Today's News Highlights:
Musk may support Trump in intervening with the Federal Reserve.
FTX is suing Binance and its former CEO Changpeng Zhao for $1.8 billion.
Binance will launch Act I: The AI Prophecy (ACT) and Peanut the Squirrel (PNUT).
ENS Labs is building the Layer 2 network "Namechain," expected to go live by the end of next year.
A user mistakenly locked $25 million in crypto assets permanently.
MicroStrategy's Bitcoin holdings have surpassed a value of $20 billion.
CoinShares: Last week, net inflows into digital asset investment products totaled $1.98 billion.
The open interest for Bitcoin options on Deribit with a strike price above $90,000 exceeds $2.8 billion.
Regulatory News
Powell: The president has no legal authority to remove him.
According to Jin Ten, the Federal Reserve announced a rate cut of 25 basis points this week as expected, lowering the target range for the federal funds rate to 4.5%-4.75%. All 12 FOMC voting members supported the rate cut. The policy statement removed language regarding progress on inflation and increased confidence in achieving targets, emphasizing the dual risks of employment and inflation. Federal Reserve Chairman Powell stated that future rate cuts will be accelerated or slowed based on economic conditions, noting that there is currently high uncertainty, making it inappropriate to provide excessive forward guidance, but the Fed will gradually move towards a neutral policy stance. He also stated that the election would not affect the Fed's recent policy decisions and that he would not be removed by the president, as the president has no legal authority to do so. It is reported that Trump's election led traders to reduce bets on the Fed cutting rates next year, which is expected to pause after possibly cutting rates 1-2 times in the first half of 2025.
Later news suggests that Musk may support Trump in intervening with the Federal Reserve.
FTX is suing Binance and its former CEO Changpeng Zhao for $1.8 billion.
According to Bloomberg, FTX filed a lawsuit against Binance and its former CEO Changpeng Zhao, seeking to recover nearly $1.8 billion that it alleges was fraudulently transferred by Sam Bankman-Fried (SBF). Binance, Zhao, and other Binance executives obtained this money in a stock buyback agreement made with FTX co-founder SBF in July 2021. According to legal documents submitted by the FTX bankruptcy estate management committee on Sunday, in this transaction, Binance and Zhao sold approximately 20% of FTX's international unit and 18.4% of its U.S. entity. The documents show that SBF used FTX's exchange token FTT and Binance-branded tokens BNB and BUSD (valued at $1.76 billion at the time) to pay for the stock buyback. The bankruptcy estate management committee stated in the documents that FTX and its sister trading company Alameda Research "may have been insolvent from the outset and were certainly insolvent by early 2021." Therefore, the management committee claims that the stock buyback transaction was fraudulent. FTX also accused Zhao of having posted a series of "false, misleading, and fraudulent tweets" shortly before FTX's collapse, which were "maliciously calculated to destroy its competitors." In a tweet posted on November 6, 2022, Zhao stated that Binance intended to sell its FTT tokens valued at around $529 million at the time, leading to a surge in withdrawal volumes on the exchange. A Binance spokesperson did not immediately respond to requests for comment.
A Binance spokesperson later stated: "FTX's claim to recover $1.8 billion is unfounded, and we will vigorously defend ourselves."
Shinzo Abe has been re-elected as Prime Minister of Japan.
According to Jin Ten, Ishiba Shigeru, the president of Japan's Liberal Democratic Party, defeated Noda Seiko, the leader of the opposition Constitutional Democratic Party, in the decisive round of the House of Representatives prime ministerial election, being re-elected as Japan's Prime Minister. Ishiba received 221 votes in the voting among 465 members. Previously, Ishiba had already won in the Senate prime ministerial nomination voting. It is reported that Ishiba believes that blockchain and NFTs can promote regional economies. Earlier, on October 1 of this year, Ishiba was elected as Japan's 102nd Prime Minister and announced the dissolution of the House of Representatives just 8 days later, setting the record for the fastest dissolution of the House of Representatives following a prime minister's election in post-war Japan. On October 27, the new House of Representatives election was held, where the ruling coalition of the Liberal Democratic Party and Komeito lost, failing to secure a majority in the new House of Representatives. According to Japan's constitution, a special national assembly must be convened within 30 days after the House of Representatives election to conduct the prime ministerial nomination election.
AI
The Hong Kong Special Administrative Region government will sign contracts with the third batch of key corporate partners, covering areas such as fintech and AI.
