LianGuai Daily | MicroStrategy spends nearly $600 million to buy Bitcoin in November; CoinList will launch the BitsCrunch token sale on December 15th.

LianGuai Daily | MicroStrategy Splurges Nearly $600 Million on Bitcoin in November; CoinList to Launch BitsCrunch Token Sale on December 15th

Today’s headlines:

SEC confirms Cboe’s submission of Fidelity’s application for Ethereum spot ETF proposal

CoinList to launch BitsCrunch token sale on December 15, registration now open

Bloomberg analyst: Bitcoin spot ETF approval window expected between January 5th and 10th, 2024

• Bitcoin: A Wild Ride of Surges and Significance
• Bitcoin From Boiling the Oceans to Draining Them – a Critical Perspective
• MicroStrategy Adds to Its Bitcoin Stash 16,130 Coins Worth $593 Million!

Football star C Ronaldo accused of $1 billion promotion of Binance NFT

MicroStrategy purchases approximately 16,130 bitcoins for $593.3 million in November

Starknet Foundation: Deadline for airdrop eligibility has been set, airdrop plan to be announced after final confirmation

Reddit administrators officially abandon MOON contract, MOON token supply capped at approximately 83 million

Regulatory news

Bloomberg analyst: Bitcoin spot ETF approval window expected between January 5th and 10th, 2024

Bloomberg analyst James Seyffart tweeted that the approval window for a Bitcoin spot ETF is expected to be between January 5th and 10th, 2024. According to SEC documents, the comment period for Franklin Templeton and Hashdex will end on January 5th, with Ark/21Shares earliest comment date being January 10th.

SEC confirms Cboe’s submission of Fidelity’s application for Ethereum spot ETF proposal

According to documents filed with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC), the Chicago Board Options Exchange (Cboe BZX Exchange, Inc.) submitted a proposed rule change to SEC on November 17th, intending to list and trade shares of the Fidelity Ethereum Trust, an exchange-traded fund (ETF) commodity trust based on BZX Rule 14.11(e)(4). SEC has confirmed receipt of the proposal and will solicit public comments on the proposed rule change.

NFT & AI

Bloomberg: OpenAI gives employees an additional month to decide whether to sell company shares

According to Bloomberg, OpenAI will give employees an additional month to decide whether to participate in the company’s stock sale plan. Insiders revealed in October that OpenAI has been negotiating the sale of stocks, which would raise the company’s valuation to $86 billion. Earlier this month, after Sam Altman was fired, some investors backed out of the acquisition offer. But with Altman’s return, the investors’ demand was enough to fill the void. Insiders say that given the recent events, OpenAI will give employees an extra month to decide whether to join the stock sale plan, and they must make their decision by January 5th. The acquisition was originally scheduled to be completed in early December.

Microsoft to invest £2.5 billion in AI infrastructure in the UK over the next three years

Microsoft announced its plan to invest in artificial intelligence infrastructure in the UK. Over the next three years, Microsoft will allocate £2.5 billion ( $3.2 billion) to expand its next-generation AI data center infrastructure, bringing over 20,000 state-of-the-art GPUs to the UK by 2026. Additionally, Microsoft will invest in a wide range of AI talent and educational programs, as well as strong AI security and protection measures.

Project Updates

CoinList to launch BitsCrunch token sale on December 15th, registration now open

CoinList announced that it will open the token sale for BitsCrunch (BCUT) at 1:00 AM on December 15th. The token sale has already opened for registration. The token supply for this sale is 60,000,000 BCUT tokens, with each token priced at $0.055. An additional 5,000,000 BCUT tokens are reserved for rewards. Furthermore, an additional 10,000,000 BCUT tokens (1% of the total supply) may be offered for purchase during the BitsCrunch community sale, at the discretion of BitsCrunch.

BitsCrunch is a decentralized, AI-enhanced data network that provides analysis and forensic data for NFTs, wallets, and other public chain digital assets.

