Crypto Guides, Knowledge & Insights

Grayscale’s Court Win Over SEC Lifts Hopes for Bitcoin ETF Approval

Crypto asset manager Grayscale Investments has scored a major victory against the United States Securities and Exchange Commission in its efforts to convert its over-the-counter Grayscale Bitcoin Trust (GBTC) into a listed Bitcoin $27,383 exchange-traded fund (ETF). Previously, the SEC rejected its GBTC application on grounds that the products were not “designed to prevent fraudulent and manipulative acts and practices.” Grayscale subsequently sued, and the decision has been overturned.　　According to Aug. 29 court filings, U.S. Court of Appeals Circuit Judge Neomi Rao ordered Grayscale‘s petition for review be granted and the SEC’s order to deny the GBTC listing application be vacated. Previously, Judge Rao said that the SEC did not “offer any explanation” as to why Grayscale was in the wrong. However, the order does not guarantee the eventual listing of a Grayscale spot Bitcoin ETF.　　Michael Sonnenshein, CEO of Grayscale, said on X (formerly Twitter) that its legal team is “actively reviewing” the court opinion.　　On June 29, 2022, the SEC denied Grayscale‘s application to convert GBTC into a spot ETF. The next day, Grayscale’s senior legal strategist, former U.S. Solicitor General Donald B. Verrilli Jr., filed a petition for review with the United States Court of Appeals for the District

2023-08-30Deep Dive

Binance Will Stop Supporting BUSD In 2024

Key Points:　　- Cryptocurrency exchange Binances app will stop supporting BUSD in 2024.　　- Paxos will close the acquisition of BUSD by February 2024.　　- BUSD was previously sued by the SEC for being an unregistered security.　　After many turbulent lawsuits, market-leading cryptocurrency exchange Binance has decided to stop supporting its stablecoin BUSD in 2024.　　According to an official announcement on crypto exchange Binances app, the exchange tells users it will stop supporting its stablecoin, BUSD, in 2024. And the services will be phased out until Paxos will complete the acquisition of BUSD by February 2024.　　Perhaps under pressure from regulators, BUSD has made users wary even though it is still in the top 5 stablecoins by market capitalization, $3,102,462,479.Top Stablecoin Tokens by Market Capitalization. Source: CoinMarketcap　　On February 13 of this year, the United States Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) is about to file a lawsuit against Paxos Trust Company as an issuer of BUSD, alleging that the coin is an unregistered security.　　Following that, US-based blockchain infrastructure platform Paxos Trust Company announced it would stop issuing new Binance stablecoins from February 21. At the time, Changpeng Zhao (CZ), CEO of Binance, said BUSD holders shouldnt worry as Paxos will manage the conversion and fully cover the

2023-08-30Deep Dive

Optimism: Initial OP Token Grant to be Allocated to BASE Tomorrow

In official announcements, Optimism revealed its plan to distribute initial OP tokens through a grant to Base on August 30th. This transaction had been pre-informed as part of their ongoing plans.　　In a previous update, Base and Optimism developers jointly introduced a revenue-sharing and governance-sharing protocol. The smart contracts of Base can only be upgraded through a 2/2 multisig wallet, with one signature controlled by Base and the other by the Optimism Foundation.　　Base will also allocate 2.5% of its revenue or 15% of its profits to the Optimism Collective, depending on which is higher. In return, Base stands to receive up to a maximum of 118 million OP tokens over the next six years, granting it a voice in the protocol governance of Optimism.　　

2023-08-29Deep Dive

NFT Trading Platform Faces Liquidity Crisis

PROOFs Research Director NFTstats.eth has posted on Platform X (formerly Twitter), stating that on August 27th, the daily trading volume of NFTs on major NFT trading platforms dropped below 5000 ETH for the first time in nearly two years.　　According to data visualized by NFTstats.eth, its evident that the trading volumes on several prominent NFT trading platforms have been consistently contracting. In comparison to the peak earlier in the year, with a daily trading volume exceeding 80,000 ETH, the maximum daily trading volume has plummeted by over 90%.　　

2023-08-29Deep Dive

StarkNet Community Gearing Up for Commemorative NFT Release as TVL Sees Short-Term Dip

StarkNet, through its presence on Platform X (formerly Twitter), has announced that the community is actively preparing for a commemorative NFT release in celebration of the mainnets quantum leap version.　　The NFT issuance is scheduled for August 30th at 13:00 (UTC+8) and will last for a brief 24-hour period. This quantum leap version corresponds to StarkNet 0.12 and was officially deployed to the mainnet on July 12th.　　According to data from L2BEAT, StarkNets Total Value Locked (TVL) has experienced a rapid decline since 10:00 (UTC+8) on August 28th, plummeting from $143 million to $107 million, marking an intraday decrease of over 29%.　　

