WuBlockchain Weekly：Tether announces regular BTC purchases and Top10 News

Top10 News

1. Tether allocates 15% of net operating profit to bitcoin purchase link

Tether has announced that starting this month it will regularly allocate 15% of its realized net operating profit to purchase bitcoin. Previously, Tether’s first quarter report showed that Tether already has about $1.5 billion in bitcoin reserves, accounting for 1.8% of its asset reserves.

2. Exchanges suspect multiple Sui ecological projects of official address dumping link

Recently, two ecological projects TURBOS and SUIA on the Sui Network went alive and experienced a sharp decline in their price. Some exchanges believe that the official addresses sold their tokens at the time of listing based on on-chain data. Both projects were endorsed by Jump and Sui officials, raising concerns about the quality of Sui’s ecological projects. During the IDO, the price of TURBOS was around $0.0055, but on May 19, the price of TURBOS dropped to only $0.0039. Similarly, during the IDO, the price of SUIA was around $0.33, but on May 19, the price of SUIA plummeted to only $0.153. After the opening, TURBOS unlocked about 40% of its tokens. TURBOS later stated that it will refund users who participated in the IDO.

3. Binance’s weekly summary

a. Binance to withdraw from the Canadian marketplace link

On May 13, Binance announced that it will proactively withdraw from the Canadian marketplace, because the new guidance related to stablecoins and investor limits provided to crypto exchanges makes the Canada market no longer tenable for Binance at this time. Canada is the home country of CZ.

b. Westpac places immediate ban on payments to Binance crypto exchange link

Sydney-based Westpac Bank has banned customers from trading with Binance, AFR reported. Meanwhile, Binance Australia customers were told they could no longer use PayID to transfer Australian dollars into their Binance accounts due to restrictions placed on the exchange by a “third-party vendor” that temporarily affected bank transfer withdrawals.

4. OKX to launch the Ordinals trading market this week link

On May 16, OKX announced that it will launch the Ordinals trading market this week, supporting BRC20 token trading and BTC cross-chain Swap; supporting Ordinals inscriptions and BRC20 token minting and Ordinals NFT trading from the end of May to June; launching OKX Wallet BTC Lightning Network in June. Previously, OKX has announced the launch of the BRC20 browser.

5. Coinbase’s weekly summary

a. SEC responds to Coinbase request for action: ‘No’ link

In an April mandamus petition, Coinbase demanded federal courts to instruct the SEC to act and issue clear guidelines for crypto exchanges and companies. In its response, released Monday evening in New York, the SEC alleged Coinbase has no right to mandamus, which orders a government agency to fulfill certain duties. “No statute or regulation requires the Commission to take such action on a specific timeline.”

b. Coinbase initiated at hold, likely to face enforcement action from SEC: Berenberg link

On May 15, Berenberg said in a research report that the US SEC will soon bring enforcement action against Coinbase like Bittrex and Kraken. It expects the SEC to sue soon, targeting someting like staking and USDC interest income.

c. Coinbase: ETH staking reward payout temporarily paused link

On May 17, Coinbase tweeted: “We’ve temporarily paused ETH staking reward payouts to address a minor technical issue. Rest assured, ETH staking is not impacted and rewards are still being earned and will be paid out. We anticipate to resolve this issue in the next 72 hours.”

d. Coinbase builds Base Camp for Web3 developers link

Coinbase is set to launch Base Camp, an internal education platform aimed at providing training for Ethereum developers. Base Camp will include exercises on chain, providing developers with hands-on experience. At each learning milestone, developers will be issued an NFT badge. Base Camp will run on its Base optimistic rollup infrastructure. Base is currently on testnet, and Coinbase expects to continue to roll out updates in the coming weeks as it progresses towards an eventual mainnet version.

e. Coinbase announces the launch of its subscription service, Coinbase One link

On May 18, Coinbase announced the launch of its subscription service, Coinbase One, aimed at retaining users and increasing recurring revenue streams. The service includes benefits such as zero transaction fees, higher staking rewards, 24/7 customer support, and pre-filed tax returns. The subscription fee is $29.99 per month, and users who register and use the service before May 26 can claim an exclusive founding member NFT. Currently, the service is available to users in the United States, United Kingdom, Germany, and Ireland.

6. ETH staking yields reach historical high of 8.79% on May 19 link

On May 19, according to Token Unlock data, the annualized staking yield for ETH reached 8.79%, reaching a historical high. Since the Shanghai upgrade, 3.99 million ETH has been deposited into ETH2.0 contracts, 2.72 million ETH has been withdrawn. Prior to this, due to speculative demand, the stETH APR was also pushed up to an all-time high of 8%.

7. Ripple splashes $250 million on Metaco acquisition link

Ripple, which spent $250 million to acquire Swiss crypto custody firm Metaco, plans to begin offering clients tools to custody, issue and settle tokenized assets. The deal, financed through a combination of cash and Ripple equity, will make Ripple the sole shareholder of Metaco, which will still operate as an independent brand.

8. Jump Trading did secret deal to prop up TerraUSD stablecoin, SEC says link

The court filings shows that Jump Trading made some $1 billion in profit through its dealings with Terraform Labs. The January 2020 email outlined a deal in which Jump would boost the liquidity of “Terra and Luna,” and Jump would get to buy Luna at 30 cents, 40 cents, and 50 cents over the next three years. Luna surges above $90 in late 2021 and early 2022.

9. US SEC staff: Filecoin meets the definition of a security link

US SEC staff said that Filecoin meets the definition of a security and requested that Grayscale withdraw its registration statement for Filecoin Trust. Grayscale does not believe that FIL is a security and intends to respond promptly to the SEC staff.

10. Justin Sun attacks Li Wei for zero-cost HT acquisition, Li Lin demands evidence link

On May 16, there were circulating chat records within the community regarding the freezing of the account of Li Wei, the younger brother of Li Lin, due to the alleged sale of HT. According to the screenshots, Li Wei’s account held approximately 167,279.98 HT tokens, equivalent to around $468,000. Justin Sun attacked the younger brother of Huobi founder Lilin for obtaining zero-cost HT and selling, and will burn these HTs. Li Lin hopes that Sun should show evidence, and if it is true, he will pay 10x the compensation. Sun bought the Huobi exchange from Li Lin last year.

Fundraising

Delighted announced the completion of the B round of financing led by IDG Capital with an estimated valuation of $300M link
Soluna Holdings, Inc., a developer of green data centers for Bitcoin mining and other intensive computing, announced a $14 million investment partnership with Navitas Global link
Web3 venture capital firm Red Beard Ventures has closed a $25 million funding round with investment from a16z’s Marc Andreessen and Chris Dixon, Animoca Brands and others link
Cormint, an emerging Bitcoin miner, announced that it has successfully raised $30,000,000 in Series A equity link
Hourglass, time-bound token infrastructure, raises $4.2 million in seed funding led by Electric Capital link
Story Protocol announced the completion of a $29.3 million seed round of financing led by a16z link
Azteco announced that it has raised $6 million in seed funding led by Jack Dorsey link

Learn more, check out crypto-fundraising.info.