Planet Daily | Kashkari of the Federal Reserve: The number of rate cuts in 2024 is expected to be no more than twice; Mt.Gox is ready to transfer Bitcoin to repay creditors (May 29)

Headlines

Federal Reserve’s Kashkari: Interest Rate Cuts in 2024 Expected to Be Definitely No More Than Twice

The Federal Reserve’s Kashkari said that it is not necessary to have a weak economy to drop inflation. The number of rate cuts expected in 2024 is definitely not more than twice (Jinshi).

Mt.Gox confirms the transfer of Bitcoin is to be prepared before the deadline for repayment to creditors on October 31st.

Mt.Gox’s released documents show that the previous transfers were confirmed to prepare for the creditors’ repayment deadline before October 31. According to its documents, the Rehabilitation Trustee is preparing to repay the cryptocurrency distribution portion of the rehabilitation claim. This repayment means that, at the choice of the rehabilitation creditor, either (i) repayment through designated cryptocurrency exchanges, representing the receipt of Bitcoin and Bitcoin Cash on behalf of the rehabilitation creditor, or (ii) repayment through the proceeds obtained from the sale of Bitcoin and Bitcoin Cash. Recently, the trustee has received inquiries / close attention regarding the management status of Bitcoin and Bitcoin Cash. However, at present, the trustee has neither made repayments through designated cryptocurrency exchanges, nor sold Bitcoin and Bitcoin Cash for repayments. The trustee currently manages Bitcoin and Bitcoin Cash securely. As the trustee is preparing for the aforementioned repayments, please be patient for the repayments to be completed. (Cointelegraph) Earlier, CryptoQuant researcher Axler Adler Jr posted on the X platform that all BTC funds in Mt.Gox’s cold wallet have been transferred to a new wallet starting with 1 JbezD. The current balance of the wallet starting with 1 JbezD is 141,000 BTC.

ZKasino: Bridge participants who do not participate in the ZKAS conversion will be refunded ETH at a 1:1 ratio.

According to official sources, ZKasino has announced the launch of a 2-step bridging return process, where bridgers can register and bridge back ETH at a 1:1 ratio. According to reports, the process of returning ETH to the bridgers who choose not to participate in the ZKAS conversion has been initiated. Bridgers can register by depositing the first batch of ZKAS bridging rewards they received, and have 72 hours (from UTC time 14:00 on May 28th to 14:00 on May 31st) to register. Bridgers can find their ZKAS on the ZKasino EVM chain and can deposit ZKAS into the smart contract controlled by ZKasino. Registration data will be collected in the next few days. A new announcement will be released as soon as possible to provide data for public verification. The data will show which addresses can claim their ETH, and the claim portal will be opened after data verification. Bridgers will be able to claim their ETH from the new audited bridging contract on the Ethereum mainnet at a 1:1 ratio.

Volatility Shares leveraged Ethereum ETF has been approved and is scheduled to start trading on June 4th.

Volatility Shares announced that its 2x Ether ETF (ETHU) will become the first leveraged Ethereum ETF in the United States, with trading starting on June 4th. Volatility Shares previously launched the Volatility Shares 2x Bitcoin Fund in June 2023. Volatility Shares Chief Investment Officer Stuart Barton said in an interview that the company has successfully obtained approval for a leveraged Ethereum ETF, which may help pave the way for the final approval of a spot Ethereum ETF. (CoinDesk)

Industry News

Former FTX executive Ryan Salame was ordered to pay over 11 million USD in seizure and compensation in addition to imprisonment.

