The Federal Reserve cut interest rates by 50 basis points, the first rate cut in four years
The Federal Reserve cut the federal funds rate by 50 basis points to 4.75%-5.00%, the first rate cut since March 2020. The Federal Reserve has raised interest rates 11 times in a row from March 2022 to July 2023, with a cumulative rate hike of 525 basis points. Over the past year, the Federal Reserve has maintained the target range for the federal funds rate between 5.25% and 5.5%, the highest level in 23 years. The Federal Reserve FOMC statement said that inflation has made further progress toward the 2% target, but is still at a "slightly high" level; the risks to employment and inflation targets are balanced; the committee is firmly committed to supporting full employment; the members voted 11-1 to pass the interest rate decision, and Director Bowman dissented and believed that the interest rate should be cut by 25 basis points. Federal Reserve Chairman Powell said: The Federal Reserve will accelerate, slow down or suspend interest rate cuts as needed.
According to The Block, the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) has reached a settlement on its charges against DeFi platform Rari Capital after the SEC found that the company and its co-founders misled investors and were not registered as brokers. The SEC said that Rari Capital co-founders Jai Bhavnani, Jack Lipstone and David Lucid told investors that the Earn platform they managed allowed investors to lend tokens to earn returns and would "automatically and autonomously rebalance" their cryptocurrencies instead of doing it manually, but the company sometimes failed to do this. The SEC said they were also involved in "unregistered broker activities" related to the Fuse platform. The SEC said that the two platforms held more than $1 billion worth of crypto assets at their peak. Certain Earn platform investors are also eligible for Rari governance tokens, which the agency claims is an unregistered security. As part of the settlement, Rari Capital Infrastructure LLC, which acquired Rari Capital in 2022, agreed to stop violating securities laws in the future, and Rari's co-founders agreed to pay fines and be banned from serving as executives and directors for five years. According to previous news, the lending platform Fuse was hacked in May 2022 and $80 million was stolen. Rari Capital subsequently stopped new deposits and began to gradually shut down the Fuse platform.
Trump Pays for Meal with Bitcoin for the First Time at Bitcoin-Themed Bar in New York
Former President Trump bought burgers for supporters at PubKey, a Bitcoin-themed bar in New York, and paid with Bitcoin. Trump paid $998.70 in Bitcoin through the Strike payment app, which is built on the Lightning Network. The bar used the Zaprite app to receive Bitcoin.
Fintech firm Revolut plans to issue stablecoin
According to CoinDesk, Revolut, a London-based fintech company that provides cryptocurrency trading, intends to issue its own stablecoin, according to four people familiar with the matter. The company, which received a UK banking license in July and was valued at $45 billion earlier this year, is said to have made considerable progress in creating stablecoins. When asked about its stablecoin plans, a Revolut spokesperson said the company hopes to expand its cryptocurrency products, take a compliance-first approach, and become a safe haven for the entire cryptocurrency community.
MicroStrategy announces the offering of $875 million aggregate principal amount of convertible senior notes due 2028, which is expected to close on September 19. The notes will be unsecured senior obligations of MicroStrategy and bear interest at a rate of 0.625% per annum, payable semi-annually on March 15 and September 15 of each year, beginning on March 15, 2025. The notes will mature on September 15, 2028, unless earlier repurchased, redeemed or converted in accordance with their terms. MicroStrategy intends to use the net proceeds from this offering to redeem all $500 million aggregate principal amount outstanding of MicroStrategy's 6.125% Senior Secured Notes due 2028 (the "Senior Secured Notes") and to use the balance of the net proceeds to purchase additional bitcoin and for general corporate purposes.
Silvergate Capital has filed for bankruptcy protection in the Delaware Bankruptcy Court
According to Financefeeds, Silvergate Capital, the parent company of crypto-friendly bank Silvergate, has filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection in the Delaware Bankruptcy Court in the United States. The bankruptcy filing shows that the company has assets between $100 million and $500 million and liabilities between $10 million and $50 million. In March 2023, Silvergate Capital announced that it would voluntarily liquidate its subsidiary Silvergate Bank, citing challenges in the banking industry due to rising interest rates and regulatory scrutiny after the bankruptcy of crypto exchage FTX in November 2022. Silvergate Bank is known for its close ties with the crypto industry, and its reputation and confidence among customers plummeted after the collapse of FTX. In July this year, Silvergate Capital reached a settlement with the U.S. SEC, the Federal Reserve, and the California Department of Financial Protection and Innovation (DFPI) and agreed to pay $63 million. The Federal Reserve said it had ended its enforcement action against Silvergate Capital after Silvergate Bank completed its liquidation plan, repaid deposits, and ceased banking operations. Previously, the U.S. SEC sued Silvergate Capital in a federal court, accusing it of securities fraud. The SEC said Silvergate misled investors about its banking secrecy, anti-money laundering compliance programs, and poor financial condition following the collapse of FTX in 2022.
Borderless Capital Launches $100M DePIN Fund Backed by Peaq, Solana Foundation
According to CoinDesk, Borderless Capital has launched its third DePIN fund, which is backed by $100 million. Investors in the fund include Peaq, a blockchain focused on DePIN, as well as Solana Foundation and Jump Crypto. As of April this year, the top 10 DePIN projects have raised more than $1 billion in total.
