ChainCatcher news, according to Jinshi reports, recently, former World Bank President and former U.S. Deputy Secretary of State Robert Zoellick stated that tariffs not only increase corporate costs but also reduce productivity. Both China and the United States will be negatively affected by such policies.He emphasized that tariffs not only harm the healthy economic and trade relationship between China and the U.S., but the tariffs imposed by the U.S. on Canada and Mexico also severely impact the North American automotive industry. "Therefore, I believe these tariff policies are not the right decision," Zoellick stated.However, he also mentioned that tariffs are sometimes used as a negotiation tool. He pointed out that the U.S. may use tariffs as a means to pressure other countries. For example, the U.S. attempts to exert pressure on China regarding issues such as fentanyl through increased tariffs.

ChainCatcher News, China National Printing and Minting Corporation issued a statement on March 13: "Recently, our company has received reports from the public that illegal individuals are impersonating our company to sell virtual currencies on websites and apps. We hereby solemnly declare that our company has never sold virtual currencies through any means. We urge the public to be cautious and avoid falling victim to scams to prevent financial losses."

ChainCatcher news, according to CoinDesk, the China-U.S. trade war has escalated again. China announced a 15% tariff on U.S. imports of wheat, corn, cotton, and chicken, while imposing an additional 10% tax on sorghum, soybeans, pork, beef, seafood, fruits, and vegetables, expected to take effect from March 10. This move comes after U.S. President Trump announced an increase in tariffs on Chinese imports to 20%. Additionally, Trump confirmed that a 25% tariff will be imposed on goods from Mexico and Canada.This tax increase has triggered risk aversion in the market, affecting both the stock and cryptocurrency markets. As of the time of writing, the price of Bitcoin (BTC) is approximately $84,200, down 2% from the previous day.

ChainCatcher news, according to NetEase Qingliu Studio, Wang Shuiming, a native of Anxi, Fujian, who was arrested in connection with Singapore's largest money laundering case, has been captured in Montenegro and will be extradited back to China. Wang Shuiming's partner, Su Weiyi, has been confirmed as the mastermind behind the Hong Kong cryptocurrency platform scam AAX, and was arrested by Hong Kong police in July 2024.In November 2022, Atom Asset Exchange suddenly became unable to process withdrawals and subsequently collapsed, with Su Weiyi absconding with 16.74 million Hong Kong dollars (approximately 15.675 million RMB). In July 2024, Su Weiyi was arrested by Hong Kong police. It is worth mentioning that Su Weiyi co-owns other companies with other partners, who are linked to the convicted former Filipino mayor Alice Guo (Guo Huaping).On August 15, 2023, over 400 Singaporean police launched a raid, successfully cracking down on the largest money laundering case in Singapore's history, involving an amount of 3 billion Singapore dollars (approximately 16 billion RMB). The Singapore police arrested 10 suspects on the spot. These suspects, aged between 31 and 44, are all originally from Fujian and are referred to by outsiders as the "Fujian Gang." They held passports from multiple countries and used forged documents, shell companies, and cryptocurrencies to "clean" the proceeds from illegal gambling and fraud in Southeast Asia, investing in high-end assets in Singapore and overseas.According to the investigation results of the Singapore police, Wang Shuiming also possesses substantial assets outside of Singapore. Domestically, Wang Shuiming's company has an investment amount of up to 32 million RMB; he owns a factory worth several million RMB; he has two apartments in Xiamen worth a total of 20 million RMB; and there is a bank account in Hong Kong under Wang Shuiming with a deposit of 2 million Hong Kong dollars and cryptocurrencies valued at 110,000 USD.

ChainCatcher news, according to Jinshi reports, the China Securities Regulatory Commission (CSRC) issued a letter in response to proposals from the Second Session of the 14th National Committee of the Chinese People's Political Consultative Conference. It mentioned that the CSRC and relevant departments will further optimize and expand the connectivity between the mainland and Hong Kong financial markets, continuously improve mechanisms such as Stock Connect, Bond Connect, and mutual recognition of funds. They will conduct in-depth research and demonstration on the feasibility of Hong Kong companies listing in the mainland based on existing experiences, continuously promote the optimization of the "Cross-border Wealth Management Connect" pilot program in line with market demand, and orderly carry out the pilot of digital RMB in Hong Kong based on actual conditions, comprehensively deepening practical cooperation between the mainland and Hong Kong, and consolidating and enhancing Hong Kong's status as an international financial center.

