Blockchain Weekly Report | Supervision Fist Attacks Virtual Coins, Canaan Technology Nasdaq Listed

PA Weekly Issue 83.11.18-11.24

Text | Editing by Zhou Wenyi | Bi Tongtong Source | PANews

Summary: Beijing police recently cracked down on the illegal digital currency exchange BISS scam; Shenzhen issued a virtual currency risk alert to identify 39 illegally active companies; global asset management giant Fidelity obtained a New York State license to operate cryptocurrency custody and trading; Ponzi scheme OneCoin lawyers have refused to plead guilty for a $ 400 million money laundering scam.

• Why "Break the MimbleWimble Privacy Model" does not apply to BEAM
• Opinion: Blockchain development requires industry self-regulation and market supervision, applying technology to the real world and creating value
• Jia Nan’s coronation moment

According to PANews statistics, there were 10 projects in the blockchain field announced last week with a total amount of more than USD 147.3375 million (excluding projects for which specific investment and financing amounts have not been disclosed), involving mining, terminals, games, infrastructure, payment, Wallets, online payments and information.

o1 Beijing police recently cracked down on BISS fraud on illegal digital currency exchange

On November 22, according to the Beijing News, recently, Beijing police cracked down on the fraud of the illegal digital currency exchange BISS and arrested dozens of criminal suspects. In order to prevent the resurgence of illegal financial activities in virtual currency transactions, the Beijing Municipal Bureau of Local Financial Supervision and the Business Management Department of the People's Bank of China adhere to the principle of "seeking to fight" for the above illegal financial activities and continue to maintain a high-pressure regulatory situation. Once found, they will be dealt with seriously.

 

o2 National Standardization Commission: New batch of national professional standardization technical committees such as blockchain

On November 20, according to the official website information of the National Standardization Administration Committee, the National Standardization Administration recently established a number of national professional standardization technical committees. Focusing on hot topics such as blockchain technology, sharing economy, baby products, etc., the National Standardization Commission has also accelerated the construction of standardized technical organizations, initiated the preparation of a number of technical committees such as blockchain and distributed accounting technology. Orderly progress.

 

o3 Fintech Application Pilot Program Approved and Launches Chinese Version of Fintech "Supervision Sandbox"

On November 21, according to the Economic Reference News, pilot projects for fintech applications in multiple places were approved and launched, and the Chinese version of the “regulatory sandbox” was also promoted at full speed. Reporters learned from various interviews that since the end of last year, six departments including the central bank decided to launch fintech application pilots in ten provinces and municipalities, including Beijing, Shanghai, and Fujian.

It is understood that the approved application projects in several pilot areas involve distributed databases and artificial intelligence, and other technologies, including the promotion of financial and emerging technology integration applications, the promotion of financial and livelihood service system interconnection applications, the promotion of data resource fusion applications, and the strengthening of Regulatory technology applications.

 

o4 Non-Joint Offices: Beware of illegal fundraising by the people who use the blockchain name to report rewards

On November 19, according to the 21st Century Business Herald, the Inter-Ministerial Joint Conference Office on Disposal of Illegal Fundraising, set up at the China Banking and Insurance Regulatory Commission, sent a letter to the non-offices of provinces and cities on November 18, reminding to prevent illegal fundraising in the name of "blockchain" risk.

Because ordinary people do not understand technology, they are easily fooled. The Joint Office of the Ministry of Economic Affairs and Foreign Affairs suggested that the development of blockchain development policies and professional knowledge should be carried out in various places to guide the public's scientific and rational view of blockchain technology innovation and application; promptly reveal the risk of illegal fundraising under the guise of "blockchain" and enhance public identification. Ability to prevent blind follow-up and deception.

In addition, the reporter learned that in terms of preventing illegal fund-raising by borrowing the name of the blockchain, the relevant departments encourage the public to actively report and reward those who meet the requirements.

