BlockBeats will organize the key industry news content of the week (8.26-9.1) in this article, and recommend in-depth articles to help readers better understand the market and learn about industry trends.
Important News Review
Telegram founder formally charged by France, released on bail but not allowed to leave France
On August 25, Telegram CEO Pavel Durov was arrested by police at a French airport, causing market shock and support from many parties. On the 27th, the TON community launched a signature campaign calling on France to release the founder of Telegram, and the number of signatures has exceeded 4 million. On the 29th, Telegram founder Pavel Durov was formally indicted by a French judge on charges including:
· Conspiracy by an organized group to manage an online platform for the purpose of conducting illegal transactions (a crime punishable by up to 10 years’ imprisonment and a fine of €500,000);
· 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.
On the same day, Pavel Durov was released on bail with a bail of 5 million euros. He will be under house arrest and is currently not allowed to leave France. Related reading: "Real-time update | Telegram founder is formally prosecuted by France and has been released on bail" , "This is how the world views the arrest of Telegram's head"
Grass has launched the airdrop check page, but does not support connecting to wallets yet
According to community news, although Grass officials have not released any relevant information, some users have discovered the Grass airdrop check page created by the Grass Foundation. Currently, the page does not support users to connect to their wallets (coming soon), and it is not possible to perform any other interactive actions except jumping to the official X social media account page. BlockBeats hereby reminds users to remain cautious before the official releases exact information.
The Ton network went down twice this week and has now resumed normal block production
On August 28, the TON network was suspected to be down, and no blocks were produced for more than several hours. Previously, Binance and Bybit platforms had suspended cryptocurrency deposits and withdrawals on the TON network. At about 1 pm that day, the TON network resumed producing blocks. The next day, Telegram Wallet posted on the official TG channel that the TON network had suspended producing blocks again in the early morning and has now fully resumed operation. Withdrawals and deposits of TON's underlying assets will be credited in due course.
Fractal Bitcoin: Expected to launch the mainnet on September 9, 80% of tokens will be allocated to the community
On August 27, Fractal Bitcoin, a Bitcoin extension network, said that it is expected to launch the mainnet on September 9. It also announced the token economics, with 80% allocated to the community and 20% to the team and contributors (with a lock-up period). Among them, POW mining accounts for 50%, the ecosystem treasury accounts for 15%, pre-sales account for 5%, consultants account for 5%, community grants account for 10%, and core contributors account for 15%.
Binance Lists Euro Stablecoin Eurite (EURI) and Launches EURI Zero Fee Campaign
On August 28, 2024, Binance launched Eurite (EURI) and opened the following spot trading pairs: EUR/EURI, EURI/USDT. In addition, zero-fee activities for EURI spot and leveraged trading pairs will be launched at the same time. Eurite (EURI) is one of the first Euro stablecoins regulated by MiCA.
Binance releases “BNSOL is coming soon”, hinting at launching a liquidity staking token in partnership with Sanctum
After Binance released the content "BNSOL Coming Soon", Sanctum replied with a handshake emoji, possibly hinting at the joint launch of a new liquidity staking token.
