This week's news review | DWF Labs excluded by all peers; Singapore's largest money laundering case involves assets worth up to 2.4 billion Singapore dollars.

BlockBeats will compile industry news highlights for the week of 9.18-9.24 in this article, and recommend in-depth articles to help readers better understand the market and stay informed of industry trends.

Weekly News Recap

SEC and Binance.US holding company BAM to hold hearing on October 12th

On September 19th, according to The Block, a Washington, D.C. judge encouraged Binance and the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) to work together to provide more information on how Binance.US handles customer assets. Binance.US holding company BAM stated that the SEC's requirements were "overly broad and burdensome." SEC and BAM have agreed to hold a hearing on October 12th and submit a joint status report by October 10th.

Bloomberg: US SEC fails to convince judge to launch deep investigation into Binance.US immediately

On September 19th, according to Bloomberg, the US Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) failed to convince a federal judge to allow officials to launch an immediate deep investigation into Binance.US's software. The SEC stated that it has been difficult to obtain information from Binance.US since it sued Binance.US and CZ in June this year. On Monday, the SEC requested that a federal judge, Zia Faruqui, allow it to inspect Binance.US's technical infrastructure and force the company to share other necessary information. The judge stated that he is "not currently inclined to allow an investigation to proceed" and that the SEC should make more targeted requests and speak with more witnesses.

Grayscale announces abandonment of ETHW token rights

On September 18th, Grayscale announced on behalf of the shareholders of its various products as of the record date ending on September 26th, 2022, that they have irrevocably waived all rights to the ETHW (ETHPoW) allocated to such record date shareholders. Grayscale stated that after thorough review and consultation with product service providers, the product custodian does not support the ETHPoW token and has not developed a trading venue with meaningful liquidity for the ETHPoW token. Therefore, the right to purchase and sell ETHPoW tokens cannot be exercised, and Grayscale represents that record date shareholders have waived their rights to these assets.

Singapore's largest money laundering case involves assets worth a total of 2.4 billion Singapore dollars, with 38 million Singapore dollars worth of cryptocurrency seized

On September 20th, according to the Lianhe Zaobao, in the largest money laundering case in Singapore's history, the Singapore police have seized assets worth more than 2.4 billion Singapore dollars (equivalent to 1.272 billion yuan) and issued a disposal order. In addition, the police have frozen bank accounts with deposits of more than 1.127 billion yuan, cash of more than 76 million Singapore dollars (including foreign currency), 68 gold bars, 294 luxury bags, 164 watches, 546 pieces of jewelry, more than 38 million Singapore dollars (equivalent to about 200 million yuan) worth of cryptocurrency, and 204 electronic devices.

Singapore banks strengthen checks on Chinese customers holding "investment-related" passports

On September 21, according to the Singapore Business Times, following last month's crackdown on money laundering activities involving assets worth more than SGD 2.4 billion, Singapore banks are stepping up scrutiny of some customers born in China but holding passports from other countries. Sources said that some banks have been reviewing new account openings and transactions with Chinese customers holding investment-related passports. At least one international bank is closing accounts of customers holding citizenship from countries such as Cambodia, Cyprus, Turkey, and Vanuatu. Other banks in Singapore have started evaluating whether to accept new funds from such background customers based on case-by-case assessments, which will take longer. At least 10 local and international banks in Singapore have been implicated in the high-profile money laundering scandal, raising concerns about their effectiveness in combating illicit gains. Singaporean parliamentarians raised more than 30 questions in parliament this week, covering issues such as the rigor of their review procedures, suspicious transaction reports, and the reputation impact on Singapore as a wealth center.

Ethereum core developer: Due to the failure of Holesky testnet launch, the activation of Dencun mainnet may not happen this year

On September 22, Christine Kim, Vice President of Research at Galaxy, summarized the 118th Ethereum core developer consensus meeting (ACDC). The meeting mainly discussed the preparation work for Devnet-9 and changes to the Ethereum consensus layer (CL). Ethereum core developer Tim Beiko questioned the Dencun test schedule at this meeting, as it was previously suggested to launch Dencun in the following testnets in order: Holesky, Goerli, and then Sepolia. However, due to network configuration errors, the Holesky testnet launch failed and will be restarted on September 28. Therefore, Tim Beiko stated that if developers cannot ensure the release of Dencun on the public testnet before the Ethereum developer conference Devconnect in November 2023, the activation of Dencun mainnet is unlikely to happen this year.

