Weekly Report | A draft of the Trump family's cryptocurrency project white paper shows that 70% of the token WLFI will be reserved for its insiders; Hunter Biden, the second son of Biden, will plead guilty to federal tax crimes, facing up to 17 years in prison
In the past two months, over $200 million in financing has been raised. What new trends are emerging in Web3 payments with the involvement of Sequoia, Temasek, and Tether?; Penpie was hacked for over $27 million. Will the $1.3 billion ecosystem of Magpie be affected?; As Polkadot plummets by 50%, Gavin Wood decides to become a DJ.Organizer: Luan Peng, ChainCatcher
"What Important Events Happened This Week (9.2-9.8)"
1、South African Revenue Service May Use AI to Track Non-Compliant Cryptocurrency Traders
According to Bitcoin.com, the South African government is strengthening its regulation of cryptocurrency trading. The tax authority (SARS) is issuing tax notices and clarifying relevant regulations, potentially using artificial intelligence (AI) to identify non-compliant traders.
The South African Reserve Bank (SARB) has clarified its stance on the purchase of crypto assets. According to SARB regulations, individuals can purchase crypto assets using a single discretionary allowance or foreign exchange capital allowance, but companies cannot invest in crypto assets through the foreign direct investment incentive program. SARB also stated that cross-border or foreign exchange transfers solely for the purpose of purchasing crypto assets are not permitted.
2、Circle VP: The U.S. May Be Falling Behind the World in Stablecoin Regulation
According to Decrypt, Circle Vice President Yam Ki Chan stated during Korea Blockchain Week that U.S. federal-level stablecoin regulation may be lagging behind other major regions globally.
Compared to the EU's MiCA regulations and Hong Kong's stablecoin framework, the U.S. has yet to establish a national unified regulatory approach. Currently, U.S. states primarily regulate stablecoins based on existing money transmission laws, leading to fragmented regulation. Although the "2023 Payment Stablecoin Clarity Act" has passed in the House committee, it still requires further legislative procedures. Chan emphasized that the U.S. needs to upgrade its regulatory framework and believes that the upcoming elections could be an opportunity to reshape discussions on cryptocurrency policy.
Recently, Ethereum Foundation key member Justin Drake appeared on the "Developer Stories" program launched by OKX Web3 and ChainCatcher, discussing various topics such as technical improvements in Ethereum 2.0, consensus mechanisms, scalability, security, DeFi, user experience, ecosystem, environmental impact, and future development and strategy. He stated that the EF (Ethereum Foundation) is often seen as "governing by doing nothing" in promoting ecosystem development, a style that has faced some controversy. He believes that it is a good thing that EF's role in the ecosystem is diminishing. Justin Drake mentioned that EF's responsibilities are now mainly limited to:
- 1) Hosting one Devcon or Devconnect each year, which is now just one of many conferences, with many side events being more important than the main venue.
- 2) An execution client: Geth, one of the five execution clients, but EF does not maintain any consensus clients.
- 3) Providing funding: Offering tens of millions of dollars in unconditional funding to the broader community each year, which has led to a decrease in EF's ETH financial reserves. In the long run, a reduction in ETH held by the Ethereum Foundation is beneficial, as EF currently controls 0.23% of the ETH supply, and bringing this number closer to 0% over the coming decades is healthy as it promotes the decentralization of the Ethereum ecosystem.
- 4) Call coordination: Many conference calls are hosted by EF members, such as All Core Devs (ACD) hosted by Tim Beiko, All Devs Consensus (ACDC) hosted by Alex Stokes, RollCall hosted by Ansgar Dietrichs and Carl Beekhuizen, Sequencing and pre-meetings hosted by himself, and MEV-boost conference calls hosted by Alex Stokes.
- 5) Research: This may still be one of the centralized areas, but some EF research teams may become independent.
- 6) Roadmap formulation: Vitalik updated the roadmap diagram, followed by dozens of tasks developed in parallel by different teams.
4、DeFi Project Penpie Hacked, Losing $27 Million
The independent decentralized finance protocol Penpie, built on Pendle, was hacked this morning, resulting in a loss of approximately $27 million in customer funds.