According to the official Weibo account of the Greater Bay Area Voice, Chan Mo-po, the Financial Secretary of the Hong Kong SAR government, stated today that the government will hold a signing ceremony with the third batch of key corporate partners tomorrow. A total of 17 key enterprises will participate in the signing, coming from mainland China, the United States, and Europe, engaged in areas such as artificial intelligence and big data, life and health technology, fintech, and advanced manufacturing and new energy technology, with 90% planning to establish international or regional headquarters in Hong Kong. It is understood that together with the previous two batches of signed key corporate partners, a total of over 60 key corporate partners are expected to bring HKD 42 billion in investments to Hong Kong, creating over 17,000 job opportunities.
Musk may intervene to suggest Trump adopt a more lenient alternative to the Biden administration's AI executive order.
According to (Fortune) magazine, as the results of the U.S. election become clear, Musk's support for Trump, seen as a gamble by the public, has yielded immediate returns. It is reported that Musk may try to persuade Trump to abandon his opposition to the Biden administration's electric vehicle tax credit policies, encouraging the purchase of electric vehicles. Following Trump's victory speech, Tesla's stock price surged significantly. Investors expect the Trump administration to stop federal investigations and enforcement actions against Tesla, particularly those related to its autonomous driving software. Additionally, the relationship between the Federal Aviation Administration and SpaceX is very tense. In September, Musk called for the resignation of FAA Administrator Michael Whitaker after SpaceX was fined $630,000 for regulatory violations regarding rocket launches. Musk stated that he plans to establish a Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) under the Trump administration, with work plans including relaxing regulations on its rocket launches. Trump himself suggested using Starlink's satellite services to provide internet connectivity in rural areas as part of a future $42 billion broadband investment plan, which could be a potential financial boon for Starlink. Musk's generative AI startup xAI has a chatbot that competes with OpenAI's ChatGPT and other large language models, and Musk may intervene to suggest Trump adopt a more lenient alternative to the Biden administration's AI executive order. In California, Musk supports the controversial safety legislation SB 1047, which would impose restrictions on large AI companies, a measure that has faced strong opposition from venture capitalists and large developers due to the potential catastrophic risks posed by AI.
Project Updates
Binance will launch Act I: The AI Prophecy (ACT) and Peanut the Squirrel (PNUT).
According to the official announcement, Binance will list Act I: The AI Prophecy (ACT) and Peanut the Squirrel (PNUT) at 18:00 (UTC+8) on November 11, 2024, and open the following spot trading pairs: ACT/USDT, PNUT/USDT. The recharge channels for ACT and PNUT are now open; withdrawals are expected to open on November 12, 2024, at 18:00 (UTC+8). Seed tags will apply to ACT and PNUT.
Later news suggests that ACT developers have distributed, burned, or sold all ACT holdings. Binance's savings, one-click buying, flash exchanges, leverage, and contracts will launch ACT and PNUT.
Hedge funds shorting Tesla have lost over $5 billion since Trump won the U.S. election.
According to Jin Ten, hedge funds that have maintained short positions in Tesla since Trump's election victory have lost billions of dollars, as Musk's special relationship with the incoming president has impacted them. Data compiled by S3 Partners indicates that from election day to last Friday's close, hedge funds holding short positions in Tesla have faced paper losses of at least $5.2 billion.
The founder of Stacks expects to launch the upgraded version of sBTC in early December.
According to The Block, Muneeb Ali, co-founder of the Bitcoin Layer 2 network Stacks, hinted that a significant upgrade for the network is imminent. Ali noted in a post on X that the upcoming sBTC token may be launched as early as next month. Ali wrote: "(Early December) is the target time, and sBTC v1 seems to be proceeding as planned, with more upgrades to come in January and beyond." Stacks promotes sBTC as a solution to Bitcoin's "write-in problem," which addresses the challenge of writing data directly to the Bitcoin main chain, essential for decentralized financial applications. According to Stacks' announcement, Stacks' sBTC will "allow smart contracts to programmatically send sBTC to BTC addresses, where it will be pegged to BTC." Stacks believes that the innovative decentralized two-way peg of sBTC will provide a more aligned option with Bitcoin's decentralization philosophy, thereby unlocking value.
The DeltaPrime protocol was attacked on the Arbitrum and Avalanche chains, with estimated losses of approximately $4.8 million.
According to PeckShield alerts, the decentralized finance platform DeltaPrime was attacked on the Arbitrum and Avalanche blockchains, resulting in losses of approximately $4.8 million in crypto assets. It is reported that the attacker injected about $1.3 million into LFJ (formerly Trader Joe) to provide liquidity and engaged in USDC mining on the Stargate platform.
DeltaPrime officially confirmed that its protocol was attacked on the Avalanche and Arbitrum chains, with preliminary estimated losses reaching $4.75 million. The protocol has been paused on both chains to control risks. DeltaPrime advises all users to revoke authorization for active contracts to avoid further losses and stated that user safety is the top priority, with updates to follow as soon as possible.
