Evening News ｜ U.S. SEC Chairman says that pledge service providers must register; Optimism airdrops to mainnet users for the second time
The Sui development team Mysten Labs has reached a partnership with Tencent Cloud; OpenAI CEO's Worldcoin plans to initiate a new round of financing.整理：flowie，ChainCatcher
"What Important Events Happened in the Last 24 Hours"
1. SEC Chairman: Staking-as-a-Service Providers Must Register and Provide Disclosure and Investor Protection Measures
In response to Kraken's settlement with the U.S. SEC and its decision to terminate staking services for U.S. users, SEC Chairman Gary Gensler stated, "Whether through staking-as-a-service, lending, or other means, cryptocurrency intermediaries must provide the appropriate disclosures and protections required by our securities laws when offering investment contracts in exchange for investors' tokens. Today's action should signal to the market that staking-as-a-service providers must register and provide comprehensive, fair, and truthful disclosures and investor protections."
Previously reported, the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) announced on Thursday that the cryptocurrency exchange Kraken would "immediately" cease its staking-as-a-service platform for U.S. customers and pay a $30 million fine to resolve allegations of offering unregistered securities. Kraken's parent company, Payward Ventures, Inc., and Payward Trading Ltd. will terminate staking services and projects that have been available to the public since at least 2019. (Source link)
2. Optimism Conducts Second Round Airdrop of 11.7 Million OP Tokens to Selected Mainnet Users
Optimism announced a second round of airdrops to certain governance participants and active users of the Optimism mainnet, totaling 11.7 million OP tokens. Eligible users include addresses that have delegated their OP token voting rights and those that have spent more than $6.1 in gas fees on Optimism since March 25, 2022, with the snapshot taken at 8:00 AM Beijing time on January 20, 2023.
Additionally, users who have delegated a larger number of tokens or paid higher gas fees will receive extra airdrop rewards. This airdrop does not require any claim and has been directly sent to eligible addresses. (Source link)
3. OpenAI CEO's Worldcoin Plans to Raise Up to $120 Million at a $3 Billion Valuation
According to The Block, citing informed sources, Worldcoin, the cryptocurrency company founded by OpenAI CEO Sam Altman, is discussing a new round of financing with investors, including sovereign wealth funds. The sources stated that Worldcoin aims to raise up to $120 million at a $3 billion valuation, with this round of financing including both equity and token financing.
Previously reported, on March 23, 2022, Worldcoin was seeking to complete a $100 million financing at a $3 billion valuation, with this round to be completed through token sales, and existing investors a16z and Khosla Ventures participating in this round.
According to cryptocurrency data platform RootData, Worldcoin announced the completion of a $25 million financing in June 2021, with participation from Coinbase Ventures, a16z, Day One Ventures, and angel investors including LinkedIn founder Reid Hoffman. (Source link)
4. Sui Development Team Mysten Labs Partners with Tencent Cloud
The Sui development team Mysten Labs has partnered with Tencent Cloud to expand the Sui ecosystem through collaboration in GameFi, payments, and cloud services. (Source link)
5. Su Zhu's New Debt Market "OPNX" Official Website Launched, Users Can Apply to Join Compensation Waiting List
The CEX project "GTX," founded by Three Arrows Capital founder Zhu Su and others, has officially announced its name "OPNX" (Open Exchange), and the official website is now live, allowing users to apply to join the compensation waiting list. OPNX will establish a zero-knowledge proof network to conduct real-time public crypto audits of leverage in the system, allowing all parties to independently verify the accuracy of each balance, liquidation, withdrawal, deposit, and transaction while protecting user integrity and privacy. The CoinFLEX platform token FLEX will continue to support the new platform, with token economics remaining unchanged.
OPNX stated that today's crypto world resembles a black box filled with unknown risks, leverage, and non-custodial elements. Last year, public chains, CEXs, large projects, and capital experienced collapses. The Open Exchange team has deeply felt this and believes it is their responsibility to learn from all lessons to promote the development of the crypto industry and establish a more robust, open, and transparent financial world. According to market data, the CoinFLEX platform token FLEX has maintained an upward trend since mid-January, with its price rising from a low of $0.036 to a high of $2.45 before significantly retreating.
