| Elon Musk: X will never launch a cryptocurrency; Global X resubmits application for physically-backed Bitcoin ETF (August 7th)
Headline
Grayscale: Millennial and Gen Z Voters Could Determine Outcome of the 2024 "Bitcoin Election" Year
Grayscale releases a report stating that the outcome of the "Bitcoin election" may ultimately be determined by the millennial and Gen Z voters, as they are becoming increasingly concerned about their financial situation. It is reported that Cathie Wood and Balaji Srinivasan have referred to the year 2024 as the "Bitcoin election".
The Grayscale team researches the relationship between these trends and the upcoming 2024 US presidential election. Firstly, Bitcoin is currently at its highest price in a US presidential election cycle; the current trading price of Bitcoin exceeds $29,000, while the high point of the previous election cycle in the fourth quarter of 2020 was approximately $20,000.
Secondly, it can be said that the population who distrusts institutions and is concerned about their future financial situation, is likely the most crucial voting group before 2024.
In the 2024 US presidential election, it is expected that young people will account for the largest proportion of voters in history. Early reports indicate that by 2024, the millennial and Gen Z generations will make up 44% of the American electorate.
Grayscale points out that as prominent politicians such as Donald Trump, Ron DeSantis, Joe Biden, and Robert Kennedy Jr. begin to express their stance on Bitcoin and the broader digital asset industry, Bitcoin may become increasingly important politically. "These facts and the ongoing maturation of the Bitcoin ecosystem seem to suggest that Bitcoin is now and will be more related to the US election than ever before. In fact, early political candidates have already started sharing their positions on Bitcoin and cryptocurrency more widely."
Grayscale also states that the elected president's stance on Bitcoin and digital assets is important because they will be responsible for appointing the heads of regulatory agencies such as the US SEC and CFTC. "The views of US presidential candidates on Bitcoin and cryptocurrency are important, not only because the president leads the country, but also because the president is responsible for appointing the heads of over 50 independent federal commissions, which can influence various aspects of cryptocurrencies, including the US SEC, CFTC, Federal Reserve, and Treasury Department."
Elon Musk: X will never launch a cryptocurrency
Elon Musk replied to DogeDesigner's tweet "Elon Musk and X have never launched a cryptocurrency" by stating: X will never launch a cryptocurrency.
Industry News
Global X has resubmitted its application for a spot Bitcoin ETF
According to related documents, Global X has resubmitted its application for a spot Bitcoin ETF and has designated Coinbase as its monitoring and sharing partner to obtain regulatory approval.
The attorneys stated in the documents that if approved, the fund would provide investors with "access to Bitcoin with important protections that direct investments in Bitcoin do not always provide".
Data: Nearly 100 cryptocurrency funds have closed this year
According to data from 21e6 Capital AG, a Swiss investment advisor cited by Bloomberg, more than 700 cryptocurrency funds have been established globally this year, and 97 of them have closed. Although the average return rate of these funds in the first half of the year is 15.2%, their performance lags behind the 83.3% increase of Bitcoin.
According to exclusive information from Wu Shuo, several domestic executives of an exchange, including CTO and CHO, are being investigated by the Chinese police. The charges are related to operating a gambling den. In addition, other exchanges are also under investigation, and the founder of a third-tier exchange is also being investigated, involving a wide range of activities. It may involve providing funding and settlement services for gambling websites and gambling programs. Bitrace, a data research on the Binance Chain, shows that in the past year, the funds directly or indirectly associated with mainstream exchange hot wallets for online gambling have exceeded 7.6 billion USDT.
Coinbase L2 Network Base has a total locked value of 111 million US dollars
L 2B EAT data shows that the total value locked (TVL) of Coinbase L2 network Base has exceeded 100 million US dollars, currently reaching 111 million US dollars, with a 7-day increase of 473.39%.
According to previous reports, the Base mainnet will be open to the public on August 9th.
Coinglass data shows that the funding rate for YGG contracts on Binance platform has reached -2.5000%, OKX platform is -0.2290%, Bybit platform is -1.5000%, and Gate.io platform is -1.8750%.
YGG is currently the coin with the highest value of liquidations across the network. YGG has had a total of $7.7545 million in liquidations in the past 24 hours and $0.6535 million in the past 1 hour.