Previously, Penpie had suspended all deposit and withdrawal operations, and a Pendle spokesperson confirmed that customer funds were safe and all contracts were suspended until the issue was resolved.
According to Immunfi, over $1.2 billion has been stolen through 154 hacking and exploitation incidents in 2024 so far. Immunfi founder and CEO Mitchell Amador stated that while most vulnerabilities occur in the DeFi space, vulnerabilities in CeFi infrastructure have caused the largest economic losses.
PeckShield reported that losses from hacking in August 2024 exceeded $313 million, with two major attacks stealing approximately $238 million in Bitcoin and $55 million in Dai.
A report from Scam Sniffer indicated that losses from phishing attacks surged by 215% in August 2024, with a single attack stealing $55 million.
FOX Business senior reporter Charles Gasparino stated on X that Wall Street research shows Kamala Harris still slightly leads Donald Trump. Even if she is elected, the possibility of a divided government remains. Researchers also noted that if Trump wins, Republicans could sweep Congress, securing majorities in both the Senate and House, similar to 2016.
6、Brazil Now Has 16 Cryptocurrency ETFs, BLP, Hashdex, and QR Asset as Major Fund Managers
Brazil now has 16 cryptocurrency ETFs, along with other crypto-related funds. The first crypto ETF in Brazil was approved in 2020, with BLP launching a crypto investment fund in Brazil in 2017.
BLP, Hashdex, and QR Asset are the major cryptocurrency fund managers in Brazil. More than half of the 16 cryptocurrency ETFs come from Hashdex (6 funds) and QR Asset (4 funds). Hashdex and QR's crypto asset risk exposure can be as high as 100%.
7、Biden's Son Hunter Biden to Plead Guilty to Federal Tax Crimes, Facing Up to 17 Years in Prison
Hunter Biden, the son of U.S. President Joe Biden, will plead guilty today to federal tax crimes, including multiple felonies, facing up to 17 years in prison.
Hunter Biden has been charged with nine tax crimes, including three felony charges. Prosecutors allege he failed to pay $1.4 million in federal taxes and evaded taxes by submitting tax returns with fraudulent business deductions. They also accuse Biden of spending money on luxury cars, hotels, and sex workers instead of paying taxes on time. President Joe Biden has repeatedly stated that he will not pardon his son in these two cases. It is unclear whether the president's thoughts have changed after abandoning his re-election campaign, but he still has the ability to pardon his son or commute his sentence.
According to Coindesk, CoinDesk has obtained a draft white paper for the Trump family's crypto project, World Liberty Financial. The draft indicates that 70% of the project's "governance" crypto token WLFI will be "held by founders, team members, and service providers."
According to the white paper, the remaining 30% will be distributed through "public sales," with some of the raised funds also going to insiders of the project, and some funds will be kept in the treasury "to support the operations of World Liberty Financial."
However, insiders revealed that World Liberty Financial has not finalized its plans.
Trump stated on Thursday that if he wins the election in November, he will establish a government efficiency committee led by Musk. The committee will develop an action plan to eliminate fraud and improper payments within six months. This could save the U.S. trillions of dollars while maintaining the level of government services. Musk wrote on X: "If given the opportunity, I look forward to serving America. No compensation, no title, no recognition needed." (Jin Shi)
The Indian Financial Intelligence Unit (FIU) plans to approve two more offshore cryptocurrency exchanges to restart operations in the country.
Reports indicate that the financial intelligence agency (FIU), responsible for India's anti-money laundering (AML) compliance, is reviewing requests from four overseas cryptocurrency exchanges that were previously banned for non-compliance with the country's anti-money laundering regulations.
Insiders stated, "We have received requests from four more offshore cryptocurrency exchanges to operate in India, and we expect at least two of them to be allowed to resume operations by the end of the 2025 fiscal year. This decision will be made after a thorough review of transaction visibility, suspicious transaction reporting, and other related issues."
It is reported that in January of this year, the Indian financial intelligence agency (FIU) blocked the URLs and mobile applications of nine foreign cryptocurrency exchanges for failing to comply with the country's anti-money laundering regulations.