A whale user bought ETH call options worth $150 million on Deribit

On September 18th, according to data from the options tracking website Greeks.Live, a whale user purchased nearly 92,600 ETH call options contracts worth $150 million on the cryptocurrency trading platform Deribit. Greeks.Live stated that the whale had over 40,000 ETH call options contracts expiring in December at a price of $2,200, and nearly 50,000 call options contracts expiring in October at a price of $2,000.

A $3 Billion Bitcoin Options Contract Will Expire at the End of the Month, Potentially Causing Market Volatility

On September 22nd, data showed that a Bitcoin options contract worth approximately $3 billion and an Ethereum options contract worth $1.8 billion will expire on September 29th. Deribit's Chief Commercial Officer, Luuk Strijers, emphasized the similarities between the cryptocurrency market and traditional finance in the days leading up to options expiration (especially quarterly expiration). Strijers pointed out that "this could lead to significant trading volume and volatility. The actions of market makers could exacerbate market volatility, especially before the options expire. Market makers will adjust their hedges to accommodate changes in the underlying asset price."

Insider: Ant Group Plans to Withdraw Investment from A&T Capital

On September 18th, according to insiders, Ant Group is planning to withdraw its investment from A&T Capital. It is currently unclear whether A&T Capital will continue to operate or attract new investors. A&T was established in April 2021 and has invested in some of the hottest crypto startups, including digital asset lending institution Matrixport and Ethereum software manufacturer ConsenSys, with total assets under management of approximately $100 million. Ant Group is the main investor of A&T.

Optimism Launches Third Airdrop, Directly Distributing Over 19.41 Million OP to 31,870 Addresses

On September 19th, Optimism, an Ethereum layer 2 scaling solution, announced that it has started the third airdrop at 2:10 AM Beijing time on September 19th. The airdrop will distribute a total of 19,411,313 OP tokens directly to 31,870 unique addresses without the need to interact with any website. These addresses are those who delegated their OP voting rights during the snapshot period from 8:00 AM on January 20th, 2023 to 8:00 AM on July 20th, 2023, Beijing time.

Mt.Gox extends repayment deadline from October 31, 2023 to October 31, 2024

On September 21, according to an official announcement, cryptocurrency exchange Mt.Gox announced a change in repayment deadlines. The deadline for basic repayment, early lump sum repayment, and midterm repayment, originally set for October 31, 2023, has been extended to October 31, 2024.

DeFi Yield Aggregator Gro Protocol to Cease Operations and Dissolve Gro DAO

On September 20th, according to the Snapshot governance page, the DeFi yield aggregator Gro Protocol community voted with a support rate of 70.95% to pass the proposal to "dissolve Gro DAO and no longer operate the protocol", and provide clear exit strategies for stakeholders. Related reading: "Multiple projects announce shutdowns, is the crypto industry facing a 'shutdown wave'?"

Binance Labs' sixth season incubation program announces 12 projects covering DeFi, infrastructure, and other fields

On September 21st, Binance Labs announced that 12 high-potential project teams covering DeFi, infrastructure, and application layers have been approved to join this season's Binance Labs incubation program. The two-month comprehensive course aims to provide founders with resources and one-on-one guidance throughout the entire Binance ecosystem. For more details, please click to view: "12 new projects, Binance Labs' sixth season global incubation program project overview".

Ethereum Network Gas Suddenly Soars Due to Binance Wallet Maintenance

On September 21st, according to Etherscan data, the Ethereum network gas fee suddenly soared, reaching over 300 gwei at one point. Binance spent 223.29 ETH in the past 3 hours, ranking first on the Ethereum mainnet. Subsequently, Binance co-founder He Yi responded on social media that the reason for the surge in gas fees was due to Binance wallet maintenance. He confirmed that "it has been a long time since we collected, and now the collection cost is low, while the gas was too expensive before."

CZ Responds to Executive Departures: Binance Hires Over 600 New Employees During the Same Period

On September 19th, Binance founder CZ stated during an internal event: "The entire industry needs a high degree of compliance, and Binance has made significant investments in talent, compliance, processes, and technology. Although many people have been discussing the departure of many senior executives from Binance recently, many people have also joined Binance, and we have added about six to seven hundred new employees in the past few months. We hope to attract more talent to join this industry or join Binance."

