BIT Mining reaches settlement agreement with US SEC over bribery of Japanese officials
According to Bloomberg, the crypto mining company BIT Mining Ltd. (formerly 500.com Limited) was charged by the US Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) for bribing Japanese officials to bid on a casino resort project, and has agreed to pay a $4 million fine to settle the case. The SEC said the company paid $2.5 million in cash and gifts, including bribes to Japanese lawmakers, between 2017 and 2019.
The US Department of Justice stated that BIT Mining will also pay a $10 million criminal penalty, with $4 million of that offset by the fine paid to the SEC. 500.com at the time recorded the bribes as false consultant contracts and management consulting fees to conceal the illegal activities, and the company's executives, including the then-CEO, were accused of directly participating in and covering up these illegal acts.
According to Cointelegraph, in the Bitcoin money laundering case related to the 2016 Bitfinex exchange hack, Heather Morgan, known as "Razzlekhan", was sentenced to 18 months in prison. Judge Colleen Kollar-Kotelly of the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia announced the sentence on November 18. Morgan pleaded guilty in August 2023, admitting to conspiracy to commit money laundering and defraud the United States.
Trump to meet privately with Coinbase CEO on Monday to discuss personnel appointments
IBIT options expected to launch on November 19
According to The Block, the Options Clearing Corporation (OCC) has announced that it is ready to clear options trades related to spot Bitcoin ETFs. IBIT options are expected to launch on Tuesday, November 19, becoming the first options product linked to a spot Bitcoin ETF.
The OCC stated that it will be responsible for clearing and risk management, and these options will be listed on exchanges regulated by the US Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC), not under the jurisdiction of the Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC). In January, the SEC has already approved 11 spot Bitcoin ETFs, and BlackRock's iShares Bitcoin Trust (IBIT) was approved in September as the first spot ETF to launch options.
According to the announcement from the Magic Eden Foundation, the token economic model for $ME has been officially released, with a total supply of 1 billion tokens, over half of which will be allocated to the community. The initial token generation event (TGE) will distribute 12.5% of $ME, fully unlocked and distributed through the Magic Eden mobile app to users in the Bitcoin, Solana and EVM ecosystems. Unclaimed tokens will flow back into the community staking rewards pool.
Allocation details: 37.7% allocated to the community and ecosystem, including 22.5% for rewarding active protocol users and 15.2% for ecosystem development; 26.2% allocated to contributors, including core developers and advisors; 23.6% for strategic participants, with a minimum 12-month lock-up. All tokens will be fully circulating within 4 years. To ensure protocol security, a 5-person security committee will oversee a multi-sig wallet. The ME Foundation will serve as the $ME management entity, driving on-chain economic development and providing staking rewards for token holders.
Musk: I still hold a lot of Dogecoin, and SpaceX holds a lot of Bitcoin
Dogecoin UI designer DogeDesigner shared an audio clip of Musk stating "I still hold a lot of Dogecoin, and SpaceX holds a lot of Bitcoin". However, DogeDesigner did not specify the timing of Musk's statement.
Trump Media & Technology Group in advanced talks to acquire crypto exchange platform Bakkt
According to the Financial Times, former US President Donald Trump's Trump Media & Technology Group (TMTG) is in negotiations with Intercontinental Exchange (ICE) to acquire its cryptocurrency trading platform Bakkt, expected to be an all-stock deal. Bakkt currently has a market value of around $150 million, while TMTG's equity valuation is as high as $6 billion, providing ample capital support for its business expansion.
According to the official announcement, the Bitcoin mining company MARA plans to raise $700 million through the issuance of convertible preferred notes, which will be MARA's unsecured senior debt and bear interest, payable semi-annually on March 1 and September 1 starting from March 1, 2025, to purchase more BTC.
MicroStrategy plans to issue $1.75 billion zero-coupon convertible senior notes
According to the MicroStrategy website, the company has announced plans to issue $1.75 billion in zero-coupon convertible senior notes due 2029 through a private placement to qualified institutional buyers and certain non-U.S. persons. The size of the offering may be increased up to $2 billion depending on market conditions. The notes will be convertible into cash, MicroStrategy's Class A common stock, or a combination of both, with the final terms to be determined at pricing.
According to Bloomberg, Goldman Sachs Group is in talks with potential partners to spin off its digital assets platform into a new company, which will allow large financial firms to create, trade and settle financial instruments using blockchain technology.
US-listed company Semler Scientific spends $17.7 million to acquire 215 Bitcoins
According to PR Newswire, the US medical technology company Semler Scientific (SMLR) announced that it purchased 215 Bitcoins for $17.7 million in cash between November 6, 2024 and November 15, 2024, at an average price of $82,502 per Bitcoin, including fees and expenses.
As of November 15, 2024, Semler Scientific holds a total of 1,273 Bitcoins, with a total purchase price of $88.7 million and an average purchase price of $69,682 per Bitcoin (including fees and expenses). From October 1, 2024 to November 15, 2024, Semler Scientific's BTC return was 18.9%.
Genius Group announces purchase of 110 Bitcoins for $10 million
According to GlobeNewswire, Genius Group (NYSE American: GNS) has announced the completion of its first Bitcoin purchase, acquiring 110 Bitcoins for $10 million, at an average price of $90,932 per Bitcoin. This is the first step in the company's "Bitcoin-first" strategy, which plans to invest over 90% of its existing and future reserves into Bitcoin, targeting a total of $120 million.
pump.fun sells another 105,000 SOL, worth approximately $25.23 million, 7 hours ago
According to on-chain analyst Yujin's monitoring, pump.fun sold 105,000 $SOL ($25.23M) 7 hours ago, 8 days after the previous sale. Now, pump.fun's daily revenue is around 15,000 SOL ($3.6M). So far, pump.fun has obtained a total fee income of 1,308,000 SOL, of which 971,400 SOL ($168.49M) were sold at an average price of $173.
MicroStrategy spent $4.6 billion to acquire 51,780 bitcoins
According to official information, MicroStrategy used the proceeds from stock sales during the period from November 11 to 17, 2024, to additionally purchase 51,780 bitcoins at a total price of $4.6 billion (average purchase price of $88,627 per bitcoin).
As of November 17, 2024, MicroStrategy's total bitcoin holdings reached 331,200 bitcoins, with an average acquisition price of approximately $49,874 per bitcoin, for a total cost of approximately $16.5 billion.
Bitcoin mining difficulty increased by 0.63% to 102.29 T this morning
According to CloverPool data, the Bitcoin mining difficulty saw an adjustment at block height 870,912 (2024-11-19 04:42:12), with the mining difficulty increasing by 0.63% to 102.29 T, setting a new historical high. The current network average hashrate is 1.08 ZH/s.
