Mars Finance takes you through last week’s hot topics and recommended content:
Startale Labs CEO: Sony's blockchain Soneium is focusing on creative IP to build a universal creation platform
Sota Watanabe, CEO of Startale Labs, revealed on the social platform X that Sony's blockchain project Soneium is committed to building a universal creation platform. Watanabe emphasized that Soneium's vision is to make everyone a creator, regardless of region or occupation. Watanabe said that Soneium is developing multiple creative IP use cases, aiming to promote projects into the mainstream market through community power. The platform will provide individuals and communities with opportunities for collaborative creation, with emotional resonance as the core, to inspire user creativity.
Telegram Mini Program FreeDogs has exceeded 5 million users, and will airdrop to community users
FreeDogs, a small app on Telegram that uses the Durov petition as its background, has been online for 6 days and has already attracted over 5 million users. Users can send paper airplanes of various colors to the Eiffel Tower with a simple click to express their attitude towards the Durov incident and their desire for free speech. FreeDogs also said that it will airdrop to community users in the future.
TRON Network’s revenue exceeded $36 million in the past 12 days, and mainstream CEX withdrawal fees doubled
On August 31, according to DefiLlama data, the total amount of TRON network in the past 12 days reached 36.81 million US dollars.
Data shows that TRON network revenue began to surge on August 19 (an increase of more than 100% from August 18), and on August 20, it set a record high of US$3.84 million in daily revenue for the first time in history. The next day, it set a new record with daily revenue of US$5.4 million.
It is worth noting that in the past 24 hours, the TRON network revenue reached 2.58 million US dollars, of which SunPump provided 463,000 US dollars. At present, the TRON network fee has increased significantly compared with the previous period. As of press time, Binance platform TRON network USDT withdrawal requires a fee of 2 USDT, and OKX platform requires a fee of 3 USDT, which is only cheaper than Ethereum main network withdrawal (Binance is 4 U; OKX is 3.82 U).
According to tronscan data, the TRON network has generated $500 million in revenue in the past year. In the past month, an average of 231,000 new accounts were added to the TRON network every day, with an average daily transaction volume of 7.26 million, a month-on-month increase of 6.2%. The number of daily active accounts has not fluctuated significantly recently.
Web3 game developer Legend of Arcadia completes $4 million seed round of financing, with participation from Animoca and others
Web3 game developer Legend of Arcadia has completed a $4 million seed round of financing, with participation from Animoca Brands, OKX Ventures, Arche Fund and Selini Capital. It is reported that Legend of Arcadia has currently developed a card role-playing game that can be accessed for free on mobile devices and will launch the in-game cryptocurrency ARCA.
Brazil's top judge orders suspension of Musk's X operations in Brazil
Judge Alexandre de Morais gave Elon Musk a strict deadline to appoint a legal representative in the country, after which he ordered on Friday the immediate suspension of Tesla X operations in the country.
Ethereum Foundation announces Q2 funding list of projects and community activities, totaling over $8.47 million
The Ethereum Foundation announced a list of funded projects and community activities for the second quarter of 2024, with a total amount of over $8.47 million. In terms of community and education, it supported global conferences and hackathons such as ETH Beijing, ETH Tokyo, and ETHWarsaw.
In the field of cryptography and zero-knowledge proof, we have funded research projects such as Anon Aadhaar protocol and Faster Scalar Multiplication of Elliptic Curves.
In terms of developer experience, it supports the development of tools such as Circom Language Server and MEDGA Solidity debugger.
The Foundation also supported the Retroactive Public Goods funding round run by Cryptoversidad, and the Road to Devcon quadratic funding round for Southeast Asia, through indirect funding.
At the protocol level, we continue to support the Account Abstraction Core Team and Ethereum Protocol Fellowship (EPF) projects.
Other important grants include projects such as L2BEAT, Ephemery Testnet, and Summer of Protocols.
