ChainCatcher message, Sonic Labs (formerly Fantom) co-founder Andre Cronje stated: "The real cost of running a blockchain (even a semi-successful one) for all L2s or application chains is as follows: the upfront cost for oracles and stablecoins is $7.5 million, with an annual cost of $3.5 million; the upfront cost for RPC, indexing, and dashboards is $200,000, with an annual cost of $700,000; VRF, Keepers, wallet support, and governance cost $500,000 annually; explorers, custody, and risk management cost $800,000 annually, totaling $13.2 million. The above applies only to Sonic.Here is our cost situation from last year: R&D $10.9 million; ecosystem $10.7 million; legal $410,000; compliance $3.8 million; infrastructure $2.4 million; marketing $1.4 million; bounties $1.2 million; sponsorship $400,000; media $350,000; regulation $200,000; events $100,000; total cost $35.6 million. (The above does not include exchange listings, fortunately, we do not need to do this this year.)"

According to ChainCatcher, as reported by CoinDesk, FalconX has returned 1.35 million SOL to Binance, and both parties confirmed in a statement that the matter has been fully resolved.Previous news, FalconX has held 1.35 million Solana (SOL) since 2021, but it was unclear to whom these tokens belonged. It is reported that these tokens belong to Binance, and Binance recently requested FalconX to return them, with the current value of these tokens being approximately $190 million. It remains unclear why FalconX was unable to track the cryptocurrency, and why Binance itself seemingly did not track these funds over the years.

ChainCatcher message, crypto analyst PlanB expressed his views on the X platform, stating that "60,000 dollars is the new 10,000 dollars," implying that Bitcoin's current price behavior in the 60,000 dollar range may replicate its previous pattern in the 10,000 dollar range.The long-term chart of Bitcoin's realized price shared by PlanB shows that between 2018 and 2020, Bitcoin experienced long-term fluctuations in the 10,000 dollar range. Currently, Bitcoin's price exhibits similar characteristics in the 60,000 dollar range. This similarity may indicate that Bitcoin is about to enter a new significant upward trend, akin to the previous breakout from 10,000 to 60,000 dollars. PlanB emphasized that Bitcoin's price breakout is "just a matter of time."

ChainCatcher news, according to The Block, ZKsync developer Matter Labs has hired former Solana Foundation Vice President of Marketing Meghan Hughes as its new Chief Marketing Officer.It is reported that Hughes previously worked at companies such as Google, Layer, and Box, and helped Box grow from its startup phase to its initial public offering. She has also held significant marketing positions at Facebook, Niantic, and Stripe.

ChainCatcher news, according to Blockworks, the company behind ZKsync, Matter Labs, announced a 16% layoff, affecting 24 employees.It is reported that this is the first layoff since the company was founded six years ago and is part of Matter Labs entering the decentralized "next phase," which requires refining the "right roles in place," aimed at ensuring the company has the appropriate roles and personnel to effectively accomplish its mission.Matter Labs CEO Alex Gluchowski clarified that the decision for layoffs is not due to the company's financial situation, and the company still plans to conduct "strategic hiring."

ChainCatcher news, Alex Gluchowski, CEO of Matter Labs, the main developer of ZKsync, believes that as L2s continue to increase, fragmentation is the next major challenge that needs to be addressed in the blockchain space.He stated that the new competition will be between projects providing interoperability solutions, "more specifically, the Superchain from Optimism and the Elastic Chain from Matter Labs, as they are the only two ecosystems in blockchain that actually implement interoperability." Gluchowski expressed skepticism about whether Optimism's interoperability plans would be easily achievable without upgrading its system to incorporate zero-knowledge proofs, "these are complex technologies."Gluchowski mentioned that L2 chains need to be redefined and viewed as useful for specific use cases, "the real question is, do we have significant L2s? I don't think we need too many general-purpose L2s, but we do need some application-specific L2s or community-specific L2s."

ChainCatcher message, Three Arrows Capital co-founder Zhu Su stated on social media: "By mid-2023, the prevailing view was that asset selection didn't matter, timing was key. But it turns out that only asset selection matters, timing is less important."

ChainCatcher news, ZKsync developer Matter Labs has announced its entry into the Latin American market, choosing Buenos Aires, Argentina as its regional headquarters. Matter Labs executives will meet with local economic leaders, policymakers, and crypto innovators at the end of August to explore collaboration opportunities.

ChainCatcher news, according to CoinDesk, Judge Analisa Torres of the Southern District of New York has ruled that Ripple's programmatic sales of XRP to retail customers through trading platforms did not violate federal securities laws. However, Ripple's 1,278 institutional sales transactions violated securities laws, resulting in a fine of $125.035 million, significantly lower than the SEC's request for $1 billion in disgorgement and pre-judgment interest, as well as a $900 million civil penalty.Although the case is reportedly concluded, the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) is expected to appeal the ruling, which means that related legal matters may be prolonged.

