This Week’s Top 10 News
1. Mt. Gox’s Cold Wallet Starts Massive Transfer
Mt. Gox’s cold wallet began transferring on May 28 at 9:41 UTC+8. A total of 47.229k BTC was transferred to the new address: 1HeHLv…vHoV68, 23.797k BTC was transferred to the new address: 1zuWGg…FWGRH6, 47.229k BTC was transferred to the new address: 16eAGJ…37P9gX, and 19.41k BTC was transferred to the new address: 15VuDC…gSZnh4. Mt. Gox announced that the rehabilitation trustee has not yet made direct repayments of BTC or BCH through designated cryptocurrency exchanges, nor has it sold BTC and BCH for profit. Former CEO of Mt. Gox, Mark Karpelès, stated that “the trustee is transferring the tokens to another wallet in preparation for potential distribution this year, and will not sell bitcoin immediately.”
2. BlackRock Submits Revised S-1 Statement, Ethereum Spot ETF Expected to Launch by the End of June
BlackRock has submitted a revised S-1 registration statement, disclosing information about seed capital investors, paving the way for its proposed Ethereum ETF. The amended filing shows that on May 21, 2024, seed capital investors purchased seed creation baskets, totaling 400,000 shares, at a price of $25.00 per share. These shares will trade under the code “ETHA.” Bloomberg ETF analyst Eric Balchunas said that BlackRock’s revised S-1 is a “good sign” and expects other companies to submit similar filings soon, with trading potentially starting around the end of June or July 4.
3. Biden Campaign Team Reaches Out to Key Figures in the Cryptocurrency Industry
President Biden’s re-election campaign team has begun reaching out to key figures in the cryptocurrency industry for guidance on “the future development of the cryptocurrency community and cryptocurrency policies.” According to anonymous sources, this outreach includes contacting industry leaders who were previously rejected by the Biden administration, signaling a significant “shift” in the relationship between Biden and the industry. The campaign team started this contact activity about two weeks ago, as they increasingly realize that cryptocurrency-related issues could have an impact on the upcoming presidential election, possibly due to pressure from Trump’s involvement with cryptocurrency.
4. U.S. Deputy Treasury Secretary: Treasury Department Does Not Intend to Prohibit Cryptocurrency Mixing Services
U.S. Deputy Treasury Secretary Brian Nelson stated that the Treasury Department does not intend to prohibit cryptocurrency mixing services. Nelson pointed out that the Financial Crimes Enforcement Network’s (FinCEN) 2023 proposal aims to promote transparency, not ban mixing services. He emphasized that the Treasury Department wants to collaborate with the crypto industry to find ways to enhance privacy without facilitating terrorist financing. Currently, most mixing services are attractive to criminals because they help evade anti-money laundering (AML) and know-your-customer (KYC) reporting requirements.
5. EU Draft Considers MEV as Market Abuse
The European Securities and Markets Authority (ESMA) has included the definition of Maximum Extractable Value (MEV) as a clear example of illegal market abuse in its proposed technical standards under the Markets in Crypto-Assets (MiCA) regulation. Cryptocurrency commentator Patrick Hansen noted that almost all EU-regulated crypto businesses, including exchanges and brokers, will need to detect and report MEV instances through comprehensive “Suspicious Transaction or Order Reports” (STORs). Actors involved in MEV may face investigations and enforcement actions not only from EU regulatory authorities but also from international regulatory bodies. The deadline for consultation feedback set by ESMA is June 25, and the final standards are expected to have a significant impact on the EU crypto regulatory environment.
