Daily Report | Harris stated that the U.S. will dominate the blockchain field and reiterated support for digital assets; decentralized crypto exchange SphereX announced that its mainnet is now live
September 26 News OverviewOrganizer: Luan Peng, ChainCatcher
Important News:
- X platform releases its first transparency report, taking action against only 2,361 hate content accounts in the first half of this year
- Binance still provides services to some users in Russia since announcing its exit from the market last year
- Bloomberg: Dubai imposes stricter regulations on cryptocurrency investment marketing
- LongHash Ventures partner: Funds for both funds and direct investments are running out, the entire market is bullish in Q4 this year and Q1 next year
- Japan's Financial Services Agency issues a business improvement order to DMM Bitcoin
- Decentralized crypto exchange SphereX announces mainnet launch
- New York Department of Financial Services head: Welcomes federal cryptocurrency legislation, but states should retain regulatory responsibilities
- Police in Dagestan, Russia raid underground illegal cryptocurrency mining site, seizing 17 devices
"What important events happened in the past 24 hours"
According to Solidot, since Elon Musk acquired its predecessor Twitter in 2022, the X platform has released its first transparency report. Unlike Twitter's previous 50-page reports published every six months, X's first report is only 15 pages long.
The data shows that in 2021, Twitter received 11.6 million reports and took action against 4.3 million accounts, with 1.3 million accounts banned. In contrast, X received 22.4 million reports in the first half of 2024 and banned 5.2 million accounts.
Notably, X only took action against 2,361 hate content accounts, far fewer than Twitter's previous handling of 1 million hate content accounts. Turkey was the country with the most content removal requests, with X fulfilling 60% of those requests.
According to Cointelegraph, since Binance announced its exit from Russia in September last year, traffic to its local website has significantly decreased.
Data shared by web analytics platform SimilarWeb shows that from August 2023 to July 2024, Binance's website traffic in Russia dropped by 43%. Despite the noticeable decline, Russia remains one of the largest sources of traffic to Binance's website during this period, accounting for 6% of its total visits. The traffic share from Russia is comparable to other major markets for Binance, including Turkey and Vietnam, which account for 8% and 6.6% of its total traffic, respectively. Binance declined to disclose whether its substantial traffic share in Russia or certain services provided to Russian users indicates that the company is still operating or resuming operations in the market.
A Binance spokesperson stated, "We will continue to provide services to a limited number of existing Russian users to ensure their digital assets are safe." The representative emphasized that the cryptocurrency exchange "complies with global sanctions regulations" and "fully adheres to restrictions on individuals, entities, and countries subject to international sanctions."
Bloomberg: Dubai imposes stricter regulations on cryptocurrency investment marketing
Dubai's cryptocurrency regulatory authority has updated its marketing guidelines for virtual assets, requiring companies to include disclaimers that clearly outline investment risks when marketing.
Starting October 1, companies promoting virtual assets in the UAE must include a "prominent" disclaimer stating that "virtual assets may partially or completely lose their value and are subject to extreme volatility," the Dubai Virtual Assets Regulatory Authority (VARA) announced on Thursday.
VARA CEO Matthew White stated, "We believe that by providing clear and actionable guidance, we can help virtual asset service providers (VASPs) operate responsibly while fostering trust and transparency in the market."
LongHash Ventures partner emmacui.eth shared insights on Token2049 and Solana Breakpoint on X.
Key points include:
Funds for both funds and direct investments are running out. Western general partners (GPs) are flocking to Asia for fundraising. Those unable to raise their next fund are seeking to change investment mandates to recover capital. Funds are lowering their fundraising targets. The distributed capital return rate (DPI) for allocated capital from 2021 and beyond is very poor, while multiple on invested capital (MOIC) is difficult to compare.
Infra fatigue is real. There are over 700 side events, most of which are infrastructure projects. Everyone is trying to find a granular narrative to distinguish themselves from other infrastructure projects in the same category.
Solana Breakpoint is refreshing. The event is filled with developers rather than BD personnel.
The entire market is bullish in Q4 of 2024 and Q1 of next year. The main catalysts are interest rate cuts and the U.S. presidential election. We have already seen price movements following Token2049.
Reputation matters. As cryptocurrency matures, its surface area becomes larger. Investors/projects can conduct due diligence (DD) on specific founders/projects/investors in more ways. We are starting to see people put more effort into DD before investing/hiring/joining projects. This is a sign of maturity.