It is reported that as early as 2016, the Joint Meeting of the Division and Africa issued the "Illegal Fundraising Reporting and Rewarding Measures". The measures stipulate that the clues reported by the masses for illegal fundraising shall be rewarded upon verification by the relevant departments. After receiving the report, relevant departments shall promptly organize inspections and make award decisions in accordance with the regulations if they meet the reward conditions. Each locality may adopt the method of "one case, one discussion" or centralized processing to identify and reward the clues for reporting.

 

o5 The State Administration of Foreign Exchange expands its cross-border blockchain platform

On November 25, according to the Economic Reference News, Zhang Xin, deputy director of the State Administration of Foreign Exchange, said in an exclusive interview that after two years of meticulous technical preparations, the foreign exchange bureau has launched a cross-border financial block on March 22 this year. Chain service platform (hereinafter referred to as cross-border blockchain platform), and took the lead in piloting in 7 provinces (municipalities) and 14 corporate banks.

Recently, the platform has been expanded to 17 provinces (municipalities, autonomous regions). As of November 20, the platform has accumulated a total of 8.214 billion US dollars (including RMB 6.275 billion) of receivables financing, and a total of 1,590 service enterprises, of which SMEs accounted for about 70%. More than 160 corporate banks have voluntarily joined the platform, accounting for about one-third of all foreign exchange banks. It is understood that this platform is currently the only blockchain platform that the central state agency has filed in the State Internet Information Office.

Zhang Xin pointed out that under the traditional trade financing model, there are certain obstacles to SMEs' cross-border receivables pledge financing. On the one hand, small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) are small in scale, lack of funds, inadequate management, and lack of credit information. In particular, the creditworthiness of individual enterprises is poor, so that banks are often cautious about cross-border financing of SMEs. On the other hand, due to the lack of effective and convenient channels for verifying the authenticity of pledges, banks are not willing to handle related businesses. At the same time, regulators need to spend more energy to monitor, verify, and inspect false and deceptive financing transactions, and they face difficulties in supervision.

According to reports, the cross-border blockchain platform is a "blockchain + cross-border financial service". It uses the underlying blockchain technology independently developed by the China Bank of China Blockchain Technology Research Institute affiliated to the People's Bank of China to establish an end-to-end Trusted information exchange and effective verification, real-time interaction of inter-bank trade financing information, etc., to achieve a variety of information sharing, including fund receipt and payment, pledged documents, financing applications, loans, etc., to optimize the reconstruction of financing business processes and facilitate banks Quickly and accurately handle corporate financing project audits and credit granting verifications, helping to alleviate the difficulties of small and medium-sized enterprises in financing and difficult bank risk control.

 

o6 Shenzhen issued a virtual currency risk alert to identify 39 illegal activity companies

On November 20, the Shenzhen Special Economic Zone reported that on November 19, the Standing Committee of the Shenzhen Municipal Committee held a meeting and pointed out that it is necessary to actively promote the development of blockchain and economic and social integration, promote integrated innovation, strengthen application demonstrations, empower the real economy, and accelerate "Blockchain +" is used in the fields of people's livelihood security and social services, and strives to make blockchain technology play a greater role in economic and social development. It is necessary to strengthen the guiding norms for the application of blockchain, strengthen the cultivation and introduction of leading talents and teams, explore the establishment of a security guarantee system that is suitable for the blockchain technology mechanism, and promote the orderly development of blockchain.

On November 21, the Shenzhen Municipal Internet Financial Risk and other special rectification work leading group office issued a risk alert on preventing "virtual currency" illegal activities. It claims that illegal activities will be investigated and evidence collected, and once found, it will be dealt with seriously in accordance with the "Announcement on Preventing the Financing Risk of Token Issuance".

On November 22, the Shenzhen Special Economic Zone reported that the virtual currency hype would be included in the focus of Shenzhen's local financial supervision. The latest information shows that the local financial supervision bureau of Shenzhen has passed the coffin system to detect 39 illegal enterprises suspected of carrying out virtual currency.

It is understood that the Shenzhen Lingyin financial security big data supervision platform was jointly developed by Shenzhen Finance Office and Tencent. Through the identification and monitoring and early warning of financial risks, we help local financial supervision, ensure the safety of financial operations, and prevent and control financial risks.

