LianGuai Daily | Former FTX executives join forces to create new crypto exchange; stablecoin protocol Raft is developing a recovery plan to compensate customers.

LianGuai Daily | Former FTX Executives Join Forces to Launch New Crypto Exchange; Raft Stablecoin Protocol Working on Plan to Compensate Clients

Today’s headlines:

1. Stablecoin protocol Raft: Developing a comprehensive recovery plan to compensate affected customers, not recommending speculative purchase of R.

2. Multiple former FTX executives join hands to create a new cryptocurrency exchange, planning to sell 10% of shares to investors.

3. Operator of South Korean cryptocurrency exchange Bithumb initiates IPO efforts, has selected underwriters.

• CME Bitcoin futures surpass Binance for the first time, why is it a milestone moment for the cryptocurrency market?
• Understanding Hong Kong’s New STO Regulations in One Article Circular on Intermediaries Engaging in Tokenized Securities Activities
• Looking at Decentralized Orderings from the RaaS Platform

4. Pika Protocol will discontinue the PIKA token and continue operating and developing the protocol without a native token.

5. CZ: Binance has no listing contacts, anyone claiming to be a contact person is a scammer.

6. Vertex Protocol reveals VRTX token economics with a fixed total supply of 1 billion.

7. CryptoPunk #7144 sells for 207.69 ETH, approximately $426,000.

Regulatory news

Hong Kong cracks down on online investment fraud, including virtual currency investment, involving HK$180 million

Hong Kong law enforcement conducted the “Drill Bit” operation from November 5th to 11th to crack down on online investment fraud. A total of 223 individuals were arrested, including 157 men and 66 women, suspected of offenses including “obtaining property by deception,” “fraud,” and “money laundering,” with ages ranging from 18 to 69. The amount involved in 265 cases reached HK$180 million. During the operation, approximately HK$3 million of criminal proceeds was frozen, and a large number of mobile phones, bank documents, and bank cards were seized.

One of the victims in a case was an 80-year-old former elevator design engineer. She encountered a scammer online who claimed to be a senior analyst for digital assets at a bank and recommended investing in a virtual currency investment website. Initially, the victim believed the website’s reported profits of over one million RMB, and subsequently made over 40 deposits. She was defrauded of over HK$9.1 million.

Project updates

Raft stablecoin protocol: Developing a comprehensive recovery plan to compensate affected customers, not recommending speculative purchase of R

The Raft stablecoin protocol tweeted that it is developing a comprehensive recovery plan to compensate users affected by the attack and will release detailed information in the coming week. The Raft smart contract has been temporarily paused, but all creators of the stablecoin R can fully redeem their positions to recover collateral. At the same time, Raft advises against speculative purchases of R due to unsecured circulation. The current version of Raft will be phased out, and Raft DAO will focus on launching a new secure version in the future.

Wall Street Journal: Multiple former FTX executives join hands to create a new cryptocurrency exchange, planning to sell 10% of shares to investors

According to The Wall Street Journal, some former high-ranking executives at FTX, including its former general counsel Can Sun, are teaming up to create a new cryptocurrency exchange. Can Sun testified in the criminal trial of SBF and was a key witness in the trial. Trek Labs, a startup based in Dubai led by Can Sun, obtained a license from the UAE cryptocurrency regulatory agency last month. Another former FTX employee, Armani Ferrante, is the CEO of Trek’s holding company in the British Virgin Islands and also operates a cooperative company called BackLianGuaick, which is responsible for designing and operating digital currency wallets. Sun’s former legal assistant, who is also Ferrante’s wife, is a member of Trek’s executive team. The company hopes to sell 10% of its shares to investors with a valuation of over $100 million.

Sun and Ferrante stated that they hope to protect user funds by learning from the failures of FTX. They explained that Trek Labs will operate under the name of BackLianGuaick Exchange, utilizing BackLianGuaick’s technology to allow users to store funds in “self-custody” cryptocurrency wallets inaccessible to the exchange itself. Sun also mentioned that he and Ferrante have hired other former FTX legal and compliance staff to join the exchange.

