- **Danny Ryan Steps Down**: Ethereum Foundation researcher Danny Ryan is stepping away after seven years of contributions, citing personal reasons and the desire to explore new opportunities.
- **Not Reflective of Ethereum**: Ryan emphasized that his departure is not a reflection of any issues within Ethereum, its core development, or the broader crypto industry.
- **Major Contributions**: Ryan played a pivotal role in Ethereum's transition to a proof-of-stake consensus system, known as The Merge, and oversaw the launch of the Beacon Chain in 2021.
- **Personal Reflection**: Ryan described his time at Ethereum as an "all-consuming experience" and expressed readiness to "come up for air" and make space for other pursuits.
- **Ether's Market Position**: As of September 13, Ether, Ethereum's native token, traded at $2,416 and remains the second-largest cryptocurrency by market capitalization.
- **TreasureDAO's Migration Proposal**: TreasureDAO, known for its GameFi NFT collection SmolBrains, is considering moving from Arbitrum to ZKsync for its upcoming Treasure L2 launch.
- **Accusations of Grant Hopping**: The DAO faces criticism for "grant hopping," a practice where teams move between ecosystems to benefit from developer incentives.
- **Community Reaction**: While some DAO members support the move, external critics are skeptical.
- **MAGIC Token Performance**: Despite the controversy, TreasureDAO’s MAGIC token has seen a 15% increase in the past week.
- **Reasons for the Move**: Co-founder Karel Vuong cited Arbitrum governance and the Arbitrum Gaming Catalyst Program as factors, but ultimately believes ZKsync aligns better with Treasure's vision due to its scalability potential.
- **ZKsync's Support**: ZKsync co-inventor Alex Gluchowski highlighted the benefits of ZKsync’s Elastic Chain and committed to supporting TreasureDAO’s technological needs.
- Sam Bankman-Fried, former CEO of FTX, has filed an appeal to overturn his fraud conviction, claiming he did not receive a fair trial.
- Bankman-Fried's lawyers argue that he was "presumed guilty" by the media, the FTX debtor estate, federal prosecutors, and the presiding judge.
- The appeal suggests that Bankman-Fried should be retried under a new judge to ensure fairness.
- FTX, a major crypto exchange, collapsed in November 2022 due to a liquidity crunch and evidence of fraud and mismanagement.
- Bankman-Fried was convicted of fraud last November and sentenced to 25 years in prison for misusing customer funds to make risky bets through Alameda Research.
- Coinbase's advocacy group, Stand With Crypto, launched a $6 million Creator Legal Defense Fund to support NFT projects facing legal challenges.
- The fund is backed by venture capital firm a16z, NFT marketplace OpenSea, and law firms including Fenwick & West LLP, Goodwin Procter LLP, and Latham & Watkins LLP.
- The initiative responds to regulatory actions, such as the SEC's Wells notice to OpenSea, alleging the sale of unregistered securities.
- Stand With Crypto aims to protect artists and creators from legal threats, emphasizing the importance of blockchain technology in the creative community.
- Coinbase has been a vocal advocate for the crypto industry, contributing significantly to Fairshake, a crypto industry political action committee (PAC).
- Stand With Crypto also ranks US federal election candidates based on their support for pro-crypto policies, giving Donald Trump an 'A' rating and yet to rate Kamala Harris.
- **Hamster Kombat Daily Update**: The daily combo and cipher codes for Friday, September 13, are now available, offering players a chance to earn 6 million in-game coins.
- **Game Popularity**: Hamster Kombat, a Telegram-based game, has amassed 300 million players and is preparing to launch its crypto token on The Open Network (TON) on September 26.
- **Earning Coins**: Players can earn 5 million coins by buying or upgrading features like Binance, OKX, and Bybit listings, and an additional 1 million coins by entering the daily cipher code.
- **Today's Combo and Cipher**: The combo includes Binance, OKX, and Bybit listings, while the cipher code is "INTEREST" in Morse code.
- **Token Launch**: With the token launch imminent, players have limited time to accumulate in-game coins for conversion and airdrop of crypto tokens.
- **Brazil's X Ban**: Brazil’s top prosecutor defended the Supreme Court's ban on social media platform X, citing no violation of speech laws. The ban followed Elon Musk's refusal to name a local representative and block misinformation-spreading accounts. Despite Musk paying $3.3M in fines, X remains banned in Brazil.