Curve founder has remaining debt of approximately $48.7 million on four platforms
According to Lookonchain monitoring, Curve Finance founder Michael Egorov sold a total of 142.6 million CRV tokens to 30 institutions and investors at a unit price of $0.4 through OTC, generating $57 million to repay the debt.
As of now, Michael Egorov still mortgaged 269.8 million CRV (equivalent to 166 million US dollars) on four platforms, with a debt scale of approximately 48.7 million US dollars.
According to previous reports, according to on-chain analyst Yu Jing monitoring, last night to this morning, Curve Finance founder Michael Egorov once again sold 28.625 million CRV to 6 investors/institutions.
Since August 1st, the founder of Curve has sold a total of 142.65 million CRV to 30 investors/institutions, exchanging for 57.06 million US dollars.
Data Changes
July CME cryptocurrency options trading volume increased by 24%, the first growth in four months
CCData data shows that the trading volume of CME cryptocurrency options increased by 24% in July, reaching 940 million US dollars, the first increase in four months. The trading volume of Bitcoin options increased by 16.6% to 734 million US dollars. The trading volume of Ethereum options increased by 60% to 207 million US dollars.
July CEX spot and derivatives total trading volume decreased by 12% to 2.36 trillion US dollars
CCData released the latest exchange report. In July, the total trading volume of centralized exchanges (CEX) spot and derivatives decreased by 12.0% to 2.36 trillion US dollars, the lowest monthly trading volume this year.
-Binance is the largest spot trading platform with a trading volume of 208 billion US dollars.
-In July, Upbit's spot trading volume increased by 42.3% to 29.8 billion US dollars. Upbit is the second-ranked exchange in terms of trading volume.
BTC holding volume at OTC counters drops to a new low since June 15th
Glassnode data shows that the amount of Bitcoin held by addresses related to OTC counters has dropped to its lowest level since June 15th. As of Thursday, the total balance of BTC at OTC counters is 5,138 BTC (equivalent to approximately $150 million at the current price), a decrease of 33% compared to the year-high record set at the end of June (7,697 BTC).
In the first half of this year, as the Bitcoin market price rose by 84%, this indicator surged by 156%. At that time, some observers saw this as a bullish sign. Ark Investment Management's report in June stated, "In our view, the increase in OTC counter balances indicates that institutions and other large capital allocation institutions are paying more attention to Bitcoin."
However, the total balance indicator at BTC OTC counters is easily affected by address tagging errors, and the balance itself does not reflect whether OTC counters are buying or liquidating tokens on behalf of clients. "Crypto is Macro Now" author Noelle Acheson said, "The BTC accumulated by OTC counters may mean they are buying on behalf of clients, or it may mean that clients are transferring their BTC to OTC counters for sale."
In July, the seasonally adjusted non-farm employment in the United States increased by 187,000, with a previous value of 209,000 and an expected value of 200,000. The unemployment rate in July was 3.5%, with a previous value of 3.60% and an expected value of 3.60%. The US Dollar Index (DXY) fell by 30 points in the short term and is now reported at 102.34.
The US Bureau of Labor Statistics stated that the number of non-farm job additions in May was revised down from 306,000 to 281,000, and the number of non-farm job additions in June was revised down from 209,000 to 185,000. After the revision, the total number of job additions in May and June was 4,900 lower than the revised value.
CoinGecko data shows that Bitcoin's market dominance has risen to 46.8%, while Ethereum's market dominance is currently reported at 18.2%. In addition, the market dominance of the stablecoins USDT, USDC, BUSD is 6.94%, 2.16%, and 0.28%, respectively.
The current total market capitalization of cryptocurrencies is $1,211,561,849,482, with a 24-hour growth rate of 0.3%.
