campaign if health issues arise
- Cryptocurrency exchange OKX exits Nigeria due to regulatory issues
- Judge approves Robinhood's $9 million settlement agreement in "refer a friend" lawsuit
- Mt. Gox creditors report numerous unauthorized login attempts on their accounts
- XRP's 24H trading volume surpasses Bitcoin on the five largest exchanges in South Korea
What important events happened in the past 24 hours?
According to Jinshi reports, the Nasdaq 100 index fell 2.9% on Wednesday, marking the largest single-day drop since December 2022.
All of the "seven giants," which are weighted stocks, declined, with Nvidia (NVDA.O) leading the drop at over 6.6%, and Apple (AAPL.O) down 2.5%. The total market value of the "seven giants" evaporated by approximately $580 billion (about 4.21 trillion RMB) in one day.
Goldman Sachs' trading department stated that the S&P 500 index now has only one way to go, and there will be no buying on dips.
Ethereum co-founder Vitalik Buterin expressed his opposition to making political voting choices based on "support for crypto."
He stated that cryptocurrency has become an increasingly important topic in political policy over the past few years, with various jurisdictions considering legislation to regulate blockchain activity participants. The cryptocurrency sector is becoming more politically active, with many people supporting parties and candidates almost entirely based on their willingness to be friendly towards cryptocurrency. He opposes this trend and believes that making decisions in this way carries significant risks and contradicts the values that initially drew people into the crypto space. He noted that in the crypto field, people often tend to overemphasize the centrality of money and the freedom to hold and spend money (which can also be tokens). Bitcoin is seen as an extension of liberal spirit in the realm of internet payments.
Vitalik believes that freedom is important, and decentralized networks excel at protecting freedom; money is an important area where such networks can be applied, but it is just one of several important areas. Moreover, being friendly towards cryptocurrency now does not mean that it will still be friendly towards cryptocurrency five years from now. Supporting a politician should be based on their entire agenda and viewpoints, not just because they support cryptocurrency.
According to documents from July 17, the US Securities and Exchange Commission approved two spot Ethereum ETFs—Grayscale Ethereum Mini Trust and ProShares Ethereum ETF—to be listed on the NYSE's Arca electronic trading platform. Following the approval of the related 19b-4 form application, the NYSE is facilitating the trading of these funds. However, the issuers must still wait for the final opinions on the respective S-1 applications before the spot products can actually start trading.
A Grayscale spokesperson stated in a statement, "Grayscale is pleased to announce that the SEC has approved the 19b-4 form for the Grayscale Ethereum Mini Trust. The Grayscale team will continue to engage in constructive dialogue with SEC staff, and we are seeking comprehensive regulatory approval for a US spot Ethereum ETP."
According to CCTV News, the White House announced that President Biden tested positive for COVID-19. According to the White House statement, Biden's COVID-19 test result was positive after his first event in Las Vegas that day. The statement noted that Biden has received a booster vaccine and currently has mild symptoms. Biden will return to his home in Delaware to isolate and continue working from home.
According to Jinrongjie, Biden stated in an interview that if doctors directly tell him that there are issues with his health, he will reassess whether to continue his presidential campaign.
Cryptocurrency exchange OKX exits Nigeria due to regulatory issues
According to Cointelegraph, cryptocurrency exchange OKX revealed in an email sent to Nigerian customers on July 17 that the company will exit Nigeria and stop providing services to all Nigerian customers.
OKX stated that the main reason for stopping services in the country is "recent changes in local laws and regulations," and set a deadline for users to access the platform's features until August 16, 2024. After the deadline, Nigerian users will only be able to access the platform to withdraw funds or close positions.
Judge approves Robinhood's $9 million settlement agreement in "refer a friend" lawsuit
A US federal judge approved a $9 million settlement agreement in a class-action lawsuit against the cryptocurrency and stock trading platform Robinhood.
Robinhood Financial LLC has been ordered to pay $9 million to resolve a lawsuit regarding its "refer a friend" program, which allows users to generate and send text messages to their mobile contacts through the trading app, inviting them to join the platform.
According to the 2021 lawsuit, this action violated Washington state's Commercial Electronic Mail Act and Consumer Protection Act.
Mt. Gox creditors report numerous unauthorized login attempts on their accounts
In the Mt. Gox creditors subreddit "r/mtgoxinsolvency," several users reported issues logging into their accounts on the Mt. Gox website, with screenshots showing numerous unauthorized login attempts on their accounts.
Some users are concerned that this could be a "violent" attack on Mt. Gox creditors, while others believe it may just be a website malfunction.
Later posts indicated that the Mt. Gox website subsequently entered maintenance mode. An email stated, "Thank you for your patience. Please check back later."
XRP's 24H trading volume surpasses Bitcoin on the five largest exchanges in South Korea
XRP's 24H trading volume on the five largest exchanges in South Korea exceeded $650 million, approximately 2.3 times that of Bitcoin's trading volume. Bitcoin's trading volume on Upbit was $203.57 million, with the total trading volume of top crypto assets on the five largest exchanges in South Korea reaching $282 million. Meanwhile, XRP's trading volume on Upbit alone reached $526.8 million, surpassing Bitcoin's trading volume on the top five exchanges in South Korea.
