Daily Report | Ethereum Foundation researcher Danny Ryan resigns; SEC Chairman has faced multiple death threats; Four stablecoin issuers have blacklisted two addresses including Lazarus Group
September 14 News OverviewOrganizer: Luan Peng, ChainCatcher
Important News:
- Circle will move its global headquarters to New York, planned to open in early 2025
- China's Gansu "U Business" was sentenced for aiding in USDT transactions related to black and gray industries, and illegal gains were confiscated
- ZachXBT monitoring: Four stablecoin issuers have blacklisted two addresses, including those belonging to the Lazarus Group
- First Digital CEO: Hong Kong should accelerate cryptocurrency regulation
- Data: In the past two weeks, 17 entities holding over 1000 BTC have sold or distributed their assets
- FINRA: 55% of Generation Z in the U.S. prefer to invest in cryptocurrencies
- A team claiming to be Flappy Bird fans plans to restart the game as a crypto project, users criticize it as a "crypto scam"
- The ETF Store President: Currently, there are no signs that Solana or XRP spot ETFs will be listed in the next year or two
"What important events happened in the past 24 hours"
Circle will move its global headquarters to New York, planned to open in early 2025
Circle co-founder and CEO Jeremy Allaire announced that Circle will move its global headquarters to New York City and build a flagship space on the top floor of One World Trade Center, with plans to open the new headquarters to the world in early 2025. He also stated that 2024 will be a turning point for cryptocurrency, with stablecoins beginning to achieve breakthroughs in scale, importance, and usage that year, and 2025 will be the year this concept becomes mainstream.
According to an article from the official account of the Jinchang Intermediate People's Court, recently, the Yongchang Court in Gansu, China, sentenced two cases involving telecom fraud crimes, sentencing ten defendants to prison terms ranging from ten months to one year for aiding information network criminal activities, and confiscated illegal gains of over 1.19 million yuan.
Reports indicate that since 2022, a certain individual, for illegal profit, raised funds to purchase computers, IoT cards, and other equipment, recruited four others, including Li and Chen, and later recruited more than ten people to rent houses in places like Hefei, Anhui, to establish USDT (Tether) trading studios, and formed illegal over-the-counter trading groups through Telegram software, profiting by buying low and selling high. During this period, the five repeatedly took risks, knowingly helping telecom fraudsters settle payments between Tether and RMB at "high exchange rates" despite knowing the U coins came from online gambling and telecom fraud. Meanwhile, the individual also contacted downstream "coin merchants" to settle payments through Alipay, WeChat transfers, and cash deposits as specified by upstream criminals. By the time the case was reported, the defendants had profited over 880,000 yuan, involving more than ten victims from Chengguan Town, Yongchang County, who were defrauded of over 5.9 million yuan while participating in virtual currency investments and online brushing.
The court found that the defendants used virtual currency trading activities to help telecom network fraudsters transfer funds, which had moved beyond mere virtual currency operations. Such behavior should be included as a key link in the comprehensive crackdown on telecom network fraud crimes, and the involved criminals should be punished.
According to ZachXBT monitoring, as of today, all four stablecoin issuers (Paxful, Tether, Techteryx, Circle) have blacklisted the following two addresses, which are held by the Lazarus Group with 4.96 million USD. An additional 1.65 million USD has been frozen across various exchanges, bringing the total amount frozen in this investigation to 6.98 million USD.
First Digital CEO: Hong Kong should accelerate cryptocurrency regulation
According to Cointelegraph, First Digital Trust, a stablecoin issuer based in Hong Kong, stated that Hong Kong should accelerate regulation in the digital asset space to avoid falling behind in this rapidly developing industry. Although Hong Kong is committed to becoming a global cryptocurrency hub, currently, only two virtual asset trading platforms, Hash Blockchain and OSL Digital Securities, hold full licenses, while many other exchanges are still waiting for comprehensive operating licenses.
First Digital CEO Vincent Chok stated in an interview that it is understandable for Hong Kong to adopt a more conservative and slow approach to trading regulation, as it prioritizes investor protection. However, he pointed out that he hopes to see regulations accelerate to ensure that the region does not lag behind industry developments. First Digital Trust believes that Hong Kong is not yet ready to regulate USD-backed stablecoins, while Dubai has taken a more global approach. Chok expressed hope for Hong Kong to introduce regulations for USD-backed stablecoins in the near future.
