BNB market value surpasses Blackstone Group; Coinbase establishes technical anti-fraud alliance

Golden Weekly is a weekly blockchain industry summary column launched by Golden Finance, covering the week's key news, mining information, project dynamics, technological progress and other industry dynamics. This article is the news weekly, which takes you to a glance at the major events of the blockchain industry this week.

Headline

▌Trump: If elected president, he will pardon the creator of "Silk Road"

Trump said at the Libertarian Party National Convention held in Washington, DC that if he is re-elected as president, he will commute the sentence and release Ross Ulbricht, the creator of "Silk Road". "If you vote for me, I will convert Ross Ulbricht's sentence to a limited term on my first day in office. He has served 11 years in prison, and we will send him home." Previously, Ross Ulbricht was sentenced to two consecutive life sentences plus 40 years in prison without parole in 2015 for creating and operating the "Silk Road". Note: "Silk Road" is a black market shopping website that uses Tor's hidden services to operate. It mainly trades banned items and is considered the first real use case of Bitcoin.

▌BNB market value surpasses Blackstone Group

According to the latest data from 8marketcap, BNB's market value has reached approximately US$91.35 billion, surpassing Blackstone Group (the current market value is approximately US$90.73 billion), the largest listed investment management company in the United States, and has risen to 196th in global asset value.

▌Coinbase announces the establishment of a technical anti-fraud alliance

Coinbase and industry leaders such as Match Group, Meta, Kraken, Ripple, Gemini and GASO have launched a technical anti-fraud alliance to combat online fraud and financial scams. The partnership aims to protect and educate users, emphasizing that fraud is a problem within technology, not limited to social media, cryptocurrency or finance.

▌World Economic Forum: CBDC may face decryption attacks from quantum computer systems

The World Economic Forum (WEF) recently issued a stern warning that central bank digital currencies (CBDCs) may face decryption attacks from quantum computer systems.

▌Binance's decision to revoke its license by emergency in Florida was overturned

Market news: Binance's decision to revoke its license by emergency in Florida was overturned.

Policy

▌Galaxy Research Director: SEC may seek a balance point in Ethereum ETF approval that ETH itself is not a security and pledged ETH is a security

According to Alex Thorn, head of research at Galaxy Digital, on the X platform, if the speculation about the 180-degree turn of the US Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) on the Ethereum ETF is true, I guess they will try to find a balance between the following two: "ETH" itself is not a security, and "pledged ETH" (or more far-fetchedly, "pledged ETH as a service") is a security. This is roughly consistent with their various lawsuits and reports on the investigation, and may allow the SEC to approve the Ethereum ETF while maintaining the views they have previously stated and argued. In this case, the SEC may prohibit the ETF from pledging its ETH holdings.

▌Famous US lawyer: US SEC will abandon the argument that ETH is a security

On May 21, Scott Johnsson, a well-known US financial lawyer, posted on the X platform that the Ethereum spot ETF applied by Fidelity has stated that it will not pledge ETH, and the bigger signal is that the commodity grantor trust structure and disclosure have not changed. All signs indicate that the US Securities and Exchange Commission will abandon the argument that ETH is a security.

▌Hong Kong Privacy Commissioner ruled that Worldcoin violated the Privacy Ordinance and required to stop collecting iris and facial images

The Office of the Privacy Commissioner for Personal Data has completed its investigation into the Worldcoin "World Coin" project. Privacy Commissioner Chung Lai-ling ruled that the operation of "World Coin" in Hong Kong violated the Privacy Ordinance and has issued an enforcement notice requiring the cessation of collecting citizens' iris and facial images with iris scanning devices. The investigation results show that "WorldCoin" violates the data protection principles of the Privacy Ordinance regarding the collection, retention, transparency, access and correction of personal data. The collection of facial and iris images is not necessary and is excessive. As for the fact that "WorldCoin" will retain personal data for up to 10 years to train the artificial intelligence model of the identity verification program, the Office believes that the time is too long and it is excessive to retain personal data. WorldCoin confirmed that a total of 8,302 people were authenticated by facial and iris scanning during its operation in Hong Kong.

