BlockBeats will organize the key industry news content of the week (9.9-9.14) in this article, and recommend in-depth articles to help readers better understand the market and learn about industry trends.
Binance Launchpool to List Hamster Kombat and Catizen (CATI)
On September 12, Binance officially announced that Binance Launchpool and Super Earn will soon list Hamster Kombat (HMSTR). Mining will start at 00:00 (UTC) on September 19, 2024, and HMSTR will be listed at 12:00 (UTC) on September 26, and HMSTR/USDT, HMSTR/BNB, HMSTR/FDUSD, and HMSTR/TRY trading pairs will be opened. Related reading:Hamster Kombat Token Economics at a Glance: 75% for Airdrops, 3% for Binance Launchpool
The next day, Binance officially announced that Binance Launchpool launched the 59th project Catizen (CATI). Users can put BNB and FDUSD into the CATI reward pool on the Launchpool website after 08:00 on September 16 to obtain CATI. The CATI activity will last for a total of 4 days. Binance will list Catizen (CATI) at 18:00 on September 20, 2024, and open CATI/USDT, CATI/BNB, CATI/FDUSD and CATI/TRY trading markets, subject to seed tag trading rules. At the same time, the Meow Earn activity has been launched, which allows players to stake CATI tokens to obtain trading platform token rewards. CAITZEN became the first project party that allows players to stake project tokens to obtain trading platform token benefits.
Binance launches re-staking product BNSOL
On September 12, Binance announced the launch of BNSOL, where users can securely stake their SOL tokens and receive BNSOL in return, a liquid staking token that represents their staked assets. BNSOL allows users to continue to earn staking rewards while maintaining the flexibility to trade, borrow, or leverage their assets on various Binance products and external DeFi platforms.
Avenir Group, a new family office, announces $500 million investment plan in crypto
On September 12, Avenir Crypto officially announced the launch of the cryptocurrency outsourcing investment business “Avenir Crypto Excellence Partner Program” at the quantitative summit with the theme of “Future Boundless”, and will invest US$500 million to support the outstanding quantitative trading teams in the market. It is reported that the US$500 million will be divided into two modes: U-standard and currency-standard, of which the U-standard is 200,000,000 USDT, and the currency-standard is 3,000 BTC and 50,000 ETH. There are also three options for the funding cooperation model, including 100% investment, flat-level joint investment, and manager inferiority. At the same time, there will be 3 options for profit-sharing models, including 0-1% management fee and tiered dividends, flat-level allocation and tiered dividends, manager inferiority, tiered dividends or fixed lending rates.
This week, the transaction fee of Fractal Bitcoin mainnet has been as high as 5000 Sat/byte for several consecutive days; it has now dropped significantly
On September 13, the transaction fees of the Fractal Bitcoin mainnet continued to rise, with the fees of multiple blocks exceeding 5,000 Sat/byte. On the 14th, the transaction fees of the Fractal Bitcoin mainnet dropped sharply, with the fees of multiple blocks falling to 5 Sat/byte. As of press time, the current block network fee is only 6 Sat/byte. The current block reward of the Fractal Bitcoin mainnet is about 25 FB/block. Related reading:《2 days after launch, some things you need to know about Fractal》、“Three OP_CAT protocols a day, is the Bitcoin ecosystem going to change?”
Grayscale to launch first US XRP trust, paving the way for potential ETF
On September 12, according to FOX BUSINESS, Grayscale will launch the first US XRP trust to pave the way for potential ETFs. It is reported that the first XRP trust announced by Grayscale is a “closed-end” fund that will provide qualified investors with the opportunity to invest directly in XRP. Trusts and ETFs are two different investment products. ETFs must be approved by the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission because they are sold directly to retail investors, while the structure of the trust and sales promotion to qualified investors are subject to looser supervision. Even so, a trust can become an ETF as long as it obtains proper regulatory approval.
