headlines
Binance and CZ plead guilty and reach settlement with DOJ and CFTC
Binance and its CEO CZ pleaded guilty to criminal charges of anti-money laundering and violating U.S. sanctions, including allowing transactions with terrorist groups such as Hamas, as part of a deal with the U.S. Department of Justice aimed at keeping the company operating part of the comprehensive agreement.
Binance agreed to plead guilty and pay a fine of more than $4 billion. Changpeng Zhao, who agreed to resign and pay a $50 million fine as part of a settlement, pleaded guilty in a Seattle court on Tuesday. The agreement includes the participation of the U.S. Treasury Department and the Commodity Futures Trading Commission and ends a years-long investigation into the cryptocurrency exchange.
The negotiated settlement will resolve all allegations of criminal misconduct.
Odaily News CZ published an open letter on the X platform stating that Richard Teng will take over as Binance CEO. He was previously the global regional market leader of Binance. The original text is as follows:
“Today, I am resigning as CEO of Binance. Granted, it’s not easy to let go emotionally. But I know it’s the right thing to do. I made mistakes, and I must take responsibility. This is a big deal for our community, and for the currency. Ann, and the best for myself...
I’m excited to announce that our current head of global regional markets, Richard Teng, has been appointed as Binance’s new CEO today.
Richard is a highly qualified leader with over three decades of financial services and regulatory experience who will guide the company into its next phase of growth. He will ensure Binance delivers on our promises in the next phase of security, transparency, compliance, and growth."
Odaily News Binance’s new CEO Richard Teng published an open letter on the X platform. The original text is as follows:
“We operate the world’s largest cryptocurrency exchange by trading volume. The trust our 150 million users and thousands of employees place in us is a responsibility that I take seriously and value. Under the leadership of Changpeng Zhao (CZ) and our leadership team With the support of the .
My focus will be:
1. Assure users that they can continue to have confidence in the company’s financial strength, safety and security;
2. Work with regulators to uphold high standards that promote innovation globally while providing important consumer protections;
3. Work with partners to promote the growth and popularity of Web3.
Odaily News BitMEX Research posted on the X platform that the court ruled that CZ will be allowed to live in the United Arab Emirates while waiting for the verdict. CZ must return to the United States 14 days before sentencing.
Additionally, CZ was released on a $175 million personal bond, one of the largest bails in history, WhaleWire reported.
Bloomberg: CZ’s sentence is not expected to exceed 18 months
Odaily News According to Bloomberg, CZ could have faced up to 10 years in prison, but under the plea agreement, he is not expected to be sentenced to more than 18 months in prison. The U.S. Department of Justice has not decided how long they will seek to sentence him.
CZ’s sentencing hearing will be held on February 24 next year, Beijing time
Odaily News Binance founder and former CEO CZ has been released on a $175 million personal guarantee. The sentencing hearing is scheduled for February 23, 2024, 9:00 Pacific Time (February 24, 1:00 Beijing time) held.
He will deposit $15 million in a DWT trust account and agree to give up those funds if he violates bail conditions, according to court documents. He also found two sureties who pledged guarantees of $250,000 and $100,000 respectively.
The terms of CZs release prohibit him from breaking the law, flirting with witnesses or victims or taking any over-the-counter controlled substances, which are normal provisions of bail. CZ was allowed to leave the United States and said he must return 14 days before sentencing. (CoinDesk)
Industry News
Odaily News More than 700 of OpenAIs 770 employees have signed an open letter asking the board of directors to resign and reinstate Sam Altman as CEO, otherwise employees will collectively follow Altman to Microsoft. The letter states that Microsoft has guaranteed positions for all OpenAI employees.
Altmans firing creates uncertainty about OpenAIs future. According to previous news, Thrive Capital is expected to lead the acquisition of shares of OpenAI employees, which will value OpenAI at US$86 billion. The company had not sent the money as of late last week and said Altmans departure would affect its operations.
