Daily Report | Musk's xAI is in talks to acquire the AI startup Character.AI; Johnber Kim has been detained and prosecuted for allegedly manipulating a "scam coin" with a market value of 59.23 million dollars; Telegram launches Telegram Browser and a mini app store
August 1 News OverviewOrganizer: Luan Peng, ChainCatcher
Important News:
- RootData releases July hot search list, Fuel, Plume Network, Movement, Allora, Usual rank in the top five
- OKX has officially launched pre-trading for HMSTR/USDT perpetual contracts
- OKLink Security Monthly Report: July losses across the network totaled approximately $290 million, with losses due to private key leaks accounting for 88.31% of total losses
- Polymarket predicts Trump's election probability drops to 55%, Harris's winning probability rises to 43%
- Zilliqa appoints Aigerim Omarbekova as Chief Marketing Officer
- Johnber Kim detained and prosecuted for allegedly manipulating a "fraud coin" with a market value of $59.23 million
- Bitwise CIO: The market is "not optimistic enough," investors need to rethink the potential upside of mainstream cryptocurrencies
- Elon Musk's xAI in talks to acquire AI startup Character.AI
"What important events happened in the past 24 hours"
Web3 asset data platform RootData has released its July hot search list, with modular execution layer Fuel, RWA Layer2 platform Plume Network, modular Move blockchain framework Movement, decentralized AI network Allora, and RWA stablecoin protocol Usual ranking in the top five.
Other projects that made the monthly search list include Sonic, ORA, Aleo, Symbiotic, Monad, Solv Protocol, io.net, Sunrise, Berachain, Babylon, Conduit, Zircuit, MapleStory, Karak, and Nubit.
It is reported that this list is based on RootData's monthly search data of over 300,000 times, which can objectively reflect the market popularity and user attention of Web3 projects, serving as an important reference for users to discover quality early-stage projects.
OKX has officially launched pre-trading for HMSTR/USDT perpetual contracts
According to official news, OKX's pre-trading feature has officially opened, with the first phase launching HMSTR/USDT perpetual contracts. Users can trade selected digital currency perpetual contracts before the tokens officially go live on the platform, while enjoying 2x leverage.
It is reported that the pre-trading perpetual contracts are essentially USDT-denominated contracts, typically settled before new tokens are listed on the spot trading market, aimed at supporting users to participate in the price discovery of new tokens ahead of time. Additionally, OKX has indicated that the prices of tokens available for pre-trading are determined by the market, and the risks are significant, so users should participate cautiously. There is no guarantee that the tokens traded in pre-settlement will eventually be listed on the spot market; please refer to OKX announcements for specific listing details.
OKLink released its security monthly report for July 2024, stating that on-chain security incidents across the network resulted in losses of approximately $290 million. Losses due to private key leaks accounted for 88.31% of total losses, phishing incidents accounted for 3.03%, REKT incidents accounted for 7.33%, and RugPull incidents accounted for 1.31%.
On July 18, the private key leak of WazirX exchange's multi-signature wallet resulted in losses of approximately $235 million, marking the largest security incident in July. On July 16, the LiFi Protocol cross-chain bridge aggregation protocol was attacked, resulting in losses of approximately $10 million, with the attacker exploiting a vulnerability to steal assets authorized by users of this contract.
Additionally, there were 14 incidents of scams and phishing on official social media, resulting in losses of approximately $3.89 million, a decrease of 81.34% compared to June. OKLink reminds users not to disclose their private keys or mnemonic phrases to anyone, not to click on unverified links, and to learn to use Web3 on-chain tools to avoid risks, which is an important line of defense in the Web3 world.
Polymarket predicts that the probability of Trump winning the 2024 U.S. presidential election has dropped to 55%, while Kamala Harris's probability of winning has risen to 43%.