Circle: Did not directly or indirectly fund Hamas, did not provide banking services to Sun Yuchen and related companies

In an official announcement, Circle’s Chief Strategy Officer and Global Policy Lead, Dante DisLianGuairte, sent a letter to US Senators Sherrod Brown and Elizabeth Warren in response to the recent “accountability campaign” against Circle. Circle stated that the company has long been committed to combatting illegal financial activities and has not directly or indirectly funded Hamas or any other unlawful individuals. Additionally, Circle has not provided banking services to Sun Yuchen or any entities owned or controlled by him, including the TRON Foundation or HTX. So far, the US government has not specifically designated Sun Yuchen or entities under his name as specially designated nationals. Nonetheless, Circle terminated all accounts held by Sun Yuchen and his affiliated companies in February 2023. Meanwhile, Circle is a highly regulated financial services company subject to various regulatory frameworks, including the Bank Secrecy Act (BSA) and applicable laws on anti-money laundering and counter-terrorism financing. In addition, Circle strongly advocates for the establishment of a comprehensive federal framework in the United States to regulate stablecoins. Circle has been calling for cautious regulation by the federal government to ensure that every issuer meets the highest standards for reserves, redemptions, disclosures, liquidity, and operational risk management.

Swiss encrypted bank Seba announces renaming to Amina

Swiss encrypted bank Seba has announced its renaming to Amina as part of its global expansion strategy. Amina aims to combine elements of traditional banking, digital banking, and encrypted banking. The company has obtained the approval of the Securities and Futures Commission in Hong Kong to provide encrypted transaction services in the region, and has also opened an office in Abu Dhabi as part of its accelerated growth in Switzerland, Hong Kong, and Abu Dhabi.

Binance DeFi Staking Mining to Remove BTC, ETH Flexible Staking Products on December 5

Binance DeFi Staking Mining will cease to provide BTC, ETH flexible DeFi mining products and will no longer offer subscription services as of December 5, 2023, at 14:00 (GMT+8). The BTC and ETH balances held in Binance DeFi Staking Mining will be automatically redeemed and deposited into users’ spot wallets after December 5, 2023 at 14:00 (GMT+8).

Soccer star Cristiano Ronaldo accused of $1 billion in Binance NFT promotion

According to Decrypt, professional soccer star Cristiano Ronaldo is being sued for over $1 billion in damages in relation to his promotion of the cryptocurrency exchange Binance. The lawsuit alleges that Binance sold unregistered securities and operated unlawfully in the United States, claiming Ronaldo used his celebrity status to bring traffic and investors to the platform. It lists alleged violations by Binance, including operating an unregistered exchange and failure to implement anti-money laundering controls.

Bitget announces suspension of new user registrations in mainland China

Bitget has announced that it is currently negotiating a major investment deal, which will bring more opportunities and growth to the company. As a result, new user registrations in mainland China will be temporarily suspended with immediate effect. Please stay tuned for official announcements for further updates.

Lawyer Do Kwon: Whistleblower from Jump Trading has helped the US SEC file a case against Do Kwon

During a hearing at the U.S. District Court in Manhattan, Douglas Henkin, the defense lawyer for incarcerated Terra founder Do Kwon, revealed that an anonymous whistleblower assisted federal regulators in filing a fraud lawsuit against Kwon, with one of the whistleblowers coming from market-making giant Jump Trading Group. Douglas Henkin stated that the “Jump Trading whistleblower,” who provided evidence to the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC), admitted during testimony that he had no direct, firsthand knowledge of the 2021 transactions. A spokesperson for Jump Trading declined to comment. The U.S. SEC has previously accused Do Kwon of misleading investors about the stability of his stablecoin, TerraUSD.

Mark Califano, another lawyer for Do Kwon, stated in the same court hearing that the SEC relies on another whistleblower in another major part of the case involving the Korean payment app, Chai. The SEC accuses Do Kwon of deceiving investors by publicly claiming that Chai uses his Terra blockchain for settlement payments, when in reality it uses traditional payment technology. Califano claims that the whistleblower secretly recorded a conversation with a Chai engineer where they discussed how the app works. Califano describes the whistleblower as “extremely biased” and says he has been caught lying multiple times.

Do Kwon is currently detained in Montenegro and both the United States and South Korea are seeking his extradition. Earlier in October, there was news that court documents show that the SEC’s case against Do Kwon may depend on the role of market maker Jump Trading.

