ChainCatcher news, the South Korean police recently arrested 90 Vietnamese suspects for allegedly using cryptocurrency to sell drugs in various bars and clubs across the country. The police stated that these suspects smuggled drugs into the country by disguising them as coffee and vitamin packages, and distributed them in Vietnamese-operated bars and clubs in multiple cities.The police initially estimated that the gang smuggled drugs worth 1.04 billion won (approximately 721,000 USD), of which about 710 million won (nearly 500,000 USD) has been successfully sold. Some suspects are illegal residents, and currently, 18 suspects have been detained, with the case still under further investigation.

ChainCatcher news, according to Bloomberg, Democratic Senator Elizabeth Warren wrote to Trump urging him to support the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB) in its efforts to prevent banks from arbitrarily closing accounts. She warned that attempts to undermine the CFPB would only exacerbate the problem.The Trump administration fired Director Rohit Chopra and appointed Scott Bessent, a supporter of cryptocurrency, as acting director, who has suspended some regulatory activities. Warren emphasized that the issue is bipartisan and mentioned Trump's criticism of U.S. banks and JPMorgan at the Davos Forum for restricting business dealings with certain clients.At a Senate Banking Committee hearing, Anchorage Digital CEO Nathan McCauley stated that his company faced account closures by banks due to its cryptocurrency business and struggled to find new banking partners. The Bank Policy Institute responded that banks must manage risks and meet regulatory requirements, suggesting a need to fix the regulatory structure.

ChainCatcher message, Federal Reserve's Barkin stated that the reasons for raising interest rates need to rely on evidence of an overheating economy.

ChainCatcher news, according to Bloomberg, a union in the United States is seeking a temporary court order to prevent the U.S. Treasury from handing over personal and financial data of Americans to Elon Musk's government efficiency task force. The lawsuit mentions reports that after a career official at the Department of Justice resigned, Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent allowed the DOGE team access to the federal payment system last week. The lawsuit claims that these systems contain confidential information about taxpayers, employees, and companies.

ChainCatcher News, SEC Commissioner Hester Peirce introduced the tasks and goals of the newly established crypto working group, stating that the current 10 tasks of the working group include:Examining the status of different types of crypto assets under securities law,Helping to identify areas that fall outside the commission's jurisdiction,Considering recommending the commission take action to provide temporary forward-looking and retroactive relief for tokens or token offerings that provide certain specific information for issuing entities or other willing responsible entities,Suggesting the commission amend existing registration pathways,Exploring potential updates to no-action letters for special purpose broker-dealers,Collaborating with investment advisors to provide an appropriate regulatory framework,Clarifying whether securities law covers crypto lending and staking programs,Providing clear statements on the methods for approving or disapproving crypto ETFs,Planning to work at the intersection of cryptocurrency and clearinghouse and transfer agent rules,Promoting methods for cross-border sandboxes for crypto projects.

ChainCatcher news, Richmond Fed President Barkin stated in an interview that the Federal Reserve still leans towards cutting interest rates this year and currently sees no signs of an overheating economy.

ChainCatcher news, Fox Business reporter Eleanor Terrett posted on the X platform that the U.S. Senate Committee on Banking, Housing, and Urban Affairs will hold a hearing on February 5 at 10:00 AM EST (February 5 at 11:00 PM Beijing time) on the topic "Investigating the Real Impact of Debanking on America."Witnesses include:• Nathan McCauley, Co-founder and CEO of Anchorage Digital• Stephen Gannon, Partner at Davis Wright Tremaine LLP• Mike Ring, President and CEO of Old Glory Bank• Aaron Klein, Senior Fellow in Economic Studies at the Brookings InstitutionThis hearing will explore the impact of bank account closures and restrictions on financial services on businesses and individuals, and examine related policy responses. The meeting will be held in Dirksen Senate Office Building 538 and will be available for online live streaming.

ChainCatcher news, according to Lookonchain monitoring, DWF Labs received 20 million KAPPA tokens (approximately 630,000 USD) for market making 5 days ago.

ChainCatcher news, Bitget is about to launch the Launchpool project Analog (ANLOG), with a total prize pool of 23,333,431 ANLOG. The locking period opens from February 10, 19:00 to February 15, 19:00 (UTC+8).This round of Launchpool opens two locking pools, details are as follows:BTC Locking PoolRegular user staking limit: 0.3 BTCVIP user staking limit: 1 BTCTotal prize pool: 11,666,715 ANLOGETH Locking PoolRegular user staking limit: 10 ETHVIP user staking limit: 15 ETHTotal prize pool: 11,666,716 ANLOG

ChainCatcher message, according to @ai_9684xtpa's monitoring, the RAY whale deposited 3.07 million RAY (approximately 18.58 million USD) to Binance and Gate 5 hours ago, and if sold, it would profit 5.82 million USD.The source address of the funds has withdrawn 14.78 million RAY from the trading platform at an average price of 4.15 USD over the past 7 months, worth up to 61.46 million USD.It is reported that the deposit address also has financial transactions with "ai16z & ZEREBRO Top7 holding whales," and yesterday this whale deposited 9.24 million USD of ai16z to the trading platform through this address.