Maker rebrands to Sky Protocol and will launch native governance token SKY
On August 27, the Maker Protocol was officially renamed Sky, aiming to make decentralized finance (DeFi) more accessible to the public. At the same time, Maker renamed Dai (DAI), the world's largest decentralized stablecoin, to USDS. The protocol also launched the Sky (SKY) native governance token for the broader Sky ecosystem as an upgraded version of the Maker (MKR) token. MakerDAO co-founder Rune Christensen called the name change a step towards the "next evolution of DeFi." MKR holders can upgrade their MKR to SKY, and SKY can also be converted back to MKR. The upgrade is optional. Users can exchange 24,000 SKY for each MKR when upgrading. Related reading: "The old OG is doing well, why did MakerDAO suddenly change its name?" , "When the first DeFi protocol in Ethereum's history began to be cyber-bullied"
Story Protocol launches IP Market Color on testnet Iliad
On August 30, the on-chain IP protocol Story Protocol posted on social media that it has launched the IP (intellectual property) market Color on the test network Iliad. Users can buy, sell and discover IP assets and licenses on the platform, and mint colorful commemorative NFTs for free. Last week, Story Protocol developer Programmable IP (PIP) Labs completed an $80 million Series B financing round, led by a16z Crypto and participated by Polychain Capital and others. This brings Story Protocol's total financing to $140 million. Related reading: "Let's talk about Story's new IP trading market Color: highlights, problems to be solved, and future prospects"
OpenSea received a Wells notice from the SEC, responded by preparing to fight, and will provide $5 million in legal aid to NFT authors
On August 28, it was reported that OpenSea had received a Wells notice from the SEC. Affected by this news, BLUR fell by nearly 9% in a short period of time. OpenSea CEO Devin Finzer then responded: "OpenSea received a Wells notice from the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission, threatening to sue us because they believe that the NFTs on our platform are securities. We are shocked that the SEC will take such a large-scale action against creators and artists. But we are ready to stand up and fight. In addition to sticking to its position, OpenSea has also pledged to provide $5 million to help pay the legal fees of NFT creators and developers who received the Wells notice. Every creator, big or small, should be able to innovate without fear. I hope the SEC will wake up soon and listen with an open mind. Until then, we will stand up and fight for our industry. Keep moving forward." Related reading: "SEC Arouses Public Outrage Again: Identifying NFTs as Securities, or Suing Opensea" , "Success and Failure of NFTs, the Rise and Fall of Companies in the Eyes of 18 OpenSea Internal Employees"
Solana Optimistic Network Completes "cobuilder" Round of Financing, with Solana Lianchuang and Others Participating
On August 27, it was reported that Solana Optimistic Network (SOON for short) completed the "cobuilder" round of financing. Solana Foundation Chairman Lily Liu, Solana Labs co-founder Anatoly Yakovenko, Coinbase Ventures Director Jonathan King, Celestia Labs co-founder Mustafa Al-Bassam, Avail co-founder Robinson Burkey, Wormhole Foundation co-founder Robinson Burkey and others participated in the investment. The specific amount of financing has not been disclosed. It is reported that the funds raised by Solana Optimistic Network will be used to build it into "the highest throughput rollup stack, providing scalability and efficiency for decentralized applications and any Layer 1 blockchain" by building flagship products SOON Stack and SOON Mainnet. Related reading: "With investment from Lily Liu of the Solana Foundation, what new narrative will SOON bring?"
PayPal's stablecoin PYUSD has a market value of over $1 billion, and Solana's supply has surged 171% in the past month
On August 27, PayPal's stablecoin PYUSD's market value exceeded the $1 billion mark, and its supply has more than doubled since June. According to Visa's stablecoin dashboard, PYUSD's user activity has soared, with monthly active wallet addresses jumping to more than 25,000 in July, compared with 9,400 in May. PYUSD ushered in a peak in supply growth after expanding to the Solana network in May, growing from zero to $650 million in just three months, exceeding the supply on the Ethereum chain. According to DefiLlama data, the supply of PYUSD on the Solana chain has increased by 171% in the past month. As of August 27, more than 49% of the circulating PYUSD supply has been deployed to Kamino, totaling $496 million. Related reading: "Annualized over 10%, why does PayPal's stablecoin have such a high return on Kamino Finance?"
Vitalik releases Ethereum Foundation spending update, his salary is S$182,000 per year
On August 27, Ethereum co-founder Vitalik Buterin posted on social media that his salary is 182,000 Singapore dollars per year, and retweeted a tweet from Ethereum Foundation employee Josh Stark, saying, "Update from Josh Stark on Ethereum Foundation spending. The key information is in this chart." The chart captures both internal and external expenditures of the Ethereum Foundation. For example, "L1 R&D" includes funding for external client teams, as well as internal EF researchers. In the two years from 2022 to 2023, internal expenditures are approximately 38% and external expenditures are approximately 62%. Related reading: "Vitalik reveals his annual salary for the first time, and the Ethereum Foundation discloses some expenditure details"
Ethereum has 450 researchers in Q2 2024 and 2,788 full-time developers as of July 1
On August 30, it was reported that the number of researchers on the Ethereum network grew from around 25 in the first quarter of 2019 to a peak of 550 in the first quarter of 2024, an increase of 2,100%. The number of researchers dropped slightly in the second quarter of 2024 to around 450. According to the developer report data, Ethereum is the blockchain with the most monthly active developers, with 2,788 full-time developers and more than 8,865 total developers as of July 1. The Base blockchain ranks second with 889 full-time developers and 3,991 total developers.
