ChainCatcher news, sources reveal that Elon Musk is hiring staff for the Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE). Steve Davis, president of Musk's tunneling company Boring Co., and former U.S. Chief Technology Officer Michael Kratsios are among the main interviewers for potential candidates. DOGE has currently hired about 10 people and is looking for software engineers, including those with artificial intelligence experience.Currently, DOGE operates out of a glass-walled office in Washington, which is rented by Musk's other company SpaceX, located about four blocks from the White House.Some insiders have revealed that Musk and Ramaswamy (another leader) are still working to determine the structure of DOGE, but they are considering incorporating it as a 501(c)(3). One complication is that a 501(c)(3) can be either a public charity (which means it must pass a public support test and at least one-third of its donations must come from a broad base of supporters) or a private foundation, with stricter limitations for private foundations.

ChainCatcher news, MicroStrategy co-founder and chairman Michael Saylor stated that once the current fundraising plan is exhausted, the company will shift from a leveraged Bitcoin proxy plan to a more focused approach on fixed-income securities to raise funds for purchasing cryptocurrencies.When asked how he expects to fund future cryptocurrency purchases, Saylor expressed this preference during an interview. So far, MicroStrategy has utilized a combination of new stock and convertible bond sales to fund purchases, the latter of which has provided returns to shareholders as its stock price has risen to levels that can be converted into shares.Saylor said, "We have $7.2 billion in convertible bonds, but $4 billion of that is essentially equity, trading through exercise prices and call prices, with a delta of about 100%, looking like equity. We want to go back and build smarter leverage to benefit our common stock shareholders."He indicated that the company uses regulated exchanges like Coinbase to purchase Bitcoin. MicroStrategy's stock price has risen about 500% this year, far exceeding Bitcoin's approximately 150% increase.Hedge funds have been looking for its fixed-income securities to implement convertible arbitrage strategies, buying bonds and shorting stocks, essentially betting on the volatility of the underlying stock. This demand has driven MicroStrategy to issue $6.2 billion in convertible bonds this year.

ChainCatcher message, the re-staking project Kelp DAO announced the KERNEL token economics on platform X.The specific token distribution is as follows:55% for community rewards and airdrops: 20% for airdrops; 35% for future community rewards;5% for ecosystem and partners;20% for private sale;20% for team and advisors;

ChainCatcher news, according to Forbes, economists and financial market professionals indicate that the Federal Reserve is likely to announce a 25 basis point rate cut in the early hours of the 19th, but perhaps more noteworthy is what signal the Fed will send regarding its monetary policy goals for 2025.Currently, economists from the three major investment banks—Bank of America, Goldman Sachs, and JPMorgan Chase—predict that the Fed will lower the interest rate from the current range of 4.5%-4.75% by 25 basis points to 4.25%-4.5%. This would bring the rate down to its lowest level since February 2023, a full percentage point lower than the 5.25%-5.5% range from July to September 2023.However, despite the market reaching a clear consensus on this, the Fed will also release its quarterly economic forecasts. This includes each central bank president's expectations for interest rates in 2025. Economists from Bank of America, Goldman Sachs, and JPMorgan Chase expect the median forecast to be revised from the previous prediction of four rate cuts of 25 basis points next year to three, with an expected target range of 3.5%-3.75% by the end of 2025. Regardless, it is clear that Americans will need to adapt to higher interest rates for an extended period, as rates are likely to remain above 3% for a long time, a threshold that was never reached from 2009 to 2021.

ChainCatcher news, according to Cryptonews, former South Korean Democratic Party lawmaker Kim Nam-guk is facing legal consequences for concealing a large amount of cryptocurrency assets, reflecting South Korea's strict stance on cryptocurrency regulation.According to local reports, prosecutors have proposed a six-month prison sentence for Kim Nam-guk, on the charge that he intentionally altered the asset declaration submitted to the National Assembly, concealing cryptocurrency assets worth $7.5 million.

