Evening News | Twitter's payment system may support cryptocurrencies; BlockFi receives court approval to sell its cryptocurrency mining assets

Organizer: Cookies, ChainCatcher

"What important events have occurred in the past 24 hours"

1. Financial Times: Twitter's payment system may support cryptocurrency

According to sources cited by the Financial Times, Twitter has begun applying for regulatory licenses across the United States and is designing the software needed for payments. Two sources indicated that Musk has stated he hopes the system will initially support fiat currency, but may later add cryptocurrency payment features. (Financial Times)

2. SBF's investment in AI company Anthropic, which raised over $100 million, to receive $300 million in new funding

According to the New York Times, two insiders reported that the AI startup Anthropic is set to raise approximately $300 million in new funding, which could value Anthropic at around $5 billion, although the final valuation has not been determined.

It is known that Anthropic was founded in 2021, raised $124 million in Series A funding in 2021, and secured $580 million in funding led by SBF, the former CEO of FTX, in 2022. According to a Bloomberg article, FTX/Alameda may have already invested $500 million in Anthropic, as a $500 million item on its previously disclosed balance sheet was labeled "Anthropic." With the popularity of ChatGPT, the AI sector has become a hotspot for funding, but it remains unclear what the specific connection is between SBF and Anthropic. (New York Times)

3. Bankruptcy court approves BlockFi to sell its crypto mining assets to repay creditors

According to Cointelegraph, a court document submitted to the bankruptcy court in New Jersey states that BlockFi has been approved to sell its cryptocurrency mining equipment as part of repaying creditors, on the grounds that it is "fair, reasonable, and appropriate under the circumstances." The court indicated that selling the assets would maximize the company's recovery and "realizable value."

It is reported that documents for "all qualified bids" must be sent to the parties designated in the bidding process by the deadline of February 20. Bids must be submitted to the court by March 2, and creditor representatives must oppose the sale of assets to qualified bidders by March 16. (Cointelegraph)

4. Wall Street Journal: SBF attempted to delay bankruptcy filing to transfer assets from FTX to foreign regulators

According to the Wall Street Journal, citing U.S. Department of Justice documents, SBF attempted to delay bankruptcy proceedings in the U.S. in November 2022 to transfer assets from FTX under the control of foreign regulators, seeking leniency from foreign regulators and ultimately allowing him to regain control of FTX.

It is known that after FTX froze customer accounts, SBF allowed Bahamian customers to withdraw millions of dollars. SBF wrote to the Bahamian Attorney General, stating that FTX would make exceptions for the country's customers. (Wall Street Journal)

5. FTX creditors: Other lenders after Voyager may also become targets for loan avoidance actions

FTX creditors tweeted, citing court documents, that the New York law firm Sullivan & Cromwell (S&C) suggested that other lenders may also become targets for avoidance actions after Voyager, referring to such lenders as "branch funds" that intentionally disregarded consequences to provide loans to Alameda. "The same reasoning applies to Genesis, where there may be $2.5 billion in loan transfers."

It is reported that Alameda Research is seeking to recover approximately $446 million from the bankrupt cryptocurrency lending platform Voyager, arguing that these loans are so-called preferential transfers and demanding repayment of the funds. ChainCatcher notes that avoidance actions refer to lawsuits initiated by debtors or other property representatives aimed at reversing certain transfers made by the debtor. (Source link)

6. dYdX annual report: Cumulative trading volume exceeds $46 billion, active users reach 33,900

The dYdX Foundation released its 2022 ecosystem annual report, stating that there were 33,900 active traders on the dYdX protocol in 2022; the cumulative trading volume and cumulative fee revenue were $466.3 billion and $137.8 million, respectively.

Additionally, the dYdX team expanded from 3 full-time members to 12 full-time members and 7 part-time members; the circulating supply (including the community treasury) reached 194,449,829 tokens (19.4% of total supply), while the community voted to reduce token releases and increased the five-year allocation of the community treasury by 11.2%; there were a total of 22 governance proposals in 2022. (Source link)

7. Ribbon Finance to airdrop to Friktion users who migrated before February 17

On-chain structured product Ribbon Finance tweeted that it will airdrop all fees earned from the SOL treasury last year to Friktion users who migrated to Ribbon Finance before February 17, and users must deposit funds in the SOL treasury for at least one month to qualify.

According to insiders, the reason Friktion decided to shut down its user platform was due to disagreements and friction among the project founders on how to advance Friktion's product roadmap. However, both founders declined to comment on the internal conflict. Since January 25, 2023, all Volt settings on Friktion's user interface have been in withdrawal mode only, with no deposits allowed, and users are advised to retrieve their assets. (CoinDesk)

8. Ethereum developers: The first public withdrawal testnet Zhejiang will launch at 11 PM on February 1

Ethereum Foundation DevOps engineer Parithosh stated on his social platform that the first public withdrawal testnet Zhejiang, prepared for the Shanghai/Capella upgrade, will launch at 11 PM on February 1. (Source link)

9. Binance Labs extends application period for Season 6 MVB Accelerator project and identifies eight core themes

According to official news, Binance Labs announced that the application period for the Season 6 MVB Accelerator project will be extended to the end of February. Additionally, Binance Labs has identified eight core themes for the accelerator project, including ZkKYC, smart contract wallets, decentralized social platforms and infrastructure (including but not limited to social graphs, decentralized social networks, DID, creator economy dApps), derivatives and structured DeFi products, liquid staking derivatives, high-quality lending protocols, Web3 gaming infrastructure and streaming platforms, NFT infrastructure and tools. At the same time, Binance Labs also welcomes projects from other fields to apply. (Source link)

10. SudoSwap to airdrop governance token SUDO today

According to the official Twitter, SudoSwap will release the governance token SUDO later today and conduct an airdrop. It is reported that the SUDO token will initially be non-transferable, and this feature will be enabled in the future through standard governance voting. In addition to XMON holders, early trading pool sudoAMM LP and 0xmons NFT holders (before the snapshot date) are also eligible for the SUDO airdrop.

Previous reports indicated that Sudoswap had taken a snapshot of 0xmons NFT holders at block height 16410000, and addresses holding NFTs at the time of the snapshot will be allocated SUDO tokens proportionally, with a total of 900,000 tokens (1.5%) to be distributed. (Source link)

"What excellent articles are worth reading in the past 24 hours"

1. "Financial Times: How a famous Wall Street law firm got caught up in the FTX turmoil?"

FTX's new head, John Ray III, stated that he is eager to begin returning funds to account holders with Sullivan's assistance. Sullivan's appointment may raise concerns among some investors who question whether they should have noticed some signs earlier. Whether Sullivan's reputation will suffer any lasting damage remains to be seen, and it is impossible to conclude whether the law firm should have used its expertise to identify companies built on lies.

2. "Overview of key information on the latest proposed stablecoin regulation in Hong Kong"

The Hong Kong Monetary Authority today released a 36-page discussion document on crypto assets and stablecoins, outlining the proposed regulatory framework parameters based on feedback from previous discussion documents. The focus will be on regulating stablecoins that reference fiat currency and may be used for payments, with detailed information on regulatory activities, target implementation timelines, licenses, and regulatory principles.

3. "Nike enters Web3, can it make money standing up?"

NFTs have brought Nike over $185 million in revenue. However, .SwOOSH, as Nike's pilot platform in the Web3 space, held events at the beginning of the year that did not involve NFT elements. By defining circles and raising barriers, Nike's Web3 layout seems to aim not only to please the crypto community.