1. U.S. CPI data released for November link
The U.S. released November CPI data of 7.1%, expected 7.30%, and the previous value of 7.70%. The data continued to fall and was the smallest increase since December 2021. On the 14th, the Fed will announce its interest rate hike decision, which is expected to increase by 50bps.
2. Fed hikes rates by 50bps link
The U.S. Federal Reserve raised interest rates by 50bps, and the interest rate level is a new high since 2007. This year, the cumulative interest rate hike is 425bps. Powell said that the FOMC continues to believe that inflation risks tend to rise, and that interest rate hikes are still some way off. The size of the rate hike next February will depend on incoming data and the labor market.
3. U.S. Justice Dept is split over charging Binance as crypto world falters; Binance sees stablecoin-related asset flow link
Splits between U.S. Department of Justice prosecutors are delaying the conclusion of a long-running criminal investigation into the Binance. The investigation began in 2018 and is focused on Binance’s compliance with U.S. anti-money laundering laws and sanctions. The charges are unlicensed money transmission, money laundering conspiracy and criminal sanctions violations. No final decisions have been made, the DOJ could bring indictments against Binance and its executives, negotiate a settlement, or close the case without taking any action. According to defillama data, the total assets of Binance on December 14 was about $60.4 billion, and the 24-hour net outflow of stablecoin was about $3 billion, mainly due to users’ FUD on Binance.
4. SBF’s weekly summary
a. SBF arrested in the Bahamas, will be extradited to the U.S. link
Bahamian authorities arrested FTX founder SBF at the request of the U.S. Government, based on a sealed indictment filed by the United States District Court for the Southern District of New York, which expected to move to unseal the indictment. SBF is the only person charged in the indictment. The charges included wire fraud, wire fraud conspiracy, securities fraud, securities fraud conspiracy and money laundering. The U.S. SEC has authorized separate charges relating to SBF’s violations of securities laws, to be filed publicly in SDNY.
b. SBF could face up to 115 years in prison, if convicted link
SBF is facing eight federal indictments carrying a maximum sentence of 115 years in prison. Professionals expect a 10-year sentence. SBF’s charges include wire fraud, securities fraud, money laundering, and more. TIMES reported.
5. Crypto trading firm QCP Capital has at least $97 million stuck on FTX link
QCP Capital, a crypto trading firm based in Singapore, has at least $97 million stuck on FTX after the crypto exchange filed for bankruptcy last month. TheBlock reported. QCP is also one of the most active partners of Three Arrows Capital.
6. Employees in the bottom 20% of Binance’s performance rankings may not receive year-end bonuses link
Binance may significantly reduce this year’s year-end bonus, and some teams have been announced that the bottom 20% of employees in this year’s performance ranking will have no year-end bonus. According to several employees. Binance bonuses will be distributed before the Chinese New Year, end of january. Last year, some Binance team bonuses even exceeded 20 months. Regular employees also have bonuses for more than ten months. Since the beginning of this year, the global crypto industry has laid off more than 10,000 people. Binance continues to recruit, and the number of employees worldwide has exceeded 8,000. That means more than 6,000 employees are still eligible for year-end bonuses.
7. Stablecoin USDD unpegged, its official website shows the value of the reserve TRX is significantly exaggerated link
Justin Sun TRON’s algorithmic stablecoin USDD has fallen, and USDD accounts for 86% of the USDD/3CRV pool. USDD claims to have $1.455b in collateral, with 200%. However, the official website shows that TRX is worth about $825m, but the actual value is $578m, of which about $476m TRX is in the burning contract and illiquid. All USDC are all jUSDC, which are borrow through JustLend.
8. Gemini suspected that 5.7 million user information was leaked link
The Gemini exchange suspected that 5.7 million user information was leaked; official responsed that this was the result of a supplier incident, which resulted in the collection of Gemini customers’ email and some phone numbers, please be vigilant against phishing activities.
9. Liquidity provider Paradigm announced a 15% pay cut link
Liquidity provider Paradigm announced a 15% pay cut across the board, blaming the FTX’s collapse. Amber also announced today that it will cancel performance-based bonuses in 2022. Amber will lay off employees from 1,300 to 400 this year.
10. A16z listed some exciting future trends in crypto link
The A16z crypto team listed some exciting future trends, including decentralization of the mobile front end, zero-knowledge, verifiable delay function hardware, fully on-chain games, non-transferable tokens and Decentralized Energy.
Fundraising
- Amber Group has completed a $300M Series-C round, led by Fenbushi Capital US link
- Aztec Network, an L2 privacy solution based on ZK Rollup, raised $100M in Series B financing led by a16z crypto link
- Web3 infrastructure firm Blocknative has raised $15M in a Series A-1 round link
- Frontrunner, a prediction market for sports betting built in the Cosmos ecosystem, raised $4.75M in a seed round led by Susquehanna Private Equity Investments link
- Anima, creator of “the first on-chain AR” digital assets, raised an additional $3M from Polygon Studios, Not Boring Capital and others link
- Spaceport, a web3 intellectual property protocol, raised $3.6M in pre-seed round co-led by Arca, Decasonic and Crit Ventures, the venture arm of game developer Com2us link
- Web3 game Dogami raised a $7M seed extension with investment from XAnge and Bpifrance link
- Sooho.io, a provider of DeFi services, has raised $4.5M in the Series A+ funding round led by Woori Technology Investment link
Learn more, check out crypto-fundraising.info.
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