This week’s review｜Binance settles with the US Department of Justice, CZ resigns; Blur founder launches new L2 network Blast, TVL exceeds US$500 million

BlockBeats will compile industry news highlights for the week of 11.20-11.26 in this article, and recommend in-depth articles to help readers better understand the market and industry trends.

This Week's Important News Review

Binance reaches settlements with the US Department of Justice, CFTC, OFAC, and FinCEN, with a total fine of over $4.3 billion, CZ steps down as CEO

On November 22, Binance announced that it had reached a resolution with the US Department of Justice (DOJ), the US Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC), the US Treasury Department's Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC), and the Financial Crimes Enforcement Network (FinCEN) regarding historical registration, compliance, and sanctions issues. The total fine amounted to $4.368 billion. This resolution marks the company's acknowledgment of past criminal compliance violations and indicates that it will use this as an opportunity to lay the foundation for the next 50 years of development.

Subsequently, Binance founder CZ announced his resignation as CEO. The company has banned him from participating in its operations for three years from the date of his self-appointment as supervisor. Binance must strengthen its compliance plan and appoint an independent monitor for a term of three years. After the plea agreement, the CEO and Chief Compliance Officer of Binance must demonstrate compliance with the terms of the plea agreement. CZ admitted to committing money laundering and violating US sanctions, and reached a comprehensive settlement agreement with the United States, allowing the cryptocurrency trading platform to continue operating. In addition, CZ faces a maximum of 10 years in prison, but according to the plea agreement, the expected sentence will not exceed 18 months. The US Department of Justice has not made a final decision on his sentence length, and defense lawyers stated in court that the sentencing will be postponed for 6 months.

Related reading: "43 billion US dollars fine, CZ resigns, sorting out all the information points of Binance's settlement with US regulators", "Timeline | What happened to Binance and CZ last night during the historical settlement?"

Blur Founder Launches Layer 2 Network Blast, Secures $20 Million Funding

On November 21st, the founder of Blur announced the launch of Layer 2 network Blast based on Optimistic Rollup, and revealed that it has secured $20 million in funding. This round of funding was co-led by Paradigm, Standard Crypto, eGirl Capital, and Mechanism Capital, with participation from several angel investors including Andrew Kang, Lido strategic advisor Hasu, and The Block CEO Larry Cermak. Disruptor Enters the Game? Blur Founder Uses "Earn and Invite" Strategy to Enter the Layer 2 Race

HTX Hot Wallet and Heco Cross-Chain Bridge Hacked, Total Asset Loss Nearly $100 Million

On November 22nd, according to Cyvers Alerts AI system monitoring, there were a large number of suspicious transactions in the HTX hot wallet, and the suspicious address exchanged all received assets into ETH and distributed them to different EOA wallets. The investigation showed that the total loss was about $12.4 million. On the same day, according to PeckShield's monitoring, there was an abnormal outflow of $86.6 million in funds from the HECO Chain cross-chain bridge. Related reading: "Stolen four times in two months, Justin Sun's platform was hacked again for nearly $100 million".

50 million USD position was liquidated due to YFI crash, dYdX liquidation mechanism questioned by the community

On November 18th, something happened on the decentralized perpetual contract exchange dYdX that caused widespread discussion in the community. Data analysis platform Arkham posted that about 50 million USD of open positions were liquidated on dYdX due to the YFI crash. It is reported that before this, nearly half of YFI's open positions were on dYdX. Arkham added that normally YFI's trading volume on dYdX is very low, but the recent surge in the token's price has led to a peak of about 60 million USD in open contracts. Related reading: "50 million USD position was liquidated due to YFI crash, dYdX liquidation mechanism questioned by the community".

Bittrex Global Ends All Operations

On November 21st, according to official sources, Bittrex Global announced that it will end all operations. Starting from 12:00 AM on December 5th, 2023 Beijing time, all trading activities on Bittrex Global will be disabled. After this date, customers will only be able to withdraw their assets during the liquidation process. Related reading: "Bittrex Ends All Operations, Former "B Network" Officially Becomes History".

