Wu said Zhou’s selection KuCoin layoffs, Worldcoin launches, Fed raises interest rates by 25bps, and news Top10 (0722-0728)
Wu mentioned Zhou's KuCoin layoffs, Worldcoin launch, Fed's 25bps interest rate hike, and Top10 news (0722-0728).
Author | Wu on Blockchain
Top 10 News of the Week
1. Fed Raises Interest Rates by 25 bps
On July 27th, according to the Wall Street Journal, the Federal Reserve announced a 25 bps interest rate hike, bringing rates to the highest level in 22 years. Fed Chairman Jerome Powell did not rule out the possibility of another rate hike at the central bank’s next meeting in September. The Fed aims to keep inflation rates at 2% in the long term.
CITIC Securities pointed out that the overall change in the Fed’s meeting statement was not significant, and Powell’s speech retained flexibility for future policies. It is expected that July will most likely be the last rate hike of this round. If the month-on-month inflation growth rate remains above 0.4% before the September interest rate meeting, there is a possibility of additional rate hikes. Attention will be given to Friday’s ECI data and Powell’s remarks on combating inflation at the August Jackson Hole meeting. The earliest rate cut is expected to occur in the first quarter of next year. It is expected that US bond yields and the US dollar index will remain volatile in the short term, and US stocks may turn downward after the expectation of a recession heats up. In addition, attention will be focused on recent major US stock earnings reports.
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2. Worldcoin Launches WLD
On July 24th, Worldcoin, created by OpenAI CEO Sam Altman, launched WLD and officially went live on Monday. Prior to this, Worldcoin development company Tools for Humanity raised $115 million in Series C funding, led by Blockchain Capital with participation from a16z and others. According to its economics, the initial total supply is 10 billion coins, with 75% allocated to the Worldcoin community, 9.8% allocated to the initial development team, and 13.5% allocated to TFH investors. Over 20 million users have been allocated over 43 million WLD.
3. MetaMask Product Manager Discusses Future Plans
On July 27th, Decrypt conducted a video interview with the product manager of MetaMask. The manager stated that there may be significant changes to MetaMask in the coming years, depending on which Snaps developers choose to integrate. Currently, there are 30 million monthly active users and 100 million overall users. It is possible to expand to non-EVM chains. The actual utility of launching tokens is very limited, and there are currently no plans to do so. “Acting quickly and trial and error is not in line with the philosophy of Web3, and our users do not want that.” The full interview can be found on the Wu on Blockchain official website.
4. KuCoin Exchange to Lay Off Nearly 30% of Staff
On July 25th, Wu on Blockchain exclusively learned that cryptocurrency exchange KuCoin will lay off nearly 30% of its staff. KuCoin currently has around 1,000 employees. The main reason for the layoffs is KuCoin’s recent comprehensive compliance strategy and strict KYC, which have led to a decline in profitability. Earlier, KuCoin users in many regions such as the United States and Canada were expelled.
KuCoin responded that based on the company’s business development and semi-annual performance evaluation, the company will conduct a certain proportion of personnel optimization and adjustment according to its needs, which is a normal organizational development and personnel change. Facing new situations and opportunities, KuCoin is actively embracing compliance and focusing on core business development.
5. Binance Weekly Update
a. Binance officially responds to CFTC’s lawsuit accusing it of offering illegal commodity trading products to US residents
On July 28th, Binance officially responded to the lawsuit filed by the CFTC accusing it of offering illegal commodity trading products to US residents. Binance stated in its response that the CFTC exceeded its statutory jurisdiction. The document states that Binance does not operate in the United States, and its CEO, Zhao Changpeng, does not reside in the United States. It also pointed out that the first six charges brought by the CFTC “do not apply to the foreign conduct described here,” and several of the charges did not meet the required legal standards.
b. Binance withdraws application for cryptocurrency license in Germany
On July 26th, Binance announced that it has withdrawn its application for a license from the German financial regulatory authority, BaFin. A Binance spokesperson stated that there have been significant changes in the global market and regulatory environment, and Binance still plans to apply for a license in Germany, but the submitted content must accurately reflect these changes. Previously, BaFin made an internal decision not to grant Binance a cryptocurrency custody license.
c. CZ: Binance to start providing comprehensive services on a new platform in Japan in August
On July 25th, CZ stated in a video speech at the global conference, WebX, that Binance will start providing comprehensive services on a new platform in Japan in August. Previously, Binance announced that it would stop serving residents of Japan on the global platform on November 30, 2023, and Binance plans to launch a local platform in Japan in the summer of 2023.