▌US SEC Chairman opposes the House's "21st Century Financial Innovation and Technology Act"

US SEC Chairman Gary Gensler said on Wednesday that the "21st Century Financial Innovation and Technology Act" (FIT21 Act) will harm the interests of investors and hinder the work of the US Securities and Exchange Commission. Gary Gensler believes that the bill will create new regulatory loopholes, undermine decades of precedents on investment contract supervision, and expose investors and capital markets to immeasurable risks.

▌US lawmakers urge the SEC to approve spot Ethereum ETF

As people increasingly look forward to the approval of spot Ethereum (ETH) exchange-traded funds (ETFs) in the United States, members of the House of Representatives are urging securities regulators to approve the new product. On May 22, bipartisan members of the House of Representatives, including Majority Whip Tom Emmer and Democrat Josh Gottheimer, wrote to SEC Chairman Gary Gensler, asking the SEC to approve a spot Ethereum ETF. Lawmakers believe that a potential spot Ethereum ETF will provide investors with the opportunity to invest in ETH in a more regulated and secure form. “We urge the Commission to maintain a consistent and fair approach in its review of pending applications for ETFs backed by other digital assets,” the lawmakers wrote, adding: “Specifically, the Commission should apply the same principles it established when approving spot Bitcoin ETPs in its evaluation of pending Ethereum ETF applications, as the legal considerations associated with Bitcoin also apply to Ethereum.”

▌Malaysian police crack down on cryptocurrency money laundering scam, seize 18 luxury cars and freeze $10.8 million in bank accounts

Malaysian law enforcement officers recently arrested ten people suspected of using cryptocurrency to launder money The suspects' assets, including cars, worth more than $7.7 million were seized, and bank accounts holding about $10.8 million were frozen. Law enforcement officers also seized brand-name watches worth more than $3.9 million, 18 luxury cars, motorcycles and handbags, and a total of $106,800 in cash. Malaysian Police Chief Tan Sri Razaruddin Hussein revealed that the eight arrested men and two women aged between 28 and 51 used unregistered money changers and cryptocurrency exchanges to transfer funds from illegal activities from abroad to Malaysia. They are understood to have been arrested under Section 5 of the Malaysian Anti-Money Laundering, Anti-Terrorism Financing and Proceeds of Unlawful Activities Act. 4(1) was detained.

Blockchain Applications

▌Uniswap founder: The FIT21 bill recognizes that CeFi and DeFi are fundamentally different and need to be studied and treated differently

Uniswap founder Hayden Adams tweeted that this week the U.S. House of Representatives plans to vote on the FIT21 bill, a bipartisan bill aimed at regulating CeFi to prevent another FTX. The bill's view on DeFi is that no one is bound by this bill as far as decentralized finance is concerned, and it proposes a study of DeFi, similar to Europe's study of MiCA. It is a big deal that Congress recognizes that CeFi and DeFi are fundamentally different and need to be studied and treated differently, and it is a clear step in the right direction for the United States. Golden Finance previously reported that about 50 organizations and companies including Coinbase and a16z wrote to the U.S. House of Representatives to support the FIT21 bill.

▌The EU intends to introduce blockchain infrastructure to improve record keeping and data transmission between member states

The EU has established a new organization to introduce blockchain infrastructure and improve record keeping and data transmission between the 27 EU member states. This took place during the European Council Telecommunications Ministers' Meeting in Brussels, where lawmakers also approved the EU's landmark artificial intelligence law. Mathieu Michel, Belgian Secretary of State for Digitalization, said that blockchain infrastructure will affect individuals and companies. Michel promoted the blockchain project managed by EU countries and called it Europeum. He said at a press conference that Europeum will be tangible in the daily lives of European citizens. This will allow citizens to trace the origin of their products and enable companies to protect their intellectual property rights by maintaining data on an immutable blockchain network. Ten European member states, including Italy, Poland and Greece, have agreed to help operate and launch the EU blockchain. Other European countries will still be able to use this blockchain infrastructure. Michel added that more countries are expected to join. Germany and France have not yet committed to the arrangement, but the latter has been supportive of the project.