a16z Crypto Accelerator Launches This Week, Announces 21 Participating Projects
On September 10, a16z Crypto announced that the Crypto Startup Accelerator (CSX) 2024 Fall Program was launched in New York this week. a16z Crypto has selected 21 startups to join this batch. The list of participating projects includes: Anera Labs: Building infrastructure that integrates all on-chain liquidity; Banyan: Using artificial intelligence to bridge the communication gap at work and bring clarity to the enterprise; Blocksense: Making it possible to create oracles that can utilize Internet data and CPU/GPU computing; Cork Protocol: Risk pricing protocol that accelerates on-chain credit; Dot: Converting user-created pixel art into game components for on-chain games; PIN AI: Building a personal AI open platform (data + agent), etc. Related reading:A16Z Crypto Accelerator (CSX) 2024 Fall Program List
Trump and Harris debated without mentioning crypto-related content; Harris’s chances of winning surpass Trump on Polymarket
On September 11, the debate between former US President Trump and current Vice President Harris at the National Constitution Center in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania ended without mentioning encryption. After the US election debate, Trump Media Technology Group (DJT.O) fell 13% in pre-market trading. Blockchain concept stocks fell across the board, with MicroStrategy (MSTR.N) and Riot Platforms (RIOT.O) falling by about 3%, and Coinbase (COIN.O) falling by 2%. The next day, according to data from the prediction market Polymarket, Harris’s chances of winning the 2024 US presidential election rose to 50%, surpassing Trump (49%).
Linea growth chief Marco Monaco leaves, says Linea is undergoing a major transformation
On September 11, Linea’s head of growth, Marco Monaco, announced that he had resigned from his position as head of growth and would no longer work for Linea in any capacity. Marco Monaco said that he had resigned from Consensys in mid-June and officially withdrew from the project in mid-July. Marco Monaco said that Linea is currently undergoing a major transformation. “The leadership of Consensys and I agree that the best way forward for Linea does not involve me personally, because our visions are no longer aligned. Now, it’s time for Consensys and MetaMask to fully intervene and drive the development of the network.”
Azuki launches anime.com, anime-related website, sign up to join the waiting list
On September 13, according to official news, Azuki launched anime.com, a website related to its animation business. Currently, there is only one registration channel on the official website, and registration can join the waiting list and receive limited edition collectibles. The actual content and functions of the website have not yet been announced.
Renewable energy company Fuse completes $12 million strategic financing, led by Multicoin Capital
On September 13, renewable energy company Fuse announced the completion of a $12 million strategic financing led by Multicoin Capital and participated by Solana co-founder Anatoly Yakovenko and others. Fuse plans to use the funds to launch Project Zero, a decentralized renewable energy physical infrastructure network. Currently, Fuse operates utility-scale solar and wind power plants, has distributed energy resource (DER) installations, power trading and power retail businesses, and serves tens of thousands of households as a regulated electricity supplier in the UK. Related reading:“Multicoin: Why we invested $12 million in Fuse to solve problems in the energy industry?”
DeFi lending platform Sky launches vote to gradually remove wBTC assets
On September 13, DeFi lending platform Sky (formerly known as MakerDAO) will vote on whether to completely abandon wrapped Bitcoin (wBTC) in its ecosystem, which could be a major development for DeFi as the platform has $200 million in loans collateralized by the token. DeFi risk management company BA Labs, an influential figure in Sky protocol governance, has previously proposed reducing its investment in wBTC due to the perceived risk of Tron founder Justin Sun’s involvement as a custodian of the underlying assets. BA Labs proposes to gradually remove all wBTC risk exposure from collateral assets in five steps, with the first step starting on September 26. Each step will be voted on. “We found that legal due diligence did not provide sufficient assurance,” BA Labs said in its proposal. Related reading:“Why did the market react so strongly to Justin Sun’s entry into WBTC?”
Data: cbBTC issuance has exceeded 1,700
On September 13, according to Dune data, the issuance of Coinbase Wrapped BTC (cbBTC) launched by the cryptocurrency trading platform Coinbase has reached 1,720 (about 99.63 million US dollars). The cbBTC issued on the Ethereum mainnet has reached 991, and the cbBTC issued on the Base chain has reached 729. Related reading:“With a market value of over 100 million USD in just 24 hours after launch, can cbBTC overtake its competitors?”
The market value of on-chain RWA assets exceeded 12 billion US dollars, setting a new record high
On September 13, according to a report released by Binance Research, the total market value of on-chain tokenized real-world assets (RWA) exceeded $12 billion, reaching an all-time high. Among them, the market value of tokenized Treasury funds (digital tokens of U.S. Treasury bonds) has exceeded $2.2 billion, of which BlackRock’s BUILD has a market value of nearly $520 million and Franklin Templeton’s FBOXX has a market value of $434 million.
