Daily Report | The EU investigates Telegram over user numbers; Bankruptcy cases in the crypto industry bring over $700 million in revenue to law firms; The Ton community's digital resistance movement has garnered 4 million signatures on an open letter
News Summary for August 30整理：Luan Peng, ChainCatcher
Important News:
- Currently, over 110 companies are building Bitcoin-related businesses in Africa
- Decentralized public network Nillion launches validator program
- EU investigates Telegram over user count issues
- Data: Bankruptcy cases in the crypto industry have generated over $700 million in revenue for law firms
- Greeks.live: The fourth quarter is usually a strong period for BTC, and many whales are positioning for the October market
- The Ton community's digital resistance movement has garnered 4 million signatures on an open letter
- OKX Star responds to lending mechanism issues: An automatic currency exchange mechanism will be triggered when the borrowing limit exceeds the deposit limit
- The number of crypto companies registered with the UK's FCA has decreased by 51% over the past three years, with 186 companies withdrawing applications
"What important events occurred in the past 24 hours"
Currently, over 110 companies are building Bitcoin-related businesses in Africa
Bitcoin Magazine tweeted that currently, over 110 companies are building Bitcoin-related businesses on the African continent. The map shows that these Bitcoin activities are spread across several countries, including Nigeria, South Africa, Kenya, and Uganda. These companies and communities cover a wide range of fields, including technology development, mining, education, financial services, and media.
Decentralized public network Nillion launches validator program
The decentralized public network Nillion announced on X that it has launched a validator program. Validators will ensure the integrity of data across the network and play a key role in maintaining security and preparing for the mainnet launch. Early validators will have the opportunity to gain recognition for their contributions, allowing them to stand out in the community.
Nillion stated that as the network develops, more complex economic models will be introduced, such as token-based incentive pools, where users can add additional incentives to ensure regular data validation. Early participants will benefit from these developments, as their contributions will be highly valued within the network.
EU investigates Telegram over user count issues
According to the Financial Times, Brussels is investigating whether Telegram has violated EU digital regulations by failing to provide accurate user counts. Officials are pushing to place this controversial messaging app under stricter regulation.
EU legal and data experts suspect that the app has underreported its user numbers in the EU to keep below the 45 million threshold, as large online platforms exceeding this threshold will be subject to a series of regulations from Brussels aimed at limiting their influence.
The EU investigation coincides with a broad investigation by France into alleged criminal activities on Telegram, which led to the arrest of its founder, Russian-born billionaire Pavel Durov, on Saturday. A magistrate will decide on Wednesday night whether to file charges or release him.
Telegram stated that Durov "has nothing to hide." Durov now holds citizenship in both France and the UAE.
In February, Telegram stated it had 41 million users in the EU. Under the EU's Digital Services Act (DSA), Telegram was supposed to provide updated numbers this month, but it did not, only announcing that its "average monthly active user count in the EU is far below 45 million."
Two EU officials stated that the failure to provide new data puts Telegram in violation of the DSA and added that the EU investigation may find the actual numbers exceed the threshold set for "very large online platforms."
Such designation brings greater compliance and content moderation obligations, third-party audits, and mandatory data sharing with the European Commission.
Data shows that as of August this year, law firms handling seven cryptocurrency bankruptcy cases under Chapter 11 of the U.S. Bankruptcy Code since 2022 have requested and received a total of $751 million in fees. Among the largest bankruptcy cases in the crypto industry, the law firms earning the most fees include Sullivan & Cromwell, Kirkland & Ellis, White & Case, and Cleary Gottlieb. These four firms earned $484 million from handling cryptocurrency bankruptcy cases, accounting for 64% of all fees requested and received under Chapter 11 bankruptcy proceedings. Sullivan & Cromwell had the highest revenue at $215 million, serving as legal counsel for FTX's debtors. Kirkland & Ellis ranked second, charging its clients $120 million. The firm is a major legal advisor for debtors such as Voyager, BlockFi, and Celsius.
Greeks.live macro researcher Adam posted on social media that 62,000 BTC options are about to expire, with a Put Call Ratio of 0.59 and a maximum pain point of $61,000, with a nominal value of $3.66 billion. 530,000 ETH options are also about to expire, with a Put Call Ratio of 0.49 and a maximum pain point of $2,800, with a nominal value of $1.34 billion.
Today is the monthly settlement, and the options data clearly shows the weakness of ETH this month, with the monthly maximum pain point differing by more than 10% from the settlement price. The mid to long-term implied volatility has increased this month, while the short-term implied volatility has decreased, and currently, the overall decline space for implied volatility is limited. Based on trading data from previous years, September is generally a slightly dull month, transitioning from weak to strong, while the fourth quarter tends to be a strong period for BTC. Recently, we have also seen many whales starting to position for the October market, hoping for a good market in the last four months of the year.