ChainCatcher news, according to CME's "FedWatch" data, the current market believes there is a 98.8% probability that the Federal Reserve will announce a 25 basis point rate cut tonight (3 AM on the 19th), while the probability of maintaining the rate at 4.5%-4.75% is only 1.2%. The Federal Reserve will announce the rate decision and economic projections summary at 3 AM, followed by a monetary policy press conference with Fed Chair Powell at 3:30 AM.

ChainCatcher news, according to Decrypt, the Bitcoin re-staking platform SatLayer announced its integration with the Layer1 blockchain Sui, which will enable developers to leverage Bitcoin's $2.1 trillion market cap to provide security for decentralized applications on Sui.SatLayer is deployed on the Babylon chain and currently has 57,300 Bitcoins worth $6 billion committed to staking. The Sui ecosystem has 150 full-time developers in 2024, and this integration will bring new development opportunities to its DeFi ecosystem.

ChainCatcher news, according to Jinshi reports, U.S. Treasury yields rose before the Federal Reserve's decision announcement. However, the economic data released that day showed that U.S. new housing starts declined both month-over-month and year-over-year, which led to a slight decrease in Treasury yields.The current market expects the Federal Reserve to cut rates by 25 basis points and suggests a pause in rate hikes in January, increasing the hawkish tone. Affected by this expectation, the settlement price of the 10-year U.S. Treasury yield may reach its highest level in over a month.

ChainCatcher news, according to CoinDesk, the blockchain development project Patchwork, founded by former developers of Coinbase and backed by Coinbase Ventures, has released a new version of its no-code development tool Create-Patchwork. This tool is deployed on the Base Layer 2 network and plans to launch more features in early 2025, aiming to generate smart contracts and applications in seconds through natural language input.Patchwork co-founder Kevin Day stated that the protocol supports features such as on-chain asset ownership transfer, smart contract audit tagging, and reputation scoring. Day was involved in the development of the decentralized exchange Paradex, which was acquired by Coinbase in early 2018. The new version will focus on enhancing the usability of blockchain application development and lowering the barriers to entry for developers.

ChainCatcher news, according to TechCrunch, Avara, the development company behind Aave, Lens, and Family, has completed a $31 million financing round for the social protocol Lens, led by Lightspeed Faction, with participation from Avail, AlchemyPlatform, circle, Consensys, DFG, Fabric Ventures, Foresight Ventures, Superscrypt, Re7Capital, Wintermute Ventures, Caliber Ventures, G-20, Blockchain Coinvestors, Borderless Capital, and Bodhi Ventures.Avara founder Stani Kulechov stated that the Lens v3 version will launch on the mainnet in the first quarter of 2025, utilizing zkSync and validiums technology to reduce transaction costs, aiming to provide infrastructure for decentralized social applications.According to the Web3 asset data platform RootData, Avara was renamed from Aave Companies and is a vibrant collective of pioneering brands in the decentralized finance and social sectors, including Aave, Lens, GNO, and others.

ChainCatcher news, according to CoinDesk, Swiss cryptocurrency custodian Taurus has reached a strategic partnership with global core banking software provider Temenos. Temenos currently has 67 offices in 40 countries, serving over 3,000 banks and financial institutions. This collaboration will allow banks using the Temenos system to create cryptocurrency wallets with one click, achieving seamless integration with traditional accounts.Taurus co-founder Lamine Brahimi stated that partner banks will have access to various digital assets, including cryptocurrencies, tokenized securities, and stablecoins. The integrated features support automatic deposits and withdrawals, transfers, as well as real-time accounting and compliance reporting. Notably, Taurus has already provided crypto custody services for institutions such as Deutsche Bank and State Street, and this is the first digital asset custody platform to achieve full integration with Temenos.

According to ChainCatcher's message, monitored by on-chain data analyst Yu Jin, just now, 2 addresses transferred 21.92 million BLZ (approximately 1.99 million USD) to Binance through the recharge address "transferring 31% of the total BLZ amount to Binance."In the last hour, the amount of BLZ transferred to Binance by this whale/institution has reached 178.4 million (approximately 17.88 million USD), accounting for 36% of the total BLZ amount.

