Trump announces Musk and Vivek Ramaswamy will lead the US Government Efficiency Department
According to Trump campaign advisor Alex Bruesewitz's disclosure on the X platform, US President-elect Trump has announced that Musk and Vivek Ramaswamy (Trump's proxy) will lead the Government Efficiency Department (DOGE).
Trump hints at using "recess appointments" to select the SEC chair, bypassing Senate confirmation
According to Cointelegraph, US President-elect Donald Trump has hinted that he will bypass the Senate's confirmation process to appoint members of his administration, which also appears to include replacing Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) Chair Gary Gensler. In a post on X on November 10, Trump stated that only he has the power to choose which US senator will become the Senate majority leader starting from the swearing-in of the new Congress in January 2025. The Republican said he hopes the potential majority leader will agree to make appointments during the recess, bypassing the confirmation process and allowing people to take office "immediately" without going through questioning and review by lawmakers. According to the US Constitution, the president "shall have Power to fill up all Vacancies that may happen during the Recess of the Senate, by granting Commissions which shall expire at the End of their next Session." This power allowed Trump to appoint some individuals during his first term who may not have been able to obtain Senate approval otherwise. Recess appointments were intended to be temporary and do not substitute for Senate confirmation. Trump has not yet publicly nominated any potential replacements for Gensler. During the campaign, Trump had promised the cryptocurrency industry that if elected again, he would fire SEC Chair Gensler "on day one," but experts say he cannot remove Gensler from the commission without cause. In some cases, when the White House party changes, regulators may choose to resign, but Gensler has not indicated he will leave.
Trump nominates Bitcoin-supporting TV host Pete Hegseth as US Secretary of Defense
According to Golden Ten, Trump has stated that he will nominate TV host Pete Hegseth (born June 6, 1980) as US Secretary of Defense. Pete graduated from Princeton University and has a graduate degree from Harvard University, and is a US Army veteran who has hosted a show on Fox News for 8 years. It is reported that Pete Hegseth is committed to the decentralized values of Bitcoin and has promised not to sell his Bitcoin.
Federal Reserve Governor Waller: Stablecoins must be regulated to address redemption risks
According to Golden Ten, Federal Reserve Governor Waller stated that stablecoins are essentially a "synthetic dollar" and may bring benefits to the financial system. However, he emphasized that stablecoins must be regulated to address potential redemption risks.
US prosecutors seek to seize FTX founder SBF's cryptocurrencies
According to Cailian News, a year after FTX founder SBF was convicted of fraud, in a filing submitted to a New York court on Tuesday, US prosecutors have filed a lawsuit seeking to seize SBF's cryptocurrencies. His cryptocurrencies are held in an account, including Solana and Ripple, valued at $8.6 million as of December 12, 2023, which has increased in value to $18.5 million over the past 11 months, mainly due to the significant increase in the price of Solana.
According to Bloomberg, citing informed sources, the government led by Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni is likely to approve a proposal from coalition partner the League to lower the increased tax on cryptocurrency transactions. A draft of the amendment shows that as a junior partner in Meloni's governing coalition, the League has proposed capping the crypto transaction tax rate at 28%, compared to the initial 42% proposed in last month's budget. The current rate is 26%. Additionally, another coalition partner, Forza Italia, has put forward another amendment aimed at completely eliminating the tax increase and exempting gains of 2,000 euros ($2,120) or less. As part of the League's proposed amendment, Italy will establish a permanent working group composed of digital asset companies and consumer associations to educate investors on cryptocurrencies. Two people familiar with the matter said the government is likely to approve the League's proposal, although a final decision has not been made and it may be modified.
The Trump family crypto project World Liberty Financial (WLFI) announced on the X platform that WLFI token sale participants can now add WLFI tokens to their wallets.
PayPal stablecoin PYUSD starts using LayerZero to enable transfers between Ethereum and Solana
According to The Block, in a statement released on Tuesday, PayPal's US dollar stablecoin PYUSD is now using LayerZero to simplify transfers between Ethereum and Solana. The statement said: "This integration eliminates liquidity fragmentation, ensuring fast, secure, and cost-effective transactions for users and businesses." Data shows that the market capitalization of PYUSD on Ethereum has been relatively stable in recent months, at around $350 million. However, the supply of the stablecoin on Solana has plummeted from over $660 million in August to $186 million.
Canary Capital files the first Hedera HBAR spot ETF application with the US SEC
According to The Block, Canary Capital has filed an application with the US Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) for a Hedera HBAR spot ETF, marking the first such cryptocurrency fund. The crypto investment firm filed an S-1 registration statement with the SEC on Tuesday. According to the filing, the fund aims to "provide exposure to the value of the native asset of the Hedera network." According to the filing, the Canary HBAR ETF plans to hold HBAR directly, without using derivatives, futures, or other financial instruments. The S-1 filing did not mention a custodian or manager. The company previously filed registration statements for a spot Litecoin ETF, Solana ETF, and XRP ETF in October. Canary Capital was founded by Steven McClurg, who previously founded Valkyrie Funds, which has other spot cryptocurrency ETFs. CoinGecko data shows that the HBAR price briefly spiked above $0.07 in the early morning, but has since retreated to $0.06501, up 11.1% in 24 hours.