Kaiko: Mt.Gox still has more than $2 billion in Bitcoin to be distributed to creditors, and Bitcoin faces potential selling pressure from the US and UK governments
On August 30, Kaiko, a crypto research and analysis company, released its latest research report, pointing out that oversupply has been a hot topic in the crypto market this summer. Since May, Mt. Gox's continued redistribution of funds to creditors has been one of the main sources of market panic. Mt. Gox still has about 46,000 bitcoins (worth more than $2 billion) to be distributed to creditors, but this does not mean that these funds will definitely be sold. Many holders may choose to continue to hold their funds. In addition, bitcoins held by governments such as the United States, the United Kingdom, and China, as well as positions held by institutions such as Tesla, may also form potential selling pressure in the coming months. Kaiko believes that it is difficult to fully assess market liquidity by relying solely on a single indicator such as trading volume. The report recommends combining multi-dimensional indicators such as market depth, volume-to-liquidity ratio, and slippage for analysis. The study found that during the crypto market crash in early August, the slippage indicators of various trading platforms changed significantly, reflecting increased market pressure. Kaiko said that although the liquidity of the crypto market has improved since the collapse of FTX, it is still necessary to be cautious about the possible impact of large position liquidations.
Orderly Network Token (ORDER) has increased by 20.04% in 24 hours
According to RootData data, the Orderly Network token (ORDER) rose by 20.04% in 24 hours. According to Web3 asset data platform RootData, Orderly Network is a liquidity platform built on the Near protocol, relying on smart contracts for peer-to-peer transactions and providing users with risk management and shared asset pools. Orderly Network was founded in April 2022 and was jointly incubated by NEAR and WOO Network.
Nvidia has discussed investing $100 million in OpenAI's funding round, and Apple is in talks to join OpenAI's new round of funding
According to the Wall Street Journal, Apple (AAPL.O) is in talks to raise funds for OpenAI, a move that will solidify the relationship between Apple and OpenAI. People familiar with the matter said the investment will be part of a new round of funding for OpenAI that will value the company at more than $100 billion. Earlier news reported that venture capital firm Thrive Capital is leading this round of financing, which will total billions of dollars, and Apple's competitor Microsoft is also expected to participate. It is not yet known how much Apple or Microsoft will invest in OpenAI in this round.
Hamster Kombat Announces Airdrop Event Dates
Hamster Kombat, the click-to-earn game with over 300 million active users, has reached a milestone today by announcing the release date of its token, HMSTR. The Hamster Kombat team revealed that the token generation event and airdrop will take place on September 26, and millions of users will benefit from it.
A Bitcoin Whale Bought $1,000 of $BTC During Brief Price Drop Below $58,000
A Bitcoin whale bought 1,000 $BTC during a brief dip below $58,000.
Paris Court: Durov is charged with 6 crimes and a judicial investigation into Telegram has been launched
On August 29, the Paris Court’s official website disclosed that Telegram CEO Pavel Durov was charged with all crimes mentioned in the introductory indictment, including: · Organized group conspiracy to manage online platforms for illegal transactions (a crime punishable by up to 10 years in prison and a fine of 500,000 euros);
· Refuse to provide information or documents upon request by an authorized body;
· Conspiracy to commit a crime, including providing without justification programs or data intended to damage an automatic data processing system, organized distribution of images of minors, trafficking of illegal drugs, organized gang fraud, conspiracy or illegal acts for the purpose of committing a crime;
Organized crime and money laundering;
Providing encryption services under a non-compliant framework;
Providing encryption without fully ensuring authentication or integrity control functions.
Pavel Durov will be under judicial supervision, with a bail of 5 million euros, an obligation to report to the police station twice a week and a ban on leaving France.
The court said that Telegram's previous almost complete lack of response to legal requests had attracted the attention of the Cybercrime Unit (J3) of the JUNALCO (National Jurisdiction against Organized Crime of the Paris Public Prosecutor's Office), in particular OFMIN (National Office for Minors). The preliminary investigation began in February 2024 under the guidance of the Paris Public Prosecutor's Office and coordinated by OFMIN. Based on the introductory indictment of July 8, 2024, the judicial investigation was launched. The investigating judge entrusted the C3N (National Gendarmerie Cyber Force) and ONAF (National Anti-Fraud Customs Office) to continue the investigation.
Pavel Durov was indicted and released on bail under judicial supervision
Pavel Durov was indicted, bail was set at €5 million, and he was banned from leaving France. In a press release issued late Wednesday, the Paris prosecutor's office also specified that "he is under judicial supervision and, in particular, is obliged to provide a bail of €5 million, is obliged to report to a police station twice a week, and is banned from leaving French territory."