Data from the prediction market Polymarket shows that the probability of Biden withdrawing from the US presidential race once rose to 68%, close to the historical high of 70%, and has now fallen back to 63%.
Previously reported, Biden tested positive for COVID-19 and stated that he would reassess whether to continue his presidential campaign if health issues arise.
WazirX: This security issue involves a Liminal multi-signature wallet
WazirX updated on X regarding a security incident: "This security issue seems to involve one of our Liminal multi-signature wallets. Our team is actively addressing this matter and will provide further updates afterward."
"What are some interesting articles worth reading in the past 24 hours?"
"Election Coin" PK Ethereum once had the upper hand, can meme help Solana surpass ETH?
After Trump's assassination, for many meme players, the only regret greater than not rushing to FIGHT, FEAR NOT memes earlier might be rushing to the wrong chain.
Solana, recognized as the meme king among public chains this year, had a first-mover advantage in this round of popular election-themed memes, but was once overtaken by Ethereum's same-named meme.
Between July 14 and July 16, the FIGHT and FEAR NOT memes launched on Solana were about three hours ahead of their Ethereum counterparts. However, after three days of fermentation, the performance of Solana's Fight and FEAR NOT, in terms of market value and maximum increase, was once inferior to that of Ethereum's chain.
Data from July 17 showed that the market values of Ethereum's FIGHT and FEAR NOT reached $68 million and $20.5 million, respectively, while the same-named memes on Solana were only $12.5 million and $1.6 million.
Currently, election-themed coins are still fermenting, and the outcome is uncertain. The emergence of similar rare narrative meme coins may still pose a dilemma for meme players regarding whether to rush to Solana or Ethereum.
The competition between meme coins on the two chains has also been elevated by many crypto users to the rivalry between the two most prominent public chains, Solana and Ethereum.
Grayscale: How can Crypto accelerate the arrival of the AI era?
Grayscale announced yesterday the launch of a new fund focused on decentralized AI, Grayscale Decentralized AI Fund LLC. The fund's initial projects include Bittensor (TAO), Filecoin (FIL), Livepeer (LPT), Near (NEAR), and Render (RNDR), with Near, Filecoin, and Render being the highest-weighted assets in the fund. Following this news, the related tokens surged significantly. Subsequently, Grayscale published an article interpreting AI and decentralized AI, explaining the reasons for its emphasis on this area. Below is the full content.
Artificial intelligence (AI) is one of the most promising emerging technologies of this century, with the potential to exponentially increase human productivity and drive breakthroughs in medicine. While AI may be important today, its influence will only grow. According to PwC, by 2030, AI is expected to grow into a $15 trillion industry.
However, this promising technology also faces challenges. As AI technology becomes more powerful, the power in the AI industry is concentrated in the hands of a few companies, posing potential harm to society. This has raised serious concerns about deepfakes, embedded biases, and data privacy risks. Fortunately, cryptographic technology offers potential solutions to some of these issues through its characteristics of decentralization and transparency.
This article will explore the problems brought about by centralization and how decentralized AI can help address some of these drawbacks. It will also discuss the intersection of Crypto and AI, highlighting crypto applications in this field that have shown early signs of adoption.
The long-awaited Mt. Gox compensation process has begun, with some creditors starting to receive compensation, and how to handle this "windfall" has become a topic of public concern.
Is the TON ecosystem the next gaming trend?
On July 14, the Telegram gaming project Notcoin announced on Twitter that it would conduct a $7 million airdrop, with $5 million allocated to stakers and holders of different tiers, and $2 million to be distributed to participating users over the next three months. As a game based on Ton, its core gameplay is "Tap to earn," benefiting from the advantages of the TON ecosystem, which has attracted millions of players' attention in recent months.
This is just a glimpse of the TON ecosystem, which has recently become popular, with TON's revenue surpassing $10 million, on-chain users exceeding 1 million, and the total user base reaching 17 million, with daily active users surpassing 3.5 million. The TON ecosystem MEME project DOGS also stated that so far, the number of DOGS points purchased using Telegram Stars has exceeded 10 million.
According to the latest analysis from CryptoQuant, TON has become one of the best-performing Layer 1 blockchains in 2024. Since the beginning of this year, TON's performance has outpaced Bitcoin by 118%, standing in stark contrast to other popular Layer 1 chains that have struggled to gain momentum.
cmDeFi Founder Chen Mo told DeThings that TON fills the gap in the application layer of this bull market while leveraging mobile advantages to provide many possibilities for going viral.
In recent years, the importance of "cryptocurrency" in political policy has been increasing, with various jurisdictions considering different bills to regulate participants in blockchain activities. For example, the EU's Markets in Crypto-Assets Regulation (MiCA), UK's regulatory efforts on stablecoins, and the SEC's complex legislative and enforcement attempts. In my view, most of these bills are reasonable, although there are concerns that the government may take extreme measures, such as treating almost all tokens as securities or banning self-custody wallets. Due to these concerns, an increasing number of cryptocurrency practitioners are becoming politically active and deciding whom to support almost entirely based on the attitudes of parties and candidates towards "cryptocurrency."
In this article, I oppose this trend, particularly because I believe that this decision-making approach carries significant risks and may contradict your original intentions and values when entering the cryptocurrency space.
