Daily Report |FTX hopes to sell a $175 million claim against Genesis to repay creditors; JPMorgan: Tether's market dominance could threaten cryptocurrency
Organizer: Luan Peng, ChainCatcher
"What Important Events Happened in the Last 24 Hours"
1. FTX Seeks to Sell $175 Million Claim Against Genesis to Repay Creditors
According to ChainCatcher and reported by CryptoSlate, FTX is seeking court approval to auction its $175 million claim against Genesis as part of its efforts to repay creditors. (Source link)
2. Zhu Su: The Closure of OPNX is Due to FTX's Plan to Fully Pay Customer Claims in Bankruptcy
According to ChainCatcher and reported by CoinDesk, Zhu Su, co-founder of Three Arrows Capital, stated that the decision to shut down the crypto derivatives and claims trading platform Open Exchange was made because FTX will fully pay customer claims in bankruptcy. The OX community will now focus on the derivatives trading platform OX.FUN.
ChainCatcher previously reported that the crypto derivatives and claims trading platform Open Exchange (OPNX) will close this month. The OPNX team shared a message with users on the social media platform X, stating that the platform will officially cease operations and close in February 2024. We are committed to ensuring an orderly shutdown for all users. (Source link)
3. JPMorgan: Tether's Market Dominance May Jeopardize Cryptocurrency
According to ChainCatcher and reported by Bloomberg, stablecoin operator Tether Holdings Ltd. is expanding its dominant market share after achieving record profits. JPMorgan Chase & Co. stated that this poses a risk to the overall cryptocurrency market. A report released by JPMorgan on Thursday indicated that the centralization of USDT has increased over the past two years, solidifying its position as the leading stablecoin, but Tether's "lack of regulatory compliance and transparency" poses increasing risks to the market.
JPMorgan analysts wrote, "Stablecoin issuers that are more compliant with existing regulations may benefit from the upcoming regulatory crackdown on stablecoins and gain market share." Since paying a $41 million fine to the CFTC in 2021 for misreporting reserves, Tether has been working to make its operations and finances more transparent through quarterly attestations. Nevertheless, the report noted that Tether's stablecoin still lags behind its competitor Circle in terms of regulatory compliance for USDC tokens. Stablecoins may soon face stricter regulations in the U.S. and Europe. While the stablecoin payment bill is awaiting a vote in the U.S. House of Representatives, the EU's Markets in Crypto-Assets Regulation (MiCA) is expected to be partially implemented in June this year.
Tether CEO Paolo Ardoino stated in a statement, "Tether's market dominance may be 'negative' for competitors in the banking sector and others seeking similar success, but it has never been negative for the markets that need us the most. We have been working closely with global regulators to educate them about the technology and provide guidance on how they should think about it." (Source link)
4. Genesis Reaches Settlement with SEC, Will Pay $21 Million Fine
According to ChainCatcher and reported by Bloomberg, Genesis has reached a settlement with the U.S. SEC regarding the lawsuit related to the Gemini Earn program, which was jointly operated by Genesis and Gemini. The SEC alleged that Gemini Earn amounted to the issuance of unregistered securities, violating securities rules. Genesis and Gemini denied any wrongdoing and argued that the Earn product is not a security.
According to a document from the U.S. Bankruptcy Court for the Southern District of New York, Digital Currency Group's subsidiary Genesis has agreed to pay $21 million to the SEC to settle the lawsuit.
According to court documents, the $21 million will be paid "after paying all other allowed administrative expenses, secured, priority, and general unsecured claims in full." (Source link)
"What Interesting Articles Are Worth Reading in the Last 24 Hours"
1. “The Ferry to Eternity Powered by Real Data: An Overview of Web3 Permanent Storage Projects”
With the explosion of the DePIN concept, decentralized storage has once again attracted widespread attention in the market. Decentralized storage is an important infrastructure in the Web3 field, but it may be difficult for ordinary users to intuitively appreciate its charm. However, cloud storage products have always been one of the best choices for the public to experience storage services.
The earliest cloud storage project on the traditional internet, Xdrive, was born in 2002, and the now most popular cloud storage service, Google Drive, has been around for nearly 12 years, boasting over 3 billion users. Cloud storage products have "entered the homes of thousands of families," but at the same time, the real world has continuously faced issues of data loss or theft due to centralized cloud storage. Data has gradually become an important asset for people, and decentralized storage is becoming the new guardian of private property. Among many decentralized storage solutions, people often first notice the higher market cap FIL, but I want to explore the more unique Arweave and its ecosystem's cloud storage projects.
2. “FTX Officially Announces No Restart, FTT Rebirth as a Meme”
On January 31, local time in the U.S., the bankrupt cryptocurrency exchange FTX informed the court that it expects to fully repay its customers. This statement was made public during a court hearing, and U.S. bankruptcy judge John Dorsey has preliminarily approved this date, although a significant portion of creditors disagrees with it.
According to court proceedings, FTX has abandoned plans to restart its platform and is instead focusing on fully repaying its former customers. Due to a lack of buyers, FTX has given up on restarting its platform. Advisors conducted a thorough search in the market to find investors willing to restart FTX, but no one was willing to provide the cash needed to restart the exchange.
FTX attorney Andrew Dietderich stated that the repayment process will require claimants to submit proof to verify that they indeed held and lost assets on FTX. This process will be reviewed by restructuring advisors.
In 2024, we are still waiting for a major market event to fulfill the prediction of the "Staking Year."
From the Cosmos and Solana ecosystems to Ethereum, staking has become an industry-recognized wealth code. With the increasing demand for liquid staking and capital efficiency on Ethereum, the expectations for EigenLayer's token issuance, AltLayer's airdrop, and Renzo's financing news have directly ignited the Restaking war. Restaking was first proposed by Eigenlayer founder Sreeram Kannan, allowing ETH that has already been staked on Ethereum to be restaked on other consensus protocols, sharing Ethereum's economic security to ensure its own secure launch and operation.
Currently, the airdrop incentive programs of Ethereum LRT projects such as Renzo, ether.fi, Kelp DAO, Eigenpie, Swell, and Puffer Finance have driven FOMO in the market. Beyond these mainstream projects, are there other opportunities in the Restaking sector? To this end, I have compiled a brief overview of the Restaking sector, organizing 47 projects, with 20 Ethereum Restaking protocols and 7 cross-chain LRT protocols. In addition to EigenLayer and Ethereum-related protocols, LRT Fi, and infrastructure, I have also compiled some Restaking projects from other public chains such as Cosmos, NEAR, Solana, Bitcoin, BNB Chain, Polygon, and Berachain for readers.