The address related to the Ethereum Genesis Block launched the Meme coin PHIL, and the transaction volume soared to the top of the Uniswap list
According to blockchain data sites DEX Screener and Etherscan, a wallet connected to the Ethereum network's Genesis Block appears to have launched the meme coin PHIL. After the token was launched around 8:15 a.m. EST, its market cap briefly reached over $125 million. According to DEX Screener, PHIL is currently the most traded asset on Uniswap, with an 86,000% increase in trading volume since its launch. PHIL tokens are currently trading on decentralized exchange Uniswap V2, changing hands at around $0.08, with a maximum total supply of 1,000,000,000 PHIL tokens and just over 1,000 unique holders. Its top 10 holders each bought 10 million tokens, and an address that bought 6.5 million PHIL made a profit of $172,000 by selling about half of its position, with unrealized gains of more than $300,000.
With the Federal Reserve about to start cutting interest rates, any declines in stocks and cryptocurrencies will be short-lived
On August 28, QCP Capital's latest report pointed out that "at the Jackson Hole conference, Powell's stance was significantly dovish, and he said that "the time has come" and interest rates need to be lowered to avoid excessive cooling of the job market. Last week's revised employment data (a decrease of 800,000 people) increased this risk. We believe that the Fed's reaction function is now more inclined to prevent the collapse of the job market, so the threshold for a 50 basis point rate cut in September is greatly reduced. Although there are only three meetings left, the market currently expects four rate cuts in 2024. The US stock market has been resilient and is close to its historical highs. However, we remain cautious and believe that the US stock market may have peaked again, especially in view of the decline in trading volume and NVDA's earnings report today. NVDA's options are expected to rise by 10% tonight. We believe that any decline in the stock market (and cryptocurrency) will be short-lived. As Powell and the Fed prepare to start a rate cut cycle, the increase in liquidity will eventually drive risk assets up. We are close to the brink of a rate cut cycle. "
Sony to launch first public testnet for its Soneium blockchain
Sony’s blockchain division, Sony Block Solutions Labs, is launching a testnet and developer incubation program for its Soneium network. This marks an important milestone in the Sony Group’s foray into Web3. Soneium is an Ethereum layer 2 blockchain based on the Optimism technology stack. The project, a joint venture between Sony Group companies and Startale Labs, was launched in 2023 and was recently awarded to Sony Network Communications Laboratories. The two companies also plan to integrate the ASTR token as a “key asset” on the EVM-compatible Minato testnet. Sony subsidiaries, including Sony Music, Sony Pictures, and Sony Innovation Fund, will participate in the Soneium Spark incubation program. Applicants will receive up to $100,000 in start-up funding and access to a network of exchanges and venture capitalists.
Solayer Completes $12 Million Seed Round, Led by Polychain Capital
On August 28, Solana's ecological re-staking protocol Solayer completed a $12 million seed round of financing, led by Polychain Capital, with participation from Big Brain Holdings, Hack VC, Nomad Capital, Race Capital, ABCDE, and Arthur Hayes' family office Maelstrom. This round of financing brought Solayer's valuation to $80 million.
The round closed in May and was structured as a simple agreement for future equity (SAFE) with token warrants.
Earlier in August, Binance Labs said it had invested in Solayer as part of the same $12 million seed round. Last month, Solayer also announced a pre-seed round of undisclosed size from angel investors, including Solana co-founder Anatoly Yakovenko and Polygon co-founder Sandeep Nailwal.
Tether CEO criticizes Durov’s arrest, says Europe is ‘sinking into the dark ages’
Ether CEO Paolo Ardoino expressed concern about the arrest of Telegram CEO and warned that the dark ages are coming. Ardoino said on social media that this development is worrying for the entire society and emphasized that if this battle is lost, "the dark ages will be our future."
Solana restaking protocol Solayer reaches $80 million valuation after $12 million seed round
Solana developer Solayer Labs' restaking protocol Solayer has raised $12 million in a seed round led by Polychain Capital. Other investors in the round include Big Brain Holdings, Hack VC, Nomad Capital, Race Capital, ABCDE, and Arthur Hayes' family office Maelstrom, Solayer Labs said on Tuesday. The round closed in May and was structured as a simple future equity agreement (SAFE) with token warrants, co-founder Rachel Chu told The Block. Chu added that the round brings Solayer's valuation to $80 million.
Trump releases fourth batch of NFT trading cards
Donald John Trump has launched a series of digital trading cards, non-fungible tokens (NFTs), which has been a lucrative business line for the Republican candidate. This time, Trump's fourth collection will offer high rollers a suit he wore during a debate with President Joe Biden, according to a post on social media platform Truth Social. People who spend $24,750 on the cards can also get Trump sneakers, Trump cocktails and a chance to dine with Trump at Trump National Golf Club in Jupiter, Florida.