This Week's Popular Articles

The Most Shocking Speech in Cryptocurrency History: Why We Are Here

On September 14th, at the world's largest DeFi event Permissionless II co-hosted by Blockwork and Bankless, senior industry OG and founder of ShapeShift, Erik Voorhees, delivered a brilliant speech. In this speech, Erik delved into the future of finance, the comparison between code and human law, and the power and potential of decentralized finance. With his profound thinking and rich industry experience, he expressed his firm support for open and permissionless finance, and criticized the current financial regulation and traditional financial system.

Listen to the Shenyu Community AMA: Industry ups and downs for more than a decade, don't challenge human nature

The social platform AAAny has been gaining popularity, and today, Shen Yu has registered on the new social platform AAAny and interacted with netizens on the platform to answer their questions. BlockBeats has compiled the following Q&A. I am Shen Yu. In 2011, I accidentally entered the crypto field. I have traded coins, blown up warehouses, mined, made chips, and bankrupted several companies. I am still active in the front line and operate two companies, F2Pool and Cobo. Let's AAA.

DWF is excluded by all peers, GSR says "not worthy to be on the same stage as other market makers"

During Token 2049, the "Web3 Connect" forum hosted by C² Ventures unexpectedly sparked a battle among cryptocurrency market makers, with DWF Labs at the center of the controversy. Market maker GSR took to Twitter to express anger that DWF Labs was not qualified to sit with fellow speakers GSR, Wintermute, and OKX at the forum, considering it an insult. Wintermute's CEO liked the tweet. The new market maker, DWF, was ostracized and attacked by peers, and DFW's co-founders subsequently launched a strong counterattack online.

Interview with Wintermute: We are liquidity providers, not market makers

BlockBeats exclusively interviewed Yoann Turpin, co-founder of Wintermute, a well-known market maker in the cryptocurrency industry, at the TOKEN2049 conference, exploring the "wild west" of market makers. What is the current size of Wintermute? According to the official website, as of the time of publication, its cumulative trading volume has exceeded 2 trillion US dollars. According to watchers data, the largest trading asset of Wintermute currently comes from Ethereum, but it accounts for less than 1% of the token composition of its trading.

Interview with DWF Labs: We don't manipulate anything

Since March, DWF Labs has been sweeping the secondary market at a rate of 5 projects per month, frequently making large investments, sparking heated discussions in the community. Andrei Grachev, managing partner of DWF Labs, said in an interview that in most cases, DWF Labs invests in projects by directly purchasing tokens. However, the community believes that DWF is not a real investor and is only holding coins for market making. BlockBeats recently conducted an exclusive interview with DWF Labs, a well-known market maker in the cryptocurrency industry, to uncover the truth behind the liquidity controversy that has arisen in the community.

Interview with Celestia: Modularization, Ethereum, and the future of scaling in the crypto world

Some in the industry believe that Celestia is the most important underlying innovation in the blockchain industry since Ethereum. Both Ethereum and Celestia are building secure foundational layers. BlockBeats exclusively interviewed Celestia's co-founder and COO Nick White at the TOKEN 2049 conference to explore the relationship between Celestia and Ethereum, as well as the story behind Celestia.

Multiple projects announced shutdowns in succession, is the cryptocurrency industry facing a "shutdown wave"?

According to BlockBeats' incomplete calculation, there were 9 projects, exchanges, and communities that shut down in the cryptocurrency industry in 2021, 17 in 2022, and 27 in 2023. At the same time, in 2023, the growth rate of shutdown projects is getting faster, increasing from an average of 1 per month to a maximum of 5 per month. Behind these events, every participant in the cryptocurrency industry, from community operations to project financing, has felt the chill of the bear market.

A16Z Invests in 4 Projects in One Week, Are They Starting to Bottom-Fish in the Cryptocurrency Industry?