- **MicroStrategy's Bitcoin Purchase**: MicroStrategy acquired 18,300 Bitcoin worth $1.11 billion between Aug. 6 and Sept. 12, increasing its total holdings to approximately 244,800 BTC, valued at around $14.14 billion.
- **Trump's Crypto Project**: Donald Trump announced the launch of his crypto platform, World Liberty Financial, set for Sept. 16. The platform will offer digital wallets, credit accounts, and investment opportunities in crypto assets. Trump has positioned himself as a pro-crypto candidate, promising industry support if re-elected.
- The "Doom Olympics," a fully on-chain, weeklong competition, has kicked off on Ethereum with a $15,000 prize pool.
- Organized by crypto gaming project RIVES, the event uses the Cartesi blockchain and Base, an Ethereum layer-2 network, to record and verify every in-game action.
- The competition features seven unique challenges, including Knuckle Crusher and Treasure Seeker, and offers social activities like friend referrals.
- Id Software, the original developer of Doom, is not involved; instead, the competition uses the open-source "Freedoom" version.
- The event aims to ensure fairness and trust in speedrunning by recording every gameplay element on-chain, making it replayable and verifiable.
- The competition runs until September 19, with the goal of eliminating cheating and enabling decentralized verification of speedruns and custom rule creation.
- **Aptos Growth**: Layer 1 blockchain Aptos reported 5.4 million active monthly addresses and 578 million user transactions last month, indicating significant on-chain activity.
- **APT Token Performance**: The APT token has shown a 4.9% increase over the past 12 months, demonstrating resilience in a fluctuating market.
- **Skepticism Over Metrics**: Concerns persist about the authenticity of the activity, with potential inflation from bot activity, airdrops, and promotional events.
- **Economic Activity**: High transaction counts do not necessarily reflect meaningful economic activity; sustained growth requires a balance of new and engaged users.
- **Sustainable Ecosystem**: True success for a blockchain lies in solving real-world problems, fostering innovation, and building a sustainable ecosystem.
- Former FTX CEO Sam Bankman-Fried has filed an appeal for a new trial, criticizing the handling of his case by New York District Judge Lewis Kaplan.
- Bankman-Fried's lawyer argued that the former executive was unfairly presumed guilty by the media, the FTX debtor estate, federal prosecutors, and the presiding judge.
- The appeal, a 102-page document, was submitted to the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit.
- Bankman-Fried was found guilty in November on all seven criminal counts related to defrauding FTX customers, lenders, and investors, and was sentenced to 25 years in prison.
- Prosecutors have labeled the case as potentially the largest fraud in the last decade, drawing comparisons to Bernie Madoff's Ponzi scheme.
- This is a developing story, and further updates are expected.
- Sam Bankman-Fried, former CEO of FTX, has filed an appeal against his conviction on seven felony counts and his 25-year prison sentence.
- The appeal was filed on Sept. 13 in the United States Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit, with a 102-page brief arguing that SBF was "never presumed innocent" and faced biased scrutiny.
- SBF's legal team claims that the narrative of him stealing billions and causing FTX's insolvency was prematurely adopted by prosecutors and the media.
- The appeal suggests that new evidence shows FTX was never insolvent and had assets worth billions to repay customers, which the jury did not see.
- SBF's lawyers had announced their intention to appeal shortly after his sentencing in April.
- This is a developing story, and more information will be provided as it becomes available.
- FTX founder Sam Bankman-Fried has appealed his fraud conviction, requesting a new trial and accusing the presiding judge of bias, per the New York Times.
- Bankman-Fried was convicted last November on seven counts of fraud and conspiracy related to the collapse of FTX and was sentenced to 25 years in prison by U.S. District Judge Lewis Kaplan.
- In a 102-page appeal, Bankman-Fried’s lawyers argued that Judge Kaplan made unfair comments and undermined the defense, claiming the judge presumed Bankman-Fried guilty.
- The defense had suggested a lighter sentence of 6.5 years, while the government sought 40-50 years; several of Bankman-Fried’s associates testified against him and pleaded guilty to their own fraud charges.
- Bankman-Fried’s appeal also criticized a ruling that prevented him from arguing that FTX customers had not lost money, as they were expected to recover funds through the bankruptcy process.
- The appeal contends that the jury was misled by the government’s narrative that FTX’s customers, lenders, and investors had permanently lost their money.