Ethereum Foundation researcher Danny Ryan announces his resignation
On September 14, Danny Ryan, a researcher at the Ethereum Foundation, announced his resignation, ending his seven years of contribution to the Ethereum ecosystem. Ryan stated on GitHub that his resignation was for personal reasons and he wanted to make room for new opportunities, and emphasized that this decision did not reflect problems in Ethereum or the crypto industry. It is reported that Ryan played an important role in key upgrades of Ethereum. He served as the chief coordinator of Ethereum’s The Merge upgrade and oversaw the launch of the beacon chain in 2021. Ryan also actively participated in the progress update of the Ethereum Improvement Proposal.
Friend.Tech platform is now “basically closed” and the development team has cashed out over $50 million; the team responded that there are no plans to close or stop
Recently, the developers of Web3 social network Friend.Tech gave up control of the smart contract and the platform has basically shut down. On September 8, the developer called the smart contract function to transfer control to an empty address on Ethereum, locking the current system and preventing further changes. The team clarified in the announcement of the X platform: “Currently, any fees from smart contracts or websites no longer flow to the multi-signature wallet of the Friend.Tech development team.” Although the platform seems to continue to operate, the relinquishment of control makes it almost impossible to introduce new features.
On September 9, according to Ember’s monitoring, the revenue that the Friend.Tech project received through the agreement should be $52.39 million, and the total amount of ETH they transferred to Coinbase was 19,477. On September 10, friend.tech posted on social media that it had no plans to close or stop the friend.tech Web application, and had set code parameters to ensure that no changes would be made to the smart contracts deployed on Base in the future, thereby increasing or generating new fees. The above operations will not affect the functionality of the current friend.tech Web application in any way. Related reading:《With a daily cost of only a few hundred dollars, Friend.tech chose Soft Rug》、From Paradigm investment to Soft Rug, a record of Friend.Tech’s exciting year | Web3 autopsy report
Singapore police investigate Worldcoin account transactions, arrest five people
On September 10, Singapore Deputy Prime Minister Gan Wenqian announced that the Singapore police launched an investigation into seven individuals suspected of providing Worldcoin accounts and token buying and selling services. The investigation involves possible violations of the Payment Services Act 2019, and the police have arrested five people. Preliminary investigations showed that three men were suspected of recruiting people on behalf of multiple entities to create Worldcoin accounts and then controlling these accounts and tokens in exchange for cash. The assets were then transferred to a fourth man and a woman, who are believed to be involved in the purchase and management of the transfer of these assets. During the operation, the police seized more than 200 mobile phones as evidence. It is reported that the Worldcoin project aims to create a global digital identity, but its collection of biometric data has raised global privacy concerns. Regulators are investigating this in France, the United Kingdom, Hong Kong, Colombia and Argentina.
Beijing police uncovered an underground money laundering case involving more than 800 million yuan in funds using virtual currency
On September 11, CCTV News reported that Beijing police recently discovered that the suspects transferred a large amount of embezzled funds to a foreign Chinese account in a short period of time during the investigation of a job embezzlement case. In response to this clue, the Beijing Municipal Public Security Bureau Economic Investigation Corps and the Dongcheng Branch worked together to travel to many provinces and cities across the country and destroyed an underground money laundering gang that committed money laundering crimes through virtual currency transactions. At present, the four main suspects involved in the case have been approved for arrest by the procuratorate for suspected illegal business operations.
After investigation, it was found that the main member of the gang, Lv, obtained foreign nationality many years ago. While living abroad, he found that he could transfer RMB from China to foreign countries and exchange it for foreign currency through virtual currency transactions. Later, Lv, together with Chen and others, used the virtual currency trading platform to assist domestic personnel who intended to transfer funds to buy virtual currency in large quantities, thereby transferring funds overseas. The amount involved in the case was about 800 million yuan. At the same time, the police found that the gang had provided funding channels and transferred the stolen money involved in many telecommunications fraud cases and embezzlement cases.