Coinbase to List Zetachain (ZETACHAIN)
Coinbase Assets tweeted that Coinbase will add support for Zetachain (ZETACHAIN) on the Zetachain network. Please do not send this asset through other networks, otherwise your funds may be at risk of loss. If liquidity conditions are met, trading will begin on or after 0:00 Beijing time on September 20. Once the asset is in sufficient supply, the ZETACHAIN-USD trading pair will start trading in stages.
Coinbase has listed Aleo (ALEO)
Coinbase Assets tweeted that Coinbase will add support for Aleo (ALEO) on the Aleo network. Do not send this asset over other networks, otherwise your funds may be at risk of loss. Aleo (ALEO) is now available on coinbase.com, Coinbase iOS and Android apps with an experimental label. Coinbase customers can log in to buy, sell, convert, send, receive or store these assets.
Hackers who launched a cyberattack against drug distributor Cencora Inc. received a total of $75 million, with the Cencora hacker payment paid in three installments in Bitcoin in March, Bloomberg reported, citing people familiar with the matter. This is the largest known cyber extortion payment to date. The initial ransom demand was $150 million, according to two people familiar with the matter. According to regulatory documents, Cencora learned in February that its system data had been stolen. Two months after disclosing the incident, Cencora began notifying individuals and state governments that their personal data (including names, addresses, dates of birth, diagnoses, prescriptions and medications) had been stolen. The company's July quarterly report said that most of the $31.4 million in "other" expenses in the nine months ending June 30 were incurred due to cybersecurity incidents in which data was leaked, and it is unclear how these funds are related to the cyberattack.
Cencora, formerly AmerisourceBergen, is a Conshohocken, Pennsylvania-based company with a market capitalization of about $46 billion and revenue of $262 billion in its last fiscal year.
MANTRA mainnet will be launched in October this year
MANTRA, an L1 blockchain built specifically for RWA, announced that it will launch mainnet in October. MANTRA Chain will provide a comprehensive and customizable set of tools that allow developers to tailor solutions to their specific needs. This set of tools not only simplifies the process of putting real-world assets on the chain, but also ensures that the solution meets regulatory requirements.
Programmable privacy network Aleo said on X Platform that the Aleo mainnet is now live, enabling developers to build the next generation of decentralized applications powered by zero-knowledge cryptography.
According to the official announcement of Ethena Labs, Ethena's domain name registration account was recently hacked, and the team has taken measures to temporarily suspend the website to protect user safety. The official emphasized that the protocol was not affected and the funds were safe. Ethena Labs has now regained control of the domain name and cooperated with multiple parties to block phishing websites. The only official valid domain name is ethena[.]fi, and the team will re-launch the front-end website after completing further investigation. Ethena reminds users not to interact with any fake Ethena applications or websites.
Binance launches KDA 1-75x U-margin perpetual contract
According to the official announcement, Binance launched the U-based Kadena (KDA) perpetual contract at 21:30 on September 18, with a maximum leverage of 75 times.
Crypto startup Hemi Labs raises $15 million, led by Binance Labs and others
According to Fortune, Hemi Labs, a startup co-founded by Bloq co-founder Jeff Garzick, has completed a $15 million financing round, led by Binance Labs, Breyer Capital and Big Brain Holdings, with participation from Crypto.com, Web3.com Ventures, Hyperchain Capital, Alchemy and SALT Fund. Co-founder Max Sanchez said the company plans to use the funds to build Hemi's engineering team, add more Bitcoin interoperability features, and provide developers with advanced customizability, as well as incentives, grants and community adoption. Max Sanchez declined to disclose the company's valuation.
TrueX, a crypto exchage founded by former Coinbase executives, completes $9 million in seed round
According to Fortune, TrueX, a new stablecoin-based crypto exchage founded by two former Coinbase executives, has completed a $9 million seed round of financing, with participation from crypto investors such as RRE Ventures and Hack VC, as well as crypto companies such as Paxos, Solana Foundation and Aptos. Currently, TrueX operates in a similar way to Coinbase, using PayPal's PYUSD as the default settlement currency. TrueX will launch its trading function in the next two to four weeks, and will only open spot trading of top assets to institutional traders in the initial stage.
TrueX's parent company is True Markets, which was co-founded by Vishal Gupta, who was previously the head of Coinbase Exchange and Circle's USDC director, and Patrick McCreary, a former Coinbase engineer. Vishal Gupta was previously the head of Coinbase's trading platform. During his tenure at Circle, he was responsible for overseeing the launch of the USDC stablecoin. Patrick McCreary previously served as a senior engineer at Coinbase. Both of them worked at Goldman Sachs.
Ethereum briefly rebounded above $2,400, and Bitcoin rebounded above $62,000
OKX market data shows that Ethereum briefly rebounded to above $2,400 and is now trading at $2,399.39, up 4.48% on the day. Bitcoin is now trading at $62,258 per coin, up 4.78% on the day.
