Weekly Report | $125 Million in Assets Mysteriously Flow Out of Cross-Chain Bridge Multichain; BlackRock Resubmits Spot Bitcoin ETF Application
A casual discussion on the underlying assets, business structure, and development path of RWA; Du Jun and Zhong Gengfa will subscribe to New Fire Technology shares for HKD 326 million in cash, accounting for 40.5% of the shares.Organizer: Biscuit, ChainCatcher
"What Important Events Happened This Week (7.3-7.9)"
1. BlackRock Refiles Spot Bitcoin ETF Application, Market Supervision to be Provided by Coinbase
According to Bloomberg, BlackRock has refiled its spot Bitcoin ETF application with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) through Nasdaq, adding new details for its ETF that directly invests in Bitcoin, including market supervision by Coinbase. Previous reports indicated that the SEC stated that the application documents submitted by asset management firms like BlackRock and Fidelity Investments for spot Bitcoin ETFs were insufficient.
Additionally, Valkyrie submitted new documents on July 5, modifying its spot Bitcoin ETF filing to designate Coinbase as its SSA partner. Ark Invest CEO Cathie Wood stated in an interview with Fortune magazine that she does not believe BlackRock has an advantage over ARK Invest in the Bitcoin spot ETF application. (Source link)
2. Du Jun and Zhong Gengfa to Subscribe for New Huo Technology Shares with HKD 326 Million Cash, Holding 40.5%
New Huo Technology announced that it has signed a new share subscription agreement with Du Jun and On Chain (controlled by Zhong Gengfa, founder of ChainUP), where Du Jun's total subscription price is HKD 155 million, accounting for 24.18% of the issued shares, and after completion, the proportion will be 19.47%. On Chain's total subscription price is HKD 171 million, accounting for 26.64% of the issued shares, and after completion, the proportion will be 21.03%, totaling HKD 326 million, which will be paid in cash upon meeting the conditions precedent.
ChainCatcher previously reported that New Huo Technology clarified in an announcement on May 29 that it has no business or equity relationship with Huobi Hong Kong. Furthermore, according to New Huo Technology's interim financial report, as of March 31, 2023, the company achieved revenue of HKD 2.506 billion, with virtual asset trading and lending accounting for as much as 95.21%. The net profit loss was HKD 232 million, with a loss of HKD 102 million due to the FTX incident. (Source link)
3. Multiple Bridge Contracts of Multichain Experience Large Abnormal Outflows, with $130 Million in Assets Flowing Out of the Fantom Bridge
On July 7, multiple bridge contracts operated by Multichain experienced large abnormal outflows of various tokens, including nearly all held assets in wBTC, USDC, USDT, and several altcoins in the Multichain's Fantom bridge, with a total value exceeding $130 million. Meanwhile, scammers posted phishing links in the response section of the Multichain vulnerability. Subsequently, Multichain announced a service halt, and all bridging transactions will be stuck on the source chain.
On July 5, Binance announced that it would suspend support for deposits and withdrawals of Multichain cross-chain bridge tokens minted through the following networks starting from July 7 at 08:00 (GMT +8) until further notice.
Yves La Rose, founder and CEO of the EOS Network Foundation, stated on Twitter that the Multichain vulnerability has not yet affected EOS users. The Fantom Foundation announced that FTM has never been issued or managed by Multichain, so wFTM, FTM ERC-20, and FTM on Opera are unaffected.
Due to the Multichain vulnerability incident, Circle froze $63 million USDC. Tether froze two USDT addresses related to Multichain, involving approximately 2.53 million USDT. (Source link)
4. The Suspended Crypto Exchange Hotbit Announces Asset Disposal Plan of Approximately $16 Million
The suspended crypto exchange Hotbit announced on June 30 that for DF asset holders, the current assets available for withdrawal from the hot wallet are approximately $6 million, most of which come from users unable to pay withdrawal fees. These assets will be converted to USDC on Arbitrum and distributed proportionally to DF asset holders; the value of the company's invested liquid and locked assets is approximately $10 million (valued at $100 million at its peak in 2021), and these assets will gradually be converted into "high liquidity assets" on Arbitrum and distributed proportionally to HTB holders.
Additionally, among Hotbit's investment portfolio, there is a DEX product inspired by GMX, and the team is willing to use HTB as the platform token. The Hotbit team will also transfer the domain name and remaining assets to a new team; some of the invested assets are still in a long-term accumulation state, and in the next 2-3 years, they will continue to convert unlocked investment assets into "high liquidity assets" for distribution to HTB holders. (Source link)
5. Cosmos Announces NFT Hackathon Award Results, NFTokenizer, CosmoSwap, and Lendlord Win Awards
Cosmos announced the award results of the NFT hackathon, with NFTokenizer, CosmoSwap, and Lendlord taking the top three spots.
It is reported that NFTokenizer is built on Neutron, allowing users to tokenize any asset into NFTs with cross-chain compatibility; CosmoSwap is a DeFi aggregator that enables cross-chain token swaps through IBC; Lendlord is a cross-chain NFT leasing platform that allows users to seamlessly lend, lease, and manage NFTs across IBC chains. (Source link)
6. Not Larva Labs Founder: Has Criminal Information on Azuki Founder, Willing to Testify in Court
PAULY (Jeremy Cahen), founder of the NFT market Not Larva Labs, tweeted that he is "willing to help the Azuki community take legal action against Azuki founder Zagabond."
