ChainCatcher news, the Chengdu court released the top ten typical cases for 2024, which disclosed a fundraising fraud and money laundering case involving the "GUCS" virtual currency and the associated software "Wa11et Pro" APP. The defendants, including Wang, vigorously promoted the economic value and investment prospects of GUCS coin in Chengdu, Deyang, Meishan, and other places, developing downlines in a pyramid scheme manner, resulting in losses of over 1.7 billion yuan for more than 29,000 fundraising participants. Wang was sentenced to life imprisonment, deprived of political rights for life, and ordered to forfeit all personal property.In addition, the Chengdu court also disclosed a case involving a Singapore company suing a Sichuan real estate company over a "mining machine" sales contract dispute, ruling that the Sichuan real estate company must refund the Singapore company the already paid amount of 836,000 USD for the goods, along with shipping and insurance fees of 22,534 USD, while dismissing other claims from the Singapore company.

ChainCatcher news, according to official information, the Hong Kong Securities and Futures Commission (SFC) warns the public to be cautious of an unlicensed virtual asset trading platform named International Standard Carbon Assets Technology Co., Limited, also known as "iSCAT" or "iSCAT Exchange."The Hong Kong SFC stated that "iSCAT" and/or "iSCAT Exchange" claims to be a virtual asset trading platform that once operated in Hong Kong, offering cryptocurrency trading services and using social media platforms to promote investors to its website and app for investing in cryptocurrencies. According to the Securities and Futures Ordinance and the Anti-Money Laundering and Counter-Terrorist Financing Ordinance, conducting regulated activities and providing virtual asset services (i.e., operating a virtual asset exchange) in Hong Kong without a license and/or actively promoting such services to Hong Kong investors is a criminal offense.In addition, the Hong Kong SFC also announced that the licensed virtual asset trading platform Hash Blockchain Limited reported 11 websites as fraudulent sites.

ChainCatcher news, Vice Minister of Finance Liao Min stated that in 2025, there will be an increased effort to coordinate fiscal policy and monetary policy, focusing on enhancing the combination effect and multiplier effect of policies. Through the use of public funds, it will be possible to stimulate more investment from credit funds and social capital, thereby playing a positive role in expanding domestic demand and supporting stable and healthy economic development.

ChainCatcher news, Web3 accelerator and co-founder community Alliance DAO co-founders Qiao Wang and Imran Khan shared their latest personal holdings in a recently released video podcast.Qiao Wang stated that he is all in on Bitcoin and AI agents tokens. Imran Khan, on the other hand, mentioned that he still holds HYPE (Hyperliquid) and firmly believes that it "is a strong Beta token."

ChainCatcher news, the ScaleBit security team under BitsLab stated that in October 2024, the ScaleBit security team under BitsLab discovered a vulnerability in the Uniswap iOS wallet, named "Unauthorized Access to Mnemonic Phrase." This vulnerability allows attackers with physical access to the device to bypass the wallet's authentication mechanism and directly access the mnemonic phrase stored on the device.The root cause of this vulnerability lies in the flawed design of the storage and access mechanism for the mnemonic phrase. The mnemonic phrase is not effectively encrypted at the application layer, and the triggering conditions for the recovery page are unreasonable, allowing attackers with physical access to the device to easily bypass the wallet's authentication mechanism and directly obtain the mnemonic phrase stored in the wallet.Currently, this vulnerability still exists in the latest version of the Uniswap Wallet (Version 1.42), posing potential risks to all users of this wallet. Therefore, users should pay extra attention to the physical security of their devices during use, avoiding the disclosure of unlock passwords or lending their devices to others.

ChainCatcher message, encrypted KOL him posted a screenshot showing that he has been blocked by ai16z co-founder Shaw on the social media platform X, with the caption: "End of an era."