- Bit2Me, a leading Spanish crypto exchange, has received approval as a Virtual Asset Service Provider (VASP) from Argentina's National Securities Commission (CNV).
- The CNV opened the registry for virtual asset service providers in March, which is mandatory for companies wanting to operate in Argentina; 79 companies have been approved so far.
- Bit2Me raised $15 million in a 2023 funding round to bolster its position in Spain and expedite its expansion in Latin America.
- The company has made significant moves in the region, including acquiring a majority stake in Peruvian peer Fluyez in 2022.
- Bit2Me also received approval from the Bank of Spain in 2022 to provide services for the exchange of virtual currency for fiat currency and the custody of digital wallets.
- A survey conducted by Castle Island Ventures, Brevan Howard, Visa, and Artemis found that stablecoin usage is increasing in five emerging economies: Brazil, Nigeria, Turkey, Indonesia, and India.
- 57% of the 2,500 respondents reported using stablecoins more in 2024 than the previous year, with 72% expecting their usage to increase further.
- Ethereum is the most popular blockchain for stablecoin transactions in these regions, followed by Binance Chain, Solana, and Tron, despite Ethereum's high transaction fees.
- Over 50% of respondents use stablecoins to buy and sell crypto assets like NFTs, with saving in dollars and better conversion rates being other popular uses.
- Binance is the leading platform for stablecoin transactions, used by nearly 50% of respondents, followed by Trust Wallet, MetaMask, Coinbase wallet, and Solana’s Phantom.
- The stablecoin market, led by Tether, has a combined market capitalization of $160 billion, highlighting its significant role in the global crypto ecosystem.
- The SEC's chief accountant, Paul Munter, indicated a potential softening of SAB-121, which restricts banks from offering digital asset custody services.
- Galaxy Research's Alex Thorn noted that Munter outlined exemption criteria for bank holding companies and introducing brokers to bypass SAB-121 provisions.
- Banks can avoid SAB-121 if they get state regulator permission, ensure assets are "bankruptcy remote," set clear contract standards, and perform regular risk assessments.
- Introducing brokers can be exempt if they don't hold client private keys, aren't third parties in transactions, and obtain a legal opinion on their exempt status.
- Large national banks under the OCC likely won't qualify for these exemptions and may need to seek direct relief from the SEC.
- Thorn views the easing of SAB-121 as positive for the crypto industry, suggesting the SEC's initial intent may not have been to apply SAB-121 to banks, and noting political challenges in adjusting the SEC's stance.
- **BNB Price Surge**: BNB's price rose 7% between Sept. 11 and Sept. 13, outperforming the broader altcoin market, and trading above $550 for the first time in over two weeks.
- **CZ's Release**: The price increase is partly attributed to Binance founder Changpeng “CZ” Zhao's release from US custody on Sept. 29, following a four-month prison sentence for failing to maintain an effective Anti-Money Laundering program.
- **Launchpad Developments**: Upcoming BNB restaking program and new Binance launchpad pools, including Hamster Kombat and Catizen, are contributing to the price surge.
- **Increased BNB Chain Activity**: BNB Chain's decentralized applications (DApps) saw a 12% increase in volume to $5.45 billion, with notable growth in PancakeSwap and Avalon Finance.
- **Beyond DeFi**: BNB Chain's applications extend beyond DeFi, including metaverse games and NFT marketplaces, driving demand for BNB.
- **Promising Outlook**: The combination of CZ’s release, launchpad developments, and increased BNB Chain activity supports the potential for BNB to reach $600 in the near term.
- **Fed Interest Rate Decision:** Markets are showing uncertainty ahead of next week's Federal Reserve interest rate decision, with federal funds futures indicating a 45% chance of a 50-basis point cut.
- **Economic Indicators:** Initial jobless claims increased by 2,000 to 230,000, and continuing claims rose to 1.85 million, suggesting a tightening labor market.
- **Historical Context:** The Fed has made an initial 50bps cut twice since 1990, both preceding recessions, raising concerns about the potential economic impact.
- **Bitcoin ETF Performance:** Bitcoin ETFs have seen $17 billion in inflows over eight months, despite recent outflows totaling $1.2 billion from Aug. 27 to Sept. 6.
- **XRP Movement:** Ripple’s XRP token surged to $0.58 following Grayscale’s announcement of an XRP Trust, marking its first positive movement in weeks.
