Headlines
Nigerian government drops charges against Binance executive Tigran Gambaryan
The Nigerian government has dropped all charges against Binance executive Tigran Gambaryan, who had been facing trial in a local detention facility since April.
The withdrawal of charges was announced by a lawyer representing the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) at the Federal High Court in Abuja on Wednesday morning local time.
Tesla Q3 Earnings Report Shows It Didn’t Sell Any Bitcoin
According to Teslas third-quarter earnings report, the company did not sell any Bitcoin during the quarter.
Industry News
ING: Fed hawks re-priced, some FOMC members doubt continuous rate cuts before the end of the year
ING said there has been a recent hawkish repricing of Fed rate expectations, with some FOMC members now skeptical of a series of rate cuts before the end of the year. ING analyst Francesco Pesole said in a note that the dollar is likely to continue to appreciate ahead of the hotly contested U.S. presidential election next month. Pesole said the dollar may lose some momentum midweek on Wednesday, but overall the dollar will rise most of the time before the election. In addition, lower expectations for a Fed rate cut also boosted the dollar.
Data from the prediction market Polymarket shows that the probability of Trump winning the US presidential election has dropped to 60.3%, while the probability of Harris winning the election has risen to 39.6%, and the difference between the two has narrowed to about 20 percentage points.
In addition, the amount of bets on the US election on the platform reached US$2.34 billion.
ZachXBT: An OTC trader has helped Lazarus Group cash out stolen cryptocurrencies since 2022
On-chain detective ZachXBT posted on the X platform that OTC trader Yicong Wang has helped the hacker group Lazarus Group cash out stolen cryptocurrencies through bank transfers since 2022. A few months ago, a follower contacted ZachXBT after their exchange account was frozen after completing a P2P transaction with Yicong Wang. It is reported that Yicong Wang is an OTC trader who has used pseudonyms such as Seawang, Greatdtrader and BestRhea 977.
ZachXBT said that when looking at the blockchain data related to Wang Yicong, it was noticed that the illegal funds of Alex Labs, Irys co-founder and other hackers (EasyFi, Bondly, Maverick co-founder, etc.) were exposed to a high degree. It can be seen from the chain that Wang Yicong is still actively helping the Lazarus Group in the past few weeks. ZachXBT said that he hopes he will be held accountable for his actions at some point in the future.
Project News
Uniswap Foundation Grants Areta $1.2 Million to Create Uniswap Foundation Security Fund
According to official news, the Uniswap Foundation allocated US$1.2 million to Areta for the Uniswap Foundation Security Fund to create a competitive audit and security service market to enhance the security and integrity of the Uniswap v4 hook developer community.
The Uniswap Foundation Security Fund aims to change the way projects building Uniswap v4 hooks access security audits. By creating a marketplace where vetted providers compete, the audit process is streamlined and overall costs are expected to be reduced. The marketplace will enable shortlisted projects to receive audit quotes from whitelisted providers, ensuring transparency and competitive pricing. Projects will then select providers and the Uniswap Foundation will subsidize the full cost of the audit for selected projects that qualify.
zkLink postpones its token vesting schedule by six months, covering 40.5% of the total ZKL supply
The zkLink Core DAO has decided to postpone its token vesting schedule (originally scheduled to begin on October 22) by six months, involving 40.5% of the total ZKL supply.
The zkLink team and advisors will begin accepting tokens from early private round purchasers on April 22, 2025, and the total amount of vested tokens will remain unchanged.
The move comes ahead of a series of planned token unlocks, with Blockworks estimating that at least $5.3 billion worth of tokens from buzzworthy projects will enter the market over the next 12 months.
“While this decision was made in order to align our ongoing efforts and interests to strengthen our community while defending zkLink’s position as a market-leading infrastructure company, we understand this may be disappointing and we sincerely apologize for any inconvenience this may cause,” the team wrote in a statement.
“This additional time allows us to more effectively adapt to market conditions and ensure our team and investors are positioned for long-term success,” said zkLink CEO Vince Yang.
