Headline
Citigroup Inc. announced the launch of its token service, "Citi Token Services." The new product converts customer deposits into digital tokens that can be immediately sent anywhere in the world. The service is provided by Citigroup's Treasury and Trade Solutions division, which has been focused on using the service to enhance cash management and trade financing capabilities.
According to the statement, the company will rely on its own private blockchain for the new product; customers will not need to set up their own digital wallets but can access the service through the bank's existing systems.
Citigroup has already partnered with a canal authority and one of the world's largest shipping companies, Maersk, to test this new service. The pilot project has shown that the bank can transfer tokenized deposits to suppliers instantly based on smart contracts. (Bloomberg)
According to insiders, Ant Group is considering withdrawing its investment in A&T Capital, which is a core bet by the Ant Group in the crypto asset field. It is currently unclear whether this venture capital firm will continue to operate or attract new investors. As of Monday afternoon, the company's website returned a timeout error to users. Ant Group spokesperson did not respond to requests for comment. (Jin10)
Cryptocurrency
BTC surpassed 27000 USDT
According to Oyi OKX market data, BTC broke through 27000 USDT last night, reaching a peak of 27415 USDT, with a 24-hour increase of 2.8%.
6000 ETH Deposited into Kraken for Ethereum ICO Participation
According to Lookonchain monitoring, a whale address deposited 6000 ETH (worth about $9.96 million) into Kraken about 50 minutes ago. It is reported that this address received 254,908 ETH (currently worth $422.6 million) when participating in the Ethereum ICO, with an ICO price of approximately $0.31 per ETH.
OKX completes the 21st OKB burn, a total of 6,140,520.48 OKB burned
According to the official announcement, OKX has announced the start of the new quarter's OKB burn from June 1st, 2023, to August 31st, 2023. This is the 21st burn of OKB and a total of 6,140,520.48 OKB will be burned for the secondary market.
Quantity is 6, 140, 520.48 pieces, already transferred to the black hole address. As of now, the cumulative destruction of OKB quantity is 70, 182, 835.18 pieces.
A certain whale buys ETH call options worth $150 million on Deribit in the past 24 hours
According to option data tracking website Greeks.Live, in the past 24 hours, a certain whale has purchased nearly 92,600 ETH call options contracts on Deribit, with a nominal value of $150 million. (CoinDesk)
Project Highlights
SEC requests court approval to inspect Binance.US
According to court documents on Monday, the U.S. SEC urged the District Court of Washington, D.C. to approve an inspection of Binance.US and once again emphasized that Binance.US has not cooperated with the SEC's investigation, and its custody, settlement, and brokerage services have violated federal securities regulations. (CoinDesk)
In previous news, the court has approved the
Aave's proposal to deploy Freeze Stewards across multiple chains has been approved. Freeze Stewards allows administrators to freeze assets, which has previously been deployed on Aave V3 Ethereum pool. The proposal aims to deploy this feature across multiple chains, including Optimism, Arbitrum, Polygon, Metis, and Base.
Retool reveals details of the Fortress Trust $15 million theft
Retool discloses details of the Fortress Trust $15 million theft, with Google account cloud sync being the primary factor in the breach. Retool's Engineering Director, Snir Kodesh, stated, "Google Authenticator cloud sync became an attack vector. We initially implemented multi-factor authentication, but due to a Google update, our previous multi-factor authentication silently (to the administrator's perspective) became single-factor authentication." Sources indicate that the theft was a result of a phishing attack and led Fortress Trust to agree to be sold to Ripple. (The Hacker News)
Aave initiates proposal to increase GHO borrowing interest rate to 2.5%
Aave Governance Page Displayed, Aave initiated the proposal "Raise GHO lending rate to 2.5%" and it will end on September 19th. The proposal suggests increasing the GHO lending rate from the current 1.5% to 2.5%, aiming to address GHO's anchoring issue and ensure its growth and market credibility. The current support rate for this proposal is 99.95%. World App released an update, significantly reducing L1 Gas fees and reducing Optimism's load by two-thirds According to official sources, World App released an update for bundled transactions. By combining techniques such as batch processing and compression, a large portion of L1 Gas fees has been eliminated, and the load on Optimism has been reduced by two-thirds. It is reported that since the update was released, World App has exceeded 500,000 daily transactions.
