LianGuai Morning News | Court Approves Binance and CFTC Settlement Agreement, SEC Delays ARK Invest and other Ether ETFs

Bizarre Morning News Court Greenlights Binance and CFTC Settlement, SEC Postpones Approval of ARK Invest and Other Ether ETFs

Headlines

▌Court approves settlement agreement between Binance and CFTC, CZ to pay $150 million to CFTC, Binance to pay $2.7 billion to CFTC

The U.S. Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC) announced today that the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Illinois has approved the previously announced settlement agreement with Binance and issued an injunction and civil penalties against Zhao Changpeng and his companies Binance Holdings Limited, Binance Holdings (IE) Limited, and Binance (Services) Holdings Limited.

Zhao will pay $150 million to CFTC, and Binance will pay $2.7 billion to CFTC. The order also requires Zhao and Binance to certify the existence, application, and effectiveness of compliance controls and permanently prohibits them from further violations.

▌SEC delays decision on ARK Invest, VanEck’s spot Ethereum ETF

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According to the document update released by Bloomberg analyst James Seyffart, the SEC has delayed its decision on the spot Ethereum ETF applications from ARK Invest/21Shares and VanEck. The original deadline was December 26th, and the new decision date is late May 2024.

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Market Data

As of writing, according to coinmarketcap:

BTC recent price is $42,663.8, with a daily change of +3.39%;

ETH recent price is $2,217.62, with a daily change of +2.90%;

BNB recent price is $241.3, with a daily change of +1.81%;

XRP recent price is $0.6124, with a daily change of +2.63%;

DOGE recent price is $0.0920, with a daily change of +3.31%;

ADA recent price is $0.6013, with a daily change of +6.09%;

SOL recent price is $74.42, with a daily change of +5.14%.

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Regulations

▌UK introduces regulations for digital securities sandbox

The UK has introduced new regulations allowing its financial regulators to operate a Digital Securities Sandbox (DSS), which enables companies to test new solutions and products under regulatory supervision. The new regulations will take effect on January 8th, and the Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) and the Bank of England will be able to operate the DSS. Companies will also test distributed ledger technology, which supports the digitization or tokenization of traditional securities using encryption technology.

▌SEC opens comment period to weigh whether spot Ethereum ETF should be treated differently from spot Bitcoin ETF

Bloomberg analyst James Seyffart stated on X platform that the SEC has opened a comment period to weigh whether spot Ethereum ETF should be treated differently from spot Bitcoin ETF.

Earlier today, the SEC made a delayed decision regarding the Ethereum ETF from Grayscale and Hashdex.

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Blockchain Applications

▌Courtyard.io allows users to purchase NFTs with credit cards

The market and tokenization application Courtyard.io has launched a new feature that allows users to purchase NFTs with credit cards, eliminating the need to buy and deposit cryptocurrencies. Courtyard.io aims to enable anyone to own, manage, and trade physical collectibles on-chain, and the platform achieves this by providing insurance and protection for physical collectibles held in a vault operated by Brink’s.

▌Gateway introduces its execution client cdk-erigon to the Polygon Chain development kit

Blockchain infrastructure company Gateway is integrating the new execution client cdk-erigon into the Polygon Chain development kit (CDK), which is an open-source toolkit for launching zero-knowledge-driven L2 chains for Ethereum. cdk-erigon joins zkNode as the second execution client to support the Polygon CDK, making Polygon CDK the first multi-client zkEVM tech stack in the industry. In early next year, cdk-erigon will be deployed as an RPC node for the Polygon zkEVM mainnet testnet.

▌Mina Protocol: Overall testnet extended until January 22, 2024

Mina Protocol announced on the X platform that Testworld Task 2.0 Track 3 Epoch 4 has concluded, and node operators are assisting in preparing the protocol for significant upgrades to bring simpler ZK programmability and other key features to the Mina mainnet. Network performance testing has resumed, and the overall testnet has been extended until January 22, 2024. Additionally, the issue of slow block creation speed has been resolved since the last update.

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Cryptocurrencies

▌Wisdomtree submits fourth amended filing to SEC for its Bitcoin spot ETF

Wisdomtree has submitted the fourth amended filing to the SEC for its Bitcoin spot ETF, stating that it will adopt an ETF model created with cash.

