Daily Report | Voting begins on Election Day for the 2024 U.S. Presidential Election; Binance and Changpeng Zhao's lawyers file a motion to dismiss the SEC's amended complaint; the UK's first pension fund directly invests 3% of its assets in Bitcoin
November 5 News OverviewOrganizer: Luan Peng, ChainCatcher
Important News:
- Verifiable Data Infrastructure Vlayer Completes $10 Million Pre-seed Funding Round, with Participation from a16z CSX and Others
- UK's First Pension Fund Directly Invests 3% of Its Assets in Bitcoin
- State Bank of Pakistan Proposes Legalizing Digital Currency as Legal Tender
- Zhao Changpeng: Very Optimistic About Investment Opportunities in the Middle East, RWA Hard to Form Sufficient Trading Volume in Secondary Market
- Voting Begins on Election Day for the 2024 US Presidential Election
- ZachXBT Responds to "Deploying ERC-20z Token": Aimed at Digital Collectibles, Not Intended for Speculation on Its Investigative Work
- Rooch Network Co-founder HaiChao Stabbed in Robbery in Bangkok, Thailand Early This Morning
- Binance and Zhao Changpeng's Lawyers File Motion to Dismiss SEC's Amended Complaint
"What Important Events Happened in the Last 24 Hours"
According to The Block, verifiable data infrastructure Vlayer has completed a $10 million pre-seed funding round, with participation from a16z Crypto Startup Accelerator (CSX), Credo Ventures, BlockTower Capital, and others.
Vlayer is a crypto startup developing "verifiable data infrastructure," referring to it as "Solidity 2.0." Its goal is to enable developers to verify and integrate real-world data into Ethereum smart contracts.
Specifically, Vlayer will introduce four new features to Ethereum's Solidity language: time travel (executing smart contracts using historical on-chain data), teleportation (running contracts across multiple EVM-compatible networks), web proof/zkTLS (verifying and integrating web content, including APIs and websites), and email proof/ZK email (accessing and verifying email content).
UK's First Pension Fund Directly Invests 3% of Its Assets in Bitcoin
According to Coindesk, the UK's first pension fund has directly invested 3% of its assets in Bitcoin, with the assistance of consulting firm Cartwright, rather than through indirect means such as ETFs.
This decision was reached after in-depth discussions with the fund's trustees, focusing on ESG factors and security, with private keys managed by five independent institutions. Cartwright also plans to launch a Bitcoin employee benefits program, allowing companies to pay Bitcoin directly to employees' wallets, with several companies already expressing interest.
State Bank of Pakistan Proposes Legalizing Digital Currency as Legal Tender
The State Bank of Pakistan (SBP) announced a policy proposal on November 4, which, if approved, would legalize digital assets (such as cryptocurrencies) nationwide as legal tender. The proposal includes allowing the national bank to issue digital currency and imposing fines on unauthorized digital currency issuers. It may also promote the adoption of digital payment services, including cryptocurrency trading.
The policy proposal still requires further government approval, and if passed, could lay the groundwork for the launch of a CBDC digital rupee.
Previously, the monetary policy committee had shown opposition to cryptocurrencies, but since the appointment of the new SBP governor Muhammad Aurangzeb in March 2024, the policy direction has shifted.
According to Caixin, former Binance CEO Zhao Changpeng stated at the second Gulf Investment Forum held in Bahrain, "Many people do not know the good here."
Zhao also mentioned that he learned that Hong Kong peers are actively exploring RWA, but the price fluctuations of real-world assets are relatively small, making it difficult to form sufficient trading volume in the secondary market, and liquidity is likely to gradually shrink, waiting for innovators to propose truly liquidity-generating use cases.
Additionally, Zhao expressed strong optimism about investment opportunities in the Middle East, focusing not only on blockchain investments but also strategically positioning in AI and biotechnology in GCC countries.
It is reported that after obtaining a license from the Central Bank of Bahrain as a crypto asset service provider, Binance also received approval for a banking license from the CBB, meaning Binance has fiat entry and exit channels locally.
Voting Begins on Election Day for the 2024 US Presidential Election
Just after midnight Eastern Time on November 5, voters in the small New Hampshire town of Dixville Notch were the first to cast their votes, marking the official start of voting for the 60th US presidential election.
On-chain detective ZachXBT responded to the incident of deploying the ERC-20z token, stating, "Zora's user interface currently does not inform creators that an ERC 20 token will be launched at the end of the open edition NFT minting. If people continue to @ me in the post, I will dilute this topic with more mints that have no end date and may take other actions (replacing artworks on Zora with blank images). I never intended for people to speculate on the investigation; I just wanted a free digital collectible that could be permanently archived on the blockchain (e.g., see my previous Mirror article)."
Previously reported, according to GMGN data, the market cap of the ERC-20z token deployed by ZachXBT fell back after exceeding $14 million.
Rooch Network Co-founder HaiChao Stabbed in Robbery in Bangkok, Thailand Early This Morning
Rooch Network co-founder HaiChao stated on X that he was robbed at knife point by two men in Bangkok, Thailand early this morning, and his phone was stolen. He stated, "Please be careful not to go out alone at midnight in Bangkok. Bangkok is still a safe and interesting place, but like anywhere, one should be more cautious at night."