Nvidia's revenue in Q2 of fiscal year 2025 is $30 billion, while the market expects $28.61 billion
On August 29, Nvidia (NVDA.O) had revenue of $30 billion in Q2 of fiscal year 2025, compared with $13.507 billion in the same period last year, and the market expected $28.61 billion. Data center revenue in Q2 of fiscal year 2025 was $26.3 billion, and the forecast was $25.08 billion. According to market data, after Nvidia released its financial report, the US stock market fell nearly 5% in a short period of time after the market closed. Related reading: "Nvidia's financial report continues to be impressive. Which encrypted AI projects have risen more sharply than Nvidia this year?"
An independent miner mined a block worth 3.275 bitcoins, or $199,098
On August 30, according to mempool data, an independent miner mined a block worth 3.275 bitcoins, or $199,098, at block height 858978.
Trump: Zuckerberg will go to jail for life if he continues to disrupt US presidential elections
On August 30, according to POLITICO, former US President Donald Trump wrote in a new book to be published next week that Mark Zuckerberg conspired against him during the 2020 US election and said that if Zuckerberg did it again, he "would spend the rest of his life in prison." This represents Trump's latest attack on Zuckerberg, who he has repeatedly accused of interfering in the last US presidential election. This remark also came against the backdrop of Meta taking steps to assure conservatives that it would not influence this year's campaign.
The Supreme People's Court of China has listed "Research on the Disposal of Virtual Currency Involved in Cases" as a Major Judicial Research Topic in 2024
On August 28, the Supreme People's Court announced in an article on its official account that it had determined the major judicial research topics for 2024 based on extensive consultation and sufficient demonstration, and issued a bidding announcement for major judicial research topics for 2024. Among them, the key funded topics include research on the disposal of virtual currencies involved in the case, research on judicial issues related to the digital economy, and research on judicial responses to disputes involving artificial intelligence. It is reported that the project management unit will provide research funding support to the winning project team, of which special funded projects will each receive 150,000 yuan, key funded projects will each receive 50,000 yuan, and youth projects will each receive 30,000 yuan.
Trump launches fourth NFT series, priced at $99 per piece
On August 27, former US President Donald Trump launched a new set of digital trading card NFT collections. According to the official website of the series, each digital trading card NFT is priced at $99, and users who purchase 75 or 250 digital trading cards in a single transaction will receive two rewards: dinner with Trump at his private country club and part of the suit he wore in the famous debate. Related reading: "Trump launches the fourth NFT "America First", what benefits can the holder enjoy?"
South Korean CeFi platform Haru Invest CEO was attacked and stabbed several times while appearing in court for trial
On August 29, Hugo Hyungsoo Lee, CEO of the Korean crypto CeFi platform Haru Invest, was attacked while attending a trial for alleged fraud totaling more than $800 million. He was stabbed several times in the neck by a man in his 50s and was immediately taken to the hospital for treatment. It is reported that Lee Hyungsoo's injuries did not cause life-threatening danger, and the attacker was allegedly a former client of Haru Invest. Related reading: "CEO of Korean trading platform Haru Invest was attacked in court and "stabbed several times", suspected of embezzling $826 million in deposits"
Bitcoin rally creates more than 84,000 new crypto millionaires in one year
On August 27, CNBC reported that according to a new report, as Bitcoin ETFs and other crypto assets climbed, the number of global cryptocurrency millionaires surged 95% over the past year. According to a report by New World Wealth and Henley & Partners, there are currently 172,300 individuals in the world holding more than $1 million in crypto assets, a significant increase from 88,200 last year. The number of pure Bitcoin millionaires has more than doubled to 85,400. The number of crypto tycoons is increasing at all levels of the wealth ladder. The report shows that there are currently 325 cryptocurrency billionaires (those holding $100 million or more in crypto assets), and 28 cryptocurrency billionaires.