ChainCatcher news, according to the Financial Times, informed sources revealed that Musk has privately discussed with allies how to replace Starmer as Prime Minister of the UK before the next election. The sources stated that Musk is exploring how he and his right-wing allies can undermine the UK Labour government, in addition to posting radical messages on X.According to relevant individuals, Musk has been seeking information to understand whether it is possible to garner support for an alternative political movement in the UK—particularly the right-wing populist Reform Party—so as to force a change in Prime Minister before the next election. Musk has developed a keen interest in UK politics over the past six months and has increasingly sharp criticisms of the Starmer government. (Jinshi)

ChainCatcher news, according to the financial website Marketwatch, the Federal Reserve's December meeting minutes show that nearly all policymakers believe the upside risks to the inflation outlook have increased, after which U.S. stocks fluctuated between slight gains and losses.The latest meeting minutes indicate that Federal Reserve officials did not discuss the possibility of raising interest rates in December. Officials believe that if inflation remains high, the Federal Reserve may keep interest rates unchanged or ease monetary policy at a slower pace.

ChainCatcher message, Virtuals Protocol posted on X: "The Virtuals Discord server has been compromised. Please ignore all posts and private messages from administrators until further notice. The team is actively investigating this issue and will provide updates as soon as possible."

ChainCatcher news, according to Cointelegraph, U.S. Senator Cynthia Lummis met with SEC chair nominee Paul Atkins to discuss digital asset legislation and regulatory reform. She hinted at potential changes in the future and jokingly suggested making the SEC "leaner."

ChainCatcher news, Ethereum founder Vitalik Buterin published a long article titled "d/acc: one year later," reflecting on the development of the d/acc (decentralized acceleration) concept proposed last year. The article focuses on three key issues: AI safety regulation, the role of cryptocurrency in d/acc, and public goods financing.Vitalik proposed two major strategies for AI safety: first, establishing accountability by setting reasonable legal responsibilities for AI users, deployers, and developers; second, implementing a global "soft pause" mechanism at the industrial hardware level, which can reduce global computing power by 90-99% if necessary. Vitalik stated that d/acc has three major connections with cryptocurrency: the extension of values, the early adopter community, and technological complementarity. In particular, the contributions of the crypto community in areas such as prediction markets and zero-knowledge proofs. The article also mentions innovative mechanisms including quadratic funding, retroactive public goods funding, and deep funding, emphasizing the importance of decentralized financing in promoting the development of open-source projects. Vitalik believes that despite the current challenges of rapid technological development and reduced global cooperation, new tools such as AI and biotechnology provide humanity with the capability to address these challenges.

ChainCatcher Cardano founder Charles Hoskinson recently introduced the future development of the Cardano-based lightweight wallet Lace Wallet to the ADA community members on X, hinting at multiple upgrades this year.In addition to Lace, the Cardano ecosystem is also working to enhance other solutions. In November, Hoskinson had a technical discussion with Ripple CTO David Schwartz about Midnight and XRP. As a privacy-centric blockchain project, Midnight aims to enhance secure data processing while maintaining regulatory compliance. Hoskinson is very optimistic about Midnight's potential to drive the development of privacy-centric DApps and further blockchain development. The discussions between the two parties indicate that there may be collaboration between Cardano and Ripple in the near future.Furthermore, Cardano plans to explore Bitcoin DeFi, with its team aiming to present a meaningful Bitcoin roadmap demonstration by May 2025. To achieve these goals, Hoskinson stated that Cardano will collaborate with the multi-party computation protocol Fair Gate Labs.

ChainCatcher news, the encrypted wallet Phantom issued a statement, clearly denying any token issuance plans. In response to market speculation about a potential token airdrop related to social features, Phantom stated that the team's current focus is on optimizing the user experience for discovering new tokens and applications. The project is actively developing social discovery features, aiming to make cryptocurrency use more personalized and social, but will not launch a native token.

ChainCatcher news, according to Cointelegraph, in a financial disclosure report submitted to the U.S. House of Representatives on January 1, Congressman Mike Collins revealed that he purchased the token Ski Mask Dog (SKI), which is set to launch in May 2024, for an amount between $1,001 and $15,000.The report shows that between December 1 and December 3 (approximately one month after the U.S. elections), Mike Collins purchased the token three times, with each purchase amounting up to $15,000.It is currently unclear whether his investment is related to his electoral victory in Georgia's 10th congressional district, but during his tenure, he has disclosed purchases of Ether, Velodrome (VELO), Aerodrome Finance (AERO), and The Graph.