Project News
Ethereum core developer Tim Beiko summarized the latest Ethereum core developer meeting in Discord. Among them, developers agreed to continue using regular contracts with system write transactions, rather than precompiled contracts. Before the test call on Monday, developers will try to: (1) agree on a deployment plan (as part of a fork or manually deployed before the fork); (2) agree on the first contract implementation to be used; (3) submit a PR reflecting this to the 4788 specification. Once developers reach a consensus on the contract, the audit/verification process will be initiated;
This meeting decided to postpone the release of Devnet #8 until the new 4788 specification is implemented;
Regarding EIP-6780, the "Add explanation for EIP-6780" will continue to be merged;
Regarding the Engine API, it was agreed to add blobGasUsed and blobGasPrice to the receipts of transaction 4844. Developers will also modify this PR to mention that the Dencun upgrade must use forkChoiceUpdate V3, and then merge it into "Clarify early API handling of Cancun payloads; reorder check #426";
Regarding the large validator test network, the EF development team has launched a development network with 2.1 million validators, similar to the client distribution on the mainnet. They will work with client teams to check and fix issues related to finalization and block gossip before Holesky is launched. Holesky plans to have around 1.5 million validators.
CyberConnect has opened an airdrop query webpage
CyberConnect posted an article introducing Season 1 of the community rewards. The airdrop query webpage is now open. Users can check their eligibility and the amount of the airdrop through the official website.
The CYBER airdrop will open for application at 20:00 Beijing time on August 15th and will last for 30 days. After that, all unclaimed CYBER will be transferred to the community treasury.
Revolut will temporarily suspend its cryptocurrency services in the United States from September 2nd
Revolut, a fintech company based in the United Kingdom, announced that it will temporarily suspend its cryptocurrency services in the United States starting from September 2nd, 2023, due to the changing regulatory environment and uncertainty in the US cryptocurrency market. After this date, US customers will no longer be able to buy cryptocurrencies on the Revolut platform.
Starting from October 3rd, Revolut will implement more comprehensive restrictions, and US customers will be completely banned from accessing cryptocurrencies through Revolut. Therefore, they will no longer be able to buy, sell, or hold any cryptocurrencies.
The dYdX Foundation has published an article discussing the future of DYDX. The dYdX ecosystem is approaching the potential mainnet version of the open-source software, dYdX Chain, which will be a PoS blockchain network. If deployed on the mainnet, it will require L1 protocol tokens to be staked by validators to secure the chain and ensure that L1 token holders manage the network.
dYdX Community has the option to use DYDX (the governance token for dYdX v3) as the L1 token for dYdX Chain (if deployed after the mainnet release). If this choice becomes a reality, considering DYDX is an ERC-20 token based on Ethereum, the DYDX tokens would need to be migrated from Ethereum to dYdX Chain.
The final decision will be made by the dYdX Community through dYdX governance to discuss:
1. Whether DYDX should be the L1 protocol token for dYdX Chain;
2. Whether wethDYDX should have the same governance and utility functions as DYDX on dYdX v3;
3. If the dYdX community decides that DYDX should be the L1 protocol token for dYdX Chain, then how to organize and carry out any necessary token migration and/or other required operations.
Curve founder sells over 109 million CRV through OTC
Analysis of on-chain data compiled by Nansen analyst Sandra Leow shows that Curve Finance founder Michael Egorov has sold a total of over 106 million CRV tokens through OTC, exchanging them for $42.4 million in funds.
If we include the 3.75 million CRV sold to 237.eth this afternoon, Michael Egorov has sold over 109 million CRV tokens through OTC.
Earlier reports stated that this afternoon, around 6 o'clock, Michael Egorov allegedly sold another 3.75 million CRV through OTC, followed by repaying a debt of 1.5 million USDT on Aave V2. The buyer's address is 237.eth (starting with 0x94).
Suspected Multichain address selling tokens on-chain
According to Lookonchain monitoring, a suspected Multichain address is selling tokens such as LINK, CRV, WOO, YFI on-chain. This address transferred 338,900 LINK to Binance and sold 149,000 LINK on DEX, converting 9,660,000 WOO to 966 ETH.
People * Voices
Edmond Chan, Deputy Director of the Financial Services and the Treasury Bureau of Hong Kong, delivered a keynote speech on "Opportunities and Challenges in Building Hong Kong as an International Virtual Asset Center" at the seminar "Turning Digital Assets into Reality - Exploring Compliance in Asia and Future Prospects" jointly organized by the Southern Finance Media Group and HashKey Exchange. Chan said, "Web3.0 represents an important transformation in the development of the Internet. It adopts blockchain technology and features transparency, efficiency, decentralization, and platform disintermediation. In terms of digital economy and fintech innovation, Web3.0 plays a crucial role."