ChainCatcher news, according to official sources, Usual has reached a partnership with Ethena Labs, and Ethena Labs' newly launched stablecoin USDtb will become the main collateral asset for Usual's stablecoin USD0.As part of this collaboration, Usual will also launch the sUSDe treasury for USD0++ holders, allowing Usual users to earn sUSDe APY, Ethena rewards, and additional USUAL rewards.

ChainCatcher news, Hong Kong virtual asset exchange EX.IO (Thousand Whales Technology (BVI) Limited) has obtained approval from the Hong Kong Securities and Futures Commission (SFC) to operate a virtual asset trading platform under Type 1 (Securities Trading), Type 7 (Providing Automated Trading Services) licenses, and in accordance with the Anti-Money Laundering and Counter-Terrorist Financing Ordinance (AMLO).

ChainCatcher news, according to CryptoPotato, the decentralized environmental intelligence platform Silencio Network has completed a $2.5 million seed round financing, led by Blockchange Ventures, with participation from Borderless Capital, Master Ventures, Blockchain Founders Fund, Prosper GmbH & Co. KG, and Advanced Blockchain AG.According to the Web3 asset data platform RootData, Silencio is a global network for measuring noise pollution. Users can receive rewards for measuring noise pollution with their mobile phones.ChainCatcher previously reported that Silencio Network, a decentralized data coverage solution provider based in Munich, Germany, focused on combating noise pollution, successfully raised $1 million in a Pre-Seed round of financing. This round was led by Borderless Capital, with participation from Moonrock Capital, Master Ventures, and Cogitent Ventures.Silencio Network plans to use this funding to accelerate company growth, enhance data integrity, foster partnerships, and advance more strategic initiatives. Through its app, users can receive rewards for measuring noise pollution with their mobile phones.

ChainCatcher news, according to Onchain Lens monitoring, a certain whale has deposited 23.8 million BLZ into Binance after holding it for nearly a year, worth approximately 2.55 million USD.This whale accumulated these BLZ a year ago at a price of 0.30 USD, valued at 7.2 million USD. The whale is now facing a loss of 4.63 million USD. Recently, Binance announced the delisting of BLZ, causing the price to drop further by about 25%.

ChainCatcher news, according to the official announcement, the Hong Kong Securities and Futures Commission has announced the issuance of licenses to four virtual asset trading platforms under the fast-track licensing procedure, including Cloud Account Greater Bay Area Technology (Hong Kong), DFX Labs, Hong Kong Digital Asset Trading Group, and Thousand Whales Technology.These platforms must complete rectifications and pass independent third-party vulnerability assessments and penetration tests before they can operate within a restricted scope. The Securities and Futures Commission will supervise the second phase of the assessment through a tripartite agreement, and business restrictions will be lifted upon completion of the assessment. The Commission plans to release more licensing procedure guidelines in early 2025 to promote the development of Hong Kong's virtual asset ecosystem.

ChainCatcher news, according to CoinDesk, the Bitcoin Lightning Network payment platform ZBD (formerly Zebedee) announced that it has received approval from the Dutch Authority for the Financial Markets (AFM) and will be granted a license when the MiCA regulation officially comes into effect on December 30.This license will allow ZBD to provide cryptocurrency custody and trading services throughout the European Union. ZBD submitted its application in April this year and is one of the first companies to be approved.Currently, countries like the Netherlands are prepared for the implementation of MiCA, while other EU member states are still advancing related legislative work. The list of approved companies will be published on the AFM's official website after MiCA comes into effect.

ChainCatcher news, the meme launch platform hyperliquid.meme for the Hyperliquid ecosystem is now live. In response to its auction listing features, hyperliquid.meme has pioneered the "Donation DAO," where token holders can donate tokens to the treasury, with a portion used for auctioning onto the Hyperliquid spot market and another portion for community building rewards. Additionally, an airdrop points activity is also ongoing.