6. Binance Sells Assets of GOPAX Victims at Less Than Half Their Face Value, Leading to Billions of Korean Won Losses for GOPAX
According to Korean media outlet Hankyung, Binance, the largest shareholder of the Korean exchange GOPAX, has sold the assets of GOPAX victims at less than half their face value. Initially, Binance promised to compensate the losses incurred by investors of the virtual deposit service GoFi, which amounted to approximately 70 billion Korean won at the time. As part of the deal, Binance acquired GOPAX’s shares at a significantly lower price than the market value, becoming its largest shareholder. However, Binance did not use its own funds for compensation but instead sold the assets of the victims at a low price, effectively engaging in a “debt-for-equity” behavior. During this process, the price of virtual assets such as Bitcoin surged after Binance sold the assets of the victims, leading to an increase in the scale of the losses. It is estimated that GoFi’s debt amount is currently around 100 billion Korean won, resulting in GOPAX losing billions of Korean won.
7. PayPal’s Stablecoin PYUSD Goes Live on Solana Blockchain
PayPal’s stablecoin PYUSD has gone live on the Solana blockchain. Users can transfer PayPal’s stablecoin to Solana through Crypto.com, Phantom, and Paxos (the issuer of PYUSD). Jose Fernandez da Ponte, PayPal’s Senior Vice President for Blockchain, Cryptocurrency, and Digital Currencies, stated that the company is interested in Solana’s potential in payments and peer-to-peer fund flows, not just for trading. PYUSD made its debut as an Ethereum-based stablecoin in August last year, backed by a 1:1 ratio of assets including the US dollar and US government bonds.
8. Bitcoin Spot ETF Records 13 Consecutive Days of Net Inflows
According to SoSoValue data, Bitcoin spot ETF recorded a total net inflow of $48.706 million on May 30 (US Eastern Time). Grayscale’s ETF GBTC had zero net outflow on that day, with a historical net outflow of $17.777 billion. The Bitcoin spot ETF with the highest net inflow on that day was Fidelity’s ETF FBTC, with a net inflow of $119 million. FBTC has a historical total net inflow of $8.884 billion. As of May 30 (US Eastern Time), Bitcoin spot ETF has recorded 13 consecutive days of net inflows. The total net asset value of Bitcoin spot ETF is $59.026 billion, with an ETF net asset ratio of 4.37%, and a historical total net inflow of $13.809 billion.
9. Bernstein: Bitcoin and Ethereum ETF Market Cap Expected to Grow to $450 Billion
A report by Bernstein stated that the market cap of Bitcoin and Ethereum ETFs is expected to grow to $450 billion, indicating that over $100 billion will flow into crypto ETFs in the next two years. Previously, the firm predicted a Bitcoin cycle high of $150,000 by 2025, with a year-end target price of $90,000. The report also noted that Ethereum is the first PoS token approved as a spot ETF, which has a positive impact on other blockchain tokens, and Solana (SOL) may benefit from this.
10. Bitcoin Collateral Protocol Babylon Raises $70 Million in Funding Led by Paradigm
Babylon, a startup focusing on Bitcoin collateral, raised $70 million in its latest funding round, led by Paradigm. This is the largest investment received by the Bitcoin ecosystem recently. Earlier, Binance Labs announced its investment in Babylon. By the end of 2023, it had completed a $18 million funding round led by Polychain Capital and Hack VC.
Key Funding Events
– Bitcoin collateral protocol Babylon raises $70 million with Paradigm leading the round.
– AI-based DeFi platform Aperture Finance completes Series A funding with a valuation of $250 million.
– Decentralized AI project GaiaNet announces $10 million in funding.
– Oracle protocol Switchboard announces $7.5 million Series A funding.
– Neynar announces $11 million Series A funding.
– RWA tokenization platform Fortunafi announces $9.51 million strategic seed round funding.
– Mighty Jaxx completes $11 million Series A+ funding.
– Game developer Supervillain Labs announces $4.5 million seed round funding.
– DePIN infrastructure Parasail completes $4 million seed round funding with Protocol Labs as the lead investor.
– SocialFi infrastructure OpenSocial announces $5 million seed round funding.
– Blockchain node management platform NodeOps announces $5 million seed round funding.
– Ethereum L2 network Mint Blockchain announces $5 million seed round funding.
– PlayAI announces $4.3 million seed round funding.
– Game Kuroro Beast announces $2.5 million strategic funding.
For more industry funding events, refer to crypto-fundraising.info.