It is reported that Ethereum's largest annual event, Devcon, will be held in Bangkok, Thailand from November 12 to 15, along with hundreds of additional events.
Binance and Zhao Changpeng's Lawyers File Motion to Dismiss SEC's Amended Complaint
Lawyers representing Binance and former CEO Zhao Changpeng have again attempted to dismiss the lawsuit filed against them by the US Securities and Exchange Commission. They filed a motion to dismiss the amended complaint submitted by the SEC last month.
They stated that the amended complaint merely "verbally" acknowledges the previous court ruling that cryptocurrencies themselves are not securities but refuses to accept the logical conclusion of that ruling, which is that reselling these assets on the secondary market long after the developer's initial distribution is not "securities" trading. Instead, the SEC's revised complaint continues to assert that nearly all transactions involving crypto assets (including blind secondary market resales of tokens) are securities transactions because some buyers may hope the asset's value will appreciate.
K33 Research's research director Vetle Lunde released data showing that Bitcoin exchange-traded products (ETPs) experienced the second-largest single-day net outflow of the year yesterday, reaching 8,352 Bitcoin. The highest single-day net outflow this year was recorded on May 1, with 11,964 Bitcoin.
Lunde stated that this large outflow may be related to investors' risk aversion regarding the US election. Nevertheless, he emphasized that the net inflow over the past five days remains strong, totaling 14,157 Bitcoin.
The seven key swing states that will have the most significant impact on the presidential election results will close their polling stations between 7 PM and 10 PM Eastern Time (8 AM to 11 AM Beijing Time on November 6). As states begin to report results, the final outcome is expected to be announced as early as around noon Beijing time. Specifically:
Polling stations in Georgia will close at 7 PM (8 AM Beijing Time on November 6), and in North Carolina at 7:30 PM (8:30 AM Beijing Time on November 6), with initial winning trends gradually emerging. If Harris performs well in these states, it may indicate that she does not have to rely entirely on the slower-counting "blue wall" states—Michigan, Pennsylvania, and Wisconsin. Conversely, if Trump wins these two southern battleground states, Harris could still win through the "blue wall" states, but the announcement of results would be delayed.
Polling stations in Michigan and Pennsylvania will close at 8 PM Eastern Time (9 PM Beijing Time on November 6), Wisconsin and Arizona at 9 PM (10 PM Beijing Time on November 6), and Nevada at 10 PM (11 PM Beijing Time on November 6).
Google CEO Warns Employees: Stay Neutral Regardless of Who Wins
According to The Washington Post, Google CEO Sundar Pichai sent an urgent email to all employees on Monday, November 4, emphasizing that Google must maintain its position as a "trusted source of information" regardless of the election outcome. This move comes after Trump claimed that Pichai personally called to discuss his search popularity and threatened to sue Google for alleged election interference.
Compared to the strict content moderation in 2020, major tech companies are now scaling back. YouTube now allows the posting of election fraud claims, while Meta has reduced the visibility of political content. Silicon Valley seems to be focusing on avoiding conflicts with Trump supporters, who have previously been accused of bias.
Scam Sniffer posted on the X platform that in October, about 12,000 victims lost $20.2 million due to cryptocurrency phishing scams. Compared to September, the amount of stolen funds decreased by 56%, while the number of victims increased by 20%.
"What Interesting Articles Are Worth Reading in the Last 24 Hours"
Beyond the Presidency, This Seat's Election Will Deeply Impact the Future of Crypto
The US election will officially begin later today, but in addition to the highly anticipated presidential election, the election for a particular important seat is also drawing significant attention from the cryptocurrency industry, with overseas lobbying organizations even spending tens of millions of dollars in hopes that a "challenger" can unseat the "crypto enemy" in power.
This important election is for the Senate seat in Ohio, with the incumbent senator, Democratic candidate Sherrod Brown, facing off against Republican candidate Bernie Moreno.
This seat's election is of great interest to the industry because Brown currently serves as the chairman of the Senate Banking Committee, which is one of the most influential committees in the Senate, overseeing the US Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) and the Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC) … It goes without saying that those familiar with the industry know the regulatory impact these two agencies have on cryptocurrencies.
As the chairman of the Senate Banking Committee, Brown has significant influence over which bills are submitted for committee review or put to a vote in Congress, but Brown himself is an extreme opponent of cryptocurrencies, causing many cryptocurrency-related bills to be stalled in the committee, which the industry generally believes severely hinders the positive development of the sector.
Since the launch of the first stablecoin BitUSD, ten years have passed, marking an important evolution in the decentralized finance (DeFi) ecosystem. Today, stablecoins have become indispensable financial tools in this field, with a total supply exceeding $156 billion. BitUSD was launched on July 21, 2014, on the BitShares blockchain by cryptocurrency pioneers Dan Larimer and Charles Hoskinson, aiming to maintain a stable value of 1:1 with the US dollar. However, the de-pegging event in 2018 revealed the complexities of early stable models.
In contrast, modern stablecoins such as Tether (USDT) and USD Coin (USDC) rely on substantial fiat reserves and other strong mechanisms to achieve significant stability. Today's stablecoins play a crucial role in the cryptocurrency and DeFi ecosystem, providing liquidity to exchanges, supporting loans, and enabling market participants to maintain investments in digital assets without frequently converting to fiat currency.
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