Matrixport has made six predictions for the cryptocurrency market in the first half of next year, including the potential approval of a Bitcoin spot ETF in January. Matrixport analyst Markus Thielen released these predictions, which also include Circle’s potential listing in April, the Bitcoin halving, the launch of FTX 2.0 in May or June, the Ethereum EIP-4844 upgrade plan in the first quarter, and the first interest rate cut by the Federal Reserve in June.

Pika Protocol announced that it will discontinue the PIKA token and continue operating and developing the protocol without a native token, based on community feedback. Holders can exchange their PIKA tokens for ETH at a fixed exchange rate of approximately 0.0001632 ETH (equivalent to $0.34) per PIKA. The team has deployed all 3,538 ETH to Uniswap v3. The PIKA redemption will be valid for the next 6 months. After the redemption period, any remaining liquidity will be redirected to protocol development. The protocol will continue to operate and develop without a native token. In addition, there will be no changes to the trading platform, and the USDC treasury will continue to operate normally.

Decrypt warns against scams related to DCPT token minting, clarifying that there is no DCPT token minting currently taking place.

Decrypt tweeted that there is no DCPT token minting. Any account claiming to have token minting or requesting to connect user wallets for minting or voting is a scam.

South Korean cryptocurrency exchange Bithumb operator begins IPO work, has already selected an underwriter

Cryptocurrency exchange operator Bithumb Korea chose Samsung Securities as its underwriter at the end of last month and started IPO work, planning to list on KOSDAQ. The target listing date is estimated to be in the second half of 2025. Bithumb refused to comment on the IPO plan but confirmed that an underwriter has indeed been chosen.

Through this IPO, Bithumb seems to hope to improve governance and management transparency while accepting external validation of its internal control systems to increase market trust in its exchange business. This is because the background behind the IPO seems far from the purpose of raising funds. According to Bithumb’s Korean semi-annual report this year, the company holds financial product assets worth over 400 billion Korean won. There is no need for external financing. On the contrary, the background of this IPO is seen as an attempt to regain the market’s first place position that was taken by Upbit, which will be difficult without increasing market trust.

Vertex Protocol unveils economics of VRTX token, total supply fixed at 1 billion

Decentralized exchange platform Vertex Protocol, built on Arbitrum, has announced the VRTX token distribution model. The total supply of VRTX will be fixed at 1 billion tokens, with 90.85% of the tokens being distributed over a period of 5 years or more. 34% will be allocated for ongoing incentives, 20% for the founding team, 10% for the initial token stage, 11.7% for the treasury, 9% for the ecosystem, 8.8% for early investors (including participants who contributed $8.5 million in seed funding for Vertex starting from 2022), 5% for future contributors, 1% for initial VRTX liquidity, and 0.5% for advisors. The distribution of Vertex tokens will start on November 20, 2023.

Earlier in June, Vertex Protocol receives strategic investment from Wintermute Ventures, specific amount undisclosed.

CZ: Binance has no listing contacts, anyone claiming to be a contact is a scammer

In response to the question about “people claiming to be Binance listing team members,” CZ stated on X platform that Binance has no listing contacts. Anyone advertising themselves as such is a scammer. Binance uses a web form.

Important Data

An address transfers 26,406 ETH to Bitfinex, still holding over 60,000 ETH

According to on-chain analyst Yu Jinjian, an address transferred 26,406 ETH (worth $54.21 million) to Bitfinex a few hours ago. This address previously withdrew 87,084 ETH (approximately $13.42 million) from Bitfinex on January 5, 2019, when the price of ETH was only $154. Currently, the address still holds 60,078 ETH (worth $123 million).

Approximately 19.9 million MATIC transferred to Coinbase

According to Whale Alert, 19,896,435 MATIC tokens (approximately $16,443,201) were transferred from an unknown wallet to Coinbase.

A certain whale accumulates 380 billion PEPE and 1.13 million HarryPotterObamaSonic10Inu, currently unrealized loss of $53,000

According to The Data Nerd, a whale with an address starting with 0xfbf has been accumulating a large number of meme tokens, including 380 billion PEPE (approximately $499,000) and currently holds a total of 759 billion PEPE (approximately $948,000) and 1.13 million HarryPotterObamaSonic10Inu (approximately $189,200). The whale is currently at an unrealized loss of $53,000.

CryptoPunk #7144 sold for 207.69 ETH, approximately $426,000

CryptoPunk #7144 was sold for 207.69 ETH, approximately $426,000.

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