Headlines
Grayscale Investments filed an application with the U.S. SEC on Tuesday, seeking to convert its hybrid crypto fund containing Bitcoin, Ethereum, Solana, XRP and Avalanche into an ETF. The company has previously converted its Bitcoin and Ethereum funds into ETFs.
The official website shows that the product is called "Grayscale Digital Large Cap Fund" (GDLC), which is currently traded over the counter with an AUM of US$524 million. The fund is mainly composed of BTC (nearly 75%) and ETH (about 19%), and the rest is composed of SOL, XRP and AVAX.
Tesla transfers 11,500 BTC, the first operation in nearly two years
Arkham data showed that Tesla transferred a total of 11,500 BTC to multiple addresses, worth approximately US$769 million, which was the first operation since June 22.
Lisa Shalett, chief investment officer of Morgan Stanley Wealth Management, said the Fed is now focusing on a "mixed" labor market and will continue to cut interest rates in November, but policymakers are treading carefully because inflation is no longer cooling rapidly. Most Fed policymakers gave the green light last week for further rate cuts in the coming months, while Atlanta Fed President Bostic said a rate cut might need to be skipped in November.
Traders are now pricing in an 89% chance of a 25 basis point rate cut at the Fed’s Nov. 6-7 policy meeting, having abandoned expectations for a 50 basis point cut following strong September jobs data and upbeat other economic data.
Australia’s first Ethereum spot ETF, Monochrome Ethereum ETF (IETH), has been listed on Cboe Australia, with total net assets reaching US$176,600 (A$262,500) as of 2pm local time.
The fund has a management fee of 0.50% and offers in-kind applications and redemptions, allowing for cash or ETH transactions, making it the only dual-access spot Ethereum ETF in Australia.
BitGo and Gemini are the cryptocurrency custodians for the ETF, while State Street Australia is the fund administrator.
Industry News
ETF Issuer Canary Submits Litecoin ETF Application
According to Bloomberg ETF analyst James Seyffart’s disclosure on the X platform, after submitting the Ripple XRP ETF application, ETF issuer Canary has submitted a Litecoin ETF application to the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission.
According to the data of US Ethereum and Bitcoin ETF monitored by Lookonchain on October 145, the following is shown:
1. The nine US Ethereum ETFs had a total net inflow of 2,485 ETH, equivalent to $6.38 million, of which iShares received 5,453 ETH, equivalent to $14.01 million. iShares currently holds 419,621 ETH, equivalent to $1.08 billion.
2. The ten US Bitcoin ETFs had a total net inflow of 7,494 BTC, equivalent to US$490.19 million, of which Fidelity received 3,627 Bitcoins, equivalent to US$237.27 million. Fidelity currently holds 183,695 Bitcoins, equivalent to US$12.02 billion.
Securitize Launches USDC to USD Conversion Service for BlackRock BUIDL
Tokenization platform Securitize announced the launch of a conversion service between Circle stablecoin (USDC) and the US dollar, dedicated to BlackRock's US Institutional Digital Liquidity Fund (BUIDL). The integration aims to reduce investment costs and simplify the subscription process for traditional financial investors to the BUIDL fund. The company has partnered with BlackRock to issue BUIDL tokens on the Ethereum blockchain. Blockchain infrastructure company Zero Hash will provide conversion support between US dollars and digital assets for the service. The service is aimed at qualified investors and aims to accelerate investment in the BUIDL fund.
The Ethereum Foundation has sold a total of approximately 1,450 ETH since September 2024
According to Spot On Chain monitoring, Ethereum is continuing to sell small amounts of ETH every week. Since September 2024, a total of approximately 1,450 ETH has been sold, worth approximately US$3.57 million, with an average selling price of US$2,459.
Paxos and Stripe partner to launch stablecoin payment platform
According to official news, Paxos, a blockchain and tokenization infrastructure platform, announced the launch of a stablecoin payment platform. Stripe's Pay with Crypto product is powered by Paxos' stablecoin payment infrastructure, making it easier for merchants to accept stablecoin payments. Paxos supports instant conversion between USD and PYUSD, USDP and USDC when receiving payments, spending and refunding.
