Morning News | DeepSeek founder's Huanfang Quantitative Management scale has exceeded 70 billion yuan; Noise has completed a $7.1 million seed round financing; the total market value of spot silver has surpassed $5 trillion
January 14 Market Important Events Overview整理：ChainCatcher
Important News:
- DeepSeek founder's Huanfang Quantitative achieved a return of 56.55% last year, with assets under management exceeding 70 billion yuan
- The total market value of spot silver has surpassed 5 trillion USD, becoming the world's second-largest asset after gold
- Galaxy warns: The "Clarity Act" will significantly expand US financial surveillance powers
- CCTV: Yao Qian helped an ICO find a trading platform and received 2000 ETH as a reward
- Prediction market platform Noise completes $7.1 million seed round financing, led by Paradigm
- Zhao Changpeng: Bitcoin will definitely reach $200,000, but I don't know when
- Crypto anti-quantum computing solution Project Eleven completes $20 million financing at a valuation of $120 million
What important events happened in the past 24 hours?
According to ChainCatcher, Bloomberg reports that blockchain lending company Figure Technology Solutions has launched a new on-chain stock and lending platform aimed at reducing intermediaries in traditional stock lending. The platform, named On-Chain Public Equity Network (OPEN), supports the issuance of stocks on the blockchain and direct stock lending without the need for traditional intermediaries, allowing companies to issue equity on Figure's Provenance blockchain.
Unlike many tokenization efforts, OPEN's blockchain stocks are not synthetic versions of listed stocks but represent actual equity ownership, which shareholders can lend or pledge.
According to ChainCatcher, Axios reports that the crypto anti-quantum computing solution Project Eleven has completed a $20 million financing round, achieving a valuation of $120 million.
Quantum computing technology has the potential to break the underlying cryptographic mechanisms that secure cryptocurrencies, which has been a concern for the crypto industry. Project Eleven focuses on addressing this issue by developing solutions to resist quantum computing attacks, ensuring the security of blockchain networks and digital assets.
According to Web3 asset data platform RootData, last June, Project Eleven completed a $6 million financing round, led by Variant Fund and quantum tech venture capital firm Quantonation.
Zhao Changpeng: A true meme coin project needs to have "historical" and "legendary" significance
According to ChainCatcher, Zhao Changpeng stated during a Binance Square AMA live stream: "Early investors in meme coins also face certain risks, and subsequent buyers are also conducting independent research, so there is no need for third-party intervention at this time. A true meme coin project needs to have historical and 'legendary' significance, but very few can truly hold value, with a failure rate exceeding 90%. Investors need to be responsible for their choices."
Prediction market platform Noise completes $7.1 million seed round financing, led by Paradigm
According to ChainCatcher, The Block reports that Noise, a tool for building a prediction market information platform, has announced the completion of a $7.1 million seed round financing, led by Paradigm. Previously, the company also received investment support from Figment Capital, Anagram, as well as GSR, JPEG Trading, and KaitoAI.
It is reported that Noise's testnet launched a beta version last May, limited to invited users, attracting over 1,300 users who placed bets in a market tracking cryptocurrency topics using social media data provided by Kaito.
Zhao Changpeng: Bitcoin will definitely reach $200,000, but I don't know when
According to ChainCatcher, Zhao Changpeng stated during a Binance Square AMA live stream: "Bitcoin will definitely reach $200,000; it's just a matter of time, but I don't know when."
US November core PPI year-on-year at 3%, higher than the expected 2.7%
According to ChainCatcher, Jinshi reports that the US November core PPI year-on-year is 3%, higher than the market expectation of 2.7%.
Zhao Changpeng comments on the development of prediction markets: The sector is in its early stages, with significant uncertainty regarding regulation and competition trends
According to ChainCatcher, Zhao Changpeng stated in a Chinese AMA that the prediction market is a large sector in the long term, but the competitive landscape remains unclear in the short term.
The sector is in its early stages; for example, Polymarket currently has only one or two capable market makers, concentrated in the sports event segment. It faces various uncertainties from regulatory bodies in different countries and competitors in the sector.
CCTV: Yao Qian helped an ICO find a trading platform and received 2000 ETH as a reward
According to ChainCatcher, CCTV reports that Yao Qian, former director of the Technology Supervision Department of the China Securities Regulatory Commission and former director of the Information Center, was entrusted by businessman Zhang, who was conducting an ICO, in 2018 to reach out to a trading platform. The ICO raised 20,000 ETH, and the businessman transferred 2000 ETH to Yao Qian as a reward.