It is reported that FuzzLand, a Web3 security and analytics company, has a real-time monitoring system that was the first tool to detect the attack, and it stated that DeltaPrime was attacked due to improper input validation.
Insiders: Bitcoin prices may rise to $100,000 when Trump takes office in January 2025.
According to CNBC, Fadi Aboualfa, research director at cryptocurrency custody firm Copper.co, believes that Bitcoin's price could reach $100,000 by January 20, 2025, when Trump takes office, adding that this increase "occurs against a backdrop of a weak dollar, which is different from the current strong dollar environment." Given that Bitcoin exchange-traded funds currently hold approximately 1.1 million Bitcoin, the momentum in the coming months could be positive. Additionally, Jag Kooner, derivatives head at cryptocurrency exchange Bitfinex, stated that while it is difficult to predict Bitcoin's price, the goal of reaching $100,000 in a few months "doesn't seem far-fetched," adding, "Given the bullish momentum, coupled with the fact that the economy has avoided recession, we expect Bitcoin's downside potential is now limited. This (the $100,000 target) looks very reasonable."
EF core researcher: A proposal regarding the redesign of the Ethereum consensus layer will be announced tomorrow.
Justin Drake, a core researcher at the Ethereum Foundation (EF), posted on X stating: "Tomorrow at 5 PM (local time), I will announce a significant plan on the main stage of Devcon. For the past year, I have been contemplating what a completely redesigned Ethereum consensus layer would look like. My goal is to propose a reliable strategy for launching an extremely ambitious and exciting beacon chain roadmap within a reasonable timeframe. After months of discussions with researchers and consensus developers, I am finally ready to publicly present my proposal. It is still too early to tell if this new approach to the consensus layer roadmap can achieve preliminary consensus, and your participation is crucial."
Former executives of Pacific Investment Management Company and Millennium have established a crypto consulting firm x2B.
According to Bloomberg, former executives of Millennium Management LLC and Pacific Investment Management Company (Pimco) are launching consulting services in the digital asset space. Benoit Bosc, who previously served as a portfolio manager at Millennium, and Michael Bressler, who recently served as executive vice president at Pimco, left their positions in October and August respectively to establish a digital asset consulting firm x2B. The company will launch in November and currently has 10 clients, charging based on the future token and cash mix of projects. The company will provide consulting services for crypto projects, including fundraising, token issuance, financial management, and market-making arrangements. Bosc previously served as the U.S. general manager for digital asset market maker GSR, while Bressler held the position of global sales head for a year and a half at the company. In an interview, Bressler said: "Few people understand the complex dynamics of token issuance at the intersection of high-end traditional finance and digital finance." Bosc added that the industry would benefit from "more professional and transparent practices" and noted that x2B plans to push "various market participants and service providers involved in these issuances to take on more responsibility."
WalletConnect: WCT claims and staking will go live on November 26.
Web3 communication protocol WalletConnect announced on the X platform that the WCT token claim and staking will go live on November 26. Previously, in September, it was reported that WalletConnect launched its native token WCT, with 18.5% allocated for the first quarter airdrop.
Circle introduces a new concept that supports AI agents to operate and trade independently using USDC.
According to Crowdfund Insider, Circle reported that the company issued over $2 billion worth of USDC in the past few weeks and explored how the combination of AI and blockchain technology would change people's understanding of work and finance, especially through the use of "autonomous" payments. Circle introduced a concept that allows AI agents to operate and trade independently using USDC. By adding financial functionalities, these agents can handle tasks "completely independently." Circle studied how to combine advanced AI with secure automated payments and blockchain technology to create the system and used Circle's developer platform for payment processing. Furthermore, it built a sample application to "demonstrate this autonomous system," encouraging users to use this template to build their own projects and provide feedback.
ENS Labs is building the Layer 2 network "Namechain," expected to go live by the end of next year.
According to Coindesk, ENS Labs, the company behind Ethereum Name Service (ENS), is advancing plans to launch its own Layer 2 network. Katherine Wu, COO of ENS Labs, revealed that the new network, named Namechain, will go live by the end of next year. It will utilize zero-knowledge rollups, a scaling technology that speeds up blockchain transaction times and reduces execution costs by compressing the amount of data published on-chain. ENS Labs stated in a press release on Monday: "This technology allows Namechain to process and execute transactions outside of the main Ethereum network while still inheriting the full security of Ethereum, but at a fraction of the cost." The new network will leverage existing zero-knowledge chains that are compatible with the Ethereum Virtual Machine, and the team is in the final stages of choosing which zkEVM to use.
Analysis: Binance has launched a total of 15 meme coins this year, 80% of which have seen significant market cap growth after launch.