Reddit administrators have officially abandoned the MOON contract, with a maximum supply of approximately 83 million MOON tokens.

Early this morning, the mod team of Reddit’s r/CryptoCurrency community posted that Reddit administrators have officially abandoned the MOON contract and destroyed the remaining 98,000 MOON tokens. The community has now secured that there will be no further changes to the Moon contract. This allows Moon to remain listed on existing exchanges without the need for deploying new tokens, and the maximum supply of MOON tokens is now approximately 83 million. The mod team will continue to work on restoring and improving membership, governance, tipping, and other features. The mod team is also exploring the possibility of restarting distribution, but the specifics are yet to be determined.

According to Coingecko data, the price of MOON tokens is currently at $0.1573, with a 24-hour increase of 10.2%.

TokenFi: $14 million in funding from the user incentive system will be distributed to users over 4 years.

TokenFi, an asset tokenization platform launched by the FLOKI project, announced on X platform that it will combine a referral program with a user incentive system to accelerate platform adoption. Currently, TokenFi has over $14 million in funding for user incentives. The incentive system will be based on a points system, where users can earn points through various platform activities and exchange them for TOKEN. The tokens allocated to the user incentive system will be distributed over 48 months, with an average monthly distribution of approximately $290,000.

The user incentive system will reward the following categories of users: those who create tokens using TokenFi Token Launcher or QuickLaunch Bot (such as ERC-20, ERC-721, ERC-1155); those who raise funds through TokenFi LaunchPad; those who use TokenFi AI Contract Auditor; those who establish connections with market makers, exchanges, institutions, and KOLs through TokenFi Connect; those who tokenize RWA using TokenFi RWA tokenization module; institutions that engage with projects through the platform and ultimately close deals; the top 2,000 users who contribute to token sales/fundraising activities through TokenFi LaunchPad.

Polkadot Core Developer: Parallel Chains Will Continue to Run After Coretime Launch, Bridge Protocol Beefy Planned to Launch by the End of the Year

According to PolkaWorld, in response to the question of “What will happen to parallel chains after the launch of Coretime,” Bastian Köcher, a Polkadot Core Developer and Polkadot Fellowship member, said, “Coretime will be launched in the future, and no matter what developers are building now, it is almost certain that parallel chains will be able to continue running. For example, if you are building a parallel chain now, you may need to make some changes or perform a runtime upgrade, but it should be compatible with Coretime, and there should not be a situation where the parallel chain cannot run when Coretime is launched. I have heard some concerns before, and now it may be a good time to clarify that this will not happen. No matter what you are building now, it will continue to run, or there will be some less complicated upgrade paths.”

Regarding Polkadot’s important plans for the future, Bastian Köcher said, “We have delivered the contents mentioned in the whitepaper, and now the only thing missing is the bridge, or the bridge between Kusama and Polkadot. We also want multiple Polkadot implementations, such as Kagome (a Go implementation of Polkadot, still under development). Their progress is actually quite surprising, as they have already been able to validate parallel chains.” He mentioned the progress of the bridge development, saying, “In order to launch the bridge, we are currently waiting for the completion of Beefy, and Beefy (the bridge protocol) is roughly planned to launch by the end of the year. Once Beefy is launched, the bridge will be ready.”

Previously, it was reported yesterday that Polkadot 2.0 Block Space as a Service is expected to launch in the second quarter of 2024, and the main change in 2.0 is the shift from parallel chain slot auctions to Coretime leasing.

Starknet Foundation: Airdrop Eligibility Deadline Determined, Airdrop Plan to be Announced After Final Determination

The Starknet Foundation, on the X platform, stated that they are formulating a plan to airdrop tokens to selected users and contributors. The technical team will build and test different frontends, some of which will be adopted, while others will not. In addition, the plan draft shown in the screenshot from yesterday is still under development. The deadline for determining the criteria for who can receive tokens or the amount of tokens has been determined, and now no activities will have any impact on the eligibility for the airdrop. The Starknet Foundation will share the official standards and terms details once they are finalized and announced.

Later in the news, STRK Token Contract Deployed 379 Days Ago with a Total Supply of 10 Billion Tokens.