ChainCatcher news, according to CNBC, Microsoft (MSFT.O) stated in a blog post on Friday that it will invest $80 billion in AI data centers in fiscal year 2025. Microsoft Vice Chairman and President Brad Smith wrote that more than half of Microsoft's $80 billion expenditure will be allocated to the United States. Microsoft's fiscal year 2025 will end in June this year.

ChainCatcher news, Thailand's Prime Minister Petongtan Shinawatra recently disclosed her personal assets valued at $400 million, which include two properties in London, investments in several companies, and a collection of luxury watches and bags. The 38-year-old member of the Shinawatra family also listed 1.09 billion baht (approximately $31.6 million) in cash and deposits across more than 26 bank accounts. When she disclosed this information to the National Anti-Corruption Commission (NACC) of Thailand, her total assets reached 13.85 billion baht (approximately $400 million).According to documents revealed by local media, Petongtan also declared nearly 5 billion baht in debts, bringing her net worth to 8.9 billion baht ($258 million). Petongtan is the youngest daughter of Thaksin and became the third member of the Shinawatra family to lead Thailand in August 2024, following the ousting of former Prime Minister Srettha Thavisin by the Constitutional Court for ethical violations. Petongtan's spouse, Pidok, disclosed assets of 147 million baht and an income of 5.13 million baht from the previous year, which includes earnings from cryptocurrency trading. (Jinshi)

ChainCatcher news, according to Cointelegraph, the smart contract of the blockchain company Virtuals Protocol was accidentally found to have vulnerabilities by security researcher Jinu (pseudonym) during a review. Virtuals Protocol quickly released a fix and restarted its bug bounty program. On December 3, Jinu stumbled upon the issue while reviewing the contract and immediately reported it to Virtuals Protocol, only to learn that the company did not have an active bug bounty program, which meant his discovery did not qualify for a reward. According to Jinu, the Virtuals Protocol team also closed the Discord group specifically for reporting the vulnerability.In a post on the X platform, Jinu stated, "This vulnerability could impact the Virtuals ecosystem; if exploited, it would prevent the generation of AgentTokens until the contract is fixed." After making this information public on the X platform, Virtuals Protocol contacted Jinu and promptly released a fix. Despite the timely release of the fix, Virtuals Protocol has not yet announced a bug bounty reward for Jinu. In the message to the researcher, the company thanked Jinu for reporting the issue and apologized for the previous communication breakdown.

ChainCatcher news, according to Evan Van Ness, the Week in Ethereum (WiE) has officially ended on January 1, 2025. Van Ness stated that WiE failed to find a sustainable business model due to the Ethereum Foundation (EF) ceasing its symbolic support. He pointed out that the EF's current perception of WiE's value has diminished, and there is also a lower emphasis on contributions from non-developers or researchers within the community. Furthermore, he emphasized that although there was an opportunity to continue operations through fundraising, he preferred to focus on meaningful new projects and admitted that, as the founder, he had not succeeded in turning WiE into a successful commercial product.

According to ChainCatcher news, the official announcement states that the "2025 Hong Kong Web3 Carnival" early bird NFT tickets have entered the final rush phase, with only 1 day left until they sell out. The early bird tickets launched for this event have attracted a large number of Web3 enthusiasts. Users who purchase tickets through the OKX Web3 wallet can not only enjoy a 15% discount but also unlock exclusive gifts and multiple benefits.It is reported that the "2025 Hong Kong Web3 Carnival" will be held from April 6 to 9, 2025, at the Hong Kong Convention and Exhibition Centre. The event is expected to attract over 300 heavyweight speakers from around the world, as well as more than 150 well-known Web3 projects, communities, and media to participate on-site, creating a cutting-edge technology and innovation gala.