▌Over the past two months, Google searches for “Solana” have increased by 250%

From October to December, Google searches for the term “Solana” increased by 250%, aligning with the asset’s performance and the surge of meme coins. Based on a ranking scale from 0 to 100, where 100 represents the peak in 2020, the search volume for “solana” scored 100, increasing from 14 two months ago to 49 at the beginning of December. Market data shows that Solana’s price increased by 224% between October 11 and December 18.

▌BlackRock meets with the SEC and submits amended filing for its Bitcoin spot ETF

BlackRock met with the SEC today and subsequently submitted an amended filing for its Bitcoin spot ETF.

▌Ark Invest/21 Shares submits third amendment to SEC for Bitcoin spot ETF

Ark Invest/21 Shares has submitted its third S-1 amendment for its Bitcoin spot ETF to the SEC. Bloomberg analyst James Seyffart said, “It looks like they are accepting the SEC’s requirement of only allowing cash creation and redemption (at least to start with).”

▌SEC defers decision on Hashdex Ethereum ETF

According to The Block, the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) has deferred its decision on the Hashdex Nasdaq Ethereum ETF, with the original deadline set for January 1, 2024.

▌SEC defers decision on Grayscale Ethereum Futures ETF

The SEC has deferred its decision on the Grayscale Ethereum Futures ETF.

▌SEC confirms receipt of LianGuaindo Asset’s Bitcoin spot ETF application

The SEC has confirmed receipt of the filing submitted by CBOE for LianGuaindo Asset’s Bitcoin spot ETF.

▌Revolut to temporarily suspend some crypto services to its UK business clients

Digital bank Revolut has announced plans to temporarily suspend some crypto services to its UK business clients, following the implementation of strict new regulations by UK regulatory authorities. The bank, registered with the Financial Conduct Authority, intends to halt its UK customers’ ability to purchase cryptocurrencies through Revolut Business starting from January 3, 2024. However, customers in the country will still be able to hold and sell cryptocurrencies.

▌Data: Polygon PoS blockchain records 161 million transactions

Data shared by Polygon founder Sandeep Nailwal on social media reveals that the current number of transactions recorded on Polygon PoS blockchain has reached approximately 161 million, more than twice the number recorded on the second-place BNB blockchain (approximately 77 million transactions). In other Layer 2 networks, the number of transactions on Avalanche C-chain is approximately 60 million, Fantom is about 26 million, Celo is about 25 million, Gnosis is about 23 million, Arbitrum One is about 11 million, and zkSync Era is about 7 million.

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Important Economic Developments

▌BlackRock: expecting March rate cuts by the Fed is premature

Rick Rieder, Chief Investment Officer for Global Fixed Income at BlackRock, mentioned that the market’s expectation of rate cuts by the Fed starting in March may be premature. As U.S. Treasury bonds face selling pressure across the board, Rieder stated, “I think the tightening today is somewhat reasonable.” The market trend indicates that Powell is not inclined to “begin cutting rates so soon and so aggressively.” Rieder expressed surprise at Powell’s dovish tone during the FOMC meeting. He mentioned that he favors the middle part of the yield curve while underweighting the short end and sees potential when the Fed does eventually shift. The substantial decline in long-term U.S. Treasury yields has been surprising, with Reider stating, “Demand for the long end of the curve has been one of the strangest things I’ve seen.” Historically, the slightly above 4% yield on 30-year Treasury bonds is “not quite as attractive,” and there is “duration risk” when it includes higher short-term yields.

▌Fed’s Daly: Likely to Need Three Interest Rate Cuts in 2024

Fed’s Daly stated that their economic forecasts align closely with the FOMC median and that there may be a need for three interest rate cuts in 2024. If inflation continues to decline, the Fed should focus on minimizing disruptions to the job market.

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LianGuai Encyclopedia

▌What is the Scalability of Blockchain and Why is it Important?

Scalability refers to the ability of a system to accommodate an increasing number of participants or transactions while maintaining its decentralized nature and overall performance. Scalability is important because the fundamental purpose of blockchain technology is to serve as an open, decentralized ledger. A scalable blockchain ensures that the system maintains responsiveness and can handle a growing workload as more users join the network and transaction processing demands increase.

Disclaimer: LianGuai, as a blockchain information platform, publishes articles for informational purposes only and does not constitute actual investment advice. Please adopt the correct investment philosophy and be sure to increase risk awareness.

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