Some investors are considering writing down the value of their OpenAI shares to zero, according to a person familiar with the matter. (Bloomberg)
Foreign media: OpenAI contacted Anthropic to discuss merger
OpenAI’s board of directors has approached Dario Amodei, co-founder and CEO of rival Anthropic, a large language model developer, about a possible merger between the two companies, according to people familiar with the matter.
OpenAIs board of directors fired CEO Sam Altman on Friday as part of the companys efforts to convince Amodei to replace Altman as CEO. Its unclear whether the merger proposal sparked serious discussion. Because of his position at Anthropic, Amodei quickly turned down an offer to become OpenAI CEO. (The Information)
Ark 21 Shares Bitcoin Spot ETF Will Charge 0.8% Management Fee
Odaily News ARK Investment Management and 21 Shares have become the first major applicants in the United States to announce management fees for Bitcoin spot ETFs. The Ark 21 Shares Bitcoin ETF will charge a 0.8% management fee, according to a filing updated on Monday. While higher than the 0.54% average fee for U.S.-listed ETFs, the fee is lower than the 0.95% charged by the largest Bitcoin futures ETF, the ProShares Bitcoin Strategy ETF, and well below the 2% charged by Grayscale GBTC.
Industry experts say Ark and 21 Shares have kicked off the fee race, with rivals including BlackRock, Invesco and Fidelity Investments offering their low-cost product lines. A well-known asset management giant.
Bloomberg ETF analyst James Seyffart said the fact that Ark and 21 Shares updated the fees in their filings from 70 basis points to 80 basis points could mean the cost of running these products will be higher than that of some sponsors and The issuer imagined it was even higher.
Ophelia Snyder, co-founder and president of 21 Shares, said: The inherent complexity of U.S.-listed spot products results in the 0.8% fee. While traditional ETFs can use package and bundle services such as custody, accounting and management, etc. Thats not the case with crypto products. In fact, almost every part of crypto products uses different vendors, which does increase operating costs. We think its a reasonable price to sustain these markets over the long term. (Bloomberg)
Celsius to transform into new mining-only company based on SEC feedback on updated bankruptcy plan
Odaily News Cryptocurrency lender Celsius announced in a court filing late Monday that it will transform into a new company focused on Bitcoin mining, a shift from an earlier restructuring plan. Plans also include a focus on staking.
The move comes after the SEC provided feedback on certain aspects of the program. Hours before Celsius announced the news on Monday, CoinDesk reported that a court-approved reorganization plan had hit a snag as the SEC wanted more information about the company’s assets.
Earlier, a judge left implementation of the Celsius restructuring to Fahrenheit Holdings, a group that includes Arrington Capital and crypto miner US Bitcoin Corp. Fahrenheit won the acquisition of Celsius assets in May 2023. Under the plan, the company will incorporate a new company in Delaware, currently referred to in documents as NewCo. Under the court-approved plan, the company will focus on mining and staking.
In the coming weeks, the Debtors intend to file a motion with the Bankruptcy Court seeking approval of modifications to the plan to reflect Mining NewCos new transaction, and the Debtors do not believe that these modifications will require reversal of the plan, the filing said. The Debtors still expect to close the plan in January 2024 Distributions to creditors will begin in March.” (CoinDesk)
Project News
Blast developer airdrop and testnet will be launched in January next year
Odaily News The official website of Blast, the L2 network launched by Blur founder Pacman, shows that the Blast Developer Airdrop will be launched in January next year, when the Blast test network will also be launched.
It is reported that 50% of the Blast community airdrop will be allocated to developers, and the remaining 50% will be allocated to Early Access members. The early access airdrop event is now online. Participants can earn Blast Points by bridging assets to Blast and inviting friends. The airdrop points will be redeemable in May next year.
According to its roadmap, Blast plans to launch on the mainnet on February 24, 2024, and will launch DApp and open withdrawals; airdrops will be distributed in May, and Blast Points “redeem” will be supported on May 24.
