PA Daily | Binance will delist AKRO, BLZ, and WRX on December 25; Binance Alpha’s own incident caused an investor to suffer a short-term loss of US$102,000
Reprinted from panewslab
12/18/2024·6MToday’s news tips:
Voting officially opens for the fifth annual PANews PARTY AWARD
Binance will delist AKRO, BLZ, and WRX on December 25
An investor lost $102,000 in 12 minutes due to Binance Alpha’s own incident
Big Time Studios announces $150 million Open Loot fund
sBTC has been launched on the Stacks mainnet, providing a 5% annual reward
Renzo announced that claims have now opened for the third quarter, allocating 4% of the total supply
regulatory news
Ireland Data Protection Commission fines Meta €251 million
According to an announcement from the Irish Data Protection Commission (DPC), the DPC made a final decision and imposed a fine of €251 million on the data breach reported by Meta Platforms Ireland Limited (MPIL) in 2018. This data leak affected approximately 29 million Facebook accounts around the world, of which approximately 3 million accounts were from the EU/EEA. The leaked data included name, email, phone number, location, workplace, birthday, religious affiliation, gender, etc. According to the DPC’s investigation, Meta violated the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) in the following respects: • Failure to fully fulfill its data breach notification obligations (Article 33 paragraph 3, Article 33 paragraph 5) and was fined 11 million euros ; • Failure to ensure the principle of data protection in the design of data processing systems (Article 25, paragraph 1, Article 25, paragraph 2), was fined 240 million euros. DPC Deputy Commissioner Graham Doyle said that this enforcement highlights the serious risks and harms caused by failure to implement data protection requirements in the design and development cycle, especially the leakage of user privacy data that may pose a serious threat to fundamental rights and freedoms. A full decision and related information will be released at a later date.
According to CleanSpark's announcement, the company has completed the issuance of US$650 million of zero-coupon convertible bonds (due in 2030), with net proceeds of approximately US$633.6 million. This convertible bond issuance is intended for qualified institutional investors and includes a US$100 million bond issue that includes the initial underwriter’s full exercise of additional purchase rights. In this issuance, CleanSpark signed a cap repurchase agreement with multiple parties, setting the upper limit of the conversion price to US$24.66 per share (a 100% premium from the closing price of US$12.33 on December 12) to reduce potential equity dilution. In addition, CleanSpark spent US$145 million to repurchase 11.76 million ordinary shares to further optimize the shareholder equity structure. Proceeds will be used to repay Coinbase's credit line, capital expenditures, potential acquisitions and general corporate purposes. Company CEO Zach Bradford said that this financing will not only ensure CleanSpark’s expansion to its computing power goal of 50 EH/s, but will also support its strategic initiatives in expanding its mining business and asset acquisitions, while enhancing the company’s financial flexibility and shareholder value.
Australian regulator sues Binance Australia Derivatives for failing to protect consumer rights
According to an announcement from the Australian Securities and Investments Commission (ASIC), ASIC has sued the cryptocurrency company Binance Australia Derivatives, accusing it of failing to properly protect consumer rights between July 2022 and April 2023. ASIC said Binance misclassified 505 Australian retail investors (83% of its total customers) as wholesale customers, resulting in these retail investors failing to receive due consumer protections, including key rights such as product disclosure statements and target market identification. . ASIC deputy chair Sarah Court said Binance’s compliance system was woefully inadequate, exposing retail investors to high-risk cryptocurrency derivatives, many of whom suffered significant financial losses. In 2023, ASIC oversaw Binance paying approximately $13.1 million in compensation to affected customers. ASIC said it will seek penalties, declarations and adverse publicity orders, and will continue to protect consumers and maintain market integrity through a variety of regulatory and enforcement tools.
Cryptocurrency company executive sentenced to 4 years in prison for embezzling $4.46 million
According to an announcement from the U.S. Attorney's Office in Connecticut, 31-year-old DYLAN MEISSNER was sentenced to 48 months in prison, plus two years of supervised release, for embezzling more than $4.46 million in funds from his former employer, and was ordered to pay $4.6334 million in compensation. MEISSNER used to be the vice president of finance of a cryptocurrency research company. He used his position to illegally transfer funds from the company's encrypted wallets and bank accounts to cover major losses in his personal investments and cover up his behavior through false accounts. The case was investigated by the FBI and prosecuted by Assistant U.S. Attorney David E. Novick. MEISSNER will begin serving his sentence on February 21, 2025.