The task force seized a hardware wallet from a drawer in Yao Qian's office. Several bank accounts opened by others were Yao Qian's shell accounts, with one account holding 10 million yuan, which was transferred through approximately four layers from a virtual currency trader's fund account, ultimately used to purchase a villa in Beijing.
According to ChainCatcher, FTX announced the latest distribution arrangements, with the expected registration date for the next round of distribution set for February 14, 2026, and plans to officially start on March 31, 2026.
At the same time, FTX has submitted a revised notice to the court, proposing to reduce the disputed creditor reserve by $2.2 billion. If the adjustment is approved by the court, the relevant funds will be released and used for distribution to confirmed creditors in the next round.
Pump.fun lawsuit founder's private messages exposed, admitting "most users lost money"
According to ChainCatcher, the law firm Burwick Law has filed a revised lawsuit on behalf of retail investors against Pump.fun, Solana Labs, and related executives. Previously, the judge allowed the plaintiffs to submit a second revised lawsuit, adding 5,000 private messages as new evidence, accusing them of orchestrating a "pump and dump" scheme.
The lawsuit reveals that Pump.fun co-founder Alon Cohen admitted in private messages that most investors on the platform lost money, stating, "We made it easy for ordinary people to trade small coins worth under $50,000, but this also exposed everyone to a very low probability of winning, just like gambling." The lawsuit also claims that some crypto KOLs were paid to promote meme coins without disclosing their financial interests and were informed in advance about the purchase targets.
However, the article points out that much of the lawsuit evidence is based on hearsay and lacks direct evidence of Pump.fun executives profiting, maintaining a reserved attitude towards the "criminal organization" accusations.
According to ChainCatcher, Ethereum co-founder Vitalik Buterin stated on social media that in 2014, he envisioned building a decentralized, permissionless application network based on a tech stack. Now, all conditions for realizing the initial Web3 vision are in place and will continue to strengthen, and it is time to build a decentralized world.
He mentioned that the decentralized messaging protocol Waku has supported applications like Railway and Status, and IPFS performs strongly as a decentralized file retrieval method, but storage issues need improvement. Taking Fileverse, a decentralized alternative to Google Docs/Sheets, as an example, its usability has significantly improved, using Ethereum and Gnosis chains to handle accounts, processing documents with decentralized messaging and storage, and allowing open-source "exit testing." He criticized the various drawbacks of "corporate bloated products" and cited cases to prove the risks are real.
Today, decentralized applications like Fileverse are already user-friendly enough; he often uses them to write and collaborate on documents, contrasting with the difficulty of decentralized applications in 2014. He calls on builders to collectively embrace the decentralized renaissance.
Sun Yuchen: Firmly supports Yzi Labs' proposal and actions to build the BNB ecosystem
According to ChainCatcher, Sun Yuchen stated on the X platform that as a shareholder of BNC, he firmly supports Yzi Labs' proposals and actions to build a better BNB ecosystem.
The total market value of spot silver has surpassed 5 trillion USD, becoming the world's second-largest asset after gold
According to ChainCatcher, data from 8MarketCap shows that the total market value of spot silver has surpassed 5 trillion USD, officially surpassing tech giant Nvidia, becoming the world's second-largest asset after gold.
Galaxy warns: The "Clarity Act" will significantly expand US financial surveillance powers
According to ChainCatcher, Decrypt reports that Galaxy Research has issued a warning that the draft "Crypto Market Structure Act" (Clarity Act) currently under review by the Senate Banking Committee will significantly expand the financial surveillance powers of the US Treasury. The draft includes provisions to freeze transactions without a court order and extends "special measures" authority against decentralized finance fronts.
Alex Thorn, head of research at Galaxy Digital, stated that if these measures become law, it would "represent the largest single expansion of financial surveillance powers since the USA PATRIOT Act in 2001."
According to ChainCatcher, citing the latest data from 21st Century Business Herald and private equity ranking website, DeepSeek founder Liang Wenfeng's Huanfang Quantitative achieved an average return of 56.55% in 2025, ranking second in the performance list of quantitative private equity in China with over 10 billion yuan under management, only behind Lingjun Investment, which topped the list with an average return of 73.51%. Currently, Huanfang Quantitative's assets under management have exceeded 70 billion yuan. According to data from private equity ranking website, Huanfang Quantitative's average return over the past three years is 85.15%, and over the past five years is 114.35%.