 

o7 South Korean Parliament approves law amendments that will allow banks to provide account services to crypto exchanges

On November 18, according to CoinDesk Korea, the Korean Parliament's Administrative Committee approved the amendment to the law on the reporting of specific financial transaction information ("Law on Reporting and Utilization of Specific Financial Transaction Information (Special Financial Law)"), including relaxation Contents of the cryptocurrency exchange license conditions. Law amendments will be enacted after the Plenary Session of the Council, the Judiciary Committee of the Rule of Law, and the Plenary Session of the Congress.

o1 Bitfinex faces class action again, responding that it will not settle and will dismiss the lawsuit

Bitfinex issued an announcement saying that on November 22, Bitfinex received another class action lawsuit against Bitfinex and Tether from the US District Court for the Western District of Washington. But like the previous class action on October 6, the lawsuit had the same flaws, and the plaintiff's claims were also unfounded. Bitfinex strongly opposed the use of counterfeit research as a plaintiff's supporting argument. What needs to be clear is that there will not be any form of settlement in this lawsuit, but all the claims made in these two lawsuits will be vigorously debated, and finally the claimants who filed the lawsuit will fully evaluate their legal responsibilities, as appropriate. Time to take action.

Earlier in October, the US District Court for the Southern District of New York filed a class action lawsuit against Bitfinex and Tether. According to public documents, the plaintiff accused Bitfinex and Tether of defrauding investors, manipulating the market, and hiding illegal profits through Tether. Bitfinex and Tether have been awarded compensation of up to $ 1.4 trillion.

 

o2 Global Asset Management Giant Fidelity Receives New York State License for Cryptocurrency Custody and Trading

On November 20, according to The Block, Fidelity Digital Assets, the global asset management giant's crypto division Fidelity Digital Assets, announced that the New York State Department of Financial Services (DFS) approved its subsidiary, Fidelity Digital Asset Services (FDAS) Obtaining a BitLicense cryptocurrency business license can operate as a limited liability custodian company in the state's cryptocurrency market.

Fidelity Digital Asset Director Tom Jessop said the move would expand its potential customer base to compete with custody businesses such as Coinbase Custody and Bakkt, which already has operations in New York.

The company has also completed SOC1 Type 1 certification through four major accounting firms. Fidelity's escrow solution is paired with a transaction execution platform that allows its customers to buy and sell Bitcoin through multiple liquidity sources. The platform has been running for 6 months, providing front-end customers with competitive transaction prices.

 

O3 Ponzi scam lawyer OneCoin refuses to plead guilty for alleged $ 400 million money laundering scam

On November 21, according to Bloomberg News, the cryptocurrency project OneCoin lawyer Mark Scott defended in a federal federal court trial in Manhattan on November 20 in a previous $ 400 million cryptocurrency money laundering scam, saying that it was "just for Ruja money laundering." Was paid $ 50 million.

Earlier, according to Decrypt, Mark Scott was heard by the US District Court for Manhattan in early November. Prosecutors have accused him of helping OneCoin launder money and transferring OneCoin worth $ 400 million out of the United States, but Scott refused to plead guilty. According to Bitcoin Finance, Scott previously set up an overseas hedge fund to clean up illegal gains from the OneCoin cryptocurrency scheme. Prosecutors believe OneCoin may be one of the largest Ponzi schemes in history.

The BBC reports OneCoin in its podcast show, The Missing Cryptoqueen. According to reports, the OneCoin marketing scam involved far more than $ 4 billion. The founder of the OneCoin project is Bulgarian female entrepreneur Ruja Ignatova. At the time, OneCoin had a market value of up to $ 5 billion, but she disappeared in 2017. Two years ago, OneCoin's business in Italy was closed, and related personnel were arrested in China and India And the prosecution, the headquarters of Bulgaria continues to operate.

