Weekly Report | BTC Price Breaks Through 30,000 USD; BlackRock's Bitcoin Spot ETF Application Still Under Review
After the launch of the Scroll mainnet, TVL increased by over 500%; Gemini, Genesis, and DCG are accused of covering up a $1 billion hole.整理：饼干，ChainCatcher
"What Important Events Happened This Week (10.16-10.22)"
1. Cointelegraph Incorrectly Announced "U.S. SEC Approves BlackRock's ISHARES Bitcoin Spot ETF," Causing Over $100 Million in Liquidations in the Futures Market
Around 21:30 on October 16, Cointelegraph tweeted that the U.S. SEC had approved BlackRock's ISHARES Bitcoin spot ETF. Subsequently, Fox reporter Eleanor Terrett stated on social media, "BlackRock just confirmed to me that this is incorrect; their application is still under review."
The spot price of BTC on Binance briefly surged to $30,000 before dropping to around $27,700. Coinglass data showed that approximately $105 million was liquidated across the network within one hour.
Cointelegraph's official X account has since deleted the tweet stating "the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) approved BlackRock's iShares Bitcoin spot ETF." Cointelegraph conducted an internal investigation and concluded that the social media team initially received the false news via a Telegram channel. In an effort to quickly announce developments, a team member posted the news on X without confirming the authenticity of the source or obtaining editorial approval. This violated Cointelegraph's social media procedures, which require source verification and editorial approval before posting. Cointelegraph then contacted BlackRock and Bloomberg Terminal and deleted the post.
Cointelegraph stated that to ensure similar incidents do not occur in the future, the team is thoroughly reviewing and auditing social media management processes, particularly verifying breaking news before posting, and is engaging in discussions with all relevant staff to implement all necessary structural changes. (Source link)
2. Gemini, Genesis, and DCG Accused of Falsifying Financial Status to Conceal $1 Billion Hole
New York Attorney General Letitia James announced on Thursday that her office has sued Gemini Trust, Genesis Global, and Digital Currency Group for defrauding approximately 230,000 investors, amounting to over $1 billion.
The civil lawsuit also accuses former Genesis CEO Soichiro Moro and DCG founder and CEO Barry Silbert of attempting to conceal the true financial status of their lending division, Genesis, from the Gemini trading platform, its customers, and the public. (Source link)
3. FTX Used Over $1 Billion of Customer Deposits to Buy Back Shares from Binance
According to ChainCatcher and reported by CoinDesk, the U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ) has hired University of Notre Dame accounting professor Peter Easton to trace billions of dollars between Alameda and FTX. The professor testified during the SBF trial hearing that FTX used customer funds to buy back all shares held by the competitor exchange Binance in 2022, with over $1 billion coming from FTX exchange customer funds. The professor testified that user deposits were also reinvested into businesses and real estate, used for political donations, and donated to charities.
Previously, in 2019, Binance invested an undisclosed amount in FTX as part of a strategic partnership between the two companies. Binance CEO Changpeng Zhao stated in a 2022 article that as part of the buyback, the company received over $2.1 billion in BUSD and FTX's FTT tokens. (Source link)
4. Do Kwon Denies That Market Maker Jump Trading Restored UST to $1 in 2021
According to ChainCatcher and reported by CoinDesk, documents submitted to a New York court on Wednesday indicate that the legal case against Do Kwon and his company Terraform Labs may hinge on the role of market maker Jump Trading. Jump Trading appears to have made a profit of $1.28 billion when the ecosystem collapsed. Do Kwon told investors that the token maintained its $1 value due to its automated algorithm, but SEC experts stated that this was actually due to Jump intervening in the market at Terraform's request.
In a letter from Do Kwon's team to the Singapore Supreme Court, it stated, "The defendants deny these allegations and claim that Jump's trading in UST was not the reason for the peg restoration in May 2021. The decoupling in May 2022 was the result of third parties deliberately shorting UST, leading to its price decoupling, and involved direct public intervention to combat short-selling." Do Kwon's defense team also argued that the SEC lacks jurisdiction because the assets involved are currencies, not securities. (Source link)
5. Alliance DAO Announces 8 Web3 Accelerator Projects, Including Thunder, Tailwind, Tazz, and More
According to ChainCatcher and reported by Techcrunch, Alliance DAO announced 8 selected projects for its Web3 accelerator and builder community (ALL11), including fiat on/off ramp Kravata, on-chain trading terminal Thunder, decentralized broadcasting network Blockcast, mobile app game Sleepagotchi, Cosmos ecosystem wallet Tailwind, decentralized lending protocol Tazz, Web3 full-stack security platform Upshield, and EVM-compatible Layer1 Inco Network.
It is reported that this accelerator program received a total of 1,083 applications, a decrease of 36% from the previous batch, ALL10. Among them, only 6 teams passed the program and are about to graduate, and two startups from ALL10 also participated in the showcase.
ChainCatcher previously reported on May 18 that Alliance DAO announced 16 Web3 accelerator projects for the ALL10 accelerator program, including Bitcoin wallet Xverse, ZK rollups as a service Snapchain, carbon credit proof of labor protocol Glow, and ZK-based AI project Modulus Labs. (Source link)
6. Polygon Proposes to Establish a Governance Committee, Appointing 13 Members
Polygon initiated a proposal called "PIP 29" aimed at creating a "Polygon Protocol Committee" to promote a more decentralized governance model and appointed 13 inaugural members, including protocol expert Viktor Bunin from Coinbase, Ethereum Foundation researcher Justin Drake, Sommelier Finance co-founder Zaki Manian, and technical lead Jordi Baylina from Polygon Labs.