Investment and Financing
Web3 mobile gaming platform Party Icons announced the completion of a $9 million seed round of financing, led by Bitkraft Ventures, with participation from IDG Capital and Sebastien Borget, co-founder of The Sandbox. The funds will be used to promote the development of Party Icons gaming and social experiences while enhancing its Web3 infrastructure.
Quinn Campbell, vice president of growth at Party Icons, said the platform is catering to consumers’ love of “snipped-in-the-wall” entertainment. “All game modes are designed with modern gaming habits in mind, with most games lasting less than 12 minutes.”
In April, Bitkraft Ventures co-led a $10 million funding round for crypto gaming studio Avalon.
Variational, a derivatives trading protocol based on Arbitrum, has completed a $10.3 million seed round of financing, led by Bain Capital Crypto and Peak XV Partners, with participation from Coinbase Ventures, Dragonfly Capital, North Island Ventures, Hack VC and others. Variational is a general peer-to-peer trading and settlement protocol, and emphasizes that it is not a decentralized exchange.
Fluid Protocol Completes $3.9 Million Seed Round, Animoca Ventures and Others Participate
The centralized lending platform protocol Fluid Protocol announced the completion of a US$3.9 million seed round of financing, with participation from Bloccelerate, Animoca Ventures, CMS Holdings, and Maelstrom. Fluid announced that it will launch its native stablecoin USDF. The new funds will accelerate the development and launch of USDF, fund security audits to ensure the security of the protocol, and expand the team.
Character Voice
Ripple CEO expects crypto industry to reset after US election, criticizes Biden administration
Ripple CEO Brad Garlinghouse says the cryptocurrency industry is set to reset regardless of the outcome of the upcoming U.S. election.
Garlinghouse called for bipartisanship at the 8th annual Washington Fintech Week and called the current Biden administration hostile.
“I think we’re going to see a reset no matter what happens,” he said in an interview. “We’re going to see progress moving forward, and I’m certainly looking forward to it...Obviously, Trump was an early and active supporter of cryptocurrencies and called himself the crypto president.”
He also mentioned Harriss connections in the technology field. Harris is from Silicon Valley. She has been supporting technology for many years. She has been relatively silent in the technology field.
Copper: Bitcoin may peak in the short term, on-chain indicators show signs of overheating
Digital asset custodian Copper said Bitcoins latest price action suggests it may have peaked in the short term, with on-chain indicators showing signs of an overheated market. As Bitcoin hovers above the $66,000 mark, Copper Research analysts looked at key indicators, including those reflecting address profitability, to assess market sentiment ahead of the upcoming U.S. election.
Analysis of Bitcoin on-chain data in this weeks Copper Opening Bell report shows that 98% of wallet addresses are now in profit based on the price Bitcoin last moved. Historically, when this percentage rises significantly (most recently it was 75%), investors want to lock in profits, so selling pressure often occurs. According to Copper analysts, this may indicate that Bitcoin is approaching a short-term peak.
“When there are large moves, patterns emerge, and when we see a significant percentage of addresses turn profitable, it typically leads to selling pressure, which could indicate that the market is experiencing a temporary top ahead of the U.S. election,” Copper analysts said.
The analyst added: “The market has reacted to the last seven days of ETF inflows, with prices breaking the $69,000 mark for the first time since July. However, something seems amiss in terms of growth. The beginning of the year saw huge daily growth in ETFs, but that has not been seen in the market recently.”
Cuban: Harris main competitor is no longer Trump, but Musk
US billionaire Mark Cuban said on CNBCs Squawk Box that Donald Trump is no longer Harris main rival, but Elon Musk, as Musk is gaining ground in the next US presidential race.
David Lawant, head of research at cryptocurrency market maker FalconX, said, I think the market consensus is that Bitcoin is likely to perform well regardless of the outcome of the election, and our analysis shows that the markets options activity around the upcoming election shows a clear bullish bias. Republican candidate and former President Trump publicly supports cryptocurrencies, so much so that Bitcoin is seen as a so-called Trump trade. His Democratic opponent, current Vice President Harris, has pledged to support a regulatory framework for the industry, which contrasts with the Biden administrations crackdown on the industry. Non-political factors such as further interest rate cuts by the Federal Reserve are seen as fueling optimism.