Eigenpie announces token economic model, airdrop accounts for 11%
On September 14, Ethereum liquidity re-staking protocol Eigenpie announced the EGP token economic model on social media. The total supply of EGP is 10 million. Detailed data includes: private placement round allocation accounts for 34%, Magpie Treasury allocation accounts for 15%, community incentive allocation accounts for 15%, airdrop allocation accounts for 11%; liquidity allocation accounts for 5%; strategic investor allocation accounts for 5.34%; ecosystem allocation accounts for 8.89%, etc.
Shanghai: Promote innovative applications of digital RMB in financial markets, digital shipping and trade, cross-border payments and other fields
On September 13, the General Office of the Shanghai Municipal People’s Government recently issued the “Shanghai High-quality Promotion of the Construction of a Global Financial Technology Center Action Plan”. It mentioned that the research and development and application of digital RMB will be further promoted. Actively connect with the People’s Bank of China, support the construction of digital RMB functional entities in Shanghai, and promote the development of relevant institutions of the Digital Currency Research Institute in Shanghai. Continue to expand the coverage and use of digital RMB in key areas such as consumption, transportation, government affairs, and medical care in the city. Promote the innovative application of digital RMB in financial markets, digitalization of shipping and trade, cross-border payments and other fields, promote the application of digital RMB in value models, and explore building Shanghai into a global financial Internet (Finternet) highland.
This week’s hot articles
“Three OP_CAT protocols a day, is the Bitcoin ecosystem going to change?”
On September 12, we saw three Bitcoin FT protocols driven by OP_CAT – CAT20 on Fractal, CATNIP of the “Quantum Cat” team, and Danny CAT20 of the “Moto Series”. Among the three, CAT20 on Fractal has been put into use and is in full swing, with the price of $FB once exceeding $30. CATNIP of the “Quantum Cat” team is only an official announcement, and its implementation will have to wait until the revival of OP_CAT on the Bitcoin mainnet. Danny CAT20 of the “Moto Series” was proposed by the founder of Motoswap and OP_NET two hours after CAT20 came out, saying that he was the first to propose the idea of using OP_CAT to drive the Bitcoin FT protocol.
《2 days after launch, some things you need to know about Fractal》
At 11pm on September 9th, a “new FT protocol” called FLUX suddenly appeared. Somehow, foreigners also noticed this “inscription disk” that Chinese people are most familiar with. Some foreigners even asked where to find $FB OTC. Currently, the CEX that can trade/charge and withdraw $FB is CoinEx. DotSwap has launched a swap pair between Bitcoin and $FB, which can directly trade $FB on the chain or make a $FB liquidity pool. It has been 5 days since the Fractal mainnet was officially launched. Let’s review the current circulation of $FB and what opportunities are worth paying attention to.
《Fractal Network CAT Protocol Token Minting Tutorial in Five Minutes》
On September 11, the transaction fees of the Fractal Bitcoin mainnet soared, with high priority reaching 101 Sat/byte. The popularity of the Covenant Attested Token (CAT) protocol on the Fractal Network may be the main reason for the surge in its mainnet transaction fees. The protocol has multiple features such as no indexer, modularity, programmable casting, and cross-chain interoperability. It can run on any Bitcoin-compatible blockchain with OP_CAT activated. Crypto KOL 0xoooooyoung shared how to achieve one-click casting of the protocol token through scripts.
OnlyFans, an adult content platform, has an annual revenue of $6.6 billion. According to some statistics, this is higher than the total revenue of all the emerging AI companies in Silicon Valley. It is the most successful company in the UK since DeepMind and the most influential content platform after TikTok. OnlyFans defines a certain type of creator economy. What’s more terrifying is that in 2023, they distributed $5.3 billion of their revenue to creators, and even so, they still had an operating profit of $649 million.
“Is the upcoming interest rate cut really good for the market?”
On September 18, the Federal Reserve will hold a rate meeting. The long-awaited rate cut is finally about to begin. The Federal Reserve’s rate cut is usually a major positive for risky assets and will bring huge liquidity to the market. However, this article puts forward a different point of view. He believes that the short-term effect of the rate cut may not be conducive to short-term investment in crypto assets. Before the rate cut, especially the closer it is to the rate cut, the more funds in the risk market are withdrawn.