This week's hot articles
Why is value currency no longer working? Under the impact of the meme craze, 2024 has become the first round of "disenchantment bull market" in the history of cryptocurrency. This year, the industry finally stopped hiding its belief in money and gambler nature. The disenchantment of technological liberalism has plunged most people into extreme nihilism. Even shouting terms such as "embrace scams" cannot mobilize the emotions of speculators. The simple and crude meme PVP casino has become the last spiritual opium to maintain the industry's activity. Today, the soul-searching question facing the crypto industry seeking growth is: Can it really accommodate large-scale long-term funds and serious investors? With this question in mind, we started from some simple perspectives of traditional value investing and briefly analyzed the revenue capacity of the DeFi field, which has the most clear application scenarios in the industry.
"Vitalik's speech was refuted by many people and he was questioned for not understanding DeFi"
Vitalik Buterin's controversial views on DeFi came from a post in which he accused him of poor communication on the topic of DeFi. V God's reply sparked a heated discussion, with many people questioning whether V God understands DeFi at all. Vitalik is the philosophical source behind Ethereum as a technical platform; but his understanding of finance and DeFi may not be correct. We don't need to over-mythologize him.
Last week, the Ethereum Foundation once again transferred 35,000 ETH (worth nearly $100 million), which aroused community doubts. Does the Ethereum Foundation really spend so much money on development every year? The community criticized the Ethereum Foundation for not being transparent in its expenditure report. In response, ETHGlobal member Josh Stark posted on the social platform X yesterday (27) to announce important information about the Ethereum Foundation's expenditure report to the community.
"This is how the world views the arrest of Telegram's leader"
The battle between power and privacy has never been so intense. With the arrest of Telegram founder Pavel Durov in France, the global cryptocurrency and technology communities have set off an unprecedented storm of public opinion. Durov's fate is not only a personal legal dispute, but also a concentrated manifestation of the global conflict between privacy protection, decentralized technology and state power. Top Wall Street entrepreneurs, technology leaders and crypto industry experts have come forward to support Pavel Durov. What kind of complex picture is hidden behind this battle between freedom and control? BlockBeats sorted out the widespread reactions to Pavel Durov's arrest and interpreted the views and positions of all parties.
When the first DeFi protocol in Ethereum history began to be cyberbullied
On August 27, the lending protocol MakerDAO announced that it would change its name to Sky and launched the native governance token SKY. From MakerDAO to Sky, the rebranding of the first DeFi protocol in Ethereum history did not receive unanimous support and understanding from the community, from damaging brand awareness to token value dilution, and even rising to the level that the Maker protocol is no longer decentralized. Since MakerDAO announced the "Endgame", every upgrade of the protocol has attracted market attention. After the expected split was officially implemented, community users questioned whether MakerDAO is still decentralized.
《Opinion: Ethereum VC’s obsession with infrastructure is dragging down the entire industry》
This article highlights the structural problems of large funds such as Ethereum and how these problems drive them to favor infrastructure investments, while also trapping founders in the quagmire of bad advice. Finally, we will share advice on how to avoid falling into EBOLA (EVM Bags Over Logic Affliction). (Note: EBOLA was originally the name of a contagious virus, which means that Ethereum VC's enthusiasm for infrastructure is like a disease and is contagious.)
"TON official pushes, "Resistance Dog" REDO will become the next dog king?"
On August 26, the TON ecosystem was promoting a dog named REDO. REDO was drawn and named by Telegram founder Pavel Durov in 2018. Its full name is Resistance Dog. The Resistance Dog fits the rebellious spirit of Telegram. In addition, the founder of Telegram was recently arrested in France, which immediately gave the Resistance Dog a symbolic meaning. At present, it is very likely to become the MEME leader of the TON ecosystem, and even a symbol of the crypto industry advocating freedom of speech and resisting censorship.
"Besides PayPal, what other projects are throwing money around?"
As the market value of PayPal USD (PYUSD), a stablecoin launched by Paypal and issued by Paxos, exceeded the $1 billion mark, the market value of this stablecoin supported by the giant PayPal has increased by 327% compared to the beginning of 2024. The reason why the issuance of PYUSD has grown so rapidly is mainly due to the high incentive strategy recently launched by PYUSD. According to the current on-chain TVL and APY of PYUSD, the interest paid to users by PYUSD incentive activities alone exceeds 6.5 million US dollars per month. This article summarizes some APY projects that have received high attention from the community in recent years, mainly stablecoins, in addition to PYUSD, and explains the corresponding sources of income.