The PIP 29 proposal will "be responsible for making limited changes to existing and future Polygon protocol smart contracts on Ethereum," and the committee will also "execute community-led processes to initiate future upgrades, including those proposed in the Polygon 2.0 frontier phase." (Source link)
7. Celestia Has Reallocated 60 Million Airdropped Tokens, Updated Claimable Amounts for Users
The modular blockchain Celestia has completed the reallocation of approximately 60 million TIA tokens in its airdrop. These tokens have been distributed to users who have already claimed them. Users can now check the latest claimable airdrop amounts on the official website without needing to claim again.
Previous report indicated that the Celestia airdrop claim has ended, with a total of 191,391 addresses claiming, and participants are expected to receive TIA directly in their mainnet wallets in the coming weeks. (Source link)
8. Andre Cronje: The Crypto Winter Is Far from Over
Andre Cronje, a director at the Fantom Foundation, stated that the cryptocurrency market is closely tied to the overall macro market, and various factors indicate that the macroeconomic environment has yet to show bullish sentiment. Cronje remarked, "Look at the real estate market; it is just starting to slow down, the bubble has not yet burst, and the economic recession has not even fully begun. Purely from the perspective of investor value, the crypto winter is far from over." (Source link)
9. Data
- Bitcoin breaks $30,000
- TVL of Scroll mainnet increases by over 500% after launch
- A whale collateralized over 20,000 ETH on Aave to borrow USDT and buy stETH in a loop
- NFT fragmentation protocol Flooring Protocol's liquidity pool TVL exceeds $6 million
- Linea ecosystem friend.tech clone Tomo's TVL surpasses 1,000 ETH
- Stars Arena's TVL exceeds $2.04 million after resuming trading
- Spark Protocol's TVL exceeds $500 million
- Uniswap founder burns 99.99% of HayCoin supply, token value increases by over 300%
"What Great Articles Are Worth Reading This Week (10.16-10.22)"
The third witness from SBF's inner circle, former FTX engineering director Nishad Singh, testified regarding FTX's involvement in illegal political donations and various explosive allegations concerning SBF's extravagant spending and reckless investments.
2. Uniswap Labs' New Fee Policy: Aiming for Sustainability, but May Hurt UNI and User Interests
Uniswap Labs may be looking to charge a sustainable fee to maintain operations. However, in a market where DEXs are lowering trading fees to capture market share, charging fees on the front end may partially seize potential benefits that originally belonged to UNI holders. It is foreseeable that more free third-party Uniswap front ends will emerge in the future, potentially forcing users to choose other aggregators, leaving uncertainty about how much revenue Uniswap Labs can actually generate from this.
A week before Parity Technologies (the Polkadot ecosystem development organization) was set to hold its annual retreat in Mallorca, its 385 employees received shocking news: the company would lay off most of its staff. What was supposed to be a fun week of speeches, workshops, and parties turned into discussions about Parity's dissolution, who would survive the cuts, and what would happen next.
Electric Capital released updated October developer data analysis on October 19, indicating a decrease in the number of new developers exploring cryptocurrency in 2023.
The report reviewed over 164 million crypto submissions and concluded that as of October 1, 2023, the number of monthly active open-source developers was 19,300. This represents a 27% decrease compared to the same period last year. The recent departures from the crypto space were primarily new developers with less than 12 months of experience, accounting for about 25% of all code submissions. This finding aligns with our research results from July 2023, and this trend continues.
5. a16z: How Should Web3 Governance Reward Systems Be Designed?
A core challenge in democratizing online governance systems is how to incentivize long-term civic engagement through rewards. Current Web3 governance systems often use transferable tokens, but these tokens have some obvious limitations (e.g., tendencies toward oligarchic domination, low resistance to Sybil attacks, and incentives for holders to sell tokens and exit), which can be overcome by moving beyond token voting.
This article outlines the considerations for both reputation-based and token-based participation governance reward systems and discusses how to obtain these rewards and what power they may translate into.
6. Vitalik Says He Has Never Sold ETH for Personal Gain; We Review His Personal and Charitable Wallets
As a co-founder of Ethereum, Vitalik Buterin's every move is closely watched, and the dynamics of his wallet addresses have become a "reference" for crypto investors to gauge industry trends, sometimes even triggering market reactions and affecting cryptocurrency prices.
On October 18, Vitalik Buterin clarified on social media, "If you see an article saying 'Vitalik sent *** ETH to a certain exchange,' then it is not me selling. I have made donations to certain charities, non-profits, or other projects, and those sale transactions were made by the recipients of the donations because they needed to pay some fees. However, I have not sold ETH for personal gain since 2018."
Contrary to market trends, Solana's DeFi TVL increased by 32% to $368 million. This growth was primarily driven by incentive programs launched by DeFi and liquid staking protocols, led by MarginFi, Jito, Cypher, and BlazeStake.
8. In-Depth Look at Taproot Assets Mainnet Alpha Version: Is Bitcoin Network Entering a New Era?
Lightning Labs stated that this release marks the arrival of a new era for Bitcoin. With Taproot Assets v0.3, builders have all the tools needed to make Bitcoin a multi-asset network while maintaining Bitcoin's core values in a scalable manner.
9. 2023 Q4 Token Unlock Overview
In October, several well-known projects, including Aptos, ApeCoin, Axie Infinity, and Optimism, will experience a new round of token unlocks. This article compiles 12 upcoming token unlock events with amounts exceeding $1 million. The content includes key data such as unlock quantities, timing, amounts, and circulation.