Ethereum L2 network Kinto migrates to Arbitrum ecosystem
Odaily News Following the launch of a testnet using Optimism’s OP Stack in May, Ethereum Layer 2 network Kinto has been migrated to the Arbitrum ecosystem through the Arbitrum Nitro technology stack. The migration aims to bridge the gap between traditional finance and decentralized finance, building a KYC-compliant Layer 2 to support modern financial institutions and decentralized protocols. (The Block)
Aave may add support for crvUSD
Odaily News Aava founder Stani interacted with Curve Finance’s official account on social media today, and the content showed that Aave may add support for crvUSD.
According to a Github record shared by Curve Finance, Aave developers have been discussing adding CrvUSD to the Aave V3 market on Ethereum for several days.
Odaily News Jupiter co-founder Meow announced some latest adjustments to the JUP community airdrop plan on the X platform.
Meow said that the consultation session for the community has ended, and Jupiter will focus on launching the airdrop quota query website as soon as possible. This work can be completed by the end of this week or early next week.
Compared with the initially released airdrop plan, the latest adjustments will mainly make the following three modifications:
One is the OG users who admitted to having used Jupiter in the first few months of its launch;
The second is to add a continuity factor (which can be understood as loyalty), which prioritizes those who have used Jupiter fully in the past few years rather than occasional users;
Third, the transaction volume multiplier in 2023 will only apply to old users who have used Jupiter before.
Sushi has been launched on the public chain Aptos
Odaily News Multi-chain DEX Sushi announced its launch on the public chain Aptos. This is Sushi’s first deployment on a non-EVM chain.
Sushi first launched its V2 AMM on Aptos, with SushiXSwap to follow. This integration allows users to redeem tokens across the Apto chain and over 30 networks, including Ethereum, Arbitrum, Polygon, Optimism, BNB Chain, Base, and more.
Stride will provide liquidity staking services for dYdX Chain and provide 250,000 STRD incentives
Odaily News Cosmos ecological liquidity staking protocol Stride announced that it will provide liquidity staking services for dYdX Chain in the next few weeks, and will provide 25 to all users who participate in DYDX liquidity staking through Stride within the first two months after the service is launched. 10,000 STRD rewards.
The eths mainnet Facet-VM will be launched on November 30
Odaily news: eths officially issued a document on the X platform, and the eths mainnet Facet-VM was launched on November 30.
Dmail releases the latest version roadmap
Odaily News Web3 multi-chain infrastructure Dmail releases roadmap from the fourth quarter of 2023 to the third quarter of 2025.
Announced that a technical white paper and economic model will be released before the end of the first quarter of 2024;
Launch the mainnet and open NFT domain name transactions in mid-2024;
And news such as Mai l2 Earn will be launched before 2025.
Investment and Financing
Odaily News Cryptocurrency mining company Phoenix Group (PHX) completed its IPO on the Abu Dhabi Securities Exchange (ADX) and was oversubscribed 33 times. PHX will offer 907, 323, 529 shares, with trading scheduled to begin on December 4.
It is reported that Phoenix Group conducts mining operations through managed services and cloud-based services, and also operates a cryptocurrency exchange called M 2, whose native token is MMX. (CoinDesk)
Odaily News According to people familiar with the matter, blockchain finance company Figure Technologies Inc. is working with banks such as Goldman Sachs Group, JPMorgan Chase and Jefferies Financial Group Inc. to conduct an IPO for its lending unit. Figure Technologies Inc. is a company co-founded by Mike Cagney, the former head of SoFi Technologies Inc.
Figure is considering taking its LendCo public in the first half of 2024 at a valuation of $2 billion to $3 billion, the people said. Figure may file for an immediate IPO for LendCo, which is also a private capital markets business, it added. No final decision has been made on the matter, and the timing and valuation of the IPO may change.
Additionally, Figure’s digital assets unit, which will not participate in the IPO, is seeking to raise $50 million, people familiar with the matter said. Cagney will remain CEO of the unit while Figure considers finding another CEO for LendCo. Cagney founded Figure in 2018 with the goal of building financial products using blockchain technology.