 

o4 ICE launches cash-settled Bitcoin futures contract, which will go live on December 9

On November 22, Intercontinental Exchange (ICE) officially announced that it will launch a cash-settled Bitcoin futures contract, Bakkt ™ Bitcoin (USD) Cash Settled Monthly Futures contract. It is reported that the new contract will be listed on ICE Futures Singapore and cleared by the new ICE Clear Singapore, which is regulated by the Monetary Authority of Singapore.

ICE officials said that after the negotiation and the relevant approvals for the changes to the rules were obtained, ICE Futures Singapore plans to list the contract on December 9, 2019.

 

o5Jia Nan Yunzhi fell below the issue price on the first day of trading.

On November 22, at 22:30 on November 21, Beijing time, Jia Nan Technology (NASDAQ: CAN) was officially listed on the NASDAQ in the United States, with an issue price of $ 9 and a fundraising amount of $ 90 million, becoming the first company in the world to list. Blockchain-related companies. However, the first day of trading opened higher and lower, after opening at 12.60 US dollars, the stock price fell to 8.21 US dollars, closing price of 8.99 US dollars, lower than the issue price, a 24-hour decline of 0.11%.

Why did Jia Nan go public? Its chairman, Kong Jianping, revealed the mystery in an interview with Babbitt: Jia Nan Yunzhi mining machine sales only accept RMB payments; the company's main body does not accept bitcoin, does not engage in mining, and does not store currency.

From the media, Wu said that the blockchain issued a post saying that for Jia Nan, instead of talking about the industry first, it is better to try to grab back the market share of the "miner second" industry, whether it is from ants or god horses . It is reported that Jia Nan's chairman Kong Jianping said in an interview with Babbitt that the goal is to strive for industry first in 2020 market share. But in the mining machine market in 2019, Jia Nan has fallen behind. Shenma Mining Machine has risen rapidly with excellent cost performance, and Ant Mining Machine has monopolized TSMC's 7nm production capacity, and the two almost split 70% of the mining machine market. In addition, Core Motion has also captured a certain market share with its excellent technical level. In contrast, Canaan's latest generation of Avalon miners still stays at the level of 40-50 watts per T. Related reading: "The Coronation Hour of Canaan"

 

o6 CCTV Focus Interview: Beware of various forms of fraud under the banner of "Blockchain"

On November 18, CCTV1 "Focus Interview" aired a "Blockchain" related theme program. The program stated that the blockchain technology is a new method of data management based on cryptography. Blockchain technology has broad application prospects because it has the advantages of decentralization, immutability, leaving traces throughout, and traceability. However, the focus interview reporter also found that with the upsurge of blockchain, various chaos have appeared in society. The program showed various forms of fraud using the concept of blockchain, and announced a number of items such as zero coins, pyramid schemes, etc., in order to remind the audience to be alert to various forms of fraud under the "blockchain" banner.

 

o7 The Block: Binance Shanghai office closed after police raid, Binance responds to fake news

On November 22, according to The Block, Binance's Shanghai office was forced to close after a recent police raid.

People familiar with the matter revealed to The Block that Binance's Shanghai office was suddenly closed and employees in the office either worked remotely from home or moved to a Singapore office. It is reported that the office has several exchange executives and 50-100 employees, while Binance founder Zhao Changpeng and He Yi have moved to Singapore.

In response, Binance responded, "Binance does not have a fixed office in Shanghai / China, so it is impossible for police to conduct surprise inspections and close the office. Secondly, Binance's organizational structure is flat and there are not many managers. Binance directly The time zone of executives with working contacts is often changing, not in China; in addition, Binance is not just in Singapore, it is a distributed office worldwide. "

 

o8 distributed VPN protocol Orchid to launch in December

On November 22, according to CryptoNinjas, the distributed VPN protocol Orchid announced that it will launch its application and issue its OXT tokens in the first week of December.

It is reported that the Orchid agreement organizes the bandwidth vendors into a structured peer-to-peer (P2P) network called Orchid Market. Users connect to Orchid Market and pay bandwidth sellers to form a proxy chain for specific resources on the Internet.