▌Uniswap Labs: UNI token is a file format, not an investment contract

Uniswap Labs pointed out in its official blog that the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission generated the Uniswap protocol as an unregistered securities exchange controlled by Uniswap Labs, the Uniswap interface belongs to an unregistered securities broker-dealer, and the UNI token is an investment contract. In fact, the UNI token is a file format, similar to PDF, and the protocol is a general computer program that anyone can use and integrate, just like TCP/IP. In the early days of the protocol, hundreds of thousands of users who received UNI tokens for their participation received the tokens for free, without contracts, and without the expectation of profiting from Uniswap Labs' efforts.

▌Near plans to use AI chatbots to help users write DApps

Near co-founder Illia Polosukhin shared the company's goal to support dreamers without technical coding skills through an artificial intelligence (AI) chatbot that can create decentralized applications (DApps) for them. In addition, the NEAR Foundation has also established HZN, an incubator and investment department focusing on artificial intelligence projects, to support early Web3 x AI projects.

▌Vitalik: For a Layer 2-centric ecosystem to succeed, challenges such as coordination need to be understood and solved

Ethereum co-founder Vitalik Buterin wrote that "Layer2" and "sharding" are often described as two opposing strategies for blockchain expansion in public discussions. But when you dig deeper into the underlying technology, you'll find a mystery: the actual expansion method is exactly the same. Both have some form of data sharding, both have fraud proofs or ZK-SNARK proofs, and both have ways to solve cross-{rollup, shard} communication. The main difference is who is responsible for building and updating these parts, and how much autonomy they have. A Layer2-centric ecosystem is a very real technical implementation of sharding, but it is a shard that can create its own rules. This is very powerful and can inspire a lot of creativity and independent innovation. But it also has key challenges, especially in terms of coordination. For a Layer2-centric ecosystem like Ethereum to succeed, it needs to understand these challenges and solve them head-on to get as many advantages of a Layer1-centric ecosystem as possible and get as close as possible to having the best features of both.

Crypto

▌Major Cryptocurrency Exchanges Announce Over 1,200 Job Openings

Major cryptocurrency exchanges including Binance, Coinbase, OKX and Crypto.com are expanding their staffs, offering more than 1,200 job openings in total. Binance leads this hiring spree with 460 positions, followed by OKX with 414 positions, Crypto.com with 335 positions and Coinbase with 224 positions. The hiring activity was driven by market optimism, particularly around Bitcoin and Ethereum exchange-traded funds (ETFs), as well as increased venture capital investment. This trend is a clear shift from the massive layoffs the industry has experienced in the past two years. The positive market outlook and renewed confidence in the cryptocurrency industry have driven this hiring spree, marking a period of growth and expansion for these leading exchanges.

▌Variant Fund Chief Legal Officer: If the spot Ethereum ETF is approved, it may mark a major shift in US policy on cryptocurrencies

Variant Fund Chief Legal Officer Jake Chervinsky posted on X that if the spot Ethereum ETF is approved, everyone I know in Washington who is close to this process will be shocked. This means that after the SAB 121 vote, the approval may mark a major shift in US cryptocurrency policy, perhaps more important than the ETF itself.

▌Former Heartland Tri-State Bank CEO pleads guilty to embezzling $47 million to buy cryptocurrency, leading to the bank's collapse

Former Heartland Tri-State Bank CEO Shan Hanes pleaded guilty Thursday to embezzling $47.1 million for personal cryptocurrency purchases, leading to the bank's collapse. From May to July 2023, Hanes made at least 10 wire transfers from the Elkhart-based bank to cryptocurrency accounts. The bank's collapse resulted in the total loss of investors' equity. The Kansas Banking Commission seized the bank, which was later acquired by Dream First Bank. U.S. Attorney Kate E. Brubacher described Hanes as a "con manipulator and liar" who faces up to 30 years in prison with sentencing scheduled for August 8, 2024.