ChainCatcher news, according to the popularity index data from the Web3 asset data platform RootData, as of February 5th, 10:25, in the Top 50 ranking of skyrocketing projects, Autonolas has risen 487 places, with its token OLAS experiencing a 24-hour increase of 10.68%.The Autonolas protocol is a DAO tool based on smart contracts, which implements a mechanism for coordinating, protecting, and managing software code on public blockchains, and provides incentives based on developers' relative contributions to the growth of the Autonolas ecosystem.It is reported that RootData has launched the first "Web3 Popular Projects Ranking." This popularity ranking helps users capture the real pulse of attention and improve the accuracy of investment decisions through 4.3 million real user behavior data. The ranking is calculated in real-time based on weighted factors such as the frequency of searches by platform users, project click rates, user votes, and the popularity and influence on the X platform.

ChainCatcher news, according to Cointelegraph, Landon Zinda has resigned from his position as Policy Director at the cryptocurrency advocacy organization Coin Center to join the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) cryptocurrency working group. In an announcement on February 4, SEC Acting Chair Mark Uyeda stated that Zinda has joined the commission as a senior advisor to the cryptocurrency working group. The former Coin Center director will work alongside Chief of Staff Richard Gabbert and Chief Policy Advisor Taylor Asher in the group led by Commissioner Hester Peirce.Coin Center's Communications Director Neeraj Agrawal confirmed that Zinda "is no longer an employee of the organization." As of February 4, his name still appeared on Coin Center's website, and his LinkedIn profile indicated that he had been working at the advocacy organization since March 2023.The cryptocurrency working group was announced on January 21, with the aim of "helping the commission delineate clear regulatory boundaries, providing practical registration pathways, developing reasonable disclosure frameworks, and prudently deploying enforcement resources." The SEC stated that the group would coordinate with other federal agencies, including the Commodity Futures Trading Commission.

ChainCatcher News, the U.S. SEC has launched a new cryptocurrency working group website. According to the webpage, the cryptocurrency working group aims to clarify the application of federal securities laws in the cryptocurrency market and propose practical policy measures designed to promote innovation and protect investors. The working group collaborates with committee staff and the public to help develop new approaches to the regulation of cryptocurrency assets.The cryptocurrency working group will undertake a series of priority tasks, led by Republican Commissioner Hester Peirce, and will focus on distinguishing which "cryptocurrency assets" are considered securities, potentially changing the way companies register, and providing clear statements when approving or disapproving exchange-traded products.The working group will help delineate clear regulatory boundaries, appropriately distinguish between securities and non-securities, develop a tailored disclosure framework, provide practical registration pathways for cryptocurrency assets and market intermediaries, ensure that investors have the information needed to make investment decisions, and ensure that enforcement resources are deployed wisely.

ChainCatcher news, the Cosmos ecosystem liquid staking protocol Stride announced that it will launch the liquid staking token stBGT for the Berachain governance token BGT on February 6, 2025.

ChainCatcher message, according to SoSoValue data, yesterday (Eastern Time February 3) the total net outflow of Bitcoin spot ETF was $235 million.Yesterday, Grayscale ETF GBTC had a net inflow of $8.0191 million, and the historical net outflow of GBTC is currently $21.883 billion.Grayscale Bitcoin Mini Trust ETF BTC had a net outflow of $0.00 yesterday, and the historical total net inflow of Grayscale Bitcoin Mini Trust BTC is currently $1.232 billion.As of the time of writing, the total net asset value of Bitcoin spot ETF is $119.14 billion, with an ETF net asset ratio (market value as a percentage of total Bitcoin market value) reaching 5.95%, and the historical cumulative net inflow has reached $40.263 billion.

ChainCatcher news, the Coinbase Developer Platform (CDP) announced the winners of the CDP AI Hackathon, with the first prize going to Mamoriko, an AI agent project that can find optimized return strategies for USDC on Base; the second prize went to TweetBounty, an AI-driven social media marketing protocol; the third prize went to the open-source chatbot AgentKit. The decentralized reputation system BitMind won the Best Infrastructure Award.

ChainCatcher news, FOX reporter Eleanor Terrett stated that tomorrow is expected to be a busy day for cryptocurrency policy-making in the U.S. Congress.