Unlike the more common method of sending and receiving data from the global Internet, Orchid Market's proxy chain naturally separates information about the source of the data from information about its destination; no relay or agent owns both pieces of information, or knows something Personal identity. By distributing trust among multiple VPN providers, information is offloaded.

In addition, OXT tokens are mainly used for traceability calculation services, who used computing services, who provided computing services, and whether ordinary users have fairly compensated ordinary providers. It is reported that OXT tokens will be generated when the network goes online, users can use them to pay bandwidth fees to node operators, and Orchid will have 5 to 10 node providers at launch.

Orchid CEO Steven Waterhouse said, "At the moment, data privacy and auditing are at a crossroads, and we will provide a more private and cost-effective way for people to get a complete Internet experience without peeping. "

Orchid is a decentralized, open source technology from the Internet, dedicated to ending censorship and supervision of the Internet. The protocol uses an upper-layer network that already exists on existing switching equipment to create an inclusive and free Internet. The Orchid Protocol is a new non-censored, non-monitoring protocol layer that allows users to bypass firewalls to access information and communicate freely, thereby achieving Internet anonymity and free Internet access across regions.

According to PANews statistics, there were 10 projects in the blockchain field announced last week with a total amount of more than USD 147.3375 million (excluding projects for which specific investment and financing amounts have not been disclosed), involving mining, terminals, games, infrastructure, payment, Wallets, online payments and information.

 

o1 The Blockchainer receives strategic investment from Golden Phoenix

On November 25, The Blockchainer announced that it had obtained strategic investments from Golden Phoenix. It is reported that this is the third external institutional investment since the two rounds of equity financing of JRR and OGC were obtained in July 2018 and December 2018, respectively.

The blockchain business information decision-making organization The Blockchainer brings its boutique investment bank brands JC Capital and JC Venture in Shanghai, Beijing, San Francisco, Seoul, Hong Kong and other places, as well as the blockchain talent service channel ChainHunter. Together with the early organization of the blockchain industry, it provides industry acceleration and incubation of "finding money and finding people and directions."

The Jiangxi Golden Phoenix Cultural Industry Investment Co., Ltd., a wholly-owned subsidiary of Golden Phoenix (Hong Kong) Investment Group, previously cooperated with the Fuzhou High-tech Development Zone Government in the cultural industrial park. The business mainly covers: cultural industrial park management, cultural enterprise investment, Cultural industry project investment, cultural industry fund management, etc. In the three years from 2017 to 2019 alone, the operating income exceeded 14 billion yuan, and the cumulative tax paid over the three years was more than 860 million yuan. The advertising media platform created has settled 116 companies of various types, including 22 wholly-owned subsidiaries of listed companies.

 

o2 NEM Ventures strategically invests in PoS terminal provider Cyclebit

On November 21st, NEM Ventures, the NEM blockchain investment unit, has strategically invested in Cyclebit, a PoS terminal provider. It is reported that Cyclebit has more than 200,000 POS terminals supporting cryptocurrency payments in Europe, Asia and Canada.

 

o3Chain Tour Mythical Games raised another $ 19 million in funding, having previously raised $ 16 million

On November 21, according to The Block, the game technology startup chain game Mythical Games received a $ 19 million venture capital investment led by Javelin Venture Partners, Galaxy Digital, Stuck Capital, Avon Ventures, Alumni Ventures, Hashed, etc. Investors participate. Among them, investors such as Galaxy Digital and Javelin Venture Partners also participated in the $ 16 million seed and Series A investment of Mythical Games in 2018.

It is reported that the funds will help the company expand its technology platform and launch the upcoming game "Blankos Block Party", which will change the relationship between players and creators by allowing players to compete in the game and create their own games. Give players more control over the creative process.

 

o4 Libra Association member Bison Trails completes $ 25.5 million Series A financing

On November 20th, according to Decrypt, Libra Association member Bison Trails raised $ 25.5 million in the first round of funding led by Blockchain Capital, Kleiner Perkins, Coinbase, Collaborate Fund, A Capital, Consensys, Sound Ventures, Initialized, Accomplice, Galaxy Digital and Notation participate in this round of investment.