According to CoinDesk, the U.S. Treasury Department announced that it has shut down a North Korean (North Korean) cryptocurrency laundering network that converted cryptocurrencies into cash for North Korea’s use through a UAE-based front company, Green Alpine Trading, LLC. The United States has placed the company and two Chinese nationals involved in the network since 2022 on its sanctions list. The Treasury Department pointed out that North Korea has been raising funds through crypto crimes to support its nuclear weapons program, and that the United Arab Emirates participated in the operation in cooperation with the United States, but did not disclose the current status of the two sanctioned Chinese citizens.
Ohio lawmakers propose establishing a Bitcoin reserve fund in state finances
U.S. Representative Derek Merrin of Ohio submitted Bill 703 (Ohio Bitcoin Reserve Act), which proposes to establish a Bitcoin reserve fund in state finances and authorizes the state treasurer to flexibly invest in Bitcoin, but does not impose a mandate. Require. Merlin pointed out that the U.S. dollar is rapidly depreciating and Bitcoin can be used as a tool to protect tax funds and strengthen state finances. This legislation provides a framework for state governments to leverage Bitcoin technology to address economic challenges and promote innovation. Similar bills have been proposed in Texas and Pennsylvania with the goal of establishing state-level Bitcoin reserves.
According to the public account of Wu Enxiang's lawyer team, the public security agency in a certain place in China determined that Bitcoin transactions through VPNs were illegal based on the case of "censorship over the wall to speculate in coins." In the case, the party involved, Zhang, used a VPN to access an overseas trading platform and made a profit of 90,000 yuan from trading virtual currencies. According to the "Interim Regulations on the Management of International Networking of Computer Information Networks" and the "Public Security Management Punishment Law", the public security organs confiscated 90,000 yuan of illegal income and imposed a fine of 15,000 yuan. They also confiscated criminal tools, including mobile phones and computers.
The controversial point in the case is whether the behavior of circumventing the wall can be directly related to the subsequent profits from currency speculation, and whether the profits from currency speculation can be regarded as illegal gains. The legal community believes that the illegality of circumvention mainly lies in the use of illegal channels, while currency speculation itself is not illegal. It is unreasonable to determine that subsequent gains are illegal gains just because of circumvention.
Project news
Binance will delist AKRO, BLZ, and WRX on December 25
Binance announced that it will delist and stop all spot trading pairs related to AKRO, BLZ, and WRX at 03:00 on December 25, 2024 (UTC), including AKRO/USDT, BLZ/BTC, BLZ/USDT, and WRX/USDT.
Renzo announced that it has now opened claims for the third quarter, 4% of the total supply
Renzo Governance tweeted that the application for $REZ in the third quarter is now open. This allocation accounts for 4% of the total supply, totaling 400 million $REZ. The application period is from December 17, 2024 to March 2025. 17th. A total of 81,684 eligible wallets are required to hold at least 1,000 S3 ezPoints, with 37,125 users holding between 1,000 and 2,000 ezPoints receiving a minimum reward equivalent to 2,000 ezPoints. The full unlocking part involves 81,236 wallets and the linear unlocking part involves 357 wallets, the latter will unlock 33.33% every month for 3 months. Users can apply through Renzo’s official website.
sBTC has been launched on the Stacks mainnet, providing a 5% annual reward
According to official news from Stacks, sBTC has been launched on the Stacks mainnet, marking an important step towards a decentralized on-chain Bitcoin economy. sBTC achieves trustlessness, security and transparency through 1:1 Bitcoin anchoring, institutional signature network and Bitcoin computing power guarantee, and supports the Bitcoin DeFi ecosystem. Only deposits are supported in the initial phase, with a liquidity limit of 1,000 BTC and an annualized reward of up to 5%. In the first quarter of 2025, the withdrawal function will be enabled, the liquidity limit will be increased, and the permissionless signature network will be promoted to further promote the programmability and DeFi applications of Bitcoin.
Big Time Studios announces $150 million Open Loot fund
According to VentureBeat, Big Time Studios announced the establishment of a $150 million Open Loot fund aimed at promoting game development on the Web3 game platform Open Loot. The fund will provide game studios with financial support, marketing and development guidance to help develop high-quality crypto games. The Open Loot platform has 1.5 million registered players, supports developers to mint and distribute digital assets through the SDK, and rewards players and developers with $OL tokens. Currently, the platform has achieved nearly $500 million in transaction volume.
point of view
Founder of DeFiance Capital: 2025 may usher in a DeFi renaissance
Arthur Cheong, founder of DeFiance Capital, wrote that 2025 may be the year of DeFi renaissance. Key factors include the U.S. government supporting encryption, the growth of core DeFi primitives, and the development of chain abstract protocols.