Additionally, Chok does not believe banks will rush to provide digital asset custody services, as this exceeds their risk tolerance. Many companies have already established trust structures to provide cryptocurrency custody services.
Data: In the past two weeks, 17 entities holding over 1000 BTC have sold or distributed their assets
According to on-chain analyst Ali's monitoring, in the past two weeks, 17 entities holding over 1000 BTC have sold or distributed their assets.
FINRA: 55% of Generation Z in the U.S. prefer to invest in cryptocurrencies
A survey by the Financial Industry Regulatory Authority (FINRA) shows that 55% of Generation Z in the U.S. prefer to invest in cryptocurrencies. Generation Z prefers to manage their finances on-chain rather than online. They find digital banking platforms clumsy and opaque. Generation Z prefers to manage their finances on-chain through decentralized finance applications and digital dollar stablecoins.
It is reported that Generation Z refers to those born between 1997 and 2012, currently aged 12 to 27.
According to Protos, a team claiming to be Flappy Bird fans plans to relaunch the classic game as a crypto project, but this move has faced strong opposition from users.
The new version will transform Flappy Bird into a Solana-based Web3 game and claims to be "the world's first open-source, community-owned Web 2 and Web 3 game." The project also mentions the FLAP token, which is planned to be issued on the Telegram blockchain, offering staking options and free airdrops.
However, it is currently unclear whether the token will be launched on Solana or Telegram, or if these crypto plans have been abandoned. Users have criticized the project as a "crypto scam" and expressed dissatisfaction with how the team obtained the rights to Flappy Bird.
It is reported that Flappy Bird is a bird-flying game released in 2013, which became the most popular free app on iTunes in the U.S. and China in January 2014, and was described by the UK App Store as "the new Angry Birds" in the same month. The game also became the most downloaded free app in January.
The ETF Store President Nate Geraci stated on X: "Setting aside political factors, under the current government management, it is hard to imagine any new spot cryptocurrency ETFs being listed. Given the current situation, there are no signs that Solana or XRP spot ETFs are likely to be listed in the next year or two. Whether this is good or bad may depend on the elections in November."
CFTC and SEC join forces to combat cryptocurrency fraud
The U.S. Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC) has partnered with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) and several other agencies to launch a public education campaign focused on combating cryptocurrency-related fraud, particularly "pig butchering" scams carried out through fake romantic relationships.
The CFTC, along with the American Bankers Association Foundation and federal agencies such as the FBI and IRS, has released infographics to help consumers identify scams. Collaborating with the SEC, FINRA, and the North American Securities Administrators Association (NASAA), they have issued investor warnings reminding the public not to respond to unsolicited messages and encouraging the reporting of suspicious texts.
The Nigerian government has filed criminal charges against four individuals and multiple companies, accusing them of illegally conducting cryptocurrency trading without holding a banking license, including exchanging USDT for naira.
The four defendants are Ejiogu A. Chinedu, Nnamdi F. Okereke, Oty Ugochukwu Stanley, and Chukwuebuka F. Ogumba. They are charged with violating the Banks and Other Financial Institutions Act and the Foreign Exchange Act.
This case stems from an investigation by the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) of Nigeria into alleged manipulation of the naira exchange rate and money laundering through virtual cryptocurrency trading platforms.
Previously reported, the EFCC has obtained court approval to freeze over 330,000 USD (5.486 billion naira) of suspicious funds deposited in the bank accounts of cryptocurrency users.
Ethereum Foundation researcher Danny Ryan resigns
According to The Block, Ethereum Foundation researcher Danny Ryan will exit the ecosystem after seven years of contributions to the Ethereum ecosystem.
According to a post on GitHub, Ryan's departure is due to personal reasons and is unrelated to Ethereum, core development, or any aspect of cryptocurrency, and he stated he wants to make room for other opportunities. Ryan said, "Steering the complex ship of Ethereum has been an all-consuming experience; while it has been one of the greatest experiences of my life, I am ready to let it go and make room for other things."