Some analysts believe that Huanfang Quantitative's impressive performance has provided ample R&D funding for Liang Wenfeng's DeepSeek. Huanfang Quantitative is one of the most well-known quantitative private equity giants in China, founded by Liang Wenfeng in 2008 while studying Information and Communication Engineering at Zhejiang University. It is a hedge fund with a background in mathematics, computation, research, and AI. In 2019, Huanfang Quantitative's assets under management surpassed 10 billion yuan, and in 2021, it briefly exceeded 100 billion yuan.
Recently, it was reported that DeepSeek will release its next-generation flagship AI model, DeepSeek V4, in February, which is expected to have powerful programming capabilities and significantly impact the current AI competitive landscape.
According to ChainCatcher, since mid-2025, Bitcoin has begun to decouple from the growth of the global M2 money supply (the total amount of money in circulation in the market, including cash, demand deposits, time deposits, etc.), and this trend has become more pronounced in early 2026. Historically, the correlation between the two has been the basis for bullish predictions, but analysts are now sharply divided on this phenomenon.
Fidelity Digital Assets' January report maintains an optimistic view, believing that with the onset of global monetary easing and the end of the Fed's QT plan, the M2 growth rate will continue to rise in 2026, which is favorable for Bitcoin prices. Analyst MartyParty predicts that Bitcoin prices will rebound to catch up with M2 growth.
However, Mister Crypto points out that the decoupling of Bitcoin prices from M2 typically signals a market top, followed by a 2-4 year bear market. The founder of Capriole Investments believes that the decoupling reflects the risk of quantum computing breaking Bitcoin's encryption. Despite the uncertainties, investors still view Bitcoin as a long-term store of value.
Meme Popularity Rankings
According to meme token tracking and analysis platform GMGN market data, as of January 15, 09:00,
The top five popular ETH tokens in the past 24 hours are: SHIB, LINK, PEPE, UNI, ONDO
The top five popular Solana tokens in the past 24 hours are: TRUMP, PENGU, FO, PUMP, VINE
The top five popular Base tokens in the past 24 hours are: PEPE, BASED, BSC, SKYA, B3
What are some interesting articles worth reading in the past 24 hours?
In response to the community's belief that "YZi Labs' investment in Genius is bad for Aster," CZ responded on the X platform, stating, "Genius is a trading terminal connected to trading platforms, not a competitor to Aster."
Additionally, Genius's CMO Ryan also answered similar questions in the community—"What do you think about the differences between Aster and Genius? Why would YZi Labs invest in another project doing Perp Dex?" Ryan stated, "I think both are important; Aster is a very important perpetual contract exchange. I believe YZi Labs' motivation for investing in Genius is to enable everyone to access any token on any chain (which will soon be achieved in a private manner)."
This article does not discuss a cryptocurrency chart, nor is it about a certain meme coin narrative, and it is even temporarily unrelated to Bitcoin. We are focusing on the Russell 2000 index, which is quietly completing a feat that has only occurred twice in its history: breaking through, thereby driving a return of risk appetite.
If you've been in the market long enough, you've seen this "movie" more than once.
The progress of Washington's legislative process on crypto market structure seems partly dependent on the question of whether stablecoin issuers should be allowed to share their economic benefits with third parties.
The banking industry calls it a "stablecoin loophole," but Congress's intentions regarding yield in the "Genius Act" are very clear. Furthermore, labeling a practice that can benefit ordinary Americans and provide them with tangible returns as a "loophole" seems quite strange.
That said, this debate has largely been skewed by some unfounded fears, primarily concerning what broader stablecoin applications might mean for the banking industry and credit. Here are the five major misconceptions and their fallacies.
Goodbye Web2 growth model, what new metrics do crypto projects need?
How do you evaluate the success and growth of a crypto protocol or product? In Web2, marketers have various strategies to measure success. In the crypto space, especially in L1, L2, and protocol areas, marketing strategies are still being formulated. Some metrics are not yet available, some are less important, and many need to be rethought for blockchain.
I have spoken with many growth and marketing leaders, each with different dashboards, which is normal because the definition of growth for L1 or L2 is not the same as for DeFi protocols, wallets, or games.
Risk warning
Risk warning