2023-08-29Deep Dive

friend.tech Threatens Existing Points Forfeiture If Users Use Copy Apps

Key Points:　　friend.tech warns users points may be confiscated if they participate in similar apps.　　The statement received a negative response from the community because of unfair competition practices.　　The apps daily revenue has dropped by more than 95%, from a peak of $840,000 on August 21 to just $80,500 on Aug.　　Social networking app Web3 friend.tech announced that users may have their existing points confiscated if they participate in forks or apps that clone their platform.　　According to the official announcement, decentralized social protocol friend.tech has warned that it will punish users who choose to fork or imitate the platform by confiscating users existing points on the platform.　　While the team has yet to share what the final score will be used for, only mentioning August 15, it “will have a special purpose when the app moves into official release”.　　Therefore, this network statement quickly received negative feedback from the community. They believe that “threatening” users is an unfair competition action of the platform. Many comments are also sarcastic that the application does not copy previous applications.　　While friend.tech did not mention any particular competitors, several X users in the response pointed to an app called Shares. This new app is scheduled to launch in public beta

2023-08-29Deep Dive

Robinhood Now Holds Over $3 Billion In Bitcoin, The 3rd Largest BTC Holder

Key Points:　　Robinhood holds over $3 billion in Bitcoin, the third-largest after Binance and Bitfinex.　　Owner speculation includes BlackRock and Gemini involvement.　　The companys significant crypto role highlights user influence.　　According to data from Arkham Intelligence, Robinhoods investment and trading platform has garnered attention as it holds more than $3 billion worth of Bitcoin in a single wallet, CoinDesk reported.　　This substantial holding has accumulated over several months, making Robinhood the third-largest Bitcoin holder globally, trailing behind crypto giants Binance and Bitfinex, with holdings of $6.4 billion and $4.3 billion, respectively.　　The enigmatic ownership of this wallet has sparked intrigue and speculation within the market. Theories have ranged from being linked to financial heavyweight BlackRock, which expressed interest in a Bitcoin ETF, to crypto exchange Geminis potential involvement in transferring user holdings.　　Recent data reveals that Robinhood consolidated approximately 118,300 Bitcoins from multiple smaller wallets into this single wallet over the course of three months. The custody of these assets is overseen by crypto trading firm Jump Trading, as confirmed by representatives from Arkham.　　While the Bitcoin community has often associated large addresses with crypto exchanges, the companys significant holdings have surprised industry observers due to its focus on equities and options trading. This marks a novel development

2023-08-29Deep Dive

Crypto Luminary Ben Armstrong Resigns Amid Related To Scam Memecoin

Key Points:　　Ben Armstrong resigns from BitBoy Crypto amidst internal conflicts.　　Speculations arise over the reasons, including meme coin involvement and potential investigations.　　BitBoy Crypto‘s future is uncertain as the community ponders Armstrong’s next steps.　　Renowned cryptocurrency influencer Ben Armstrong has stepped down from his position at Hit Network/BJ Investment Holdings and its subsidiary brands, including the widely followed podcasts BitBoy Crypto and About The Blockchain.　　This surprising decision was confirmed through a screenshot shared by Jason A. Williams on X platform.　　Armstrong, who had faced criticism for endorsing high-risk investment trades for ordinary investors through affiliate links, announced his resignation via his personal account. Acknowledging internal conflicts within his company, he expressed confidence in maintaining control despite his departure.　　The move was also confirmed by a statement shared by crypto influencers, including Jason A. Williams and Ran Neuner, from Around The Blockchain. This indicates that Armstrong will no longer be the face of BitBoy Crypto.　　In response to the situation, Armstrong posted on his personal X account:　　This is Ben.　　TJ Shedd & Justin Williams have attempted a coup at my company.　　Just confirming what is going around. It‘s true. There has been a mutiny at BitBoy Crypto & Hit Network. But it won’t work. They have no leverage　　Until they

2023-08-29Deep Dive

PAULY Alleges: PEPE Team's Coin Selling Constitutes Market Manipulation and Insider Trading Violatio

The individual PAULY, who exposed the identity of the PEPE founder on the X platform (formerly Twitter), has posted a statement claiming that the PEPE team previously stole over $10 million worth of funds from CEX wallets and dumped them on the open market. They have allegedly moved the remaining $9.6 million to a wallet controlled by an anonymous 25-year-old individual. The team supposedly positioned significant short positions for insider trading before the CEX fund theft. The allegations of market manipulation and insider trading by the PEPE team are said to be ongoing.　　Previously, PEPE disclosed the truth behind the “multisig coin selling”: three former members reportedly sold tokens unauthorized and removed multisig permissions, leaving the remaining 10.6 trillion PEPE tokens safe and transferred to a new address starting with 0x9f5E.　　NFT market figure Not Larva Labs founder PAULY claimed that the “multisig coin selling truth” released by the official PEPE team is entirely false, stating that he, Matt Furie, and the entire community have been deceived by the PEPE team. The PEPE official team allegedly holds PEPE tokens worth $16 million to $17 million (USD) across at least nine internal wallets.　　

2023-08-28Deep Dive

PYUSD Initial Adoption Falls Short of Expectations, 90% of Tokens Remain in Issuer Paxos Trust's Add

Nansen data reveals that approximately 90% of the PayPal stablecoin PYUSD is still held in the wallet of its issuer, Paxos Trust. Cryptocurrency exchanges like Kraken, Gate.io, and Crypto.com collectively hold about 7% of the total PYUSD supply. The amount of PYUSD held by “smart money” investors is negligible.　　The token count in DEX platform trading pools (such as PYUSD/WETH and PYUSD/USDC pools on Uniswap) is less than 50,000. Further analysis by Nansen indicates that the largest holdings by individual investors (excluding exchange or contract addresses) are below 10,000 PYUSD, and fewer than 10 addresses hold over 1,000 PYUSD.　　Its worth noting that according to on-chain data, while PYUSD has seen continuous issuance after its official launch, its total supply is currently only 42.298 million tokens, significantly lower than other mainstream stablecoins. The current total supply of PYUSD is approximately 0.14% of the total supply of USDC.　　

2023-08-28Deep Dive

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