According to the website of the US Department of Justice, Damian Williams, the prosecutor of the Southern District of New York, announced today that Ryan Salame, CEO of FTX Bahamas subsidiary FTX Digital Markets Ltd., has been sentenced to 90 months (7.5 years) in prison. In addition to imprisonment, Ryan Salame has also been sentenced to three years of supervised release, and ordered to pay over 6 million US dollars in confiscation and over 5 million US dollars in restitution. (justice.gov)

FTX Bahamas subsidiary former CEO Ryan Salame sentenced to 7.5 years in prison

FTX Bahamas subsidiary’s former CEO Ryan Salame has been sentenced to 7.5 years in prison. Ryan Salame reached a plea agreement with federal prosecutors in September, admitting to violating campaign finance laws and operating an unlicensed money transfer business. Prosecutors initially sought a 5-7 year prison sentence for Ryan Salame, former CEO of FTX Bahamas subsidiary. (Bloomberg)

The Securities and Futures Commission of Hong Kong: The period of not violating while operating a virtual asset trading platform in Hong Kong will end on June 1st.

The Securities and Futures Commission (SFC) of Hong Kong has issued a statement that the non-violation period of virtual asset trading platforms in Hong Kong operating in accordance with the Anti-Money Laundering and Counter-Terrorist Financing Ordinance (Chapter 615) (AMLO) will end on June 1, 2024. All virtual asset trading platforms operating in Hong Kong must obtain a license from the Securities and Futures Commission (SFC) under the Anti-Money Laundering and Counter-Terrorist Financing (Financial Institutions) Ordinance or are applicants deemed to have been licensed. It is a criminal offense to operate a virtual asset trading platform in Hong Kong in violation of the Anti-Money Laundering and Counter-Terrorist Financing (Financial Institutions) Ordinance, and the SFC will take all appropriate actions against any illegal activities. In the coming months, while the applicants being considered for virtual asset trading platform licenses continue their applications, the Securities and Futures Commission will conduct on-site inspections to determine whether they have complied with the regulatory requirements of the Commission, with particular attention to their customer asset protection and know-your-customer procedures. The purpose of this move by the Commission is to safeguard the interests of investors, and the inspection results will affect the licensing application process. Similarly, if any significant regulatory violations related to investor protection are discovered during the inspection, the Commission will promptly reject the relevant license application and take other regulatory actions as appropriate.

Project Highlights

SEI Foundation: Phase 2 Airdrop will distribute over 27.42 million SEI, Airdrop eligibility check has been opened

According to official news, the SEI Foundation announced that Phase 2 Airdrop will distribute 27,421,200 SEI tokens to 43,052 independent addresses as a reward for active users since the launch of the Sei Mainnet, including stakers, liquidity providers, and NFT collectors. Users can now check whether they meet the airdrop criteria through the official website. Community members must confirm their eligibility before the start of Phase 3 released by Sei V2. Phase 3 is expected to take place in the coming weeks. Earlier news, Sei posted on X platform, stating that the first parallel EVM blockchain is now open to developers and early adopters, and the V2 upgrade Phase 2 (Alpha Launch) is now underway.

Starknet Foundation launches a 20 million STRK token incentive plan for top-tier ecological projects.

As part of the Catalyst program, the Starknet Foundation announced the distribution of 20 million Starknet (STRK) tokens, worth approximately $25.2 million, to the top 21 projects in the ecosystem. Starknet Foundation CEO Diego Oliva said the program chooses to reward top protocols for users based on various factors, which are jointly weighed by the Stark Foundation and independent third parties, and designs a series of indicators with different weights, such as total locked value, generated fees, active users, external funds, and security audits. (Cointelgraph)

Polygon Genesis: Most of the work to transform Polygon into ZK protocol has been completed.

Polygon co-founder Sandeep said on X platform that he has been working on many strategic initiatives for Polygon in the past 18 months, especially in completely transforming Polygon into a leading ZK protocol. Most of the transition work has been completed, so he will take on the role of CBO.

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DWF Partner: We are in contact with a number of MEME coin projects and are willing to deploy funds to promote their growth

DWF Labs partner Andrei Grachev revealed on the X platform that they are in talks with some MEME coin projects and are willing to deploy a large amount of funds to promote the faster and more efficient rise of related projects. More news will be released later.

Trump: If elected president, will seriously consider pardoning Julian Assange

Donald Trump said that if elected president, he would “seriously consider” pardoning Julian Assange. (Bitcoin Magazine) Earlier reports indicate that the UK High Court has ruled to allow Julian Assange to appeal his extradition case, involving “01928374656574839201”.