Zilliqa appoints Aigerim Omarbekova as Chief Marketing Officer
Zilliqa announced the appointment of Aigerim Omarbekova as Chief Marketing Officer. Aigerim Omarbekova graduated from New York University and has over seven years of experience in the fintech and Web3 industries across the U.S., Middle East, and Central Asia.
Aigerim's appointment supports Zilliqa Group's broader plans, including Zilliqa's Layer 1 blockchain, Metaverse and space network provider MetaMinds, music tokenization platform TokenTraxx, and Web3 gaming company Roll1ng Thund3rz.
The Southern District Prosecutor's Office in Seoul announced on the 1st that Mr. Park (Johnber Kim) has been arrested and prosecuted for fraud and other charges, while his business partner Mr. A (38 years old) who assisted him has been prosecuted but not detained.
The prosecution stated that Mr. Park and others issued and listed the fraudulent token "Grape" between February 2021 and April of the following year, artificially inflating the token price before selling it all, allegedly misappropriating 80.9 billion Korean won (approximately $59.23 million), with actual profits estimated at 21.6 billion Korean won (approximately $15.81 million).
Bitwise CIO Matt Hougan believes that the market is "not optimistic enough" about Bitcoin, and after the Bitcoin 2024 conference, investors need to rethink the potential upside of this mainstream cryptocurrency.
Hougan believes that political support may be due to the increasing popularity of cryptocurrencies among Americans. The industry's strong lobbying influence in Washington has prompted many politicians to publicly support Bitcoin, even if their support is more about attracting its growing visibility rather than a genuine belief in its value.
This shift in perspective and the increasing popularity of Bitcoin has led Hougan to "rethink what is possible." He pointed out that ideas once considered far-fetched are becoming increasingly plausible: G20 countries adding Bitcoin to their balance sheets to outpace the U.S., comprehensive crypto legislation passing rapidly due to bipartisan support, and Wall Street's large-scale acceptance of crypto.
Elon Musk's xAI in talks to acquire AI startup Character.AI
According to Bloomberg, citing informed sources, Elon Musk's AI startup xAI has discussed acquiring AI chatbot startup Character.AI. One source indicated that xAI has engaged in discussions with the startup regarding a deal, but it is unclear whether negotiations have progressed.
It is reported that Character.AI had financing discussions last year, with a valuation exceeding $5 billion. Meanwhile, xAI completed a $6 billion financing round in May this year, with a valuation of $24 billion. Character.AI was founded in 2021 by former Google employees Noam Shazeer and Daniel De Freitas.
Telegram launches Telegram Browser and Mini App Store
Telegram CEO Pavel Durov announced that Telegram has launched Telegram Browser and a Mini App Store. The browser allows users to switch between browsing websites and messages, combining communication with news consumption, and includes features such as search, bookmarks, and multiple tabs.
The Telegram Browser allows people to view decentralized websites on TON. This opens the door to a blockchain-based web for nearly a billion users.
Additionally, users can now gift Stars to friends, who will be directed to the Mini App Store to view examples of applications that accept Stars.
U.S. Senator Cynthia Lummis formally introduces Bitcoin Strategic Reserve Act
U.S. Senator Cynthia Lummis from Wyoming formally introduced the Bitcoin Strategic Reserve Act on July 31, which will instruct the U.S. government to begin establishing a reserve fund for scarce decentralized assets.
More specifically, the act will establish a "decentralized secure Bitcoin network treasury" controlled by the U.S. Treasury, and it also instructs lawmakers and bureaucrats to develop strict cybersecurity parameters and other physical security measures to ensure that Bitcoin funds are not stolen. The act also proposes a gradual accumulation target of 1 million Bitcoins.
"What are the must-read articles from the past 24 hours"
On July 31, Eduard, the founder of StarkNet's leading derivatives platform ZKX, announced the shutdown of the platform due to an inability to find a viable economic path, stating that all user funds would be refunded to trading accounts.
According to CoinGecko data, since the announcement of the shutdown, the ZKX token has dropped over 50%, currently priced at $0.01.
