Headlines
U.S. households will shift their allocations to stocks only “slightly” from credit as the Federal Reserve begins its expected rate-cutting cycle, Goldman Sachs analysts said in a note to clients. The Fed slashed interest rates by 50 basis points last month to a range of 4.75% to 5.00%, with more cuts expected before the end of the year. “Steady rates near 4% suggest that investors will continue to have more attractive alternatives to stocks, but to a lesser degree than in past years,” Goldman analysts wrote.
QCP Capital published an analysis that BTCs rebound to $65,000 may be related to Mt.Goxs postponement of repayment until October 2025. Although there may be many factors that can explain the current trend, if you look at the historical price trend, this is a rather interesting moment because it is mid-October and there are only three weeks before the US election. If you look back to 2016, BTC has been trading in a very narrow range for more than 3 months. It was not until three weeks before the US election that BTC began to rise from $600 and eventually doubled its price in the first week of January. Similarly, in 2020, BTC was trapped in a boring range for half a year until it began to rebound from $11,000 three weeks before the US election, reaching a high of $42,000 in January.
So far though, October’s performance has been rather disappointing, with BTC up just +1.2% compared to an average gain of +21%.
Vice President Harris is stepping up her outreach to black male voters, promising to provide a path to economic security as polls show Trump is gaining support among black voters. Harris on Monday proposed a new plan to provide loans to black entrepreneurs and others who face barriers to financing. According to Harris campaign outline for black male voters, the plan would provide 1 million loans with up to $20,000 forgiven.
Harris also pledged to support a cryptocurrency regulatory framework that would provide more investment certainty for the 20% of Black Americans who own or have owned digital assets.
According to iChainfo monitoring, last week (October 7-11), the US Bitcoin spot ETF had a net inflow of US$308.75 million, and the Ethereum spot ETF had a net outflow of US$5.22 million.
TD Bank becomes first U.S. bank to plead guilty to money laundering conspiracy, fined $3 billion
Last week, U.S. Attorney General Merrick B. Garland announced in Washington that TD Bank, one of the largest financial institutions in the United States, had pleaded guilty to multiple felony charges, including conspiracy to violate the Bank Secrecy Act and money laundering.
Garland confirmed in a statement that TD Bank agreed to a $1.8 billion criminal fine, which, when combined with the civil enforcement action, brings the total penalty against the bank to about $3 billion. He noted that the resolution includes the largest penalty ever imposed under the Bank Secrecy Act and the first time the Department of Justice has assessed a daily penalty against a bank.
The bank is the largest in U.S. history to admit to violating the Bank Secrecy Act and the first to plead guilty to conspiracy to launder money. The Justice Department highlighted compliance lapses that created an environment for financial crime to flourish.
Industry News
The U.S. Financial Crimes Enforcement Network (FinCEN) says banking giant TD Bank failed to report suspicious activity from an anonymous client group that processed international cryptocurrency transactions.
FinCEN alleges that TD Bank processed more than 2,000 transactions over a nine-month period from a company called “Customer Group C,” which was identified as “purportedly operating in the sales financing and real estate industries.” The group misrepresented their international wire activity to TD Bank, claiming that their annual sales would not exceed $1 million. In reality, they conducted more than $1 billion in transactions through TD Bank.
Market News: Tether plans to explore lending to commodity trading companies
According to market news, stablecoin issuer Tether plans to explore providing loans to commodity trading companies.
Glassnode posted that short-term Bitcoin holders are currently showing a profit advantage, with a profit-loss ratio of 1.2. The indicator recently broke through 1 standard deviation of the 90-day mean, indicating that investor sentiment may be shifting positively.
Data: Solana Ecosystem Memecoin Total Market Value Exceeds $11 Billion
According to data disclosed by SolanaFloor, the total market value of Memecoin in the Solana ecosystem has exceeded US$11 billion.
Monochrome to launch Australia’s first Ethereum spot ETF on Cboe
Monochrome Asset Management is preparing to launch Australia’s first Ethereum spot ETF on Cboe.
The Monochrome Ethereum ETF (IETH) will begin trading on Monday, following the launch of its $10.1 million Bitcoin ETF (IBTC) in August 2023.
According to reports, the fund will position itself as the worlds first fund to provide physical Ethereum subscriptions and redemptions.