Binance’s New CEO Makes Three Promises, Including “User-Centric”

Binance’s new CEO, Richard Teng, stated on X platform that the three numbers represent his three promises as the CEO of Binance: 1. Always putting users at the center; 2. Collaborating with regulatory agencies to maintain standards; 3. Collaborating with partners to develop Web3.

SLianGuaiceX “Doge-1” Lunar Mission Gets Final Approval from the U.S. Federal Communications Commission

Samuel Reid, CEO of Geometric Energy Corporation, a space technology company, confirmed on X platform that the SLianGuaiceX “Doge-1” lunar mission has received approval from the U.S. Federal Communications Commission (FCC). According to the authorization document shared, the authorization will expire two years after the launch of the DOGE-1 mission or on October 30, 2025, whichever comes first.

It is reported that the DOGE-1 satellite was developed by Geometric Energy Corporation, a space technology company, and the project was announced in May 2021 and funded and named by DOGE. The satellite will be launched by the SLianGuaiceX Falcon 9 rocket.

Earlier on November 29, SLianGuaiceX “Doge-1” satellite had obtained approval from the National Telecommunications and Information Administration (NTIA) of the United States, and was seeking final approval from the U.S. Federal Communications Commission (FCC).

Bloomberg: Binance VIP Customers Learned Details of the U.S. Cryptocurrency Fine Agreement in Advance

According to Bloomberg, when Binance’s multi-billion-dollar settlement plan with U.S. authorities was preliminarily determined in September, several major traders who attended a meeting in Singapore were already aware of it. Some Binance VIP market makers participated in a private dinner held in Singapore. During the dinner, Changpeng Zhao was not present as he would plead guilty and resign two months later.

According to several participants, Richard Teng, the successor of Changpeng Zhao, attended the dinner and had exchanges with the guests. Traders questioned Binance executives about the details of the settlement, including the possibility of raising a $4 billion fine. Some VIP customers were convinced that Binance would pay this amount after the conversation. A Binance spokesperson stated that the description of the event is inaccurate and refused to disclose which aspects are incorrect.

Funding News

Decentralized Physical Infrastructure Project Grove Raises $7.9 Million in Funding

According to CoinDesk, Grove, a decentralized physical infrastructure (DePIN) provider formerly known as Pocket Network, has raised $7.9 million from Avon Ventures (a subsidiary of Fidelity), Placeholder Capital, and Druid Ventures. Grove will use this funding to establish new partnerships and drive DePIN adoption.

Important Data

MicroStrategy Buys Approximately 16,130 Bitcoins for $593.3 Million in Cash in November

MicroStrategy has disclosed that its subsidiary has once again purchased approximately 16,130 Bitcoins for approximately $593.3 million in cash between November 1, 2023, and November 29, 2023, at an average price of $30,252 per coin as of November 29, 2023. MicroStrategy’s subsidiary now holds a total of approximately 174,530 Bitcoins, with a total purchase price of approximately $5.28 billion, at an average purchase price of approximately $30,252 per coin.

Data: Losses from November Cryptocurrency Hacks and Scams Reach $343 Million

According to The Block, based on data from Immunefi, losses from cryptocurrency hacks and scams in November reached $343 million, the highest monthly loss amount this year and more than 15 times the losses of $22 million in October. There have been a total of 296 cryptocurrency hack and theft incidents this year, resulting in losses exceeding $1.75 billion.

Compound Team Transfers 199,000 COMP to Coinbase Prime, Worth Over $10 Million

Blockchain analyst Yu Hui wrote that 20 minutes ago, the Compound team transferred 199,000 COMP (worth $10.22 million) to Coinbase Prime. These COMP tokens are all transferred from Compound: Team 3 address.

Over $1 Billion Worth of BTC Flows Out of Exchanges in the Past Week

According to CoinDesk, the reasons for Bitcoin (BTC) continuing to rise to $40,000 or higher by the end of the year have been strengthened, as there has been a massive outflow of Bitcoin from centralized exchanges. Glassnode data shows that since November 17, more than 37,000 BTC (worth $1.4 billion) has been withdrawn from exchanges. Over $1 billion worth of BTC has flowed out of exchanges in the past week, which may suggest a bullish sentiment.

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