"What Great Articles Are Worth Reading This Week (9.2-9.8)"
In the recently quieter Web3 market, Web3 payments have been one of the more active sectors.
Solana, Binance, and Coinbase are all emphasizing Web3 payments.
Lily Liu, chair of the Solana Foundation, presented the PayFi concept at major Web3 conferences like EthCC this year, claiming its market size could far exceed that of DeFi. Binance Research recently released a research report on Web3 payments titled “Blockchain Payments: A Fresh Start”, detailing the impact of blockchain on global payments. The CEO of Coinbase also recently announced participation in a new track related to AI crypto payments.
In the context of an overall downturn in the Web3 investment and financing market, Web3 payments have also been one of the hottest financing tracks in the past quarter.
According to statistics from the Web3 asset data platform RootData, in the past two months, Web3 payments announced 15 financing rounds, with a total amount exceeding $200 million, and large financings have been frequent.
ChainCatcher statistics show that in the past two months, there have been a total of 11 financings exceeding $30 million, with nearly 40% coming from Web3 payments. Among them, the stablecoin payment platform Bridge and the blockchain payment and settlement technology platform Partior both secured over $50 million in financing.
From the perspective of investors, recent financings in Web3 payment projects have attracted major players from various fields such as payments, stablecoins, and traditional finance. Visa, Tether, Circle, JPMorgan, and Standard Chartered are all eager to enter the market, while top-tier capital like Sequoia Capital and Temasek are also placing their bets.
2、Penpie Hacked for Over $27 Million, Will the $1.3 Billion Ecosystem of Magpie Be Affected?
On September 5, Penpie, a yield product built on the yield tokenization protocol Pendle, stated in its latest security incident report that the hack resulted in a loss of over $27 million worth of ETH.
According to DeFiLlama, the total value locked (TVL) in the Penpie platform is approximately $90 million, with hackers stealing about one-third of the assets on the platform.
Although the Penpie protocol is not well-known in the crypto space, the DeFi protocols involved have a significant impact on the crypto industry. Firstly, the underlying yield tokenization protocol Pendle controls approximately $2.5 billion in yield-bearing assets such as LST, LRT, and stablecoins; additionally, as one of the subDAO products created by Magpie, the value of the locked crypto assets within the Magpie ecosystem has exceeded $1.3 billion.
3、As Polkadot Plummets 50%, Gavin Wood Decides to Become a DJ
Earlier this year, after Polkadot's students concluded a five-week developer boot camp in Hong Kong, they celebrated with a party. At the graduation ceremony, members of the DeFi network saw a familiar face behind the DJ booth—Gavin Wood, co-founder of Polkadot and one of the architects of Ethereum.
At 44 years old, Gavin Wood, who has played a key role in building the DeFi ecosystem for a decade, is now returning to his original passion—music. Wood told DL News, "If you see any articles related to DJ Wasabi, that's me."
4、Quick Overview of AI+DePIN Project EMC Funded by Amber Group, Polygon, and Others
With the rapid rise of AI technology and decentralized physical infrastructure networks (DePIN) in Web3, GPU-based computing DePIN is becoming a hot topic in the industry. Several projects such as Render, IoTeX, Helium, and io.net are making significant progress. Recently, EMC announced the successful completion of $20 million in strategic financing, and the following will introduce EMC.
On the evening of September 3, at the "Navigating Bull and Bear Markets: Insights Behind VC Investments" Space hosted by RootData, invited guest Jason Kam, founder of Folius Ventures, shared his views on current market investment strategies.
Folius Ventures is a hybrid investment firm with a fund size of approximately $230 million, with teams located in various regions of Asia, such as Shanghai, Shenzhen, Hong Kong, and Tokyo, and tends to support entrepreneurs in the Asia-Pacific region and among Chinese communities. The investment focus is mainly on application layers, such as centralized exchanges, SaaS software, mobile applications, and games.
Jason Kam believes that the cautious investment approach of VCs is due to a pessimistic view of the current market cycle and that the reliance on short-term high-frequency investment exit strategies over 6-12 months needs to be restructured.