A user mistakenly locked $25 million in crypto assets permanently and urgently seeks hacker assistance to recover it.
According to The Block, a cryptocurrency user mistakenly sent $25 million worth of Renzo re-staked Ethereum tokens to the wrong "security module" address instead of the correct "safe wallet" address, potentially locking the funds permanently. The user urgently sought help on social media, promising to pay approximately $2.5 million (10% of the current price) as a reward if any hackers or white hats could successfully recover the funds.
Renzo is a liquidity re-staking platform focused on Ethereum and Solana. Currently, the funds cannot be withdrawn unless the Renzo team upgrades the contract to add the corresponding rescue function. DefiLlama founder 0xngmi stated that unless Renzo intervenes, the user's funds cannot be retrieved. As of the time of publication, Renzo has not publicly responded to this matter.
Financing News
TAC has completed a $6.5 million financing round, which will provide EVM in-app access for TON and Telegram users.
According to The Block, the TON network expansion project TAC has completed a $6.5 million seed funding round, led by Hack VC and Symbolic Capital, with participation from Primitive, Paper Ventures, Karatage, Animoca Ventures, and others. TAC will provide seamless access to Solidity applications for TON and Telegram users and plans to launch a testnet this week, with the mainnet expected to go live in Q1 2025. TAC aims to connect Ethereum developers with the TON blockchain ecosystem and simplify the development process on TON. This funding will be used for marketing, developer relations, and technological research and development.
Important Data
MicroStrategy's Bitcoin holdings have surpassed a value of $20 billion.
According to Saylortracker data, MicroStrategy's Bitcoin investment portfolio has surpassed a market value of $20 billion, showing that MicroStrategy holds 252,220 BTC, currently valued at approximately $20,065,432,317.38.
Later news suggests that Michael Saylor, founder of MicroStrategy, hinted at continuing to increase BTC holdings.
CoinShares: Last week, net inflows into digital asset investment products totaled $1.98 billion.
According to CoinShares' latest weekly report, net inflows into digital asset investment products after the U.S. election totaled $1.98 billion, driving the global assets under management (AuM) to a record high of $116 billion, marking five consecutive weeks of net inflows. Regional inflows were mainly concentrated in the U.S. ($1.95 billion), with Switzerland and Germany seeing inflows of $23 million and $20 million respectively.
Bitcoin is performing strongly, attracting $1.8 billion in inflows, totaling $9 billion since the Fed's first rate cut in September, influenced by the macro environment and changes in U.S. politics. Ethereum saw an inflow of $157 million last week, marking the largest inflow since the ETF listing in July, indicating an improvement in market sentiment.
In addition, other mainstream tokens such as Solana ($3.9 million), Uniswap ($1 million), and Tron ($500,000) also saw some inflows, with blockchain-related stocks seeing inflows of $61 million.
Data: The transaction volume of Hong Kong's virtual asset ETF today is approximately HKD 128 million.
The U.S. Bitcoin spot ETF saw net inflows of $1.63 billion last week, while Grayscale's ETF GBTC recorded a historic low of net outflows.
The market capitalization of SOL has surpassed $100 billion.
Market information shows that the market capitalization of SOL has surpassed $100 billion, currently reaching $100,198,590,966. Additionally, the market shows that the price of SOL has risen to $212.44, with a 24-hour increase of 6.95%.
A wallet that received a large amount of BTC from Mt. Gox 6 days ago transferred 27,871 BTC to another unknown wallet.
According to Onchain Lens monitoring, 6 days ago, the Mt. Gox wallet transferred 32,371 BTC (then valued at $2.19 billion) to an unknown wallet. Just 20 minutes ago, that wallet transferred 27,871.3 BTC (currently valued at $2.24 billion) to another unknown wallet and returned 2,500 BTC (valued at $200.95 million) back to the Mt. Gox wallet. This could signify the beginning of repayments.
The open interest for Bitcoin options on Deribit with a strike price above $90,000 exceeds $2.8 billion.
According to CNBC, the total value of open contracts for Bitcoin options on Deribit with a strike price above $90,000 has increased to over $2.8 billion. K33 Research's research director Vetle Lunde stated that the options market generally has a bullish outlook for Bitcoin's continued rise, with call options trading at higher prices than put options, and the number of open contracts for out-of-the-money call options has increased.
Data: Tokens such as CHEEL, APT, and ARB will see significant unlocks next week, with CHEEL unlocking valued at approximately $228 million.
BTC has surpassed $82,000, with a daily increase of 3.06%.
OKX market shows that BTC has just surpassed $82,000, currently quoted at $82,125.60 per coin, with a daily increase of 3.06%.
