ChainCatcher news, according to IT Home cited by Jin10, after TikTok announced it would suspend services in the United States, it was found that CapCut, the overseas version of Jianying, which is also under ByteDance, will also cease operations simultaneously.CapCut's official announcement stated: "We regret to inform you that a law prohibiting the use of CapCut in the United States will take effect on January 19, which will force us to temporarily suspend our services. We are working hard to restore our services in the United States as soon as possible. Thank you for your support. Please stay tuned."

ChainCatcher news, MakersPlace announced that due to ongoing market challenges and funding difficulties, the digital art platform will cease operations after six years. Effective immediately, the platform will disable minting, token imports, and new account creation, but art purchases will continue temporarily. Artists and collectors must transfer their works from the MakersPlace hosted wallet to personal wallets by June 2025, with related tools set to launch in February.MakersPlace stated that it will refund unused funds to investors and provide fair severance pay to employees. All Ethereum NFTs on the platform will still be accessible through the secondary market.

ChainCatcher news, the Arkansas Senate submitted a bill this week that prohibits digital asset mining operations within 30 miles of any military facility in the United States.Senate Bill 60, co-sponsored by Senator Ricky Hill (R-Cabot) and House Speaker Brian Evans (R-Cabot), will amend the 2023 Arkansas Data Center Act to keep mining operations away from military facilities. The legislation appears to target a cryptocurrency mining facility under construction just outside the Cabot city limits, less than five miles from Little Rock Air Force Base.The facility is owned by Steve Landers Jr.'s Interstate Holdings and will become one of several cryptocurrency businesses the company owns in Arkansas.

ChainCatcher news, MicroStrategy founder Michael Saylor posted that the company's financial operations last week generated a profit of 1,440 bitcoins, resulting in a yield of 0.32% relative to its holdings of 447,470 bitcoins. Based on a price of $96,000 per bitcoin, this created approximately $138.2 million in value for shareholders.

ChainCatcher news, according to CoinDesk, the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) led by Gary Gensler has called Binance.US a "fraudulent melting pot," and has used its power and influence to cut off the company's relationships with banks and U.S. dollar fiat channels. Binance.US interim CEO Norman Reed stated in an interview with CoinDesk that the SEC failed to provide any evidence to support its allegations in court.After the SEC filed a lawsuit, Binance.US lost thousands of customers, suffered billions of dollars in losses, and was forced to lay off 70% of its staff.Binance.US interim CEO Norman Reed said, "U.S. dollar fiat services are expected to be revitalized and put back into operation in the coming weeks; the company is preparing for a comeback, seeking to collaborate with banks, and re-engaging in dialogue with state regulators."

ChainCatcher news, citing sources familiar with the matter from Bloomberg, reports that Chinese officials are evaluating a possible plan to sell TikTok's U.S. operations to Elon Musk if the app cannot prevent the U.S. ban. Although TikTok's parent company ByteDance prefers to block the ban through appeals, indications from the U.S. Supreme Court suggest that the ban may be upheld.The plan envisions Musk's X (formerly Twitter) taking over TikTok's U.S. operations and integrating it with its existing platform. This move could not only leverage TikTok's 170 million U.S. users to increase advertising revenue but also provide valuable data support for Musk's artificial intelligence company xAI. However, the deal would require approval from the Chinese government, especially concerning the transfer of TikTok's core algorithms.Currently, TikTok's U.S. operations are valued between $40 billion and $50 billion, but it remains unclear whether Musk has sufficient resources to complete the transaction. ByteDance has stated that its primary goal remains to retain TikTok's operations in the U.S. through legal means.

ChainCatcher news, according to Cointelegraph, the DEX Mango Markets on the Solana chain is gradually winding down its operations after reaching a settlement with the SEC, conducting governance votes, and addressing legal issues arising from the 2022 exploit. Yesterday, Mango Markets announced through its X account, "It's time to close the platform and let users close their positions." This move follows the request in the governance proposal to "adjust interest rates and collateral," ending the lending exposure on the platform, which will take effect on January 13.On September 27, 2024, the SEC filed settlement charges against Mango DAO and Blockworks Foundation, accusing them of selling unregistered securities. According to the SEC, Mango raised over $70 million by selling MNGO governance tokens in August 2021, violating the Securities Act of 1933. The SEC also accused Mango Labs of acting as an unregistered broker, violating the Securities Exchange Act of 1934. As part of the settlement agreement, Mango DAO agreed to pay a $700,000 civil penalty, destroy MNGO tokens, and petition trading platforms to delist the tokens. According to DefiLlama data, Mango Markets' TVL is $9 million, down 95.7% from its all-time high of $210 million in November 2021.The closure of Mango Markets can be traced back to October 2022, when cryptocurrency trader Avraham "Avi" Eisenberg stole over $100 million from the platform. Eisenberg subsequently returned $67 million, retaining $40 million of it. U.S. authorities arrested Eisenberg in December 2022, charging him with fraud and market manipulation. Eisenberg has been detained since his arrest, with sentencing repeatedly postponed to April 10, 2025, facing up to 20 years in prison, along with civil enforcement actions from the SEC and the Commodity Futures Trading Commission.