ChainCatcher news, BitMEX co-founder Arthur Hayes stated in an interview with DL News that it does not matter for the crypto industry whether Trump or Harris wins the next U.S. presidential election.Although the crypto industry has donated a lot of money to Trump, it is not enough to surpass JPMorgan, Morgan Stanley, Citibank, and Goldman Sachs, and the staff of these institutions are from these banks. Therefore, while it would be great if Trump were elected and did these things, he might encounter the same problems he faced during his first term.Regarding Bitcoin and monetary policy, Hayes stated that whether it is the Trump administration or the Harris administration, money will be printed; they just have different methods. But money will definitely be printed, so cryptocurrencies will rise. The road may be very bumpy, but in the end, we know where it will go.Additionally, regarding SEC Chairman Gary Gensler, Hayes mentioned that this is a political issue. Gensler is not the problem, and the SEC is not the problem. If the regulatory rules that you were dissatisfied with from the beginning still exist, then firing Gary Gensler will not make any difference because your elected representatives choose to consider other matters instead of creating a framework for cryptocurrencies.Regarding the Bitcoin reserve plan, Arthur Hayes stated that even if Trump is elected, it is almost impossible to achieve.

ChainCatcher news, according to News.bitcoin, South African cryptocurrency traders have begun receiving notifications from the South African Revenue Service (SARS) indicating that their tax affairs are under review.The tax authority is collecting information from various cryptocurrency exchanges to assess compliance. Traders who fail to provide the requested information may face criminal charges under the Tax Administration Act. The South African Revenue Service may also investigate cases of unreported cryptocurrency ownership in the past.The South African Revenue Service has not yet provided clear guidance on whether cryptocurrency trading is considered capital gains or income. Therefore, accurately recording gains and losses from local and foreign cryptocurrency exchanges remains challenging.

ChainCatcher news, Judge Orrick, who presided over the hearing on Kraken's motion to dismiss by the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC), stated at the end of the hearing, "It will take some time to carefully consider the matter, and I don't want to hear any thoughts about 'significant principle issues.'"At the beginning of the hearing, Orrick expressed agreement with the SEC's arguments after reading two briefs and asked Kraken's lawyer if they could change their mind.After listening to the discussions from the lawyers involved in today's litigation proceedings, industry insiders indicated that a reasonable guess is that Orrick will allow the matter to enter the investigation phase. Similar to the Coinbase case, the SEC's threshold for proving they have at least some reasonable legal basis to continue suing Kraken is very low.

ChainCatcher message, the ZKsync Chinese community posted on X: "Nowadays, we are disappointed with the leadership of Matter Labs. The Chinese community cannot change anything, but we must be accountable to the contributors and community members who follow us. We will detail all our experiences and publicly disclose everything we know, including specific evidence. The uncompromising principles of Matter Labs will ruin ZKsync."

ChainCatcher news, according to CoinDesk, the European Banking Authority (EBA) released the final draft of the technical standards for prudential requirements that companies must comply with under the Markets in Crypto-Assets (MiCA) legislation on Thursday. The EBA's standards establish the criteria for stress testing programs and detail the liquidity requirements for reserve assets, as well as the recovery plans that issuers need to develop.The recently published proposal states: "Issuers of asset-referenced tokens need to conduct stress tests based on reasonable financial stress scenarios, and the competent authority will be able to increase the own funds requirements for issuers of asset-referenced tokens based on the risk outlook and the results of the stress tests."This technical standard draft was developed in close cooperation with groups from 27 countries, the European Securities and Markets Authority (ESMA), and the European Central Bank (ECB), among other institutions. MiCA is a comprehensive set of tailored rules designed for the cryptocurrency industry, passed last year. The legislation sets rules for cryptocurrency companies and stablecoin issuers.

ChainCatcher message, OKX Star stated on social media regarding "the $11.6 million stolen from QuantMatter's OKX institutional account":The OKX investigation team has continuously inquired about information from your team after receiving the report, but has not received cooperation to date.We have indeed conducted a thorough internal investigation, with clear logs showing the withdrawal activities that occurred on the website, and have input the complete GA and email codes.We suggest that everyone cooperate in the investigation and conduct a deeper inquiry together.

ChainCatcher message, OKX Star stated on social media regarding "the $11.6 million stolen from QuantMatter's OKX institutional account": "This account has no commonalities with other cases, and the timing is completely different. We are still conducting a thorough investigation. What can be confirmed is that there are complete logs indicating that the withdrawal was initiated from the web interface, and the withdrawal request included the full GA and Email verification codes. Everyone is welcome to continue following the story."

ChainCatcher news, a board member of the Singaporean market maker QuantMatter posted on social media that the company had $11.6 million stored in OKX suddenly stolen by hackers on May 30. The funds were converted into BTC, ETH, USDC, and USDT and transferred to an on-chain address in just 25 minutes, without any email notification or two-factor authentication.According to reports from Wu, QuantMatter stated that they had set up an offline Google Authenticator, and withdrawals required dual authentication with email and GA, managed by the founder and a partner. It is highly likely that the hackers used the offline GA verification and that the market maker's GA was compromised. The market maker has already reported the incident to the police in Singapore and contacted more than five security agencies for investigation.Currently, the authenticity of the incident has not been verified, and the reasons for the theft remain uncertain, as the market maker, security agencies, and OKX are all unable to determine the cause, requiring further investigation.

ChainCatcher news, Matter Labs, the entity behind zkSync, announced on X that it has decided to abandon all trademark applications for the term "ZK".Previous news, zkSync developer Matter Labs submitted trademark applications for "ZK" in 9 countries, claiming that the term "zero-knowledge" is the company's exclusive intellectual property. This move has sparked widespread dissatisfaction in the crypto industry.