Ryan served as the chief coordinator for Ethereum's transition to a proof-of-stake consensus system known as The Merge and oversaw the launch of the Beacon Chain in 2021, contributing to the Ethereum Foundation's blog, including updates on Ethereum Improvement Proposals.
SEC Chairman has faced multiple death threats
Bloomberg reporters recently revealed through the Freedom of Information Act that since 2022, Gary Gensler, the Chairman of the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC), has received multiple threatening emails and voice messages from both domestic and international sources. These threats included violent language, with one person claiming they would shoot and dismember him, and another threat email with the subject "Die" coming from Australia.
Some threats may even come from government employees. Although these threats were not explicitly linked to Gensler's cryptocurrency regulatory policies, Gensler has faced ridicule and criticism from the crypto community for his crackdown on the digital asset industry. Many crypto users have publicly expressed their dissatisfaction with him on social media. At the 2024 Bitcoin conference, Donald Trump promised to fire Gensler as soon as he took office, receiving a warm response from the audience.
Currently, Gensler's term will last until 2026, but the election results may affect his future.
"What excellent articles are worth reading in the past 24 hours"
LongHash Ventures was established in 2017, and Rootdata shows that the fund has invested in hundreds of projects, including well-known projects like Polkadot, Acala, ICP, Manta, and Safe. Benefiting from DeFi Summer, LongHash Ventures has experienced a growth period, transforming from "near bankruptcy" to a fund manager with hundreds of millions of dollars.
On the evening of September 10, Longhash founder and CEO Emma Cui participated in a Space hosted by RootData titled "Dialogue with LongHash: Changes and Opportunities in Current Market Investment Logic," where she stated that the cryptocurrency industry is maturing, and Longhash has completed a shift from broad-based investment to concentrated betting style. She noted that current market valuations are high, but the bull market has not yet begun.
"Q4 of this year and Q1 of next year are worth paying attention to, mainly focusing on whether truly innovative projects emerge. Additionally, we need to pay attention to the impact of the U.S. elections in November and the signals of interest rate cuts from the Federal Reserve, as the market may change," Emma Cui stated.
Before entering the cryptocurrency industry, Emma Cui worked at McKinsey and was inspired by a Netflix documentary in 2016, unexpectedly coming into contact with the cryptocurrency industry. She joined full-time at the end of 2017 and received early investments from Hashkey and Distributed Capital in 2018, founding LongHash Ventures.
When everyone talks about re-staking, what is guaranteed is not security but profit
It has been a while since I shared these thoughts. Recently, I have been thinking about the future of re-staking, as it has been the dominant topic in the market for the past 18 months.
To simplify the discussion, I may refer to EigenLayer or AVS in this article to describe the broad concept of re-staking, but I use this term broadly to cover all re-staking protocols and the services built on them, not limited to EigenLayer.
The concept of EigenLayer and re-staking has opened Pandora's box.
Conceptually, extending the economic security of a highly liquid and globally accessible asset makes a lot of sense. This allows developers to create applications on-chain without needing to establish a brand new ecosystem for their project's exclusive token.
How will the U.S. elections, which everyone is talking about, affect the crypto market?
There is a saying in the former Soviet Union: "You may not be interested in politics, but politics is very interested in you." Politics has an undeniable impact on the operation of national machinery, whether for individuals, institutions, companies, or business operations. The crypto market is no exception.
The once-every-four-years Bitcoin halving event has had a negligible impact on BTC prices. So, what impact will the U.S. elections have on the crypto market? First, it might be worthwhile to observe the impact of the elections on traditional financial markets.
- In this episode of the podcast, hosts Dave and Capital K invited Zon and Stan, two co-founders of Initia, to discuss their innovative work in the multi-chain world and modularity. Zon expressed continued support for the show and mentioned his encounters with Dave at various conferences.
The RWA sector has been quietly "making a fortune" in this atypical bull market.
When everyone's emotions are easily swayed by memes, if you take a closer look at the data, you'll find that the tokens in the RWA track have likely performed better this year than most other sectors.
As U.S. Treasury bonds become the largest RWA, the trend of the sector being affected by macroeconomic factors will become even more apparent.
Recently, Binance Research released a long report titled “RWA: A Safe Haven for On-Chain Yields?”, providing a detailed analysis of the landscape, projects, and yield performance in the RWA sector.