Chan stated that Hong Kong is actively embracing the development of Web3.0 and using it as an important entry point for financial innovation. For example, "We are committed to promoting the sustainable development of various financial services on the entire virtual asset value chain, covering virtual asset issuance, tokenization, trading and payment platforms, financial and asset management, as well as custodial services."
Earlier this year, several cryptocurrency exchanges experienced crises one after another, causing market turbulence. In response, Chan said that the Hong Kong SAR government has conducted research on these cases and summarized its experiences. "We believe that the problem lies in their chaotic operations and management without proper regulation. But the underlying blockchain technology is the focus of developing virtual assets and a technology we must embrace." Based on this, Chan believes that Hong Kong should seize the opportunity to promote the development of Web3.0 in Hong Kong, but the premise is to protect investors and prevent its use for illegal purposes such as money laundering, and not to harm the stability of the financial system.
The president of the Federal Reserve Bank of Atlanta, Bostic, said that the economy is expected to slow down in a fairly orderly manner. The Federal Reserve is on track to return to its 2% inflation target as long as it maintains the current interest rate level in the long term. He stated, "Our stance today is restrictive, and as the inflation rate continues to decline, the degree of restriction will increase because the gap between the inflation rate and our interest rates will widen. This will sufficiently restrain the economy and cause it to continue to slow down, but it is not expected to be a two or three-month period. My outlook is that we will remain in a restrictive zone until 2024." Regarding the non-farm payroll report released tonight, Bostic stated that wage growth is still strong, which does not surprise him because "during the entire period of high inflation, workers' wages have lagged behind inflation for a considerable period of time and are now in a period of catching up."
Curve Hacker: Refund is because I don't want to ruin the project
On-chain data shows that the Curve Finance hacker has returned 4,820 alETH, worth $8.5 million, to Alchemix Finance.
In a transaction memo, the hacker stated: "I have seen some ridiculous opinions, so I want to clarify. I am refunding the funds not because you can find me, but because I don't want to ruin your project. Maybe this is a lot of money for many people, but it is not for me. I am smarter than all of you."
Previously, Curve initially requested the hacker to return the funds on August 3. The hacker responded by asking Curve to confirm the address of 0x babe.
Insider: New York Attorney General's Office is investigating Genesis and DCG
According to Bloomberg, the New York Attorney General Letitia James' office has requested information about former executives of the cryptocurrency lending company Genesis. Former Chief Risk Officer Michael Patchen of Genesis has recently been questioned, and federal prosecutors and the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) have started investigations and sought interviews with potential witnesses of Genesis and its parent company, DCG.
A spokesperson for DCG stated that the company is cooperating with regulatory and investigative agencies in response to the request.
Justin Sun denies rumors, suggests everything is normal with Huobi
Justin Sun tweeted a denial and stated that everything is currently normal, but did not specify the exact content of the rumors he was denying. He straightforwardly said, "Clarifying rumors a bit," and "There is nothing going on." In light of previous rumors, Justin Sun may be suggesting that Huobi is currently not facing any legal disputes.
Earlier reports claimed that several domestic executives from a certain exchange were being investigated by Chinese authorities. Additionally, other exchanges have also been subject to investigations, with the founder of a certain third-tier exchange also being investigated. The scope is quite extensive.
Alchemix: Hacker has returned all funds stolen from Alchemix in Curve pool
Alchemix tweeted that the hacker has returned all the funds stolen from Alchemix in the Curve pool, and a full report will be released soon.
NFT
Data: Approximately $1.73 million worth of NFTs stolen in July
According to Shielder, approximately $1.73 million worth of NFTs were stolen in July, a decrease of 31% compared to the previous month.
Half of the stolen NFTs were sold on various trading platforms within 165 minutes. Among them, 67.3% of the fencing transactions were initially completed through the Blur platform, and 19.63% were done through the OpenSea platform.
Jampzer claimed that their robot was scammed into bidding 8 lots of 50 ETH for Azuki, and 800 ETH was depleted from their robot. Jampzer stated that if HanweChang, the recipient of the 800 ETH, can return 90%, they will provide a 10% bug bounty.
Prior to this news, NFT trader HanweChang purchased NFTs from the robot, who deceived by replicating HanweChang's bid, for Azuki OG and Elementals NFTs at prices of 50 and 15 ETH per piece, earning a total of 800 ETH (approximately 1, 465, 808 USD).