Ethereum Foundation members: EF internal expenditure accounts for about 38%, and external expenditure accounts for about 62%
According to information shared by Josh Stark, a member of the Ethereum Foundation (EF), the EF is about to release a new report covering 2022 and 2023, which is expected to be released before Devcon SEA. Among them, the internal expenditure of the Ethereum Foundation accounts for about 38%, and the external expenditure accounts for 62%. Internal expenditure is mainly used for the research and development of teams such as Geth, Privacy and Extension Exploration (PSE), Solidity, and Crypto Research. External expenditure is mainly distributed in the form of grants to organizations such as Nomic Foundation, Decentralization Research Centre, L2Beat, and 0xPARC Foundation, aiming to enhance and support the Ethereum ecosystem in the long term.
USDS stablecoin and SKY governance token will be listed on September 18
The new USDS stablecoin and SKY governance token will be listed on September 18, and a new DeFi application will be launched to interact with the protocol. Influenced by this news, MKR immediately rose by more than 4%.
Binance reportedly seized Palestinian cryptocurrencies at Israel’s request
Binance, a major global cryptocurrency exchange, seized cryptocurrencies from Palestinians at the request of Israel, according to a well-known industry executive. Ray Youssef, co-founder of Paxful and CEO of Noones P2P platform, revealed that Binance confiscated the funds of Palestinians and handed them over to the Israel Defense Forces (IDF). (Cointelegraph)
Russia to start using BITCOIN for international trade next week
Zuckerberg admits Biden administration pressured his team to censor content on platform
On August 27, the founder and CEO of Meta admitted that the Biden administration had pressured his team to censor content on the platform. Zuckerberg said:
“In 2021, senior officials in the Biden Administration, including at the White House, repeatedly pressured our team to censor certain content related to COVID-19, including humor and satire, and expressed significant frustration with our team when we disagreed. Ultimately, the decision whether to remove content is ours, and we take responsibility for our decisions, including the changes we made to COVID-19-related content in response to this pressure.”
“I believe the government pressure was misplaced, and I regret not being more vocal at the time. I also believe we made some choices that, in hindsight and based on new information, we shouldn’t have made. As I told our team at the time, I firmly believe we should not compromise our content standards in response to any government pressure.”
“In another case, the FBI alerted us to a possible Russian disinformation operation involving the Biden family and Burisma ahead of the 2020 election. When we saw a New York Post story that fall about corruption allegations involving the family of then-Democratic presidential candidate Joe Biden, we sent the story to fact-checkers for review and temporarily downgraded it while we awaited a response.
It was later made clear that the story was not Russian disinformation, and in retrospect we should not have downgraded the story. We have changed our policies and processes to ensure this does not happen again.”
PayPal's stablecoin PYUSD hits $1 billion market cap within one year of launch
Paypal's stablecoin PYUSD announced that it has surpassed the $1 billion mark for the first time since its launch in August 2023. PYUSD was originally launched on Ethereum, but later underwent a major shift, with most of its tokens now issued on Solana. The latest data shows that as of August 26, 2024, PYUSD's market value has reached $1,008,546,868, setting a new milestone. PayPal USD reached this milestone almost twice as fast as USDC and three times as fast as USDT.
Aave becomes the first lending protocol on Base with a market size of over $200 million and TVL of over $100 million
According to Aave founder Marc Zeller on X , "Aave has become the first lending protocol on Base with a market size of more than $200 million and a TVL of more than $100 million."
Ethereum chain DEX transaction volume exceeded $800 million on August 25, ranking first
DeFiLlama data shows that the transaction volume of Ethereum chain DEX on August 25 was 838.22 million US dollars, ranking first. In addition, the transaction volume of Solana chain DEX yesterday was 683.53 million US dollars, ranking second; the transaction volume of BSC chain DEX yesterday was 542.05 million US dollars, ranking third.
French authorities will issue an official statement today on the detention of Telegram founder
On August 26, The Washington Post reported that French authorities have confirmed that Pavel Durov was detained in France, and Paris authorities said they would issue an official statement on Durov's detention on Monday. The Russian Embassy in Paris said it had "requested a consular visit to Durov and asked French authorities to "ensure the protection of his rights." The French side has been avoiding cooperation on this issue. "Russian officials are in contact with Durov's lawyers. Russian Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova said the French government may consider Durov's French citizenship as his primary nationality. According to Forbes estimates, the 39-year-old Durov's current wealth is about $15.5 billion.
