ChainCatcher news, according to Lianhe Zaobao, a 34-year-old man, Xie Jiajie, knowingly assisted his boss Liu Hanquan in managing a team and operating a currency exchange business without a license, handling over 43 transactions totaling more than 35 million yuan in just 23 days. The man was arrested during a police raid and sentenced to 10 months in prison. The defendant Xie Jiajie faced two charges of violating the Payment Services Act and one charge of violating the Corruption, Drug Trafficking and Serious Crimes (Confiscation of Benefits) Act. He previously admitted to one of the charges, while the remaining charges will be considered by the judge when sentencing on June 26.It is understood that Sir Money Changer (SMC) is a licensed family business that provides currency exchange and cross-border remittance services, with directors being the Mohamad couple. In June 2021, SMC opened a new outlet in Geylang, and Liu Hanquan proposed to pay 14,000 yuan per month to use the license for independent remittance operations. He hired employees himself but paid contributions under SMC's name, later reimbursing the related costs. Starting in September of the same year, Liu Hanquan began operations that included cross-border remittance and Tether transactions, but did not report to the Monetary Authority and did not submit transaction records. The mastermind Liu Hanquan fled to Cambodia after the incident and emptied his cryptocurrency wallet; he is still at large.

ChainCatcher news, according to the latest data from Bitinfocharts, the average daily hash rate of Bitcoin has dropped to approximately 661.26 EH/s, a decrease of 10.68% in the past 24 hours, marking a new low since October 18, 2024.

ChainCatcher news, according to Jinshi Data, the latest PMI data from Japan supports Capital Economics' view that the Bank of Japan may raise interest rates sooner than expected.Japan's composite PMI rose to 51.4, a four-month high in June. Both manufacturing and services PMIs saw a slight increase in June. Capital Economics economist Abhijit Surya noted that the manufacturing output index indicates a re-acceleration of industrial production, while new export orders suggest moderate growth in sales. The services PMI is well above the historical average, consistent with substantial growth in consumer spending.In summary, the Bank of Japan is expected to have reasons to raise interest rates in October, rather than in early next year as many anticipate.

ChainCatcher news, according to Jinshi reports, Allianz Research analysts expect that the Federal Reserve may remain on hold until December before cutting interest rates, keeping the policy rate in the range of 4.25% - 4.50%. The institution has pushed back its expectations for a Fed rate cut from October to December. The reason for this adjustment is that they now believe U.S. inflation will peak in early Q4, rather than in Q3.Analysts indicate that the Federal Reserve is unlikely to ease monetary policy during the inflation peak. Allianz Research's expectations also imply that the interest rate will remain unchanged at next week's FOMC meeting, which aligns with the pricing in the money market.

ChainCatcher news, according to Protos, the Bitcoin Core development team announced that it will modify the default settings of OP_RETURN in the upcoming Core 30 version to be released in October, raising the data carrier limit from 80 bytes to nearly 4 MB. This decision marks a phased victory for the reformists led by Antoine Poinsot in their long-standing dispute with conservatives like Luke Dashjr.Although the new version still allows node operators to manually revert to the smaller data limit, analysis indicates that most nodes will maintain the default settings. Conservatives criticize this move as contrary to the original design intent of Bitcoin as a value transfer network, potentially turning the blockchain into a data storage platform. Reformists argue that moderate expansion helps to enhance Bitcoin's functionality and have made compromises to allow for parameter adjustments. This change is expected to impact the on-chain data storage ecosystem but will not alter the fundamental transaction verification mechanism of Bitcoin.

ChainCatcher news, CryptoQuant analyst Axel posted on the X platform that the daily spot trading volume of centralized exchanges (CEX) has dropped to the levels seen in October 2020. Tokens are neither being sold on the spot nor transferred on-chain ------ the market has shifted to a "HODL" mode.

ChainCatcher news, the seven-day average transaction volume on the Bitcoin network dropped to 317,000 last Friday, marking a new low since October 2023. Due to the sluggish trading activity, some miners have started looking for transactions with fees below the Bitcoin Core default relay threshold (1sat/vB). Mononaut pointed out that one of their transactions was submitted to the Bitcoin mining company MARA (formerly Marathon Digital), which publicly operates a non-standard low-fee transaction channel called Slipstream.On June 6, 31 Bitcoin Core developers jointly signed an open letter opposing node filtering of low-fee or non-standard transactions, emphasizing the essential property of Bitcoin as a censorship-resistant system. The developers pointed out that forcing users to use private channels like Slipstream would undermine decentralization. This stance was opposed by Jan3 founder Samson Mow and others, who believe that core developers are removing protective mechanisms for junk transactions.