Users can choose whether to convert to fiat immediately and settle in a local currency such as USD, or pay the merchant directly with a stablecoin balance. Merchants can issue refunds by instantly converting fiat into the stablecoin originally used and then sending directly to the wallet used in the initial payment. The solution supports PYUSD and USDP through on-chain transfers on the Solana and Ethereum networks, as well as USDC through Ethereum, Solana, and Polygon.
This Monday, the inflow of funds into Bitcoin ETFs increased, and the price of Bitcoin rebounded. The current rise has eased slightly. The prediction market Polymarket predicts that the probability of Bitcoin setting a new record high in 2024 has risen to 64%, which is 9 percentage points higher than a week ago.
Wintermute's latest report shows that Solana's weekly on-chain transaction volume has increased by 50% to $51 billion, exceeding Ethereum's $46 billion. At the same time, Memecoin's influence on Solana is also increasing. 40% of Solana's transaction volume comes from Memecoins, of which pump.fun accounts for 35% of Solana DEX's total transaction volume.
Japanese listed company Metaplanet has doubled its Bitcoin holdings this month, buying more than 450 Bitcoins in four purchases. Today, Metaplanet announced the purchase of about 107 Bitcoins, worth about $6.7 million. The company's stock price rose 15.7% today. The recent increase brings Metaplanet's total BTC holdings to 855.5. Since announcing its Bitcoin investment strategy in early April, Metaplanet's stock price has risen 480%.
Project News
Trump announces launch of World Liberty Finance, WLFI sales exceed $9 million
Trump officially announced the launch of World Liberty Finance. As of 7:25 p.m. ET, approximately 610 million WLFI tokens had been sold, leaving 19.4 billion tokens remaining. At $0.015 per token, this translates to sales of approximately $9.15 million. The project's website went live between 8 and 9 a.m. ET on Tuesday morning, with intermittent downtime. The project reportedly raised $5 million in the first hour.
According to the roadmap shared with potential investors, WLFI’s initial sale will seek to raise $300 million and sell 20% of the token supply at a FDV of $1.5 billion.
Odaily Odaily News Celestia announced on the SocialX platform that the Data Availability (DA) network plans to upgrade Shwap for the first time, which has now been activated on the Arabica and Mocha test networks through celestia-node v 0.18.2. Shwap increases the DA sampling speed by 12 times and reduces storage requirements by 16.5 times, thereby supporting larger blocks and smaller nodes. After further testing, Shwap is expected to enter the mainnet Beta stage in November.
Towns, an on-chain communication platform supported by a16z, is officially launched
Towns, an on-chain communication platform backed by a16z, has officially launched. The platform is running the messaging protocol River, which consists of a Layer 2 chain compatible with the Ethereum Virtual Machine (EVM), decentralized nodes, and smart contracts deployed on the Base protocol.
It is reported that Towns raised US$25.5 million in a Series A financing round led by Andreessen Horowitz (A16z) in February 2023.
Kaito AI: Hyperliquid’s derivatives trading market share reached 31% in the past 3 months
Kaito AI, a crypto data analysis platform, published an article on the X platform stating that the emergence of Hyperliquid is worth studying. In the past three months, its market share in derivatives trading was 31%. According to the chart information, the second place is dydx with a market share of 16.76%; the third place is GMX with a market share of 11.16%.
Investment and Financing
The “Network State” project Praxis announced on Tuesday that it had raised $525 million in funding, with participation from Arch Lending, Manifold Trading, and angel investors such as Farcaster CEO Dan Romero and Worldcoin co-founder Max Novendstern. The project had previously received funding from Paradigm, Alameda Research, and Three Arrows Capital.
The new funds will be used to build a tech-forward city to support the development of cryptocurrency, artificial intelligence, energy and biotechnology.
A report published in the Wall Street Journal states that the location of the future Praxis city has not yet been determined. The project's website also shows that the project has nearly 14,000 "Praxians" who live around the world.
Blockstream Completes $210 Million Convertible Note Financing, Led by Fulgur Ventures
Bitcoin infrastructure development company Blockstream has completed $210 million in convertible note financing, led by Fulgur Ventures. Blockstream plans to use the funds to accelerate the market application of its Layer 2 technology, expand its Bitcoin mining business, and enhance Bitcoin reserves.