According to previous interviews with The Washington Post, Western officials have said that Telegram is a tool used by Russian military intelligence agencies to recruit personnel to conduct sabotage activities in Europe, including attempts to disrupt and monitor NATO transport lines used to supply Ukraine. In addition, senior European security officials said that Telegram has become Russia's main platform for spreading false information in Europe and Ukraine.
Russian officials and state media experts have also slammed the West's "double standards" on freedom of expression over Durov's detention. Mikhail Ulyanov, Russia's ambassador to international organizations in Vienna, said Durov's detention was an example of "very alarming totalitarian trends in a country that used to call itself a democracy." Former Russian President Dmitry Medvedev said Durov's detention should serve as a wake-up call for all Russian entrepreneurs leaving the country.
This week's hot articles
Ton Foundation controls 85% of tokens?
Most of the early miners of the TON Foundation were insiders, and it took only 51 days to produce 96% of the tokens, of which 85% were controlled by the government. A few groups of miners controlled 85.8% of the token supply, and 7 of them were related to each other. The first four groups of miner addresses were related to the foundation and the third group, which mined a total of 3.9 billion TONs, accounting for 78% of the total supply. Some groups are related to the foundation. TON will freeze inactive addresses in 2023. It is necessary to have a deep understanding of the essence of the project, and not just be confused by the superficial prosperity.
At the age of 25, he won 134 million US dollars in financing. Interpretation of the founder of Story Protocol
Jason Zhao, 25, is a young entrepreneur who grew up in Silicon Hills, USA. He is passionate about starting a business and sharing ideas. He started trying to start a business in high school and founded a campus publication dedicated to combining technology and society during college. Inspired by blockchain research, he quit his job and founded Story Protocol, which received continuous investment from a16z, with a total financing amount of US$110 million. Jason believes that doing what you want to do is the easiest way to achieve success and happiness.
Animoca and OKX invest $4 million in GameFi’s dark horse “Legend of Arcadia”
"Black Myth: Wukong" has aroused public attention to the narrative potential of Web3 games. On August 31, the Web3 game "Legend of Arcadia" received a $4 million seed round of financing, attracting the participation of many well-known investment institutions. The game combines traditional game elements with the Web3 GameFi 2.0 concept, providing six game modes. Players can play for free and interact with global players through PvP and NFT trading systems. The game token is ARCA, with a total of 100 million, which is allocated to P2E and staking rewards, community and marketing, team consultants, ecosystem reserves and private placement rounds. The game will conduct an IDO on Starship on June 14, 2024, and has currently received investment from many institutions. The game has attracted the attention of players and social media, and will be officially launched in the near future, allowing every player to easily enjoy the fun of the game.
Binance Research: Top 5 AI-powered Crypto Projects at a Glance
NEAR, Internet Computer, AI Alliance, Render, and Bittensor are blockchain projects that aim to make AI technology more accessible and efficient. They drive innovation by integrating AI, optimizing network performance, and supporting autonomous agents, providing new opportunities for decentralized applications. The ICP ecosystem integrates AI algorithms directly into smart contracts and DApps, enabling them to autonomously perform complex computations and decision-making processes, which is particularly useful in DeFi. AI Super League, Render, and Bittensor use blockchain technology to enable decentralized AI training and use, providing rewards to participants. This convergence represents a new frontier in the tech world, providing potential for innovation and disruption.
With $58 million in financing, how does Bridge build a Web3 version of Stripe?
Bridge is a stablecoin payment platform that has received $58 million in financing and provides a simple and easy-to-use API interface to help companies realize stablecoin payments and cross-border fund transfers. It has currently processed more than $5 billion in annual payments and cooperated with many crypto payment companies. In the future, Bridge will inject new vitality into the flow of stablecoins and legal currency funds around the world.
Binance denies freezing all Palestinian funds
Binance denies confiscating all Palestinian funds, only a small number of accounts are restricted. According to executives, Binance confiscated Palestinian cryptocurrencies at the request of Israel, saying that anti-terrorism laws allow the confiscation of property of declared terrorist organizations. A Binance spokesperson said that only a few accounts involving illegal funds were restricted, in compliance with international sanctions laws. Palestine is a small market for Binance, accounting for about 0.05% of visits, and has recently grown by more than 80%.
Ten times in five days, can Cat blow the horn of BNB meme ?
CAT coin is a cat-themed meme coin that has recently become popular on BNB Chain, with its market value soaring from $25 million to a peak of $250 million. It has received support from heavyweight players in the Web3 field.