PAULY stated, "He is a pathological liar or a serial criminal. My colleagues and I have spent over a year tracking him down to recover the $3 million he defrauded. He and his team extracted over $100 million from our community through fraudulent means. I would be happy to testify in court about all of this; it would be my honor. I also have complete personal information on many team members involved in these scams."
Previously, ChainCatcher reported that AzukiDAO intends to sue founder Zagabond and recover 20,000 ETH in refunds. AzukiDAO and 20,000E DAO were established by some former core builders of the Azuki community and Azuki holders and are not affiliated with the Azuki project team. (Source link)
7. Vietnam Cyber Crime Investigation Team Investigates Pi Network
Vietnam's cybersecurity and high-tech crime prevention department is investigating Pi Network due to its "complex business model," with Vietnamese officials questioning whether Pi Network may be involved in fraudulent activities against citizens or data collection. (Source link)
8. Data
- The 1inch team address sold nearly 11,000 ETH on the evening of July 5 to test new features in Fusion mode.
- A certain PENDLE whale has achieved a return on investment of 1289% since last year and still holds over 500,000 PENDLE.
- ProShare Bitcoin Strategy ETF BITO's assets under management have surpassed $1 billion.
- Over 2,000 ETH have been burned in contracts within 24 hours of VMPX's launch.
- RootData: The amount of funding in the crypto market in June this year was $520 million, a recent low.
- The total supply of stablecoins has decreased from $138 billion at the beginning of the year to $124 billion.
- Since May, the monthly trading volume of DEX has continued to decline compared to CEX, currently below 14%.
- Blueport Interactive recently purchased 44.2 Bitcoin for $1.24 million.
"What Great Articles Are Worth Reading This Week (7.3-7.9)"
1. “RWA Discussion: Underlying Assets, Business Structure, and Development Path”
The narrative of RWA includes a rich variety of asset types and a wide range of yields. However, the market may currently have overly high short-term expectations for RWA. This article will explore several dimensions of issues starting from the RWA project itself, including underlying assets, standardization of underlying assets, off-chain cooperative institutions and forms of cooperation, risk management…
2. “The Once Popular Loot Launches L2 Network Loot Chain, Can It Ignite a New Prosperity in Lootverse?”
Recently, the Loot ecosystem project Adventure Gold DAO announced that it will build a community-specific Ethereum L2 network, Loot Chain, using OP Stack to reduce gas fees. Additionally, crypto market maker DWF Labs has committed to supporting the AGLD ecosystem and plans to purchase millions of dollars worth of AGLD Tokens. Do these series of big moves hint at the return of a former dark horse in the NFT field?
3. “VMPX Triggers Gas War, XEN Token Continues to Plummet, Who is Paying for Jack Levin's Tokens?”
Currently, the price of the XEN token, in which Jack Levin is involved, has dropped from a high of $0.0025 to $0.000001, while the VMPX BRC20 token has fallen from $0.29 to $0.07, and several BRC20 tokens such as PUSY, XUNI, EPIC, and DRAC have approached zero.
4. “NFT Dives into the Ice Age, How Much Have the Once High-Profile Stars Lost?”
Stars who rushed into the NFT craze in 2021, can they imagine that such a grand and novel concept would fall from grace in just two years? This article will review those well-known celebrities who once held or still hold famous NFT projects and briefly calculate how much they have lost in this market that has plunged into an ice pit.
Electric Capital's latest developer dynamics report shows that as of June 1, 2023, there are 21,300 active developers monthly. Compared to June 2022 (one year ago), this is a decrease of 22%. Compared to June 2021, this is an increase of 25% (over two years). Compared to June 2020, this is an increase of 92% (over three years). In summary, while new developers are leaving, overall activity remains strong.
6. “Arthur Hayes Predicts a New Narrative: Bitcoin Will Become the Preferred Currency for AI”
Arthur Hayes, co-founder and CEO of BitMEX, will put all the points together to discuss the implications of Bitcoin as the preferred currency for AI. What impact will this have on on-chain transaction volume? Most importantly, if the "AI + Bitcoin" narrative becomes mainstream, how high can Bitcoin's price go in this bull market cycle that will end in 2025/26?
7. “Fortune Interviews Cathie Wood: Will ARK Secure the First Spot Bitcoin ETF?”
Recently, ARK Invest has made headlines multiple times for resubmitting its spot Bitcoin ETF application to the SEC. In this conversation, Cathie Wood shares her views on Bitcoin's potential, regulatory challenges, and her vision for the future of digital assets.
Recently, the trading volume of the crypto debt trading platform OPNX (Open Exchange), founded by Three Arrows Capital founder Su Zhu and others, has surged, and the platform token OX has skyrocketed, attracting attention from the crypto community. However, the combination of "discredited founders + failed platform" continues to linger around OPNX, making it hard to shake off.