Zerion officially launches the gas-free Layer 2 solution ZERO Network
According to The Block, Zerion has launched its Ethereum Layer 2 solution ZERO Network, allowing Zerion Wallet users to conduct transactions, minting, swapping, and cross-chain activities without gas fees. ZERO Network utilizes smart accounts and Paymasters functionality to support fee-less transactions through account abstraction, providing users with a "zero-fee" on-chain experience. ZERO Network is built on ZKsync technology and is part of the Elastic Chain ecosystem, employing a dynamic scoring system "Onchain DNA" to assess addresses eligible for gas-free transactions. Additionally, Zerion has announced receiving investment support from a group of angel investors, including Yearn developer Banteg, NBA player Duncan Robinson, and angels from Lido, OpenSea, and ETHGlobal.
According to the official announcement of ZetaChain, ZetaChain has reached a cooperation with Google Cloud to jointly promote the widespread application of Bitcoin in Web3 and the development of universal blockchains. In this cooperation, Google Cloud will serve as a validator node of ZetaChain, responsible for the verification of the mainnet and testnet, helping to build a decentralized verification network composed of institutions and the community. ZetaChain will utilize Google Cloud's Protocol Accelerator tool to provide enterprise-level node management, testnet faucet, and data indexing services for developers to improve development efficiency. At the same time, ZetaChain will delegate a total of 1 million ZETA tokens to 5 nodes running on Google Cloud, further promoting the development of the Web3 ecosystem. ZetaChain core contributor Brandon Truong pointed out that ZetaChain provides native access to Bitcoin, allowing Bitcoin to interact with dApps directly without the need for wrapping or bridging.
Coinbase Launches COIN50 Index and Offers Up to 20x Leverage Perpetual Contracts
According to The Block, Coinbase has launched a new index COIN50, which tracks the top 50 digital assets that meet basic criteria. The index is also available in the form of the COIN50-PERP perpetual contract, supporting up to 20x leverage. The COIN50 index aims to provide crypto investors with broad market representation, including mainstream assets such as Bitcoin and Ethereum. Its constituent assets are weighted by market capitalization, with Bitcoin accounting for 50.3%, Ethereum 27.5%, and Solana, XRP, and Doge collectively accounting for about 11.2%. Compared to existing crypto indices, COIN50 covers a wider range of crypto sectors, not just infrastructure-type assets. The COIN50-PERP perpetual contract allows traders to hold positions indefinitely, targeting institutional and advanced users in specific regions. Coinbase plans to continue exploring more ways to allow users to access the index.
According to CoinDesk, the crypto anti-money laundering (AML) startup Notabene has completed a $14.5 million Series B funding round, led by DRW Venture Capital, with participation from Apollo, Nextblock, ParaFi Capital, and Wintermute. Notabene aims to help crypto trading companies comply with AML regulations and provide a SWIFT-like crypto transaction information network for Virtual Asset Service Providers (VASPs), with 165 companies including Copper, OKX, and Ramp using its platform. As Europe incorporates the updated Funds Transfer Regulation (TFR) into crypto transactions, Notabene CEO Pelle Braendgaard expects the platform's transaction volume to increase significantly, currently processing an average of $2 billion in transactions per day. He noted that Europe's compliance requirements will drive the global crypto industry into a stricter regulatory framework. Braendgaard predicted that the United States under future Trump administration leadership may emulate Europe's TFR and MiCA policies to attract crypto transactions back to the US.
According to CoinDesk, on Monday, the strong rise in Bitcoin pushed the value of El Salvador's BTC reserves to over $500 million, while the small country of Bhutan also has over $1 billion in BTC holdings. Data from the El Salvador Bitcoin Office shows the country's Bitcoin reserves are slightly less than 5,932 BTC. At the time of writing, the Bitcoin price is $87,000, with a value of around $516 million. According to data from Arkham Intelligence, Bhutan, with a population of only 800,000 (compared to El Salvador's 6.4 million), holds 12,574 BTC, valued at $1 billion at current prices. In other words, Bhutan's BTC holdings are worth more than one-third of its GDP (slightly less than $30 billion). El Salvador's $500 million in BTC holdings only account for 1.5% of its GDP. In September, Arkham reported that Bhutan is likely to become the fourth-largest Bitcoin-holding country.
USDT Exchange Net Inflows Exceed $1.3 Billion Again
According to CryptoQuant data, the USDT exchange net inflow has exceeded $1.3 billion for the second time in just 6 days, setting a new record. This large-scale stablecoin inflow brings significant buying power to the market, which may drive up the demand for Bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies, especially when these funds are strategically deployed.
A New Wallet Accumulated Around 4,007 BTC from Binance in Nearly 14 Hours, Worth Over $350 Million
According to Onchain Lens monitoring, over the past 14 hours, a new wallet has accumulated 4,007.89 BTC from Binance, worth $353.41 million, at an average purchase price of $88,178. Shortly after, the whale transferred 3,991.59 BTC to a separate wallet, leaving 15.89 BTC (worth $1.41 million) in the main wallet.