ChainCatcher news, according to CoinDesk, XRPScan data shows that activity on the XRP Ledger has significantly slowed down, with payment transaction volume dropping to 320,747, the lowest since October last year, far below the average of over one million transactions from March to early May. The number of active addresses has also fallen below 10,000, marking the lowest since October. Meanwhile, the amount of XRP destroyed as transaction fees has decreased to 1,500, the lowest in months, coinciding with the slowdown in new account creation.Messari's report is optimistic about the XRP Ledger's prospects, stating that institutional adoption is increasing through strategic partnerships and acquisitions. XRP has not benefited from Bitcoin's new highs as it did at the beginning of the year, which may suggest weakening demand, warranting caution, as a potential decline in Bitcoin could put pressure on XRP's price.

ChainCatcher message, on-chain data analyst Murphy cited Glassnode data indicating that from the beginning of March this year to now, the SOL balance on centralized exchanges has decreased from 37.22 million to 27.01 million, a drop of 27.4%, approaching the lowest point in October 2022.

ChainCatcher news, according to Jin10 data reports, the yield on the U.S. 30-year Treasury bond has risen to 5.088%, the highest level since October 2023.

ChainCatcher news, according to Jinshi reports, traders continue to bet that the Federal Reserve will make its first rate cut in September and a second rate cut in October.

ChainCatcher news, according to Jinshi reports, traders continue to bet that the Federal Reserve will make its first rate cut in September and a second rate cut in October.

ChainCatcher news, Neo announced the closure of the Neo Legacy network, which has served the Neo ecosystem for over 8 years since its launch in 2016. With the launch of the next-generation blockchain Neo N3 in 2021, Neo has decided to shut down the Neo Legacy network in 2025.The Neo Legacy testnet will be closed on June 1, and the mainnet will be closed on October 31. Users must migrate their assets and smart contracts to Neo N3 before the shutdown, or they will be permanently lost.

ChainCatcher news, according to Jinshi reports, the U.S. Conference Board Leading Economic Index for March recorded -0.7%, the largest decline since October 2023.The Leading Economic Index is a forward-looking indicator system used to predict changes in economic cycles, published by The Conference Board, and includes 10 economic variables that reflect future economic trends over the next 3-6 months through comprehensive data. When the index declines consecutively, it may indicate a risk of economic recession; conversely, it suggests signals of expansion.

ChainCatcher news, according to Jin10 data, the U.S. March PPI monthly rate is -0.4%, expected 0.20%, and the previous value has been revised from 0.00% to 0.1%, marking the largest decline since October 2023.

ChainCatcher news, Santiment disclosure data shows that DOGE network activity has dropped to its lowest level since October 2024, with only about 66 "whale" transactions per day, and the number of active addresses has also fallen to less than 60,000.

ChainCatcher news, analyst Timothy Peterson pointed out in a new chart report that Bitcoin is about to enter the traditionally strong months—April and October, forming the "golden window period." If historical seasonal patterns repeat, Bitcoin is expected to surge to $126,000 before June 1, representing an increase of over 50% from the current price of $82,967.He stated that Bitcoin's current price is close to the lower limit of its historical seasonal volatility range, and emphasized in his chart analysis that "the average duration of Bitcoin being below the trend line is only 4 months. The red dashed trend line points to the June 1 target of $126,000, which highly aligns with the explosive rhythm after historical bull market corrections. Data shows that since 2023, the current cycle has experienced five corrections of over 20%, but each correction has been followed by stronger rallies. The bull market is not over; it is currently just a short-term pullback."Market observers generally believe that Bitcoin's correlation with traditional financial assets has strengthened, and in the short term, it may be influenced by fluctuations in the U.S. stock market. However, its unique deflationary attributes and geopolitical safe-haven demand will likely lead it to perform independently before June.

ChainCatcher news, according to Cointelegraph, ECB President Lagarde stated that the EU plans to launch the digital euro in October.Previous news, the ECB President said that the digital euro cannot be advanced unless legislation is completed.

ChainCatcher news, according to the Singapore Business Times, a 20-year-old Singaporean, Malone Lam, has been arrested for allegedly participating in one of the largest cryptocurrency thefts in U.S. history. He reportedly spent up to $500,000 (approximately 665,000 SGD) in a nightclub in one night and was seen gifting Hermes Birkin bags to models and influencers at a lavish party. The U.S. Department of Justice stated that Lam was arrested in September 2024 along with his 21-year-old American accomplice, Jeandiel Serrano, and they are charged with "conspiring to steal and launder over $230 million (approximately 306 million SGD) in cryptocurrency." At current prices, the stolen 4,100 bitcoins are worth over $450 million.As of October last year, approximately $70 million has been recovered or frozen at various exchanges. Court documents reveal that "even considering the millions spent by Serrano and accomplices on cars and jewelry, over $100 million remains unaccounted for." If convicted of stealing over 4,100 bitcoins, Lam faces a maximum of 20 years in prison and a fine of up to $250,000 or twice the amount he profited from the fraud. Lam's trial date is set for October 6.

IntoTheBlock stated that Ethereum's MVRV reached 1.01 yesterday, hitting a new low since October 2023, while the trading price of Ethereum was slightly below $1600 at that time.