| FTX cryptocurrency liquidation limit is USD 50 million in the first week, and USD 100 million in the following weeks; Vitalik: Hong Kong project parties need to consider policy sustainability (September 15th)
Headlines
According to screenshots of court documents related to FTX's liquidation cryptocurrency process shared on the X platform by Jeff Dorman, Chief Information Officer of Arca, with the explicit terms of the investment advisor agreement, FTX debtors are authorized to sell digital assets. For these sales, the debtor's realizable amount shall not exceed the limit of the week.
The provisions regarding the weekly limit for sales are as follows: In the first week of this order, the weekly limit up to Friday is $50 million; if executed on or after Wednesday of that week, the limit from the execution date to the following Friday is $50 million. For subsequent calendar weeks, the weekly limit is $100 million. It should be noted that the debtor may temporarily increase the weekly limit without the need for further orders from the court, with the prior written approval of the Official Committee of Unsecured Creditors and the Special Committee for FTX.com non-U.S. customers, with each increase being valid for one week. At the same time, the debtor is required to provide notice to the U.S. trustee regarding the temporary increase in the limit. In addition, subject to further orders from the court, the debtor may permanently increase the weekly limit to $200 million. It is reported that the weekly limit refers to the total amount of digital asset sales and does not apply to derivative transactions based on digital assets.
In addition, according to BeIncrypto, stricter guidelines apply to the sale of "related internal" tokens, requiring a 10-day advance notice to creditors and the U.S. trustee. Furthermore, FTX plans to delve into cryptocurrency hedging contracts, initially focusing on Bitcoin and Ethereum. Regarding the Solana (SOL) token, the FTX liquidation method releases only $9.2 million worth of SOL per month in an effort to minimize the asset's direct impact on the market.
Industry News
Vitalik Buterin spoke in Singapore today, stating that although Hong Kong has been turning towards a crypto-friendly stance since the end of last year, crypto projects should consider the stability of its friendly policies when setting up offices in Hong Kong.
Vitalik Buterin said, "For me, the sustainability of Hong Kong's crypto-friendly policies is a key variable, and I personally find it difficult to judge this issue. Convincing people that crypto-friendly policies have sustainability is quite challenging due to local regulations."
Evgeny Gaevoy, co-founder of Wintermute, stated at the TOKEN2049 conference in Singapore during the roundtable discussion "Institutionalization of Digital Assets":
"To some extent, the approval of a Bitcoin ETF for spot trading is inevitable and will happen sooner or later. I think the miscalculation people might make is the timing, because even if the SEC ultimately approves all of these products, they still require some time to be listed, approved, and then time for managers to allocate the funds.
Therefore, we need at least six months to start seeing capital flow into these products, but a more realistic possibility is one to two years. But as I said, it is inevitable in the end, so I guess it is destined to happen. From this perspective, it is difficult to say how much impact it will have on the price, but I believe that once we see real capital inflows, it will be when we return to substantial development."
MAS imposes 9-year prohibition order on Three Arrows Capital founders Su Zhu and Kyle Davies
The Monetary Authority of Singapore (MAS) issued a statement on Thursday stating that it has imposed a nine-year prohibition order on Su Zhu and Kyle Davies, the founders of crypto hedge fund Three Arrows Capital, who were condemned for the fund's collapse, prohibiting them from engaging in any regulated activities. According to the Securities and Futures Act, the two are also prohibited from managing any capital market services company, serving as directors, or becoming significant shareholders.
The Monetary Authority of Singapore (MAS) has accused Three Arrows Capital of providing false information and failing to implement proper risk management systems. Loo Siew Yee, Assistant Managing Director of Policy, Payments, and Financial Crime at MAS, stated that the authority takes a serious view of Su Zhu and Kyle Davies' blatant disregard for regulatory requirements and their misconduct.
The Hong Kong Securities and Futures Commission (SFC) has announced that the virtual asset trading platform JPEX is operating without a license. Subsequently, there were reports online that JPEX users were unable to withdraw funds within 8 hours. Some users also pointed out that JPEX has imposed a maximum withdrawal limit of 1000 USDT and increased the withdrawal fee to 999 USDT, meaning retail investors can only withdraw 1 USDT at most. The SFC stated that they will refer the matter to the police for investigation.
Data Changes
BTC breaks through 26500 USDT with a 24-hour increase of 2.29%
According to OKX, BTC has broken through 26500 USDT, currently trading at 26526.1 USDT, with a 24-hour increase of 2.29%.
Blue-chip NFT floor prices continue to decline, BAYC floor price dropped by 16.15% in 7 days
Blur data shows that the floor prices of blue-chip NFT series have been continuously declining, including:
BAYC floor price is currently 22.79 ETH, with a 7-day decline of 16.15%;
MAYC floor price is currently 4.92 ETH, with a 7-day decline of 6.57%;
Azuki floor price is currently 3.75 ETH, with a 7-day decline of 10.08%;
DeGods floor price is currently 3.46 ETH, with a 7-day decline of 18.91%;
Pudgy Penguins floor price is currently 3.95 ETH, with a 7-day decline of 2.47%.