The Ton community's digital resistance movement has garnered 4 million signatures on an open letter
According to the official TON TG channel, the Ton community's digital resistance movement has garnered 4 million signatures on an open letter.
The TON community stated: "Pavel Durov has been released. This is an important milestone, and the TON Association will continue to support him until he achieves full freedom. Technology is not a crime and should never be prosecuted."
Previously reported, the Ton community initiated a movement to support Telegram CEO, calling on community members to change their social media profile pictures to participate.
OKX CEO Star responded to questions regarding the OKX lending mechanism on the X platform.
He stated:
OKX's spot collateral borrowing is a C2C market between users, and OKX only provides a platform to help users with borrowing and earning needs match.
100% reserve is a fundamental responsibility of OKX. When the borrowing limit exceeds the deposit limit, the requirement for 100% reserves will trigger the platform's automatic currency exchange mechanism.
OKX has limited the maximum borrowing limit, not allowing it to exceed 100%.
Due to market activities of the Floki token, there was a large redemption from depositors at that time, causing the borrowing limit to exceed 100%, thus triggering the automatic currency exchange.
The OKX team will review the underlying design mechanism of the collateral borrowing platform to see if there are optimization solutions, and they welcome feedback from everyone.
According to Protos, based on a Freedom of Information request (FOI), the UK's Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) has spent the equivalent of 25 years processing crypto applications. The Financial Times reported that an FOI submitted by law firm Reed Smith shows that the average time for the FCA to assess crypto applications is 459 days.
From May 2023 to April 2024, the number of submitted applications dropped to 29, a significant decrease from 42 and 59 in the previous two years. Only 7 applications were submitted in the first quarter of 2024.
The report shows that the number of crypto companies registered with the FCA has decreased by 51% over the past three years, with a total of 186 companies withdrawing their applications submitted to the financial regulator.
Reed Smith partner Brett Hillis stated: "If the decline in applications is because crypto companies have given up waiting and started turning to foreign markets, this should send a clear warning about London's competitiveness."
According to The Paper, the Xuhui District People's Procuratorate in Shanghai released a report on crimes related to virtual currencies. Since 2022, the office has handled 23 criminal cases related to virtual currencies involving 45 people, with the number of cases accepted showing a continuous upward trend over the past three years. At the same time, related cases exhibit characteristics such as complex methods of operation, technical specialization, concealment, and high amounts of crime. In the cases handled, the average illegal gains of the criminals exceeded 1 million yuan, with some cases exceeding 5 million yuan.
Additionally, according to Xinmin Evening News, in response to the increasing number and amounts of virtual currency crime cases in recent years, the Xuhui District Prosecutor's Office and the Xuhui District Public Security Bureau co-signed the "Guidelines for the Disposal of Virtual Currency in Criminal Proceedings," providing more detailed and clear regulations for the entire process and various aspects involved in handling virtual currency cases, offering specific guidance for the lawful disposal of virtual currencies involved in cases.
El Salvador's president admits insufficient Bitcoin adoption; the Bitcoin experiment has not gone entirely as planned
According to Decrypt, El Salvador's president Nayib Bukele now admits that his Bitcoin experiment has not gone entirely as planned.
Nayib Bukele stated: "Bitcoin has not yet achieved the widespread adoption we expected. Many Salvadorans are using it, and most large businesses in El Salvador accept it. You can pay with Bitcoin at McDonald's, supermarkets, or hotels. But it has not reached the level of adoption we anticipated. The positive side is that it is voluntary; we have never forced anyone to adopt it. We present it as an option, and those who choose to use it have benefited from the rise of Bitcoin."
Musk and Tesla win lawsuit, dismissing Dogecoin manipulation and insider trading allegations
According to Reuters, Elon Musk and his electric vehicle company Tesla (TSLA.O) successfully won the dismissal of a federal lawsuit that accused them of defrauding investors by exaggerating the value of the cryptocurrency Dogecoin and engaging in insider trading, resulting in billions of dollars in losses. Manhattan U.S. District Judge Alvin Hellerstein issued the ruling on Thursday evening.
Investors accused the world's richest man of profiting from trades at their expense through Twitter posts, an appearance on NBC's Saturday Night Live in 2021, and other promotional stunts, using multiple Dogecoin wallets controlled by him or Tesla. They also claimed that Musk deliberately inflated the price of Dogecoin by over 36,000% over two years before letting it crash, while he and Tesla often timed their trades based on Musk's public statements and activities regarding Dogecoin.