The Federal Reserve’s interest rate decision will be announced at 02:00 on September 19 (next Thursday). The interest rate cut is a foregone conclusion, but the extent of the September rate cut is still undecided. The current market generally believes that if the Federal Reserve chooses to cut interest rates by 50 basis points, it implies the risk of economic recession. How do institutions view the extent of the September rate cut, and how do they predict the market trend after the rate cut?
《How much does it cost to run an L2?》
Galaxy Research recently published an article stating that “Since the Cancun upgrade, Ethereum mainnet protocol revenue from Layer 2 is almost zero.” Ethereum is going further and further on the road of expansion, but how much does it actually cost to run an L2? Through the introduction of this article, we can understand the real cost of the “one-click chain launch” L2 project.
“The Crypto Dream Is Broken? Why Are More and More People Quietly Leaving the Market?”
I have been focusing on the cryptocurrency field for seven years, have a fairly extensive network in the US cryptocurrency circle, and communicate with dozens of industry insiders regularly. I have recently observed or heard of an attitude or position so frequently that it has become a trend. Cryptocurrency is experiencing a general “quiet exit” phenomenon. However, there are still some people who choose to stay, but their motivation, enthusiasm and belief have been greatly weakened. Many people are seriously disappointed with cryptocurrency to realize its potential. They still stay in this field because the returns after “time adjustment and risk adjustment” are still considered more attractive compared to other investment options.
《Remember STEPN? I heard you can make $300 a day again?》
Speaking of the summer of 2022, many people still remember the popularity of StepN at that time. Buying a pair of running shoes and earning income by exercising every day has become a major fashion trend in the currency circle and even the technology circle. Two years later, StepN launched a new 2.0 version-STEPN GO, which is also the third game of game developer FSL after StepN and Gas Hero. According to an early participant in STEPN GO, the earnings of GGT tokens have performed well. With level 19 running shoes, he can earn about $300 a day. He also mentioned that “the payback period is about 30-40 days now.” Although there is still uncertainty, this is already a pretty good result for old players.
The meme coin $abcde has increased by more than 50 times in less than a month since its launch, and has increased by 3 times in the past four days, with a maximum market value of 3.4 million US dollars. ABCDE is a memecoin project named after the letters “abcdefghijkmnopqrstuvwxyz”. Generally speaking, it is rare for meme coins to maintain an upward trend in a cycle of nearly one month. They either rely on the popularity of the narrative or on the continuously cohesive community culture. ABCDE belongs to the latter. However, from an operational perspective, the operation mode of ABCDE is of reference significance to the community in finding the next alpha meme.
From September 16th to 17th, Tako Protocol, BlockBeats and Jam will jointly host the first large-scale Farcaster ecosystem offline event in Asia, which will be held at the famous The Art House in Singapore. Guests include Farcaster founder Dan Romero, community main contributor Ted, Base creator and protocol director Jesse Pollak, A16Z crypto investment partner Jane Lippencott, Mask founder Suji, Cyber founder Ryan, Degencast team member Liang, Farhouse founder Ramit Agarwal, Fartracker team, Eigen Labs developer relations director Nader Dabit, Degen head Jacek, senior Farcaster researcher 0xluo, etc. Web3 well-known industry pioneers DWF Labs, Dragonfly, Monad, Mantle Network, Taiko Social, BNB Chain, etc. will also attend the event.
Well-known trader Ansem explained why he was bearish on the market some time ago, and shared how he discovered and favored Solana, Solana’s trading strategy, and his views on the current status and future of memecoin. He also discussed the NFT market. In addition, Ansem offered unique insights into the decline of crypto celebrities, crypto investment opportunities, and the relationship between cryptocurrencies and sports betting, and explored in depth the future trends of the crypto industry.
The author of this article delves into the necessary qualities of great founders and investors, emphasizing the importance of persistence and unique insights in the crypto industry. He shares his investment strategy, analyzes the difference between investing and trading, and his optimism about Solana, and also summarizes the key qualities that stand out in the Alliance DAO accelerator.
This article discusses Peter Schiff’s views on Bitcoin. Schiff is a well-known gold supporter who has argued for years that gold is the real currency, while Bitcoin does not have this attribute. Bitcoin is popular because it attracts investors as an emerging technology, but its value has no real basis and may eventually be replaced. Although cryptocurrency may be superior to gold in some aspects, it should not be regarded as a real currency.