Binance co-founder He Yi just spoke on Space and said that most Meme coins will eventually return to zero, and only a few projects can survive for a long time, but it is difficult to define which projects can survive. Binance has listed a watch list covering VC-backed projects, infrastructure projects, DeFi projects and Meme coins, but some of them cannot be launched due to token model problems or inflated data. In order to improve transparency, Binance will put some observed projects into the Alpha zone of the Web3 wallet for users to trade, and screen high-quality projects with long-term potential. He Yi mentioned that the expansion of Binance’s user base will cause the market value of newly launched currencies to increase rapidly in the short term, but may then slowly decline. Although Binance tried to suppress the currency price to a reasonable range before going online, this strategy was not generally recognized. She also compared the encryption industry with traditional IPOs, pointing out that many projects lack a real user base, and on-chain data are often inflated through airdrops and other means, resulting in projects with business models being underestimated. She emphasized that only projects that are beneficial to society can achieve long-term profitability and return the results to users.
Mikko Ohtamaa, co-founder of Trading Strategy, issued an article criticizing Polygon’s use of user-bridged USDC deposits in capital markets (such as Morpho), believing that this move has multiple risks:
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Breaking the illusion of self-custody: Although the Polygon bridge is controlled by a multi-signature wallet, this operation breaks user trust in self-custody.
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Attract regulatory attention: Flows involving billions of dollars can attract intense attention from regulators and the media.
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Non-user choice: Currently, users cannot choose whether to participate in this mechanism, which lacks transparency.
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Double counting issue: Bridged USDC is used both for lending services on Polygon and at the same time in Morpho on the mainnet.
He suggested that Polygon explore more transparent methods, such as launching an independent bridging service to allow users to choose to exchange USDC for "Polygon Yield USDC". In addition, he mentioned that Circle has launched a non-bridged version of USDC on Polygon, but it has not been widely adopted due to its late launch and incompatibility with the bridged version of USDC.
Matrixport: Bitcoin surges 150% in 2024, and a bull market can be expected in 2025
Matrixport data shows that as the Bitcoin ETF successfully attracts new investors, Bitcoin performed strongly in 2024, with an annual increase of 150%, ending with extraordinary performance. From a risk management perspective, Bitcoin has shown a significant upward trend throughout the year. In February, it rose as much as 44%, the best performance of the year. In April, it fell only 15%, and only five months of the year recorded negative losses. income.
It is worth noting that Bitcoin’s fluctuations are mainly upward, in line with investor expectations, laying the foundation for a strong start in 2025. Many investors therefore look back at the beginning of 2024 and lament their failure to increase investment.
important data
An investor lost $102,000 in 12 minutes due to Binance Alpha’s own incident
According to monitoring by @ai_9684xtpa, due to the Binance Alpha own incident, an investor lost US$102,000 in just 12 minutes. US$195,000 went in and US$93,000 came out. The incident happened as follows: After the false information was released, the investor sold 1.76 million $ARC (approximately $170,000) and bought 1.42 million $ELIZA at a cost of $0.1376; then realized that the target token should be lowercase $eliza, priced at $0 All $ELIZA was exchanged for $eliza at .09567, resulting in a loss of US$59,600. After the news was proven false, the price of lowercase $eliza also fell, and was finally sold again at $0.01157, with a loss of US$43,000. Overall, the investor lost as much as 52.5% in this incident.
Perhaps affected by the delisting of Binance, BLZ and WRX fell by more than 20% in a short period of time, and AKRO fell by more than 10%. Among them: BLZ is now at $0.104, down 25.3% in 24 hours; WRX is now at $0.1917, down 23.06% in 24 hours; AKRO is now at $0.0036, down 14% in 24 hours; According to previous news, Binance will be delisted on December 25 AKRO, BLZ, WRX.
Blur unlocked 34.41 million BLUR this month and transferred it to Coinbase Prime
According to Ember Monitor, Blur transferred 34.41 million BLUR (approximately $11.06 million) unlocked this month to Coinbase Prime 20 minutes ago. Since entering the unlocking cycle on June 15, 2023, Blur has unlocked 31.6% of the total amount (949 million BLUR) and flowed into Coinbase Prime, with a total value of US$323.1 million based on the price at the time of transfer.
According to iChainfo monitoring, the wallet address (1HtH...9wHH) related to MtGox transferred 1,130 BTC to two addresses 3 hours ago, worth approximately US$118.45 million. ****
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