Representatives for Figure, Goldman Sachs, JPMorgan and Jefferies declined to comment. (Bloomberg)
Data privacy solution Privy completes $18 million in Series A funding, led by Paradigm
Odaily News According to Fortune magazine, data privacy solution Privy completed an $18 million Series A round of financing, led by Paradigm and participated by Sequoia Capital and others.
Privy also announced on Tuesday that Huang, a former Sequoia Capital partner and Stripe board member, will join Privys board of directors.
Earlier news, data privacy solution Privy announced the completion of an $8.3 million seed round of financing, led by Sequoia Capital and Blue Yard Capital, with participation from Electric Capital, Archetype, BoxGroup and Protocol Labs. Privy aims to solve the contradiction between poor multi-wallet user experience and privacy risks of integrated login through Web3 solutions. This round of financing will be used to build the team and continue to create use cases that meet customer needs.
Colony Lab will invest US$10 million to support the development of the Avalanche ecosystem
Odaily News Avalanche ecosystem developer and accelerator Colony Lab said it will invest $10 million to support the long-term development of the network.
The company said it has purchased more than 500,000 AVAX tokens worth $8 million over the past few months, with the funds being used to build a validator program that benefits AVAX holders.
Colony Lab will also invest in the Colony Avalanche Index (CAI), an index of yield tokens in the Avalanche ecosystem.
Odaily News Web3 SocialFi and antivirus software De.Fi have completed a DEFI token sale financing worth more than $5 million, with investors including HOF Capital, OKX Ventures, Huobi Ventures, MEXC, and directors of Coinbase and Binance.
Odaily News Spanish blockchain debt automation platform Fence announced the completion of a 1.8 million euro Pre-Seed round of financing, led by Semantic.vc, with participation from Crane Earth, Actyus and multiple angel investors. The new financing will be used to continue investing in development and technology and expand the business to serve more banks, private debt funds and fintech companies in Europe. In line with its global expansion plans, Fence will double the size of its Madrid-based team by the end of the year.
According to reports, the technology solution designed by Fence implements a SaaS platform designed to automate debt management for asset financing. Thanks to Fence and its integration via API, investors have access to real-time updated debt information, improving decision-making. (EU-Startups)
Odaily News Klaytn Governance Forum shows that Animoca Brands applied to join the Klaytn Governance Committee. Animoca Brands will purchase 2.5 million KLAY tokens as a strategic investment and seek a delegation of 2.5 million KLAY tokens from the Klaytn Foundation.
Odaily News Cryptocurrency trading platform Manta Exchange has completed a new round of financing. ABCDE Labs, UOB Venture Management, C² Ventures and Ocular participated in the investment. The financing amount has not yet been disclosed. (Cointelegraph)
Metaverse IP company Poglin announces investment from Animoca Brands
Poglin, Odaily’s IP company, announced that it has received investment from Animoca Brands. The specific amount was not disclosed.
global policy
Canadian regulator asks banks to provide feedback on crypto risk reporting rules
Odaily News Canada’s Office of Financial Institutions (OSFI) has asked the country’s banks to provide feedback on upcoming cryptocurrency risk reporting rules.
Digital innovation is changing the way transactions are made, money is managed and value is viewed, but it is also creating risks for the financial system, OSFI said in a statement. Recent crypto incidents have highlighted the risks posed by unregulated financial innovation. Public disclosure enhances transparency, data comparability and market discipline, helping to build a safer financial system. Deadline for feedback is January 31st. Draft guidance is scheduled to be published in the fall of 2024, with final rules to follow the following year. (The Block)
Wuhan police cracked a virtual currency money laundering case involving up to 1 billion yuan
Odaily reported that the Wuchang District Branch of the Wuhan Municipal Public Security Bureau collaborated through three centers including the Sentiment Instructions Integrated Center, the Law Enforcement Case Management Center, and the Combined Operations Center. Seven arrest teams were sent to Deyang, Sichuan, Changchun, Jilin, and Dongguan, Guangdong. The provinces and cities simultaneously closed down the Internet and successfully eliminated a gang that used virtual currency to launder money. 27 arrested persons were criminally detained in accordance with the law. The amount of account funds controlled by the gang reached 1 billion yuan.