However, Hellerstein stated that Musk's tweets about "Dogecoin being the currency of the future on Earth, usable for purchasing Tesla cars, or being sent to the moon by his company SpaceX" were "idealistic and exaggerated, not factual, and easily falsifiable," meaning that no rational investor could rely on these tweets to file a securities fraud lawsuit, thus "unable to understand" the market manipulation and insider trading allegations made by investors. Hellerstein dismissed the lawsuit with prejudice, meaning it cannot be refiled. Investors initially sought $258 billion in damages and amended their complaint four times over two years. In seeking to dismiss the lawsuit, Musk's lawyers argued that his "harmless and often silly tweets" posed no issues. They also stated that there was no evidence that Musk owned two wallets for suspicious trading or that he or Tesla had ever sold Dogecoin.
French President Macron: Unaware of Pavel Durov's arrival in France, no plans to meet him
French President Emmanuel Macron held a press conference during a diplomatic visit to Serbia. In a televised interview, the French leader told reporters that he had not invited Telegram co-founder Pavel Durov to France and was unaware of his visit.
According to the translated version of Macron's response, the French president said: "As far as I am concerned, I am completely unaware that Mr. Pavel Durov would come to France. This is normal because I do not know about people coming to France from around the world, regardless of whether they hold French nationality."
The French president reiterated that Pavel Durov's case would be handled by "the independent actions of the French judicial system." France faces widespread international backlash for its decision to arrest Durov, while Macron insists that the decision to detain the tech entrepreneur was not politically motivated.
Previously reported, sources from the French publication Canard Chain de l'Elysée indicated that Telegram founder Durov had told the police that he was supposed to have dinner with President Macron on the day of his arrest.
According to Crypto intelligence Orange, many key personnel from the Feixiaohao team have been taken away by Inner Mongolia police for investigation, and six months have passed with no clear reason, possibly due to the involvement of Feixiaohao with some fraudulent exchanges and problematic tokens. Currently, there are still teams claiming to be Feixiaohao in the market, but they may not be the original team. Crypto media Wu Says has also confirmed this information through relevant channels.
According to Web3 asset data platform RootData, Feixiaohao is one of the earliest cryptocurrency data platforms in China's blockchain industry.
"What excellent articles are worth reading in the past 24 hours"
Gavin Wood: How to prevent witch attacks for effective airdrops?
Gavin has recently been focusing on the issue of witch attacks (civil resistance). PolkaWorld reviewed Dr. Gavin Wood's keynote speech at Polkadot Decoded 2024, aiming to explore Gavin's insights on how to prevent witch attacks.
OKX Ventures: A detailed explanation of the six core asset markets in the RWA track
In the current market environment, "Real-World Assets" (RWA) are rapidly emerging. In July this year, CoinGecko pointed out in its Q2 2024 crypto industry report that Meme Coins, artificial intelligence, and RWA have become the hottest categories, accounting for 77.5% of web traffic.
Traditional financial giants such as Citigroup, BlackRock, Fidelity, and JPMorgan have also entered the market. According to data from Dune Analytics, the growth of the RWA narrative ranks second this year, increasing by 117%, second only to Meme. This article will comprehensively outline the current development status and future opportunities in the RWA track.
Garry Gensler is the current chairman of the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission, a figure who has undergone a significant reputation shift in the crypto community, going from being highly anticipated to facing severe criticism. According to Coinbase founder Brian Armstrong, in just a few years, Gensler has transformed from a lecturer in blockchain courses at MIT to the number one "sniper" in the crypto community, all due to his political identity.
Vitalik's thoughts on DeFi debate: The communication gap between 1% developers and 90% traders
This article is divided into three parts:
1. The importance of effective communication, including with ordinary users and partners. The introduction uses a general example and sets the background for the topic.
2. 1-9-90: The second part discusses the 1-9-90 guideline and my interpretation of it. This can be widely applied to the self-starting of any community.
3. The difficulty of maintaining consistent communication in large groups and potential situations where it may no longer be necessary (today's Ethereum). You can view the third part as an engaging overview of the Ethereum debates from the past week, which are also part of the same issue. Does 1-9-90 apply to Ethereum? This is one of the questions discussed in this section.
Two days ago, I became MakerDAO …
To bring firsthand news to readers, FN members are constantly monitoring various information sources. I am no exception ------ so I learned right away that "Maker has rebranded."
Firsthand information often lacks details, so to provide readers with complete and effective information, we often delve deeply ------ What exactly has Maker rebranded into? Clicking on its official Twitter, everything seems the same; refreshing, the nickname has changed to Sky, but the username remains the same.
Like our users, FN members are sharp and can infer and distill actionable insights from information. I am no exception ------ the nickname has changed, so the username should change too. Now I’m going to modify the username; maybe I can snag this special username?
Smoothly, surprisingly smoothly. Soon I found myself in front of the screen, staring at the modified username and my slender jade fingers, lost in thought ------ Am I really a genius?
