Evening News | Hong Kong Securities and Futures Commission: Retail investors can trade virtual assets on licensed trading platforms as early as the second half of the year
The Sei Foundation's official website has an Airdrop button, which may announce the airdrop details; WOO X is seriously insolvent and is suspected of misappropriating user assets.整理：饼干，ChainCatcher
"What Important Events Happened in the Last 24 Hours"
1. Hong Kong Securities and Futures Commission: Retail Investors Can Trade Virtual Assets on Licensed Platforms as Early as This Year
According to Bloomberg, Hong Kong will announce that retail investors can trade cryptocurrencies under new guidelines for the digital asset industry, with individuals expected to trade more tokens like BTC and ETH starting next month under appropriate safeguards.
According to a report from Hong Kong Radio, the interim head of the intermediary department of the Hong Kong Securities and Futures Commission, Choi Chung-fai, stated that there are currently no platforms available for retail investors to trade virtual assets, but it is anticipated that retail investors can trade on licensed platforms as early as the second half of this year once the guidelines take effect.
The Hong Kong Securities and Futures Commission will publish several guidelines related to virtual assets in the gazette on May 25. Additionally, the Commission reminds that although the relevant system will take effect on June 1, 2023, it has not yet approved any virtual asset trading platforms to provide services to retail investors, and most publicly accessible virtual asset trading platforms are not regulated by the Commission. (Source link)
2. Sei Foundation's Official Website Features Airdrop Button, Possibly Announcing Airdrop Details Soon
The Sei Foundation's official website currently features an Airdrop button, suggesting that airdrop details may be announced soon. Previously, the public chain project Sei stated on social media last October that 1% of the total supply of Sei tokens would be allocated to incentivize the testnet and reward early community members using the network. Additionally, Sei Labs co-founder Jayendra Jog mentioned in February that the Sei Network mainnet is expected to launch in the coming months along with an airdrop. (Source link)
3. LayerZero Community Administrator: No Token Airdrop or Listing Plans Currently
LayerZero's official Discord administrator 0xLamps stated, "There are currently no plans for a token airdrop or listing. Please check our official Twitter page for accurate information. We have been focused on building and creating a good development experience." (Source link)
4. Decentralized Crypto Trading Platform WOO X Reportedly Insolvent, Suspected of Misappropriating User Assets
Investigative journalist Chris Brunet published an investigative article on the decentralized crypto trading platform WOO X, questioning its current financial health and suspecting that the platform has misappropriated user assets for investment, leading to insolvency.
The article pointed out that WOO X has a hedge fund called Kronos Research, which is highly similar to Alameda. Although user terms state that WOO X will not use user deposits for speculation, Chris Brunet later discovered that according to the asset-liability ratio, WOO X's assets currently only cover about 80% of deposits, with 45% of those assets consisting of Token WOO. According to third-party data from Nansen, WOO X's treasury is actually composed of 76% WOO, significantly higher than the actively disclosed data, resulting in the actual value of reserve assets being far less than user deposits. (Source link)
5. OKX Web3 Wallet Now Supports BRC-20 Asset Trading
According to an official announcement, the OKX Web3 Wallet app has supported BRC20 asset trading since May 23, 2023, at 12:00 (HKT). According to ChainCatcher's previous report on May 16, OKX announced a Bitcoin ecosystem roadmap for its Web3 wallet, planning to launch a BRC-20 trading market to support BRC20 token trading, BTC cross-chain swaps, and will support Ordinals inscriptions and BRC-20 token minting, Ordinals NFT trading, STX Staking (BTC Layer 2), and BRC20 Staking by the end of May or early June. (Source link)
6. TON Accelerator Program to Allocate $25 Million to Promote Ecosystem Development
The TON Accelerator Program plans to allocate $25 million this year to projects that have significant potential to expand the TON ecosystem, with funding provided by TONcoin.Fund. Selected projects will receive funding ranging from $50,000 to $250,000, along with guidance from accelerator program partners. (Source link)
7. Polygon: Optimizations for Polygon zkEVM Expected to Reduce Fees by About 20% in the Coming Weeks
Polygon tweeted that optimizations for Polygon zkEVM in the coming weeks are expected to reduce fees by about 20%, without involving any compression.
Transaction fees on Polygon zkEVM include data availability and the cost of publishing proofs to Ethereum. Each transaction processed by Polygon zkEVM includes state data, and the fees also cover the costs of running the servers that generate proofs. Data availability accounts for about 80% of transaction fees on the network. (Source link)
8. Data: Centralized Exchanges' Holdings of Stablecoins Fall Below $20 Billion, Lowest Level Since April 2021
According to Glassnode data, the holdings of stablecoins by centralized exchanges have fallen below $20 billion, marking the lowest level since April 2021. (Source link)
"What Exciting Articles Are Worth Reading in the Last 24 Hours"
1. “Highlights from Vitalik's Speech at EDCON 2023: Scalability, Privacy, and User Security”
Since Ethereum's inception, it has used PoW to verify transactions, transitioning to PoS only last year. With the increase in Ethereum's usage, many performance issues have arisen, and solutions regarding scalability, transaction costs, efficiency, and privacy protection have become key focuses for Ethereum moving forward.
2. “Interpreting a16z's $600 Million Games Fund One: Why Bet on Games?”
A year ago, crypto venture giant a16z announced the launch of its first gaming fund, Games Fund One, with a scale of $600 million. A year later, the fund has made 25 investments. According to Andrew Chen, if he were to write this Deck today, discussing why now is the time to invest, he would definitely write "AIAIAIAI" and would make AI a new investment theme.
The Hong Kong Securities and Futures Commission released a public consultation on the regulatory framework this afternoon (5/23), which will officially take effect on 6/1. Among other things, the Commission stated that even if another licensed exchange includes a token, it does not exempt other exchanges from conducting due diligence.
4. “In-Depth Analysis of Babylon Chain's New Approach: Borrowing BTC Security”
A narrative worth noting is the development of "shared security" and "borrowed security," with increasing cases emerging. In various public chains, consensus mechanisms determine many core factors such as the security, scalability, and decentralization of the entire network's L1. The strong consensus and security provided by leading public chains are difficult for other ecosystems to match.