ChainCatcher news, according to Jinshi reports, Minister of Commerce Wang Wentao sent a letter to the new U.S. Trade Representative Katherine Tai, expressing China's concerns regarding the U.S. tariffs on Chinese products exported to the U.S.Wang Wentao emphasized that recently, the U.S. imposed a 10% tariff on Chinese products under the pretext of issues such as fentanyl. China firmly opposes this and has taken corresponding countermeasures, which is a necessary step to protect China's legitimate rights and interests.Wang Wentao stated that China also noted that President Trump signed the "America First" trade policy memorandum on January 20, which includes several investigations targeting China. He hopes that the U.S. will conduct assessment investigations with an objective, rational, and professional attitude, and increase transparency. It is normal for there to be differences between China and the U.S. in the economic and trade fields, and these concerns should be resolved through equal dialogue and consultation.

ChainCatcher news, FTX creditor representative Sunil revealed that currently many FTX claim users come from jurisdictions that are temporarily unable to participate in the distribution, including: Russia, China, Egypt, Nigeria, and Ukraine. FTX is reviewing relevant solutions. Among them, the number of users from China is the largest, accounting for 8% of the total customer base.

ChainCatcher news, according to reports from China National Radio, recently, in Yanbian Korean Autonomous Prefecture, Jilin Province, China, a criminal network involving underground banks with a case amount exceeding 1 billion yuan and spanning 10 provinces across the country was cracked down, with over 20 criminal suspects arrested. At the same time, the successful investigation of this case has also unveiled the criminal underbelly of using virtual currency to provide channels for fund transfers. This case is characterized by family-style operations, meaning that the gang members are mostly relatives and friends. They disguise themselves as overseas companies, engaging in low buying and high selling in the domestic and foreign exchange black market, profiting from the exchange rate differences.The main suspect, Zhang Liang, confessed that they borrowed foreign exchange funds from "peers" or used methods such as "exchanging" virtual currency to purchase virtual currency with RMB from cryptocurrency traders and dealers within the country, and then sold the virtual currency overseas to obtain foreign exchange, thereby indirectly achieving the goal of transferring illegal gains from within the country to overseas. Yanbian Economic Investigation stated that by analyzing the sources and uses of funds in underground bank cases handled by public security organs in the prefecture from 2020 to 2023, it has been verified that a large proportion of the involved funds are from labor services, commerce, and tourism, while the rest are suspected funds related to fraud, corruption, and other illegal activities.

ChainCatcher news, according to Thai media Khaosod English, Thai investigators stated that Thai and Chinese police collaborated to arrest two fraudsters and seized USDT worth 2.5 million dollars.The arrest operation took place on February 5, when the two suspects resisted arrest and attempted to delete data from their phones. The suspects, 29-year-old Ye Wanyou and 30-year-old Li Weijie, were apprehended in a mansion. Investigators also seized assets worth 44,550 dollars at the location.

ChainCatcher news, Mechanism Capital partner Andrew Kang stated on social media that if China really starts a trade war with the U.S., Ethereum will drop back to the $2200-2400 range.Just now, the Tariff Commission of the State Council of China announced that starting from February 10, 2025, additional tariffs will be imposed on certain imported goods originating from the United States. A 15% tariff will be imposed on coal and liquefied natural gas, while a 10% tariff will be imposed on crude oil, agricultural machinery, large-displacement vehicles, and pickup trucks.

ChainCatcher News, on January 1, U.S. President Trump signed an executive order imposing a 10% tariff on goods imported from China. This latest trade protection measure by the United States has faced widespread opposition both internationally and domestically.The White House stated that a 10% tariff will be added to all goods imported from China on top of the existing tariffs. Trump claimed that this aligns with the "protectionist measures" he supports.In addition, the U.S. government announced a 25% tariff on imported goods from Canada and Mexico. President Trump signed the tariff order that imposes an additional 25% tariff on products imported from Canada and Mexico, and a 10% tariff on energy resources from Canada.