- **Coinbase’s cbBTC:** Coinbase’s new wrapped bitcoin token, cbBTC, reached a market cap of over $100 million on its first day of trading.
- Magic Eden CEO Jack Lu stated that his firm has not received a Wells notice from the SEC, unlike its rival OpenSea.
- OpenSea disclosed it received a letter from the SEC alleging that NFTs on its platform are securities, signaling a potential regulatory crackdown.
- Lu welcomed the potential for regulatory clarity, noting that Magic Eden aims to be compliant and act as "good actors" in the ecosystem.
- The SEC's scrutiny of OpenSea could have broad implications for NFT trading platforms, a sector previously less regulated compared to exchanges or cryptocurrency issuers.
- Lu emphasized that Magic Eden would consider any SEC charges carefully before making decisions, highlighting the importance of case-specific nuances.
**How Our Token Hub Ratings Performed: Sept. 2024**
- **Solana (SOL)**: Rated bearish on June 21, 2024, but saw a +2% performance. Despite outperforming other L1s, the Bankless team warns of potential volatility and losses if SOL drops below $120.
- **Ethena (ENA)**: Rated bearish on June 14, 2024, and the token plummeted by 68%. The team correctly predicted the negative impact of reduced insurance fund take rates and increased competition from crypto ETFs.
- **Pendle Finance (PENDLE)**: Rated bullish on June 24, 2024, but experienced a -47% performance. The team misjudged the impact of maturing yield swaps and anticipates further depositor flight due to upcoming liquidity unlocks.
- **Blast (BLAST)**: Rated bearish on June 26, 2024, and saw a -63% performance. The team foresaw the lack of motivation to deposit and worsening fundamentals, leading to significant underperformance.
- **Lido (LDO)**: Rated bullish on June 12, 2024, but faced a -46% performance. The SEC's allegations of unregistered security offerings caused a sharp decline, though the team maintains LDO's long-term potential as a leading Ethereum staking token.
- Brazil’s Supreme Court lifted the freeze on bank accounts linked to Elon Musk’s Starlink and social media platform X after a $3.3 million fine was paid.
- The fines were due to X’s failure to block accounts spreading misinformation and hate speech, which the court deemed threats to democracy.
- Supreme Court Justice Alexandre de Moraes fined X for not appointing a local legal representative, a requirement under Brazilian law.
- Despite the financial penalties being addressed, X remains blocked in Brazil since Aug. 30, with a $9,000 fine for users accessing it via VPNs.
- The case has reached Brazil’s Attorney General’s Office, which argued that suspending X does not violate free speech rights.
- Brazil’s government supports the court’s actions to combat misinformation, with the Supreme Court’s final decision potentially setting important precedents for tech companies in Brazil.
- **Trump’s Crypto Platform Launch**: Donald Trump announced the launch of his DeFi platform, World Liberty Financial, set for Sept. 16, focusing on crypto lending and borrowing, managed by his sons, Donald Trump Jr. and Eric Trump.
- **Uniswap CEO Denies Allegations**: Uniswap CEO Hayden Adams refuted claims that Uniswap demanded money for protocol deployments, clarifying that deployments are determined by governance votes and not by fees.
- **Sonic Blockchain Milestone**: Sonic blockchain achieved a record transaction finality of 720 milliseconds in its testnet phase, positioning itself as the fastest Ethereum Virtual Machine chain.
- **Friend.tech Token Drop**: The FRIEND token of crypto social media platform Friend.tech dropped 26% after the team transferred admin control of its smart contracts to Ethereum’s null address, ensuring no future changes.
- **Coinbase Launches cbBTC**: Coinbase introduced cbBTC, a wrapped Bitcoin token on the Ethereum network and its layer-2 Base, backed 1:1 with Bitcoin held by Coinbase, facilitating seamless conversion between Bitcoin and cbBTC.
- **DeFi Market Overview**: The majority of the top 100 cryptocurrencies by market cap ended the week positively, with BinaryX (BNX) and Solana-based memecoin Popcat Sol (POPCAT) being the top gainers, rising over 31% and 28% respectively.
- Bitcoin (BTC) and Ethereum (ETH) saw gains of 2%-3% over the past 24 hours, with BTC nearing $60,000 and ETH reclaiming $2,400.
- Chartist Bob Loukas suggests BTC has more room to rally based on daily cycles theory, indicating a potential rise after bottoming below $53,000 on September 6.
