Bitpush's Weekly Web3 News Highlights:
[ The Federal Reserve cuts interest rates by 50BP, starting a rate cut cycle]
The Federal Reserve announced its interest rate decision, starting a cycle of rate cuts, lowering the federal funds rate by 50 basis points to 4.75%-5.00%, the first rate cut since March 2020.
[Trump used Bitcoin to pay for his meal at a New York bar for the first time]
According to Fox News, former US President Trump used Bitcoin to pay for his meal for the first time at a bar in New York.
[ MicroStrategy increased its holdings of approximately 7,420 Bitcoins in September at a price of approximately US$450 million]
MicroStrategy founder Michael Saylor posted on X that MicroStrategy purchased approximately 7,420 bitcoins for approximately US$458.2 million in September and achieved a BTC return of 5.1% so far in the quarter and 17.8% so far this year.
As of September 19, 2024, MicroStrategy has acquired 252,220 bitcoins for approximately $9.9 billion, or approximately $39,266 per bitcoin.
[U.S. SEC approves listing and trading of options products based on BlackRock ’s spot Bitcoin ETF]
According to The Block, the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) has approved BlackRock’s proposal to list and trade options on its spot Bitcoin ETF.
The SEC said in a filing released Friday that it is “expediting” approval for the world’s largest asset manager to list the options for iShares Bitcoin Trust, ticker IBIT. Nasdaq ISE, LLC will list and trade the options.
The SEC approved several spot Bitcoin ETFs in January, including companies such as BlackRock, Grayscale , and Fidelity . Other companies, including Grayscale and Bitwise, are also seeking to list and trade options for their spot Bitcoin ETFs. Nate Geraci, president of ETF Store, said in an article on X: "Eight months after the launch of the spot Bitcoin ETF...options trading is now approved, better late than never."
[Reuters: Terraform Labs receives approval from U.S. bankruptcy judge to begin liquidation]
Terraform Labs has received approval from a U.S. bankruptcy judge to begin liquidation, according to Reuters. Terraform estimates that it will pay approximately $184.5 million and $442.2 million to stakeholders as part of the bankruptcy.
In February 2023, the SEC filed charges against Terraform and its co-founder Do Kwon over Terra USD (UST), an algorithmic stablecoin that collapsed a year earlier. The agency said the company defrauded and misled investors. Before reaching a settlement, the two sides argued over the amount of the fine. Lawyers for Terraform and Kwon said the fine should be closer to $1 million, while the SEC proposed that they pay $5.3 billion.
Ethereum developers confirm plans to split the "Pectra" hard fork upgrade into two parts
Ethereum developers agreed on Thursday to split the upcoming hard fork Pectra into two packages to make the massive upgrade less cumbersome and reduce the risk of missteps or errors.
Pectra is expected to be ethereum’s largest hard fork yet. (A hard fork is the technical term for a blockchain splitting off from its original blockchain and is ethereum’s method for implementing major software upgrades.) Previously, developers said they were aiming to complete the upgrade by early 2025; that remains the case for the first part of the Pectra package.
Core developers decided to include eight Ethereum Improvement Proposals (EIPs) in the first package, including EIP-7702, which aims to improve the user experience of the wallet and was drafted by Ethereum co-founder Vitalik Buterin in 22 minutes. The second package will be revised in the coming months, but for now it is likely to include proposals aimed at changing the Ethereum Virtual Machine (known as EOF) while introducing a feature called PeerDAS that improves data availability sampling, ultimately benefiting Layer 2 blockchains.
[Bloomberg: Crypto venture capital firm Dragonfly Capital seeks to raise $500 million for its fourth fund]
According to Bloomberg, people familiar with the matter revealed that crypto venture capital firm Dragonfly Capital is seeking to raise $500 million for its fourth fund, which will invest in early-stage projects.
The San Francisco-based company has raised $250 million to date and plans to close the round in the first quarter of next year, said the people, who asked not to be identified because the details aren’t public. Dragonfly didn’t immediately respond to a request for comment.
[ Gemini founders Winklevoss brothers are the largest individual crypto donors in this US election, donating a total of $10.1 million]
According to Federal Election Commission data compiled by crypto market and blockchain analyst James Delmore and independently verified by CNBC, Gemini Trust Co. founders Cameron Winklevoss and Tyler Winklevoss are the largest individual crypto donors in this U.S. election cycle, donating a total of $10.1 million, or just over $5 million each.
With 50 days to go until the November election, political donations from or in support of the crypto industry have reached around $190 million.
The Winklevoss duo reportedly donated a total of approximately $1.7 million in Bitcoin to Trump 47, a committee that raises money for Trump, donated more than $700,000 in total to the pro-Trump Make America Great Again political action committee, and donated $4.9 million to a bipartisan political action committee that supports cryptocurrency.
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