Japan's Financial Services Agency issues a business improvement order to DMM Bitcoin
According to the official website, Japan's Financial Services Agency stated that based on Article 63-16 of the Japanese Securities Law, the Kanto Local Finance Bureau issued a business improvement order to the cryptocurrency exchange DMM Bitcoin.
Decentralized crypto exchange SphereX announces mainnet launch
Decentralized crypto exchange SphereX announced the official launch of its mainnet, which is supported by the Layer-2 scaling technology of zkLink Nova. SphereX aims to ensure lower gas fees, facilitate more frequent transactions, achieve high trading volumes, and seamless scalability.
New York Department of Financial Services (NYDFS) head Adrienne Harris stated that she welcomes federal cryptocurrency legislation but believes states should retain regulatory responsibilities.
Adrienne Harris said, "We may be more eager than anyone to work with federal partners and see the introduction of federal legislation and regulation. I think the passage of legislation and the establishment of regulations are very important, but states should still retain their regulatory roles."
Adrienne Harris expressed "optimism" that the House and Senate may soon push related legislation, noting that NYDFS has engaged in dialogue with lawmakers from both chambers and both parties over the past few years.
Additionally, Harris stated that NYDFS has one of the largest cryptocurrency departments in the world, with 60 full-time employees focused on the cryptocurrency industry.
Police in Dagestan, Russia raid underground illegal cryptocurrency mining site, seizing 17 devices
According to Cryptonews, police in Dagestan, Russia, in conjunction with energy officials, raided an underground cryptocurrency mining hideout in Makhachkala, discovering 17 mining devices. A video released by the cabinet shows these devices operating in a small space several meters underground.
Officials stated that the mining site was operated by "electricity thieves," and miners have begun establishing underground mining sites and mobile mining units in various locations.
Furthermore, these illegal mining activities caused a fire at the local 110 kV Novaya substation, resulting in power outages in parts of the capital for several days. The government plans to invest approximately 3 billion rubles (about 32.5 million USD) to repair the damaged energy facilities.
Pro-cryptocurrency New York City Mayor Eric Adams indicted on corruption charges
According to Cointelegraph, pro-cryptocurrency New York City Mayor Eric Adams has been indicted on corruption charges, becoming the first sitting mayor in New York history to face charges while in office.
These charges were brought after an investigation by the FBI in November 2023, which searched Adams' personal electronic devices, suspecting he received illegal donations from the Turkish government in 2021.
Eric Adams has been a long-time supporter of cryptocurrency, receiving his first three salary checks in BTC and ETH, and promised to make New York "the center of the cryptocurrency industry" when he was elected mayor in 2021.
South Korean police are pursuing a gang that robbed victims under the guise of virtual asset trading
The Central Seoul Police Station is pursuing a gang that robbed victims under the pretext of virtual asset trading. The gang threatened the victim violently on the 23rd in an apartment office in central Seoul, forcibly taking a bag containing about 180 million won in cash. The victim had intended to conduct a face-to-face virtual asset transaction in their office at the time of the crime and refused to hand over the money, stating, "I haven't received the coins yet."
Police have arrested four suspects, including the main perpetrator, and have applied for an arrest warrant for the main perpetrator while tracking the whereabouts of the remaining three suspects.
OpenAI CEO announces major personnel changes at the company, refocusing on technology and products
OpenAI founder and CEO Sam Altman announced on social media that significant personnel changes are occurring at the company, with Chief Technology Officer Mira Murati, Chief Scientist Bob, and another executive Barret leaving. Altman stated that these decisions are independent and amicable. Mark will take over as Senior Vice President of the research department, leading the research team alongside Chief Scientist Jakub. Josh Achiam will serve as the mission alignment director, while Kevin and Srinivas will continue to lead the applications team, and Matt Knight will become the Chief Information Security Officer.
Altman emphasized that although this change is sudden, the leadership transition is a natural result of the company's rapid growth. He plans to refocus on the company's technology and products and will discuss these changes further in an all-hands meeting.
U.S. Vice President Harris stated in a speech at the Pittsburgh Economic Club on Wednesday that under her leadership, the U.S. will "recommit" to maintaining global leadership in defining the next century, particularly in artificial intelligence, quantum computing, blockchain, and other emerging technologies.
Recently, at a Wall Street fundraising event in Manhattan, Harris stated that artificial intelligence and cryptocurrency are part of her vision for an "opportunity economy."
Harris reiterated this point in an 80-page economic plan: "We will encourage innovative technologies such as artificial intelligence and digital assets while protecting consumers and investors. We will create a safe business environment with consistent and transparent road rules."