"Over 10% annualized, why does PayPal stablecoin have such a high return on Kamino Finance?"
PYUSD has experienced explosive growth since it expanded to the Solana network in May, growing from zero to $650 million in just three months, exceeding the supply on the Ethereum chain. Why did PayPal choose to build heavily on Solana, and what drove the adoption of PYUSD? This article will answer readers' questions.
"Supporting the founder of Telegram, Musk's long-term and short-term concerns"
The arrest of Telegram founder Pavel Duro in Paris on the evening of August 24 (local time in France) has attracted widespread attention in the market recently, triggering discussions among many well-known people from the investment, business and political circles, including Tesla founder Elon Musk, Sequoia Capital partner Shaun Maguire, Ethereum founder Vitalik Buterin and other celebrities who expressed their support. Elon Musk's support for Pavel Duro may be a manifestation of the loss of lips and teeth. As the owner of X, Musk, who is unwilling to cooperate with EU supervision, obviously has greater concerns.
Hugo Hyungsoo Lee, CEO of South Korean virtual asset custodian company Haru Invest, who was detained and charged with fraud by South Korean prosecutors in February this year on suspicion of embezzling digital assets worth approximately US$826 million from more than 16,000 users, was reportedly attacked with a knife by a victim who was attending the court hearing on Wednesday. He was stabbed in the neck several times and blood splattered in the courtroom. He was then rushed to the hospital.
The initial positive reaction of the market is justified as investors believe that assets priced in a fixed supply of fiat currencies should rise if money becomes cheap. I agree with this view; however…we forget that future expected rate cuts by the Fed, Bank of England and ECB will reduce the interest rate differential between these currencies and the yen. The risk of the yen carry trade will re-emerge and could spoil the party unless the amount of money is increased in the form of central bank balance sheet expansion, i.e. printing money. The rest of this article aims to delve deeper into this and look ahead to the critical moments in the coming months before an apathetic American electorate elects Trump or Biden.
On August 28, NVIDIA released its Q2 financial report for fiscal year 2025. The company achieved revenue of $30 billion in the quarter, higher than the market expectation of $28.86 billion, a year-on-year increase of 122%; net profit was $16.59 billion, also exceeding the market expectation of $14.64 billion, a year-on-year increase of 168%. Although the performance exceeded expectations again, under the high expectations of the market for NVIDIA, the "exceeding expectations" this time seemed slightly insufficient, causing the stock price to fall 8% after the market. BlockBeats made a detailed comparison of the year-to-date gains of the top ten crypto AI projects by market value and NVIDIA, trying to clarify the real situation.
"WSJ: Tether invested $1.5 billion, and the "middlemen" made a fortune"
Tether, the issuer behind the world's most popular cryptocurrency, USDT, is on a buying spree. It has acquired majority stakes in artificial intelligence company Northern Data and brain-computer chip company Blackrock Neurotech. Tether hired tech investor and entrepreneur Christian Angermayer to help invest the vast sums, earning hefty commissions from the trades while the companies they invest in face perennial losses.
《Beginner's Guide | Teach you to understand Farcaster & Warpcast from 0》
As the leading project in the Socialfi track in this cycle, Farcaster has been widely concerned. It has been a month since the BlockBeats of the Farcaster protocol. As a new Web3 social protocol, many of Farcaster's features are quite different from Web2 products, and it is quite difficult to understand. This article will explain everything that novice users need to know in detail in the form of Q&A, and take you to play Farcaster & Warpcast.
Through interviews with 18 current and former OpenSea employees, as well as internal company documents and conversations with investors, artists, and other stakeholders in the NFT industry, the story of how a startup inspired by cat JPEGs evolved into what one former employee called a “lite version” of Meta that now seems lost between big tech and cryptocurrency culture.
In the past half month, OP_NET and Arch, two smart contract implementations on the Bitcoin mainnet, have sparked a lot of discussion. The interesting thing is that the name OP_NET is very similar to the familiar OP_CAT, both starting with "OP_", which is very confusing and makes people think that the two are similar. It is worth noting that Arch's token may have a TGE in the first quarter of next year, so if there are related testing activities in the future, or dApps based on Arch, everyone who is interested can pay attention and interact.
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