Bitcoin mining company Bit Digital spends $46 million to acquire Canadian Enovum data center
Bitcoin mining company Bit Digital (BTBT) announced that it has acquired the Enovum data center in Montreal, Canada, a Tier 3 high-performance computing (HPC) facility for $46 million. According to the investor presentation, the data center is “100% leased and has a contracted capacity of 4 MW.”
The acquisition was funded primarily from its cash reserves and approximately 1.62 million newly issued BTBT shares.
Crypto derivatives exchange Bitnomial completes $25 million financing, led by Ripple Labs
Crypto derivatives exchange Bitnomial announced the completion of a $25 million funding round led by Ripple Labs and launched Botanical, a perpetual futures trading platform in the United States, which is currently in closed beta.
The platform will provide investors with a way to trade perpetual futures, traditional futures and options. Bitnomial CEO Luke Hoersten said the platform aims to provide a regulated and innovative trading experience and use Ripple's RLUSD stablecoin to settle perpetual futures.
Opacity Network Completes $12 Million Seed Round, Led by Breyer Capital and Others
Opacity Network, a data verification platform based on zero-knowledge proof, announced the completion of a $12 million seed round of financing, led by Archetype and Breyer Capital, with participation from a16z Crypto Startup Accelerator (CSX), Finality Capital Partners, Bodhi Ventures and Escape Velocity (EV3). This seed round of financing brings Opacity Network's total financing to $13.4 million. The company previously raised $1.4 million in the Pre-Seed round of financing.
Blockchain video game development company Azra Games announced the completion of a $42 million Series A financing round led by Pantera Capital, bringing its total financing amount to $68.3 million.
It is reported that Azra Games was founded in 2022 by veteran game designer Mark Otero. It currently plans to develop a high-quality role-playing game called "Project Legends" and will integrate NFT and blockchain technology while promoting the development of the fourth-generation RPG games, first launched on mobile devices.
Open content delivery network Blockcast completes $2.85 million in financing, led by Lattice Fund
Blockcast, an open content delivery network built on a unique cache architecture, announced the completion of a $2.85 million financing round led by Lattice Fund, with participation from angel investors such as Protocol Labs, Finality Capital Partners, AllianceDAO, Zee Prime Capital, RW 3 Ventures, and Solana founder Anatoly Yakovenko. The specific valuation information has not yet been disclosed. It is reported that the Blockcast network is built on the project's multicast adaptive HTTP proxy, which can be installed anywhere from rack units in the core network to smart TVs in consumers' homes.
Pell Network completes $3 million seed round of financing, led by Halo Capital and others
Pell Network, a Bitcoin ecosystem AVS network, announced the completion of a $3 million seed round of financing, led by Halo Capital, Mirana Ventures and Paper Ventures, with participation from ArkStream Capital, Caliber Venture Builder, Cogitent Ventures and others. Pell Network aims to build a full-chain decentralized verification service (DVS) network powered by Restaking.
Mint Blockchain receives $1.35 million in strategic investment from Optimism Foundation
According to official news, in the latest Cycle 28 of Optimism Grant, Mint Blockchain became the only Superchain approved by the OP Grant Committee and successfully obtained $1.35 million (750,000 OP) in funding support. The funds obtained this time will be used to incentivize Mint ecosystem developers and introduce new users, further promote the NFT innovation and application popularization of Mint Blockchain and Superchain ecology, and build a richer NFT ecosystem.
Regulatory trends
Coinbase seeks court ruling requiring SEC to provide cryptocurrency securities regulatory documents
Coinbase is seeking a ruling from a federal court in the District of Columbia to force the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) to provide documents on how securities laws apply to cryptocurrencies. Coinbase sued the SEC in June for failing to comply with requests from the Freedom of Information Act (FOIA). Coinbase wants to obtain external and internal communications documents about the SEC's investigation into whether cryptocurrencies are securities, especially about Ethereum. The SEC refused to provide these documents, claiming that it was exempt from FOIA, but recently said that this exemption may not apply. According to Tuesday's filing, the SEC now says it will take three years to provide the documents Coinbase wants.