▌The NFT project "2426C" planned by Edison Chen is suspected to be closed down

According to Superme Intelligence Network, the NFT project "2426C" planned by Edison Chen in February 2022 is suspected to be closed down. At present, the official push and Instagram of 2426C have not updated content since April 6, 2023; the Discord channel is also "quite deserted and has no trace of operation". Some netizens asked under Edison Chen's Instagram account but received no response. The NFT with the highest transaction price at the time that Edison Chen forwarded at the beginning of the project has fallen from 18.88 ETH at the time to the current 0.025 ETH. In addition, ETHSuperme Intelligence Network pointed out that the total income of NFTs sold by Edison Chen that year was about 38 million yuan. In addition, in addition to Edison Chen, the NFT projects supported by some other artists such as Shawn Yue are also close to zero.

▌Trump: Positive and open to cryptocurrency companies and related industries

Donald Trump made clear his support for cryptocurrency on Truth Social. Trump said: "Positive and open to cryptocurrency companies and related industries, the United States must be a leader." He also criticized Biden for wanting the crypto industry to "slowly and painfully die." In addition, Trump also said that he would never allow the creation of CBDC and keep congressmen who oppose cryptocurrency away from Bitcoin.

Important Economic Dynamics

▌Federal Reserve Mester: The expectation of three rate cuts this year is no longer appropriate

Cleveland Fed President Mester said on Monday that she believes the Fed's monetary policy is restrictive and inflation will fall back toward the Fed's 2% target, but not soon. Mester previously believed that the Fed might cut interest rates three times this year, but "from the economic evolution that I have seen so far, I don't think that's appropriate anymore," she said. "Given the stagnation of inflation progress in the first quarter, inflation risks have risen, and frankly, the actual situation is a little stronger than I expected."

▌Federal Reserve Governor Waller: May consider cutting interest rates at the end of this year

Federal Reserve Governor Waller said that policies must keep inflation down; we are beginning to see that policies put downward pressure on demand; monetary policy is already tight enough; based on the data, we don't seem to need to raise interest rates; if the data supports it, we may consider cutting interest rates at the end of this year.

▌Goldman Sachs CEO Solomon expects the Fed will not cut interest rates this year

Goldman Sachs Group CEO David Solomon said he currently expects the Federal Reserve not to cut interest rates this year because the economy has shown greater resilience thanks to government spending. "I still don't see convincing data that we will cut interest rates," he said at an event at Boston College, adding that he currently predicts "zero" rate cuts. Investments in artificial intelligence infrastructure have also made the economy more resilient in the face of the Fed's monetary tightening. Solomon also said that there is a greater risk that the economy will slow down in a "real and tangible" way than six months ago. He mentioned geopolitical fragility and said people will have to live with it for a long time.

▌U.S. Treasury Secretary: High interest rates test U.S. debt

U.S. Treasury Secretary Yellen said that the prospect of interest rates remaining at a high level in the long run makes it more difficult to control U.S. borrowing needs, highlighting the importance of focusing on increasing fiscal revenue in budget negotiations with Republican lawmakers. "We have raised our interest rate expectations, and this does have an impact. This makes it more challenging to keep deficits and interest payments under control," Yellen said. She reiterated, emphasizing the ratio of inflation-adjusted interest payments to GDP. This ratio has risen over the past year, but the White House expects it to stabilize at around 1.3% over the next decade. "I don't have a hard rule, but I don't want to see it above 2%," she said. This is her most explicit comment on this indicator so far.

Disclaimer: As a blockchain information platform, Golden Finance publishes articles for information reference only and is not intended as actual investment advice. Please establish a correct investment concept and be sure to increase risk awareness.