Since the second quarter of this year, the investment strategies and scale of major VCs in the encryption market have been shrinking due to the deep bear market. According to incomplete statistics from BlockBeats, the number of weekly financing in the encryption field has remained at around 10 transactions in the past few months, while last year, this data was still around 30 transactions per week, and even as high as 60 transactions per week. However, at the end of the third quarter, some first-tier encryption VCs have become active again. Taking a16z as an example, in just over a week, it has successively led four encryption projects with a total financing scale of 76.6 million US dollars. The "a16z team" seems to have started their bargain-hunting in the encryption industry.

IOSG founder's experience at the conference: project parties and VCs are running out of money, Token2049 becomes the last hope for financing

LP continues to support early-stage VCs that promote growth within the industry, while VCs continue to support founding teams in emerging fields. It seems like everything is moving in a positive direction. However, the reality is quite different. For many teams, this 2049 may be their last chance for funding. If the bear market does not end, this could be their team's final opportunity for exposure, as most early-stage teams have exhausted their runway in the past two years of expansion.

Inventory of Binance Labs' Potential Unreleased Projects

Among the active VCs in the industry, Binance Labs topped the list of "Which VCs Love Airdrops More" with a 15.4% investment target airdrop rate, far surpassing major VCs such as a16z, Coinbase, and Multicoin. Binance Labs can be said to be one of the important participants in project investment and incubation. In order to find gems in Binance's investment portfolio, this article will delve into various aspects of Binance Labs, including its introduction, advantages, and investment layout, and then focus on projects in Binance's investment portfolio that have not yet been launched but have certain airdrop expectations.

Paradigm Founder: Cryptocurrency, a New Planet Being Colonized

We can think of cryptocurrency as a new planet that is being colonized. Many critics see it as a barren and worthless planet, even as a dirty casino. However, optimists see the potential of this untapped land: a place where more advanced financial systems and internet platforms can be built. The newcomers are diverse, including explorers attracted by cutting-edge technology and some unscrupulous speculators. Innovators and researchers are attracted by new possibilities, while ordinary people, especially those marginalized on Earth, are also joining their ranks.

TON Space: Telegram's future encrypted "WeChat wallet"

On September 13th, the TON Foundation announced that it will launch TON Space, a self-custody digital wallet based on Telegram, globally in November. However, the service will not be available in the United States and some other countries. After the Telegram Bot craze this year, Telegram is seen as a testing ground for the promotion of Web3.

Folius Ventures: Identify Web3 game entrepreneurial competition pattern and potential new opportunities

Against the backdrop of improving global gaming industry standards and overcapacity, Web3 has become one of the ways for game developers to recover costs due to its high profit margins throughout the entire lifecycle, attracting many Web2 teams. However, the current supply side of Web3 is overcapacity, and the demand side is lacking liquidity, and after two years of development, the drawbacks are gradually becoming apparent. Therefore, this research report outlines the competitive landscape of the Web3 gaming industry and existing viable entrepreneurial opportunities.

Analysis of Friend.tech's economic model: game theory, expected value, and demand curve

The economic model of Friend.tech looks very simple: (1) Key price increases with quantity (2) A 10% transaction fee is charged for each transaction, which is shared equally by the protocol and Key issuer (3) Points will be distributed to users in the next 6 months. The best way to understand the economic model is to put yourself in the shoes of the project team. [If I were to design an economic model, what should I do?] The starting point is that we hope to create a SocialFi product, but past experience and the current market liquidity make it difficult for us to be optimistic about this. Therefore, we hope to create a product with some Ponzi properties to complete the cold start.

After 17 months, the PFP project of top NFT artists is finally going on sale

On September 19th, the renowned NFT artist FEWOCiOUS finally announced the casting details of his PFP project Fewos. After 17 months, Fewos finally stumbled onto the starting line. Will Fewos succeed in the face of scandal and market indifference towards PFP? We wait and see.

Close Truffle Suite, Consensys to focus on promoting MetaMask Snap

On September 22nd, Consensys, an Ethereum infrastructure development company, announced on social media that it will be shutting down its development tools Truffle Suite and Ganache, and partnering with HardHat, another Ethereum developer tool platform, to provide a smooth transition for developers currently using Truffle Suite and Ganache. Consensys also added that it will focus on expanding its Infura, MetaMask Snaps, and SDK products. Truffle Suite and Ganache are both popular tools in the blockchain ecosystem, but Consensys has chosen to prioritize MetaMask and Infura, perhaps in consideration of building a better Ethereum ecosystem and creating a larger platform.

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