- The Federal Reserve is expected to cut interest rates next week, with market participants split on whether the cut will be 25 or 50 basis points.
- MicroStrategy's purchase of 18,300 BTC for $1.1 billion initially caused a 1% dip in BTC to $57,600, but the price quickly recovered.
- The CoinDesk 20 Index rose 2.5%, led by significant gains in Polygon's MATIC, as Binance added trading for the upgraded POL token.
- Broader market movements included the S&P 500 nearing its July record high and gold hitting a record $2,600 per ounce, supported by a weaker U.S. dollar.
- **Catizen Airdrop & Token Launch**: Telegram game Catizen will reveal CATI token allocations on Saturday, with claims available on centralized exchanges starting Sunday, ahead of the token generation event on September 20.
- **Snapshot & Staking**: A snapshot of player progress will be taken at midnight, and players can stake CATI tokens to earn extra rewards until September 24, with a cap of 1,000 CATI per account.
- **Exchange Partners**: Airdrop claims and staking will be available through exchanges like OKX, HashKey, and KuCoin, with pre-market trading already valuing CATI between $0.6974 and $0.724.
- **Binance Launchpool**: Binance will offer 90 million CATI tokens through a Launchpool rewards campaign from September 16-19, allowing users to stake BNB or FDUSD.
- **Token Supply**: The initial circulating supply of CATI will be 305 million out of a total 1 billion, with 43% of the total supply allocated for airdrops, potentially including future waves.
- **TON Network Activity**: The Open Network (TON) anticipates a busy month with multiple Telegram game token launches, including Hamster Kombat's HMSTR on September 26, potentially causing technical issues due to high demand.
- **MicroStrategy's Big Buy**: MicroStrategy announced the acquisition of 18,300 Bitcoin between August 6 and September 12, spending $1.11 billion at an average price of $60,408 per Bitcoin.
- **Market Reaction**: Following the announcement, Bitcoin (BTC) rose by 2.2% to $60,000, and Ethereum (ETH) increased by 3% to $2,420. Polkadot (DOT) and Solana (SOL) also saw gains of 4% and 1%, respectively.
- **MicroStrategy's Holdings**: The company now holds approximately 244,800 BTC, valued at around $14 billion, with an average purchase price of $38,585 per Bitcoin.
- **Bitcoin's Critical Levels**: ARK Invest's latest report identifies $52,000 and $46,000 as key support levels for Bitcoin, with the latter being a crucial "last chance" for support.
- **ETF Inflows**: Spot Bitcoin ETFs recorded $39 million in net inflows, led by ARK Invest’s ARK Next Generation Internet ETF with $18 million. Conversely, Grayscale Bitcoin Trust saw $6.5 million in outflows.
- **Stock Market Performance**: U.S. stocks continued to rise, with the S&P 500, Dow Jones Industrial Average, and Nasdaq Composite all posting gains. Economic data showed a 2.5% year-over-year increase in the consumer price index for August.
- Donald Trump announced on Twitter that his DeFi project, World Liberty Financial (WLFI), will launch on September 16th.
- The initial whitepaper draft reveals that 70% of the non-transferable tokens will be allocated to insiders, with the rest available for sale.
- WLFI will be built on Aave and involves the team from Dough Finance, a recently hacked lending platform.
- The project is expected to face heightened regulatory scrutiny, especially with Trump’s 2024 campaign ongoing.
- Critics are concerned that the project could become a liability for Trump’s campaign, potentially inviting legal issues and distracting his team from the election.
- Regolith Labs, the company behind the ORE project, has raised $3 million in seed funding led by Foundation Capital, with participation from Colosseum, Solana Ventures, B+J Studios, Third Kind Ventures, and Dead King Ventures.
- The funds will be used to expand ORE, a Solana-based proof-of-work currency, and to develop a PoW token distribution platform aimed at preventing sybil attacks and spam.
- Investors in the seed round received equity and warrants for a potential future token, adhering to ORE's fair launch and anti-pre mine principles.
- ORE, which peaked at $1,200 in July, is now trading around $63, prompting Regolith Labs to focus on expanding its distribution and improving user experience, including developing a mobile wallet.
- Community-built mining pools have emerged as more sustainable alternatives to individual mining, combining computing power from various devices.
- ORE aims to enhance its liquidity and long-term value by integrating with stablecoins, tokenized commodities, and DePIN tokens, shifting focus from short-term marketing to real-world utility.