ChainCatcher news, Aravind Srinivas, CEO of the American AI company Perplexity, stated in an interview with CNBC: "Because DeepSeek had to find ways to bypass various restrictions, they ultimately created something that is actually more efficient. They proposed many clever solutions.The common perception is that Chinese people are good at copying. But the reality is that some details in DeepSeek 3 are outstanding, and I wouldn't be surprised if Meta borrows some of those elements and applies them to the Llama model. This is not to say they are copying, but rather that they are innovating."

ChainCatcher news, according to the Apple App Store free chart in China, Deepseek has become number one in the region.It is reported that DeepSeek's open-source model DeepSeek-R1 ranks third in the Chatbot Arena comprehensive list, alongside OpenAI's top reasoning models. With a low-cost strategy of 0.1 RMB per million tokens and outstanding performance, DeepSeek has attracted the attention of tech giants including Meta. The company was founded by Huansheng Quantitative in July 2023 and is hailed in the industry as the "Pinduoduo of the AI world."

ChainCatcher news, according to China's Legal Daily, to implement the spirit of the Third Plenary Session of the 20th Central Committee of the Communist Party, and to fully leverage the role of the rule of law in the modernization of the national governance system and governance capacity, a seminar on "Disposal of Virtual Currency Involved in Cases" was held in Beijing on January 19, organized by the Law School of Renmin University of China. Nearly 60 participants attended the meeting, including representatives from the Legislative Affairs Commission of the National People's Congress, the Supreme People's Court, the Supreme People's Procuratorate, the Ministry of Public Security, as well as legal theorists, lawyers, and business representatives.During the meeting, Wang Tuo, head of the Financial Case Handling Team of the Fourth Procuratorial Department of the Supreme People's Procuratorate, stated:We must face history and reality, and cannot ignore the decisive role of regulatory documents in curbing speculative behavior in cryptocurrencies. At the same time, we should accelerate top-level design to address various issues related to virtual currency crimes.We need to strengthen the coordination between criminal justice and administrative regulation, adhering to the principle of unified legal order.We should strive to reach a consensus on the nature of virtual currencies, especially ensuring that civil and criminal identifications do not contradict each other.We need to establish scientifically reasonable procedural norms to prevent various risks in judicial disposal.We should emphasize the complementary relationship between technology and case handling.

ChainCatcher news, according to the Xiaoxiang Morning Post, on October 16, 2024, two enthusiastic passengers discovered that a fellow passenger was behaving suspiciously on the train and immediately reported it to the train police. The passengers claimed that the man sitting next to them was chatting using a certain app, with content related to virtual currency trading. The railway police subsequently seized over 560,000 yuan in cash from his luggage. Upon inspecting Zeng's phone, it was found that he was contacting others to resell virtual currency at the time of the investigation.This is a case of using a ride-hailing platform to deliver cash for fraud, and then using virtual currency for money laundering. Currently, the case has been handed over to the Gansu police, and a local victim, Gao, has retrieved over 100,000 yuan in cash related to the fraud. The investigation is ongoing.

ChainCatcher news, according to an analysis by CryptoQuant founder Ki Young Ju, China may have sold 194,000 bitcoins seized from the PlusToken scam in 2019. These bitcoins were announced by the Chinese government to be "transferred to the national treasury," but it was not specified whether they had been sold.Ki Young Ju pointed out that these bitcoins flowed to several exchanges, including Huobi, after being mixed in 2019. If they were not sold, the operation of using mixers and multiple exchanges would be meaningless.

ChainCatcher news, according to techinasia, the Hong Kong Legislative Council discussed the proposed "Stablecoin Bill" on January 23. This was the first meeting on the bill since its first reading on December 18, 2024. Key officials, including Francis Ho, Deputy Secretary for Financial Services and the Treasury, outlined the regulatory framework for stablecoins.The bill requires issuers to obtain a license from the Hong Kong Monetary Authority (HKMA) and maintain reserves of high-quality, highly liquid assets. The proposed legislation aims to ensure compliance and stability, supporting Hong Kong's strategy to attract international cryptocurrency companies.On the same day, the Legislative Council subcommittee reviewed the licensing framework for cryptocurrency trading platforms.