ChainCatcher news, according to The Wall Street Journal, Federal Reserve Chairman Powell has issued the strongest signal yet for a rate cut, indicating that the Fed intends to take action to prevent further weakening of the U.S. labor market.

ChainCatcher news, according to The Wall Street Journal, the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) has informed asset management companies that a spot Ethereum ETF may launch on July 23. After asset management companies submitted their final round of application documents this week, the SEC is expected to announce the effectiveness of the Ethereum ETF registration statement next Monday. Once the statement is effective, the spot Ethereum ETF can begin trading.

ChainCatcher news, the bankrupt cryptocurrency exchange FTX has reached a deal worth $884 million with more than twenty buyers, including investors from Abu Dhabi, to sell two-thirds of its stake in the artificial intelligence startup Anthropic.FTX invested $500 million in Anthropic in 2021, holding about 7.8% of the company. The sale of Anthropic shares could be the most profitable asset divestiture initiated or completed by FTX since it filed for bankruptcy in November 2022, as the company seeks to raise funds to repay creditors.

ChainCatcher news, according to The Wall Street Journal, SBF has been placed in the same cell as former Honduran President Juan Orlando Hernández, who is awaiting trial for accepting bribes from drug traffickers. According to Hernández's lawyer, the two have a good relationship and have had "friendly conversations." SBF's requests for a vegetarian diet and ADHD medication have been addressed.Meanwhile, SBF is allowed to meet with a non-lawyer visitor once a week, and he has been permitted to use a special laptop to view legal documents, although his computer use is limited to a designated room with partitioned desks. SBF's spokesperson Mark Botnick stated that SBF is "doing the best he can in this situation." Additionally, SBF has been exchanging mackerel with other inmates for services. Before his trial in November, he traded an unspecified amount of mackerel for a haircut. According to a source, SBF has also provided cryptocurrency investment advice to guards.It is reported that SBF is currently held at the Metropolitan Detention Center in Brooklyn, which is notorious for its harsh conditions. He will subsequently be transferred to a federal prison to serve his sentence. Although SBF has been convicted, he has not yet been sentenced. His sentencing is scheduled for March 28, 2024. The maximum sentence SBF currently faces is 115 years in prison, although some experts believe he will be sentenced to less than 25 years.

ChainCatcher news, The Wall Street Journal cites sources saying that regulators will impose a $4.3 billion fine on Binance, and Zhao Changpeng has agreed to resign and plead guilty to violations of anti-money laundering regulations. In addition, Zhao Changpeng will appear in federal court in Seattle tomorrow.

ChainCatcher news, according to The Wall Street Journal, former FTX General Counsel Can Sun is teaming up with several former FTX executives to establish a new cryptocurrency trading platform aimed at addressing the issues that led to FTX's bankruptcy. Can Sun testified in the SBF criminal trial and is a key witness in the SBF trial.Can Sun is currently leading a Dubai startup called Trek Labs, which plans to launch a new cryptocurrency trading platform called Backpack. Trek Labs received approval from Dubai's cryptocurrency regulatory authority last month. Sun is collaborating with former FTX employee Armani Ferrante and other former FTX executives to raise funds at a valuation of $100 million.

ChainCatcher news, according to The Wall Street Journal, a company run by former New York Stock Exchange president Tom Farley is one of three companies bidding for the remaining assets of FTX, the bankrupt cryptocurrency exchange platform founded by Sam Bankman-Fried, which is in the final stages of auction. According to insiders, the cryptocurrency exchange platform Bullish operated by Farley, fintech startup Figure Technologies, and crypto venture capital firm Proof Group are competing to acquire FTX. The winning bidder could restart the exchange platform after it plans to exit bankruptcy next year.