Recommended for collection! The report highlights key aspects of the blockchain ecosystem in major Latin American countries, focusing on their cryptocurrency ecosystems, regulations, and key players.
7、A Look Back at Sony's 8-Year Web3 Layout, Why Not to Overestimate Layer2 "Soneium"?
Recently, Sony Group announced it will launch Layer2 "Soneium" on Ethereum, attempting to drive large-scale adoption of Web3 and bringing a lot of imagination space to Web3.
This Japanese giant, with a market capitalization of over $100 billion and nearly 80 years of history, has businesses covering consumer electronics, gaming, film, music, finance, and more, establishing subsidiaries or factories in over 140 countries and regions worldwide.
According to Sony's 2023 financial report, its net profit for the entire year of 2023 was 970.6 billion yen (approximately $6.619 billion).
Whether in terms of bringing a large number of Web2 users to Web3 or potential financial investment, it seems to be a positive signal for Web3.
In fact, this is not Sony's first foray into Web3. Since announcing its investment in blockchain research in 2016, Sony has been involved in various Web3 subfields such as hardware wallets, metaverse/blockchain games, NFTs, stablecoins, and crypto exchanges.
However, in the long innovation cycle of the Web3 field, Sony may also struggle to escape the shackles of "big company syndrome." On one hand, while its reach is broad, the eagerness for quick success can lead to abandonment midway; on the other hand, it often selectively applies technologies like blockchain, where marketing hype may outweigh actual implementation.
For the Web3 industry, perhaps there should not be overly high expectations for traditional giants' participation in this wave of innovation.
8、Behind Orderly Network's Million-Dollar Revenue: Building a "Liquidity Central Kitchen"
The booming development of multi-chain and Layer2 ecosystems has provided users and developers with more choices, but it has also exacerbated the issues of liquidity fragmentation and disconnection between networks. However, whether for users, LPs, or DEX project parties, there is an urgent need for an efficient solution to address global liquidity mobilization across multiple chains.
Orderly Network, covering a full-chain cloud liquidity infrastructure, is reshaping the cross-chain trading experience for DeFi users with its innovative liquidity-sharing concept. By integrating the liquidity of all-chain assets, it provides a one-stop solution for DEX-like platforms or products with liquidity needs to address depth and cross-chain issues caused by liquidity fragmentation.
Founder Ran Yi has repeatedly emphasized in public that Orderly Network is not a DEX but a liquidity infrastructure serving DEX-like products. It offers users a plug-and-play liquidity solution that can easily integrate liquidity, lowering development barriers and making the DeFi trading experience as efficient and smooth as on CeFi platforms.
On August 16, Orderly Network announced the completion of a $5 million strategic round of financing, with participating investment institutions including OKX Ventures, Manifold Trading, Nomad Capital, and others.
As the U.S. elections approach, the recent actions of Trump, one of the presidential candidates, have attracted significant attention. In particular, the crypto project World Liberty Financial, led by Trump's son, has garnered attention from the crypto industry and the global financial sector.
Recently, CoinDesk revealed numerous issues in the draft white paper of the project, especially the unreasonable token distribution ratio and the centralization of governance structure, which seems to contradict the project's previous claim of "returning the power of finance to the people." World Liberty Financial subsequently responded to CoinDesk's report, but aside from some irrelevant answers, there was no mention of governance and token distribution. This not only failed to dispel public concerns but also backfired, increasing doubts about the project's fairness. (Note: The source of the white paper draft is from someone in Trump's inner circle.)
Integrating existing market information to unveil the mystery of the World Liberty Financial project for readers.
10、What Changes Will MATIC Upgrade to POL Bring? What Are the Implications?
After MATIC upgrades to POL, what changes will occur in the token economics, and what impact will it have on the future value of POL tokens? This article will explore this together.
Polygon announced two major plans in its roadmap last year. The first plan is to upgrade the Polygon PoS chain to the ZkEVM Validum chain for higher scalability and faster finality, while connecting to AggLayer. The second plan is to launch the POL token through a 1:1 migration of MATIC to POL.