Bitcoin supporter Javier Milei wins Argentine presidential election

On November 20th, Bitcoin supporter Javier Milei won the Argentine presidential election. It is reported that Javier Milei has made relevant remarks in public interviews many times. One of his important goals after being elected president is to stop the inflation of the Argentine peso and the continuous reduction of people's wealth. Milei is trying to abolish the peso and the central bank and use the US dollar as the legal currency. Javier Milei will be inaugurated as president on December 10th. "Today, the reconstruction of Argentina begins. This is a historic night for Argentina," Javier Milei told excited supporters at his campaign headquarters in Buenos Aires. Related reading: "This "Bitcoin fanatic" has really become the President of Argentina".

A large number of accounts were misjudged as robots, and Friend.Tech users have withdrawn in large numbers

On August 10, 2023, Friend.Tech was officially launched. On October 2, the TVL of Friend.Tech exceeded 50 million US dollars. On November 19, its TVL fell to 33.98 million US dollars, a decrease of 19.5% compared to 42.25 million US dollars on November 18. After nearly three months of madness in the crypto community, it has encountered a cold sentiment. Although the Friend.Tech team maintains a stable update frequency, the founder's withdrawals, a large number of robot accounts rushing to profit, and frequent changes in point rules have made the community user experience unsatisfactory. With a large number of real user accounts being misjudged as robots recently, the data performance of Friend.Tech reflects that the platform is experiencing a crisis. Related reading: "Friend.Tech users withdraw in large numbers, can the friendship boat of Web3 social withstand the test?"

Cryptocurrency trading platform SafeTrade frequently recharges without account, causing community doubts

On the evening of November 22, according to feedback from many community members, the cryptocurrency trading platform SafeTrade is suspected of being unable to withdraw and recharge. SafeTrade is a centralized cryptocurrency trading platform established in 2018. According to the SafeTrade official website, the platform mainly trades PoW coins such as SMH and QUBIC, and currently has 53 currencies and 102 trading pairs. After many doubts appeared in the community, SafeTrade released an announcement on the official Discord, stating that although the platform update took a little longer, it is now close to completion, and the main wallet will soon resume full service, and more services will be restored one after another. Subsequently, SafeTrade announced on its official Twitter today that it has resumed $QUBIC deposit and withdrawal services as well as USDT deposit and withdrawal services. Related reading: "Event Progress | Mine Coin Trading Platform SafeTrade Resumes USDT Recharge and Withdrawal Services, Previously Suspended Services Suspected of Running Away"

DEX Aggregator and Liquidity Platform Kyberswap Hacked, Involving $47 Million

On the morning of November 23rd at around 7am, DEX aggregator and liquidity platform KyberSwap was reportedly attacked, involving $47 million. This is not the first security incident that KyberSwap has encountered. Related reading: "Timeline | Kyberswap Hacked, Involving $47 Million".

Sam Altman will return to OpenAI as CEO

On November 22nd, OpenAI announced that it has reached a preliminary agreement to have Sam Altman return as CEO in the capacity of a new board member (with Chairman Bret Taylor and members Larry Summers and Adam D'Angelo), and is working on the details of the collaboration. Previously, more than 599 of the 700 employees of OpenAI signed a joint letter demanding the resignation of the board and the restoration of Sam and Greg's positions after Sam Altman was removed from the board.

MATR1X Completes $10 Million A-2 Round Financing, Led by Folius Ventures and SevenX Ventures

On November 23, MATR1X announced that it has successfully raised $10 million in its recent A-2 round financing, bringing the total amount raised to $20 million. The round was led by Folius Ventures and co-led by SevenX Ventures, with other investors including ABCDE Capital, Find Satoshi Lab, Initiate Capital, and Jambo.