"What are the must-read articles from the past 24 hours"
Interview with Puffpaw founder Reffo: Smoking "mining" is cool, but how to implement it?
Good news for smokers, soon smoking will also be a way to earn money.
To be precise, this is a project aimed at helping people quit smoking; smoking is just the behavior, and the goal is to quit smoking, with the mechanism being X-To-Earn.
The project Puffpaw, which focuses on "earning money by quitting smoking" on Berachain, announced on September 5 that it has completed a $6 million seed round of financing. Additionally, as the first DePIN project on Berachain, Puffpaw has received support from the Berachain Foundation.
"We are currently developing our own e-cigarettes and sensor devices. At this stage, we are launching a completely new proprietary e-cigarette brand. By exploring Web3, we aim to enhance consumer experience and help people quit smoking. In the future, our sensors will support more e-cigarette brands; selling e-cigarettes and cartridges is not our ultimate business goal," Puffpaw founder Reffo stated in an exclusive interview with ChainCatcher.
Reffo and two other partners are already in the e-cigarette industry, having their own brand in the U.S. and a complete supply chain covering production, OEM, and tobacco. After spending some time in the Web3 industry, Reffo gradually articulated the "earning money by smoking" concept, which combines e-cigarettes and blockchain into an e-commerce application scenario, and began working on this idea at the end of last year.
Currently, Puffpaw has completed the preliminary development of e-cigarettes and hardware, and the team has expanded to 15 people. They plan to launch a TG mini-game in October and use NFTs for a cold start.
Interestingly, Reffo also mentioned that the choice of Berachain was due to its culture and community consensus aligning well with the project, and also because the name of Berachain's founder "Smokey" sounds related to smoking.
Why did SBF's ex-girlfriend Caroline Ellison receive only a two-year prison sentence?
On September 25, U.S. Judge Lewis Kaplan sentenced Caroline Ellison (former co-CEO of Alameda Research and SBF's ex-girlfriend), the key witness in the case against former FTX CEO SBF (Sam Bankman-Fried), to two years in prison. Ellison will also forfeit approximately $11 billion and may serve her sentence in a "minimum security prison."
29-year-old Ellison pleaded guilty about two years ago (in December 2022) to seven charges, including two counts of conspiracy to commit wire fraud, two counts of actual wire fraud, one count of conspiracy to commit commodities fraud, one count of conspiracy to commit securities fraud, and one count of conspiracy to commit money laundering, facing a maximum sentence of 110 years. She testified against SBF for nearly three days during the trial last November.
Binance makes another move; will pre-market trading trigger a BNB flywheel effect?
Last night, according to Binance's official information, Binance has launched a pre-market trading service, allowing users to build positions before tokens are listed on the spot market. Additionally, in an interview with The Block, a Binance spokesperson pointed out that while other cryptocurrency exchanges also offer pre-market trading, it is typically limited to derivatives trading, whereas Binance is "the first exchange to offer real token trading for users during pre-market trading," with tokens specifically allocated and generated for users to hold and trade on the Binance platform before listing.
The key difference between Binance's pre-market trading service and other centralized exchanges is that Binance's pre-market trading involves "spot" trading, while other exchanges mainly trade "futures." Below, Odaily will analyze Binance's spot pre-market trading service, including participation processes, product features, and potential impacts on the market.
(Any opinions expressed in this article are solely those of the author and should not be construed as the basis for investment decisions or as recommendations or advice for engaging in investment trading.)
This week has been truly shocking. If you missed the Token2049 conference held in Singapore last week, I feel sorry for you. Over 20,000 enthusiastic participants expressed their excitement in various ways. I have attended nearly every event since the Singapore night F1 race began, but I have never seen the city so vibrant.
The attendance at Token2049 doubled compared to last year. I heard that some lesser-known projects charged as much as $650,000 for speaking fees on smaller stages.
Token price doubles, TVL returns, reanalyzing the recovery of the leading DeFi project Aave
Lending leader Aave (AAVE) has shown a reverse trend independent of the sector's weak performance over the past few months. While the tokens of many established DeFi protocols have remained stagnant, AAVE's price has quietly doubled—from around $80 on August 5 to over $170 now.
With the Federal Reserve officially entering a rate-cutting cycle, discussions about the return of "altcoin season," especially calls for "DeFi's resurgence," have become increasingly prominent, and Aave seems to have led the recovery. In the following article, Green Light Capital reanalyzes Aave's current fundamental situation from multiple dimensions, which may help investors clarify the logic behind AAVE's rise and future trend expectations.