After investigation, since April this year, the criminal suspect Xiang Mou contacted his upline through the Airplane software to accept the task, and organized gang members to use the stolen money to purchase digital virtual currency on the Internet, and then transferred the virtual currency to the upline account. , thus helping electronic fraud gangs launder money and obtain commissions from it. According to preliminary statistics, the money laundering gang involved involved as much as 1 billion yuan. Currently, the case is under further processing. (Central Broadcasting Network)
Character*Voice
Odaily News In response to Bloombergs report that the U.S. Department of Justice will announce a cryptocurrency enforcement action, Paradigm policy director Justin Slaughter commented on the X platform that the SECs absence from a cryptocurrency enforcement action involving so many major government officials is very strange. This may This indicates that the SEC was not involved in this incident, and may also indicate that the SEC was not involved in the settlement.
According to previous news, Bloomberg announced that the U.S. Department of Justice will announce a cryptocurrency enforcement action at 4:00 on November 22, Beijing time. The lineup of this enforcement action is Attorney General Merrick Garland, Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen, Deputy Attorney General Lisa Monaco, and CFTC Chairman Rostin Behnam.
Microsoft CEO: Sam Altman may return to OpenAI in some capacity
Odaily News Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella made it clear in interviews with CNBC and Bloomberg TV that Sam Altman, who was dismissed as CEO by the OpenAI board last Friday, may return to OpenAI in some capacity.
Although Sam Altman previously announced his intention to join Microsofts newly formed artificial intelligence research team along with former OpenAI president Greg Brockman and several former OpenAI researchers.
Obviously, if Sam Altman and Greg Brockman are not at OpenAI, we want them to have a great home, Nadella told CNBC. When asked if Altman would return to OpenAI, Nadella added: Its up to the OpenAI board, management and employees to decide... [Microsoft] clearly chooses to work with OpenAI, and obviously it depends on whether the OpenAI employees stay there or come to Microsoft, so Im open to both options.
Odaily News Blur founder Pacman posted on the X platform that the two biggest opportunities we see in the NFT field are to reduce transaction costs and provide institutional-grade NFT perpetual contract products. Hundreds of millions of dollars have been spent on gas for NFT transactions, and the trading volume of perpetual contracts is 6 times that of spot trading. These opportunities require L2.
At the same time, there is another problem with the Blur protocol. There is $100 million in TVL in the Blur pool that is not earning revenue. This means Blur users are losing money due to depreciation. As he researched deeper, Pacman realized that this problem existed in almost every on-chain DApp. So he conducted in-depth research on Layer 2 and realized that there is a way to solve all these problems immediately: the new L2 that provides native revenue for DApps and users will allow the Blur ecosystem to avoid asset depreciation, reduce NFT transaction costs, and launch NFT sustainability. product. This L2 is not only useful for Blur, but also for all DApps. To this end, Pacman created a new Layer 2 project called Blast.
Additionally, Pacman has raised an additional $40 million to contribute to the Blur ecosystem. These funds will be used to build NFT L2 applications and continue to promote NFT development on ETH L1. Pacman said he will personally oversee the development of both Blur and Blast projects.
Odaily News a16z general partner Ali Yahya said in an interview that it has raised approximately US$7.5 billion in funds for the cryptocurrency field and the company is still operating a cryptocurrency team of 85 people and will be 100% dedicated to the encryption field.
He also said that although the current pace of capital deployment is not as fast as in 2021, investment is continuing. Some of the best investments can come from bear markets, especially when investing in companies that are just starting out. (CoinDesk)