10x Research said in its market analysis report that MicroStrategys momentum continues. In the past week, the stock rose 16%, reaching a market value of $43 billion, a record high. This upward trend may continue, and several key catalysts are on the horizon. This may create a tail wags the dog situation, and MicroStrategys stock performance may have a positive impact on the price of Bitcoin.
Project News
Blast Announces the Winning Teams of Mobile Big Bang Program, Including Baseline, predict.fun, etc.
Blast announced the list of winning teams of the Mobile Big Bang program (in no particular order), including:
-Nano (@nano_bid);
-Lennart (@Lennart_up);
-predict.fun(@predictdotfun);
-Collective Casino of the People (@ccpgaming_eth);
-friendzone(@friendzone_pro);
-Baseline (@BaselineMarkets). Related project information will be announced soon.
Hyperliquid Establishes Foundation and Plans to Launch HYPE Token TGE
Hyperliquid announced the establishment of the Hyper Foundation, which aims to support the development of the Hyperliquid blockchain and ecosystem and plans to launch the HYPE token TGE.
Hyperliquids native token HYPE is critical to the further development of the HyperBFT proof-of-stake consensus, HyperEVM, and roadmap. As part of the genesis distribution, eligible users can choose to receive HYPE and optional Hypurr NFTs.
Paxos CEO joins Trump family WLFI project as head of stablecoin and payments
According to market news, Paxos CEO Rich Teo has joined the Trump familys WLFI project as head of stablecoin and payment. It is not clear whether he has left his position at Paxos.
deBridge Foundation: LFG Launch to be launched today
The deBridge Foundation announced on the X platform that it plans to launch LFG Launch at 8:00 UTC on October 15.
According to previous news, the deBridge token DBR will be issued fairly on Jupiter Exchange through the LFG (Launch Fair and Grow) mechanism, with a fixed price of $0.025 and an investment cap of $25,000 per eligible address. A total of 200 million DBR (2% of the total supply) will be issued, and the total investment cap is 5 million USDC. In addition, deBridge will also provide 3 million USDC and 100 million DBR in the Meteora AMM pool as liquidity owned by the protocol, with an initial transaction price of $0.03. 50% of DBR will be available at the token generation event (TGE), and the remaining 50% will be unlocked after 6 months.
According to monitoring, PUFFER may have two major market makers, GSR Markets and another unknown entity. GSR makes 5 million coins, with 2.6 million coins still to be transferred. Another unknown market maker makes 3.72 million coins, all of which have been recharged into the exchange.
Soneium Spark Incubation Program Winners Announced, Involving DeFi, Web3 Experience and Other Tracks
Sony L2 project Soneium announced on X that the selection process for the Soneium Spark incubation program has been completed and all winners have been selected. Each project will start incubation with more than 30 partners, receive expert guidance in marketing, business development, financial support, and technical integration, and have the opportunity to participate in exclusive workshops.
Grass Foundation: Airdrop One final qualification query page will be launched on October 21
The Grass Foundation stated in a statement that the final qualification query page for Airdrop One will be launched on October 21, 2024.
The foundation added that claims will not be open and will not go live on October 21, and this is just a checker. Please remain vigilant to avoid being scammed, and there are currently no on-chain transactions that require signatures.
Investment and Financing
Bitcoin staking protocol Solv Protocol announced that it has completed $11 million in financing at a valuation of $200 million, with participation from Nomura subsidiary Laser Digital, Blockchain Capital, OKX Ventures, etc. It is reported that Solv Protocols SolvBTC product has deployed more than 20,000 BTC (about $1.3 billion) in 10 major blockchain networks.
Flappy Bird Foundation Completes $2 Million Funding, Led by Kenetic Capital and Scytale Ventures
The Web3 mobile game project Flappy Bird Foundation announced the completion of a new round of financing of US$2 million, led by Kenetic Capital and Scytale Ventures, with participation from Big Brain Holdings, Optic Capital and 4 SV. The new funds will support the project to add a series of new Web3 features to attract nostalgic and new generation players. It is reported that under the management of the newly established Flappy Bird Foundation, the games intellectual property rights will continue to be protected.
Japanese listed company Metaplanet once again increased its holdings by 106.97 BTC
Metaplanet, a Japanese listed company, once again spent 1 billion yen to increase its holdings by 106.97 BTC, and its current total holdings increased to 855.478 BTC.
PinGo Lab completes seed round financing, CGV FOF and others participate
Decentralized infrastructure PinGo Lab announced the completion of its seed round of financing, with participation from CGV FOF, K 24 Fund, Catcher VC and Landscape Capital. The specific amount has not been disclosed yet.