《Exclusive Interview with Sapien AI Co-founder: Label to Earn is the Future of the Gig Economy in the AI Era》
Recently, BlockBeats interviewed Trevor Koverko, co-founder and COO of Sapien AI. As the co-founder of many successful projects such as Polymath, Polymesh and Tokens.com, Trevor had accumulated rich entrepreneurial experience before founding Sapien AI. In the interview, he shared in depth his experience in founding Sapien AI, as well as his unique insights on how Sapien AI and Scale AI compete in a different way, and how to draw inspiration from blockchain games to design business mechanisms.
“Backed by BNB Chain, how does Four.meme build a sustainable meme platform?”
In terms of pull, from the steadily rising WHY to the outstanding CAT, Binance has incubated several memecoins with high profit multiples. On this basis, recently, the meme distribution platform Four.meme on BNB Chain is showing a broader platform potential.
“How to accurately buy the bottom? Pay attention to these 7 indicators”
What stage is the market at? Is the market bullish or bearish? Can you still buy at the bottom? The price has fallen to a panic level, is the bull market still there? In order to better analyze the current trend, Biteye has compiled 7 BTC bottom-hunting indicators to help you judge market sentiment and coin price fluctuations from multiple angles!
From Paradigm investment to Soft Rug, a record of Friend.Tech’s exciting year | Web3 autopsy report
On September 8, the once popular encrypted social application Friend.Tech announced that the project management and ownership parameters have been set to an empty Ethereum address of 0x000…000, which means that the current system has been locked to prevent further changes, which means that Friend.Tech has given up control of the smart contract and the platform has basically been shut down. From the subtle changes in the relationship with Base to the abortion of the Friend Chain vision, Friend.Tech has been crashing since the update of V2 and the release of the airdrop. Looking back at the project development nodes this year, the unicorns that were once in their heyday at the same time last year are now gone, which is a pity.
Is Solana’s inflation rate high? | Featured Report
Solana’s inflation issue has sparked widespread discussion in recent years. Currently, the inflation rate of the Solana network is about 5.07%, while the network staking rate has reached 65%. In the inflation model, users obtain rewards by validating nodes, and the circulation of tokens gradually decreases over time. Although Solana’s staking return rate is attractive, there is still uncertainty about the long-term impact of its inflation on token prices. Future adjustments to the inflation plan may further affect the sustainability and economic model of the network by reducing issuance or changing the inflation mechanism.
The Current State of Cryptocurrencies: Bearish or Bullish?
To be honest, I have been bullish since mid-2023, but my confidence has started to waver recently. This is actually a good sign, indicating that the market is recovering. I have also received more and more private messages from veterans in the cryptocurrency circle, expressing concerns about the market, especially ETH’s recent poor performance. This is another comic reversal signal. Back in March, the consensus of the market was to follow the typical 4-year cycle. But how bad is the situation? I wanted to jump out of the Twitter bubble and look at the data myself. This article provides a snapshot of some data points to help us understand where we are currently and prepare for the changes that come next.
Hamster Kombat Token Economics at a Glance: 75% for Airdrops, 3% for Binance Launchpool
On September 13, Binance announced that Hamster Kombat (HMSTR) will be available on Binance Launchpool and Super Earn. The webpage is expected to be available within 24 hours before the launch of Launchpool. Users will be able to lock BNB and FDUSD to receive HMSTR airdrops within 7 days, and mining will start at 00:00 (UTC) on September 19, 2024. This article introduces the HMSTR token economics and development roadmap.
In the eyes of many observers, the U.S. economy does not seem to have entered a recession yet, and may even have avoided this fate. However, a series of well-known economic indicators are also sending out warning signals. Below, we have compiled 15 recession-related indicators for you. We recommend that you observe and analyze these indicators from multiple angles to gain a more comprehensive understanding of the economic situation.
The just concluded KBW conference in South Korea produced many interesting stories. Zhu Su, co-founder of Three Arrows Capital, once posted on social media, “I heard that tickets for the blockchain conference Korea Blockchain Week (KBW) are in short supply, which is a bullish signal.” In this article, the crypto KOL introduced how crypto projects can enter the Korean market from many aspects, which is worth collecting.
