Selected News:

1. The US Treasury Department: The "mixer" in the encryption industry is the main money laundering center that threatens national security.

2. Billionaire and top Silicon Valley investor Peter Thiel is suspected to have become an FBI informant as early as 2021;

3. Paradigm announces the promotion of two partners;

4. Tether CTO: Plans to start real-time release of reserve data and increase technical investment next year;

5. Coinbase Chief Legal Officer: Regulatory agencies may soon approve Bitcoin ETF.

Project Updates

Billionaire and top Silicon Valley investor Peter Thiel suspected to have become an FBI informant as early as 2021

According to Business Insider, in the summer of 2021, billionaire and top Silicon Valley investor Peter Thiel began providing information to Johnathan Buma as a "confidential human source" (CHS). Buma is a special agent of the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) stationed in Los Angeles, specializing in investigating political corruption and foreign influence activities. Thiel's longtime partner Charles Johnson stated in a statement that he introduced Thiel to Buma and helped recruit the billionaire as an FBI informant. A source familiar with Thiel's relationship with the FBI confirmed Johnson's statement. Insider confirmed through another source that the FBI has added Thiel to its official registered informant roster.

Binance will launch BSV 1-50x U perpetual contract

According to an official announcement, Binance will launch the BSV 1-50x U perpetual contract on October 20, 2023 at 20:30 (GMT+8). When the BSVUSDT perpetual contract is launched, its funding rate upper and lower limits will be +2.00% / -2.00%, and funding fees will be settled every four hours.

Bloomberg: ConsenSys founder sued by over 20 former employees, accused of embezzling employee assets by transferring them

According to Bloomberg, Joseph Lubin, the founder of Consensys, has recently been sued by over 20 former employees. Consensys was founded by Joseph Lubin in 2014, and in the early days, Lubin promised equity rewards to employees to attract them to work for the company at lower salaries. About 30% of the company's shares were used for employee incentives, and the employees involved in this lawsuit hold approximately 9% of the company's shares. However, in 2020, Lubin transferred the company's assets, including multiple software products, to a new US company, rendering the stocks held by his early employees almost worthless. In this lawsuit, the employees are demanding compensation for the loss of equity value. Currently, Consensys is valued at over $7 billion. Lubin was involved in the creation of Ethereum along with Vitalik Buterin.

Stacks launches sBTC developer version

According to official sources, Bitcoin Layer2 network Stacks has announced the release of a developer version of sBTC (a BTC version supported 1:1 on the Stacks layer), allowing developers to build and test early versions of sBTC. The sBTC developer version includes a localized devnet version of the sBTC system, which developers can install and run locally on their computers to provide a simple interface for testing sBTC deposit and withdrawal transactions. In addition, Stacks will also release a JavaScript library that can be obtained through NPM, which developers can use in their applications.

Paradigm announces promotion of two partners

Paradigm, a cryptocurrency investment firm co-founded by Matt Huang, announced two personnel appointments on social media. Caitlin Pintavorn (@caitlinxyz) was promoted to investment partner at Paradigm earlier this year, while Frankie (@FrankieIsLost) was promoted to research partner this week. Prior to joining Paradigm, Caitlin Pintavorn was an investor at Insight Partners, focusing on cryptocurrencies. Before joining Insight, Caitlin worked at PathAI and Two Sigma. Caitlin holds a Bachelor's degree in Economics from Brown University. Frankie was previously a machine learning engineer, quantitative developer, and trader, with degrees in Computer Science and Econometrics.

Neutron, a cross-chain smart contract platform, has launched the Neutrality upgrade, which is expected to take place in mid-November.

Cosmos ecosystem Neutron announced the launch of the Neutrality upgrade, which incorporates Duality into the protocol, allowing developers to establish effective markets for any asset and replicate any AMM curve, such as stable pools, weighted or concentrated pools. In addition, the Neutrality upgrade also introduces the Block SDK developed by Skip Protocol, which allows application developers to transparently define how the network builds and verifies on-chain blocks, providing executable and explicit methods to manage and reallocate miner-extractable value (MEV).

Orbiter Finance adds support for cross-chain transfer of USDC and USDT assets on the Scroll mainnetAccording to official sources, Orbiter Finance has added support for cross-chain transactions of USDC and USDT assets on the Scroll mainnet. Users can now transfer these two assets between the Scroll mainnet and other networks.

Tether CTO: Plans to start real-time release of reserve data and increase technical investment next year

According to Bloomberg, Paolo Ardoino, the Chief Technology Officer of Tether, stated that the company plans to start real-time publishing of its reserve data next year. In addition, the company also plans to increase its technological investments, continue dialogue with regulatory agencies, and expand its business into the renewable energy sector.

Regulation

The US Treasury Department: "Mixers" in the cryptocurrency industry are the main money laundering centers that threaten national security

According to WSJ, the Biden administration has identified international cryptocurrency platforms, commonly known as "mixers," as major money laundering centers that threaten national security. The US Treasury Department has proposed an unprecedented measure using laws typically aimed at foreign banks and jurisdictions, which will require special records and reports for any financial transactions involving international mixers. This approach, which may target the entire category of transactions, is an important regulatory measure aimed at shaping the future of the global financial system.

The US Department of Justice: SBF's criminal behavior is complete, and its willingness to repay misappropriated funds cannot be used as a defense argument.

According to a court document, US prosecutors have pointed out that SBF's intention to repay embezzled or fraudulently obtained funds cannot be used as a defense argument. The prosecutors stated that during the trial, the defense attempted to present evidence and arguments to show that the defendant's embezzlement of FTX client funds did not constitute a crime because he believed he could eventually repay the clients. The Department of Justice added that, as previously noted by the court, whether the defendant intended to repay the embezzled funds is not relevant from a legal perspective, as the criminal act is complete.

SEC wins Thor Technologies and its co-founder's illegal securities lawsuit

According to court documents, the US Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) has issued a default judgment against Thor Technologies and its founder David Chin, accusing them of issuing $2.6 million worth of unregistered cryptographic asset securities. It is reported that default judgments typically occur when the opposing party fails to take certain actions, either by failing to attend the trial or failing to submit documents within the prescribed time limit. The court has prohibited Thor and Chin from participating in any cryptographic asset securities issuance and ordered the return of $744,555 plus pre-judgment interest of $158,638.06. This order does not prevent Chin from buying or selling securities, including cryptographic asset securities, for his personal account.

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