Bernstein: ETH is the first Proof of Stake Token to be approved for spot ETF, and similar tokens like SOL may also benefit.

Prominent brokerage firm Bernstein stated in a research report on Tuesday that ETH is the first Proof of Stake token approved for a spot ETF, paving the way for blockchain assets to evolve from token sales. This is likely to have a positive impact on similar PoS blockchain tokens, as they may follow the same precedent, and Solana (SOL) may benefit.

Matrixport: Based on the Seasonality indicator forecast, Bitcoin may hit a new all-time high this summer.

Matrixport posted on the X platform that seasonality has always been a good predictor of Bitcoin prices. Although it’s hard to be bullish on Bitcoin in January 2024, February is a strong month for Bitcoin - just as seasonality predicts. Bitcoin should still be bullish in early summer in June and July. Overall, we should see new all-time highs this summer. Bitcoin tends to pump 4% in June, with 6 out of the past 10 years showing an increase in Bitcoin in the same month.

LayerZero’s response to the “48 million address reported by a certain hunter” incident: Not every witch report is valid.

Investment and Financing

Parasail completed a $4 million seed round of financing at a valuation of $50 million, with Protocol Labs leading the investment.

According to official sources, Parasail, which focuses on improving the security of DePIN hardware services, has announced the completion of a $4 million seed round of financing, with a valuation of $50 million. The seed round was led by Protocol Labs, with participation from D 11 Labs, MH Ventures, BitRise Capital, E V3, Fenbushi Capital, Modular Capital, Faculty Group, DWF Ventures, Foresight Ventures, AGE Crypto, Waterdrip Capital, and others. According to the Parasail team, the funding will be used to accelerate the implementation of various product features in the Parasail Master Plan, aggregating assets and hardware on DePIN to provide service level guarantees to users, and dynamically coordinating hardware resources as needed. It is reported that Parasail TVL exceeds $50 million. In addition to providing security for hardware services through asset delegation, Parasail is building a universal adapter for hardware service provision and verification to enable flexible utilization and circulation of general hardware resources (such as graphics cards, storage, sensors, etc.) in different DePIN ecosystems. With the Parasail protocol, DePIN projects can systematically and efficiently establish their network and mobilize hardware resources.

Decentralized artificial intelligence project GaiaNet completes $10 million in financing, with participation from EVM Capital, etc.

Decentralized artificial intelligence project GaiaNet has completed a $10 million financing, with participation from EVM Capital, Mirana Ventures, Mantle EcoFund, as well as Lex Sokolin from Generative Ventures and Brian Johnson from Republic Capital. The newly raised funds will support GaiaNet in developing educational tools for STEM students and utilizing distributed ledger technology to achieve decentralization of AI networks. (TheBlock)

Stable Coin project defi.money completed a strategic round of financing, with participation from LayerZero Labs and others.

Stable Coin project defi.money announced the completion of a strategic round of financing on the X platform, with participation from investors including GBV Capital, LayerZero Labs, and a group of angel investors including Curve Finance founder Michael Egorov. The specific amount has not been disclosed. Reportedly, defi.money is an EVM-agnostic CDP protocol that combines the innovative liquidation mechanism LLAMMA from Curve Finance. It aims to build a capital-efficient, scalable, and truly interoperable USD stablecoin for anyone, anywhere.

Web3 instant settlement payment provider Coinflow Labs completes $2.25 million financing, led by CMT Digital

Web3 instant settlement payment provider Coinflow Labs announced the completion of a $2.25 million seed round of financing, with CMT Digital leading the investment and Reciprocal Ventures, Jump Crypto, Draper Dragon, Digital Money Group, and others participating. According to reports, Coinflow is a blockchain-based payment processor that enables instant settlement of payments received and made, while providing additional value-added payment-related services such as refund protection, analysis, and KYC/KYB. (Globenewswire)