6. Head of Payroll at Bybit embezzles a large amount of USDT, Singapore court explains the nature of cryptocurrency property
Cryptocurrency exchange Bybit sued Ms. Ho, responsible for paying salaries within the company, for abusing her authority and transferring a large amount of USDT to an address she secretly owns and controls. The Singapore High Court’s General Division upheld the ruling on July 25th, stating that cryptocurrency is generally recognized as property, and holders of cryptocurrency assets have intangible property rights recognized under common law, and therefore can be enforced in court as items in litigation. The court ruled that Ms. Ho must immediately pay back all the transferred funds and interest to Bybit. The detailed judgment can be found on the official website of the court.
7. Alphapo hot wallet hacked, with stolen amount reaching 23 million US dollars
On July 23rd, according to blockchain detective ZachXBT, Alphapo, a cryptocurrency payment service provider, had over $23 million stolen from its hot wallets in ETH, Tron, and BTC. On Ethereum, the stolen funds were converted into ETH and then bridged to Avalanche and Bitcoin. Alphapo processes payments for many gambling services such as HypeDrop, Bovada, and Ignition, with HypeDrop temporarily suspending withdrawals.
According to PaiduShield, the attackers of Alphapo transferred approximately 6.07 million USDT, 108,000 USDC, 100 million FTN, 430,000 TFL, 2,500 ETH, and approximately 1,700 DAI to an address starting with 0x040a. They then traded some stablecoins and altcoins for 5,730 ETH and converted it to BTC through the Avalanche Bridge. In addition, approximately 12 million USDT and 5.2 million TRX were transferred to an address starting with TDoNAZ. On July 26th, SlowMist tweeted that CoinsLianGuaiid, Atomic, and the Alphapo attackers were all associated with the North Korean hacking group Lazarus.
8. Cryptocurrency KOL found dismembered in a suitcase in Argentina
On July 28th, according to the New York Post, the missing cryptocurrency KOL Fernando Pérez Algaba was found dismembered in a suitcase in Argentina. Algaba reportedly earned millions of dollars through luxury car rentals and cryptocurrency sales and frequently advertised to his 900,000 followers on Instagram. The police have launched a murder investigation.
9. LianGuairadigm announces search for new deep collaboration projects
On July 26th, cryptocurrency investment company LianGuairadigm announced its search for new deep collaboration projects and offered support and funding. Currently, LianGuairadigm states that it has the ability to engage in 3 to 5 new project collaborations. Additionally, LianGuairadigm is exploring areas such as intent-centric protocols and infrastructure, Hooks based on Uniswap v4, infrastructure for a Rollup-centric multi-chain world, shared sequencers, blockchain games, native crypto social applications, prediction markets, stablecoin payments, on-chain treasuries, and ZKP applications.
10. Elon Musk rebrands with Twitter’s iconic blue bird logo replaced by an X symbol
On July 25th, the Twitter website logo was changed to an X, and the help center displayed the official renaming of “Tweet” to “Xeet”. The renaming of Twitter caused a significant influx of imitators, with several tokens labeled with “X” being listed on DEX and experiencing abnormal price increases. Professional traders believe that this optimistic sentiment arises from mainstream tokens such as BTC and ETH going through a period of low volatility, prompting some market participants to bet on altcoins and low-cap stocks.
Key Financing Events
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EthStorage completes $7 million financing with a valuation of $100 million
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Animoca Brands to invest $30 million in web3 application startup Hi
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Decentralized GPU infrastructure Aethir completes $9 million Pre-A round financing with a valuation of $150 million
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Ethereum infrastructure service Flashbots completes $60 million financing with a valuation of $1 billion
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Delabs Games announces $4.7 million seed round financing with Hashed as the lead investor
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GameFi project Kandle.xyz completes $1.7 million seed round financing
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Privacy email system Dmail completes Pre-A round financing with participation from Amino Capital
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Blockchain technology startup Cymbal announces $18.5 million financing
For more industry financing events, you can refer to crypto-fundraising.info.
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