Project News
MakerDAO co-founder: MakerDAO to launch new stablecoin and new governance token in early next year
MakerDAO co-founder Rune Christensen announced at the TOKEN 2049 conference held on September 14th that MakerDAO will launch a new unified brand, the name of which is undecided. DAI and MKR users are not affected and can be revalued at a ratio of 1:12000. The new stablecoin can mine new governance tokens.
Rune Christensen also revealed that the new stablecoin and new governance token will be launched in early 2024, and will support subSAO mining. In the second quarter of 2024, subDAO tokens will be issued, which can be mined using the new stablecoin.
According to official news, Circle Internet Financial announced a collaboration with the Southeast Asian multifunctional online service platform Grab to integrate Circle's new Web3 service platform into the Grab application, providing a new Web3 wallet experience for its customers in Singapore. Singapore users can use Grab Web3 Wallet to set up blockchain-supported wallets, earn rewards and collectibles, and use NFT vouchers.
The collaboration between Circle and Grab is launched as part of the SG Pitstop Pack, aimed at supporting the Orchid project of the Monetary Authority of Singapore (MAS) as a real demonstration of Purpose Bound Money.
Yearn officially announces the official launch of yETH
Yearn officially announces the official launch of yETH. yETH can be understood as an index token based on liquidity stETH, rETH, cbETH, and other derivative tokens (LST), allowing users to diversify their ETH staking shares across multiple staking protocols with a single exposure.
Aztec launches smart contract privacy framework Aztec.nr
Aztec, a privacy and scalability solution based on ZK Rollup, announces the launch of the smart contract privacy framework Aztec.nr. This framework, based on the Noir extension, allows developers to write privacy applications on Aztec.
People's Voices
QCP Capital: The true bottom of BTC will appear in the middle and late October
ByteTree Asset Management's Chief Investment Officer, Charlie Morris, stated in Wednesday's market report that the current trading price of Bitcoin is near the support level of $26,000, but it may not be a strong bottom. Charlie Morris expects that the trading price of Bitcoin will range between $20,000 and $30,000 until around April next year, saying "we can only wait for a better opportunity."
In addition, crypto trading company QCP Capital stated that the final decline of Bitcoin is imminent and will reach a low point this quarter. A series of negative news in the coming weeks, such as a more hawkish Fed meeting next week, FTX asset sales, and Mt Gox fund repayment, may push the Bitcoin price down to around $23,000.
QCP Capital added, "The real bottom will come in late October when the bad news cycle has ended. Nevertheless, we still remain optimistic about the market in the end of this year and the first quarter of next year."
CZ: Establishing a compliant fiat OTC channel is the current key issue
CZ spoke at the "Virtual Fireside Chat: CZ" session at the TOKEN 2049 conference in Singapore:
"In my opinion, the key is the OTC channel for converting fiat currency to cryptocurrencies. Everyone has different concerns, and that's where we see the problem. Earlier this year, due to strengthened regulatory policies, we saw many traditional institutions exiting the OTC market. But at the same time, we also saw some new institutions enter the market. This industry already has tens of millions of users. I believe doubling the number of users could potentially reach one billion users for the entire industry.
For most banks, if they only provide services for one country, they will have very few users. If they gain one billion users, that would already be a substantial number for a bank. We can bring in tens of millions or even hundreds of millions of users for these traditional financial institutions and benefit greatly from it. Therefore, we see many traditional financial institutions eager to seize this opportunity. So, while it's important to focus on higher-level use cases of cryptocurrencies, in order to attract more people to join the cryptocurrency world, we must convert fiat currency into cryptocurrencies, and vice versa."
CZ also said, "I hope to see a blockchain-based social media platform because today we only have Twitter, and we are all heavy Twitter users. So, this kind of application can be developed on the blockchain, and we can address various issues such as spam, fraud, and identity verification. However, most blockchains today may not be able to handle the amount of data generated from Twitter's interactions and events. But now, with Layer 2 and other technologies, I believe we are just one step away from achieving this goal."
Galaxy Managing Director: Tokenization Market Currently Lacks Liquidity, Predicts Future Prosperity
Chris Rhine, Managing Director of Galaxy, said during the Token 2049 panel discussion on the "Institutionalization of Digital Assets" in Singapore, "In more developed regions, the traditional financial sector will not only seek efficiency. They might start with the least liquid asset categories. You wouldn't transfer liquid asset categories into an illiquid market space, and currently, the tokenization market space is illiquid because there isn't really much trading happening. But tokenizing a highly illiquid asset doesn't do harm because you're not sacrificing liquidity.
As we continue to build and develop the market, I believe the traditional financial world will see a streamlined process, efficiency improvement, and a growing market that provides 24/7 functionality. So, this will take time. There have been some predictions about the size of the tokenization market. It might be a technology adoption curve, slowly advancing and then suddenly experiencing rapid growth."
In the escalating legal conflict between the US SEC and cryptocurrency companies, Ethereum co-founder and ConsenSys founder Joseph Lubin remains hopeful.
Lubin expressed today on CNBC's Capital Connection program, "I expect that, like previous technologies such as the Internet, the web, and cryptography, the clear-minded will prevail," predicting a positive outcome in the regulatory battle between the cryptocurrency industry and the SEC.
He added, "The US will witness decentralized protocols, blockchain, and cryptocurrencies aligning with the country's principles, and I believe many other countries will follow suit." (The Block)