According to ChainCatcher news, citing sources familiar with the matter, Google has committed to investing up to $2 billion in the artificial intelligence company Anthropic. Google has already made a pre-investment of $500 million in Anthropic and agreed to gradually add an additional $1.5 billion in the future.Previously, Alameda/FTX had invested approximately $500 million in Anthropic. In February of this year, Google invested $300 million in Anthropic. In May, Anthropic announced the completion of a $450 million Series C funding round, led by Spark Capital, with participation from Google, Salesforce VC, Sound Ventures, Zoom Ventures, and others. In August, Anthropic announced an additional investment of $100 million from South Korean telecom giant SK Telecom. In September, Anthropic announced that Amazon would invest up to $4 billion in it.

ChainCatcher news, according to WSJ, the Biden administration has identified international cryptocurrency platforms commonly known as "mixers" as major money laundering centers that pose a threat to national security.The U.S. Treasury has proposed an unprecedented measure using laws typically aimed at foreign banks and foreign jurisdictions, which will require special record-keeping and reporting for any financial transactions involving international mixers. This approach, potentially targeting an entire category of transactions, is a significant regulatory measure aimed at shaping the future of the global financial system.The backdrop of this proposal is the increasing pressure from the U.S. Congress regarding the role of cryptocurrencies in funding militant organizations following the Hamas attack on Israel on October 7.The Financial Crimes Enforcement Network (FinCEN) announced the proposed new regulations on Thursday, which will be open for public comment for 90 days before potentially being adopted. The proposed regulations allow for remedial measures to be taken against the subjects.

ChainCatcher news, according to The Wall Street Journal, after reviewing the Israeli government's seizure orders and blockchain analysis reports, it was found that Hamas, the Palestinian Islamic Jihad (PIJ), and Hezbollah raised a significant amount of funds using cryptocurrency over the past year.Cryptocurrency research firm Elliptic analyzed that Israel believes digital currency wallets associated with PIJ received $93 million in cryptocurrency from August 2021 to June last year. Virtual currency analysis company BitOK also identified that approximately $41 million flowed into wallets related to Hamas during the same period, and it has not yet been confirmed whether the cryptocurrency they received was directly used to fund the recent Israeli attacks. The amount of cryptocurrency seized by Israeli authorities from the wallets is also unknown.

ChainCatcher news, according to The Wall Street Journal, Tether has once again lent its stablecoins to clients, despite the company stating less than a year ago that it would gradually reduce this practice.In its latest quarterly financial report, Tether stated that as of June 30, its reserve assets included $5.5 billion in loans, up from $5.3 billion in the previous quarter. Tether spokesperson Alex Welch confirmed that the company has issued new loans.Welch stated, "Tether received short-term loan requests from several long-term partner clients in the second quarter of 2023, and we decided to fulfill these requests. The loans will be canceled in 2024. The company's goal is to prevent clients from experiencing significant liquidity depletion or to prevent them from selling collateral at potentially unfavorable prices to avoid losses."

ChainCatcher news, according to the Wall Street Journal, Binance.US's legal chief Krishna Juvvadi and chief risk officer Sidney Majalya will be leaving. Juvvadi joined Binance.US in May last year, previously serving as the global operations compliance chief at Uber and as a trial attorney at the U.S. Department of Justice. Majalya started at Binance.US in December 2021, having previously served as Intel's chief compliance officer.Previous news, Binance.US has laid off one-third of its staff, and CEO Brian Shroder has left this week, temporarily replaced by chief legal officer Norman Reed.

ChainCatcher news, according to a report by The Wall Street Journal citing informed sources, Helen Hai, who has served as an executive at Binance since 2018, has left the company. Hai was recently responsible for leading Binance's global fiat currency business, which involved working with payment processing companies and banks to ensure that customers could exchange US dollars and other traditional currencies for digital currencies. Due to investigations by financial regulators into Binance, some fiat service providers have severed ties with the trading platform.However, as of now, Helen Hai's LinkedIn page still shows her as the head of Binance's global fiat business and the chairwoman of the Binance Charity Foundation, indicating that she has not yet left.