Indian police uncovered a solar project fraud case involving USDT
Indian police recently uncovered a fraud case impersonating a government solar project and seized USDT worth $100,000 with the assistance of Binance. The fraud gang claimed to have obtained the right to expand the national solar network in order to help India achieve its renewable energy goals and deceive individual investors. They promoted a company called "M/s Goldcoat Solar" through social media, impersonated senior government officials, and displayed forged proof of earnings from so-called former investors.
The Central Bank of Brazil will accept applications for the second phase of the Drex central bank digital currency (CBDC) pilot project from October 14 to November 29, with a particular focus on business cases that can be implemented through smart contracts. While a launch date for Drex has not yet been set, its coordinator Fábio Araújo hinted that the central bank is considering field testing after this round of pilots. The central bank said there is no limit to the number of projects that its executive management committee will consider. New business cases should emphasize privacy solutions, especially in terms of Brazil's General Data Protection Law, focusing on addressing existing and potential legal barriers to implementation.
Tokenization and DeFi will also be the focus of this round of testing, and Drex’s interaction with other networks also needs to be tested. It is reported that the country’s securities regulator intends to create a tokenization sandbox this year.
Hong Kong police smashed a cryptocurrency-related fraud group involving HK$360 million
The Hong Kong police smashed a local fraud syndicate and arrested 27 people. They were suspected of defrauding a number of local and overseas victims over a period of about one year, with the total amount of defrauded reaching HK$360 million.
Superintendent Yao Yongkan of the New Territories South Regional Criminal Headquarters said that the police received intelligence about the fraud group involved in the case in August this year. After two months of investigation, they locked down the location of its operation center and the identity of the group members, and launched an arrest operation codenamed "Code Word" on the 9th of this month, mobilizing more than 100 detectives from the New Territories South Regional Criminal Department, and personnel from the Cyber Security and Technology Crime Bureau assisted in collecting evidence on network and cryptocurrency transactions.
Character Voice
Fed voter Daly: We must protect economic growth and are open to only one more rate cut this year
Mary Daly, a 2024 FOMC voter and president of the San Francisco Fed, said the Fed must remain vigilant as inflation falls and the labor market cools, even as she expressed optimism that officials can maintain the current economic expansion.
“We’re seeing some of the same patterns play out in the current expansion,” Daly said Tuesday at an event hosted by NYU Stern School of Business in New York. “Participation in the labor force among prime-age people has reached new highs. Compared to recent history, this expansion is still relatively young.”
"I expect to cut rates by another 25 basis points this year, on top of the 50 basis point cut in September," Fed President Bostic said. "I will keep all options open."
a16z founders each donated $2.5 million to pro-Trump super PAC
Venture capitalists Marc Andreessen and Ben Horowitz each donated $2.5 million to a pro-Trump super PAC, according to new filings with the Federal Election Commission.
The two founders of venture capital firm Andreessen Horowitz (a16z) announced their support for Trump in July. It was not previously known which Trump-aligned organization they supported. Andreessen also donated an additional $844,600 to Trump's campaign team and the Republican Party, which is the federal government's upper limit.
In October, Horowitz said he would make a "substantial" donation to Vice President Harris's campaign despite not knowing or supporting her policies. No record of the donation has appeared in federal filings.
Tether CEO: AI department Tether Data is hiring employees
Tether CEO Paolo Ardoino published a post recruiting employees for its AI department, Tether Data, which is dedicated to promoting the advancement of AI and peer-to-peer (P2P) technology. Its core goal is to achieve democratized access to cutting-edge AI models and promote the development of resilient, decentralized networks.
Paolo Ardoino also said that Tether’s AI work is well funded, including access to large-scale clusters for training and R&D.
DWF Labs partner: The crypto market is recovering, no need to worry
Andrei Grachev, partner at DWF Labs, wrote on the X platform: “Don’t worry, the crypto market is recovering.”
CryptoQuant founder: Apparent demand for Bitcoin is recovering
Ki Young Ju, founder and CEO of CryptoQuant, posted on the X platform that the apparent demand for Bitcoin is recovering. Apparent demand is an on-chain indicator used to compare production and inventory changes. Specifically, Bitcoin's apparent demand measures the difference between BTC mining issuance and the supply of tokens that have been idle for more than a year. Ju emphasized that if the inventory reduction exceeds the production, it means that the apparent demand is growing.