Previously reported, OPNX was co-founded by Three Arrows Capital founders Su Zhu and Kyle Davies, along with two co-founders of CoinFLEX, Sudhu Arumugam and Mark Lamb, with a team of over 60 former CoinFLEX members. (Source link)
6. DCG Spokesperson: Total Revenue in 2022 Approximately $800 Million, About $1 Billion in 2021
According to The Information, a spokesperson for Digital Currency Group (DCG) revealed that the company's total revenue last year was approximately $800 million, which, although lower than the $1 billion in 2021, still marked the second-highest annual revenue since DCG's establishment.
It is reported that Genesis is seeking to sell its crypto lending and trading business, and DCG has been weighing whether to sell its crypto media company CoinDesk. DCG may be left with only two main profit-generating entities, namely the crypto asset management and trust company Grayscale and the crypto mining business Foundry. If Genesis is ultimately sold, DCG's future may depend on a rebound in Bitcoin prices. (Source link)
7. NFT Project OnChainMonkey Launches Minting on Bitcoin Network
According to a tweet from OnChainMonkey, this NFT project has joined the Ordinals protocol to launch "inscription" minting on the Bitcoin blockchain, and its collection of 10,000 NFTs has been fully on-chain. Previously, 10,000 "copies" of CryptoPunks, known as Bitcoin Punks, were also minted on the Bitcoin blockchain.
According to data from Dune Analytics, the single-day minting volume of Ordinals protocol NFTs exceeded 20,000 on February 9, which may be related to the launch of these two series. As of now, the cumulative minting volume of Ordinals protocol NFTs has reached 42,995.
According to cryptocurrency data platform RootData, OnChainMonkey's parent company Metagood completed a $5 million financing in December 2022, with participation from Animoca Brands and others. (Source link)
8. Data: Nostr's Global Popularity Mainly Concentrated in China, with a Concentration Rate of 80%
According to data analysis from the platform KingData, the global popularity of the decentralized social protocol Nostr (including Damus, etc.) is mainly concentrated in China, with a concentration rate as high as 80%. Additionally, its high-quality daily active users have significantly declined, with a peak of 87,400 on February 2, and only 36,000 yesterday (February 9, a decrease of 58.9% from the peak), and 29,000 today (February 10, a decrease of 66.8% from the peak). The daily active users of high-quality accounts have dropped to 4,000, returning to the state during the outbreak, with a decline of -85% from the peak. (Source link)
"What Interesting Articles Are Worth Reading in the Last 24 Hours"
During the bear market, amidst the layoffs and salary cuts of many crypto companies, the personnel changes at top crypto VC fund Paradigm have drawn attention. According to The Block, Paradigm recently promoted venture partner Charlie Noyes and research partner Dan Robinson to general partners, with Dan Robinson also serving as the head of research.
What changes will the promotions of Dan Robinson and Charlie Noyes bring to Paradigm? Time will tell. However, at least some insights can be gleaned from their backgrounds.
Since entering January, with the overall rebound of mainstream cryptocurrencies like BTC and ETH, the crypto industry has begun to welcome a long-awaited warmth. Meanwhile, many projects are continuing to push forward, consistently announcing financing, and launching testnets and mainnets. According to cryptocurrency data platform RootData, a total of 34 projects launched on mainnet and testnet in January 2023, including 21 projects on mainnet and 13 projects on testnet, primarily in the Ethereum, Polygon, and BNB Chain ecosystems.
For almost any non-fungible asset class, sellers are the price makers.
However, NFT sellers are taking a different liquidity path. They increasingly rely on buyer interest to gain immediate liquidity, and their asking prices (floor prices) are no longer the sole indicator of collectible value. Even though NFTs themselves are non-fungible assets, NFT trading is becoming more homogenized than ever. A Dragonfly Capital researcher provides a detailed analysis of the homogenization phenomenon in the NFT market.
Risk warning
Risk warning