It is reported that the latest round of financing will further consolidate Bison Trails' leading position as the infrastructure-as-a-service provider of choice for the fastest growing blockchain protocol. In addition, Joe Lallouz, CEO of Bison Trails, said the company is "actively" working with founding members of the Libra Association to move the Libra network from the testnet to the mainnet.

Bison Trails is the preferred blockchain infrastructure provider for more than 20 protocol projects. It is also a founding member of the Libra project and will play a key role in strengthening the network to support billions of transactions.

 

o5 decentralized global payment processing company Radpay secures $ 1.2 million in seed round financing

On November 19, according to Business Wire news, on November 18, Radpay, a global payment processing blockchain startup, announced that it has completed a $ 1.2 million seed round equity financing, including investors Resiliency Ventures and BlackLaunch. It is reported that this round of financing funds will be used to promote the next stage of development of Radpay, including the first commercialization of the company's technology, and further development of Radpay's product portfolio related to blockchain, payment, and digital wallets.

 

o6 privacy Bitcoin wallet Wasabi completes first equity financing valuation of approximately $ 7.5 million

On November 22, according to the Bitcoin Exchange Guide, the privacy-focused Bitcoin wallet Wasabi has completed its first equity financing. Cypherpunk Holdings CEO Dominic Frisby recently confirmed that his company has invested $ 337,500 in Wasabi with a valuation of about $ 7.5 million.

 

o7 Gemini exchange acquires heterogeneous token platform Nifty Gateway

On November 20, according to The Block, Gemini, the Winklevoss brother company, officially announced the acquisition of Nifty Gateway, a non-homogeneous token (NFTs) trading and management platform. This is the first acquisition completed by Gemini. At present, the official price has not been disclosed.

Gemini CEO Tyler Winklevoss believes that NFT has huge business opportunities in the future, and all collectibles in the real and digital world will eventually transition to the blockchain.

It is reported that Nifty Gateway's platform enables users to purchase and manage NFT. NTFNFT represents the ownership of certain digital assets and is a unique asset or commodity on the chain. Winklevoss said that NTF's properties make it ideal for creating encrypted collections and encrypted artworks.

 

o8 blockchain game startup BetProtocol raises $ 3 million in first round of private token sale

On November 21, according to The Block, blockchain game startup BetProtocol has raised $ 3 million in the first round of private token sales. This round of financing was led by Neo Global Capital. CMS Holdings, BlockGround Capital, Shilling Capital Partners , Bynd Venture Capital and Utrust Ventures.

BetProtocol co-founder and chief operating officer Justin Wu said: Based on the total supply of tokens, the current valuation of the token is about $ 20 million.

 

o9 Cryptocurrency risk management platform TRM Labs receives $ 4.2 million investment, led by PayPal

On November 20, according to The Block, the cryptocurrency risk management platform TRM Labs announced that it had received a $ 4.2 million investment led by PayPal. Other investors include multiple top investors including Initialized Capital, Blockchain Capital and Y Combinator. The addition of this funding brings TRM Labs' total funding to $ 5.9 million.

According to the press release, the new funding will be used to develop engineering and data science teams, accelerate product development, and explore new markets.

TRM Labs was established in 2018 to help global financial institutions monitor and reduce the risks associated with crypto assets. At the same time, the team is committed to streamlining their customers' due diligence processes and ensuring that they meet regulatory requirements to prevent cryptocurrency fraud and financial crime.

 

10Brazil online payment platform Neon secures $ 94 million in Series B financing

On November 20th, Brazilian banks Banco Votorantim and General Atlantic led a round B financing of about $ 94 million in Brazilian online payment platform Neon. According to Labs, Neon raised about $ 17 million in a Series A round. It is reported that some investors who participated in the Series A financing also participated in the Series B financing. The funds raised will be used for Neon's business expansion.

We will continue to update Blocking; if you have any questions or suggestions, please contact us!