However, the news of ZKX's shutdown has continued to ferment in the crypto community, as the project had just issued the ZKX token weeks ago and announced a significant $7.5 million strategic financing supported by top institutions like GCR, Amber Group, and Crypto.com, making the shutdown quite unexpected.
Investor @Ye Su posted on social media that as an investor, he did not receive any prior notice before ZKX's closure.
He added that the team claimed they ran out of money and refused to provide any financial or expenditure details, nor were they willing to communicate with investors. Most projects consider how to pivot and actively communicate during difficult times; in contrast, Edward took money from early supporters without any communication, showing a lack of ethical standards and losing the right to start a business in the industry in the future.
The Federal Reserve has maintained the target range for the federal funds rate at 5.25%-5.50% for the eighth consecutive time and reiterated that it will not cut rates until it has greater confidence in inflation, stating that the committee will simultaneously monitor inflation and employment risks.
Interview with GaiaNet CEO: Challenging giants, creating a decentralized "ChatGPT"
In 2015, Matt Wright became involved in crypto after helping a leading UK bank, Barclays, host a blockchain hackathon, and now he has been in the crypto field for nearly a decade.
Matt Wright previously worked at JPMorgan, participating in the development of the open-source blockchain platform Quorum. After Quorum was acquired by Consensys, Matt Wright joined Consensys as the community lead and later oversaw Consensys's DAO organization and its accelerator Fellowship.
Most of the time, Matt Wright has been dealing with developers. With the development of AI technology, more and more developers around him have been investing in AI-related projects.
However, Matt soon realized that the current AI field is dominated by a few centralized organizations in Silicon Valley, leading to many issues such as censorship and bias in closed-source models, high model training costs, user privacy, and IP ownership.
Therefore, Matt decided to lead his team to create a truly democratic AI infrastructure that can solve these problems, and Gaia was born in May this year. As an open-source distributed AI infrastructure project, Gaia aims to be a decentralized alternative to AI giants, seeking to decentralize AI Agent software so that AI data content providers can have rightful ownership and compensation for their data content.
Summary of "WebX 2024" peripheral activities
As one of the largest and most influential Web3 events in Asia, WebX2024 will be grandly held at the Prince Park Tower in Tokyo from August 28 to 29, 2024.
WebX2024 is hosted by Japan's top Web3 media CoinPost, gathering numerous professionals from around the world in crypto assets, blockchain, and other Web3 technologies, providing attendees with a platform to directly communicate with top companies, experts, entrepreneurs, investors, government officials, and media to explore the infinite possibilities of Web3 together.
At that time, ChainCatcher will also collaborate with DP Capital and Japan's largest Web3 media CoinPost to hold the "World's Largest Staking Gathering | Tokyo Station" sub-event on August 28 at the Prince Park Tower in Tokyo. There are still a few exhibition spots available, interested parties can contact ChainCatcher.
ChainCatcher has compiled the "WebX 2024" peripheral activities as follows:
On July 30, Starknet's ecological derivatives DEX ZKX claimed it would cease operations due to severe imbalances in income and expenditure, facing community skepticism and condemnation, especially since the protocol had announced a strategic financing of $7.6 million just over a month ago. In reality, due to tightening funding, liquidity risks, and industry downturns, the survival index of crypto projects has skyrocketed, even for those once favored by capital. According to a report by CoinGecko earlier this year, since 2024, 14,039 cryptocurrencies have "died," accounting for over 50%, with most projects emerging during the bull market of 2020 to 2021. During the last bull market, about 70% of approximately 11,000 crypto projects ceased operations.
This article by PANews compiles 35 "exited" projects that raised over $5 million in financing from last year to the present, including many projects that were once highly favored by well-known capital or backed by giants, mainly involving NFT, DeFi, and gaming sectors. Among these shutdown projects, there are both veteran projects nearing their end and newcomers that collapsed suddenly, most of which faced financial issues, market downturns, regulatory pressures, and low product adoption rates leading to their demise.