This Week's Popular Articles

The CZ era of Binance comes to an end, possibly the greatest 6 years of Chinese entrepreneurship

43 billion US dollars in fines, this is the largest fine in the history of Chinese entrepreneurship, bar none. From 6 years ago when he recorded a video introducing Binance in front of his own Shanghai company, to using a $4.3 billion fine to resign and maintain the operation of Binance, founder Zhao Changpeng only took 6 years to make Binance the world's largest cryptocurrency trading platform with 150 million users and thousands of employees around the world, also one of the most successful companies going global, under the blessing of the cryptocurrency boom.

CZ Open Letter in Full: This is the Best Choice

On November 22nd, Binance announced a resolution with the US Department of Justice, Commodity Futures Trading Commission, Office of Foreign Assets Control, and Financial Crimes Enforcement Network regarding historical registration, compliance, and sanction issues. According to sources, Binance paid over $4 billion in fines, including $3.4 billion from the Financial Crimes Enforcement Network (FINCEN) and $968 million from the Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC) (totaling $4.368 billion). Meanwhile, Bloomberg reported that CZ has appeared in a Seattle court. It is reported that CZ faces a maximum of 10 years in prison, but according to a plea agreement, the expected sentence will not exceed 18 months. The US Department of Justice has not made a final decision on his sentence length, and defense lawyers stated in court that the sentencing will be delayed by 6 months. CZ published an open letter on social media at the first opportunity.

Freedom is expensive, and the last time I heard its price was $4.3 billion.

Freedom is expensive. The last time I heard about its price was $4.3 billion. Amidst the recent buzz about Binance, what I am most interested in is not the amount of the fine or the charges imposed by the US Department of Justice, but the photo of CZ appearing in Seattle, USA. This should be the first time that CZ, who was born in Jiangsu, grew up in Canada, and started his business in Shanghai, has set foot on North American soil after Binance became a crypto giant. For CZ, the air in Dubai is still too dry.

Two and a half years of continuous promotion, who is Richard Teng, the new CEO of Binance?

The dust has settled. On November 22nd, Binance founder Zhao Changpeng announced his resignation as CEO, stating "I made a mistake and I must take responsibility." At the same time, Richard Teng will take over as Binance CEO. In June of this year, Bloomberg published an article titled "Binance's Regulatory Woes Pave Way for CZ Successor Richard Teng," predicting that if CZ resigned due to regulatory issues, Richard Teng would become the next Binance CEO. For most people, the name Richard Teng is quite unfamiliar. In fact, he is not a Binance veteran. According to his personal profile on Linkedin, Richard Teng joined Binance in 2021 and has only been with the company for 2 years and 4 months, experiencing 5 promotions.

闹剧落幕，Sam Altman belongs to Microsoft

After experiencing a 72-hour drama, OpenAI's interim CEO, Mira Murati, announced three hours ago that the company plans to rehire Sam Altman and Greg Brockman. However, this seems to have caused significant disagreement with OpenAI's current board of directors. Earlier on Sunday, three sources told Forbes that the OpenAI board had chosen former Twitch CEO Emmett Shear as interim CEO. This also means that Mira Murati has ultimately chosen to stand against the board. And just 10 minutes ago, OpenAI founders Sam Altman and Greg Brockman finally announced their ultimate destination - Microsoft.

Why is the emergence of Blast a big win for Layer2?

This week, after the founder of Blur launched the Layer2 network Blast, the market's response has been mixed. Currently, ordinary users can only participate in Blast and earn points by "recruiting" others and staking cryptocurrencies. After the official mainnet is launched in February next year, airdrops will be distributed based on points, similar to the previous Blur model. This simple and crude method has also caused many cryptocurrency users to have mixed feelings. Cryptocurrency researcher Haotian has published his views on Blast's model and its impact on the Layer2 track on X.

Review of the 10 finalists of the ETH Global Istanbul Hackathon

ETH Global Istanbul Hackathon has recently started. Multiple new projects are competing, and the following are the 10 projects that have advanced to the final round.

Turkey Devconnect Notes: Ethereum's New Narrative is Powerless, Chaos is the Cryptographic Ladder

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