ChainCatcher news, according to the "2024 DePIN Status" report jointly released by Messari DePIN research analyst Dylan Bane and Escape Velocity Ventures co-founder Salvador Gala, the Distributed Physical Infrastructure Network (DePIN) sector is expected to achieve significant growth in 2024:Market Performance: The total market capitalization of DePIN reaches $50 billion, covering 350 tokens, with an annual revenue price-to-earnings ratio of about 100 times.Device Contribution: Over 13 million devices globally participate in DePIN operations daily.Network Competition: Solana leads in the infrastructure sector, while Base excels in consumer and market domains.Capital Inflow: In 2024, DePIN projects raised over $350 million in seed and early-stage funding.Application Expansion: Local governments are beginning to utilize DePIN to address infrastructure issues, such as cross-border payments and logistics network optimization.Looking ahead to 2025, the DePIN sector is expected to achieve 100-1000 times growth in emerging markets and break through in broader application scenarios.

ChainCatcher news, Bitget's Chinese head Smith Tse published an open letter on social media, stating that in 2025, the focus will be on the following directions: First: Strengthen the selection of spot first launches to amplify the wealth effect. Improve spot depth and liquidity, explore quality projects, and continue to serve as the first stop for quality assets; Second, a core operations team will be formed to explore more hardcore application scenarios around BGB, focusing on three parts: on-chain application scenarios, PayFi payment scenarios, and in-platform rights scenarios, allowing BGB to become a mainstream asset deeply integrated into popular public chains and leading DeFi ecosystems. Finally, strengthen compliance operations to promote healthy industry development. In 2025, efforts will be intensified to actively apply for compliance licenses globally to ensure legal operations in different markets.On January 2, 2024, Bitget announced the appointment of Smith Tse as the new head of the Chinese region, overseeing brand building, integrated marketing, and ecosystem development in the region. As of the time of publication, he has officially completed one year in the position.

ChainCatcher message, MicroStrategy founder Michael Saylor posted on X: "Last week, $MSTR's financial operations generated a 0.72% BTC yield, with a net gain of approximately 3,177 BTC. At $94,000 per BTC, this amounts to a gift of $299 million to our shareholders."

ChainCatcher news, SendAI announced the launch of the open-source toolkit Solana Agent Kit, which supports the autonomous execution of Solana chain operations by any AI model. The toolkit has integrated mainstream protocols such as Jupiter, Metaplex, and Raydium, enabling over 15 functionalities including token trading, NFT issuance, liquidity provision, lending, and ZK airdrops.The toolkit utilizes LangChain technology and supports various AI models from GPT-4 to Llama, with plans to integrate with frameworks like Eliza from ai16z and ZerePy from Zerebro. SendAI stated that the project will continue to be developed as a public good for the ecosystem and is currently available for use at solanaagentkit.xyz.

ChainCatcher news, Michael Saylor announced on the X platform that MicroStrategy's financial operations brought a net gain of 116,940 BTC to shareholders this quarter, with a yield of 46.4%. Based on a price of $100,000 per Bitcoin, the net gain for this quarter is approximately $12.28 billion.

ChainCatcher news, according to SBS Biz, the Korea Digital Asset Protection Foundation has officially begun operations, responsible for receiving, safeguarding, and managing user deposits and virtual assets held by virtual asset companies that have ceased operations, and returning them to users. Customer deposits held by trading companies in some virtual currency markets will also be transferred to the protection foundation.The protection foundation stated today that it has transferred the assets of approximately 40,000 users from five defunct virtual asset exchanges: Apro Korea, Ten and Ten, Hanbitco, Qbit, Pay Protocol, and AG to the foundation.Since the establishment of the protection foundation on September 26, the foundation has held individual meetings with the defunct companies to verify the status of the assets to be transferred, ensured the actual possession certification of user assets under custody, and conducted necessary procedures such as asset reviews and test transfers to ensure the safe transfer and management of user assets.The protection foundation plans to complete negotiations regarding the transfer of user assets with up to eight defunct companies by the end of this year, with five companies being the first to transfer assets.