Investment
Blockchain Capital raises $580 million for two new crypto investment funds, with Visa among the investors Blockchain Capital raised $580 million for two new crypto investment funds, focusing on investing in crypto startups in the infrastructure, gaming, DeFi, consumer, and social sectors. It is reported to be one of the largest fundraisings in the crypto space this year and the largest fundraising in the 10-year history of the venture capital firm.The company announced today in a statement that these two funds are the sixth early-stage venture fund and the first opportunity fund, with investors including payment giant Visa. Visa and PayPal also invested in Blockchain Capital's fifth fund in 2021, with a size of $300 million. (The Block)
Cryptocurrency startup Bastion completes $25 million seed funding round, led by a16z crypto, with participating investors including Nomura Group's Laser Digital Ventures, Robot Ventures, Not Boring Capital, etc.
It is reported that Bastion, co-founded by former Chief Technology Officer of a16z crypto Riyaz Faizullabhoy and Chief Security Officer Nassim Eddequiouaq, also includes regulatory and compliance executives from crypto exchanges such as Kraken among its first employees.
Arianna Simpson, a general partner at a16z crypto, said in a statement, "We have always believed that for Web3 to fully realize its potential, the space needs compliant and secure custodial wallet infrastructure for NFTs and tokens. Bastion is building such infrastructure." (Bloomberg)
Regulatory Policies
According to the proposed updated guidelines released by the New York Department of Financial Services (NYDFS) on Monday, cryptocurrency listings will face stricter restrictions, especially when targeting retail investors.
Based on the consultation paper submitted by the NYDFS spokesperson Adrienne Harris, licensees need to assess the legal, reputational, and market risks of any new tokens. To mitigate these risks, licensees must also establish appropriate token delisting procedures.
In addition, the regulatory agency also included a "greenlisted tokens" list in this update guidelines, which includes BTC, ETH, and stablecoins issued by PayPal and Gemini. Licensees are allowed to list or custody these currencies without additional regulatory obstacles. (CoinDesk)
According to Korean media reports, the Deputy Prosecutor General of the Financial Services Commission (FSC) Ki No-Seong, Park Min-woo, and other important regulatory officials attended a meeting on "criminal legal issues related to virtual assets." They focused on discussing the unregulated OTC market. During the meeting, No-Seong called for regulation of this market due to concerns about money laundering risks.
It is reported that the largest compliant cryptocurrency exchange platform in South Korea, Upbit, has listed a total of 172 cryptocurrencies, while OTC trading platforms offer up to 700 cryptocurrencies. According to the Korean Customs, the scale of illegal transactions conducted using cryptocurrencies last year amounted to 4 billion USD (approximately 5.6
Person*Voice
According to Hong Kong Police: Number of JPEX reports has exceeded a thousand, second internet celebrity Chen Yi arrested
Yesterday, the police arrested internet celebrity Lin Zuo on suspicion of being related to the JPEX virtual asset trading platform named by the Securities and Futures Commission. It is understood that another internet celebrity, Chen Yi, was also arrested. They are suspected of conspiracy to commit fraud. The police searched Chen Yi's "CYOTC" Chen Dayi cryptocurrency exchange store in Yung On Plaza in Tsim Sha Tsui. It was reported that the police had also targeted another entertainment personality for arrest, but the person was not in Hong Kong and could not be arrested.
JPEX was recently named by the Securities and Futures Commission in Hong Kong and did not receive a license. The police stated that they received referrals from the Securities and Futures Commission on September 14th. After investigation, four men and two women were arrested in various districts today on suspicion of "conspiracy to commit fraud" and are currently being detained for investigation. The police said that as of 2 p.m. yesterday, a total of 1408 people have reported the incidents, involving an amount of approximately 1 billion RMB. (Ming Pao)