Crypto trading app Ziglu agrees to acquire Damex stake and seeks financing for more acquisitions
UK crypto trading app Ziglu has agreed to acquire a stake in its Gibraltar rival Damex in an all-stock deal, with the deal expected to be announced during Gibraltar Financial Week.
The move is a key step for Ziglu to expand its services, with the goal of improving its cryptocurrency, investment and banking services. The company is expected to have nearly 200,000 customers after the transaction is completed. Ziglu will use this expanded customer base to launch UK and US stock trading services to its European users, thereby expanding its market share.
The move follows Robinhood’s failed bid to acquire Ziglu last spring. The company initially agreed to buy the app for $170 million in April 2022, but reduced its offer to $72.5 million in August of that year.
Ziglu founder Mark Hipperson returned to the role of chairman and CEO after the failed acquisition, and the company is focusing on securing additional funding to make more acquisitions.
Regulatory trends
TD Cowen: Senator Hagerty’s draft stablecoin bill may become the outline of the 2025 bill
Investment bank TD Cowen said in a report on Monday that U.S. Senator Bill Hagerty’s draft stablecoin legislation could serve as an outline for a future bill as early as 2025.
Last week, Hagerty, a crypto-friendly Republican, unveiled a draft legislative discussion paper aimed at establishing a regulatory framework for stablecoins. It includes a provision that issuers above a $10 billion threshold could receive an exemption from federal regulators and then continue to be subject to the jurisdiction of their states. The draft legislation also includes maintaining foreign exchange reserves denominated in U.S. dollars on a one-to-one basis.
This draft should form the basis for legislation we expect Congress to pass next year, wrote Jaret Seiberg of TD Cowen Washington Research Group. This is more likely if Trump wins, given Hagertys close relationship with the former president.
Hagerty is reportedly a potential contender for a seat in Trumps cabinet if he wins, either in a national security role or a Treasury Department post. Hagerty is also a member of the Senate Banking Committee, which has jurisdiction over key agencies including the SEC.
“The key will be to reach bipartisan agreement on regulators overseeing stablecoins. If Trump wins, the prospects for such a bill are even higher,” Seiberg noted in the report.
Character Voice
Bloomberg ETF analyst Eric Balchunas shared the full quote on Bitcoin/digital assets from BlackRock CEO Larry Fink during the third quarter earnings call on X. Fink said that Bitcoin assets are an asset class in their own right, that they are discussing allocations with global institutions, and that these assets remind him of the early days of the mortgage market (currently worth $11 trillion).
On the afternoon of October 14th, local time, at the Future Blockchain Summit held in Dubai, CoinW President Sonia Shaw mentioned in a Fireside Chat speech entitled From Niche to Norm: The Next Mainstream Adoption of Web3 that although decentralized finance is the ultimate goal pursued by everyone, centralized exchanges are still the main force in attracting new users. In the long run, decentralized finance is an inevitable choice for the future, but the current industry still needs regulators and centralized exchanges to explore together, cope with challenges on the road, and pave the way for the popularization and innovation of blockchain technology.
Bloomberg reporter Emily Nicolle wrote on X that crypto custody firm Copper has hired former Goldman Sachs managing director Amar Kuchinad to replace Dmitry Tokarev as the groups CEO, and will focus on attracting more traditional financial clients and expanding aggressively in the United States.
Indian central bank governor: CBDC has the potential to promote efficient cross-border payments
Reserve Bank of India Governor Shaktikanta Das said that central bank digital currency is an area with the potential to promote efficient cross-border payments. India has once again become one of the few countries to launch both wholesale and retail central bank digital currencies, or CBDCs.
Currency for cross-border payments, and overcoming the serious financial stability concerns associated with cryptocurrencies. A key challenge may be that countries may prefer to design their own systems based on national considerations.
DeFi Report founder: Uniswap Labs and UNI holders may earn $468 million from Unichain every year
Michael Nadeau, founder of DeFi Report, recently wrote that the launch of Unichain will allow the $368 million paid to Ethereum validators last year to fall directly into the hands of Uniswap Labs and even UNI token holders. He added that Uniswap Labs will also be able to capture all MEV on Unchain because it owns all validators on the network.
“MEV is estimated to account for about 10% of total fees paid on Uniswap ($100 million last year). They can also choose to share some of this with token holders,” Nadeau said.