ChainCatcher news, according to Jinshi reports, the Ministry of Finance has decided to carry out support operations for government bond market making. The operation direction is to sell, with 1.26 billion yuan of the 2024 book-entry interest-bearing (16th issue) government bonds and 530 million yuan of the 2024 book-entry interest-bearing (19th issue) government bonds. The competitive bidding time is December 17.

ChainCatcher news, according to Decrypt, in response to changing regulations, Bybit has decided to temporarily adjust the availability of its products and services within the European Economic Area (EEA).Bybit will completely cease all communications with the EEA, a measure aimed at avoiding any potential violations of strict reverse solicitation principles. Existing customers will not experience any interruption in access to their crypto assets.Additionally, Bybit is actively seeking the MiCAR license in Austria to become one of the first participants in the EEA. Once the appropriate license is obtained, Bybit will begin working with its EEA customers in accordance with applicable laws.

ChainCatcher news, Brazilian asset management company Hashdex announced the appointment of former BlackRock executive Mick McLaughlin as Head of U.S. Distribution, aiming to expand the influence of its crypto asset ETF products in the U.S. market and strengthen the sales team.McLaughlin previously held executive positions at several institutions including Bitwise, Deutsche Bank, and Barclays. He stated that Hashdex, as a management company focused on crypto assets, is committed to driving the development of the global digital asset market through leading products and investor education.

ChainCatcher news, the personalized crypto index token sale Launchpad project Astra DAO based on Arbitrum has announced its acquisition by the Token Metrics Foundation, with the specific acquisition amount not disclosed. It is reported that the platform plans to gradually cease operations and functionalities.Astra DAO stated that all funds are safe and will be airdropped back to user wallets. In addition to refunding all user funds, ASTRADAO holders are entitled to receive T MAI airdrops, which reportedly account for 5% of the TMAI supply. ASTRADAO will continue to exist as a Meme coin operated by the community.Astra DAO is an automated crypto asset allocation protocol based on Ethereum, providing convenient and practical access to investment strategies aimed at cryptocurrencies. This innovative model creates a win-win incentive for profit-seeking index investors, creators, and token holders.

ChainCatcher news, according to the Procuratorial Daily report, on November 18, the Jiangsu Province Jianhu County Procuratorate organized police officers to distribute promotional materials in communities and streets, explaining the main forms of crimes involving virtual currency and interpreting the legal risks of virtual currency transactions in connection with a new type of crime case mediated by virtual currency trading. In this case, three young men born after 1995 engaged in foreign exchange "business" through virtual currency trading, completing over 650 transactions and exchanging nearly 30 million yuan in just a few months. The Jianhu County Procuratorate filed a public prosecution, and recently, the court sentenced Lin and two others to fixed-term imprisonment of five years to one year and six months for illegal business operations, along with fines.Lin, in collaboration with a Nigerian national, used the local legal currency Naira to purchase Tether on the Binance exchange, then transferred the Tether to Lin's Binance account. Lin sold the Tether to domestic currency traders in exchange for RMB, which was then transferred to a bank account in China provided by the Nigerian national. Lin determined the purchase price by discounting 5% from the day's listing price of Tether and then sold it to domestic currency traders at the listing price, earning the price difference.The prosecutor reviewed and concluded that Lin and the other two used virtual currency as a medium to provide cross-border exchange and payment services to earn exchange rate differences, which circumvented national foreign exchange regulations by exploiting the special properties of virtual currency, affecting the effectiveness of foreign exchange management and the stability of legal exchange rates, thereby disrupting the normal order of the financial market. They should be held criminally responsible for illegal business operations according to the law.

ChainCatcher news, Avalon Labs (formerly known as Avalon Finance) announced on their official Twitter that a coordinated attack targeting multiple projects within the ecosystem has been discovered, with these projects being maliciously reported as phishing sites.Avalon Labs stated that its operations have not been affected and has reported this behavior to Cloudflare, actively reaching out to relevant parties to address such malicious accusations.